Nighttime in the Plainlan forest.Kiro and Alina were hiding inside the tree trunk. The surrounding s.p.a.ce was enough to fit the two. Still, Kiro felt fl.u.s.tered every time he moved his body he would inadvertently hit something that shouldn"t be touched upon with.
When he noticed Alina"s murderous glare, Kiro eventually decided to stay still.
"Come on, it was an accident. The s.p.a.ce around here is so narrow." Kiro voiced out his complaint while shifting his gaze at the two moons above their head.
"Humph!" As a response, Alina snorted at him coldly.
"Mn, even in this world, the moon is so beautiful, isn"t it?" Kiro uttered those words subconsciously.
Alina followed his line of eyesight while saying. "Yes, the moon tonight is brighter than usual, but what does Kiro mean to "in this world"." Alina glanced at Kiro in confusion. She couldn"t make head or tail of the words he said.
When he heard Alina"s voice, Kiro was startled for a moment. "It"s nothing, say, Alina, would you mind telling me the reason why you would go to such a length, even jump into the unknown danger just for my sake?" Kiro eventually said those words he could understand why Alina would do that.
Upon hearing Kiro"s question, Alina paused for a moment before answering. "The truth is, I don"t honestly know the right answer..." She said. "Well, if there is one thing, it was probably, because Alina is an orphan. My parents died because of the monster." Alina said while reminiscing the past.
Then she started to tell Kiro her story. "Alina grew up into the church, but once we reach a proper age, we would eventually leave the church protection, at the young age of twelve, Alina learned how to hunt the prey for living, collecting wild herbs, and other necessities."
"The reason why Alina wanted to become an Adventurer is not to lose to the monster ever again." She said. "Because Alina"s first-ever male friend is Kiro, it is natural for Alina to help her friend when they need one isn"t it?"
"What about Aldin? Didn"t you meet him much earlier than me right?" Kiro asked another question.
Upon hearing Aldin"s name Alina"s face became sore "Alina doesn"t have a cowardly friend like him!" She said while snorting coldly in discomfort, she was still feeling upset from the event that happened this morning. "Even though Alina meets Aldin, we rarely have any conversation at all."
"Alina is always together with Alyva, but in Aldin"s head, only Alyva exists." Alina thought for a moment before continuing. "What about you Kiro? Why would you jump inside the forest just to buy us enough time to escape?"
Hearing her voice, Kiro moved his head to face Alina"s line of eyesight, while staring at her glittering eyes, he said. "The truth is, It is because Alina is so cute, I jump into the pit of fire just for her," Kiro replied teasingly.
Alina"s cheeks flushed in red after she heard Kiro"s statement, but when she noticed his teasing eyes, Alina used her elbow to hit Kiro"s rib cage. "U-urgh!" Kiro grunted in pain.
Kiro glanced at Alina who was about to give him another blow, shouted in fright. "Wa—wait! I"ll answer, I"ll answer! So please stop!"
"Humph!" Alina snorted while turning her head away from Kiro.
Seeing her reaction, Kiro could only answer the question without a falsehood.
"Well, the truth is... I thought I could handle the situation alone." Kiro said. "But after entering deeper inside the forest, only at that time I realized how I overestimated myself."
Kiro thought that as long as he could outrun the Goblins and trim their numbers to the acceptable range, he could manage to wipe them out. However, little did he know what they saw in the outskirts of the forest was only the meager number of the original settlement.
As he advanced further inside the forest, the more shocking it became for him; eventually, he even ran across two Goblin commanders.
"What do you mean by that?" Alina voiced out. "Just what exactly did you see inside the forest?"
"What we saw on the border of the forest wasn"t the real settlement of the Goblins. After I killed the Goblin Mage, my first plan was to go out of this place as soon as possible, but when I thought that I could not go back empty-handed, so I decided to scout ahead... Then there, I saw an unbelievable amount of Goblins."
"Deep inside the forest, I saw the real Goblin settlement. What is more shocking, they even have a defensive mechanism."
Then Kiro started to narrate what he saw in the deepest part of the forest.
