by Kumo Kagyu
“Oh,” Priestess said; she had a guess.
Sword Maiden, some adventurers she knew, a priestess who had been wearing mail—it all made sense. Noble Fencer had drawn the obvious inference and had come to get them.
“…Are you all right?”
Priestess had to think a moment about this further question. What was she talking about? Was she worried about the nearly a year of goblin hunting Priestess had done since they had met? Asking about the time she had spent working—adventuring—with him? Or was this about the cherished mail that had been stolen from her? Or even the fact that the theft left her without armor?
She had been able to borrow new vestments, but the absence of that familiar weight left her deeply unsettled.
Finally she answered, “I think…” An ambiguous smile. “…I’m fine.”
“How are we going to handle this, though?” High Elf Archer asked, turning to speak even as she jogged along balletically. “If the enemy’s been moving since first thing in the morning, it’ll be too late to chase them down now.”
“…I’ve had horses prepared. Fast ones.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be enough.” The elf drew a circle in the air with her pointer finger. “We’re dealing with goblin—what is it? Riders. Dogs can move quicker than you think.”
“I can make up for that with a spell,” Dwarf Shaman said as he came huffing up, already digging in his bag of catalysts. “It’s always best to save magic when you can, but when you need it, you need it.”
“Take care of it.” Goblin Slayer’s words were brief and direct, provoking a nod and a “Mm-hmm” from Dwarf Shaman.
Magic spells were an invaluable strategic asset in battle, but if you couldn’t catch the foe, then there would be no battle. And if they were going to challenge the deepest dungeon, they would certainly rest for at least a night in any event. If they rushed into the labyrinth half-prepared, all that waited for them was a fate worse than death.
“Ahh, but what fortune that I should be of the bloodline of the nagas!” Lizard Priest, in high spirits, rolled his eyes in his head. “That I should get to slay goblins with milord Goblin Slayer and even attempt that deepest dungeon.” His tail slapped the floor as they went, as if to communicate how happy he was. “And speaking of milord Goblin Slayer, you seem rather energized somehow.”
“Is that so?”
He was striding boldly straight ahead, not a sign of hesitation in his steps. From behind, Priestess exchanged a look with High Elf Archer and Noble Fencer and grinned.
I guess it would be untrue to say I wasn’t afraid.
The deepest dungeon. The place that had served as the redoubt of the Lord of the Demons ten years before. It used to be a training ground of some description, hence why it had ten sublevels. The layout, however, had been drastically rearranged, and a seemingly endless stream of monsters now emerged from it.
The monsters, for whatever reason, had nothing; they targeted adventurers specifically so they could gain something…
I’m sure the world was on the cusp of destruction.
It was ironic, Priestess thought. What had ultimately saved the world was not truth or justice but greed.
Rank, renown, riches, glory, fortune: there was nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. That was something the Mother Superior had taught her when she had left the temple to become an adventurer more than a year ago. To feel desire was a form of wanting and hoping. It indicated the will to live. As such, it was a good thing.
However. At the same time, the Mother Superior had taught her something else.
There were those adventurers who equipped themselves by robbing other adventurers, like common highwaymen.
There were those adventurers who sought holy armor and enchanted blades, not by subduing evil spirits but by prowling the depths of the earth.
Of such people, she must be careful. Such a person, she must not become.
Now that something precious of hers had been stolen, replaced with some hastily tossed gems, Priestess agreed.
That girl in the guise of a soldier, the princess—she hadn’t been thinking about Priestess at all. Only herself.
The thought that this made her akin to a goblin—well, maybe that showed he was rubbing off on her a bit too much.
“…I hate to ask, but are you okay with this?” High Elf Archer whispered to her.
It was a reasonable thing to ask. Something terrible had been done to her. Why should she care what happened to the thief?
Did such brutal thoughts ever cross her mind? Priestess could hardly claim they didn’t.
But…
Priestess clasped her hands together tightly, calling on the name of the Earth Mother to drown out those thoughts.
“I know what she did, but that doesn’t mean she deserves anything that might happen to her.”
That’s how I feel. To hope that something terrible happens to someone—to wish for it, to take joy in it? That’s not right.
That, she thought, was very goblin-like. And that was the last thing she wanted to be.
So she would help the girl.
Get back what was hers.
Shout and scold and make the princess think about what she had done.
How wonderful it would be if it could all end so simply.
“…Mm.” High Elf Archer gave a flick of her ears and nodded. “That’s good, then. Let’s go!”
“Right!”
As she picked up her pace to catch up with Goblin Slayer, Priestess closed her eyes and offered up a prayer to the Earth Mother.
May it be so.
§
“Please, attend a moment.”
The voice came just as the party was settling the matter of their horses at the stable.
Female Merchant had said the horses would be fast—but they were war animals, so they lacked the stick-thin legs of racing horses that looked like they might break at any moment.
There were three robust steeds in all. Lizard Priest chose the most giant of them for himself alone; High Elf Archer took the reins of another, while Dwarf Shaman climbed up behind her.
