Gacha Addict in a Matriarchal World-Chapter 54: Goblin Slayer (3)

Hobgoblin Tartara lived each day with a busy schedule. Ever since she was young, she was frail and couldn’t become a warrior. Instead, as if to compensate, she was born with a diligent personality, rare for a goblin. Starting from menial tasks and after overcoming various hardships, she finally succeeded in rising to the position responsible for the entire tribe’s meals.

Today was that monumental first day of work. She twisted her wrinkled green skin into a smile. “Gobububut!” Clapping happily to herself, she arrived at the kitchen. Today was the day the chieftain finally butchered the last meat they’d been saving. She had instructed first to rub the meat with red berries to remove the gamey smell, but she wondered if the underlings had done it properly. With such worries, Tartara opened the door.

What greeted her were her colleagues, who had worked with her for a long time, slaughtered. “Go, b…?” The kitchen was drenched in nothing but crimson red blood. The goblins, who had been laughing and chatting just yesterday, were now skinned and disassembled by parts. Among them, what was peculiar was that all had their wrists cut off.

Good heavens! Who could have done something so cruel?! Treating goblins, not even humans, like mere pieces of meat. Even the inferior beings wandering the outskirts of the forest wouldn’t do such things!

Terrified, she covered her mouth with her hands and slowly began to step back. She must inform the warriors about the current horror. Everyone must know that a terrible murderer had sneaked into the tribe…!

At that moment, when she began burning with a sense of duty, a thick rope caught around Tartara’s neck. “Gohuk?!” The rope wound around her neck, strangling her. Whoever it was, she was certain that it was the insane murderer who had slaughtered her fellows!

The force exerted by the rope wasn’t very strong, but it was too much for her, who was already in a panic and with her neck restrained, to realize and escape on her own. Eventually, Tartara, exhausted from struggling, suffocated. The owner of the rope dragged her limp body back to the kitchen.

Thud! The moment the door closed, isolating her from the outside, Tartara sensed her impending doom. However, she wanted to see at least who was killing her. Even as her consciousness faded, Tartara forced her eyes wide open. Perhaps her desperate effort wasn’t in vain, as the murderer revealed himself in front of her.

A stature similar to or slightly smaller than her kind. A human with pink hair held a pure white dagger and tilted their head curiously. “This one’s pretty resilient.”

With those words, the dagger swung down, and Tartara’s vision spun as she tumbled to the floor. In the momentary respite given before Tartara’s brain completely ceased functioning after being decapitated, what came to her mind in that instant was not vengeance, anger, or fear. It was admiration for a beauty she had never seen in her lifetime. And the fragrant smell that filled her nostrils. That was the death of Tartara.

Just when I thought everything was taken care of, I was startled by another one coming in belatedly. “Ha… I thought I missed it. There won’t be another one coming in, will there?”

As I sighed deeply and said so, the door to the kitchen storage opened, and Lydia came out. Using the stealth technique she learned from me, she made her presence as faint as possible. “Who knows? That’s why I told you to be careful. It’s hard to kill so many like this, unlike assassinating one or two secretly.”

“Well, haven’t we already dealt with almost half of them? Even just this much is impressive. Just praise me already!”

“Alright, alright. Jonah, you’re amazing.”

Lydia chuckled and tapped my head gently. Receiving her touch, I quickly began to butcher the goblin I had caught a moment ago.

Hobgoblins, unlike the Wandering Goblins on the outskirts, have many useful parts. First, their skin can be used for scroll materials, so the mage tower always purchased it. As always, their hand bones were alchemical materials. Unlike the females, the testicles of males were used in virility drugs, and their magic stones were much larger.

However, there just wasn’t enough time to take everything. Just a moment ago, I had to hide quickly because I felt someone’s presence while I was in the middle of gathering materials. First, I cut off the wrists, and instead of painstakingly peeling off other parts, I just chopped them off. I only tore off the skin in rectangular shapes from the broad back and belly and, finally, extracted the magic stone.

Hush—then, the unattended corpse turned to dust and scattered in the wind. This transformation was why I believed that a complete assassination would be convenient; it was simpler to deal with the bodies once the magic stones were removed.

After extracting the magic stones from the other Hobgoblin corpses sprawled in the kitchen, although it had become a bit messy, the appearance of an ordinary kitchen, not covered in blood as it was before, was revealed. Well, it’s called a kitchen, but one at a really primitive level. A flat stone for butchering and preparing ingredients, then a large bonfire with a wide-open roof was all there was here.