After listening to Kiro"s narration of what he saw inside the woods, Alina"s face went pale in horror.
***
On the deeper side of the northeast side of the plainlan forest.
There stood an 8x6 meters building made of rough and uneven cut wooden planks, while at the top of the structure was covered with a ma.s.s of desiccated leaves.
Inside this rough sketch structure, was the six towering figure Goblin Commanders that wore a solemn expression.
"Tell me what exactly happened Gorogoblin." One of the Goblin Commander said.
"On the outskirts of the forest we found Gorogoblin"s dead body, the cause of death he was penetrated by a condensed mana concentration. As for the finishing blow, an arrow pierced through to his forehead. "
"Before that, what did you encounter Borogoblin?"
The one was called Borogoblin was no other than the Goblin Commander that Kiro ran across to when he was scouting around the forest.
"I was walking near the outer wall of the settlement when I heard a huge commotion on the outskirt of the forest," Borogoblin said. "Then a moment later, I heard Gegoblin howl in rage."
"Out of curiosity, I went out to find what is the commotion is all about; however, when I"m twenty meters away from the settlement, I saw a human boy running frantically away from Gegoblin."
"Knowing that it was only a puny human insect who managed to slipped by, I tailed the two in the shadow, but the odd thing about this human, instead of escaping from the forest, that human boy was circling around to the border of our settlement; at that moment, I started to doubt what his real motive was," Borogoblin explained while he gritted his teeth out of frustration.
"If I knew from the very beginning that human boy who is the one who killed Gorogoblin, I would"ve helped Gegoblin from the start," Borogoblin said while both of his yellowish eyes flashed with murderous intent.
"That despicable human! If I was given another chance, I will rip off his spine, drink his blood, and feed him to the horde of low-grade monsters! Like how *BEEP!* a human is!" This time Borogoblin couldn"t help throwing a rain of curses to Kiro.
"Calm down, we need to get the whole picture from the scenario we cannot understand you if you let your anger take over you."
"Okay, I"m sorry Derogoblin, It is just that human boy is so slippery, I lost my composure for a moment," Borogoblin said. "Ahem, where was I? Yes, that human boy scanned the outskirt of our settlement once he got a full round of the surrounding he started to leave the place."
"... Wait... What? You let him freely scout our perimeter?" Derogoblin asked in astonishment.
"... Yes, I let the human boy ran around freely for the reason I thought that with me and Gegoblin he could not escape from this place alive." Borogoblin said in embarra.s.sment.
This time the atmosphere inside the building was overwhelmed with a heavy silence.
"You what! How incompetent can you be Borogoblin! Not only you did not manage to capture the culprit, you even fail to save Gegoblin"s from his tragedy!" Derogoblin roared at him furiously.
After getting rebuked by Derogoblin mercilessly, Borogoblin couldn"t help to lower his head in shame.
Suddenly one of the Goblin commanders called out. "Well, it is not time to fight with each other, Borogoblin, what is the characteristic of that young human boy?" the Goblin commander said. "Like what type of weapon he is proficient with."
"Well, that human boy is remarkable from his marksmanship, he could easily shoot a bow arrow twenty meters from his position, while his accuracy is terrifyingly precise."
"But that is not all, that human boy had some unusual arrow with him, that arrow is so dangerous, It killed Gegoblin in a single shot."
"... An unusual arrow... Is there some characteristic imbued with the arrowhead?" This time Derogoblin voiced out.
"Yes, it has," Borogoblin replied in a flat tone.
"Certainly that human boy is no ordinary if what Borogoblin said is the truth, then the probability of this human boy, still in this forest is high."
"How can you be so sure?" Derogoblin asked in the voice that did not hide his irritation.
"Well, I and Gorogoblin, luckily encountered some mysterious book, while my knowledge about that book wasn"t high as Gorogoblin, but executing that skill would drain dry not just me, but even Gorogoblin who was proficient in magic."
After hearing the Goblin commander explanation, the others nodded in agreement.
"With that said, that human boy is probably out of gas at this moment."
"Borogoblin, Derogoblin, go and gather your minions and search for that human boy!"