Thanks to Eleanor’s experience, finding the goblins proves far easier than Sincir expected. As she expined, by following the water, they eventually come across what Eleanor described as clear signs of goblin presence; gnawed bones, small abandoned campfires and amateur, barely standing huts, as well as the occasional sloppy trap.

  “If they’ve gotten to the point of building traps and huts, it means this tribe is older and bigger than most I’ve hunted… They might also have a shaman,” Eleanor warns through a whisper once they’ve crossed the remains of the previously occupied goblin camp, “From now on, we make as little noise as possible… Once we spot them, there’s no need to hesitate, just kill whatever you see on sight. Ena, you’re the fastest, so I want you to boost your speed and circle around their camp once the fight starts; Think you can do it?”

  Ena nods, expression tense as they continue to walk further and further into the grove, now silent and apprehensively.

  “They must’ve moved further in after noticing the farm nearby… But I doubt they’ve gone far past the river, unless they managed to find another body of water, deeper in.”

  “Want me to search for them?” Sincir offers, earning a gnce from Eleanor in response.

  “Could you? Without having they notice you?”

  “If they have a shaman, then it is possible they could detect me. Otherwise…”

  Eleanor nods. “Then do it. It’ll make it easier to surround them.”

  As he casts the mind spell which allows his mind senses to expand and cover their surroundings, Sincir recoils slightly in virtue of the many animal minds caught by it, though he doesn’t allow himself to stop the spell until it has reached its size limit, at which point he pauses, grimacing.

  “Found them. Slightly to our left, about five hundred meters ahead… You were right in that their minds aren’t all that different from an animal, Eleanor. Ugh. I could count them for us, but I’d rather not.”

  Having said as much, Sincir drops the spell; He could’ve acquired more information for them, including scouting for the presence of a shaman, but he and the girls should be able to handle a hundred or so goblins without much issue, shaman or not. And besides, having a hundred goblin minds sharing their thoughts with him would’ve been no short of torture.

  “Same pn?” Ena murmurs.

  Since their trio stopped to wait for him, forming a semicircle, Sincir drops Eleanor’s backpack near a tree, then unsheathes his daggers.

  “I’ll circle from behind them,” he offers, “While you two attack together, from the front. Focus on killing them, but don’t overdo it; There will always be another goblin, but your lives are irrepceable. Whoever gets hurt today will have to catty the bag all the way back.”

  Sincir exchanges one st nod with the girls, then heads out on his own, circling around the goblins’ position at a fast, but steady pace. Eleanor will know to wait a while for him, so he doesn’t rush; Instead, Sincir maintains his head lowered, and his eyes focused on his surroundings for sticks and leafs that might make noise, animals, or detached goblins…

  A couple of minutes after separating from the girls, he finally spots the first green creature, crouched as it continues to gnaw on a bone, none the wiser for his presence.

  Sincir considers how to proceed for a moment, but in the end, he simply runs forward and thrusts his dagger through the goblin’s eye as it widens its gaze in his direction, before gently propping its dead body downwards, until it has reached the ground noiselessly.

  Stopping for no more than long enough to drag the body behind a three, Sincir continues forward, although it isn’t long before he finds more of them, this time a trio.

  Again, he considers how to proceed, then decides for brief a speed buff; Dashing forward faster than they can reach, Sincir cuts through the third neck before the first goblin has reached the ground, then continues to run forward, not bothering to hide the bodies this time.

  By his estimations, right about now, he should be on the other end of the tribe, retive to Eleanor and Ena, which means it is time for their pincer attack…

  And just on cue, Sincir hears the screams of arm from what he can only assume is a goblin.

  He doesn’t stop, of course, but changes direction, heading straight into the goblin camp.

  As he spots the first huts, Sincir also spots the first goblins, their backs turned to him as they hurry to grab makeshift spears and axes... Not that the weapons help them much. Most of them have yet to raise them by the time his daggers have cut through their throats.

  As silently as a ghost, Sincir cuts his way through the shrieking, panicked goblins, and most of them die before being able to understand what is happening... It isn’t long before the remaining goblins begin to scatter away, abandoning their weapons and tribe mates to do so.

  Never stopping, Sincir sends wind bdes after the ones who run, and slices through the ones who are too slow to do so.

  Blood, screams, and death…

  The whole thing couldn’t have sted more than a couple of minutes, after which Sincir finds himself standing amidst several dozens of dead goblin bodies, panting slightly as he perks his ears for any remaining screams or running footsteps, managing to find none.

  Releasing a small sigh as he spots the girls walking in his direction from the other side of the now silent, small goblin vilge with their swords unsheathed and bloodied, Sincir beckons them to approach.

