Chapter 65: Dale's Reminiscence (2)

"Dale, guge, gegege."

"Whee!"

Me and a few goblins are hiding in the grass, still and breathless.

The reason we were doing that was to hunt today's meal.

There was a beast a short distance away and we had a plan to hunt it.

"Guge!"

"--!"

At the goblin's signal, we all jumped out of the grass at once. The beast, startled by our sudden appearance, runs away with its tail between its legs.

We chase after it, but we can't catch it. But that's okay.

Because our role is not to catch the beast, but to guide it.

""Gege!""

"Ha!"

As if in anticipation, a fellow goblin leaps from in front of the fleeing beast.

The goblin caught the beast, and it desperately tried to escape, but we joined in and were able to bring it to a safe end.

"Gegege!"

"Gege!"

"Eee!"

The goblin who hunted the beast yells out. I shouted as if to imitate them.

It has already been three years since the old goblin picked me up.

Of course, I don't know the official date. I just guessed it's about that long based on my feeling and the degree of growth of my body.

I was about 3 years old now, and my body had grown so big that I had long since outgrown crawling and was running around in the forest just like the goblin.

I was eating meat and nuts just like goblins, not monster milk. Well, in my case, I eat meat-based food by roasting it.

Once I tried eating raw meat just like goblins, and I had a stomachache and thought I was going to die, so an old goblin let me eat roasted meat.

Other goblins imitated me and started to grill and eat meat, and for a while there was a boom in grilled meat, but the boom soon ended, either because they got tired of the taste or because it became too much trouble to grill it.

At the age of 3, my ego was beginning to grow.

I could think things over on my own.

When that happens, questions start to arise.

I began to wonder if there was a difference between me and goblins.

The first difference was appearance.

When I first entered the river, I was suddenly puzzled by my reflection in the water.

"What's with this face, it's totally different from a goblin's," I thought.

The shape of my face is different, the color of my skin is different. It was a completely different creature.

Touching the eyes, mouth, and nose, I recognized the creature that was me.

Then I understood.

I am not like a goblin.

The second difference was language.

Goblins basically only speak "gegege" or "gugege." For some reason, when they call me, they say "Dale" but other than that, it's mostly "gegege."

But with that, the goblins were able to communicate well.

For example, they would say, "I'm lazy today. Should we skip the hunt?" , "Oh, great!　Let's back out!" But I can only hear them saying "gegege" to me.

Perhaps goblins have no concept of language.

Words like "earth" and "water" are all understood with "gegege" so I can't blame them.

No matter how hard we tried to understand them, it was impossible to comprehend their language.

It was only natural. Because I am a human being and goblins are monsters.

The inability to communicate through words was a problem.

So I decided to "learn by seeing".

How to eat meat, how to hunt beasts, how to play in my spare time.

I tried to learn everything by watching.

Because it can't be helped.

The goblin is trying desperately to explain it to me, but all they says are "gegege".

So I, too, say "ah" and "gege~" and words like that.

If you can't understand with words, you have to learn by seeing with your body.

And that wasn't really difficult.

Living creatures can communicate with gestures without relying on words.

It's not only gestures, but also emotions.

Laughing, crying, anger, love, etc.

If you can sense their facial expressions and moods, you can usually tell what they are trying to say.

I am not like a goblin.

But still, to me, goblins were important friends.

***

"Dale....."

"Ah~."

"Gegege, gege."

One day.

I was with an old goblin who picked me up and raised me.

I know now that the old goblin was the boss of the pack, and all decisions were made by the old goblin. And the old goblin was loved by the other goblins.

Now, three years later, the old goblin is even older.

His body is thin and he cannot eat enough food. He cannot even stand up properly.

He, myself, and the other goblins must have noticed this.

The old goblin's life wasn't much longer.

"Dale."

"Hm?"

The old goblin moves his finger, meaning come here for a minute. As I approached, the sitting old goblin pulled me in for a hug.

The old goblin lightly hugs me with his thin arms and pats my head with a gentle hand.

