by Ao Jyumonji
“One goblin. Looks like it’s asleep.”
“Good, let’s kill it,” Manato nodded with a grim look. “Since Moguzo’s in chain mail, he can’t help but make noise. So first Haruhiro, Ranta, and I will get up close. Moguzo, Yume, and Shihoru will close in after that. If we can get in close without waking the goblin, the three of us will snuff it out. If it wakes, Yume, you use your bow, and Shihoru, you use magic to target it from a distance. Moguzu, you’ll charge up front. If it becomes a straight-out battle, we’ll use the same formation as last time. Everyone surrounds it so it can’t escape.”
Everyone nodded at once. Having gone three days without an income, even Ranta was a picture of seriousness.
With Manato taking point, the three of them set out. They reached the house quickly enough, but it was everything that came after that which would take time. The house was full of rubble, and they couldn’t afford to step on anything. They ended up making noise a number of times, and it took longer than expected. They were close enough now that with another step or two, the goblin would be in striking range.
Moguzo and the others were just outside the house. Manato looked in turn to Haruhiro, then Ranta. Ranta pointed to himself.
Haruhiro wasn’t sure leaving this to Ranta was wise, but Manato waved to him, the signal for do it. Ranta took a deep breath and walked up to the goblin. Without raising it overhead first, he stabbed his longsword into the goblin’s chest.
The goblin groaned, and its eyes shot open. It spotted Haruhiro, then understood what had happened to it. The goblin screamed, reaching out for Ranta’s face.
Ranta leaned back, so Manato shouted, “You can’t do that!” at him. At the same time, he drew his short staff, clubbing and stabbing at the goblin with it repeatedly.
“Dammit...!” Ranta pushed his longsword in and twisted it.
Haruhiro was unable to do anything. If he got closer, he’d probably just get in Manato and Ranta’s way. The goblin continued to writhe in agony, shouting what must have been a torrent of verbal abuse as it grew weaker and weaker. The mud gob had put up such a fight, but when caught sleeping, was this the best they could muster? Eventually, it stopped twitching.
“...Is it dead?” Ranta peeked at the goblin’s face, his shoulders heaving with heavy breaths. Haruhiro imagined the goblin reviving and then tearing Ranta’s nose right off with its teeth, but it didn’t happen. Manato closed his eyes, making the sign of the hexagram. It looked like it was over.
Moguzo, Yume, and Shihoru entered the house.
Ranta planted a foot on the goblin’s chest and yanked his longsword free. “Gotta lop off a claw or something. Vice, vice...” he muttered to himself.
Manato delicately removed the goblin’s pouch that was slung over its shoulder. He opened it, pouring out the contents. Haruhiro’s eyes bulged.
“Silver coins!”
Maybe goblins liked to collect human currency. And, what was more, unlike the mud gob’s coin, these ones were hole-free. There were four undamaged silver coins. Four silver. There was also a rock that was clear like glass. Also, some bones. They didn’t know what animal they came from, but they were finger bones, or some other thin bones.
“Ohhh!” Yume’s eyes went wide. “Amazin’. That’s a new record, isn’t it? Though, it’s still just our second time.”
“...Four silver,” Shihoru said, blinking repeatedly. She didn’t know what to say, it seemed.
Moguzo had let out an impressed groan, then kept his mouth shut.
Manato looked to the sky. With a sigh he said, “It’s still not enough,” shaking his head. “We have to keep this up. It happened to go easily this time, but it won’t always be this way. Keep on your toes, and let’s find our next target.”
“Oh, come on!” Ranta slapped Manato on the back. “Don’t be such a square! We just had a big win. All thanks to me! What’s the harm in celebrating a little?”
Manato knitted his brows for a moment, but quickly went back to a smile. “I suppose you’re right. I don’t mind you celebrating a bit. You did a good job, Ranta.”
“I know, right? Right? I’m so awesome, aren’t I? Especially the way I put that gob to the sword with a cruel and merciless smile. I must’ve looked like a real dread knight there, huh?”
