Lie Down When You're Told
Lying beside Kenna, I caught her gaze, and her violet eyes shimmered softly in the quiet room. I had always loved those bright, clear eyes of hers.
As if feeling shy, a faint blush dusted her cheeks, and her lips curled into a bashful little smile. She looked so endearing that I reached out and gently brushed her hair aside, revealing the round forehead she usually kept hidden beneath her bangs.
Kenna squirmed closer with a slight bounce, her soft, rhythmic breaths slipping beneath my collar to tickle my chest. When I ran my fingers through her hair once more, she snuggled even tighter, burying her face directly against my breastbone. The ticklish sensation melted away, replaced by the soothing heat of her body and the gentle warmth of her breathing.
Slipping my left arm beneath her head as a pillow, I wrapped my right arm around her slender waist and drew her flush against me. The room seemed to fill with golden sunlight, basking in a warmth that mirrored our shared heat. Back when we were living in the orphanage, we used to fall asleep like this every single night.
"Takes me back to the old days," I murmured.
At my offhand remark, the loose grip Kenna had on my shirt suddenly tightened.
"...Yeah. I'm sorry for letting you die again today. I should have been more careful."
"You just didn't know, that's all."
"I thought I knew everything. I just don't understand why Vesper was there."
Kenna peeked up at me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"It's fine. If you have another vision like that, just let me know."
I stroked her hair again and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. Kenna quietly lowered her head, burying her face into my chest once more. Held in each other's arms, we drifted off into an easy slumber.
The next morning.
Hoo—rn!
With the first light of dawn, a shrill alarm tore through the air.
"Goblins!!"
Hearing the desperate cries echoing through the settlement, I looked out the window. Townsfolk were scrambling in every direction, bolting inside their homes and barricading their doors. I swiftly strapped on my leather armor, buckled my longsword to my hip, and stepped out the front door of the inn, where Golgotha and Ershin were already waiting nearby.
"Where are they coming from?" I asked.
"Word is they are approaching from the northeast," Golgotha replied, his heavy pack clinking and rattling as he shifted restlessly.
"Judging by the look of them, the guards here are quite few," Ershin remarked, sliding off her quiver to count her remaining arrows. "Would it not be wiser for us to lend a hand?"
At the sound of approaching footsteps, I turned to see Kenna striding out, clad in her robes with her staff gripped in hand.
"You're heading out to subjugate the goblins, aren't you?" she asked.
"Glad you're ready, Kenna."
Together, we sprinted toward the northeastern outskirts.
Out in the cultivated fields, a swarm of well over several hundred goblins was clashing against a meager twenty-odd guards. Drawing my blade, I cut down three or four goblins clinging to a struggling guard with quick, practiced strokes.
"Reinforcements have arrived!!"
Seeing me join the fray, the guards let out a roaring cheer, their morale instantly rekindled.
Thwack.
Ershin yanked an arrow from a fallen goblin's belly and nocked it once more.
Kenna unleashed a sweeping arc of electricity, paralyzing a cluster of goblins where they stood.
"One of my concoctions could sweep them all up in a single stroke," Golgotha grumbled from the rear, clearly disgruntled at being forbidden from detonating his bombs. "Have you truly not reconsidered, Elias-ssi?"
Shielding the two of them, I fought alongside the guards, cutting down goblin after goblin. Crude arrows, wooden spears, and jagged stones occasionally flew our way, but they were sluggish enough to deflect with ease. By the time the skirmish finally wound down into a lull, the morning sun had already climbed well past its zenith.
I slumped down onto the dirt beside one of the guards, raising a hand to block out the blinding glare.
"Do they raid often?" I asked.
"Seems like they show up twice a week," the guard sighed heavily. "We ought to clear out the forest to the northeast, but the lords won't dispatch a subjugation force, so our hands are tied. There's an aberrant variant out there as well, making it far too perilous for the likes of us."
"An aberrant?"
"Aye. One nested deep inside a cave. It's no ordinary goblin."
We were scheduled to stay here for two weeks, which meant we would cross paths with these pests at least three or four more times. Rather than living on edge wondering when the next raid would strike, it struck me as far wiser to wipe them out ourselves. After all, goblins were universally known as the weakest monsters; even an aberrant variant couldn't possibly match a trained human.
"We'll go clear them out for you," I said.
"What? Truly? Heavens, we'd be in your debt!"
The guard scrambled to his feet and pumped my hand vigorously in gratitude, shifting my arm so that the harsh sunlight pricked right into my eyes.
After catching our breath, I gathered our party and relayed what the guard had told me.