“Now, then, I’m thinking of going to where the warrior class lives… But there’s one problem we need to solve before that, right?”

“Yes.” Lydia nodded her head and headed towards the warehouse where she was hiding.

There, unidentified fruits and various smoked meats were hanging in abundance… Also, on the floor was a naked woman who had been rescued just before being slaughtered. As our eyes met, she immediately lowered her head and trembled. Her skin was smeared with a red powder mixed with water, making it impossible to discern her original skin color. They must have seasoned her in advance. Ugh, those cruel goblins.

Clicking my tongue, I crouched in front of her. “Excuse me. What’s your name?”

“Pl, please spare me…”

“I’m Jonah. An adventurer here to subdue the Hobgoblin tribe. You’re an adventurer too, right?”

“I taste bad. Please don’t eat me, dear angel…”

“…Miss Lydia. This noona seems completely out of it. What should we do?”

“Just so you know, she panicked because of you, Jonah.”

“Ah. What did I do? I just saved someone who was lying on a stone cutting board, covered in seasoning, begging for their life.”

“Suddenly appearing and killing all the goblins that had power over their life and death until now, and then licking your lips saying it smells delicious would make anyone terrified. Especially if they were already mentally and physically weakened.”

“That’s obviously a joke! It was just a Jonah-style joke to ease the tension and tell her it’s okay now! I’m not a cannibal; why would I eat people? …Unless it’s in a sexy way!”

“…Jonah doesn’t understand people’s hearts.” What should she do with this boy? Lydia shook her head back and forth with such an expression written on her face.

Putting the rude Lydia aside, now that we’ve found someone who’d been captured, we couldn’t just leave them behind. Either we hide her and take her away later, or we pause the assassination for a moment and take this person instead…

I grabbed the cheeks of the female adventurer, still out of her senses, and made her look straight at me. “Ah, ugh…”

Then, to the adventurer who now completely forgot human speech and was trembling, I whispered in a slightly lowered voice. “Do you want to live?”

“Yes, yes…”

“But I’m hungry.”

“Eek!”

I smiled slyly at the adventurer, making a terrified sound. “So, tell me someone else I can eat instead.”

“…What?”

“If mere Hobgoblins caught you, you’re not a very skilled adventurer. You didn’t come alone but formed a party with your colleagues, right? Tell me the location of those colleagues. Then, I’ll spare your life.”

“That, that’s…” After much contemplation, the woman finally closed her eyes tightly and continued speaking. “Mi, Mila died fighting. She was eaten on the first day.”

“Hmm. So, one is gone.”

“Dolores was eaten yesterday. Right before my eyes, she was cooked… Sob!”

“Oh dear. That’s unfortunate. But don’t cry. Keep talking. Saying this much means there’s someone else, right?”

“Ha, Hans.”

“Oh. A male name?”

“Yes… Hans was a male, so he was offered to the chieftain. He might have become their plaything but probably didn’t die.”

“Well. Goblins do indeed go crazy for men. Unless he’s killed himself, he wouldn’t have died easily.”

“…He wouldn’t have committed suicide. Hans is a coward. That’s why I promised to protect him… I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Hans…”

As she spoke, tears streamed down the adventurer’s face. It seems they were indeed very close to each other. Anyway, I roughly understood the situation. A party of four had entered. One died, and another was eaten, so now only two remained.

No. There could be more men captured. The women were simply eaten, leaving no trace, but the men would have been kept for a prolonged feast. When killing the chieftain or other high-ranking goblins, I’ll have to search their houses thoroughly.

“Ah, I have one last question. If you answer this, you might survive.”

“What, what is it? I’ll answer anything!”

“Your name. What is your name, noona?”

“……!” After much debate, the adventurer spoke with a voice as grave as if she were selling her soul to a demon. “Selly. It’s Selly.”

“Okay, Selly. I’ll bring Mr. Hans, so you have to wait here quietly until then, okay? It’s dangerous outside with your arms and legs in that state. You understand?”

“……Yes.”

Leaving Selly, who nodded weakly, I looked at Lydia. “Miss Lydia.”

“Yes.”

“Shall we go straight to capture the chieftain?”

“Good thinking.” Lydia, nodding her head, pulled out a large greatsword.

Since we assassinated half of them in secret, we decided to assassinate the other half openly. It didn’t matter as long as there were no witnesses, after all.

…And honestly, I was a bit angry too.