Chapter 7. Goblins, Demons, Children (3)
Tonight, the forest could not close its eyes.
A flickering radiance, like lanterns offered to console the souls of the dead. Torches lined up in a row clawed at the silent darkness.
But they were not majestic conquerors of the night. Hesitation dripped from their footsteps, and the faces revealed beneath the flames were stiff with tension. Most of them, like frightened beasts, had their senses on edge, too busy scanning the dim bushes around them.
"Th-that thing...."
"Ugh—! You scared me!"
Flap, flap—at the sudden beating of wings from some unidentified flying creature, five or six burly men shrieked and recoiled. Someone mistook fireflies for the goblins' glowing eyes and made a huge fuss. Another nearly caused injuries by wildly swinging a pitchfork after being startled by someone else's footsteps.
Among the group, there was only one person who was not swayed by fear. The large man with sun-darkened skin, following the guide at the very front.
Kadim's face was utterly expressionless, as if he had forgotten all emotions. His stride was so fast that he nearly overtook the guide several times.
This untimely test of courage finally came to an end when they reached the vicinity of the cave. Nervous glances darted back and forth as a fierce but silent battle of nerves unfolded. When someone poked him insistently in the waist, the man who had reluctantly lent out his hand axe stepped forward awkwardly.
"Ahem, we'll... go back and wait now. The goblins might suddenly attack the village, after all...."
It was a pathetic excuse, but Kadim didn't care. Anyone already frightened by demons would be of little help anyway. Rather than dragging along a crowd that would only get in the way, it was better to fight alone.
Still, he couldn't go completely by himself. Kadim looked at Duncan and jerked his chin.
"Peddler, you're coming with me."
"Y-yes? Me?"
"I need someone to hold a torch and keep the light while I fight the demon."
Kadim had good night vision, but he couldn't pierce absolute darkness. To fight inside a cave where not a single ray of light reached, he needed someone to illuminate the way.
"...."
Duncan stared into the cave. A pitch-black maw gaping wide. His saliva slid down his throat without him realizing it. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it felt as though faint screams were drifting out from within.
'Ugh... I really don't want to go....'
But he had no choice. The barbarian cast him an indifferent glance, and the villagers were busy avoiding eye contact. There was no one who looked willing to step up in his place.
"...Understood, milord. Whew, let's go."
With a deep, ground-shaking sigh, Duncan exhaled. The villagers handed him a spare torch shaft and flint, then hurriedly fled as if running for their lives.
The two of them stood before the cave. When the light spilled inside, a path sloping gently downward came into view. The passage widened the deeper it went, and along the edges ran a thin trench with water trickling softly. Kadim took the lead, while Duncan followed cautiously behind, lighting the way.
From the entrance onward, neither demons nor goblins leapt out. For a while, Duncan carefully examined stalactites and rocks large enough to hide behind. Yet not even a trace of monsters appeared. The screams he thought he had heard earlier also seemed to have been nothing more than his imagination.
His tension easing somewhat, Duncan glanced at Kadim and struck up a conversation.
"Milord, um... may I ask you one thing?"
"...."
"Why do you help them without scolding them? They offered their own children to demons, and didn't even try to rescue them themselves—just ran away. They're despicable people, aren't they?"
He hadn't really expected a proper answer. It was just something he said to break the awkward silence of walking in wordless gloom.
Kadim shot Duncan a sideways glance.
"Have you ever faced a living demon?"
"Eh? Uh, no...."
He hadn't. Although rumors said demons were rampant across the continent, he always altered his routes whenever such stories spread. The only demons the peddler had ever seen were corpses in the black market.
The barbarian let out a small sigh and offered a rather long explanation.
"Humans who face demons directly are changed forever. Every noble will to live is crushed, leaving only searing fear and a desperate craving for survival. A few manage to overcome that and stand against demons, but you can't expect that level of fortitude from ordinary people."
"B-but still, milord, no matter what, how can they offer their own children as sacrifices? Even beasts know how precious their young are...."
"Sometimes, to survive, you must wade through filth and swallow refuse. Even if it's ugly, it was a choice they made for survival. You can't condemn them outright. Didn't you hear their excuse? They said there was no other option."
"N-no, even so, from the child's perspective, isn't it the same as the whole world abandoning them? What meaning is there in a life that survives through such cruelty?"