Then he calls my name over and over again, "Dale...... Dale......."

I say nothing and do as I'm told.

Because it felt good to be done that way. So I felt safe and let the old goblin take care of my body.

I am not a goblin. I am surely a different creature.

But to me, the old goblin was my undeniable parent who picked me up and raised me.

That is why I loved the old goblin so much and held him in affection.

I was happy that the old goblin picked me up.

Oh, how I wished the happy time would last forever.

But I would soon learn that there is happiness and there is unhappiness.

"Geez!"

"Gugege!!!!"

The goblins, returning to their territory, are screaming in their blood.

I don't know what they are saying, but I understand what they are trying to tell us from their impassioned attitude.

It was the enemy. An enemy had appeared.

An enemy so powerful that his fellow goblins were panicked.

Immediately, the other goblins in the territory rallied and headed for the enemy.

Of course, I tried to go with them,

"Dale!　Guge, guge!"

"Hm?"

The old goblin grabs my arm and shouts something at me.

I could tell from his pointing gesture that he was telling me to run somewhere.

But I am one of the goblins. I can't just run away.

So I shook off the old goblin's arm and headed off with the other goblins to defeat a powerful enemy.

"Oh ...... eh?"

My eyes widened when we met.

There were four enemies, and they looked just like me.

"Hey look, there's a kid among the goblins!"

"Damn!　They even kidnapped that kid!"

"I was investigating the forest, looking for goblin nests, and I never thought I'd find a kid......"

"It looks like he's safe, but let's get him out of there as soon as possible!　I feel sorry for the kid!"

Those four were saying words I didn't know.

But I kind of get it. I don't know if it's a human instinct, but I know that those four and I are the same creature.

I know now that they were adventurers.

They came to this forest to do some quest or something and came across goblins who had kidnapped human children.

I wasn't kidnapped, but since I don't speak human language, of course I couldn't tell them.

I can't tell them, because I don't speak human language, but I can tell them that these goblins are my friends.

"Hey!"

"Die, goblins!"

"Gege....."

"Gaaaahhh!"

Stunned, the goblins attack the adventurers.

But the adventurer is an expert monster-killer, equipped with a sword, shield, and armor, and also able to use magic.

The goblins, classified as low class monsters, were no match for the adventurers, who were killed in a matter of seconds.

It really happened so fast. I couldn't believe it.

The people who raised me and spent my days with me were killed in an instant.

"Guh......"

"What the hell is this kid!"

"Stop it, we want to help you!"

"Maybe he's brainwashed. I'll put him to sleep."

I was so angry that I couldn't stand by while my friends were killed right in front of my eyes.

But there was no way a 3-year-old kid with no power could do anything about it, and I was easily caught.

I was caught easily, and I fell asleep suddenly.

"Maybe there's goblin territory. Let's crush them while we still can."

"Shouldn't we return the kid we protected first?　It's not safe to take him with us."

"No, it's going to be okay. I've already put this kid to sleep and I'm protecting him."

The adventurer carries me and proceeds on his way.

And when they found the territory, they destroyed the remaining goblins.

I bit my lip to keep from falling asleep.

But maybe I should have stayed asleep.

If only I had stayed asleep, I wouldn't have had to watch my fellow goblins get killed.

"So this is the last of them."

"Ugh!　Aah!"

"Oops, I thought you were asleep.　Hey, did you properly cast the sleep spell?"

"That's funny, I thought ...... I did it right."

"Well, let's just kill him and get the hell out of here."

And the adventurer was about to lay his hands on the last remaining old goblin.

I twisted to keep them from doing so, but the adventurer stopped me.

(No, don't do that!)

(Please don't kill that man!)

(That person is my ...... my precious parent!)

I shouted, but my words didn't reach the adventurer.

They would have heard it as a mere rant.

"Dale ...... gege."

"ah ...... ah."

My parents called my name one last time, and with a smile on their face, they took his heads off.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I was wailing as my beloved parents were killed, and the moment I lost my energy, the effects of the magic came and I fell asleep with tears streaming down my face.


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