Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Ch. 26 .｡.:✧ Chapter 26 ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘Hm?’
At that moment, I saw Athena moving.
‘Ah, it was a decoy.’
It seemed that some goblins were trying to escape through the back of the village.
‘…There won’t be that many.’
Considering the number we had dealt with and the ones standing at the village entrance, there shouldn’t be that many. Judging by how Athena was moving without saying much, it was estimated to be a number she could handle alone.
‘She would have called if needed.’
She’ll take care of it on her own.
Since goblins are smaller than humans, the entrance to the village wasn’t very wide. Still, it wasn’t narrow enough for just three to not pass through, so Kayla, the skeleton, and I easily handled the ones throwing stones at us and entered the village interior.
Even though they have some intelligence, goblins are still goblins.
The inside of the village was very dirty and crude.
After finding and dealing with the few remaining goblins, Kayla spoke.
“For now, I’ll go and bring Thea.”
Although it seemed better for me to go instead of her with her inconvenient leg, cleaning up here also required a lot of leg work anyway.
And she didn’t really like being considerate because of her leg, so I just allowed her to go.
‘She agrees when it’s an unavoidable situation.’
I first pushed away some of the dirty village with the skeleton.
Since the interior was so dirty, it couldn’t be cleaned up in a short period of time, so for the time being, I used the skeleton to dig a huge pit in the corner and pushed all kinds of filth into it, covering it up as much as possible.
I collected usable leather, wood, etc. for recycling, formed a suitable open space inside the village, and then sent the skeleton back.
‘We should make the most of what we have.’
Even if it was dirty, the village’s crude wooden fence was much better than nothing.
Around that time, Athena returned first.
“Huh? Where’s Kayla?”
“She went to get Thea.”
“I see? But it’s really dirty here. It’ll take a long time to clean it all up.”
Even though we had cleaned up, I couldn’t refute Athena’s words.
There was a limit to how much we could clean in a short time.
“Ah, I dealt with all the goblins that ran away.”
“Good work.”
“I’ll help for now.”
We had brought things like tents, but since we were going to stay here for nearly 3 weeks, we needed various things.
Notably, things like toilets.
In addition, we had to reinforce the crude wooden fence and greatly enhance its defensive capabilities.
‘We should rest comfortably when we rest.’
Considering Thea’s curse, she couldn’t skip exercising, so we needed to secure at least a space for her to exercise.
‘Well, we have plenty of space anyway.’
It just takes time to clean up.
While working with Athena to expand the open space, I could see Kayla bringing the mule and Thea from afar.
I could see Thea being surprised by the goblin corpses around.
‘Oops.’
I hadn’t thought of that.
Although it wasn’t Thea’s first time seeing monster corpses, she still wouldn’t be used to it.
However, surprisingly, even after seeing Thea’s reaction, Athena didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts.
‘…Well, of course.’
In this world, it was something one had to get used to.
‘She’s 17 years old, even if she looks young.’
She wasn’t a flower in a greenhouse, and she had experienced hitting rock bottom, even becoming a slave.
Rather, I might be the one who was more out of place than Athena.
As expected, although she was surprised for a moment, she didn’t show a big rejection reaction after that. Rather, she even asked Athena if she was hurt anywhere.
‘Should I clean up the corpses too for now?’
We needed to clean that up as well. We couldn’t completely eliminate the smell of blood, but it could lead to diseases.
When the luggage arrived, I started making the base camp in earnest with the party.
Thea didn’t stay out of it either. She also diligently moved and contributed to the construction of the base camp, and as a result, we succeeded in reinforcing the most important wooden fence, cleaning up the living space, and burying the goblins’ corpses deeply by sending them far away.
It was a natural choice to dispose of the corpses as far away as possible, as there might be creatures coming to eat them.
Honestly, this was the most difficult part.
Nevertheless, thanks to our diligent work, we were able to finish before the day ended, and we immediately ate the prepared food and discussed the request.
“From tomorrow, Master and Athena, you two will be scouting.”
“It seems so.”
“Then, during that time, Thea and I will continue to maintain the base camp. There’s a lack of what we have now.”
He was right. It was impossible to complete the base camp in a day.
“Do that.”
“Come to think of it, I think it was in this direction.”
“What is?”
“The village. The village where Thea and I lived. Although it was quite far away. Thea, don’t you find it familiar too?”
“Is that so…?”
“Yeah. And you ran away in this direction. I tracked your traces later, so it should be right.”
“I don’t… remember exactly. I ran away in such a hurry.”
Thea, who had been thinking for a moment at Athena’s question, soon spoke as if she had remembered.
“Now that you mention it, you’re right, Sis. I was so confused that I ran towards the forest. Since the sun sets over there… Yeah, I think this direction is right. I wouldn’t have come this deep though.”
‘She remembered.’
Well, since the cave I was targeting was included in the scouting range, this direction was indeed correct.
“Maybe the cave you mentioned is around here.”
Thea said with a wry smile.
“Then let’s avoid it as much as possible. We can’t have you getting cursed too, Sis.”
“Well, it should be fine since Inha is here, right? It’s not like I’ll be wandering alone.”
I thought it was a good moment, so I intervened in their conversation.
“It’s indeed around here.”
“I was able to track the traces of the curse while treating Thea’s curse.”
I had never told my companions about being able to find the location of the cave and the identity of the curse.
I just kept it to myself.
There was no particular benefit in telling them right away, and even if they knew, there was nothing we could do about it at that time.
‘There was also no timing to tell them.’
