Volume 2 - CH 7

We explained everything that happened up till now to the goblin queen. Once she finished hearing everything, the goblin queen got up and bowed on the ground in front of me.

“…Thank you very much. Without your help our goblin tribe may have already been annihilated.”

“Please don’t mind it. You’ve already promised to let me stay here for a bit. More importantly do you feel alright?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, Crest, there’s no problem.” The goblin queen gave me a big smile. Since she looked so much like a human, it made me a bit shy. “By the way Crest. There’s something I’d like to ask you. Why is a human such as yourself here in the lower world? I thought humans all lived in the upper world…”

“Oh, um… I was banished here on the premise that I couldn’t use my skill.” Saying this caused not just the goblin queen, but also Darkle and the rest to have their eyes shoot wide open. That’s to be expected though. There’s no way they could think my skill is weak after everything I’ve shown them.

The goblin queen was blinking as she looked at me in puzzlement. She’s so cute… I thought.

“Wh, why would they do that though? Based on everything I’ve heard so far, it sounds like an excellent skill…”

“It’s definitely an amazing skill, however… in order for it to be amazing I need to use points. In order to get points I need to defeat monsters. Back when I was in the upper world I didn’t know anything about that.”

“…Oh I see. I’ve certainly heard that there aren’t many monsters in the upper world. So since you couldn’t use it… they banished you to the lower world.”

“…That’s how it went.” Talking about it was sad. Well, not that I had any desire to go back to the upper world by this point. I didn’t really have anyone I was close to there after all.

I knew some people back when I was in the knight’s academy, but that was about it.

“So is your current goal to return to the upper world then, Crest?”

“…No, I think it would be nice to live my life freely down here.”

“You want to live here freely?”

“Yeah. Even if I proved to them how good my skill is, all that waits is the annoying life of a nobleman…” Aristocrats are a pain, and I don’t really know how to deal with my fiancée. I’m pretty sure our engagement has already been annulled, but what that entails isn’t exactly clear.

“So that’s why you came here then?”

“…Here? What do you mean?”

“Um, are you not aware?”

“No, about what?”

“If you go south from here you’ll arrive at the gate between the upper and lower worlds. So if you want to avoid going back to the upper world, then it makes sense that you would go the opposite direction…”

“Oh, is that how it is.” Well I didn’t know that. There wasn’t really much to the south, so I didn’t explore there much. …No, I guess the reason there was nothing around there was because it was close to the gate.

There were always those people called the lower world guardians near the gate. They come out periodically to the lower world to hunt monsters so they don’t spill into the upper world. They also just had the role of holding back any monster invasion.

There probably weren’t many monsters to the south since they hunt the monsters around there. This also explains out Albert was able to find me so soon. More people from the Hauburst house will probably come by to search for me. It would probably be best to head further north.

“…Crest, If you don’t mind me asking, I have a request to ask of you.”

“…What?” The way she asked that so formally put me on edge.

The goblin queen squeezed her hand to her chest before looking at me. “If you could, then… could you perhaps get engaged with me?”

Her face was dyed vermillion as she looked to the side. …I seized up inside since I couldn’t comprehend this. I opened my eyes wide. “Wh, what do you mean by that!?”

“I, I mean it as it is… There are various things to discuss to explain the specifics but…”

“W, would you mind telling me?” The goblin queen nodded in response.

“…We were in the talks before over an alliance. Goblins aren’t particularly strong as monsters. The goblins here are all more powerful than wild goblins, but we’re still weaker than other species.”

“An alliance huh.”

“Yes. And for that alliance, the other party required… me.” The goblin queen’s explanation reminded me of my time as an aristocrat.

It was common for two houses to engage their sons and daughters to each other to improve relations between fellow houses. It was similar to the relation between Ellis and I. Well, in my case I was marrying up given my low standing in the ducal house.

“That’s pretty similar even though you’re monsters.”

“Are humans the same?”

“Pretty much. …So, why do you want to be engaged to me…?”

“I want you to become the king of us goblins… and show our power to the werewolf tribe.” The goblin queen stared straight into my eyes. So essentially the goblin queen wishes to submit to me to save her family.

“Were the werewolf tribe the ones to propose the alliance?”

“…Yes.”

“How many of them are there?”

“…There should be around thirty of them. It’s certainly not a lot of them, but they’re strong. The only goblins who can oppose them would probably just be myself and Darkle.”

…So basically once I gave them a name. If they can get as strong as Darkle then they might be able to beat the werewolves.

I let out a sigh and declared to the goblin queen. “…Sorry. Things like a marriage of convenience are what I hate more than anything. I’ll have to reject your proposal.”

“…B, but then could you at the very least lend us your help just this time!? Please, I’ll do anything you ask…”

“…No, even without that I’ve come too far to back out now. I’ll help out.”

“Eh!?” The goblin queen looked at me in shock.