Haruhiro said, “Nah,” waving his hand. “You looked just as frantic as ever, Ranta.”
“You moron! I was cool as a cucumber! Where were you even looking, man?! Oh, I know! That’s what it was! You couldn’t see it with those sleepy-looking eyes of yours!”
“You’ve run that joke into the ground already, I’m not gonna give you a response every time. Sorry.”
“Give me a response! You’ve got to respond! You’re making me feel kinda pitiful here!”
Everyone laughed for a while. Afterward, they did as Manato suggested, bracing themselves for what was coming as they searched for their next target.
Their first day in Damuro’s Old City went smoothly. When they considered their days so far, the way it went so smoothly scared them.
By evening, Haruhiro and the others had taken down a total of four goblins, including the one they had caught sleeping. From their four goblin pouches, they had acquired a sum total of eight silver, a clear stone, a black stone, a reddish stone, assorted bones and fangs, something resembling a key, a gear, and some sort of metal fittings. When they sold it all, their loot came to a total of ten silver, 45 copper. Split six ways, each received one silver, 74 copper, with one left over. Food and lodgings that day cost him 15 copper, so Haruhiro’s total assets came to three silver, eight copper. If tomorrow went smoothly as well, he had promised himself a pair of underwear and a knife.
The next day, however, went quite poorly. When they found a group of five goblins, Ranta said they should charge in, but they took a vote, and he was overruled by the majority who wanted to avoid the fight. Unless they caught one of the creatures by surprise, a single goblin was tough, and two was risky, so taking on five was out of the question. Haruhiro thought backing down was the right choice there.
However, after that, they didn’t spot any groups of two or fewer until the end of the day, when they were getting ready to head home and came face-to-face with a lone goblin. As a result, they made one silver that day
Just one silver.
If he thought about it that way, Haruhiro felt like he’d be cursed, though. They could have gone into the red, but instead they had made one silver. Haruhiro decided to look at it that way. The underwear and knife could wait until they were making more profit.
On their third day in the Old City of Damuro, they tried making a simple map while searching for goblins. It had been Manato’s idea, and he’d also procured the small notebook and pencils they’d used to make it. Manato said that if they got the lay of the land, taking notes on where goblins were, it was guaranteed to come in handy.
Either way, it was pretty fun to walk through the Old City, methodically mapping it out. Saying, Let’s go over that way next, or, We haven’t gone this way yet, let’s go, they would naturally start to form objectives. They learned the roads, too. When they entered an unmapped area, it put them on edge, and when they were in a place they already had on their map, they could relax a little. That day, they took down three goblins, and once the loot was sold, they had 72 coppers each.
They didn’t let it go to their heads. They weren’t making that much money.
However, Yume and Shihoru had said they wanted to go shopping, so Haruhiro was going around the market, too. While he was looking, he happened across a pair of cloth underwear. He haggled his hardest, but even a used pair cost 25 copper. He had stuff to carry now, so he bought a bag to carry it all in out of necessity. There were a good number of used ones at a reasonable price, so he bought a durable-looking one made out of hemp for 30 copper. Compared to the underwear, it felt like a real bargain.
After returning to the volunteer soldier lodging house, they all talked together about what they’d bought, where they’
d bought it, and what they wanted to buy next. They got really into it, so they had trouble getting to sleep afterward. Once Ranta, who had been prattling incessantly until not long ago, suddenly fell asleep, breathing softly, it wasn’t long before Moguzo could be heard snoring, too. Haruhiro tried to fall asleep. He was exhausted, sleepy even, yet for some reason his consciousness was making no attempt to descend into the depths of slumber.
“Manato,” he tried calling out, and, as expected, Manato was awake and responded with a “Yeah?”
Haruhiro was happy to get a response and all, but he didn’t really have anything to say to him. Well, that wasn’t true; they had a lot to talk about. He just couldn’t come up with anything so quickly. But staying quiet too long would be weird. He had to say something.
After grasping hurriedly for something to say, “Thank you,” was what came out, and he was embarrassed.
