—–
After the entire situation was over, Takeshi and Laura were already woken up, so Takeshi ended up helping us catch a lot of fish, which we quickly grilled and seasoned with some salt and herbs. We then served it to everyone with us to fill up their bellies.
There were many people with us, I don’t know if we’ll even be able to feed them for very long without reaching the goblin village yet, but it seems we are very close. I had already reached the village with some of my snake clones which moved through the night, and things were doing alright. Everyone was safe, which made me very relieved.
I had decided to forget what happened this morning and start anew with my friends, as I didn’t want them to get angry with one another and forge a rivalry that would only destroy our great friendship, so I gathered them all while our caravan was moving, and decided to talk it out with them.
“So because of that, I would want to start again. Let’s forget this morning’s incident, and let’s all become friends with one another as we had always been, alright?” I said with a gentle smile.
I held Partner and Emeraldine’s hands with my own while I used my snake tail to hold Lucifer’s hand.
All three of them sighed as they nodded faintly.
“I agree, I went a bit overboard there… I don’t want to remember such an incident anymore, so… I am sorry, deeply sorry… E-Especially to you, Maria. I shouldn’t have acted as I did….” Lucifer apologized.
“Don’t worry about it. As long as you’re sorry, we are all good!” I said with a gentle smile.
Lucifer suddenly blushed a bit. He was showing more and more emotions as time went by, and now he was being less cold and tsundere than before.
“Thanks,” He said while nodding.
“I-I am deeply sorry too, Maria! I shouldn’t have done something so unsightly to you….” Emeraldine kneeled before me and asked for forgiveness.
I petted her head gently.
“Okay, it’s okay, as long as you get it,” I said.
“T-Thank you for being so nice with me….” She sighed as her eyes suddenly glowed with bright yellow-gold light.
“Sorry, Master… I got a bit angry there… I shouldn’t have threatened everyone with my spear,” Sighed Partner, as she was currently cleaning her spear with a leather towel like she often does every morning.
“Alright, alright~ We are all good then! Now, let’s just enjoy the trip back to town, okay? I sent some snakes to the Goblin Village, and they said that things were doing okay. Nothing bad has happened,” I said.
“That’s a relief to hear! I can’t wait to meet the Goblins again. There were a lot of people there too. I wonder if some of them are still there and didn’t leave,” Said Emeraldine.
“The Goblins are nice people. I can’t wait to get there too…!” Said Partner.
“Hmm… I guess I miss them,” Muttered Lucifer.
He had grown fond of the children, which he often took care of and let them play over his big dragon body. He had grown so fond of them he even got titles from it.
“And I can’t wait to meet Gofumin-chan again! That adorable little goblin girl must be missing me so much… I will make sure to give her lots of gifts when we get there!” I said.
“Gofumin?” Asked Takeshi.
“Gofumin is the adorable little daughter of the Goblin Chief, which we just call Chief. She’s an adorable little cutie pie,” I said.
“Ooh, I wonder how small the goblin children are,” Said Laura.
“They’re small like this…!” Said Partner, as she showed that they were around a meter tall.
“So small?!” Exclaimed Laura.
“Yeah, they’re tiny little babies. When they grow up into adults, they become taller, of course, but the tallest adult was the chief at a meter and a half. Well, that changed after they evolved into Hobgoblins thanks to our help, but I don’t know how much they had changed since then,” I said.
“I see… How big are Hobgoblins?” Asked Takeshi.
“They are probably around your size, kids,” Said Lucifer.
“Eh? Isn’t that still small, though?!” Shouted Laura once again.
“Ah… Well, yeah… Even as Hobgoblins, they’re still not the tallest race, but they are slender and more flexible with taller bodies!” Explained Emeraldine.
“Goblins are good at using all sorts of tools. They’re the perfect jack of all trades and master of none! There were crafters, healers, and so on within them. We had to just nurture them and let them level up to awaken their innate talents. By merely evolving into Hobgoblins, some even gained Job-like races such as Hobgoblin Warrior and gained weapon techniques as skills,” Said Lucifer.
“Wait, now that I think about it… Jobs! I had brought this when I was assaulting the entire duchy… Look at this baby,” I said.
“Eh?! That’s…! It can’t be!” said Lucifer.
“Oh yes, it is!” I said.
“You stole that, Maria?!” Asked Emeraldine.
“I sure did!” I said.
“Now everyone will be able to change Jobs, well done, master,” Said Partner, as she petted my head.
“B-But how did you get that?!” Asked Takeshi.
“Yeah! H-How?!” Asked Laura.
“Fufu…! While I was making a fuss in the duchy back then, I had stolen a lot of goods, and I had infiltrated into the adventurer guild sneakily and stole the Job-changing Orb thing which they used for it. With this, we’ll help everyone change Jobs if they want to,” I said pridefully.
Indeed! I had stolen this precious little thing from them for the moment. I am sure they can replenish it later on, so I don’t have to worry about them. I had also stolen many other stuff I found in that place. No hard feelings, but I am already a pickpocket, so I might as well steal people, right?
I did feel a bit bad because of the people working there being very good, but there was no point in holding back even if I knew they were nice, and it’s not like I stole directly from them anyways…
—–