Chapter 364 Fear and Exhaustion

Meanwhile, Suzuka made her way inside the barn. The moment she stepped inside, the stench hit her like a wall - a nauseating mix of goblin feces and urine. The barn was a nightmare, overcrowded with goblins and their hatchlings who survived the attack. They were piled up in grotesque heaps, so tightly packed that the space between them was nonexistent. 

Over two hundred goblins, their bodies tangled and pressed against each other, filled the barn. The air was thick with the acrid smell of excrement, the result of their sheer terror of stepping outside into danger. They had been forced to defecate where they slept, the floor covered in a thick layer of filth.

The scene was horrific: goblins wriggling and squirming in the muck, their fear having turned their sanctuary into a breeding ground of squalor. Among this mess, Suzuka’s eyes were drawn to a singular pitiful figure huddled in a corner. The goblin was isolated from the rest, a vision of despair that pierced even her hardened heart. 

This goblin was an especially sorrowful sight - his entire body seemed to radiate a haunting sense of wretchedness. His eyes were red and swollen from crying, and shockingly, his tears were streaked with blood. His skin was withered, pale and wrinkled, giving him the appearance of a hundred-year-old despite his youth. He sat there, limbs slack, eyes glazed and unblinking, mumbling a mantra in a language Suzuka couldn’t understand, lost in his world of torment.

Her focus was momentarily seized by the tragic sight, but she quickly refocused. With an angry growl, she pushed past the scenes of horror and made her way to the back room, where she hoped to find Jacob and the others. She was eager to tear Jacob a new one for his failure to protect everyone as he promised.

She pushed through the barn’s oppressive stench and entered the back room. The sight that greeted her was almost as horrific as what she had witnessed outside. Jacob lay on a makeshift bed, his condition dire. His head was wrapped in a thick bandage, grotesquely soaked with dark blood. The bandage itself was an ominous red, and the injury beneath it was severe, a gaping wound that had been hastily covered but was far from adequately treated. His face, pale and lined with sweat, looked as though he had narrowly escaped death.

Next, she saw Silvia huddled in a corner, curled up and seemingly asleep. Her face was pale and drawn, marred by the same fear and exhaustion that had afflicted the goblins. Next to Jacob’s bed lay the dwarves, Thorin and Dwalin, their faces etched with pain and fatigue. Their condition was grim, but they had no severe injuries.

In another corner, Hermit lay sprawled on the floor, his usual air of misery even more pronounced. His eyes, shadowed and hollow, reflected the pain and fatigue he had endured. His clothes were in tatters, his body gaunt, and his face a mask of self-pity and despair.

The moment Suzuka closed the door behind her, the room erupted into chaos. The dwarves stirred, their faces lighting up with a flicker of hope at the sight of their boss. Silvia stirred and blinked awake, her eyes widening as she saw Suzuka. Hermit, in his usual meek manner, rejoiced to see her, scrambling to his feet and shuffling over to her. His grubby hands reached out to clutch her soft, curvy thigh, his fingers cold and sticky against her skin.

“H-Hello, Master Helen! Oh, oh, woe is me, wretched Hermit, miserable Hermit, useless Hermit! M-Master, forgive me, please! We suffered so, oh, so much! Oh, the pain, the agony! It’s not my fault, Master, I swear it!” His voice was a high-pitched, whiny rasp. 

He clung desperately to her leg, mumbling incoherently about his sorrows and the torment he had endured. 

"The pig wolves! Oh, the horrible wolves, their big teeth, their awful claws! I-I tried, Master, I tried to be good! I tried to help! But... Oh, Hermit is so wretched, so small, so miserable!” He shivered violently, his whole body quaking as he looked up at Suzuka with desperation and dread.

“Please, Master Helen, don’t kick us! Don’t yell at us! We will do better, oh yes, so much better! We’ll work twice as hard! No, no, three times as hard! Hermit will scrub the floors, carry the buckets, clean the muck—just don’t throw us to the wolves! We don’t want to die! Oh, we are just a poor, pitiful goblins!”

The noise he made was a jumbled mess of pity and panic, making more racket than actual sense.

