episode_0022

If it were a typical goblin village, I would have pretended not to see it and moved on.

Those guys don’t scatter just because their leader is cut down.

Rather, a new leader quickly reappears, rallies the village, and tries to prove themselves in the name of revenge.

However, in a case like now, it’s a completely different story.

A leader individual has appeared.

It sounds important, but it’s a type of mutant often talked about.

They generally had a strong tendency to obsess over something, and among them, a leader individual literally refers to a guy who is obsessed with their own kind and wants to keep them under their command.

Since they keep their kind under their command by suppressing them with force.

For now, they might be submitting to force and watching for cues, but.

In the end, because they are guys gathered by force, if the leader individual disappears, they will fall into a chaotic battle, each trying to become the chieftain, and end up self-destructing.

I had tried to acquire as much knowledge as possible in the previous city.

Because I don’t know this world well.

To learn, I picked up information indiscriminately.

It’s questionable whether the information flowing from the mouths of drunken adventurers, on the condition of buying them cheap beer and snacks, is reliable, but even so, sometimes they would give significant information like this.

“…You?”

The vigilante member looked at me with a suspicious gaze.

Of course.

Perhaps it sounds like nonsense for a girl with a height in the late 130s to early 140s to suddenly say she’ll accept the goblin subjugation request.

“…I’m truly grateful that you saved our kids. But this is too dangerous.”

“Can you hold out until you send someone to the adventurer guild to request support, and until adventurers actually come to take on this kind of poorly compensated and dangerous request?”

At best, it’s a few months.

If you’re unlucky, it will be classified as a problematic request that no one takes on for a whole year and will be discarded.

But the current situation wasn’t relaxed enough to take those things into account.

“You said the goblins attacked this place once, didn’t you? That means they already recognize this place as prey, can you hold out?”

I turned my head and scanned the village.

Perhaps there had been fierce resistance, the inside of the village was relatively okay, but the outside had the remnants of horribly broken houses and palisades left unattended without being cleaned up.

“You all have two options right now. Not the absurd and hopeful story of requesting help from the adventurer guild, but two slightly more realistic options.”

“…Abandoning the village and leaving, or entrusting the request to you?”

“You know well.”

“How did things end up in this state…”

“It’s too late to regret it now.”

Cities with a certain scale usually hunt various monsters deep in the mountains and forests near the city once every four months.

If a special individual like a leader individual appears as now, it is quite troublesome, so they prevented it by hunting them beforehand.

But in a small village like this, besides forming a vigilante group to protect the village, it is virtually impossible to venture deep into where monsters live and reduce their numbers.

That’s why something like this seemed to have happened.

I speculate.

“That’s why everyone wants to live in the city, even if the city’s security isn’t great.”

“That’s true.”

The vigilante member also couldn’t hide his mixed feelings while admitting it was true.

“If only we were a little stronger.”

“That’s something you can say because you lack power.”

“What…?”

“If you were truly strong, you wouldn’t be doing vigilante work here, but would already be somewhere else.”

Unless he truly loved his village, and if he had enough strength, he would have been active in a city, not a village.

This world is more barbaric than imagined, a world where the fist in front of you is prioritized over the law.

In such a world, it’s human nature to want to wield power if you have it, and it’s not that it’s bad, but that it’s unavoidable.

“Actually, I think it’s fortunate that you don’t have power. If you had power, you would have already left the village and gone elsewhere, but because you lacked power, you were able to step up and fight when the village needed you, right? And… although you were badly injured, you protected the villagers.”

If you had power, you wouldn’t have been here, and because you lacked power, you were here and could save others.

After I said that, the vigilante member looked down at me for a moment, then let out a hollow laugh.

“You shouldn’t go anywhere and try to comfort people.”

“…Is that so?”

“It doesn’t comfort them, it cuts down people’s pride.”

I think a direct tone is more helpful in navigating a situation than beating around the bush with nice words.

Looking at the heavily furrowed brow of the vigilante member in front of me, perhaps this way of speaking isn’t good at all when comforting someone.

“That… I’m sorry. But anyway, if you’re not going to abandon the village, you have no choice but to entrust the request to me, right?”

“I heard from the kids that you’re strong. But, is it really possible?”

