Chapter 167
There was a procedure when leaving the town through the eastern gate . Still, it was simple, as all they did was scan your status card . These things really were useful .
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When that was done, we decided to head to the north . We would be traveling upstream of the river, and I had the idea that we might find something interesting over there .
“What do you think we’ll see?”
“This is a very large river . I doubt there will be much change no matter how far we walk…”
We discussed other things as we walked together . It had been a while since we were able to just relax like this . Daniela had picked up a stick now and was swinging it in the air . It was a childlike gesture and made me feel somehow nostalgic . Our current quest was really just exploration .
Thirty minutes must have passed now . Here, the river branched out . A narrow river curved out away from the main current and winded through the plains on the opposite side . We decided to follow it .
“Daniela . There are fish inside . ”
“Hmm, so small . They will hardly make a satisfying meal . ”
“Yeah . I guess we’ll leave . They’ll grow big one day . ”
We muttered while gazing into the water . Just then, something entered our Presence Detection parameter . We caught each other’s eyes and drew out our swords . It felt like goblins . But they seemed to be in an unusually large group .
“Perhaps they are multiple packs who have joined together . ”
“Oh, that makes sense . The direction is… Over there . Maybe they’re just here for the water . ”
“Then we should hide near those rocks . ”
I nodded at this suggestion, and we moved away in order to spy on them while being hidden . Eventually, we could see glimpses of the small goblins through the swaying blades of grass . They cried loudly as they waved their rusted swords, cutting the grass as they advanced .
After a while, they reached the small river . There was no grass by the river’s edge, and the goblins came into full view as they stepped on the bare soil .
Two of the goblins carried weapons . Four others seemed to be searching through their surroundings . And then there were five small ones . Were they a family…? It almost looked like the adults were keeping watch while the children drank from the river .
However, we could not leave them . They would eventually attack humans . There was a sense of guilt in taking this precaution, but it was according to the rules of this world . Cruel, but necessary . There were things I couldn’t defy if I wanted to be an Adventurer and live as a resident in this world .
“Asagi, could you not freeze them in the water?”
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“Ah . I think I could do it to those that are close to it . ”
“Then freeze the small ones first . They will be hard to find if they get away . ”
“Got it . ”
I followed her order and quietly sent a current of blue magic into the river . When the crackling of the ice on the water’s surface reached the young goblins, I increased the power all at once, freezing their heads . The suddenness of this caused a panic, and they flailed their arms and tried to pull their faces out from the ice . The adult goblins turned to see what was happening . That’s when we attacked .
Daniela ran like the wind as she pulled out a short sword and threw it . The weapon flew straight into the first weapon-wielding goblin’s back, throwing him off of his feet and into the dirt . All eyes turned to the body . Daniela wasted no time in unsheathing her rapier and stabbing it into the back of another goblin .
The young goblins were frozen . The adults died one after another . With the situation now deafeningly clear, the remaining goblins scrambled to pick up the fallen weapons or tree branches . They were not difficult to deal with . Sword hands were severed, open chests pierced, and legs cut out from under them before our swords plunged down into their backs . When they were all dead, we turned to the frozen goblin children .
“Now, it’s just them…”
“Yes . ”
And so Daniela and I stabbed them with our swords . The blades slid through their backs without resistance, and the lives were snuffed out . While I knew this would happen, it did not feel good .
“I can tell what you are thinking, just by looking at your face . ”
“Sorry… I can be pretty pathetic . ”
“I would not say that . It is important to feel affection towards life . It is what makes us human . ”
“It’s what we do . And we sort of have to . ”
“Indeed . Both humans and monsters have this ability to choose . ”
As a human who was a thrall to a forest wolf, I often felt that it was hard to fight them . It made me wonder if I would have started to side with goblins, if I had just so happened to have received an enchantment from one instead of Beowulf . It was an interesting thought . But none of it would matter had I accepted Rachel’s offer .
I felt like a very weak creature for even telling this to Daniela .
