By Zephyria 
A musty smell pricked at my nose.
It was like the scent of earth after a heavy rain, or the stench of a large beast rotting away.
At the edge of the hill, reached after four days and nights of relentless travel, stood a withered tree. Struck by lightning, perhaps, its trunk was broken in the middle. I hid behind it and looked ahead.
The members of my party, arriving one by one behind me, stopped their steps and their breaths in unison.
A single building with a wide eaves stood starkly in this Magic territory. Bathed in the reddish sunset, the building was black and lumpy, looking incredibly grotesque.
With no more than a foot of wall, a single building stood tall, its roof and walls smeared haphazardly with black mud. It was taller than most Sierren buildings, but shorter than a Magic Tower. Roughly estimating from the outside, it looked to be about seven stories.
The zombies that constantly streamed out of that building were the source of the stench.
The party members tried to find answers by asking any questions they could think of.
Leon, who had been hesitant to speak at first, and Benjamin, who was naturally taciturn and usually uninvolved in such matters, now spoke up readily.
“That… that’s a zombie, right? A zombie.”
“It looks like it… At least I can tell the ogre’s arm in front is from a troll.”
“What did they attach and detach like that? It’s been proven inefficient for a long time. I don’t think the one who stitched this monster together is from the Sierren Magic Tower. Or are they?”
“There are no windows?”
“What would be the point of windows? There’s no scenery worth looking at outside. It would just weaken the walls.”
Hugh Benson or Mage Boulder usually answered such questions.
Listening to their voices, I nodded my head. That’s right. There were no windows in that large building. Given the passage of medium to large monsters like ogres, it was likely only a two or three-story building.
“Are there three entrances? Where the zombies are coming out.”
“There’s another door next to it. I don’t know if it’s used, but it seems the internal space is divided. It’s a bit strange that large and small monsters are emerging together.”
“Right. Usually, they’d be classified by size. Is there a different criterion for creating zombies?”
From the outside, the building was about the size of a Marquess’s mansion. The words “let’s go inside and take a look” didn’t come easily. The number of zombie monsters pouring out alone exceeded a hundred. A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.
“How can so many zombies be moving around so quietly…”
“They’ve woven Silence into a wide-area protective Magic Circle. They seem to have taken measures to prevent sound from leaking out, but you see it there, right? Once you go beyond the boundary line, there’s nothing you can do. The sound Sylph heard must have been heard after Ranunculus crossed the Magic Circle.”
“Hmm.”
I now saw the chimney-like passages opened to allow Ranunculus to come and go.
I lowered my gaze back to the ground. The creatures emerging from the three entrances were all heading in the same direction. This direction… South. They were heading towards Grimsvein.
The party members continued to whisper amongst themselves.
“It’s like they’re protesting that they’re bad guys, why use such exterior materials for the building.”
“It looks like they just smeared mud from nearby. The soil in the Magic territory is a bit darker, but it’s fundamentally soaked in Contaminated Mana, so it’s good as a Magic Circle catalyst.”
“Well… I suppose, if they’re hiding.”
“And guys who practice Black Magic always like that. Like wearing black robes and laughing creepily. Their laughter sounds like ‘kihahaha’ or something.”
“…Is the dark color of the floor also due to magic?”
“That just looks like bloodstains… I don’t know about here. If a large-scale magic spell were to fall from above… Ack!”
Everyone’s heads snapped around at Mage Boulder’s premature scream.
A goblin in Leon’s hand was struggling. Next to him, clear bite marks from the goblin were visible on Boulder’s pale wrist. Leon held the goblin’s lower jaw firmly with one hand to prevent it from screaming, and with the other, he grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it to shoulder height.
Come to think of it, he was here too.
I had forgotten for quite some time that this goblin was traveling with us. It was partly due to Mage Boulder’s cheerful nature, treating the perfectly fine goblin like an old pet, calling it “Kkokko, Kkokko,” but mostly because the goblin was often afraid of me and rarely came near. The goblin was always docile, always quiet. Unlike a goblin.
If that thing had a brain, it would know that Mage Boulder was the only one among our party who cared for it. Seeing the bloodstain seeping into Boulder’s thin forearm, it looked like it had been bitten quite ferociously, which was puzzling and bewildering.
It bit Boulder?
Is there a real owner inside that building? It was even more astonishing because it had always been docile when we encountered and killed other groups of Black magicians.
“Hey, wait, Leon. Kkokko, don’t… You’re suffocating!”
“Although it’s a small monster, goblins are intelligent and fierce individuals. If it bites properly, losing an arm is instantaneous. You can’t keep a creature that shows aggression by your side, Mage.”