  “…Any wounds?” he asks them.

  Ena shakes her head, looking slightly green as her eyes continue to dart across the bloodied bodies around them.

  Meanwhile, Eleanor has already begun to bend over to cut right ears, pcing them on a rge bag tied to her sword-belt which she must’ve grabbed from her backpack before coming... She also has a hunting knife to cut the ears with, which Sincir assumes she brought for this very purpose.

  “Should… S-should we chase after the ones who escaped?” Ena murmurs.

  Sincir notices she is careful not the let her eyes wander in Eleanor’s direction, maintaining them fixated on her sword as she begins to trembly clean it of goblin blood.

  “No need. We’d never catch them all,” Eleanor says, “And besides, I think Sincir didn’t let a single on run away from his side, which means we’ve killed the vast majority of them… The rest are likely to die on their own.”

  “What happens if they don’t?” Ena asks.

  “Then they’ll rape something and start a new tribe, and that tribe will spread out and start another several… Even if we manage to kill every st one, they’ll come from further away, drawn by the promise of more food, and start the process all over again.”

  “So, we’re doing popution control, rather than trying to exterminate them,” Sincir surmises.

  Eleanor nods. “You could say that.”

  “That… That makes me feel a bit better, actually,” Ena confesses, “I know they’re harmful, but they didn’t ask to be born, right? I think it’d be a bit much if we were trying to exterminate every st one of them for good.”

  “We are trying,” Eleanor corrects, “It just isn’t possible, so the end result is a type of popution control.”

  Ena shudders, then shrugs. “Same thing,” she murmurs darkly, sounding as though she is trying to convince herself.

  In the end, Sincir ends up nding Ena one of his daggers so they can both help with the ears. Other than the fact she brings several left ones, causing Eleanor to all but scream at her, they find no more trouble from the goblin camp.

  “Are we… Are we just going to leave them like this?” Ena asks once they’re done collecting ears, inspecting the many dead bodies as she does so.

  “No, we’ll give them a proper burial and say a couple of prayers before we leave...” Eleanor retorts drily, “...What do you think?”

  Ena clenches her jaw, but she doesn’t say anything else, even as Eleanor goes around the small vilge, destroying the goblins’ makeshift huts, Sincir assumes, in order to stop the ones who run away from easily rebuilding the pce… Not that he thinks they’d be brave enough to come back, after what happened.

  His and the girls’ return through the grove is silent and somewhat gloom, most likely in virtue of Ena’s mood, considering she tends to be the most talkative of their group.

  “In the end, there was no shaman,” Sincir comments, “This really is a shitty job.”

  A silver from the completed contract, plus another from around fifty goblin ears… If these are to be their average daily earnings as a trio, they’ll struggle to pay the house’s rent by the month’s end.

  Of course, this is the pay of a F rank adventurer, and they’re not pnning on staying at this tier for long.

  “How far are we from the second contract?” Sincir asks Eleanor, once they’re able to see the farm again.

  “About an hour or so, though I think we should probably rest and eat before we head there.”

  “Lets set camp for a bit, then... Ena, you think you can manage to hold something in your stomach through another tribe?”

  Ena throws a hesitant gnce toward Eleanor’s bag as she settles it on the ground, then shakes her head.

  “I think I will just… You know what, maybe it’s best if I don’t watch you guys eating, either. Is it okay if I go for short walk around here?”

  “Don’t get lost, and watch out for danger,” Sincir tells her, to which she nods, before turning on her heels as she heads away from the two of them, following the line of the grove as she goes.

  “…She should’ve stayed a barmaid,” Eleanor says as they both watch Ena going.

  Sincir throws her an exasperated look. “Would it kill you to act as the mature one between the two of you? You are a year older.”

  Eleanor shrugs. “I’ll act mature when she puts her act together.”

  Sincir sighs, walking up to her while she takes out their rations, then moving behind her and beginning to massage her shoulder and neck.

  “…What in the fuck do you think you are doing?” Eleanor asks, pausing to narrow her eyes at him.

  “Rex,” Sincir tells her, “You’ve been tense since morning.”

  Eleanor grumbles, but she doesn’t fight him as he leads her to sit down and continues to massage her tense muscles.

  “I can tell you’re really worried Ena will find out about us,” Sincir says, “But it won’t help to fight her even before it has happened.”

  “She is the one who decided to fight me…” Eleanor murmurs.

  Sincir presses his fingers against her pressure points, causing Eleanor to intake a sharp breath of air. “We had a deal; You promised you’d listen to me, remember?”

