The area surrounding human territory was crawling with goblins.
Just a short way up the mountain from Lasagna Village, I could already sense goblins everywhere, small groups of two or three moving in all directions.
Maybe they avoid forming larger groups so they won’t be spotted by humans? Works out for me, but with so many of them around, it’s hard to pick a target.
Instead of relying on their presence alone, I made sure to aim carefully only after spotting them, and by 11:30, I’d managed to take out forty-two of the bastards.
「Doesn’t feel like they’ve decreased at all.」
The presence of goblins surrounded me on all sides, it almost felt like I was being encircled.
I moved to a safe spot and returned to the Sefuti Home, where Ladarion had already arrived.
「Good work. How’s it looking on your end?」
「There’s too many. I run out of bullets fast.」
Apparently, this was her ‘third’ resupply.
「Same here. There are so many it’s making me dizzy.」
I took off my ghillie suit, unloaded the unused magazines to lighten my load, and sat down for lunch.
While resting, we checked each other’s positions, took a short nap, then prepared our gear and resumed extermination.
The moment I stepped outside, I could feel goblins nearby. I immediately flipped off the safety and squeezed the trigger.
We continued like that until evening, hunting goblins nonstop. By the end of the day, I’d earned five hundred thousand yen’s worth, and combined with Ladarion’s total, we’d made around one and a half million.
It might not be “steady work”, exactly, but exterminating them in small numbers like this really paid off. Taking out a whole horde wasn’t worth the trouble at all.
The next day, the same results.
The day after that, again.
Three days, four days, five days, roughly the same number each time.
「No way, this is insane! Over one thousand five hundred goblins?! Are you kidding me!?」
How the hell were humans still managing to live peacefully here? There were ‘more’ of them than when that so-called “Goblin King” showed up!
「My finger hurts.」
Even though the rifle’s semi-automatic, I still have to pull the trigger every single shot. After firing two hundred rounds a day, my finger hurts too, damn it.
「Let’s take three days off. We haven’t gone back to Lasagna Village in a while anyway.」
It had already been six days since we left, and I needed to check on the rental items too. After working six straight days, taking a short break shouldn’t be a crime.
So, I decided to spend tomorrow traveling back to Lasagna Village. After all, we’d moved nearly ten kilometers away, and I refuse to Margrave travel days as part of my vacation.
「Ladarion. If you get back first, greet Romy-san and touch the rental items. If you don’t understand something, just say you don’t know and tell her to wait for me. If you don’t feel like it, you can stay hidden in the Sefuti Home.」
Ladarion’s communication skills were still lacking. She could talk to Romy-san somehow, but she hadn’t managed to speak with Gorg yet. Forcing her would only make her withdraw more, so I’d leave it up to her mood.
「Got it. I’ll try my best.」
I patted Ladarion’s head at the doorway, then stepped outside first.
「She still doesn’t like that, huh…」
Even after exterminating fifteen hundred goblins, it didn’t feel like their numbers had gone down at all. Maybe goblins were drawn to areas where humans lived?
Since today was a travel day, I didn’t bring the SCAR-L. Still, since you never know what could happen, I carried the Benelli M4 instead. Once I entered human territory, I planned to pack it into its case and throw on a worn-out poncho.
There were thirteen roads leading toward the territory of Margrave Koraus, and during the extermination work, I had crossed two of them. Since the Sefuti Home was close to the path, I was able to reach the road quickly.
As I walked toward the town, I could sense plenty of goblins hiding nearby.
Pretending not to notice, I passed by without reacting, and none of them attacked. They seemed terrified of being discovered by me.
「Yeah, no wonder people think hunting goblins is too much trouble.」
I could sense their presence easily, so finding them wasn’t difficult, though moving around still was. But for someone without that ability, searching for goblins would be pure torture.
The lingering presence was annoying, so I drove them off with the Benelli M4.
Some of them died, others were wounded, and the rest scattered in a panic.
Ammo costs weren’t an issue now, so I didn’t bother holding back. When the dump pouch ran empty, I pulled more rounds from my backpack to reload.
「Man, bullets are heavier than you’d think.」
After I’d gone through the hundred or so rounds I’d brought, my backpack felt surprisingly light. Soldiers who carry hundreds of bullets on top of all their other gear really are monsters.
Once I was down to a dump pouch’s worth, I stopped chasing goblins off and hurried onward.
After walking about three kilometers, a boar with arrows sticking out of its right side suddenly burst out of the trees. Whoa, scared the hell out of me!
I hastily raised my Benelli M4, and right after that, a group of adventurer-looking boys came charging out as well.
「Aim for its legs, Bezzuk!」
「Then don’t stand in front of me!」
The four boys vanished into the trees in an instant.
「…What the hell was that…?」
I stood there dumbfounded for a moment, but soon after, I heard what sounded like the boys’ screams.
I had no obligation to save them, but watching young lives snuffed out right in front of me wouldn’t sit well either. With a sigh, I stepped off the road and wove my way through the trees.
There, I found a red-skinned goblin holding a club. A new species?
My senses couldn’t tell me that much detail, but as far as I was concerned, it was just a color variant.
「You kids, get down!」
They actually listened, well, one of them did. The boy with the sword tackled his friends and forced them to the ground. Oh, nice move.
I immediately fired six rounds into the red-skinned goblin.
「Huh? Not dead? What are you, the Red Comet or something?」
They were birdshot rounds, so the power was low, but other goblins had died from less. This one had to be a higher species or a rare variant.
I drew my machete with my left hand and swung it down toward the heavily wounded Red Comet’s head.
「──Ow!?」
Its skull was so hard I thought the blade had chipped.
「Even its head’s three times tougher? Damn it!」
Kicking the Red Comet away, I pulled the machete free and checked the edge. No chips. Phew.
I turned to the boys and gave them a confident, grown-up smile.
「You kids alright?」
But the boys didn’t seem alright, they were frozen in shock, sitting flat on the ground. Well, at least none of them had wet themselves. I’d call that impressive enough.
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