Chapter 7: The Princess Takes Action to Help

Flames flickered, painting half the sky orange-red.

And what was burning was the once peaceful and serene Salna Village.

A group of ugly creatures, about a meter tall with crimson skin, brandished clubs still wreathed in fire, rampaging through the village streets.

The screams Violet had heard earlier came from them—low-tier magical beasts known as “Fire Goblins.”

Though called low-tier, their strength was far from as feeble as they appeared.

The power hidden in those thin arms was enough to easily shatter the bones of an adult man.

A few lookout goblins noticed Violet approaching and immediately began screeching, brandishing their weapons, and moving to surround her.

Seeing this, Nastasia’s tentacle poked out from the hood, looking eager to try.

“My kin, do you need me to take care of them all?”

“Try to be discreet…”

Violet was a little worried, not about Her lack of ability, but about Her being too heavy-handed and causing a commotion that would attract unwanted attention.

During their exchange, the few fire goblins had already formed a semi-circle around her, making it too late to leave.

Their tusks, protruding from their everted lips, seemed to be grinning menacingly, as if they could already see Violet covered in blood, trampled under their feet.

“Pfft—”

A faint, muffled sound was heard, like the tearing of cloth.

The fire goblin in the very center stiffened, then fell straight to the ground.

Blood, mixed with brain matter, seeped from the back of its head, staining the earth.

A hole the size of a pinky finger had pierced clean through, quite literally blowing the goblin’s mind.

Seeing this, the other goblins instinctively took a step back, their gazes even clearing up considerably.

One timid goblin even had second thoughts and wanted to turn and run.

Its choice was the right one, because the moment it turned, Violet’s “head” suddenly exploded, and several slender tentacles shot out towards the goblins.

With another muffled sound, seven more corpses lay on the ground.

The fortunate deserter goblin, its legs trembling with fear, fell to its knees and began kowtowing to Violet.

Although it was a low-tier magical beast, it knew that humans couldn’t have exploding heads.

Let alone use an exploding head to kill all its companions in an instant.

This thing was not human!

“My kin, I think I can communicate with it. Do you need me to ask what happened here?”

These words, to the deserter goblin’s ears, automatically turned into distorted, chaotic whispers.

Blood immediately gushed from its nose and mouth as its whole body convulsed in agony.

“Okay~ leave it to me!”

The whispers rose again, but this time, the deserter goblin felt a cold tentacle press against its forehead.

The next moment, it felt an itch inside its head, as if something was about to grow out.

“Splat—”

Another headless corpse lay on the ground, along with an exploded “rotten watermelon.”

Violet, clad in her black robe, stepped over the corpse and walked towards the center of the village.

Inside her hood, Nastasia was wriggling Her tentacles, presenting a glowing ball of light before her eyes.

“My kin, it seems these magical beasts attacked for revenge.”

The ball of light was the fire goblin’s memory.

Although, given a goblin’s brain capacity, the images presented were mostly blurry, they could still piece together a rough picture of what had happened.

—These goblins’ mother was killed.

This wasn’t an insult; these goblins’ mother had truly been slain by someone.

Violet had even met the culprit, the very same Apostate Knight she had a small run-in with not long ago.

On his way back, he had casually wiped out a goblin nest, and this group of fire goblins were the last survivors of that nest.

What was happening to Salna Village now was a complete and utter disaster.

Who would have thought that a passing knight would drop a flashbang on them?

Combining this with what she knew from her past life, Violet pieced together the entire process of how Salna Village became the starting point of the Order of the End.

Nothing is more deeply ingrained than salvation in a desperate situation.

In that timeline, Nastasia’s first follower must have gained the trust of the Salna villagers in this way.

From there, step by step, until the entire village was converted into followers.

Thinking this, a slight curve appeared on Violet’s lips.

She had been worrying about how to proselytize, and now, an excellent opportunity had presented itself.

But she had to be quick.

If any of the leeks… ah, no, her future colleagues were to unfortunately perish, Nastasia would surely be very sad.

Meanwhile, on the west side of Salna Village, in front of the granary’s large doors.

A man in his fifties, holding a pitchfork, glared with wide eyes:

“You damn girl, what are you doing out here? Get your ass back in the cellar!”

“Why should I? I’m the only mage in the entire village!”

A golden-haired girl stubbornly glared back at her old father, clutching a crude wooden staff.

However, judging by her pale face, she wasn’t as composed as her words suggested.

“With that pathetic little spark of yours that’s not even enough to light a pipe, you want to fight magical beasts? Disappear from my sight! Just wait till today is over, and see if you still can…”

“Screech!”

The old man’s words were cut off by the shriek of a goblin.

In his line of sight, several men in leather armor were fleeing for their lives.

Behind them, dozens of goblins scurried on their short legs, their one-meter height surprisingly keeping pace with the experienced hunters!

“Old Qien! Run! There’s a big one among those monsters!”

The middle-aged hunter at the front shouted, not forgetting to turn back and fire an arrow to slow the goblins down.

The man called Old Qien didn’t move.

He shot a fierce glare at the girl beside him and gave her a hard shove.

Caught off guard, the girl nearly fell.

Thanks to a hunter reaching out, she was not injured.

“You lot, take her back to the cellar!

A bunch of grown men, if you still let an amateur mage like her run out, hmph! I’ll see to it that you lose your land!”

With that, he waved his pitchfork, driving the hunters back into the cellar.

The girl tried to struggle, but the middle-aged hunter covered her mouth, and she was carried away, whimpering.

The cellar was hidden beneath the granary.

Old Qien stood guard at the entrance alone.

Ignoring his stooped back, he had the air of one man holding a pass against ten thousand.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the valor of the Second Lord Guan.

Standing here was merely a way to perish together with these monsters.

The goblins, completely unaware they were walking into a trap, continued to press forward.

Old Qien looked at the monsters surrounding him, laughed heartily, and pulled a tripwire next to him with his pitchfork.

“Haha, I’m fifty-seven this year! And I’ve never done anything this exciting before!”

With a series of rumbles, the surrounding burning buildings collapsed, the flames and ruins forming an arena, trapping Old Qien and the goblins inside.

Then, under the goblins’ bewildered gazes, Old Qien, panting, pulled out a box of explosives from the shadows behind him.

These explosives were used for mining.

This one box was enough to excavate a small mineral vein, so it could naturally blast this group of fire goblins to smithereens.

Old Qien grinned menacingly, striking his flint.

Sparks flew, and the fuse of the explosives ignited instantly.

“Come on, you little b*stards! I’m gonna blow you sky high!”