Chapter 34: The Day I Met Gor (2)

The house was so dark that it was very difficult to distinguish objects even with the lamp.

I couldn’t even see the ceiling.

Looking down, the old wooden floor was full of small scraps of metal.

I walked, avoiding them.

“Is anyone there~?”

It was so quiet that I could only hear my own footsteps and voice.

Sally’s voice was a bonus.

I hadn’t walked much, but soon there were stairs.

It was strange.

I was sure I had come into the house after seeing that there was space above, but the only thing there was stairs leading down.

Do you agree?

You do, right?

I was a little scared, but I went down the stairs.

No matter how far down I went, the stairs seemed endless, but then at some point, I came to my senses and I was at the bottom.

At that time, there weren’t lights on here and there like there are now.

I even tripped and fell, thinking the stairs were still going!

It was all dark and spooky.

Things like books and herbs would get caught under my feet.

There were quite a few books.

There were also some things like potions, and I saw some chunks of iron.

Seeing that, I knew someone lived here.

And then, I heard a ‘thud’ from behind me, the sound of something falling to the floor.

I was startled and turned around, and at that moment, ‘whoosh’, something grazed my cheek and got stuck in the wall!

What was it, you ask?

It was a dagger!

After confirming that, I moved the lamp in the direction the dagger came from.

And there was a kid there!

That kid saw me and threw a dagger at me without a second thought.

Wow, I was really surprised, you know?

“Who the hell are you!?”

I was so surprised when a kid, who was small enough to come up to my calves and wearing a dirty robe, suddenly attacked me with a weapon.

I was at a loss as to what to do.

Still, I thought I should try to talk if we could communicate.

“Let’s talk it out!”

“You just barge into someone else’s house?! What’s there to talk about!”

“I’m sorry about that! But I was told all the houses here were empty!”

“…That’s, that’s true, but! Ugh! I don’t care, get lost!”

“Huh? Aren’t you also squatting in an empty house?!”

“What! This is my house, I even dug a tunnel and installed stairs!”

“This ridiculously designed house was your doing!?”

“You little!?”

***

“—So, while we were talking, Gor stepped on a glass bottle and fell backward. Because of that, the robe he was wearing came off, and I found out he was a goblin.”

With Gorgon sitting on his lap, Paul chattered on to Khan, who was sitting opposite him.

It seemed he had talked more about other things than what he was supposed to, but it just turned out that way as he talked.

Recalling that time, Paul thought that the cat [Teri] might have been a guide, leading players to the hidden NPC [Gorgon].

Seeing how it went to the same place at the same time every day, it couldn’t have been otherwise.

“Hmph, if you hadn’t rummaged through my house back then, this wouldn’t have happened today…!”

“What are you talking about. I didn’t touch anything, you’re the one who made a mess of it.”

“Hmph!”

“…Anyway, that’s how I found out he was a goblin, and we decided to live together in exchange for me keeping his identity a secret.

I happened to want my own house back then too! And on top of that, I’m acting as Gor’s agent, delivering things and making deals with people.

Did Gor tell you while I was away? Gor is a very famous alchemist! He even gets requests from the castle, you know?”

At that time, he received a unique quest related to Gorgon, and after clearing the quest, one of the rewards he received was this housing.

It was old compared to other places, but in return, he didn’t have to pay rent or taxes.

Good things are good.

“So, that’s how we ended up living together like this.”

“I see.”

***

Listening to Paul’s story, Gorgon recalled his past.

Born with an intelligence far superior to other goblins, Gorgon was always a standout in the goblin group.

In a bad way, that is.

When he was living in the goblin village, Gorgon always thought that he didn’t belong there.

All the goblins here were idiots, they would go out of their way to make trouble, and he had to feel a threat to his life even when he hadn’t done anything.

It was for that reason that the young Gorgon left the cave that was his home.

Of course, there were other goblins in the group who were intelligent.

They could mimic a few human words, and they could make more systematic plans than other goblins.

In the group, they were called ‘shamans’.

This was because they were goblins who had learned how to use magic, such as invigorating their allies with spells and, conversely, tripping up their enemies.