Goblin Slayer had been just about to mount the final animal, but now he turned with his hand still on the saddle.
“What is it?”
“I thought perhaps you had gone already…” A hand was placed against a generous bosom to keep it from heaving: Sword Maiden stood there breathing hard, having run up to them. She stood in the doorway for a few seconds until her breathing was more even.
She let out a breath, her cheeks flushed, then dipped her head gracefully. “First, I wish…to say thank you, for this.”
“You do not need to thank me,” Goblin Slayer said brusquely, shaking his helmet from side to side. “It is my job.”
“…I know.” Sword Maiden nodded, a gesture that almost made it look like she was about to melt.
“I summarized what I researched. There were many things I did not understand.” He gave her a violently scribbled text, which she clasped to herself as if it were precious. Then she reached a hand under her garments, which stuck to her skin and had turned slightly translucent with her sweat.
Reverently, she produced several sheets of sheepskin paper, bound together.
“This is everything I remember… The dungeon, down to the fourth floor.”
“The fourth floor?” Goblin Slayer took the map and passed it to Lizard Priest without so much as opening it.
From his horse, the cleric took the object with nimble clawed fingers and slid it open, glancing over it. The paper had a grid etched in it, the squares filled in a quick but controlled hand.
“Ho,” Lizard Priest breathed in admiration. “This is very well drawn.”
“I used to be my party’s cartographer…”
“But the map does not go down to the lowest level?”
“On the fourth floor is a whirlpool of magical energy and miasma, the heart of that dungeon.” Sword Maiden half smiled, almost embarrassed, b
ut the expression quickly vanished. “And if you intend to go below that level…” Her unseeing eyes gazed at the party. “…none of you will return.”
Priestess involuntarily glanced at High Elf Archer. Her shoulders were slumped and her face was drawn—much the same as Priestess, most likely—and her ears drooped.
“That’s real comforting,” High Elf Archer said.
“…Well, I guess that’s what you say when hundreds or thousands have tried and only a few have come back,” Dwarf Shaman said. He stood in front of High Elf Archer, his arms crossed, stroking his beard. “I heard some nasty stories about it from m’uncle once, myself.”
“Regardless, you will be unable to descend lower than the fourth floor,” Sword Maiden said, running her hand along the neckline she had just been pressing it to. “If you don’t have this…”
In one smooth motion, she produced a colorful rope decoration.
Priestess’s eyes widened at the sight of a brief flash of magical power from the ornament. Then too, it was mingled with amazement, and the things she had heard about it.
Could this be the Wellspring of Power, once said to have been possessed by the Demon Lord…?
“…Is that an amulet?!”
“Nothing so amazing,” Sword Maiden said, reassuring the excitable but innocent girl as she worked at the blue rope with her hands. “Just a Blue Ribbon. A key that will permit you deeper into the dungeon.” She pressed the Ribbon into Goblin Slayer’s hand. “Please, come home safely.”
Goblin Slayer didn’t answer immediately. The hand sitting atop his glove trembled.
“Understood,” he said a second later then closed his hand over the Ribbon. “That is my intention.”
He put the Ribbon in his item pouch then grabbed the saddle again and lifted himself onto his horse. Then he reached out a hand to Priestess. “Get on.”
“R-right away!” She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up with surprising strength. She felt like she was floating for an instant, and then she was settled in front of him. “Yikes, oh…”
With no other way to steady herself, not having stirrups, she took the horse’s mane in one hand. Then she felt something supporting her back.
The rough gloved hand seemed so firm, perhaps because she didn’t have her mail.
“Be careful not to get thrown off.”
“R-right. I’ll watch out…!”
She shifted her little behind to a more comfortable position, embarrassed to hear her voice scrape. She cast her eyes down, but Goblin Slayer paid her no heed, his helmet turning one way and then the other.
“Let’s go.”
Lizard Priest barked his agreement then dug his claws into his horse’s flanks. The war animal whinnied lustily and started off with a clattering of hooves on the flagstones.
“All riiight!” High Elf Archer said a moment later and gave her own mount a kick, causing the animal to rear up.
“W-watch it, y’anvil! What do y’think you’re doing…?!”
“Y-yikes?! Whoa there, calm down… Now, let’s go!”
While Dwarf Shaman was panicking after nearly falling off the back, High Elf Archer patted her horse’s neck.
Elves had a unique connection to animal life. The horse calmed immediately and, at a snap of the reins, went dashing off.
Last was Goblin Slayer, whose helmet turned to take in Sword Maiden and Noble Fencer standing nearby. He nodded, just once, then tossed the reins himself.
“Eep!” Priestess exclaimed, pressing down on her cap to keep it from flying off as the horse went running.
The sound was only audible for an instant before it was swallowed up in the thundering of hooves, and moments later, the adventurers were on their way. The king must have sent word ahead to the gate, for the party was not stopped as it went charging through.
“…Do you ever wish…?” Noble Fencer uttered softly as she watched the dust settle from the departing horses. “…Do you ever wish you could go adventuring again?”
