I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince-Chapter 491: E-rank promotion test (3)
Thanks to the fact that the idiot had calmed down after taking a beating, the advance from that point onward was surprisingly smooth.
The formation remained the same as when we first entered: Baum as the vanguard, with Mirif and me taking the middle and rear positions. He shot me a look as if to say, “Shouldn’t the strongest one be leading?” but after almost dying once, he didn’t dare voice any complaints.
‘...He’s probably going to cause trouble at least once more before we get out of here.’
At that point, even Mirif wouldn’t be able to stop me if I decided to kill him. She had clearly heard me say that I’d kill him if he started acting up again.
“Sister Lily...”
“...What?”
“Oh, I just wanted to thank you for earlier. If not for you, I might have been seriously hurt.”
“...Right.”
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“Yes...”
Despite my cold tone, Mirif couldn’t seem to find the words to continue.
Priests always have this problem. They’re so gentle and soft-spoken that they can’t express their emotions directly. If Agnes had been here instead, she probably would have roasted that idiot with fire magic long before I lost my patience.
And if it had been Ethan, he would have drawn his sword the moment the idiot tried to touch my mask...
...
Why am I even thinking about Ethan? It’s not like he and I would ever find ourselves exterminating goblins together.
The last remaining link of “master and personal maid” between us was severed, making it impossible to return to how things were.
“Hey, hey! Hurry up and follow me! We should wrap up this mission quickly and head back...!”
“...”
“...”
“...Damn.”
Now neither Mirif nor I were responding to him, so he cursed under his breath and marched further into the goblin nest.
I could only hope he’d go in ahead and get himself killed while I kept a protective eye on Mirif as we followed him inside.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“...Is that it? That’s all? Nothing special.”
At the far end of the goblin nest, Baum muttered in his dumb voice after we’d finished what was more of a massacre than a battle.
Scattered on the ground lay the bodies of numerous goblin younglings. Other than three or four adult goblins, there wasn’t anything close to a real threat, making it a slaughter on our end.
While the idiot had been eagerly swinging his sword at the defenseless young goblins, Mirif had quietly covered the bodies of the fallen and offered a prayer.
“May you find eternal rest, Sister of unknown name.”
Even if they were low-level monsters, they were still monsters. In groups, they could wreak havoc near villages, leaving ordinary people defenseless.
Three bodies lay among the fallen, women who’d been forced into pregnancies they didn’t want. If left alone, the goblins would have likely come back to the village for more victims soon enough.
“What’s with the pointless ritual? They’re dead anyway.”
“Pointless...?”
“Now that the mission’s over, let’s just get out of here. You wouldn’t want to end up like them, right?”
“...”
Spouting his tactless words, the idiot clutched the pouch of goblin ears and started heading back toward the entrance.
Mirif cast him a cold glance at his disrespect, but she held back her feelings, nodding as if in agreement.
“Yes. You’re right. It’s time to go back.”
I noticed how her tone when addressing him had grown progressively more indifferent. I quietly thought to myself... at this rate, she probably wouldn’t stop me if I did decide to kill him.
‘Sigh... what to do...’
He hadn’t exactly crossed the line since my warning, even if his incompetence was frustrating. He was still fulfilling his role as vanguard, after all. And it wouldn’t be fair to ruin Mirif’s promotion test over this; she might end up resenting me for it.
‘Keeping Mirif around wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially since she’s a priest.’
Suppressing the urge to end the idiot right there, I gathered up the goblin ears along with Mirif and made my way back.
“Stay behind me. It’ll be easier for me to protect you if something happens.”
“Yes.”
“What’s taking you so long?! Hurry up, or I’m not waiting if goblins start coming back!”
“...”
“...”
If you’re the vanguard, that’s exactly what you should be doing, you idiot.
Ignoring his impatient shouts, I kept pace with Mirif, who followed beside me. If he were to abandon us and try running off, he’d only be putting himself in more danger.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Mirif, are you coming to the guild tomorrow? If you’re free, want to join me on another mission?”
“...No. I have duties at the church tomorrow, so I won’t be at the guild.”
“Oh, alright. How about the day after? Or anytime later, really.”
“...I’m not sure. My schedule’s not set after the day after tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s right! Maybe I’ll drop by the Aurelia Church next time. Do they give discounts to friends for healing?”
“...”
On our way out of the goblin nest, the idiot kept up a stream of annoying chatter directed at Mirif.
Apparently, he felt safe enough now to go back to his old self, once again proving how consistently idiotic he was.
‘Well, it’s her choice, so she can deal with it.’
What kept me from snapping was that he was focusing solely on Mirif now, without attempting any physical contact.
Mirif was the one who’d asked me to spare him, so she could bear the consequences.
Of course, I was ready to shove a dagger down his throat the moment he said something unnecessary to me, but my earlier warning had been effective. He didn’t even glance my way.
“Maybe I should visit the church tomorrow. It’s fate that we met, after all. How about grabbing a drink together...”
-Thump, thump.
“...?”
“No, thank you.”
“Oh, come on, no need to be shy! You should just relax and...”
“Wait. Shut up.”
“...”
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed faintly through the noise.
Wondering if I’d misheard, I lowered myself and pressed my ear to the wall.
“What now? What’s your problem this time?”
“...”
“If you’re going to interrupt, at least tell us wh—”
“Shut it. I can’t hear over your babbling.”
“What’s there to hear? We already killed all the goblins at the deepest point; nothing’s going to suddenly....”
“Hey, you idiot! Open your mouth one more time, and I’ll actually kill you!”
“...”
How many times do I have to tell him to be quiet? This insufferable idiot kept running his mouth, forcing me to snap at him as I finally heard the voices of “something else” echoing through the cave.
‘Kerk.’
‘Krrrk, kek.’
‘Keehek!’
...Right. It’s a goblin nest, after all; it couldn’t just end with a few goblins.
If their numbers were this low, it meant that half the nest had already gone out to “hunt” by the time we arrived.
It could be just a food run or an attempt to capture new females for breeding.
‘Keehek!’
‘Kirrek, keek!’
“What the hell...? I thought we were done with this?”
“...”
-Clench.
The idiot and Mirif also heard the goblins approaching, gripping their weapons and readying for a fight.
From the sounds I’d heard so far, there {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} were quite a few of them. Possibly ten or more, or maybe even more than that.
When goblins go out “hunting” for females, roughly half of the horde leaves, so it could be even larger.
Given we’d killed around thirty goblins in the nest, excluding the younglings, we might be facing a similar-sized group.
‘Twenty, maybe thirty goblins? Protecting someone while dealing with that many is manageable, but...’
What concerned me was the heavy footsteps I’d heard earlier.
It didn’t sound like goblins; it had too much weight. Maybe it was multiple goblins stomping together, but the heavy steps kept getting clearer and closer.
-Thump, thump, thump!
“Wh-what’s that sound?!”
“...!!!”
The idiot looked around in panic, while Mirif clutched her staff tightly, tense.
I readied my dagger, realizing I hadn’t misheard the footsteps. Then the source of the sound appeared before us, accompanied by a horde of goblins.
-Thud! Thud!
‘Geraaaaargh!’
“Aaaah! What the hell is that?!”
“Eek...”
...A Goblin King.
Why the hell is one of those showing up here?
