Book 2 Ch 2.
Sword Maiden looked at the group before her both in happiness and confusion.
"There are at least 3 groups of adventurers, have you accompanied your leader until you are off to fulfill other quest in the city?"
"Nah! We came here with boss for the goblin job." Warrior said as Noble Fighter elbowed him discretely for talking to casually with an archbishop and renown hero.
"But...but the reward was only for one party of 5!" Sword Maiden said in even more confusion.
"Cost is divided into food, lodgings, weapons. We brought our own food, we brought tents and wagons, with those cost eliminated a reward for 5 is also a reward for 12. We're are the goblins." Goblin Slayer said as Sword Maiden put her hands to her mouth in surprise, she quickly turned around for them to avoid looking at her expression.
Her frame trembled from shock ans joy, tears threatened to come from her broken eyes. It was the kind of elation born of discovering that she was not alone in the world when it came to her feelings on goblins.
"I...I did not expect such a response! I did not dream that you would we so, that you wall would be so... Adventurers spend money on expensive lodgings and food and company since they could die the next day...Do you not need such joy n your life?" Sword Maiden asked as she turned around and looked at them, she had managed to recover some of her composure.
"Big lodgings, big costs, same with expensive food. Easier to save money for rainy days if we skimp like this, also the money we save is used for healing and stamina potions and new gear. Expensive food fills you up just as much as regular food, and a fancy roof over your head keeps you just as warm as a normal one. We skimp, we can afford more supplies, potions and adventurers, it means more alive adventurers, more dead goblins. That is why." Goblin Slayer said and those behind him nodded in affirmation.
Then started scolding him for speaking so forwardly to Sword Maiden.
Even Warrior was appalled by his country bumpkin ways!
But the archbishop was not insulted, she merely gave a merry laugh to this.
"That is good to hear. You are all an interesting lot. I see the rumors of the Slayer Keep do not do you justice. Please use the temple's spare rooms for logins, and share meals with us, that way you can save even more food and money!"
"Thank you, we will. Bring the travel wagons inside the court and get your things from there." Goblin Slayer said to his comrades, who moved to bring their things.
"Aren't you gonna go get your stuff?"
"I already have them with me."
"But all you have is your armor, weapons, and a small backpack and pouch for battle."
"They are for goblin slaying, anything else that is not for goblin slaying I do not need."
To that Sword Maiden gave another smile.
This one truly was an interesting bunch!
Dinner in the temple was an interesting affair.
Besides the temple food and wine the group of adventurers had also brought out black tea leave and grinded coffee beans to drink with hot water, while these were not unheard off, generally beer and grog was what most people drank.
"Helps us with marching and fighting. We sometimes chew directly when we can't start a brew." Goblin Slayer said as he ate with his helmet still on his head.
"That is most ingenious of you. Also before you begin I would like to raise your reward from 5 adventurers to 12." Sword Maiden said as Goblin Slayer moved to take a sip of orange juice from his cup.
"Pay us what you want, we came here to slay goblins, not for money." Goblin Slayer said as a matter of fact and immediately Sword Maiden reached out for the pitcher on the table, raised herself from her seat, made her way across the table until she was next to Goblin Slayer.
"Could you please tell me more about Slayer Keep...and...and about yourself." The Gold rank heroin or heroins said as she refilled Goblin Slayer's goblet.
"This is also why we came with him. We gotta make sure no princess or duke's daughter that's visiting this temple gets near him. If he gets one with a big belly, we'll have half a kingdoms army on our heels." Noble Fighter said to the gathered group and they all nodded in return.
"Gotta las, but what if we can't prevent one from fooling the daft yougin. I mean women of power don't take meddling in their affair to kindle and me might find ourselves a head shorter for our troubles." Dwarf shaman asked.
"W...we could make sure he always has moon tea in his back...you know, just in case..."Priestess said blushing like crazy.
"Good point. We'll keep that as a backup plan. After all hell had no fury like a woman scorned." Warrior said in confidence, he and Noble Fighter were still engaged and not yet married, but even then he knew the golden rule about being a good husband.
Never, ever disagree with yer spouse!
And practice duck and dodge!
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A while latter the group of adventurers had entered the sewers and catacombs, killed several goblin patrols and for now they were taking an hour to rest before continuing on.