The rest of the group gathered around, their voices overlapping in a clamor of questions and pleas for help. Their fear and relief mingled in a cacophony that only added to the already unbearable tension of the room. Suzuka’s patience wore thin as she was bombarded with questions and pleas. Her face hardened into a mask of frustration, and she raised her voice to cut through the clamor.

“Calm down! One at a time, please!” Her command echoed with authority, a desperate attempt to restore some semblance of order.

In a fit of irritation, she roughly shook her leg.

 “Eww! Stop touching me with your grubby little hands! Feels like wet, giant frog clinging to me.” Suzuka snapped, her voice sharp and cutting, brimming with irritation.

 She shook her leg again with a sharp jerk, sending Hermit tumbling back with a gasp onto the floor like a dirty floor rag. Her crimson eyes glared down at him, her lip curling in disgust as she wiped at her thigh where his filthy hands had clung.

“It’s disgusting! Do you even know what soap is? Ugh, I swear, Hermit, you’re like a walking pile of slime! Just looking at you makes me want to douse myself in boiling water!” She stepped back, her boot grinding into the floor as if to rid herself of the residual feeling of his slimy touch.

Her tone turned mocking, dripping with disdain. 

“Wretched Hermit, miserable Hermit—yeah, no kidding! You’re an embarrassment to goblins everywhere. If whining was a skill, you’d be the strongest goblin in this camp. But no, you’re here groveling and snotting all over me like a pathetic worm. Get up and make yourself useful before I decide you’re better off as wolf bait.”

Suzuka folded her arms, her glare unwavering as she stepped away.

 “Honestly, it’s bad enough I have to deal with the mess outside. The last thing I need is you clinging to me like some slimy barnacle. Pull yourself together, Hermit, or I swear I’ll find a way to make you useful—whether you like it or not.”

Hermit crumpled to the floor with a pitiful whimper, his frail form trembling like a leaf caught in a storm. His muffled sobs echoed through the room, each one tinged with despair as he curled into himself, clutching at his bony knees. His thin, ragged breaths came in uneven gasps, his yellowed eyes glistening with tears that left streaks of grime down his cheeks. Suzuka barely spared him a glance, her expression etched with impatience and disdain as she stepped over his crumpled form.

She turned her gaze toward the dwarves. Reaching into her satchel, she retrieved several shimmering healing crystals and a handful of vials filled with glistening, amber-hued stamina potions.

"Here," she said curtly, thrusting the items into their hands. 

"Take these to recover your strength. No excuses, no delays. Patch yourselves up, because I need you on your feet."

The dwarves, still weary, exchanging wary glances. Thorin, the elder of the two, accepted the crystals with a nod of gratitude, his rough fingers brushing against the smooth, cool surface of the glowing stones.

"We'll do our best," Thorin muttered, his voice rough but resolute. 

"But you have to understand—this is no army you've got here. We're craftsmen, not warriors. We can barely hold a line, let alone—"

Suzuka cut him off, "I know exactly what you are, and I know what you're not. That’s why I’m not asking you to storm the battlefield. I just need you to stand with Olivia and make sure those goblins don’t scatter like rats the moment they see another shadow. Can I count on you?"

The younger dwarf, Dwalin, rubbed at a fresh cut on his brow and sighed.

 "Aye, we’ll do what we can. But don’t expect too much from us. With Jacob down, we could barely put together some flimsy defenses. The goblins, poor things, tried to fight but were no warriors. They despise violence; they were practically in tears just holding a weapon,” he grumbled, taking a long swig of the stamina potion. Its warmth spread through his limbs, easing the ache in his muscles.

Suzuka’s tone softened slightly, though the edge of her command remained.

 "Just call if anything comes up. I’ll handle things here. Just hold the line and make sure nothing else sneaks past our perimeter."

Suzuka offered them a reassuring nod, her eyes steely and resolute.

“I’m here now. Everything will be alright. Now go and see what you can do to help out.”

As the dwarves exited, their heavy boots echoing down the hallway, Suzuka’s gaze shifted to Silvia. Her piercing red eyes locked onto her, who stood hesitantly in the corner, her fingers fidgeting with the frayed edge of her tunic.

“Silvia, I need to know what happened here. Can you tell me? Hey, I know it’s hard, but I need to understand. Whatever it is, you’re not alone in this anymore. I’m here now."