“What’s that for, all of a sudden?” Manato laughed. “I’m the one who ought to be grateful.”
“Huh? You’re grateful...? Why?”
“To everyone, for being my comrades. I’m thankful for that. I’m sure when I say it like this, it probably comes across as a lie, but I really do feel that way.”
“No, I don’t think you’re lying, but...” Haruhiro chewed the inside of his right cheek, thinking. “How should I put this? We’re always relying on you. If you hadn’t been there for us, we’d have been in serious trouble. Depending how things had gone, we might not still have been alive by this point.”
“That goes both ways. Without you and the others, there’s no telling what might have happened to me. We aren’t in a situation where you can survive on your own, you realize.”
Haruhiro hesitated on whether to say this or not, but he wasn’t good at hiding his feelings. He lacked the patience. “...Now, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I think you could have found any number of people willing to be your comrades. By asking someone to let you join their party, for instance.”
“A volunteer soldier party? Honestly, the thought never really crossed my mind. You know, I’m probably not the type that can put up with having to bow his head to others. Hierarchical relationships, too. I doubt I’m any good at handling those. I don’t remember what I was doing before I came here, though, so I don’t know for sure.”
“Ah...” Now that he mentions it, that’s true. When Haruhiro tried to remember his past, it was like grasping at something soft and fluffy. It never retained its shape. He had forgotten that fact entirely. Maybe he just hadn’t had the leeway to think about it.
“It might be the same for me,” he admitted.
“Somehow...” Manato paused there, hesitating for a second. “Somehow, I feel like I’m not the sort of person that anyone should be treating as a comrade.”
“That’s not...”
That’s not true, I think. I think, but I can’t say it outright. I only know Manato as he’s been since coming here. That’s all Manato knows about himself, too.
Even Manato didn’t know Manato. Of course, it was the same with Haruhiro. The more he thought, the less he understood. So it was better not to think about it at all. Nothing would come of thinking about it. After all, he couldn’t remember anything.
He had things to do. Things he had to do in order to live. He needed to earn money.
“As for what the past Manato was like,” Haruhiro said with forced cheerfulness, “it doesn’t matter. No one cares. It’s the current Manato that’s our comrade. You’re like our leader. We’d be in trouble without you here for us.”
“I need the rest of you, too.”
Haruhiro nodded. But Manato was in the bunk beneath him, so Manato wouldn’t see the nod. He needed to say it out loud. But, what could he say...? While he was wondering, Manato burst out laughing.
“Still, it’s just so weird. All of this. What are we even doing? Swords and sorcery. It’s like we’re in a game or something.”
“A game, huh. You’ve got that—” Haruhiro blinked, then tilted his head in confusion. “A game, what is that...?”
“Huh?” Manato thought deeply for a moment, as well. “...I don’t know. But that’s what I said just now. ‘It’s like a game.’ It came to mind at the time.”
“Well, when you said it, I felt like you were right. But what sort of game? A game...”
Something felt off. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t get it to come out, that sort of off feeling. Still, he felt like they should put an end to this conversation. They had bigger things to worry about. Haruhiro and the others would go to the Old City of Damuro again tomorrow.
He yawned. It felt like he could finally get to sleep.
11. Don’t Go
“There’s one headed your way, Ranta!” Haruhiro called out, and Ranta responded immediately.
“I already knew that!”
One of the three goblins Moguzo and Manato had lured to the front line was headed for Yume and Shihoru in the rear. Haruhiro and Ranta were the middle guard, so they were supposed to try to catch the goblins from behind or to the side, but they needed to defend the back line as well. So Ranta, who was closer to the two of them, went to face the goblin.
It had been thirteen days since they had begun fighting goblins in the Old City of Damuro, so they could pull off this sort of team play without a word to each other. Though, every once in a while, Ranta would obsess over his own fighting style or skills, shooting whatever teamwork they had going in the foot completely. Fortunately, this time he was fine.
“Ha! Anger!”
—Or not.
Ranta leapt in from outside his opponent’s range, longsword outthrust, to use his most recently acquired skill. It missed spectacularly.
