Goblin Slayer - Volume 16 - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4 - Rock You!

“We’re next, right?” Rhea Fighter asked.

“How many times are you going to ask that?” Wizard Boy replied in annoyance, and he looked away awkwardly.

“This is, what? The fifth time? Sixth?” she said.

“You’re counting…?” Then stop asking, he wanted to say, but he forced the words down. Instead, he grumbled, “Yeah, we’re next.”

“…Right.”

She nodded, looking serious. She was in the room the swordfighters had been given to prepare. The hall had been opened for the knights who were the center of the tournament, and she and her friend had been given one of the rooms.

Far overhead was the battlefield, whence the cheering of the crowd sometimes shook their room. Why was it so hot? Was that to get the combatants in a fighting mood? Or was it just his own nerves?

Gah… Dammit…

That probably explained it. Why he was so mad. Wizard Boy scratched his head in frustration.

It was only a short break, but taking off your armor was so much more revitalizing than leaving it on.

“…”

Yes, there was a good reason for it, but it still meant there was a girl his own age right next to him…with no armor on. Of course he would sweat a little.

He tried to keep the arcing silhouette of her figure, which her clinging, sweat-soaked underarmor made very visible, out of his line of sight.

That’s not the point.

He knew what she was focusing on. And because he knew, he was a jerk for trying to get in her way.

A jerk and stupid.

He’d become an adventurer precisely so he could stick it to the people who pointed at him and laughed. So the last thing he wanted was to do anything that would make him like them.

Still, the soft warmth beside him, rising and falling, impinged on his consciousness whether he wanted it to or not.

“You had a drink, right?” he asked in hopes of distracting himself. His voice was sharp.

“Yeah, I did,” the rhea girl said in a way that suggested her mind was elsewhere. She leaned against the back of her chair, then kept leaning until the chair started to tilt over. The movement sent some drops running down her pale throat, drawing new lines across the underarmor of her chest. “So we’re next, right?”

“Listen, you…,” Wizard Boy started, although even he wasn’t sure what he planned to say. His mouth was still open when he was rescued by a gentle knock at the door.

“…Hmm?”

“Hoh.”

They moved as one; Wizard Boy grabbed his staff and touched the boomerang at his hip as he rose from his seat. He went to the door with True Words bubbling in the back of his mind, approaching not straight on but from the side.

“Who’s there?” he called.

“Inspector of the field. Mind if I come in?”

I know that voice.

Wizard Boy let out a relieved breath and opened the door—then stared in surprise.

“Hey! Working hard?”

“Oh! You’re the girl from the farm!” the rhea exclaimed.

Wizard Boy didn’t say anything but made way for Cow Girl. She had red hair, she was tall, and perhaps most troubling of all, she was very well-endowed. What’s more, today she was dressed in the capital’s latest fashion. Everything about her, from her outfit to her attitude, seemed different from usual.

I never know what to do with her…, Wizard Boy thought, letting out a breath. For she was, when you got right down to it, a woman who minded her appearance.

“Here you go—some provisions. Good luck!”

“Whoopee!”

Even as Wizard Boy was busy ruminating, the girls seemed to be having fun. Rhea Fighter took the basket Cow Girl had brought, tossing her hands in the air and shouting with delight.

Rheas ate five or six times a day—which took time, making the interval between battles that much shorter.

It wasn’t fair…

He resisted the thought. It wasn’t unconditionally true. For starters, what did it mean to be fair in light of the particular qualities of a living thing? the boy wondered. Rheas might not have much stamina, but they were extremely quick over short stretches—and they had an ability to digest that far outstripped humans. If you could store up heat very quickly and use it to move, maybe that actually gave you an advantage, in a way.

Won’t know unless I try…

“Do what you need to do, but try not to stuff yourself,” he said.

“Yep!” the rhea girl answered, her mouth already full.

Wizard Boy looked in the basket and found sandwiches consisting of dried meat and pickled vegetables stuffed between pieces of bread.

A light human lunch would be little more than a snack for a rhea. No problem, then. At least it wouldn’t make it hard for her to move…

“Hmm?”

He realized she was used to this. As he tried studiously to avoid looking at the rhea girl in her moderately clothed state, his eyes met Cow Girl’s instead. The older woman gave him a questioning look, at which he shook his head and said, “Nothing. He here?”

His words were brusque and brief, but Cow Girl understood what he meant and nodded. “Yeah, he’s here.”

“That right?”

“Not here with me, though,” she mumbled, sounding a little lonely.

The boy felt a rush of frustration. This was him they were talking about. There was a nine out of ten chance—really, infinitely closer to ten—that he was off somewhere at that moment…

…hunting goblins.

It had to be, knowing him.

“……”

The rhea, her mouth full of bread, looked at Wizard Boy, and then her eyes went wide. “I know!” she said, and a catlike grin spread across her face. “You wanted him to see us!”

“I did not!” Wizard Boy shot back, his voice cracking. It made him feel dumb—he was as good as telling her she was right. He coughed once. “I mean, stuff like this… You don’t do it so that people can watch you.”

He stood up again, thoroughly disgusted. The feeling he had was, well, not unlike wanting to be complimented. He couldn’t completely deny the desire for recognition that burned within him.

It was like a bucket with a hole in it. Pour water in, and it would just run out again. There was never enough. There never could be.

Would it have been different if his sister were there? These days, he felt like he didn’t even know that.

For one thing…

“I’m not the star here. She is.”

He hated the idea of using someone who was working so hard for his own advantage.

The rhea girl looked at him with an expression that was hard to describe—part embarrassed, part guilty, part disappointed. It was a very complicated look indeed.

“Hmm,” Cow Girl said, and then she leaned down and added, “Hey…”

“Huh?” Rhea Fighter looked up at her.

“That stuff he said before the joust started—that was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”

“Oh!” The rhea caught on immediately, swinging her arms with maybe a little too much enthusiasm and exclaiming, “Yeah, it was totally awesome! No one’s ever talked about me like that before, ever!”

Wizard Boy produced an inarticulate sound halfway between a grunt and groan and looked away. After all, it was obvious what they were doing. He was humiliated to think they were expecting such things of him.

It was like they were trying to talk a child into doing something—except that to dismiss them out of hand would have been the most childish thing of all.

“For that matter, I think this is the first time anyone has even cheered me on while I was fighting. It really makes you think, like, Yeah! I can do this!”

Just listen to her.

She could exclaim about how awesome something was without a second thought and really mean it. Wizard Boy glared at her.

“Doesn’t that make it pretty much like magic?” she asked.

Finally, he sighed a great sigh. He surrendered. He had lost.

“…Fine. The two of us together, then—that sound good?”

“Sounds great!” Rhea Fighter nodded enthusiastically. Then suddenly, her expression changed, and she said, “Oh, but—”

Rheas were always like this. Always completely absorbed in whatever was going on around them. It was something of a saving grace for Wizard Boy, who was given to worry.

“—don’t you think it’s about time you helped me into my armor?”

“Pbbt…?!”

It was, however, also the seed of much personal danger.

He scowled, but she ignored him. “You see?” she said. “He never helps me with it! Even though it’s so much work!”

“Ah…” Cow Girl scratched her cheek, not quite sure what to say. When she thought of her old friend, she somehow felt like maybe she could sort of almost nearly understand. “I guess that’s just how boys are.”

“Listen, you…!”