by Kumo Kagyu
That was why no one had helped her.
Even when a nameless priestess carelessly got herself captured by goblins and was debased. Even when the fifteen-year-old girl inside the woman acclaimed as Sword Maiden cried out for salvation.
Who would deign to notice such things?
Otherwise, how could she put out a goblin-slaying quest?
“Surely nothing…nothing changes.”
“I don’t care,” he answered without a moment’s hesitation. “You said you’ve been through terrible things, yes?”
She nodded yes.
“I have seen them. From start to finish. So I don’t understand your feelings.” Goblin Slayer was unequivocal.
“”
Sword Maiden stood vacantly.
She reached out gently, beseechingly, to the hazy shadow that floated in her white world.
“…So, you will not help me?”
“No.”
He did not take her hand, but curtly turned his back on her.
Her head hung as if she had been cast into the depths of hell, and she laughed mirthlessly. There was an element of resignation in it. A feeling she was all too familiar with.
This is how it always goes.
Her soul, once that of a maiden, had been wounded in every possible place.
Even now, that awful scene, her last sight in the world, was burned into her eyes. At night, it would come to torment her. The horde of goblins defiling her, raping her, violating her, taking everything from her.
And no one could save her from it. It would go on and on, forever…
No one would help her.
Ever. Not ever.
“But.”
She looked up in surprise at the single echoing word.
“If goblins appear again, summon me.”
The dark shadow, his back, was already far away. But his impassive, mechanical voice carried readily.
“I will kill them for you.”
“Oh…”
She slid to her knees as if she were collapsing. Her exquisite features scrunched up and a sob escaped her mouth; she couldn’t restrain the tears that poured from her eyes.
When was the last time she had cried harder than she did after one of her dreams?
“Even… Even in my…my dreams?”
“Yes.”
“You…will… You will come…?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Her voice was shaking so badly she couldn’t say the word; it rolled half formed out of her mouth.
But he answered her clearly:
“Because I am Goblin Slayer.”
The one who kills the little devils.
The dark shadow called Goblin Slayer left her.
Gone to destroy goblins.
“Oh…”
Sword Maiden found herself clawing at her generous chest.
It was not pure or becoming.
But she had never imagined a day like this would come. She had never imagined that she would once again be able to feel these feelings. She had thought them forever beyond her grasp, but now she clung to them.
It was nothing.
A broken woman had talked to a broken man. Nothing more than that.
But now she knew the truth of the warmth that blossomed in her chest. It was a long-smoldering spark, unexpectedly fanned into a raging flame. Perhaps it could be compared to a hearth shared with another person: all things well, no cares, a peaceful sleep.
No anxiousness, no fear.
No quaking and weeping in the dark, no waking up from a nightmare screaming.
How she had yearned for an undisturbed night’s sleep.
“I… I… I—”
She raised her voice, sniffling and sobbing.
With her hands, she wiped desperately at the tears that poured from her unseeing eyes.
As the piercing joy welled up in her heart, she shouted out:
“I cherish you…!”
Whether or not the words reached him, the gods only know.
The rain had lifted, but the sky remained heavy with clouds.
The carriage clattered along a road that ran straight as an arrow across the plain from the interior to the frontier, the east to the west.
Some went to trade. Others, to see their families. Others still, to escape them.
Some went as pioneers. Some were sad-looking types who might have been going into exile.
As was so often the case with shared carriages, expressions of joy and sorrow mingled freely.
Among those expressions, some might have noticed a few fellow passengers whose looks spoke of a job recently and finally finished. None, however, would have been likely to guess just what adventure those few had come from.
It didn’t matter to anyone else, anyway.
Dragon slaying might have been interesting, but that was merely the stuff of legends, and no one would assume they had been attacked by a dragon.
That was how the job of adventuring often was.
“Mm… Ahh! That was fun…!”
High Elf Archer stretched away from the luggage she had been leaning against, trying to ease her stiff shoulders. Her long ears stood up happily, and she wore a relaxed expression.
Dwarf Shaman, who was sitting cross-legged and resting his chin in his hands, said irritably:
“Even the part where you were being mobbed by goblins and crying like a baby?”
“Well, we won that fight, didn’t we? And here we are. And we got a reward to boot!” She hefted a leather pouch into her palm. The weight of it came from gold coins stuffed inside.
Not that the reward mattered very much to her. It was just a bonus.
