Chapter 74
“Tell me, asshole. Where’d you get that staff?”
Even though I’d kindly given the Hobgoblin a chance to settle things with words, it didn’t understand the question and shouted.
“b, Bapex!! (W-what are you talking about?!)”
“Sigh. Why’s our friend so damn dense, huh?”
I’d asked it in its own language just a moment ago. Had it already forgotten?
Was this bastard just a complete moron? Couldn’t it understand when I spelled it out? Making me repeat myself. I asked irritably.
“Stafp CosaKuto. (I said, where’d you get the staff.)”
“……Fodro Pnua? (Will you let me live if I tell you?)”
The Hobgoblin didn’t answer again, instead spouting that bullshit.
Did this bastard think it still had the right to sit at the negotiating table?
“Hey. Looks like you don’t understand the situation.”
─Slice!!
“GyaaaaaaaaaaaAAAcC!!!”
I sawed at the collarbone just below its neck, and the Hobgoblin thrashed around. But with its solar plexus pinned down, it couldn’t get away. That was how great the difference in our strength was.
‘Fuck, why’s this shithead so damn loud?’
I almost frowned at the godawful scream, but held back.
Then I spoke to Fran, who was watching from behind me.
“Fran? I think this friend and I need to have a nice, heartfelt exchange of opinions. Cover your ears for a moment.”
I wanted to avoid doing anything cruel in front of my girlfriend. Killing someone in a fight and torturing someone after subduing them were two different things, weren’t they?
I wanted to tell her to go outside, but being alone out there might be dangerous, so I decided against it.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m not going to be traumatized by something like this.”
Fran said that as if to reassure me.
Thinking about it, she was right. Maybe Fran, an otherworlder, was even more used to this kind of violence than I was.
“Besides, if we’re adventurers, this kind of thing will happen a lot. It’d be silly to cover my ears every time.”
“Ugh. You’re right.”
I agreed with Fran. I’d always gone on about being a macho man, and maybe my way of thinking had genuinely gotten infected with machismo.
The idea that women had to be protected no matter what was the thinking of a lowlife male chauvinist.
Our Fran might be cute and lovely, but she was still an adventurer. Wanting to show her only nice things was overprotectiveness born from my own selfishness.
“All right. Just don’t force yourself to listen. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”
“Hehe. I’ll take the thought.”
With Fran’s permission, my enthusiasm soared.
And so I resumed interrogating the Hobgoblin bastard.
“Stafp CosaKu. Iol Weques C. (Where’d you get the staff? That’s the third time I’ve asked.)”
─Flash.
The bloodied blade gleamed. The Hobgoblin, delirious with pain, became a good little boy at the sight of that shiny bling-bling and answered right away.
“Yope! IThues UThu Yope Ku!! (A cave! My underlings found it in a human cave!!)”
“UThu Yope? Cosa? (A human cave? Where?)”
The Hobgoblin explained the location while blood poured from its wounds.
But fuck, it was some goblin-only gibberish. It was the sensibility of otherworldly brats, not people like us humans.
‘I have no fucking clue.’
Apparently, it was a cave to the right of this temple, but even this bastard didn’t seem to remember exactly where.
From what I gathered, it remembered the cave’s location by feel rather than knowledge. If it got nearby, it would know where to go, but it didn’t know how to explain it to someone else.
Well, that was goblins for you. Fuck, I hadn’t expected anything. I drew my bloodstained sword across the goblin’s neck.
“Stafp Xue Eeid? (What does the staff do?)”
“Magee Uoc! IThu Krt! (It strengthens magic! I made it!)”
Strengthening magic, huh? That was a common effect of mages’ wands.
But it said it made it itself. Had it only found the material for the staff? No wonder that thing looked like a dried-up horse dick.
“AroD PThu Zepor Asiqe? (Any other goblin nests?)”
“n, Noll!! (N-no!!)”“
“Ah, okay.”
Then I had no more use for this bastard. We were done here.
─Slice!
I cut the Hobgoblin’s head off.
There was no way I’d let a dangerous, racist bastard like this live just because it had answered my questions.
“The only good goblin is a dead goblin.”
I wiped the blood off my sword. Since maintaining it was a pain, I’d probably keep using Beast Regression’s mana claws when dealing with trash mobs.
