“And I have to say this up front. Although it should be blindingly obvious, if you do anything to the people in the village… let’s be honest here, you won’t just get away with a scolding, you’d better be prepared to die.”

“I, I got it. So that’s like with a defeated tribe, right? I promise that I will not harm anyone from Carne Tribe.”

“All right, that’s good… stay away from Lupusregina, okay?”

Agu understood the mix of caution and dread in the adult goblin’s heart, and he engraved the warning into his heart. With that done, he realised he hadn’t gotten an answer to his first question, and he asked again.

“Why is Enri-san so great?”

Agu had learned to behave. Or rather, it was easy for him to learn, since he was the smartest in the tribe and couldn’t talk much with other goblins.

“Ha. …Enri… honestly speaking, she’s very strong.”

“Eh?!”

“It’s because you’re too weak that you can’t tell. if Ane-san got serious, she could take care of a barghest or whatnot with just one hand, and squeeze the blood out into a cup to drink. You know?”

“Really?!”

“Oh yes, yes, of course it’s true.”

Agu thought of Enri. Looking at it calmly, she’d been able to give forceful, effective orders. Maybe that was just the tip of the iceberg?

“Ane-san just pretends to be weak. If she hears anything funny about you, she’ll crush you to death with one hand. After that, cleanup will be a pain. There’ll be blood everywhere.”

“Is, is that so… then why, why does she have to pretend to be weak? If she were strong, wouldn’t there be fewer problems?”

“If you show off your strength, some fool will immediately come and challenge you. Won’t that cause its fair share of trouble as well?”

Agu had thought that strength was the solution to all problems, but that was not the case.

Locked in a labyrinth of self-reflection, he didn’t realise that the adult goblin in front of him had a playful expression on his face.

♦ ♦ ♦

In the middle of the night, Enri suddenly woke from sleep. Though there didn’t seem to be anything around, Enri remained still while she moved her eyes to check around her. The world before her was pitch black, lit only by a slim ray of moonlight from between the window shutters. She couldn’t see anything strange in this weak light.

But Enri’s ears could hear just fine.

There were no sounds of horses neighing, armored knights clanking, or people screaming. It was just a normal night.

Enri sighed softly, and closed her eyes. She’d been fast asleep, so she was still groggy and couldn’t get up right away.

A lot had happened today. After the talk with Agu, she had gone to explain things to the village chief and Jugem, who had returned from his scouting.

It’ll be all right, right?

In order to confirm the new information, Jugem had gone into the forest again and they had left at night. Moving at night in the forest was just too dangerous. Goblins were different from humans; they could see with small amounts of light, so they could move freely. However, there were many nocturnal magical beasts and monsters, and they would become active after the sun set.

It was much more dangerous than in the day.

If there hadn’t been the need to confirm that there were no more monsters chasing Agu, Jugem would never have set out.

It was true that the goblins were strong, but that was only in comparison to Enri. Like the Beast, many creatures in the forest were stronger than the goblins.

A sense of dread and loss fell over Enri, making her twitch, and because of that, her little sister moaned in her sleep, scooting closer to Enri’s body.

Enri half-opened her eyes, and peeked at her little sister.

Looks like it hadn’t woken her up. She could even hear her gentle snoring.

Hehe…

Just as Enri chuckled in her throat, the sound of soft knocking resounded on the door. This was definitely not a trick of the wind.

Enri frowned. What could there be so late at night? Then again, it was precisely because it was so late at night that meant it had to be important.

She gingerly separated herself from Nemu and the blanket and slowly got off the bed, moving carefully so as not to wake her little sister.

The boards creaked as she got out of bed, making Enri’s heart beat faster as she worried about waking Nemu.

After that incident, Nemu had to sleep with Enri at night, so severe was the trauma she suffered.

Enri had no intention of scolding her for it. If pressed for the reason why, it would be because Enri felt safer when she slept with her sister.

But she knew, even when the two of them were together, Nemu would sometimes be awoken by her nightmares. Because of that, Enri insisted on being with Nemu even when she was sound asleep.

Quietly, and therefore slowly, she inched toward the threshold, but the knocking didn’t stop.

Enri nervously peeked out the window, and Jugem’s silhouette was illuminated by the moonlight. She sighed in relief.

In order not to wake Nemu, Enri quietly spoke outside the window.

“Jugem-san, you’re safe.”

“Yeah, Ane-san. In the end, it was all right. I’m sorry I woke you up, but some things I think you should know early.”

Enri opened the door slightly, and squeezed her body out through the gap. She was worried that the moonlight coming in would wake Nemu. Understanding from her movements, Jugem lowered his voice and spoke.

“There’s something we need Ane-san for.”

“Now?” Enri smiled.”Of course.”

“I’m really sorry about this.”

Enri followed in Jugem’s footsteps while telling him not to apologize. It might have been better for Nemu to be awake for this, and she’d considered it, but Jugem had come for her knowing that everyone else was asleep. There had to be a reason for it.

“I’ll explain as we move along.”

Maybe he was more tired than usual, but this was work ― after Jugem made up his mind, his words took on an edge.

Although Enri felt that it was okay to be more casual with a simple village girl like herself, Jugem had never let himself relax up till now, so Enri gave up on that idea.