Chapter 93

He crawled on the ground like a dog and turned around the corner. He stuck out just his head slightly and looked at the goblin.

The creature was waving the stick around while smiling.

“You really plan to kill me?”

“Yes.”

“It’s funny for me to say this with my own mouth, but I’m very useful. By your standards, I’m an extremely precious material.”

“I know.”

“But you’ll still kill me? Are you an idiot? You should raise this kind and eat it! Haven’t you heard of the goose that lays golden eggs?”

“I like that fairy tale. So I always think. Wouldn’t obtaining the golden egg right away be more joyful than spending time to get many golden eggs?”

“Your economic sense is crawling on the ground.”

He continued talking.

It was an opponent where a fight couldn’t be established. So he had to flap his mouth and draw out interest.

What a miserable life, really.

“If you kill me, Sheryl will be sad. Can friends do that to each other?”

“Sheryl.”

The handsome young man’s lips curved up slightly.

He knew the moment he saw it.

Ah, I chose the wrong topic.

“This right arm, you see it?”

“Oh my, what accident made you lose your arm? I feel sorry for you.”

He hurriedly lowered his head while speaking.

Fucking bastard. Attacking mid-conversation. He clicked his tongue while looking at the wall with a hole drilled in it.

Even with a steel plate covering his head, a nice breeze hole would be drilled through.

“If it was an accident, it was. Sheryl tore off and ate my arm. That child is really greedy. Just like a young kid. Similar to how they bring everything they grab to their mouth.”

TZZZZING!

With a bizarre sound, the flash burst out again. Quilbion rolled his body.

If it hadn’t been for his sixth sense’s cry, a hole would have just been made in his head.

Cold sweat dripped down.

It was fortunate he was a physically healthy Quilbion—if he’d opened his eyes in the body of someone over seventy, he would’ve taken the flash while sitting in a rocking chair.

“That bitch Sheryl was rotten. Just looking at what she does makes me furious……”

TZZZZING!

Light passed between his legs. The hem of his pants burned slightly. He gulped down dry saliva.

“Don’t curse at Sheryl. She’s just a pure child with lots of greed.”

“Even though she ate your arm?”

“Actually, I wanted to give it to her. If she’d asked, I would’ve torn it off and given it without hesitation, but Sheryl didn’t trust my heart and robbed it. That fact makes me so sad. That Sheryl couldn’t trust me. So I was slightly upset too.”

“A man shouldn’t sulk over something like that.”

Quilbion ran through the complexly tangled alleys. On the opposite side, he saw a woman with sunken eyes.

Whether pickled in drugs, she stood blankly even while watching Quilbion run desperately.

“Get out of the way if you don’t want to die!”

Though he shouted, it was useless. Quilbion grabbed the collar of the woman standing dumbly and threw her to the left before throwing his body.

The flash passed.

Damn bastard.

He was definitely playing around. If he’d aimed and shot while he was rolling, he could have killed him immediately, but wasn’t he waiting?

Above all, his sixth sense hadn’t reacted to that last attack. It meant there was no killing intent.

Quilbion sighed and stood up. Manure was all over his clothes. He suddenly recalled his days working at the livestock pen.

Come to think of it, that really became the old days.

“Just do one of two things. Will you kill me? If you’ll kill me, my head’s here, so aim.”

Running away wasn’t yielding any answers.

The young man standing in front tilted his head and looked at him.

“Do you know my name?”

“I do. Sheryl told me before. Veild, right?”

“What did Sheryl say about me?”

“A friend who made her face. And someone who got upset and ran away. Come to think of it, Sheryl said that. That you worked hard to make her face.”

The young man, Veild, smiled faintly.

“Yes. I really worked hard to make it. At the time, we had no concept of beauty. So after learning about the outside through Teacher, I imitated the beauty of the outside and gifted it to her. Sheryl liked that face very much. Enough that she never changed it even once.”

Quilbion frowned.

Didn’t the way he spoke seem just like a man longing for his lover?

Veild walked over. Quilbion didn’t avoid him. He couldn’t run away anyway.

“I wanted to see you up close. I had to confirm what material Sheryl coveted.”

Quilbion met Veild’s gaze while breathing in deeply.

He’d encountered the new goblin.

Perhaps he could return now.

But his head just spun—he was still caught by the crack.

“It won’t work.”

“What?”

“I’m holding onto the nark flowing from your seed. It seemed connected to the world beyond here, where we truly exist, so I blocked it.”

“Nice, being competent.”

“I received Corsa’s help. But unfortunately, holding you here will be the last time. The seed you harbor is already adapting. I won’t be able to hold you with the same method anymore.”

“That’s fortunate. But is it okay to tell me? One blackmail card just flew away.”

“It’s fine. Because we met like this.”

Veild swung the stick.

He flinched and pulled his body back.

“I have no intention of attacking.”

A shadow appeared. When he raised his head, the bag he’d left in the alley was slowly descending.

“I’ll return it.”

“……Incomprehensible. I could accept it with a smile if you just tried to kill me instead.”

He slung the bag over his shoulder.

“Can I go now if your business is done?”

“No. My business isn’t finished yet.”

“Figures.”

Veild looked down at his own stomach.

“I’m hungry.”

“Want to eat a meal together?”

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

Wonderful.