"...."
The barbarian's face hardened. No answer came to that final question. Duncan thought he had spoken out of turn and clapped a hand over his mouth, pale.
But Kadim wasn't angry. He was simply thinking—thinking that something felt reversed.
Duncan's sense of ethics was far closer to reality than his own, twisted through following heroes and crossing seas of blood.
'...Even if I return to reality like this, will I be able to live properly?'
It was a hollow question, floating uselessly in the air. Rather than that, the question Duncan asked next—trying to change the subject—was far more meaningful.
"Th-that aside, milord. Do you think the kidnapped children are still alive?"
Kadim closed his eyes and reviewed the habits of the demons he had encountered in the past.
The recollection was brief.
"If the demon were less cunning and less malicious, it would've killed them. But if it's truly cunning and evil, then it definitely kept them alive."
"What? What do you mean by that—"
Before he could question the apparent contradiction, a grotesque cry scraping against the vocal cords echoed through the cave.
– Kiiik, kieek!
– Kik, kieehee...!
Red eyes lurking between the stalagmites gleamed as they caught the torchlight. Blind killing intent washed over their skin. Duncan forgot all his questions and began backing away.
"H-hiik!"
The moment the peddler stumbled over a rock and the barbarian hurled his hand axe happened almost simultaneously. Following the flickering motion of the torch, the axe—its shadow stretching and warping—struck squarely between the eyes of the goblin at the front.
Thud—!
– Kek!
It happened so suddenly that the goblins didn't even realize what had occurred. They merely stared in confusion at their collapsing kin.
In that instant, Kadim drew the blade at his waist and charged.
"Hraaah!!"
Stab—
– Grrk, hihk....
The blade pierced straight through a throat no bigger than a bean. The goblin staggered, wheezing like a punctured bellows. Kadim kicked the body away, pulled out the blade, then bent down to retrieve his hand axe as well.
Thud—
Another goblin fell as its forehead was crushed by the axe. Kadim curled his lips into a cold smile. The goblins finally came to their senses and rushed toward the massive barbarian.
– Kieeeeeeek!!
One goblin swung a club as thick as its own thigh.
Kadim slashed briefly, knocking the club aside, then drew the blade inward and swiftly carved a straight line across the goblin's flank. The abdominal wall split open as if torn by a metal saw, and writhing entrails spilled out.
– Kihik, kihihihik!
– Kieeeeeee!!
Two goblins leapt like frogs, charging in.
With so many stalagmites around, there wasn't room to swing the blade widely. Kadim reversed his grip, pressing the flat of the blade against his palm and holding it with only his fingertips. Then he swung it fiercely, like a short pickaxe.
Whoosh—thud, thud!
– Kek!
A narrow, fan-shaped arc. A crosswise strike packed with terrifying force shattered skulls. Unable to withstand the impact, the goblins were flung aside, collapsing and rolling across the cave floor.
Kadim regripped his sword properly before cutting his hand. Using a blade in such a cluttered space had indeed been a poor choice. He decided to butcher the remaining goblins with his hand axe instead.
He yanked the hand axe out of the frowning brow it was embedded in and brought it down onto another forehead. He crushed the hand clutching a rusted poker, then split the skull straight down from the crown. He kicked one goblin at the waist as it tumbled away and chopped down on its neck. After cleaving through the torso, he severed the spine that jutted up grotesquely as the body curled in on itself.
Under the barbarian's blood-soaked slaughter, the number of goblins rapidly dwindled. More than twenty corpses were produced in short order, leaving only three or four survivors.
– Kieeek, kieek!
– Kihihi, kiik, kiik!
Their aggression had risen sharply, but they hadn't lost their fear. The surviving goblins wailed in terror and fled in a panic. The silhouettes of the dark-green dwarfish creatures vanished into the darkness.
Duncan raised the torch with a vacant expression and looked over the blood-red carnage.
"Huff… huff… my goodness...."
"We pursue immediately. With most of the group dead, they'll definitely return to the demon."
Kadim spoke with the same flat tone as if nothing unusual had happened. Thinking he couldn't tell which of them was actually the demon, Duncan followed the barbarian.