They had with them each a backpack that had a rain cloak that doubled as a sleeping bag with a zipper.
Each had a very small tea kettle that they used for tea and to heat their food, today was dried noodles with hot spice soup. They all use enchanted fans, like the one goblin slayer had used to kill the warboss except that these did not summon jellyfish, to create water for drinking and for the meal. Though all had canteens filled with fresh water for emergencies.
"There's a question I'd been meaning to ask, where to they come from, goblins?" Lizard Priest asked.
"I heard that a goblin appears whenever you make a mistake."
"Well then look out for long ears, she'll spawn an army by herself!"
"Just you wait dwarf, my arrows won't miss a single goblin!"
"I heard that they come from the moon. It's cold and barren, our world is warm and wealthy, they hate that so they come here to steal it." Goblin Slayer added as he was greasing his shotgun.
"From an academic point of view, there is reason to believe that they were created by someone." Wizard said as she took a sip of her tea, while reading a book.
"What do you mean?" Fighter asked.
"They are a mono-gender race whose ability to reproduce is depended on violence, their hand claws make them unable to perform anything but crude labor. Making them a race than not only cannot survive but in war, but also are incapable of any other lifestyle then war. In short the goblins are not a race, they are a biological weapon of mass destruction." Wizard added.
"And we're the ones that are ripping it to shreds! Good gods we're cool!" Warrior said with a chuckle and Noble Fighter grinned in a ladylike way before leaning even further into him.
"This is so nostalgic! It reminds me of when we we're only individual parties, seems so far ago! It's like like before Slayer Keep didn't even exist!" Rhea Ranger said with a cheeky grin, killing goblins was more fun in a big group, but she did sometimes thing of when they were smaller.
"We've come a long way since then. I think pretty soon we'll have be a real military order. Maybe we should start negotiations for a charter." Human Nun.
"Are we really a military order? We're a bit to casual for that." Priestess said in curiosity.
"We are not a military order." Goblin Slayer said all of a sudden. "We are weak individually, but we no longer act by our own, but in tandem with others, we pool our time, resources and personal to achieve victory not because we are stronger, but by having better synchronization and timing than what we face and we are able to sustain ourselves trough pragmatism and simple, yet efficient and crude but also cheap to make and maintain weapons and means. In short...to what we hunt, we are the goblins!" Goblin Slayer said all of a sudden, silencing the rest.
Who immediately grinned at him.
"Did you just call me a goblin tono? How dare you insult the bride to be by calling her an ugly goblin!" Noble Figher said and did a mock cry session.
"I am a goblin then? Guess I'll save up on head shaving products, sine the species is bald." Human Nun said in a deadpan voice with a grin on her face.
"Oh no! I am the only goblin that's gonna have a female goblin for a wife! I'll have to fight every goblin in the world!" Warrior lamented in an over dramatic manner.
"From an academic point of view I could save up research money, since I could experiment on myself, that is good." Wizard said in a serious manner, though the smile never left his face.
"Hey Ranger-san. After we finish killing every other goblins, wanna do a double mutual harakiri, to rid the world of goblins?"
"Sure Fighter-tan!" she replied with a grin.
"Goblin ey? That means that I can have an easier time infiltrating nests to kill them!
"That's two more adventurers you have to do Orcbolg! Really, calling me a goblin!"
"I do not think I can pass for a goblin, perhaps a champion or lord." Lizard Priest said
"I'm covered most of the time in goblin guts and blood, so I might as well be." Priestess said with a thousand yard stare in her eyes.
Before they all burst into laughter.
And despite himself Goblin Slayer did give out a small chuckle himself.
Despite their grim purpose, this was an amusing time.
Genocide was always fun when performed with friends!
There always was a massive table of expansive wood in almost every command center that he had graced in the past several years, or so Metternich thought.
No matter how little supplies, ammunition, medicine or fuel could be transported through the supply lines, there always were things like this present.
"No wonder the Empire was doing so badly in the war."
Metternich thought to himself and gave a small chuckle as he smiled with true mirth as he gazed at the table in disappointment.
The military and its true priorities, there before him in all its woody glory
BALADA: A Song of Stars by R.