“That’s a good question,” Sword Maiden said evasively. Leaning on the sword and scales, she let out a breath as if to say it was complicated. “The reason I was able to recover was because I kept attempting adventures with my friends. And yet…”
Her covered eyes looked far into the distance. To the North. To the place she had once adventured. To the dungeon. To where he was going.
But what she was truly seeing, no doubt, were her memories of the past.
Of being attacked by goblins on her first adventure.
She had met her party sometime after that. Thus, the awful experience must have been burned into her eyes, never to fade.
Burned, although it had taken place as she walked through a gloomy dungeon, trying desperately to remain on her feet.
“…I think I no longer have the courage to face terrible things.”
Her hands shook suddenly. No, they had been shaking all along. From the moment goblins had been mentioned in the council.
No, even further back than that.
Her hands had been shaking from the time she’d had to come to the capital, traversing a road where she would be attacked by goblins. She was sure the trembling had stopped only in the moment when he had protected her.
“I am a weak woman.”
Noble Fencer took the quiet words to be an answer to her question. She glanced up at the sky. Blue, with white clouds scudding through it, the sun shining over all.
Yet, beneath this sky, there were goblins. Always—and everywhere.
“…What is frightening, is frightening.”
That was why she spoke so plainly.
Sword Maiden tilted her head like a small child. “You don’t feel we have to overcome our fears?”
“Sometimes, I admit.” A partial smile came over Noble Fencer’s face. “…But other times, it’s all I can do just to face them.”
“Now let’s go.” Noble Fencer delivered these words to Sword Maiden then turned on her heel.
Back at the castle, they were surely discussing the stone that had fallen on the mountain and planning what to do about the evil cult. There was much that should be done, much that had to be done, and they didn’t have time to stand around.
Sword Maiden knew that as well as Noble Fencer and she followed at a walk. Just as they were about to pass through the door into the castle, though, she stopped and turned.
Her covered—her protected—eyes could not see through the world.
The hazy shadow of his presence was already gone somewhere beyond the warm sunlight.
Sword Maiden looked down and placed her hand on the scribbles he had left her, like the last vestiges of a silhouette. If she touched them gently, her fingertips could feel the ink he had left on the page. She could read the words.
She clung to that sensation, let out a breath.
“I wish all the goblins would just disappear.”
§
Of all the creatures on the face of the world, the one that can keep walking the longest is the human. But when it comes to speed and (literal) horsepower, nothing beats the horse.
The three horses carrying five adventurers passed through the gate, ran down the highway, and headed northward, ever northward, as fast as the wind.
Yes, the wind. And more than a wind. For horses they may have been, but no animal could travel so preternaturally fast.
“Sylphs, wind-maidens, spare a kiss upon my weathered cheek. And spare our onward-rushing steeds a fairer wind to seek!”
The reason for this was Dwarf Shaman’s spell, Tail Wind. The sylphs embraced the horses, pushing them on faster and faster.
“Now I see what you meant. We’ll catch up with those goblins in no time.” High Elf Archer’s expression was seriousness itself. Her ears twitched this way and that, taking in the sounds all around, but finally, she smiled. “I didn’t think about it back on the ship, but I’m kind of surprised to discover dwarves have wind magic.”
“Eh, can’t say it’s a specialty.”
> Should he be happy that an elf had praised him, or sad that he had to ride with an elf?
Dwarf Shaman considered the question briefly and settled on a sullen silence. At length, however, he said, “Then again, we use fire, water, and wind to turn the things of the earth into iron. We need an acquaintance with all four of the great spirits.”
“Whatsoever the case, we could hardly hope for a better outcome than if we should apprehend the fiends before they enter the dungeon.” Lizard Priest had his horse’s reins in his hands, seeming unfazed by the ride as he gazed into the distance. His great tail stuck out behind him to help him keep his balance; he cut a rather impressive figure. “But of course, one does wish for one’s chance to challenge the labyrinth. Ahh, we must choose a pinch or a tickle.”
Priestess, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, was privately somewhat surprised. Was horseback riding to be considered an achievement of the warlike types among them?
“Hrm…” A quiet voice came from behind her—or more correctly, above her head. Goblin Slayer seemed to have noticed something.
Priestess quickly looked forward, to discover the broken remains of a wagon sitting in the road. Following Goblin Slayer’s lead, the party brought their horses to a halt.
From horseback, at least, it appeared to be a fairly typical case of goblin theft. The cargo had been rifled through, smashed to pieces, with torn scraps of clothing everywhere around. Priestess felt herself go stiff as she realized it was her clothing.
Erg…
Something like vertigo assaulted her.
What if, that time…
What if, back in that first cave, he hadn’t come…?
“It seems they chose not to simply violate her here in the open field.” But that is all we can say. As Lizard Priest implied, there appeared to be only the aftermath of a typical fight.
Priestess—somewhat disturbed that she could tell the difference herself—looked around the area.
I don’t see the mail, she thought. And although she was a bit disappointed, she also noticed something and blinked.
“Oh!”
She hadn’t meant to cry out, but there was no blaming her. She squeezed out from in front of Goblin Slayer and off the horse, running over.