Then Fran asked, looking curious,
“Hey, Nord? Does your magic let you talk to goblins, too?”
Oh, shit. Right.
I was flustered by the unexpected question. I’d been so focused on the fight that I hadn’t thought about anything else.
Did <Animal Speech> really work on monsters, too? If it didn’t, the mages who heard about this would probably swarm me, asking me to teach them the spell.
There were monster linguists, so maybe it did work? Fuck, it had better.
‘Fuuuuuck.’
I didn’t mind if Fran found out about my Translation Ability. But it seemed dangerous to let those crazy mad-mage bastards find out.
Thinking that, I spoke to Fran seriously.
“Ahem. Fran. Could you keep this a secret, too? If I’m unlucky, it could turn into a huge problem.”
“This, too? Okay. I’ll be careful.”
It wouldn’t end with only me being in danger. Fran looked puzzled at my words, then smiled as if she found it amusing.
“Our Nord sure has a lot of secrets, huh? No, wait, since it’s Kytai magic, is this ‘Kang Buk-ho’s’ secret?”
Fran awkwardly pronounced the real name I’d told her.
I’d asked her to just call me Nord, so that was what she’d kept calling me. To think she’d bring up my real name at a moment like this. My conscience pricked, and I lowered my shoulders apologetically.
“Sorry. I’m always giving you reasons to apologize to me, Fran.”
“It’s fine~.”
Fran turned around with her hands clasped behind her back. That was a new gesture. Was she angry because I kept hiding things? Sulking?
“Hehe. I’m just teasing.”
Worried, I considered telling her all my secrets tonight, but Fran spun around and smiled, wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Even when I’m reading a fairy tale, I’m most excited when there are still pages left to read, you know? I think it’s wonderful that there are still stories you haven’t told me yet, Nord.”
In my arms, Fran looked at me with eyes full of genuine affection.
“So── I’ll wait until the day you tell me.”
This pathetic otherworldly macho man was sunk by that ocean-sized consideration and affection. Sob, sob. People of the world, our Fran is such an angel.
“Thank you. I’ll definitely tell you someday.”
I wrapped my free arm—the one not holding my sword—tightly around Fran.
“But you’d better brace yourself so you don’t faint, okay? My secret is seriously unbelievable.”
“Nord, you’d better not be lonely if I’m not surprised at all, okay? I could still love you even if you were a prince from the kingdom of field mice who could transform into a human.”
“Uh, that’s a problem. My secret isn’t quite that magical.”
It was just as we were chatting and starting to relax.
─Zzzt!
Suddenly, I sensed mana coming from the Hobgoblin’s corpse. I quickly let Fran go and pointed my sword at the body.
─Shing!
Fran didn’t even flinch at my sudden reaction. She calmly armed herself with a throwing knife and hammer. Who would think we were Bronze-class rookie candidates? That quick response—anyone could see we were veteran adventurers.
─Shwaaaaa.
Then it happened. Mana rose from the Hobgoblin’s corpse, which was definitely dead!
A deep-red mana shot toward me!!
“Fuck!! International—!!”
I shouted like a ninja, hoisted Fran onto my back, and dodged.
Shwooooo─!!
But that mana was much faster. Fuck! Even Quicksilver couldn’t dodge this!!
I hurriedly let Fran go and tried to counterattack with my sword.
Whoosh─!
But even though the mana touched my sword, it passed through it like smoke. What the hell?! Was it a curse instead of attack magic?!
‘No, wait a second.’
Hadn’t something similar happened to me not long ago?
─Flash!
The crimson mana passed through my sword and struck me in the chest. I was scared shitless and braced for pain, but I didn’t feel a thing.
Shwooooo…!
The mana that touched my body was sucked into me, like dry ice giving off vapor in reverse. Even that was the same as last time.
“Nord? Did the Hobgoblin do something?”
Fran asked, holding out a knife.
She was still watching the Hobgoblin’s corpse warily, as if she hadn’t seen the mana being absorbed into my body at all.
Mana that no one else could see, and my body letting it flow into my mana reservoir!
Feeling déjà vu at the same phenomenon that had happened when I took down Tabula, I realized what had occurred.
‘This is…… mana inheritance, isn’t it?’
An exceptionally rare phenomenon had happened to me twice in a row.
***
“What?! You exterminated them in less than half a day?!”
