Chapter 10
#10 - Rookie Adventurer Bern (8) - Plans and Reality Are Different
Bern looked around.
The goblin horde numbered around eighty.
Most of them wore crude armor stitched together from animal hides, and about a tenth wore proper armor that looked custom-made.
Their weapons were mostly wood or stone rather than metal, but the blades still glinted strangely, as if they had been coated with poison.
At this level, they could threaten not only most villages, but even a small domain if things went well.
Normally, a single swordsman and a mage riding on his back wouldn't even make for a proper fight.
“Rest assured. Attacking you right now and taking your heads would be easy enough, but I intend to give you one last chance.”
The other side seemed to know that too, and Goblin Lord continued speaking with an air of ease, as if the result had already been decided.
Or at least, that was only how it looked.
'...They're stalling. They're waiting for the hunting party to return.'
Bern realized that Goblin Lord, who seemed to trust his subordinates and look full of openings at first glance, was actually keeping his body tense and ready to move at any moment.
If judged normally, this force was enough. But there was always the possibility of a worst-case scenario. So he wanted to raise his odds even a little more.
That sort of calculation and plan, Goblin Lord had naturally mastered and was now carrying out.
'Good thing I found him early.'
Bern acknowledged that this goblin was no ordinary creature.
If he had to put a label on it, this was what you would call a hero among goblins.
Not just intelligent and physically powerful, but also born with caution, boldness, and ambition.
If they were given a little more time, and if this goblin horde had devoured a territory,
and if they had then learned proper metallurgy and tactics from the people there, above all how to use mana, it would surely have become a disaster.
“Surrender, humans.”
Now that he had seen through the enemy's intent, there was no need to indulge his stalling.
Knowing that, Bern decided to respond for the time being.
He had originally meant to finish things swiftly and decisively, but the situation had changed a little.
Judging by the size of the cavern they were in, the fact that there was only one entrance, and the enemy's formation, it looked like he might be able to wipe them out all at once without having to chase them down one by one.
“Don't forget the signal.”
“……!”
After murmuring so softly that only Blanca on his back could hear, Bern said to Goblin Lord,
“Surrender? You want us to become your prey without even fighting?”
“Only the incompetent and the useless are preyed upon. Humans and goblins are no exception.”
“Not us?”
“Haven't you proven your worth by wrecking my territory?”
“Then you sound like someone who should be killed.”
“Even if I wipe you out, my dead subordinates won't come back. However, if I can take you in as subordinates, my power will grow even stronger.”
“That's a convincing argument, but living in a cave and being treated like slaves still sounds a little much.”
“For now, I may be staying in a place like this, but things will be different later. And I have no intention of treating you the same as worthless slaves.”
“Hmm.”
Bern gave a low hum.
To anyone who didn't know better, it would really look as though he had been tempted by Goblin Lord's offer.
It was enough to make even Blanca on his back suspect something.
If Bern's whispered warning hadn't come first, she might already have fled.
As if he really felt he could draw Bern in, Goblin Lord's golden eyes shone brightly.
“Think carefully, human. It took me less than half a year from the moment I was born to build up this much power.”
“Oh.”
Bern's 'oh' meant something like, 'A lord let this happen in his territory and left it alone for half a year,' but Goblin Lord seemed to take it as pure admiration and lifted his chin.
“Then what about this force—no, this nation—one year, three years, ten years from now? How much power, wealth, and honor would you gain from it?”
“Mmm. That's pretty tempting, I have to admit.”
“If you refuse, only death awaits you, and if you accept, there will be glory. What is there to hesitate over?”
That was when a commotion came from behind Bern.
-Grik!
-Grirook!
The presence of many creatures, swarming together.
The nearby goblins that had gone out hunting had all returned after hearing that something was wrong at the base.
Their equipment was cruder than that of the goblins beside Goblin Lord, but in sheer numbers they surpassed even the ones already there.
And each one of them was full of rage, baring a grim killing intent; apparently, forcing their way through the scent of the Green Hunter set up at the entrance had been a thoroughly unpleasant experience.
Bern was gradually pushed deeper into the cavern by those goblins, and before long he was surrounded in the middle of the horde.
“Tsk, tsk. Your hesitation became your downfall. If you'd sworn loyalty earlier, you could have been treated well as a faithful subject.”
Goblin Lord spoke as if he found it regrettable, but with mockery hidden beneath the words.
Bern asked.
“Was your goal from the start just to buy time?”
“Who knows? Is that important now?”
“If I swear loyalty even now, will you listen?”
“Yes, I will listen. However, your treatment will be lower than it was at first. What will you do? This is my final question.”
In response to Goblin Lord's words, the hundred-plus goblin horde surrounded Bern and leveled their weapons at him.
Bern could feel Blanca, hanging on his back, gripping his clothes tightly.
Bern replied.
Not with words, but with action.
Whoosh!
The cotton ball about the size of a volleyball in Bern's right hand shot toward Goblin Lord, and despite its fluffy appearance it made a vicious sound as it flew.
