Chapter 7
#7 New Adventurer Bern (5) - Unique Individual
Blanca's decision was swift.
“Let's go back for now.”
Bern turned his gaze toward her.
“Why?”
“If they're only using clothes stolen from humans as makeshift cloth, that means they've secured a huge supply of clothing. And wild goblins have no way to get that many human clothes except by raiding a village. What's more, if they've crudely reproduced that and are even making and using weapons, it means this group is already far larger than we imagined.”
Goblin intelligence is roughly at the level of a human child.
But even a child can build a society and learn things.
Of course, they can't maintain a high civilization like humans can, but even a crude imitation is threatening enough.
“This isn't something two adventurers can halfheartedly settle. For now, we need to return to the guild, report the situation, and either get the nearby lords to send troops or have a large number of adventurers mobilized.”
Blanca's words were reasonable, at least by her standards.
However, Bern asked her with a puzzled expression.
“Can that even be done?”
“Huh?”
“You said it yourself just now, Ms. Blanca. Lords don't even move easily when it's a matter of their own lands. Do you really think they'll even listen if the guild starts talking about sending a subjugation force or whatever?”
“……”
That couldn't be.
After all, even they, who had only just arrived nearby, knew about it—there was no way the lords didn't know anything.
And yet, instead of moving their own armies, the lords had asked the guild to take on an extermination request.
And not even a large-scale purge, just a request to call in a few adventurers.
In other words, they either knew and lacked the ability to deal with it actively, or they simply lacked the will.
“The Adventurers' Guild is the same. To move adventurers, there has to be a reward worth their while. Who's going to pay for that?”
“…Ha.”
Blanca let out a dry laugh.
It wasn't a laugh aimed at Bern.
It was self-mockery, at herself for failing to consider something so obvious that even a rookie like Bern could think of it right away.
“Then what do we do?”
“Let's handle it ourselves.”
“Huh?”
Blanca wore a dumbfounded expression for a moment, then immediately frowned.
“Hey. I know you're strong, and I know you're confident in your abilities. But we're talking about a goblin horde that could easily number in the hundreds. How are you planning to handle that with just one sword?”
“I have to handle it. Someday I'll even have to take down a lich with just one sword.”
“──.”
This time, Blanca was truly at a loss for words.
Not because of Bern's words, but because of his eyes, brimming with confidence and certainty, not a trace of wavering in them.
“Haah.”
Blanca let out a deep sigh.
Reason was telling her this was nonsense.
It was saying that simply being strong and having sharp instincts didn't mean he would be strong in actual combat, that since he was still a rookie who had never even taken a combat request, she, as the veteran, had to take the reins.
And yet.
If they were judging by absurd goals, she herself wasn't all that different, was she.
“All right, let's do it then.”
At Blanca's answer, Bern's smile deepened.
And so, a war between only two of them and the goblins began.
***
The first thing 'it' became aware of after being born was a human woman screaming with tears in her eyes.
A body weakened to the point of being emaciated.
With a throat so parched that even forcing out a voice was painful, the woman shouted something over and over.
Born with high intelligence, 'it' could vaguely understand what those words meant.
The woman was cursing.
The world, her own plight, the monsters that had violated her, and 'it'—the thing born from her womb.
She was cursing everything and hating it all, screaming for them to die right now.
She shouted and shouted, then collapsed as if a thread had snapped, and never got back up.
The woman had been so weak that it was a miracle she'd survived this long in the first place, so in a sense, that was only natural.
And so 'it' forever lost the chance to hear anything from the mother who gave birth to it other than hatred and curses.
Its fathers, after confirming that the woman was dead, naturally devoured her corpse, but the 'it' born from her was accepted as one of their own and fed.
'It' grew little by little, but at a pace far faster than any human could ever match.
And it realized that it was different from the rest of its kind.
Its kin were hopelessly stupid.
They couldn't easily solve even problems that seemed trivial to 'it'.
Even tasks that were simple for 'it' were things they couldn't accomplish without grunting and struggling.
In both intelligence and physical ability, 'it' was exceptionally superior.
To say that was because its mother had been human wasn't enough, because there were plenty of others in the lair who had been born through a similar process.
It was the result of a goblin horde raiding a village of slash-and-burn farmers who had been living in isolation to escape the lord's exploitation.
But among the siblings born through similar circumstances, there was no one with abilities equal to its own.
'It' realized that it was an aberration.
Strong in both body and mind, 'it' quickly became the leader of the pack.
Even the individuals who might, by blood, have been its fathers bowed their heads before it willingly.
As if it had been a fate predetermined from the start, 'it' went on growing the horde.
The first thing it changed was how food was consumed.
What had once been each goblin finding and eating its own food on the spot was changed so that all gathered food was stored in one place and redistributed according to its orders.
It also changed them from going out to look for new food only after they had eaten everything to going out every day to gather fresh food even if they still had leftovers.
Once food supplies and distribution became stable and efficient, the horde, which already reproduced quickly, began to grow even faster.
The next thing it changed was the use of tools.
