Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Old Comrade
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Cynthia looked down at me with a cold expression.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then no alliance."
"Why do you want to take me with you?"
I couldn't reveal the reason upfront.
If she learned she was the only human capable of unlocking a 'hidden piece,' she'd try to seize control of the conversation.
"No questions. Just answer."
Cynthia was a woman with strong pride.
I hadn't revealed my identity to those two yet, but she held a high position as the captain of the Papal Knights directly under the Holy See—a true powerhouse.
'Whatever.'
Right now, I was just one of the adventurers investigating the tower incognito.
"Fine. But take those guys with us too."
I glanced alternately at the ponytail-glasses guy and the bald martial artist before replying.
"Deal. But their opinions don't count during the tower climb."
"So you're saying you'll be the leader?"
"Interpret it that way if you like."
Cynthia let out a smirk and cautiously extended her hand.
"Your name?"
"Berddin."
"Berddin, your family name?"
"de Strange. Berddin de Strange. The youngest son of the Strange Family."
At the mention of Strange, the three who'd agreed to ally jumped in shock.
They gaped like carp, faces full of disbelief.
After a few seconds, Cynthia asked calmly,
"Is that true?"
No verbal answer was needed.
I simply swept back my cloak to reveal the Strange crest engraved on my armor.
"Impressive. To actually meet someone bearing the Strange name in person."
"Impressive? I'm just a person like anyone else."
"...True enough."
She swallowed hard.
I took her hand, gave it a light shake, then stood and headed toward the church at the village center.
"Where to?"
"The trial's about to begin. Going to check out our companions first."
No sooner had I spoken than the white-haired goblin guarding the village entrance shouted,
"Adventurers in the village, gather at the church!"
His voice boomed unbelievably loud for an elder.
As his words spread, adventurers hiding in various spots emerged.
Soon, dozens had gathered in front of the church alone.
Not just humans—dwarves and elves too, races that rarely banded together, creating a rare sight.
"Heh heh, you've all worked hard getting here. No time for chit-chat since you're busy. Let's start the trial right away."
The adventurers before the church grew rowdy.
What was this trial? What happened when it began?
Before questions could fly, the white-haired goblin pressed on preemptively.
"The story I'm about to show you is from long ago... the past of the 'Goblin Champion,' chosen by the gods as this tower's apostle!"
The white-haired goblin raised his staff high and shook it. The bell at its tip rang out loudly—ding!
"Off to see the past of our master, the 10th-floor lord who'll bring you your trial."
Ding!
The bell rang again, echoing through the village.
From somewhere, pure white smoke appeared, spreading across the ground and enveloping everyone.
Whoosh—
"Then, let the story begin."
Inhaling the smoke made my body float. Soon, my mind spun dizzily, vision blurring.
In a forest not far from a human village, a deformed goblin was born.
Visually no different from a standard green goblin, but as a baby, it was already adult-sized.
"Waaah!"
The goblin elder facing the infant looked troubled.
He'd lived over a century, yet he couldn't identify this aberrant goblin before him.
"Evlin, what the hell have you been up to?"
Not until its mother spoke.
"This child's father... is the hero who visited the village last time."
The goblin's father was special.
Mother a goblin, father human.
The elder unwittingly pointed and yelled.
"You crazy bitch, throw that baby out of the village now!"
How could offspring come from monster and human, eternal enemies?
Humans and goblins had warred for over a century.
"This child is innocent... It doesn't even know human blood runs in its veins!"
The aberrant goblin's mother desperately fought to keep her child. But that night, her efforts came to naught.
Dozens of goblins with torches stormed the hut and snatched her baby.
"No!"
She couldn't stop the adult goblins. The baby was placed in a wooden box and abandoned in a valley outside the village.
Floating downriver, the goblin reached a human village.
"...A monster?"
Fortune smiled.
A passing merchant picked up the baby goblin. He gently stroked it in the box, placed it beside him, and prayed.
"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... bless this goblin!"
The merchant was a rare kind human.
"I'll take you in."
Most would sell young monsters at slave markets or hand them to alchemists for forbidden experiments, yet he released it unconditionally.
"Waaah!"
The merchant treated the goblin like his own baby. The goblin baby saw him as father and followed suit.
Five years passed, and the baby grew into a child.
"Father!"
A goblin wrapped head to toe in cloth waved enthusiastically. Time had changed him greatly.
Arms and legs elongated like a human's, skin shifting from green to yellow.
Still, goblin traits remained: an unnaturally long nose and torn mouth screamed goblin.
"All traps checked, Gregory?"
The merchant with him had changed professions too. Ending his nomadic life, he'd become a forest hunter.
"Yes! God blessed us fully today too. Caught a small rabbit!"
Gregory beamed, pulling a rabbit from behind his back. They shared the rabbit for a happy meal.
"Gregory, after eating, we thank God with prayer."
"Of course. O God... thank you for our daily bread today."
Human and goblin, different races, bonded deeply through faith.
The goblin called the human father.
The human called the goblin son.
They called each other family.
'...That's right.'