“I must confess I feel a twinge of regret about that Gate mirror,” Lizard Priest said, his tail coiled on the floor. He lapped his nose with his tongue as he flipped through a notebook of some kind. Before they had sunk the mirror, he had taken down as many notes about its unique properties as he could. “But we collected valuable information, smashed a heresy, and did valorous deeds. I am well more than satisfied.”
“Won’t hear any complaints from me, s’long as this gold gets me a good meal!”
“You dwarves—always thinking with your stomachs.”
“Well, that’s the biggest part of us, after all!”
The repartee between the archer and the shaman was as lively as ever.
Nearby, Priestess sat and watched them happily.
Is it over? I guess…
She did wonder who had been using the Gate to summon the goblin threat… But that was another story, one that had nothing to do with the adventure she and the others had just been on.
“……”
She glanced to the side.
He was there, squeezed up near the luggage and the curtain, still holding his sword and his helmeted head tilted toward the floor.
Shortly after the carriage had left the water town, he had drifted off to sleep.
“…Oh, well.”
Priestess giggled and took a thin blanket out of her bag.
Would it really hurt him to take off his armor and helmet, at least when he was resting?
She gently draped the blanket around his shoulders, then sat next to him quietly. She folded her hands and set them on her knees, stretched her back, and laid her sounding staff down sideways.
True: He was Goblin Slayer. So there was no helping this.
So long as goblins were his enemies, he would not lower his guard for a moment.
That was why she hadn’t tried to ask him anything. When he had returned from making his report to Sword Maiden, he had said only, “It’s done.”
And that was enough. Now that it was over, she had to let him rest.
“Oh?”
She noticed he was holding something else besides his sword.
A tiny birdcage—the canary.
The bird, like its owner, was asleep, eyes closed and perched on a branch.
It seemed he was properly feeding and taking care of the animal. Such attention
to doing what was right seemed just like him.
“I wonder if he’s given it a name yet.”
She knew him. He would care diligently for it and probably never stop to think that it needed a name.
When they got back to the frontier town, when he woke up, she would have to be sure to ask him.
She could almost hear him: Canary is good enough.
“Hee-hee.”
She reached out, careful not to wake him or the bird. In her slim fingers, she picked up a single feather the bird had dropped. She quietly pulled it between the bars of the cage, examining it in the light that filtered in through the curtain.
It shone a pale light green. Ever so gently, she set it in a crevice in his helmet.
The pale green feather looked a strange match for the grimy helm, but she didn’t mind.
He wouldn’t worry about this tiny touch of ostentation.
“You worked hard, Goblin Slayer, sir.”
“When we get home…”
Suddenly, a voice drifted out from the helmet.
Priestess blinked several times, then pursed her lips and said, “Come on. If you’re awake, then say so.”
“I just woke up.” His voice as he slowly sat up was a touch more mellow than usual.
Priestess did believe he had been sleeping, but she grumbled: “I can’t tell under that helmet.”
“I see.”
Goblin Slayer pulled a canteen from his bag and drank a mouthful, then two.
As usual, he drank through the visor of his helmet, suggesting he was ignoring her.
Or maybe he won’t understand if I don’t actually tell him to take the thing off.
He glanced at Priestess, who had set a finger to her lips in thought, and said:
“When we get home…” The same words as before. “There’s something I want to try.”
“What’s that?”
“An ice treat.”
“Oh…,” Priestess said with a knowing smile. Lizard Priest responded immediately:
“An ice treat! Could I perhaps join you in tasting this thing?”
“If you want some, I don’t mind,” Goblin Slayer said and, after a moment’s thought, added, “It’s made with milk.”
“Oh-ho! Sweet nectar!”
His tail uncoiled itself and slapped the floor of the carriage in ecstasy, drawing a concerned look through the curtain from the coachman.
“S-sorry, n-nothing to see here. Sorry about that!” Priestess quickly bowed her head to him and urged her companions to quiet down.
She put her hands on her chest and let out a breath. Thank goodness they hadn’t been told to get off the carriage.
Quite ignoring her, Dwarf Shaman gave a resounding laugh and pounded his belly.
“Ho, Beard-cutter! Planning to have a meal and not invite the dwarf?”
“Should I?”
“I surely think so!”
Goblin Slayer turned his helmet to the empty air and made a quiet sound, then nodded.
“In that case, please join us.”