The brilliant Gorgon was also considered a shaman, but he thought that didn’t suit him either.

Because Gorgon was even more brilliant than them.

So he didn’t want to live as a mere shaman in a mountain like this.

Gorgon always thought.

Even while fighting humans, he always thought.

‘Why am I a goblin and not a human?’

Gorgon thought he had an intelligence as good as, no, better than humans.

Although his physical strength was weak, his mind was brilliant.

If the head of the village had listened to Gorgon, the number of his kin who died senselessly would have been significantly reduced.

But this was a world of the law of the jungle.

No matter how smart you were, the strong ones were at the top.

[You kids with only fat in your heads!]

Gorgon shouted like that again that day.

He stormed out of the village alone and wandered through the nearby forest.

He was trying to calm his anger by kicking the stones that were scattered at his feet.

At that moment, he heard a presence from a distance.

Gorgon instinctively hid in the bushes.

He could see five or six humans from afar.

Seeing the humans, each wearing weapons and armor, Gorgon gritted his teeth.

‘Ah, they’ve come to kill us again.’

Gorgon thought he had to inform the village of this fact immediately.

‘Why should I care about those old fools who wouldn’t listen to a word I say anyway…’

He felt a sense of self-loathing for a moment.

But fortunately, the humans turned around and went down the mountain instead of heading towards the village.

Gorgon let out a sigh of relief and trudged towards the place where the humans had been wandering until a little while ago.

Perhaps they had thrown away their belongings just before going down the forest, old and worn-out items were rolling around messily.

Gorgon picked up one of the items.

It was a book.

A book full of unknown scribbles.

In addition, there were other trivial items scattered around.

A dagger with a chipped blade, a torn robe, a broken egg, an apple on the verge of rotting, an empty glass bottle, an unknown liquid, and so on.

Gorgon, half-impulsively, picked them up and ran through the forest.

His destination was not the cave.

Running down the slope, Gorgon gasped for breath.

His heart was pounding.

This was the first time he had decided to go down the forest like this.

He hurried down the path the humans had passed, as if running away, afraid that someone would chase him from behind, that his idiotic kin would find him.

“─so, I─.”

“Lis─. …no─.”

Hearing the humans’ voices from afar, Gorgon slowly slowed down.

[Hah, hah…]

Gorgon stood on a steep slope and looked down.

It was a village where humans lived.

Or was it a city?

Anyway, he couldn’t carelessly enter the place, which was surrounded by a solid stone wall.

On top of that, humans with weapons were standing guard in front of it.

Gorgon naturally knew that he was their enemy.

So he turned around and ran through the bushes again.

Not all places would be guarded by humans.

So he looked for a place that was out of the humans’ sight.

After running, hiding, running again, and hiding repeatedly for a long time, Gorgon found a small crack in the wall.

Seeing the moss and vines growing profusely, it was clear that it was a place untouched by human hands.

And if he broke that place a little more, it seemed like his small body could easily enter.

Gorgon checked several times to make sure no humans were coming and then approached the place.

Through the crack in the wall, he could hear the noise made by the humans.

Gorgon, afraid of being caught, carefully broke the area around it with his hands.

It wasn’t that difficult since it was already a broken place.

Then, he dug a hole in the dirt with his hands to make a gap.

Time had passed, and it was now night.

Gorgon wrapped the things he had brought in an old robe, pushed them inside first, and then crawled in after them.

[Ah…]

When he lifted his head, a space bustling with humans filled his vision.

Tall buildings were packed together, and the sky was embroidered with lanterns, not stars.

Gorgon stared blankly at the scene for a moment before snapping back to his senses.

He knew instinctively that he couldn’t stay like this.

He quickly shook the dirt off the robe that had gotten dirty while passing through the hole, still holding onto the items.

It didn’t fit him as it was, so he tore the sleeves and the bottom, and then put on the tattered robe.

That wasn’t enough, so he wrapped his face tightly with the remaining cloth, leaving no gaps, and pulled the wide hood over.

It was a slightly suspicious appearance, but at a glance, he could be seen as a beggar kid.

Gorgon began to live hidden among the humans like that.