Since he didn’t feel hostility, he decided to go along for now. It was when they walked side by side after leaving the alley.

Veild took one step away to the side.

Quilbion glanced at Veild sideways.

“The smell…… is severe.”

“What?”

“Entering a shop without washing those clothes would be an imposition.”

“You guys know that kind of concept?”

“I know it well. I learned. I like something called modesty.”

Veild, who’d been looking around, pointed at a street vendor. Daily clothes were laid out for sale.

“Buy some and change.”

“Sorry, but I have no money.”

“Why?”

“What good does it do to ask me that?”

Veild looked at him with pitying eyes. Receiving sympathy from a goblin felt strange. If he threw a gaze full of killing intent, he could accept it confidently.

“I’ll lend it to you.”

An arm suddenly sprouted from the fluttering sleeve. Quilbion blinked.

“You could regenerate it?”

“Yes. It’s an easy thing.”

“Then why as a one-armed……”

Quilbion continued with a just-in-case feeling.

“Don’t tell me it’s because Sheryl tore it off? To show her?”

“It seems we’ve become close enough to call each other friends now. You understood my heart perfectly.”

He’s insane.

This one was insane to a similar degree as Sheryl, just in a different direction.

Well, not that I’m in a position to talk about others.

He bought clothes at the street vendor. He stripped right there and changed. The vendor owner reached out saying he’d collect the clothes with filth on them.

Just as he was about to hand them over, Veild intervened.

“You should pay a price.”

“I’m disposing of trash for you……”

The vendor trailed off. When Veild glared, he clicked his tongue and handed over a few coins.

“Thank you.”

Veild bowed his head before turning around.

“Meticulous.”

Quilbion spoke to Veild who was counting the coins.

“Calculations must be accurate. That’s also a rule that makes human society run smoothly.”

“You’re interested in human society?”

“Very much. Not just me, but the other three are the same. Because we’re so interested, we want to take it over.”

Erosion that would happen someday.

Though he seemed like someone he could communicate with, once you peeled back a layer, he was a monster you couldn’t associate with.

“You’re wary.”

“You know. That we can’t get along with each other.”

“Is that really true?”

Veild stopped and looked at Quilbion.

To think he’d use the expression ‘upright eyes’ for a goblin. Looking into those eyes tinged with blue light made his heart feel at ease.

“Sheryl and Corsa want to have the outside world. No, not just the outside—they want to grasp everything.”

“You’re different?”

“I only need one thing. Just one.”

Quilbion recalled the Saint who would be going around with Holy Knight Romen.

“Sheryl?”

“Yes. If I have that child, it’s enough.”

“If she wants the world, you’ll help beside her, right?”

“I don’t want to do that. Just looking at Teacher shows me. There are many essences of power outside that I can’t understand. Those are danger factors that exceed our expectations.”

“I wonder. I don’t think there are any humans who could handle you guys.”

At one time he’d believed they could win if they mobilized the massive weapon called ‘giant soldiers,’ but he’d changed his mind after witnessing Sheryl’s main body.

An existence that couldn’t be opposed.

Could famous magicians in the human world defeat goblins?

If a gambling table opened, Quilbion was prepared to bet his entire fortune on the goblins’ side.

Though since it was a table where lives were at stake, not money, he’d have to attack while shedding tears.

“I believe in inevitable adversaries. Just as we were born outside god’s providence, an existence to block us will be born within god’s providence.”

“Inevitable adversaries.”

“The world is connected. If there’s a front, there must be a back. If there’s light, there’s darkness. That we were born means something to eliminate us exists. I’m afraid of that.”

Watching a goblin say he was afraid, Quilbion felt fear after a long time.

He was a more dangerous existence than Sheryl.

If this creature’s way of thinking gained direction and began attacking humans, it would bring disastrous results.

“So?”

“I want to live with Sheryl forever. Facing that child in endless time.”

“That’s talk Sheryl won’t welcome.”

“Right. That child will absolutely never listen to me. So……”

Veild grinned.

Definitely, it was more cruel, terrible, and bizarre than any smile Quilbion had seen.

“I’ll capture her and keep her by my side.”

“Aha, I think I know what you want from me.”

“I thought I’d communicate well with Mr. Quilbion.”

Why did my name coming from Veild’s mouth feel so creepy?

If things went wrong, it was obvious he’d capture and preserve me instead of Sheryl.

Quilbion exhaled briefly.

“But capturing Sheryl here has no meaning.”

“Right. Capturing her here has no meaning. However, gifting that child various experiences has great meaning.”

“Has meaning?”

Veild looked up at the sky.

“We always saw the world through Teacher. Because we were inside the surface realm, we couldn’t face true things. We only ate and observed the life forms that fell into the surface realm.”

“I suppose so.”

“We saw scenery but never experienced society. It’s the same for all of us. That’s why this place…… is very stimulating to us.”

Quilbion read Veild’s intention.

“You’re saying Sheryl might change. You too.”

“Yes. We’re not perfect existences. Rather, we’re immature. So we’re seriously influenced by our environment, and we absorb it.”

Veild smiled faintly.

“I hope Sheryl gains thoughts similar to mine. I hope she realizes a different form of love. Then she’ll be able to understand me. We’ll be together. Forever.”

Crazy bastards.

Quilbion sent a rotten smile while imagining tying the two together and throwing them in a trash can.