Chapter Ninety-Eight: Return

Gather the corpses and burn them with the settlement—leaving the bodies in the open will only attract wild beasts and Spirits, which would pose a threat to nearby villages after feasting on the remains.

As snow began to fall, Malin halted the team's onward journey, retreating with several dozen goblin younglings. One of the summoned Earth Elementals was lost, so Malin ordered Clovis to cancel the summoning, and had his own summoned Earth Elemental carry some goods chests that had been found in the settlement—these chests certainly bore evidence of attacks on small human caravans; otherwise, where would such non-goblin-style chests come from?

Returning these chests to the city and handing them over to the merchant guild should fetch a substantial reward while also clearing the caravan's name—a mercenary's death by the hand of another race is better than the stigma of having fled with the goods.