But their bond didn't last. A massive fire struck a nearby village.
The church blamed the 'Devil's son'—goblins—and villagers began hunting local goblins.
"Kieeeek!"
The fallout reached the forest hut of Gregory and the hunter.
"Th-this child isn't a monster!"
Villagers arrived with clubs and torches to seize Gregory.
"Not a monster? It looks like a goblin to anyone!"
"Calm down, everyone. If Gregory were really a goblin, would he have helped you all this time?"
"......"
"Didn't he bring food from the forest during the famine two years ago?"
"That's one thing, this is another! He helped to win favor. Didn't want to be branded monster and killed."
"Elder, what are you saying?!"
As voices rose, a white-robed priest parted the crowd.
"Forest hunter, lie like that and you'll face God's wrath."
"G-God's wrath..."
"I saw it clearly. That goblin setting fire to the church."
"No, priest! He didn't set the church ablaze!"
"So you're saying I'm lying to God?"
"N-no, that's not—"
"Quiet, brother. How can you not only raise the Devil's son, a goblin, but call it your child?"
"......"
"Can you swear to God it's not a goblin?"
The hunter fell silent.
That sufficed as an answer for the others.
"See? If I hadn't come, you'd have insisted to the villagers it was human."
"Priest..."
"With that brazen face."
"But...!"
"Enough."
The priest raised both hands high and bellowed.
"Hear that, everyone? This heretic has deceived us with the Devil's spawn!"
Villagers gripped clubs and torches in fury.
Thwack! Thwack thwack thwack!
They beat the hunter and Gregory mercilessly, then bound them with ropes.
"I-I'm not the Devil's son!"
Gregory protested his innocence, but was locked in the church basement. They spent long hours in a pitch-black cell.
"Son... sorry..."
The hunter squeezed out words with his remaining strength.
Gregory wanted to reply, but the gag prevented it.
"Mmph, mmph!"
The goblin poured all his strength into freeing his shackled limbs.
"Urgh, ugh, hrk!"
He resisted desperately, teeth cracking against the gag, but couldn't escape the holy-enchanted chains.
'Father... hold on a bit longer... God will clear our injustice soon...'
Gregory prayed fervently.
Soon, a guard outside grumbled irritably.
"Huh? This guy's dead. Hey! This heretic seems croaked—dump him in the forest before he stinks!"
His comrade replied.
"Heretic? Oh, the hunter living with the goblin in the woods?"
Gregory's eyes widened.
'F-Father's dead?'
He couldn't believe it.
"Yeah, leave him, he'll reek."
"Damn... why croak now? Shift change soon."
"Shut up and dump him!"
"Fine."
But seeing the corpse's face as it was dragged out shattered him.
"Mmmph!!!"
'Father!!!'
The tortured father was limp as he was hauled away.
Gregory watched in misery, choking sobs, tears spilling from boiling despair in his chest.
'God... why this trial upon us...'
His tears trailed down his bloodied face, turning red, dripping.
Drip, drip, drip.
The bloody tears seeped into ground cracks, falling to someone buried deep beneath the church.
Hiss—
Gregory hung his head.
In that instant, memories flashed: abandoned by goblins for not being monster enough, imprisoned by humans for not being human enough.
As thoughts ended, despair ignited into rage.
Rage swelled, blazed, then crashed into despair. Despair faded to emptiness over time.
'Father, looks like there's no God after all.'
Gregory denied the God he'd believed in. He laughed madly with unfocused eyes.
"Heh... heh heh heh...!"
God gives only surmountable trials, it was said. But facing death with all lost—what changed by overcoming this?
'No God.'
My existence proves it. Gregory squeezed his eyes shut with that thought.
As death neared, an unknown energy flooded the basement.
Hiss!
Black energy seeped from floor cracks, coiling around Gregory.
"Gahk!"
Unprecedented agony crushed Gregory's body. After one scream, even groans escaped no more.
Crack!
The darkness engulfing Gregory writhed, emitting intense aura.
Dark energy churned within Gregory, aura concentrating on his forehead to sprout horns.
Crunch!
Crunch, crunch!
Crunch!
Twelfth Apostle.
Demon King Gregory.
'...Yes, I'm the apostle chosen by God.'
I won't die so easily.
Not until I exterminate the goblins who abandoned human-me and the humans who killed goblin-me.
'I won't die.'
"Raaaargh!!!"
As the smoke cleared, all trial participants returned to the ruined village.
'Just like back then.'
It showed how the Goblin Champion became an apostle. A hint for the trial the tower lord gave adventurers.
Those who hadn't figured out the ascent method from the tower records earlier would be trapped here.
'Like past me.'
Rookies unable to grasp the situation buzzed noisily.
"What the hell was that illusion?!"
Most reacted the same.
Of course, Rox and Cynthia with me stayed composed, immediately readying for battle.
'As expected.'
Crack, crack, craaaack.
Statue surfaces crumbled one by one.
Recognizing the trial's start, I gripped my sword hilt and warned everyone in the village.
"Anyone who wants to live, flee outside the village."
Swish.
"An unwinnable fight starts now."