When Fran and I returned with the goblins’ ears, the village chief asked in shock. I nodded, feeling uneasy.
“We’re exceptionally good at tracking things in the forest. If you can’t believe us because we finished the job too quickly, I can tell you where the nest is, too.”
“Would you? Ah, I’m not doubting you adventurers. This old body trusts its own eyes.”
The village chief said that and pointed to the goblin ears, still oozing blood.
In this world, it was also the village chief’s job to verify an adventurers’ work. The chief had performed this kind of inspection for a long time, so he’d noticed that the ears we’d brought were freshly cut.
“We don’t take it that way, so it’s fine. More importantly, do you have a map?”
“I’ll have one brought.”
A woman who looked like a housekeeper brought over a map and some paper. I marked the location and wrote down the details.
“It was a temple in the forest. Does that ring a bell?”
“A temple, you say? Hmm. There is a temple near the village that’s been there since before I was born.”
“That’s probably it. The goblins had made their nest there. You should take measures to deal with it.”
I said that after finishing my explanation on the paper.
“Of course, other monsters rarely use human buildings as nests. But since goblins are so close to the village, they’ll probably make frequent use of that temple. Please have someone properly seal it up later.”
“Thank you for the advice. While I’m sending the village youths to clear away the bodies, I’ll have them tear it down.”
“……Well, I’ll leave the method up to the villagers.”
As an archaeologist, I should’ve stopped that ISIS-style solution to the problem, but I let it slide.
The temple was an abandoned ruin that had been left behind ages ago. Gods hadn’t struck anyone down since the ancient civilization era, so let these folks handle the consequences themselves.
After having the housekeeper put away the map, the village chief stroked his beard.
“In any case, I’m truly impressed by your skill. Your fee was money well spent.”
“Thank you for the praise. I’d be even more grateful if you could mention the Hobgoblin in the evaluation on our quest certificate.”
The Bronze-class rookie-candidate duo had even taken down a Hobgoblin. I hoped he’d include that on the certificate, too.
The village chief nodded at my words.
“I’ll be sure to. But why do you look so unhappy, adventurer? Is something wrong?”
At that, I rubbed my mouth. The reason for my expression was the strange mana-inheritance phenomenon from earlier.
Still, I’d thought I was keeping a poker face, but apparently it hadn’t meant shit.
“It’s nothing. Fighting goblins often leaves you feeling awful. But it won’t cause you any trouble, so don’t worry.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve always felt great respect for those who endure such hardships to make a living as adventurers. When I was young, I wanted to become a fine adventurer like you.”
“That’s an honor.”
I casually deflected the flattery, befitting a pseudo-politician from some rural backwater, and we left the village chief’s manor. He’d issued our quest certificate right there, so all that remained was to head back.
“Caw! Caw! (Idiot! Idiot!)”
The problem was the sun was setting right fucking now.
No matter how fast Ttareungi was, there was no way we’d make it back to the city before the Sargadis gates closed.
Even if we did make it back, we’d be throwing away the money we’d spent staying at this village inn.
“Nord. Let’s stay the night.”
Fran said, apparently thinking the same thing as me. Her cute little fingers were entwined with mine.
“Yeah. Let’s get a good rest and head back. Even if the inn looks like it’s crawling with bugs.”
“Hehe. It can’t be worse than sleeping in the forest.”
“At least we won’t get wet if it rains.”
We talked as we headed back to the inn. It didn’t take long, since this was such a tiny village.
The innkeeper bastard was nowhere to be seen, so we just went upstairs, took off our armor, and sat on the bed. Still, fuck, no major trouble today.
‘No, wait. Was there?’
We’d met a Hobgoblin shaman with a strange staff on an ordinary goblin extermination quest, so there had been trouble.
A Hobgoblin was something four Bronze-class adventurers could take down, but a staff like that was definitely a variable that raised the difficulty.
If I hadn’t gotten stronger, I might’ve been lying here groaning by now.
─Glimmer.
Thinking that, I took the black stone off the Hobgoblin’s staff.
This was a thing called a Power Stone, a stone that strengthened magic.
‘But it looks pretty damn ominous.’
A rough, hard, black stone.
It had the evil look of something that’d appeal to bastards who liked getting their asses fucked by grubs and maggots!
This was obviously an item related to a dark mage.