  Once Eleanor gnces at him over her shoulder, she has a frustrated look on her face. “I’m trying… A-ah! D-don’t press it so suddenly…”

  Sincir smiles at her. “You really like massages, huh? I noticed it st time. Don’t worry... If you’re a good girl, I’ll give you as many as you want.”

  Eleanor grunts something about how she’ll show him the good girl, but Sincir can tell her tough warrior mask is slipping away, and she ends up lying against him, then closing her eyes and releasing the occasional shudder as he continues to massage her...

  After a couple of minutes, Eleanor releases a small sigh of relief, and Sincir can tell the tension has finally left her body.

  “Better?” he asks.

  Eleanor opens her eyes and looks at him, blue eyes gleaming under the early afternoon sun… Like this, it is difficult to ignore how beautiful she is, and Sincir finds himself smiling at her as he drags the back of his fingers against her cheek, causing her gaze to shift toward them.

  “What?” she murmurs.

  “Nothing… I was trying really hard to pretend I’m not affected by how stunning a certain girl is, but I failed. I guess some things are just impossible.”

  Eleanor rolls her eyes. “I’ve already agreed to open my legs to you, so spare me the cheap lines.”

  Sincir grimaces, then flicks her forehead, hard enough to cause Eleanor to yelp. “Idiot; If I said it, it is because I mean it... But enough cuddling for now. How are you? Any hotter since morning?”

  Eleanor grimaces at him as she rubs her forehead for a moment, then nods. “The fights, and the massage… And the way that farmer kept looking at me... Everything turns me on.”

  Sincir chuckles at that. “Even the fights? What a pervert you are.”

  “Shut up.”

  “I should probably tell you, but Ena already knows I slept in your room; That’s the reason she was being more of a brat than usual to you, today.”

  Eleanor freezes. “When you say slept…?”

  “I told her we didn’t fuck, which technically, was not a lie… But the reason I’m telling you this is because I want you to talk to her and tell her the truth. Tonight.”

  Eleanor shakes her head. “I’m telling you; She’ll hate the both of us for it.”

  Sincir shrugs. “Maybe, but do you remember what I told you two about flirting this morning? If Ena wanted something to happen between us, she could’ve made a move long ago, but she never did, which means she doesn’t have a right to dictate who I sleep with or not… I care for her feelings, of course, but in this case, she’s being unreasonable. You deserve some happiness in your life, Eleanor, just as much as her.”

  Eleanor stares into his eyes for a moment, then sighs, averting her gaze. “How much should I tell her?”

  “I think it’d be best if you told her about your problem, and your feelings for me, making it clear this is not just about you trying to steal me from her… You can also remind her that we’re obviously not exclusive, though I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference, in this case.”

  Eleanor raises an eyebrow at him. “What feelings?”

  Sincir ignores that. “Ena strikes me as the possessive type, so she’ll want to keep me all to herself, either romantically or otherwise. Obviously, that won’t work, so she’ll go through some hard times, for a while… But she’ll get over it once she finds herself a boyfriend to obsess over.”

  Eleanor looks at him with a strange look on her face. “And you’re okay with that? With her just finding some farm-boy out there to repce you?”

  Sincir grimaces. “Romantic feelings or not, Ena thinks of me as an older brother; A boyfriend isn’t going to repce that. Like I told you, I’m not trying to collect girls for some sort of harem. I’ll admit I like sex enough to be called a pervert and a pyboy, but I don’t fancy shackling women to me only to have them grow miserable over time when they realize I cannot give them what they want… And besides, I’d like to think everybody deserves someone who’ll love them exclusively, above all else.”

  “I didn’t take you for the romantic type,” Eleanor comments, watching his expression as she does so.

  Sincir shrugs. “It’s just an ideal; Things don’t really work like that in real life. At best, you find somebody passable, and then hope that they won’t cheat or stab you in the back.”

  “And what about you? Are you still looking?”

  Sincir faces Eleanor’s gaze for a moment, then shakes his head. “I don’t know. I’ve met many amazing women over the course of my existence, current presence company included, but I could never convince myself to settle down. Some of them kept up with me for a while… But all of them left eventually, for one reason or another.”

  Then again, here is that feeling again, the feeling of having forgotten something important… Were his memories of his time in Hell more damaged than he initially assumed?

  “…Anyway, we should eat and get going, or we won’t be able to complete the second contract in time.”

  “We’re lucky the brat didn’t walk up on us,” Eleanor mumbles as she finally rises from his p and begins to search through her backpack for their rations again.

  Ena doesn’t take long to come back after they start eating, arriving just as they’re about finished with the dried fruits and bread.

  “Feeling better?” Sincir asks her.