"Is there any reason for us to go out of our way for this?" Ershin grumbled, stretching her arms wide with a lazy yawn.
"An aberrant, you say... That certainly piques my curiosity," Golgotha mused, resting his chin in his hand as his eyes gleamed with clinical interest.
"It makes no difference to me," Kenna added, casting her abstaining vote. "I will follow Elias."
What did Ershin think she could accomplish by being the lone dissenter? Ignoring her stubborn complaints, I dragged the grumbling archer along as we set off for the northeastern forest.
The woods were so overrun with shrill wails that they might as well have been christened the Goblin Forest. They were perched up in the branches, rustling through the underbrush, infesting every shadow in sight. Moving in practiced coordination, we carved our way forward until the woodland floor became a carpet drenched in goblin blood.
Presently, an opening caught my eye through the trees—a cavern entrance gaping like the open maw of a giant lizard, standing twice the height of a man.
"Is this the place?" I asked.
"Looks ordinary enough, does it not?" Ershin remarked.
"May I use them now?" Golgotha asked eagerly. "We are no longer out in the open forest, after all."
"Only within reason," I cautioned. "Don't bring the ceiling down on our heads."
Kenna said nothing, trailing behind us with her shoulders wound tight with tension.
About ten paces inside, the cavern plunged into deep, suffocating darkness.
Kenna raised her staff, but instead of its usual crimson aura, it cast a pure white radiance that illuminated our path. We pressed deeper, yet the tunnel remained completely barren. No torches, no crude bone markers, no signs of habitation. Did goblins really make their lair in a place like this?
Just as the thought crossed my mind, a faint glow drifted from up ahead. A soft blue luminance seeped from the damp, slick stone walls, barely bright enough to make out each other's faces. Gazing at it stirred an odd nausea in the pit of my stomach, though perhaps that was merely the sharp, metallic tang of iron hanging thick in the air.
I experimentally grazed the wall with the tip of my scabbard. A shower of blue dust drifted down, casting tiny specks of light across the floor.
"How luminous," Golgotha said admiringly.
"Well, it saves us some trouble, does it not?" Ershin chimed in.
Unlike those two, who welcomed the brightness, Kenna remained deathly silent, nervously swallowing down her breath.
"Kenna. I'll protect you, so don't worry."
"Uh... yeah. Let's hurry." Snapping out of her daze, she managed a strained nod and forced a thin smile.
Past the glowing blue corridor opened a colossal chamber spanning well over a hundred meters wide. From the center of the cavernous ceiling, a single beam of white light poured straight down, illuminating the stone floor like a spotlight upon a sacred altar. And in the dead center of that radiance darted a small, nimble silhouette.
"Is that... an albino goblin?" Golgotha asked, squinting intently.
"Kenna, can you shine some light over there?"
"My magic won't reach that far." The radius of her spell was barely ten meters; the creature was simply too distant.
Rustle. Clink.
"Wait, don't throw those," I said, catching Golgotha's shoulder as he crouched down and began hauling potion bottles from his satchel. "What if you cause a cave-in?"
"If it is such an aberrant, that must be our quarry, must it not?" Ershin drew back her massive longbow and took aim.
Before she could release her shaft, a fist-sized ball of flame streaked across the dark. As the crimson blaze grazed past the creature, its stark, alabaster skin was laid bare—not the mottled green of common goblins, but a ghostly, pure white.
Boom!
The blast erupted, igniting the goblin's arm. It flailed in panic, thrashing its burning limb wildly. Seizing the opening, Ershin loosed an arrow straight for its skull, but the albino goblin snapped its head aside with uncanny agility, dodging the lethal strike.
"Kieeeeeeek—!"
Infuriated, its piercing shriek reverberated through the vast cavern.
Patter-patter-patter!
The sound of frantic footfalls echoed as the albino goblin charged toward us. The flames on its arm had already snuffed out, leaving only an eerie darkness rippling around its pale frame.
Now it was my turn.
Schwing—!
Drawing my longsword, I held my breath and waited. The footfalls closed in with terrifying speed. The instant it crossed into the perimeter of Kenna's light, its white form came into sharp focus. Lunging forward in a single stride, I brought my blade sweeping across in a horizontal arc, but the goblin dropped low, sliding deftly across the stone beneath my swing.
I won't let you slip past that easily.
Crunch—!
Reversing my momentum, I cleaved straight down through the goblin and into the bedrock beneath it. Cerulean blood showered across the stone as bright blue entrails spilled onto the cavern floor. It certainly possessed sharp instincts—more than enough to slaughter helpless farmers—but against seasoned fighters like us, it was entirely outmatched.