“I think it’s fifty-fifty.”

If my current plan fits, I can succeed with a high probability, but the moment my plan goes wrong, it becomes impossible.

I think it’s fifty-fifty due to the changes according to the plan.

“However, if it seems like I’ll fail, I’ll run away. For about five days from now, if I don’t return, I recommend just abandoning the village and leaving.”

“Is it okay to ask one thing?”

“As much as you want.”

“Do you want to become a hero or something?”

“…I won’t answer.”

It’s something I could have just thought of as someone else’s business, taken care of my own matters, and left.

Nevertheless, the reason I specifically wanted to take on the request was because it stemmed from an inferiority complex.

Saint Rie.

Since becoming aware of that existence, listening to rumors about them makes my insides twist.

On the grounds that a game is no fun if it’s too easy, they made me this way, while the Saint started with everything in abundance.

Saint Rie, who single-handedly subjugated the notorious bandit group.

Saint Rie, who alone faced the ogre that had settled near the city and was threatening it, and protected the city.

Saint Rie, who raided the goblin village and saved countless people.

Saint Rie, who can cure any illness and possesses boundless divine power, serving the poor.

Saint Rie, who defeated demon worshippers and even subjugated the unstable summoned demon.

A person completely different from me, who barely managed to subjugate bandits while making many sacrifices.

Originally, they were someone so far above me that I wouldn’t even feel an inferiority complex.

In the first place, one shouldn’t harbor such feelings towards someone they haven’t even met in person.

But.

No.

It’s a game character created by Rie.

So.

The thought that perhaps all the power, fame, and honor Saint Rie possesses and enjoys might be things I should have had lingered in my mind.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt an inferiority complex, and at the same time, stubbornness emerged.

“It’s not that I want to become a hero.”

I muttered to myself lowly, so that it wouldn’t be heard.

This was an action stemming not from good intentions, but from malice.

I don’t know exactly what the Saint possesses, but.

I felt a shallow sense of entitlement, thinking that if I had all those things, I could have done better.

That’s why I want to prove it.

If the Saint did it, then I rightfully must do it too, and I’m acting by stepping on that shadow, thinking that the Saint would have acted in this way in a situation like this.

“It’s not like I’m helping with good intentions, so. There’s no need to look at me with such worry.”

“…How can I not worry? A girl who looks to be only about 11 or 12 years old says she’s going to do something dangerous.”

The vigilante member sighed as if in thought and furrowed his brow at the same time, but saying that it wasn’t something he could decide alone and that he would discuss it with everyone, he disappeared.

I stared intently at his receding back.

Eventually, the request will start.

Because, as I said before, there will be no other way than that.

But, before that, I was also quite tired, so I decided to find lodging first.

I asked for hot water to warm my body, and decided to sleep early today.

Time passed like that, and the next day.

The vigilante members gathered and came to the lodging where I was staying.

I knew the reason without having to ask.

“Will you, take on the request?”

“Since I suggested it first anyway. I’ll take the request.”

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to be sorry. I’m not doing this with good intentions either.”

As I lowered my gaze to the floor and only raised the corners of my mouth to smile, an old man who seemed to be the representative of the vigilantes approached and extended his hand.

I grasped that hand, shook it, and received information about the goblins.

The number was estimated to be in the hundreds, and the approximate location was marked on the map I received.

After they told me that if I didn’t have news even after five days, to just abandon the village and run away, I packed my bow and arrows and immediately started moving.

And, from the start, my plan was working.

As expected, it happens when I take on a large-scale request.

Time stopped.

It was familiar now.

-Event Occurrence!

A dice appeared.

-D6_1

The dice that appeared before my eyes rolled arbitrarily and stopped, and the displayed number was 5.

-Result Value 5: Goblin Leader Subjugation Difficulty Easy!!

“Ha.”

If a dice hadn’t appeared here, or if the result value was 3 or lower, I would have run away without looking back, never mind proving anything.

I drew my sword from its sheath.

I didn’t hear a sound like *srrng-*.

[Soundless Steps B]

The trait that had grown once concealed even the sound of the weapon I was holding.

After taking a few deep breaths while standing still in place.

I took a step towards where the goblin leader would be.