Goblin Slayer - Volume SS1.01 - Chapter 2.1

Interlude – Of Their First Time

“Awesome! Let’s get started…” 

The mouth of the cave yawned wide enough to swallow the trees all around. The heavy warrior tried to sound as ready and impressive as he could. 

It was just a simple quest—or it was supposed to be. 

Goblin slaying. A bog-standard hack and slash. 

Allegedly, the goblins had built a nest near a village and begun stealing livestock and the like. At some point, they would presumably move on to people. The villagers wanted someone to get rid of the goblins before it was too late. It was a perfectly typical story. 

He remembered once in his own village—in his own youth—when some adventurers had come. In his memory, they seemed amazing, larger than life, and so sure of themselves. But as for him… 

Guess I’ve got a long way to go. 

Heavy Warrior’s hands opened and closed of their own accord. He tried to get the still-unfamiliar gauntlets to feel right. 

What was he so worried about? Every adventurer started out with this kind of quest, didn’t they? It was nothing to be afraid of. 

Or was it…? 

What if—just on the off chance—he was defeated and had to go crawling back home? He would have to go limping back to the village he had left so dramatically just weeks before. 

And that’s the last thing I want…! 

It wasn’t just about looking bad. The big thing was his best buddy had stolen the girl he liked. 

Well, it had been more of a crush on his part. He hadn’t even told her he liked her…he thought. So maybe that didn’t count as having her stolen? He didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t want to come between them, and neither did he want to go home with his tail between his legs. 

Hell, I chased goblins off from our village. 

So he was sure…well, fairly sure…that assuming nothing out of the ordinary happened, he would be all right. And he wasn’t alone. 

Come to think of it, the adventurers who came to our village had a party, too. 

As the thought crossed his mind, Heavy Warrior stopped where he was in the bushes. 

“What? What’s wrong? Why’d you stop? If you’re stopping, let me take point.” Beside him, Female Knight smiled eagerly, like a mischievous child. The fact that she already had her sword out and ready spoke both to her savagery and her eagerness for combat. 

She was just grumbling over her drink when I found her at the tavern. Maybe I was wrong to talk her into joining my group. 

“It’s nothing,” he said. “Just got lost in thought for a moment.” 

He shook his head to clear the doubt from his mind. He was his party’s leader, as far as it went (and it didn’t go very far). There was a lot he had to do. 

Heavy Warrior thought desperately back to how the older men of his village had acted when he was helping in the fields. 

“Come on, kid—er, the one who can use all the magic…” 

“Don’t you think it’s about time you remembered my name?” Druid Girl groused, puffing her cheeks out in a way that made her look more cute than angry. 

Beside her, Scout Boy had his knife in his hand and was eyeing the cave warily. As far as outfits, both of them managed to look like adventurers—poor ones. 

They’re more childish than I really expected… 

He had been forced to recruit a magic user and a scout with only the knowledge he had gleaned from the songs of bards, and this was the result: a couple of kids who had lied about their ages in order to become adventurers. At the moment, however, he had no choice but to rely on them. 

I probably can’t ask too much of them, but…it is what it is. 

“Save your magic,” he said. “We don’t know what’s in there.” 

That was the unvarnished truth. 

It wasn’t as if he expected to run into a dragon—a creature he had no intention whatsoever of disturbing—but anything and everything was possible. There was a famous parable about someone who was walking down the street when they had a random encounter with a drake. 

Still, the order made Heavy Warrior feel a bit too much like his own fear was showing, so he tried to add a word of encouragement. 

“Don’t use your magic if you don’t need to,” he said. 

“Y-yeah, sure,” Druid Girl said, her head bobbing up and down and her hands on her staff. 

“So,” Heavy Warrior said, looking at Scout Boy, who hardly seemed to blink. “Hey.” 

“R-right!” The boy jumped a little and replied in a scratchy voice. 

How am I supposed to handle moments like this? 

Heavy Warrior tried hard to think back to when the goblins had come to his village. 

“Breathe deeply,” he instructed. “In, out, until I say to stop.” 

“S-sure thing!” The boy nodded vigorously; it was hard to say whether it had helped. But at least Heavy Warrior had gotten him to make the effort to calm down. That would have to do for now. 

But wasn’t there…something else? 

Something you were supposed to do right before an adventure, right before you went slaying goblins. 

Wasn’t there something else that had to be done? Had to be taken care of? Seen to? 

Heavy Warrior found himself frowning, assaulted by an unidentifiable anxiety. He turned to his half-elf fighter. 

“Hey, am I missing anything?” 

“Let’s see,” Half-Elf Fighter said in what seemed like a thoughtful tone. He turned his head gracefully, taking in each of the members of the party, then clapped his hands and said lightly, “Ah! Let’s set up our formation first. ‘We don’t know what’s in there,’ right?” 

“Our formation?” 

As in, the scout would be out front, ahead of the party, while the spell casters stayed in the back row. Did he mean like that? 

As Heavy Warrior struggled to put his all too modest knowledge into practice, Female Knight tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Just so you know, I have a healing miracle!” 

Why was she saying that here and now? What purpose would it serve? 

Heavy Warrior looked away from Female Knight, who was triumphantly puffing out her chest in a most unladylike fashion. He sighed. 

They had the potions they had all gone in together to buy. Why should they need to go begging the gods for— 

No. Remember… We really don’t know what’s in there. 

“Even if we don’t need it this time, who can say about next time? Great, fine, good.” 

Good indeed. He resolved to be grateful for every card he was granted to play. 

Then Heavy Warrior glanced at Druid Girl and sighed for the umpteenth time. She was standing there, muttering her incantation to herself in hopes that she would remember it. Not a sight that inspired confidence. Given the way she looked like a child on her first trip out of town, he didn’t think he was wrong to wonder about her. Left to the tail of the group, she looked like she might get lost or simply fall down. 

Maybe we should put one of our front-row people at the back. 

“Okay, O miracle-wielding knight. You’re the caboose. I’m trusting you to bring up the rear.” 

“Right! Leave it to me!” The way she pounded the chest plate of her armor really communicated nothing but fear—but so be it. 

He had done everything he could think of. The thought helped Heavy Warrior relax a little. 

“Okay, shall we get going?” 

He pounded Scout Boy on the back, then hefted his broadsword and started off. 

About fifteen minutes later, he would find himself in trouble when the sword started getting caught on every wall.