Vol.2 – Chapter 11 – Lore from the Barricaded Forest

Seems like this mechanical inn leads to an underground cave. Fortunately, I have found a way out of this mess away from that irritating woman. What the hell is she trying to make me do? Just to collect some honey, I would need to kill a dragon... that's just absurd!

The entrance to the underground cave is nearly buried in snow; no wonder why I haven't noticed this place sooner. As soon as I got out, I kicked a mass of snow away, giving vent to my frustration.

"What the hell is wrong with her?"

She has a few screws loose in the head. Just thinking about her makes me very pissed, like I've never been before. Look at my hands! They are covered in her crap. That woman is no woman if she was not even embarrassed showing me that hideous pile of dung.

After washing my hands in the river, I continued exploring the floor, trying to forget that person.

"Achoo!"

Ughh.. shivers... Is it just me or is this place really getting colder?

"Brugh!!"

Suddenly, I vomited. But it was no ordinary puke; it's filled with green pus and worms crawling on the slimy pungent mass. I look at my hands, and they are shaking uncontrollably, no matter how much I calm myself down. Is it happening? Am I turning?

I squeeze my hands tightly, refusing to acknowledge it. Then I intensify my mana circulation, generating a lot of internal heat that combats the infection as well as this place's penetrating coldness. But while all my attention is on circulating my mana, a carriage suddenly passes in front of me and halts.

"Shit!"

I try running away, but suddenly I trip. It's not like I'm clumsy or anything, but my legs feel numb and weak. I end up stumbling in the snow. I look at the carriage, then put my hand on the hilt of the dagger just to prepare if they try to attack me. The carriage is pulled by two reptile creatures, and the ornamentation of the body in the passenger seat is filled with gold curls. The door opens while I tighten the grip on the weapon.

"Good afternoon, Miss Mermaid... Or should I call you, goblin?" The blue-skinned princess puts her feet on the snow and bows her head. Ah right... I guess they still have some grudge against me after I deceived them.

"Y-yo, princess." I greet back, nervous about what she would do.

"Have you finally settled down with your dearest prince?" the princess smiles as she tilts her head.

"Unfortunately, he was mortified after seeing my face." a cold bead of sweat emerges on my cheeks since the prince never existed in the first place.

"Can we stop pretending that this prince actually exists? I already knew it's a lie."

"Ahaha... Y-you realized?" I'm more surprised that she believed it in the first place. Should I run now? Her smile is becoming creepier by the second.

"But you lied to me for the greater good, aren't you?"

"Ha?"

"You are testing our integrity as a moral agent by taking the form of a goblin, which is a mortifying and hideous creature. You are trying to test us on how we will act if your words are indeed morally true, even though it came from a commonly evil creature, if we will reject it just because of your race. Am I right?"

...

At that moment, I froze up... What the hell is she talking about? She's deceiving herself! No matter, I should use this to somehow get away with this issue.

"Y-yeah... You passed," I said, acting as if this is my plan all along, which it is not.

"I knew it! Did you hear that Liareth? I told you, she was just testing us. Besides, it's impossible for a goblin to have divine intelligence just like her!" she brags to the maid sitting inside the carriage happily.

The maid simply sighs; yeah, she's the one who immediately called to hunt me down after realizing I am actually a goblin, not a mermaid. "Fine, princess. If that's what you believe then so be it," she says that, but her eyebrows are contorted, she definitely doesn't believe it and moreover, is annoyed by my existence.

"Come with us!" the princess happily says while I try to stand up. She immediately grabs my arm and drags me inside the carriage. Then the reptiles start moving.

"What...?" even I was shocked since it happened too fast; now, I just found myself sitting inside besides the princess and across the frustrated maid.

"Princess, that's too..." and the maid didn't agree with me coming along with them. I understand, after all, I'm a goblin. I am like an unwanted pest that needs to be exterminated.

"Sorry, our holy oracle, I wanted to let you ride our more advanced vehicles but because of our climate, almost all of our technology was rendered useless." the princess bowed at me in apology. I knew that; I remembered seeing a machine that is too corroded to function, it must be because of the frequent thick moisture in the air.

"Liareth, do you know why the Divine Oracle still doesn't show her true appearance?" the princess rests both of her hands on her left leg, signifying her confidence in herself. "It's because she still has the duty to teach the value of kindness to every Homorotabi alive. We will let her enter the city and help spread her ideals."

What...?

I ponder while I rub my forehead since it's starting to ache thinking about it.

"His appearance, however, will create public chaos. He will be killed on the spot before he could teach anything," the maid stated. Yes, it makes sense! Everybody hates goblin, and because of the last incident, their soldiers will be hot for my head.

However, the princess starts to pull something out under the seat. A large case, and inside she picks up a white robe and a mask carved in a proportional human face that has falling tears of blood in the mouth and eyes. "Don't worry about it. Here."

The princess forces me to wear the costume, and to my surprise, it fits me well. "What's this?" I asked. The costume is pure white, a hooded large cloak with sleeves that cover all parts of my body and a mask that hides my hideous face. The design is very minimalistic, but something about its overall appearance strikes a figure of hopelessness.

"From now on, you will take the form of Gwarfen Gwarf. The child eater," the princess cross her arms and smile in confidence.

"Ha!?" A child eater!? Won't that make more chaos than being a pest!?

"Oh, don't worry. Only children will get scared of you since adults don't believe in fairy tales."