  Ena nods, though she is still somewhat pale. “I think I’ll have nightmares for a while, but I’ll survive. Can we go now? I just want to get this over with.”

  Eleanor nods at her, swinging the backpack over her shoulder. “I don’t like this either, Ena. But somebody has to do it… You did a good job back there; I’m sorry I doubted you.”

  Ena nods, but avoids meeting Eleanor’s gaze, who sighs.

  “Let’s go.”

  Since they didn’t eat all that much, Sincir and Eleanor are still able to jog lightly toward their next destination. Again, it is a mostly silent journey in virtue of Ena’s mood, but Sincir can tell she is slowly recovering… Ena is a strong girl, and he doesn’t doubt she can pull through anything she sets her mind to do.

  Hopefully, he’ll be the only one she comes to hate from the drama with Eleanor, and not the both of them…

  This time, the pce they arrive at is not a farm, but a hunter’s hideout near the edge of a forest. Luckily, they manage to find the owner at the back of the house, cutting wood, and after a few moments of conversation, Eleanor comes back to them with a frown on her face.

  “He says he spotted something green in the woods, a couple of times these past two months, but he didn’t think much of it until a couple of days ago, when he had something stolen from one of his traps… He says an animal couldn’t have done it.”

  “So, we don’t actually know if we’re dealing with goblins or not?” Sincir deduces.

  Eleanor nods. “Something green could mean anything, and we’re far enough from the city that this could be a dangerous monster... If Sincir wasn’t here, I’d probably go back and tell the guild to up the rating on the contract by a tier or two, but I doubt we’ll find anything worse than a demon in these woods, and the hunter has been fine living here this whole time.”

  Once Ena throws Eleanor a surprised look, she frowns.

  “What?”

  “I just didn’t take you for the type that’d retreat from an unknown enemy...”

  Eleanor shrugs. “Some lessons, you never forget,” she says, “But I’m leaving the call to Sincir on this one, as our illustrious guardian… Let it be known that if any of us dies today, the fault is exclusively his.”

  “Hirious,” Sincir murmurs, rolling his eyes as he does so, “Though I’ll admit I’m proud of you for showing restraint during this past year, when it came to maintaining yourself safe… That aside, do we at least have a general direction for this mysterious creature?”

  Eleanor nods. “The hunter expined to me where the sightings happened, which is also near where his catch was stolen. I know how to get there from here.”

  “Won’t we be in danger of stepping over a trap, if we head in there carelessly?”

  Eleanor throws Ena a look, then shakes her head. “Who said we’re going in carelessly? We’ll stick to the trail, and keep our eyes peeled… These are traps meant for animals, so we should be able to spot them fairly easily, during the day.”

  This time, Sincir tells the girls to stay behind him once Eleanor gives him the direction to the pce they’re heading, with Ena being in the middle and Eleanor watching their back.

  Still, it is a tense walk through the narrow trail used by the hunter during the half hour it takes them to arrive at a small clearing containing the ke Eleanor described.

  “This should be it,” she murmurs, “Ena, remember to keep quiet and watchful… Sincir, how is your mana? Can you do the thing you did to find the goblins? Would it help?”

  “My mana is almost recovered by now… If they’re close enough, and they’re not an animal, then I’ll find them.”

  Eleanor nods, signaling Ena to keep her eyes on one side of the clearing as she watches the other, clearly trying to cover for him... Sincir would tell her there’s no need, but it’s cute to see them acting this serious, so he lets them be.

  Then, taking a deep breath, he steels himself for the strain of having animal thoughts entering his head; However, once he casts the spell, nothing could’ve prepared Sincir for the immediate wave of terror which all but invades his mind.

  Instantly releasing of the spell, Sincir curses out loud as he grabs at his head and grimaces. Once both Eleanor and Ena gnce at him with worried expressions, he waves his hand dismissively.

  “They were watching us, but they’re gone now. Don’t worry, I think they’re living nearby… I should be able to find it.”

  The creature’s thoughts were so loud they gave him a damn headache, but at least he was able to gather some info, including the traps it has set around its house… Their obvious fear left a bad taste in his mouth, but they can’t leave without at least confirming whatever it is isn’t going to become a threat to nearby farms in the future.

  After all, just because something is afraid doesn’t mean it won’t hurt careless people to approach it, perhaps even in virtue of its fear… Fuck, this is why he hates relying on mind spells; Getting into the mind of something you’re about to kill is never a fun time.

  “Follow me and watch your step,” Sincir tells the girls as he begins to head toward the pce at which he sensed the creature, “Our friend has taken a liking to the hunter’s traps in more ways than one, it seems.”