“—Wha?! You’re no ordinary goblin, are you...?!”
“It’s clearly just a normal goblin, man!” Haruhiro said, looking to Manato with a wink.
Moguzo and Manato could be counted on to handle their two goblins. Haruhiro ran over and got behind the goblin that was pressuring Ranta with a rusty sword.
“Dammit...!” Ranta deflected its rusty blade, glancing to Haruhiro.
Don’t look at me, thought Haruhiro as he took aim.
Ranta wasn’t the only one who had learned a new skill. Each of them had learned a new one from their guilds. However, they had only just learned them, so they only just knew how to perform them. Haruhiro wasn’t confident that he could use his skill effectively in battle, but if he didn’t make an active effort to use it, he would never get past that point.
I paid good money to learn this skill, and I swear I’ll master it, he vowed. “...That’s easier said than done, though.”
The goblin was cautious, turning often to watch its own back, hopping around nimbly and swinging its rusty sword to keep him in check. Haruhiro just couldn’t line up a good strike.
If Ranta could keep it occupied, he’d be fine, but he figured it would be a mistake to count on that actually happening. Ranta wasn’t the type to let the enemy’s focus fall entirely on him. Neither was Haruhiro, for that matter. Both of them were too afraid to get into a serious exchange of blows, so they tried to circle around to get behind it, or at least to the side of it. Because of that, they went in circles around the goblin and, of course, the goblin spun in circles trying not to let them get behind it, so no one had any clue what was going on.
“Geez! What’re you two doin’!” Yume pulled her machete and came at the goblin swinging.
It looked like she’d taken it by surprise. It froze up for a second.
Yume swung her machete as if drawing an X-shape. “Diagonal Cross!”
The goblin cried out, falling back from the sudden onslaught, but it took a shallow cut to its shoulder. Its back was to Haruhiro.
Now, thought Haruhiro, but his body had already moved on its own. In a breath, he closed the gap and thrust his dagger into the goblin’s back with a twist. This was his skill, Backstab.
Perhaps because the goblin was only weari
ng soft leather armor, Haruhiro’s dagger sunk in a good 10 cm. The goblin tried to turn around, so Haruhiro wrenched his dagger out of it, falling back. The goblin coughed up blood, and whatever it had been about to try to do next, it collapsed. It was still twitching, but Haruhiro could tell it was at death’s door. If it hadn’t been, it would have flailed about more violently.
“Huh...?” Haruhiro looked back and forth from his dagger to the fallen goblin. “Did I hit it in a good spot? Maybe? Or a bad spot...?”
“Whoa?! I’ve gotta finish it!” Ranta leapt on the goblin, slamming his longsword through its neck. “Nice! I got my vice!”
Yume arched her eyebrows. “Yume thinks this after every battle, but dread knights sure are savage, huh.”
“Don’t say ‘savage’! Use the more elegant term, ‘atrocious’! We dread knights serve the Dark God, Lord Skullhell. We are atrocious and inhumane, cold and ruthless knights with neither blood nor tears!”
“Ohm, rel, ect...” Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff, beginning to chant a spell. “Vel, darsh...!”
Mages used the power of magical creatures called elementals. Shihoru had called on a shadow elemental, which looked like a mass of black seaweed. It made a signature vwong noise as it flew. This was the Shadow Beat spell.
Instead of Arve Magic, the magic of fire, Kanon Magic, the magic of ice, or Falz Magic, the magic of electricity, Shihoru had chosen to learn Darsh Magic, the magic of shadow. In some ways, Haruhiro felt that Shihoru’s own personality had come out in that decision.
The shadow elemental hit the goblin Manato was fighting in the back of the head. But it wasn’t just the goblin’s head that it affected: the goblin’s whole body convulsed for a moment, and it let out a strange croak. Instead of heat, cold, electricity, or blunt force, Shadow Beat was a spell that used hyper oscillation to deal damage.
Manato immediately followed up with a blow from his short staff, then kicked the goblin to the ground. Ranta savaged the fallen goblin.
“Take this! Hatred...!”