There had already been a culture of using clothes or equipment taken from prey, but there had never been any attempt to make such things themselves.
Part of that was because their skill was low, but more than that, because it was a 'bothersome' thing to do.
Their kind, lazy and ruled by whatever feelings they had at the moment, preferred the easier path whenever possible.
But 'it' forced them to use tools and ordered them to create similar things as well.
The quality was worse than human-made goods, but even shoddy weapons made from stone, wood, leather, and the like were worlds apart from simply grabbing a rock and swinging it.
The last thing it changed was how they hunted.
Until then, they had simply eaten anything edible that crossed their path, and when they found prey they swarmed it and beat it down.
There were rare cases where they tried hiding or ambushing, but even those were less about efficiency than about mischief or malice meant to surprise the target.
However, even for 'it', changing their hunting method was not an easy task.
It had figured out the food issue on its own and mimicked the things humans used, but no matter how intelligent 'it' was, it couldn't invent tactics or strategy by itself.
So 'it' decided to observe humans again.
It gathered the weaker or lazier among its swollen ranks and sent them to attack a human village.
The first attempt succeeded far too easily.
The human village was helplessly occupied, and several dozen humans became slaves as well as reserve food for the goblin horde.
'It', wanting to observe how humans fought as a group, was dissatisfied, but soon changed its mind and watched the captured slaves instead.
It cut the tendons in their ankles to prevent escape, then gave them food so they could survive for a long time.
Humans trapped in an enclosed space with nothing to do but eat talked to one another with great enthusiasm.
That was the only way they could keep their sanity intact.
Its kind couldn't understand human conversation, but 'it' was different.
Slowly, leisurely, savoring every exchange, it watched their conversations and gradually came to understand human speech.
The voices of dozens of humans chattering on and on were more than enough as study material.
「Let's not give up.」 「Help will come someday.」 「Let's make an escape plan.」 「A goblin is holding a weapon—can't we take it away?」 「It'll be okay, kids.」 「Don't worry, I'll protect you.」 「Those damn bastards. If you're going to give us meat, at least cook it!」 「What's that huge goblin?」 「It comes every day to watch us, and it gives me the creeps.」
'It' learned that humans called it and its kind 'goblins.'
It also learned that humans regarded goblins, including itself, as laughably insignificant.
Otherwise, how could they never even imagine it might understand their words, despite coming every day to listen?
Having learned the language to a reasonably satisfying degree, 'it' suddenly became curious.
How would humans react if a creature they considered inferior spoke their language?
'It' opened its mouth.
「Humans, how does it feel to live in my territory?」
As expected, the humans were horrified.
They gaped, eyes wide, trembling with fear.
What interested 'it' most of all was the human who suddenly knelt down and bowed their head toward it.
The human shouted.
「S-sorry! O Goblin Lord! I have never, ever insulted you!」
At those words, the faces of the humans who had always been hurling abuse at 'it' and the goblins turned pale.
But more than that, what caught 'its' attention was the title the human had used to address it.
Having learned human language, 'it' knew that the word lord meant a ruler, a sovereign with territory under his control.
That human must have taken it literally.
Lord, lord.
After rolling the pronunciation around in its mouth a few times, 'it' thought the title suited it.
That's right. It was the ruler of the goblins, the monarch governing the land where goblins roamed.
It—no, the Goblin Lord—spoke to the first human who had bowed down.
「Your words are amusing. It would be a waste to use you as food, so I shall grant you the honor of following me.」
At those friendly words, relief washed over the face of the human who had stepped forward first.
At the word food, despair settled over the faces of the remaining humans.
The Goblin Lord spoke to the humans.
「From now on, I will ask you many questions. Those who give answers that satisfy me will become slaves; those who cannot will become food.」
The humans were shocked, and some even showed anger and hostility.
But after the Goblin Lord casually blew the heads off rebellious humans about three times, no one resisted anymore.
The humans knew more than he had expected.
From a hunter, he learned a more efficient way to hunt.
From a leatherworker, he learned how to work leather more freely.
Some humans trembled, imagining what would happen if their knowledge were to fall into goblin hands, but if they wanted to avoid the miserable fate of being eaten by goblins, this was not the time to worry about that.
The Goblin Lord, as promised, did not make the humans into food.
And among the humans who became slaves, those who could directly make things useful to goblins were treated better.
The Goblin Lord was satisfied.
He knew that this knowledge and the newly acquired slaves would make his tribe—no, his kingdom—even more prosperous.
The Goblin Lord was dissatisfied.
How to work metal, how to train soldiers, how to write, how to swing a sword, and even how to use mana.
There was far too much knowledge whose existence he had learned through human speech, but whose details he still couldn't grasp.
The village he had raided was only the smallest and weakest of the human strongholds scattered across the continent.
And because it was such a place, the residents' knowledge and skills were limited as well.
If he raided a larger, more valuable place.
If he could occupy it, enslave the humans, and absorb that knowledge.
He and his race would become even greater.
The Goblin Lord felt a searing ambition.