"Just a goblin after all," I muttered.
"An albino with blue innards?" Golgotha marveled, leaning down so close his face was practically pressed against the gore.
"Well, that settles the matter, does it not?" Ershin rolled her shoulders as she looked down at the back of Golgotha's head.
"Let's leave. Quickly," Kenna urged, anxiously patting my back.
"What might this be?" Golgotha's voice halted us.
I glanced back at the carcass. Amidst the blue viscera lay something stark, black, and completely foreign. It was a palm-sized object, rectangular, flat, and remarkably smooth.
"Isn't that just a black slab of rock?" Ershin asked.
"Uh, th-this is..." Kenna stammered, drawing everyone's gaze.
"Do you recognize this, Kenna-ssi?" Golgotha picked it up with his bare hands, wiped the slime clean against the hem of his navy robe, and presented it to us.
Flustered, Kenna glanced around anxiously before finally finding her voice.
"...It might be a Holy Relic."
A Holy Relic, turning up in a place like this? If she was right, there would be no need for us to journey all the way to the sixth kingdom, Verdina. My eyes widened at the prospect of bypassing an entire realm and shaving three whole months off our quest. Yet... I had always assumed a Holy Relic would radiate some sort of sacred majesty. Looking at what appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary rock, my heart failed to stir with any sense of awe.
Stepping out of the cavern, golden rays of sunlight filtered through the canopy, glittering like scattered jewels. The relentless goblin shrieks were gone, leaving the forest filled only with the soft rustling of leaves in the breeze. But seeing the crimson carpet strewn with countless goblin carcasses made my stomach turn. The nausea that had taken root inside the cave flared up with renewed force, and I drew in a deep breath to steady myself.
"Ugh..."
Perhaps the corpses were already decomposing, for the foul stench of rotten eggs and rotting fish assaulted my nostrils.
"Fascinating... What on earth could this possibly be?" Golgotha murmured, thoroughly engrossed in flipping the black stone over and examining it from every angle.
"Let's hurry back to the inn so you can rest," Kenna pleaded, gripping my right hand tightly with both of hers as she noticed my pallid face.
"...Good work, everyone. Let's head back," I managed, choking down the bile rising in my throat.
"I shall examine this a bit further," Golgotha said.
"Then I shall go inform the guards of our success, shall I not?" Ershin waved goodbye.
Golgotha kept custody of the black stone, and we parted ways.
Kenna marched me straight up to my room on the inn's second floor without a moment's hesitation. She promptly confiscated my longsword, pack, and leather armor, depositing them neatly in the corner.
Pat, pat.
Perching beside the pillow with an expression laced with worry, she patted the mattress, urging me to lie down immediately.
"I'm not in that bad of a shape," I said. It wasn't severe enough to warrant staying in bed; all I really wanted was a breath of fresh air.
"Elias. How does your body feel?"
"Some fresh air will clear it right up."
"Those blue stones in the cave... they're dangerous. Please, rest until tomorrow at least."
So that was the source of my sudden sickness—my stomach had soured the moment I laid eyes on that blue glow.
"Then aren't you feeling sick as well, Kenna?"
"I'm fine. I have this." She unclasped a clear, translucent crimson pendant hanging from her neck and held it out to show me.
"Wasn't that just a token of identification? I have one too." I unhooked my own pendant and held it next to hers, only to see that its glow was far murkier and duller by comparison. Was mine defective?
"Now you understand, right? Hurry and rest."
With Kenna patting the bed once more, I gave a reluctant sigh and slumped down onto the mattress. My stomach had settled somewhat, and I had no headache, fever, chills, or itching. There was truly no reason for me to be bedridden. Concluding that this was entirely unnecessary, I braced my arms to sit back up.
At that exact moment, Kenna grabbed the staff leaning against the bedframe and leveled it straight at my face.
A burst of brilliant crimson light blasted directly into my face.
"Wait, this isn't—"
A blinding glare stabbed into my eyes like thorns, and I thrashed helplessly against the bed. As the sharp pain subsided, an overwhelming wave of drowsiness crashed over me. My voice died in my throat, and my limbs went limp as lead. Beyond my heavy, drooping eyelids, Kenna's gentle hand brushed through my hair.
"I'll be right back."
Kenna, what on earth are you planning to do?
I desperately wanted to ask, but my lips wouldn't part; the most I could muster was a faint twitch of my fingertips.
Step, step. Click. Slam.
Listening to the sound of the door shutting, the world went completely dark, and I succumbed to sleep.