As we head to the village at the foot of the Minerva mountain range, a large army of goblins appear.
There are about four thousand foot soldiers, and five hundred riders marching towards the Minerva mountain range.
Even Sephilia is surprised by this large number, looking on with a dumbfounded expression.
“I have never seen so many…”
She says.
“That’s a proper army.”
“Friend, do you know why they have gathered? I have no idea.”
“I think it might be because a hero type goblin appeared.”
“Hero type goblin?”
“A goblin that’s way smarter, stronger, and has way higher leadership skills.”
“So like a human hero, but just the goblin version.”
She says with an amused tone. I guess that’s it.
There are a lot of goblins, so it’s easier for a hero type goblin to appear, compared to other races.
One appears every few decades, so it should be a goblin with some really big brains.
The most famous in Merzelia was a shaman goblin that was a menace five hundred years ago.
Shaman goblins are relatively intelligent among goblins, but when you make one of those even smarter, you get a threat that even a kingdom’s army can’t deal with.
I explain the characteristics of hero type goblins using that shaman as an example.
“You really know everything, friend.”
“I don’t, I just talk about things I know.”
But interestingly, most of the time when there’s a hero type monster, a human hero also appears. It was a legendary swordmaster who defeated this shaman goblin in an instant, and it was also a legendary hero who defeated the demon king Albatross.
Something to counter them always appears.
The goblin army is not going to the Kokkoro area, instead heading in the direction of the fairy dragon.
What are they doing? The fairy dragon is all there is over there. Are they going to challenge it?
No, no way. That’s suicide.
We keep watching them, when suddenly, some of them turn around and come this way.
The sudden change of course causes a cloud of dust as they head this way.
Gegeh, really? I don’t know why, but we’re being targeted.
We tell the driver to stop the wagon, and Sephilia and I jump out to get ready to intercept them.
It feels like… There’s fifty riders and a hundred infantry.
It’d be bad if the riders surrounded us, so I should take them out first.
There’s enough distance, so how about I mop them up with an Explosion?
I hold up my staff, but Sephilia silently stops me.
“Friend, that is dangerous right now.”
It takes me ten seconds to understand why.
The goblin army is headed towards a mountain range commonly known as Enigma, and the fairy dragon has made its peak its home. It’s three thousand meters tall, and thanks to the fairy dragon’s influence, it’s inhabited by a lot of fairy monsters.
We are headed to the Minerva mountain range. The direction is a little different, and that difference changes both our destinies a lot.
Suddenly, the fairy dragon emerges from Enigma.
The goblins are most unfortunate to have roused it.
They’re dozens of kilometers away, but the fairy dragon has deemed this army with over four thousand members its enemy.
It flies towards it at an incredible speed, and reaches the goblin army in less than a minute.
The arrival of the dragon sends the army into a panic, but it runs wild through them like it doesn’t care.
Goblins are flung away by its tail and crushed when it steps on them. It’s pandemonium.
After having pretty much destroyed them, the dragon flies, flaps its huge emerald color wings, and unleashes greatly concentrated energy from its mouth.
When it lands, the sound it makes feels like the world is ending.
It’s like a materialization of the word ‘erasing’.
The wave even reaches us all the way over here. Once it settles… There’s a giant crater where the goblins were.
An army of over a thousand was wiped out like it was nothing by the fairy dragon.
They were vaporized, with nothing left.
But this is no time to say how I feel about them. Thanks to them, we’re in mortal danger too.
It seems the fairy dragon has noticed us, and it’s staring this way from above.
Any false movements will provoke it for sure. Sephilia understands too, and doesn’t take a single step, not wanting it to see us as enemies.
We’re trees. We’re trees. Is what I think to myself.
The fairy dragon looks at us for a while, and then moves back to Enigma seemingly losing interest.
When the fairy dragon is just a dot in the sky, I exhale.
“I haven’t seen it in a while, but it really is bad for the heart.”
“I agree. I am so glad Miss Iris is not here.”
Sephilia’s expression stays the same, but I see sweat running down her cheek.
Let’s forget about it for now and get back to the wagon.
No one says anything for a while, most likely because of what we saw.
The problem with Undine was solved, and another threat appeared right after that. I just want a peaceful slow life…
Sephilia is next to me, coughing a little into a handkerchief. She’s been coughing a lot lately. Her cold isn’t fully gone yet.
“How are you doing? You shouldn’t push yourself too much…”
“This is less because of the cold and more because of the fairy dragon, surely.”
No, I think it’s the cold. Sephilia isn’t good at excuses either.
It’s said that summer colds tend to last, so is that how it is with her?
Sephilia is a real saint of a person, but when it comes to her health, she can be sloppy, so I’m kind of worried about her.
I want to make sure she rests somehow.
“Sephilia, you’ve been working too hard. You should rest. I can lend you a pillow, so how about you lie down?”
“Very well. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
Good. Let’s have her rest.
I take a pillow out of the item box, when…
I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she places her head on my lap.
“Eh?”
I let out a weird voice.
S-Sephilia? I guess it could be a pillow, but that’s my lap.
Was she always this much of an air-head? No, she’s the biggest air-head.
Resting my head on a girl’s lap is a dream, but I didn’t expect the roles to be reversed like this.
This sudden good luck makes me nervous. My heart is racing faster now than when the fairy dragon was here.
After a few minutes, I hear Sephilia is sleeping. She really was tired.
I feel bad, but at the same time, I’m glad I met someone as kind as her.
I’ve had a lot of failures after coming to Minerva, but I have friends who notice them and make up for it.
This is true happiness, and looking at her sleeping face really makes me feel that.
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