Dwarf Shaman asked how he planned to make this ice treat, at which Goblin Slayer explained, miming with his hands. Lizard Priest held up a clawed finger to offer his idea, to which Goblin Slayer responded, “Then, we should…”
Goblin Slayer was normally reticent and getting him to open up was difficult. But…
“Gosh…”
…here now, he was clearly the center of attention.
The thought spread a pleasant warmth through Priestess’s small chest.
“Okay!” she resolved, raising her hand easily. “Goblin Slayer, sir, I can have some, too, can’t I?”
“I don’t mind.”
He doesn’t mind. She snickered and glanced at High Elf Archer.
High Elf Archer sat across from him, pointedly facing the other way, ears fluttering.
Although it was not necessarily a sign that he had noticed this, Goblin Slayer said:
“What about you?”
“…” Her ears jumped again. “Yeah. Gimme some, too.”
“I see,” Goblin Slayer said, then added sharply, “If it doesn’t come out well, don’t kick me.”
“Erk…”
Is he holding a grudge?
No, it couldn’t be. High Elf Archer gave a little snort.
Sure. Of course. He wasn’t the type to be bitter, even if an excitable elf had kicked him. Even if any normal person might have been upset.
After a time, High Elf Archer let out a long breath and shimmied around to face him.
“Yeah, fine. No kicking. So…please?”
“Yes.”
The steel helmet bobbed up and down once.
Priestess wondered when he would notice the light green feather in his helmet.
Maybe while they were still in the carriage, maybe after they got back to town, maybe not until the next time he took it off.
What would he do when he noticed? Would he be angry, or laugh, or perhaps pay it no mind?
High Elf Archer, ignorant of Priestess’s fond imaginings, narrowed her eyes like a cat.
“I don’t know that I’m all that fond of goblin slaying.”
She drew a circle in the air with her finger, long ears bouncing up and down.
They’d gone into some underground ruins to explore, been caught in a trap, and gotten out again. They had fought and defeated a bizarre monster and discovered a priceless artifact. They were all riding in this carriage together.
From the interior to the frontier. From the east to the west.
All so they could return home now that the adventure was over.
“…But it wasn’t so bad, I guess.”
Maybe she couldn’t quite bring herself to say exactly how she felt. The canary’s eyes fluttered open, and it chirped brightly.
AFTERWORD
Hi, Kumo Kagyu here.
Thank you so much for getting a copy of Goblin Slayer, Volume 2.
I’m so grateful to all those who read and enjoyed the first volume. I never imagined my weird little adventurer, born from a moment’s flippant conversation, would do so well for himself. It’s thanks to all of you, who responded to him and his companions beyond anything I expected. I hope you’ll continue to accompany him on his goblin-slaying adventures.
So. What did you think of Volume 2?
In this story, Goblin Slayer slayed all the goblins who showed up. Goblins. But where Volume 1 had several self-contained adventures, this was the story of one larger dungeon. The spice of any campaign is its dungeons—at least, in TRPGs. You and your friends forging through mazes, coming up with plans, fighting monsters, and finding treasure—is there anything better?
That’s what was in my mind as I worked on this book; I thought I might as well write something I enjoyed. If you felt any measure of that pleasure or interest while reading, then I’ll be thrilled.
Now comes the part where I apologize and also thank people.
First, to readers of the web versions of Volumes 1 and 2, thank you for your encouragement. I’ll keep giving you my best, so I hope you’ll stick with me.
To Mr. Noboru Kannatuki, who provided such lovely illustrations for the previous volume and now for this one, thank you! I’m one of those authors who dances for joy in front of his computer every time your pictures show up on my monitor.
To Mr. Kosuke Kurose, who’s handling the manga version of the series, I so look forward to working with you. The comic version launches in Big Gangan the same month as this volume is being published. Incredible! Can’t wait! Yahoo!
Thank you to all my creative friends and all my gaming friends; you keep me moving forward.
To my coordinator, editor, and everyone involved in getting this book to shelves: thank you so much!
And especially to yaruok, the admin on the site where I initially posted this story: You’ve been encouraging me ever since then. You were absolutely the link between that period and when I was finally published, and you have my unending gratitude.
For Volume 3, I plan to detail the harvest festival at the frontier town.
In this story, Goblin Slayer will slay all the goblins who goblin, goblin.
I’ll be giving everything I’ve got to make it something everyone will enjoy. See you there!
Kumo Kagyu
