76 Dancing With Green Men
⊱————- Shiro's PoV ————-⊰
One last time, the goblin lifted its head to stare at me, then all strength left its body. It died, just like all of those that came before him. Goblins were stupid, that much went without saying, but their behavior within the last hours made me question my everything.
When I had set up the first trap, it had only been a guess, nothing more than hope giving birth to weird ideas, but in the end, it had worked out for better than I could ever have hoped for. And now they were gone, all of them, maybe excluding the few females and children hiding back in their town, cave or whatever they choose to live in.
It was a day ago that I had met a group of three of their warriors. Two of them were armed with spears, the other one with a sword possibly stolen from a very unlucky adventurer.
When they saw me, the little pea in their head just withered away, giving away the right to command to the lower parts of their bodies. And they listened well. Each of them came running towards me, not even thinking about the possibility that I might fight back.
Maybe they believed they would have an easy game, as I wasn't wearing a single weapon and even the most basic magic needed a long chant to bring it forth, but little did they knew that I had access to Rika's Itembox and her magic, too.
By uttering just a single word, 『Foxfire』, one of the goblins dropped dead, with its greedy grin still on its lips. And the others were following it almost immediately. It took them seconds to find refuge in the underwood and half of that time for me to summon additional fireballs. And sure enough, they caught fire, and with them the brush they had tried to jump into.
Killing three goblins meant nothing when it came to my goal of giving Rika the strength she needed to become independent of Ofris and also free herself from that prince that fancied her, but it was a start – and a source of weapons.
After gathering both the sword and the two spears, I shove them into the Itembox and continued my search or rather grinding, as Rika would call it. This time, knowing that there were goblins around, I had simply shouted for them. Sometimes I shouted for help, other times for somebody to bring me snacks and even because my supposed crush didn't accept my feelings.
Whatever was loud and believable enough for a toddler to accept it had worked against the goblins just fine. Within minutes, little green-skinned men reached me from everywhere in the forest, each of them desperate for some happy time or simply curious about what was going on.
When they saw me just standing there on a clearing and awaiting them with open arms and no weapons to be seen, they came running. And I? I danced until I nearly collapsed as if my life depended on it. Luckily enough, their onslaught ended just then.
Today, I was doing pretty much the same, though the goblins seemed to become more wary about me, or rather the unknown existence that killed their brothers, fathers and sons. Maybe they knew it was me who had subjugated them all, though I didn't remember letting off a single one of them.
Instead of being relieved that they came in viewer numbers now, I felt rather annoyed instead as it meant things were slowing down even further. Just thinking about what that man would tell Rika in the meantime was ticking me off. Sure, he probably wouldn't lie to her, but he wouldn't put me in a good light either. If anything, he would make her think of me as the worst.
«Rika...»
In the end, he was right. I had used her. And I still was, though the way I did it had long since changed. I would never again try to force her to give me a new body, not if it meant making her be with him, who could easily be her father, or anybody else she didn't love and wish to be with herself.
It was easy to contact her, to say sorry a hundred times and explain her even my last secrets, but I was afraid of how she would react. She had grown attached to me, after all, almost as much as I had grown attached to her.
Just as my mood was about to hit rock-bottom, a series of shouts forced my attention onto it. A new group of goblins had arrived, seven warriors carrying spears, swords and even bows. Seeing their greediness, on both their faces and their lower bodies, I couldn't help but sigh.
«Let's just get it over with...»
⊱————- Extra ————-⊰
Lissaya: She does it again!
Urrich: Why is she naked? I don't understand!
Lissaya: Who allowed you to watch?!
Yuri: She is dancing so beautifully...
Lissaya: She is killing goblins! How can you think of that as beautiful?!
Urrich: She is a goddess~
Lissaya: I TOLD YOU TO NOT WATCH!
Urrich: But we need to know if she needs help or not!
Lissaya: Do you think she would still shout for them to come and get her if she needed help?!
Yuri: She is so strong!
Lissaya: Stop looking at her with dreamy eyes! BOTH OF YOU!