“…I see . I do have my reservations about fighting other elves . You have certain feelings based on your own situation . It may not be easy to resolve it . ”
“You think? Even if I became Rachel’s thrall?”
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“I think you reject the notion because you use the word ‘thrall . ’ Why not ‘ally’?”
“Ally…”
Yes, the fact that Rachel had used the word had bothered me in a way . Thinking of the arrangement as an ‘alliance’ did make it sound better .
“A God Wolf ally . I do not think it a bad thing . ”
“When you put it that way, no, it’s too terrible . ”
And being friends with a fenrir would certainly make me more confident .
And if I accepted it, would I then be able to kill forest wolves without regret?
“Sometimes I feel like we are going around in circles . ”
“Emotions are incredibly annoying…”
“Do not say that, Asagi . You would not like me very much if you did not have the ability to feel . ”
“That’s the best argument I’ve ever heard . ”
“Grr…”
“Did you just growl at me…”
“Oh, that was only my stomach . Come on, it is time to eat . ”
We had a short lunch break before collecting the proof of the hunt . Daniela had said something about it before, but I had double-checked at the library . For goblins, it was the left ear . And so eleven ears went into a leather pouch . I put it away in the hollow bag and turned to Daniela . She seemed to be looking far off into the distance . But at what?
“Can you see anything?”
I stood next to her . She had her right hand above her eyes, blocking the sunlight as she stared .
“No, I was just thinking about life . Much as you were . ”
“Really?”
“Aye… I am one who lost their family to monsters . And so I never had much reason to care about killing them . If anything, I harbored hatred . ”
“I can imagine…”
“But things have a way of fading… It is mostly a way of life for me now . A part of my everyday work, you might say . I think the significance of their lives has plummeted . Faded . ”
She said as she looked off into the distance .
“Still, meeting Rachel yesterday was a great shock . In spite of appearances, words and emotions . She used to be a monster . I have lived for many years, but have yet to see another monster like that . She was clearly human . ”
“Well, yes, Rachel is human . But Daniela, she is a very rare case . She has a soul that came from the same world, the same country as me . Even if her body was a monster, she was a human inside . ”
“I suppose… Surely a monster could not become human without a human soul . They would not even want to . ”
I had been stabbed by a thief and been sent to this world on the brink of death .
So, what if I had actually died and reincarnated as a goblin?
Hell, I would still feel lucky to be a monster . But if I had been a bug or a tree?
What would have happened to me then?
“It is not as if I did not have questions after meeting Beowulf or Arthur . An evolved forest wolf and an evolved orc . But it is not so simple as that . It made me wonder what monsters really are . ”
“And…?”
Daniela’s eyes left the distant sky and turned to me .
“We are the same . That is what I thought . ”
Then she looked past me and at the fallen corpses .
“It is all the same life . We are all living creatures . Humans put a price on the lives of each other . It is no different with monsters . No life can just be taken from one side alone . But I still believe that there is some life that must be taken . ”
“Yeah, there are humans that seem to have an infinite capacity for good and for evil . ”
“Aye… These things that I now think or feel, they will not change the way that I act . But I feel that perhaps I am able to see a clearer reason behind things now . ”
Daniela seemed a little renewed by this .
A reason why some must not be killed . A reason why some had to be .
Moral values tend to change depending on the people, places, and situations . Killing is justified during wars .
So, how were things then?
This was a different world, with different values . The lives of monsters were set below humans . The lives of even humans were quite cheap compared to what I had known .
However, it still had value . It wasn’t something to be taken without thought . But then again, my own life was something that could easily be taken away .
So, how should I live?
There was nothing to it . You had to kill . Before they kill you . Before they kill someone you care about .
It was a world where things had to be taken into your own hands . But I did not think it was wrong to at least do it in a way that you did not accidentally hurt a bystander .
I too felt like I had a new reason to kill monsters . It was not excessive killing, but a way of preventing damage in the future… It was the way to live in this world .