Sensing danger by instinct, Goblin Lord quickly rolled to the side.
As if proving that to be the right choice, the chair he had been sitting on crumbled the instant the cotton ball touched it.
It looked as though it had been struck by a giant iron ball.
Goblin Lord rolled across the floor and shouted.
“Kill him!!”
-Gryiik!
The goblin soldiers all rushed at Bern at once.
Blanca, who had been keeping silent, finally seemed to reach her limit and shouted.
“What are we supposed to do now!!”
“This is what we're going to do!”
Bern's body shot forward.
The goblins armed with weapons were packed tightly together in front of him, blocking the way, but Bern didn't care.
Taat!
-Kkik!?
Bern's body leaped into the air, and the goblin whose face was trampled under Bern's shoes let out a scream.
Using the goblins' heads themselves as stepping stones, Bern raced straight toward the wall.
Blanca, who had gradually gotten used to being carried on his back, found this situation absurd.
If even a slight graze from the goblins' weapons landed, his feet and legs would be sliced open.
And even if he wasn't cut, if he lost his balance for even a moment on those unstable footholds, they'd be buried in the enemy ranks.
Bern was moving ahead with complete confidence and without hesitation, as if he had never even considered such possibilities.
And at last, Bern's foot stepped on something other than a goblin's head.
At the same time, Blanca's vision, hanging on his back, spun around.
It couldn't be helped.
Where Bern had stepped was not the ground, but the wall of the enormous cavern they were in.
Since Goblin Lord had chosen this place as a sort of audience chamber, the cavern wasn't just wide; it was tall too.
Bern, having run diagonally up the rugged, uneven wall to gain height, shouted to Blanca.
“Center! Fire! Maximum power!”
“Are you out of your mind!?”
“If you're an adventurer, this is the bare minimum!”
“There's no such adventurer in the world!!”
Blanca wanted to yell that, but even so her hand shot out toward the ground without hesitation.
Most of the mana left in her was drained away in an instant, and it quickly transformed into a massive surge of fire.
Annoyingly enough, perhaps because she had been running around frantically and firing spells everywhere earlier, her aim was astonishingly easy.
『Rock-Burning Magic』
Fwoosh!
At the scorching heat above his head, Goblin Lord's eyes trembled violently.
However, he was no ordinary goblin.
'At that size of fire...! It won't be enough to wipe us out!'
At most ten—no, if they were all packed together in a dense formation, maybe several dozen could go down, but most of the troops should survive.
Vowing to kill them afterward, Goblin Lord grabbed two nearby goblins and used them as shields to cover his body.
His calculation was not wrong.
That is, if not for the cotton ball lodged in his throne, soaked with the oil from an entire large barrel.
No matter how great his innate intelligence and talent were, this was the limit of a Goblin Lord who had only ever experienced a narrow world.
Blanca's fire hit the chair and quickly burned through the cotton ball's surface.
The instant the compressed oil burst out in a single gush and came into contact with the fire.
KWAANG!
Light. Heat. Shockwave.
Such terrifying firepower that even the two of them, who had risen almost to the ceiling, could feel it.
Barely opening her eyes, Blanca involuntarily gaped at the scene spread out below.
The green army, armed with excellent equipment and military discipline unlike any goblin's.
It had all been swept away.
The goblins closest to the center had all been instantly charred black and killed, while the goblins a little farther out had flames spreading across their bodies as they let out silent screams of agony.
And Goblin Lord was among those who survived.
“Cough, ngh, Gyaaaagh...!!”
Thanks to his body, which was naturally sturdier than the others', and his ruthless cunning in quickly using others as shields, Goblin Lord was in better shape than most of those swept up by the fire.
But that only made the pain he felt worse, and it prolonged it.
Tormented by the fire clinging to his skin and showing no sign of going out, perhaps because of the oil, Goblin Lord crawled on the floor like an insect.
He couldn't understand this situation.
No, he didn't want to understand it.
He had been born with a special fate.
One who had transcended the goblin race's limits, born to make his kind great.
Was this really how it was going to end, so futilely, before he had achieved anything?
Toward Bern, who was walking toward him with a blank face, Goblin Lord spat out curse-filled words.
“You... don't... get cocky. If I had just a little, just a little more time! Then you...!!”
Bern squinted for a moment at Goblin Lord, then.
Soon after, he said in a tone of incomprehension,
“...Aren't you the one who shortened that time?”
“What?”
“If you needed time, you should have been careful not to let others notice. If, instead of recklessly expanding your power, you'd slowly built up your foundations and strengthened your base, the surrounding area would have noticed the irregularity much later.”
Bern delivered his verdict calmly, but mercilessly.
“You weren't unlucky. You were simply ruined by your own mistake.”
Goblin Lord's eyes twitched violently.
Bern cleanly severed the limp head and collected it as his trophy.
Then he said to Blanca.
“This seems like a pretty good result for our first quest.”
Blanca silently stared at Bern.
It was the kind of gaze a cat gives the universe.