"Fairy tales?"

The princess gently smiles, "You want to know?" then she puts her eyes to look beyond the window. "Do you know why there is a barrier surrounding the forest of the west?"

I shake my head left and right. Yeah, I remembered that there is a barrier that prevents me from entering the forest. My instincts tell me that place is actually dangerous and beyond me. I caught a glimpse of what's in there while I was exploring the barrier, but I think that time instead, somebody is watching me from the forest. It's quite smart and observant; in the end, I couldn't identify what it was.

"Long time ago, there was a child running errands for the adults. She is a very sweet and helpful girl, she always wears a white-colored hood, she loves flowers but more than anything, she loves helping everyone in need. One day, an adult told her to search for a flower called Blue Plops in the forest. However, that is the last time she was seen. When soldiers tried to find her, only her hood tainted in her own blood was found." the princess looked at me in the eye, "The child's name is Ruifia. And the entire forest is named after her for her remembrance. The Ruifia's Forest.

"She disappeared?"

"Gwarfen Gwarf ate her. They say. Soon, the adults never make a child run dangerous errands ever again, and that's why parents today are overprotective of their children. After the incident, the king put a giant barrier that sealed the whole forest to prevent Gwarfen from eating another child ever again."

"Is that so?"

"I still remember how scared I was after hearing it as a child. But now that I'm an adult, it is the least of my worries." the princess chuckled as she told me so, "Responsibilities are scarier than any horror stories."

I don't know; maybe you should be scared because I believe something is inside that forest. The story might be exaggerated, but why would they even put a barrier there for no reason at all?

Oh... I didn't realize it, but we're already inside the city. The carriage turns and then...

"What the...! What the hell is that!?" I accidentally shout; the mask made my voice muffled. As I looked out the window, on the intersection, I found some statues but not just any statues, those are human statues of adventurers, and on the left, there is a statue of a girl with an eerily familiar face... Oh... that's the mage I saw earlier!

"That? That is the statue of the heroes. It's displayed in the center of this city to state our appreciation for those humans who saved us from the threat of the Fragmentors. If not for them, the city would be buried in ashes by now."

Heroes!? That girl? Impossible!

"That girl on the left side, her name is Fielma, isn't she?" I ask, though my voice is kinda shaky.

"Indeed, one of the heroes was named Fielma. As expected to your divine knowledge, the one who really defeated the Fragmentor is the one who was named Fielma."

Now that I know this, I feel a little bit of guilt leaving her alone in the underground. If she's really that good of a person, then I guess she doesn't deserve being treated like crap. Sigh...

As we talked more about it, the maid was preparing a dish for the princess. It's just a simple dish but it looks too compelling that I couldn't take my eyes off it. Was it a steak? It certainly looks like one, and then the maid put a transparent yellow-tinted syrup above it. The maid then put a fork for the princess to use then gave it to her.

"Please, Milady, it's already time for you to eat," the maid said as she offered. The princess took it, but then offered it to me.

"Are you hungry? You can take this."

Ah... Now the maid is glaring at me; her eyes lack the shine to be called peaceful. Moreover, her blood vessels on her face are swelling to the point that she looks like a monster. Even so, I took the food without hesitation; I'm hungry, you know. It doesn't matter to me what the maid will feel as long as I could fill my stomach.

I cut and put a part of the meat into my mouth.

"It's sweet," I said; the meat easily melts into my tongue along with the addicting scent and taste of the syrup.

"Yes, that sandwich is filled with bumble honey which makes it smooth to the tongue and sweet to the taste," the princess stated.

"Bumble Honey?" isn't that the thing that Fielma is asking for? "Can you tell me where you got it?" I ask, hoping that it's easy to procure. But contradictory to my expectation, it's easier than what I expected.

"It's a common delicacy in this city, so you could buy it at any local shop," said the princess.

Did Fielma lie to me on how to obtain that thing? It's far from what she said. But why would she do that? Never mind that, at least now, I know I could steal those things at any moment and sigh... put out that idiot from getting stuck.

"Princess, I have an urgent business that just come up with."

"Already leaving?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"I see. Well then..."

The Princess simply claps her hands, and the carriage stops moving somewhere on the side of the road. I leave the carriage, and as I step onto the pavement, I can now see clearly the city of metal, rust, and snow.

"Thank you, princess," I said, bowing my head in appreciation.

"Don't be so formal in my presence. Compared to you, I am nothing but a mere blight on her holiness. But, let's see..." the princess also steps out and now she also bows her head with more elegance. She picks with her thin fingers the side of her dress as she puts a leg behind the other and bows, a necessary sight for royalty. I used to see the same thing in the past, so it's kinda nostalgic for me as well.

"I am Senazwein, the 14th Princess of the Homorotabi." she raises herself up and smiles gently. Seeing her in this way makes me look up to her; she has that natural charisma that makes me want to follow her. I can see that she has a bright future ahead if she's guided right. "You can call me Sen. Can I have the honor to know your name?" she asks.

I abruptly answer in a concise way, "Aku. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I see, her holiness is indeed humble." she chuckles at what I said; seems like she still overestimating me, "Well then. We will surely cross paths again; if you ever need something, please don't be afraid to ask. I will definitely help you without fail. I promised that in my status as royalty... for the saint-hero who saved our kingdom."

Saint-hero? She kept blabbering nonsense until now. But whatever, having royalty on your side is quite beneficial.