episode_0023

Goblins’ sense of smell is about the same as humans’, and their eyesight isn’t very good either.

They lack strength, and although their intelligence is somewhat threatening, it’s only at a child’s level.

If there’s one advantage goblins have that makes them inferior to humans in every other way, it’s probably their hearing.

Goblins have long, wide ears.

As if that weren’t just for show, they react more sensitively to sound than humans.

Because of this, goblins rely heavily on sound.

Like dogs use their sense of smell better than sight.

Goblins use, and also depend on, their hearing.

That’s why things like this are possible.

Even with a goblin right in front, I leisurely walked out of its sight.

As long as I wasn’t directly in the center of a goblin’s line of sight, they wouldn’t perceive me.

Deep in an unnamed mountain, as expected, goblins were teeming.

I frowned at the sight of them swarming like maggots on a corpse and the foul smell, but I didn’t make a sound like a fool.

Even roughly counting the goblins I had passed so far, there were well over forty,

and in the village ahead, which seemed clumsily made to resemble a human town, several times the number of goblins I had seen on the way were probably loitering around.

This entire giant mountain had fallen into the hands of the goblins.

I judged that there was no need to engage with the small fry.

While I could hide myself, I couldn’t hide a corpse.

If a goblin corpse resulted from an unnecessary fight,

it was clear that only bad things would happen if the corpse was discovered.

The target is the goblin leader.

I will kill only that one and immediately get out.

My traits helped me, and the dice god helped me.

I have absolutely no talent for martial arts.

I don’t actually have a body suited for fighting either.

However, if I use the game system well, it’s not something I should whine about as being completely impossible.

Should I consider this something Rie gave me?

Or am I just utilizing it well? I don’t know, but if I didn’t have even this, wouldn’t I have died long ago?

By the way.

What about those bastards?

The two goblins guarding the entrance to the village.

It seems possible to catch and kill them, but if I fight recklessly, they’ll rush at me in a horde, separate from the sound, once I enter their sight.

This means I need to lure them out and deal with them quietly, or check if there’s another way in.

Since starting a fight is the worst of the worst options, I first checked if there were other methods.

I walked around the palisade erected in the village.

The palisade itself that the goblins had put up was quite flimsy and clumsy, but it was 3m high.

With this small body and weak muscle strength, it wasn’t easy to climb.

“But, surrounding the mountainside like this with a palisade… that’s impossible with just a few weeks or months.”

No matter how conservatively I estimate, these guys have been living here for over a year.

So the question is why there haven’t been any signs during that time.

I don’t know.

To survive in this world, I had gathered all sorts of knowledge, information, and rumors by selling fake smiles, but the knowledge I had about this world was too shallow.

I shook my head, clearing away unnecessary thoughts, and focused on the present.

“There are 3 entrances.”

All of them were guarded by two goblins standing at the entrance.

If I confronted them head-on, I could break through any of the three entrances, but the problem was what would happen immediately after, leaving me in distress.

About 4 hours passed like that.

I familiarized myself with the goblins’ behavior patterns by observing them.

For now, I decided to be satisfied with this much reconnaissance for today and withdraw.

After all, I hadn’t intended to resolve the matter within today.

I went back down to the village.

When I returned quickly, there were those who showed disappointment, thinking I had given up on the request, but it wasn’t something to concern myself with.

More than that, I needed to worry about how to infiltrate the village.

If I just break through the entrance, what follows immediately after is easy.

I can infiltrate, kill the leader individual, and get out.

But the entrance is the problem.

“The entrance is too narrow for a goblin’s size.”

Infiltration is impossible.

Just because there’s no sound doesn’t mean my body becomes transparent.

When squeezing into such narrow spaces, I was bound to be exposed to their sight.

“Should I just burn the whole thing down?”

I hadn’t not considered that idea, but I couldn’t burn only as much as I wanted.

If the fire spread and reached the village, that would truly be a case of the tail wagging the dog.

If I could control flames as I wished, I wouldn’t be living receiving this kind of treatment.

So, let’s exclude fire from consideration.

Only means I can control are proper methods.

Then what about a trap?

I’m not trying to confront all the goblins right now.

I just need to somehow get inside the village.

There’s no need to set traps for all the goblins.

I just need to somehow lure out the two guarding the entrance.

“But, they were trained quite well, so I couldn’t lure them out with a clumsy trap.”

When I threw a stone at a rock and made a sharp sound, they reacted, but they didn’t move from their spot.

So, out of stubbornness, I threw it a few more times, and the gatekeeper goblin guarding the entrance loudly spewed out incomprehensible language, and then I was terrified when I saw ten of them rush out from inside the village.

What I can handle simultaneously is 2 to 3.

If ten of them attack, I’ll end up as a plaything, my limbs torn apart, without being able to do anything.

“……Plaything?”

A word that felt particularly clear within my terrible delusion.

Goblins have strong sexual urges.

That’s why women are mostly kidnapped a lot.

Men are for meat, and women are used to satisfy sexual urges before being made into totems.

The fact that women are clearly also meat but they act that way specifically is evidence that goblins are a race whose sexual urges take precedence over their appetite.

“If I become the bait, maybe I can lure out those two.”

They are goblins who have received considerable training.