“No, no. It bit gently. Let’s just talk for a moment, just listen to what it has to say. Please?”
Gently, my foot.
Instead of pointing out Mage Boulder’s gentle nature, I said what was necessary first.
“Wait, Boulder. Treat it first. The smell of blood spreading far is not good.”
“Yes. Yes. I’ll treat it, so just… just let go of its nose.”
“…Sigh.”
Leon adjusted the position of his hand covering the goblin’s mouth in sync with Mage Boulder’s spell. Mage Boulder hastily cast a healing spell on his forearm, then immediately reached out towards the goblin. He really had no fear.
The goblin, which had drawn the attention of all the Sword Masters the moment it attacked Boulder, was even more intimidated. Tears welled up in its large eyes, and it began to sob uncontrollably. It was a cunning act, but it seemed to work sufficiently on Mage Boulder.
Boulder lowered his drooping eyes further and looked back at the party, seeking permission.
“… ”
“Hey, I’ll try talking.”
“Are you going to let it eat your fingers this time too?”
“This one has a brain too, it won’t do that. Still, goblins have the intelligence of an eight-year-old child, and Kkokko is quite intelligent among them. There must be a clear reason why it suddenly did this. Right, Kkokko?”
“… ”
Leon, instead of handing the goblin directly to Mage Boulder, placed it on the ground and held it by the scruff of its neck.
It was the right choice. If it had leaped up and bitten his neck, the frail mage would have died instantly. Just before Leon removed his hand from the goblin’s mouth, I also spoke.
“If it makes a loud noise like before, I will blow its head off.”
I wasn’t speaking to Boulder, but to the goblin.
The pale goblin trembled again. Boulder, with a look of utmost benevolence, crouched down in front of it. What to do with this fearless creature. I placed my hand on my sword hilt and waited.
Boulder asked in a muffled voice, “Do you know what’s inside? Have you been in there?”
“…Yes.”
“What is it?”
“Family.”
…Family?
As far as I knew, goblins lived in tribes. They practiced group reproduction and communal child-rearing.
Come to think of it, this one had also spouted nonsense justifying its regression with talk of marriage or something.
I had suspected this goblin was connected to the Black magicians, but I had forgotten about it after many years. The things I saw when I first captured it came back to me as vividly as if it were yesterday.
The black wyvern that held the Dantian, the goblin that acted like a baby wyvern without hesitation and thrashed about, the mediums of the Aventa Bump that this thing carried around in bundles…
Mage Boulder continued to ask questions. He had taught it human language diligently, so it was absurd that it was asking questions in human language, not Goblin.
…It was a ploy to remind us that it was an intelligent beast. Whether it wanted us to pity it, or whether Boulder’s nature was simply too kind, was unclear.
“Do you think we shouldn’t go in there?”
“… ”
“What were you trying to escape for?”
The goblin mumbled its answer this time.
Boulder, who understood its chattering words immediately, nodded benevolently.
“Escape? From us?”
The goblin shook its head. Still held by the scruff of its neck by Leon, it flailed its bent forelegs, trying to explain. It looked completely exhausted from its gestures.
“Do you want your tribe to come out of there?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you bite me?”
The goblin glanced back at me. At Leon, and at the others.
Right. We had just been discussing ways to eradicate the Black magician’s lair.
We didn’t have the luxury of considering the circumstances of those inside.
The God of Records did not kill humans or monsters with his own hands. Therefore, our strength was only six.
Even with me, for six humans to defeat hundreds of monsters and dozens of Black magicians was like flipping a hornet’s nest with bare hands. For our party to resolve this without anyone getting hurt, it was best to act before they noticed our presence.
But, what if there was a way to infiltrate their lair?
Mage Boulder continued to ask.
“There are people holding your tribe captive in there.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know the way?”
The goblin nodded with hunched shoulders.
If the Black magicians were using goblins, the tasks they would assign them were obvious. Petty errands that even goblins could do would be their main duty. They wouldn’t have created paths for goblins to travel in plain sight.
If they were carrying human-use items, that passage wouldn’t be that narrow. It was a more attractive option to avoid dealing with those large monsters and secretly eliminate the Black magicians who might be perched above their heads.
Those watching exchanged glances.
Among those who met my gaze, Hugh Benson smiled the most broadly. It was obvious what he was thinking. Mage Boulder, glancing at our reactions, had deep wrinkles forming around his eyes, fitting for his age.
Boulder’s voice became higher and more cheerful.
“Then, shall we help?”
“…Gyaak?”
The goblin’s shiny, wet eyes widened in surprise.