The path, which had been widening, suddenly narrowed at a certain point. What had been wide enough for several people to pass comfortably shrank to barely enough for a single person. Kadim turned his body sideways and smashed stalactites and stalagmites with the back of his axe as he chased the goblins.
Soon, the path widened again. This didn't seem like a naturally wide passage to begin with. It was a corridor of damp limestone, its walls marked with crude carving scars—likely expanded by goblins to use as a base.
Then Kadim flinched, his eyes twitching.
A fishy stench brushed against his nose.
"Fall back. A demon is nearby."
"Y-yes? H-huh!"
Duncan hesitated as he backed away. Kadim issued orders in a low voice.
"Keep some distance, but don't run. The goblins might chase you in a group and kill you. If one or two approach, just drive them off by scorching them with the torch."
"Y-yes, ugh...."
Kadim swiftly swept his gaze around. The smell was strong enough to suggest it was close. The blood-soaked axe blade trembled faintly.
Yet it was strange. The demon didn't appear in his field of vision, nor was there any sound. No presence could be felt either. Kadim narrowed his eyes and focused his mind.
He discerned the demon's location through the torchlight cast upon the wall.
Between the thick shadows of the stalactites—an odd silhouette with sharp protrusions.
Slash—
Sensing it, he hastily retreated, but he was a beat too slow.
He managed to shield his face and avoid losing an eye, but couldn't stop three diagonal gashes from being carved across his upper arm.
Kadim suppressed the searing pain and hardened his expression.
– Ah, human.... You are a human I have never seen before.
The demon spoke coldly as it licked the blood droplets clinging to its claws.
It looked exactly as the villagers had described. Two grotesquely bulging eyes, sharp teeth, red skin, scrawny arms, and large claws and hands. At a glance it resembled a goblin, but it was far more deformed and exuded a chilling presence.
Still, not everything matched their description.
'...Damn it, it has a horn.'
A single horn, about the length of a finger joint, jutted from its temple. That horn was proof the demon was evolving into a mid-grade demon. Kadim bit his lip, frustration showing on his face.
The demon, seemingly pleased by that reaction, twisted its lips into a bizarre smile.
– I like humans. Because you're weak and obedient, right? Just look at these goblins—trembling in fear... even telling them to offer up their own children, and they do it without question.... Ki, kihik, kihihihihik....
The combat power of lower-grade demons and mid-grade demons differed entirely in kind.
If one didn't panic, a lower-grade demon could usually be defeated by a dozen or so untrained men. But a mid-grade demon was a different story—victory couldn't be guaranteed even with an elite unit. The reason Kadim failed to avoid the ambush was precisely because the demon's agility far exceeded the ordinary.
– But you killed too many of my goblins. I'm starting to dislike humans. You should beg for forgiveness.
"...."
– I'll give you a chance. That arm—you won't use it anymore. Cut it off with your axe. After you cut it off, chew up the bone and flesh and eat it all, then leave. Until then, you can't go.
Still, it was fortunate that the horn was only that large. The demon had likely only just begun evolving after kidnapping the children. If it had been a fully horn-grown mid-grade demon, Kadim wouldn't have stood much of a chance in his current state.
The demon twisted its neck unnaturally and approached Kadim. Its voice, rougher than before, grated like metal being scraped.
– You, why aren't you listening to me?
"...."
– Ah, you're listening now? You'll listen well to me from now on, right?
Kadim frowned. It sounded like the demon had been rambling on for quite a while, but he hadn't heard a single word—lost in thought. In any case, it was obvious nothing it said was worth listening to.
So Kadim replied like this as he reached toward his waist.
"No. I don't listen to what a blood bag has to say."
Rip—
He tore open a leather flask and gulped down the sticky blood inside.
A heavy, suffocating stench spread. The reek of decayed blood filled the air. The demon's eyes wavered violently for an instant as it caught the scent of its kin's blood.
– What... why would a human drink that....
Even though it was old blood, it still had an effect. Starting from the peripheral nerves, his blood surged violently throughout his body. His vision trembled, dizziness washed over him. His muscles swelled, and hot breath poured from his mouth.
The duration wouldn't be long. Determined to end it quickly, the berserker hurled the leather flask aside. Kadim scattered a dark crimson glare as he raised his hand axe high.
The moment it faced that chilling blade, the demon felt an unfamiliar fear seep down its spine.