But, if I poke at the uncontrollable sexual urges they’ve had since birth, wouldn’t something happen?

Even humans, who pride themselves on being the most rational of all animals.

The majority of people live guided by instinct rather than reason.

If you consider whether creatures like goblins will prioritize their training or their innate instincts, an obvious conclusion can be reached.

If it doesn’t work, I can just come back and devise another method.

For now, I decided to try it.

Late the next day, I climbed the mountain again and took off my clothes.

A woman with a small frame, not much different from the goblins.

It was dark, so my face wouldn’t be clearly visible, but my body possessed all the elements that would make goblins unpleasantly rush at me.

Slowly, slowly, I approached and revealed my body under the torchlight the goblins had lit.

It was humiliating and utterly fucked up, but if this worked, there would be no easier method.

The gatekeeper goblins didn’t make any sound, so they didn’t discover me for a long time, but then, upon spotting me gradually coming into clear view, they seemed surprised and flinched,

and soon after confirming I was naked, they ogled me.

Their gradually swelling genitals and gazes blind with lust felt unpleasant, like insects crawling on my body, but I endured it.

I shouldn’t get swept up in emotions unnecessarily here.

I knew that well.

I was a proper adventurer now.

The goblins remained silent, seemingly lost in thought for a moment, then soon left their posts and began approaching me.

As expected.

Even if they were trained, they seemed unable to overcome their instincts as beasts.

I immediately ran along the mountain path, avoiding the goblins.

The goblins also seemed eager to satisfy their sexual urges, leaving their posts completely to chase me.

Right ahead, I threw myself behind a rock.

I drew the sword I had placed under the rock beforehand and swung it.

I plunged my grandfather’s sword into the snout of the goblin that had chased me recklessly due to being in heat, then drew the sharp sword and cut down the remaining one as well.

“Disgusting…”

I put on the clothes I had taken off.

Although I would cover the goblin corpses with fallen leaves, it was clear they would definitely be discovered if it took too long, so it was as if a time limit had been imposed from now on.

I headed towards the goblin village.

The goblins guarding the entrance were gone.

I bent down and passed through the entrance.

The village was wider than I had expected, and there were at least twenty totems similar to those I had seen in the small village before.

The totems with women’s heads impaled on them hadn’t properly decayed yet, half-melted, creating an even more repulsive scene.

Faint screams and groans, unheard outside the village, could be heard from all directions.

These were from humans.

They said it hadn’t been long since the village was raided.

The thought that there might be survivors crossed my mind, but.

It was a problem I couldn’t do anything about.

All I could do was hunt the leader individual and carry out revenge.

I knew my limitations well.

I walked, suppressing sound, and lowered my presence.

Beneath the darkness of the night sky, I moved slowly, avoiding the torches.

The screams disturbed my ears and pricked at the faint conscience remaining in my heart, but.

No matter how much I thought about it, these were people I couldn’t help.

Apart from those satisfying their sexual urges or sleeping, the goblins in the middle of the night were only those standing guard under the torches.

Wondering if these ones had overcome their sexual urges, I looked closely, and when a goblin came out of a fishy-smelling house and another went in to take its place, I realized once again that wasn’t the case.

The center of the village.

Reaching the largest wooden house at the center was disappointingly easy, except for having to endure a little shame.

As the dice had said, the difficulty was very low.

I opened the door.

There was no decent lock or anything like that.

An individual slightly larger than a typical goblin was lying on a bone bed, sleeping.

And next to it, a small child was sitting crouched, their neck tied with a rope.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, they recoiled tightly, perhaps thinking I was a goblin?

“…You.”

Rustle-

No.

That’s not it.

Although I was curious, the priority had changed.

I raised my sword and struck the goblin down as it was.

It had been rustling, trying to get up.

The creature, unable to even scream with the sword plunged into its neck, died like that, its eyes wide open.

It was a futile difficulty fitting the ‘easy’ rating.

Ignoring the noisy system voice.

I cast my gaze towards the child sitting crouched.

“What are you?”

The child raised their head.

I tried to hastily avert my gaze, but.

I realized there was no need.

This child.

Its eyes had been gouged out.

The empty eyes just stared in the direction of the sound.

“…Aue…”

Drooling, it couldn’t speak properly.

All its teeth had been pulled out.

Discomfort and revulsion climbed up my spine.

I raised my sword and cut the rope.

Can I save it?

I don’t know.

Why do I feel the desire to save only this child, after ignoring the countless screams I’ve heard so far, telling myself they were ‘unavoidable things’?

It’s probably because they are right in front of my eyes.

Suffering that is merely a voice can be deliberately ignored by closing one’s ears.

But it wasn’t easy to ignore the suffering of a child right in front of me like this.

“……Do you want to live?”

Because I spoke, it raised its head in the direction the sound came from.

That means it can understand words, even if it can’t utter them.

“…If you want to live, nod your head.”

If you just do that, even if I can’t promise to definitely save you,

I will make an effort.

Was my intention conveyed like that?

The child hesitated for a moment, then smiled.

“Okay, I’ll…”

Before I could utter the words “help you”, the child shook its head.

“Ki, kill me…”

Even to my words of saving it, the child asked to be killed.

That’s what it said.