Things like capturing orcs for Kuman’s request and recruiting new comrades had happened in succession.
Since this story had come up as a topic, I thought now was the right time to tell them.
“I’m thinking of going to that cave and trying to conquer it.”
“Why? Is there a need for that?”
“It has a high possibility of being helpful to me. You know, if I become stronger, it’s not just good for me.”
I could treat Thea’s curse faster and more safely, and at the same time, the possibility of fixing Kayla’s leg would arise.
Upon hearing my explanation, Athena and Kayla’s eyes sparkled.
Especially Kayla’s gaze intensified.
Since I was confident in completely curing Thea even at the current level, just taking time, it was natural for Kayla to be more urgent than Athena.
I left out mentioning the possibility of curing Thea’s illness at once.
There was no need to give false hopes. It would be enough for them to be happy when the moment actually came.
“Of course, I have no intention of going alone. If we go, I’m planning to take Athena and Kayla as well.”
“What about me?”
“It might be better to exclude you. Since it’s the space where you were cursed, it’s better to avoid approaching it.”
“I’m anxious about being alone though…”
“Entering the cave interior might be even more dangerous. If you really don’t want to…”
I glanced at Athena while speaking.
“You’ll have to stay out of it.”
Since I knew the skeleton was stronger than expected, I had calculated that even if Athena was absent, we could fill the vacancy.
“…Hmm…”
She seemed anxious about leaving Thea alone, but also anxious about sending only Kayla and me to a dangerous place.
“You don’t need to worry that much. If it’s insufficient, we can just retreat.”
“…Then I’ll stay and protect Thea.”
She looked at me with an apologetic expression and thanked me.
She also knew. How much consideration I was giving her.
Although she was bound to me, since she had received such favors, she would work even harder for me in the future.
“I’ll make you work that much in scouting.”
“Then, rest for today. To secure time to conquer the cave, we need to handle the request as quickly and perfectly as possible. You know?”
“Got it. I’ll work like a real dog.”
Athena answered again with a serious expression.
“That’s a good attitude. I’ll wake you up tomorrow, so everyone rest.”
Since we had the boundary stones, there was no need to keep watch.
Of course, it would be necessary if humans were the opponents, but there were no monsters around here that could sneak in past the boundary stones, so it wasn’t a big problem.
Athena and Thea entered the same tent, while Kayla and I entered one tent.
It couldn’t be helped since there were only two tents with temperature control magic enchanted, and it was too cramped for three people to use one tent, so it ended up like this.
It was a problem of the limited number of artifacts, so there was nothing we could do about it.
On the other hand, it was also a matter of adjusting our condition, and the forest nights weren’t very warm, so we couldn’t just abandon what we had and stay in a regular tent.
“Then, rest well, Master.”
Naturally, nothing unusual happened.
We had already camped out a few times on the way here, and during that process, we had used the same tent, but nothing had happened so far.
Therefore, Kayla didn’t particularly guard against me in that regard either.
‘Is it because she trusts me or because it doesn’t matter anyway?’
It doesn’t matter either way. Since I had already made a statement before, I took a rest without laying a hand on her at all.
I woke up before the day had properly brightened and woke Athena up.
I fed her food, and we immediately went out scouting.
We had already checked the area around the base camp in advance, so we thoroughly searched a wider area and meticulously recorded what we found in the process.
“…There are some over there too. Hmm, it seems like there was a battle?”
Although I didn’t know about battle, Athena followed well in terms of scouting, so my workload was reduced.
It seemed her words about working like a dog were not a lie, as Athena hardly had any rest time and didn’t complain even once despite being worked to the bone.
Of course, even the complaints she usually made were just words, and she always did what she was told, so it wasn’t a strange thing.
‘The village chief was right. Indeed, the number of individuals has increased a lot.’
As the number of individuals increased, the competition between monsters seemed to intensify considerably.
After about ten days of repeating scouting and resting at the base camp, dedicating ourselves to the request, Athena opened her mouth.
“But… Don’t you think there are strangely many of them that seem to have arrived recently? Unlike the goblins we’ve subjugated, most of their dwellings seem to be newly built.”
“No, maybe they expanded? But considering the traces, it strangely feels like most of them are being slightly pushed out of their territories. Am I imagining it?”
I didn’t answer Athena’s words.
‘This… has been happening since already?’
The precursor to the monster wave.
A faint energy like that was being felt.
I knew there was nothing strange about it.
If something happens, there is a cause for that event.
Since the monster wave occurred, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be precursors.
‘Considering that numerous pioneering territories collapsed, it wouldn’t be strange even if it’s like this at the current point.’
No, rather, it would be reasonable to say that there were already precursors.
However, this was something I could recognize because I had regressed, and originally, it would be difficult to know even if you saw it.
“Maybe predators have descended because monsters have increased?”
As the number of prey increased, the predators expanded their territory. Athena seemed to speculate that way.
“…That might be the case. We need to mark this separately.”
I had no intention of arguing the possibility of a monster wave here.
Above all…
‘There’s no need to inform them since it has to happen for it to be helpful to me.’
I just need to report what I saw appropriately. Without including any personal opinions.
Then, history will naturally flow as it did in the previous round.
‘My abilities are still far from being able to change the big currents, even if I can change the small ones.’
Some people might feel uncomfortable with my actions.
Of course. In any case, more than a few people die from the monster wave, so they might think that struggling to save as many people as possible, even by one more person, is the human thing to do.
Especially if they were from Earth, and moreover, from Korea, that side could be considered normal.
But I’m different.
My survival and freedom take precedence over the lives of others.
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