Chương 20: Chapter 19

The first thing everyone noticed were the scratches, then their eyes went to the blood all over Sobelle's hands. Only a few reacted in worry, most had smug expressions as if to say "you deserve this to happen to you" and then there was Sobelle's family. Who looked irritated that she came back alive.

"Sobelle?! What happened?!" Her father was the sole exception, he actually panicked when he saw her and ran as fast as he could to get to her side.

"I don't understand, why are you—""Goblins." How she sounded gave away her certainty. Or maybe her father noticed something she didn't, either way, he pushed himself off her.

"Five of them attacked me, I killed them all but lost your knife."

"You killed five goblins? At the same time?" Saltor sounded like he didn't believe her. But the scratches were proof of a struggle, and the blood on her hands told a story of something that had been killed.

"How did you?.."

"I did it one by one. I killed two of them at first, and then took care of the other three after they chased after me when I ran away." That was the gist of the whole story, and they'd have to be satisfied with it because Sobelle did not trust herself to be able to recollect what happened in that forest in full detail.

"Right. So you killed them? Where are they?"

"Back in the forest and in..." Sobelle stopped. She did not want her little secret place to be discovered, but she had no choice now that she was here.

"... Some temporary camp they were making, they led me to it and that was where I killed them."

"So they've already made scouts?" The chief broke through the crowd and stood next to Sobelle.

"You said they made a camp somewhere close to here?"

"Yes, it wasn't that good yet but it was there."

"That's normal, goblins don't put any effort into their proxies. They just need a place to rest and hide, that is good enough for them." The chief turned to the men and nudged at Sobelle's direction.

"Follow her and destroy the camp, and also take the bodies. We can't leave goblin corpses lying around when these things have a Nogg."

"I'll go with her." Thetras removed himself from the masses and stood by Sobelle's side. He patted her back and showed her a proud smile, "good job killing five of them, no one else in your position would be able to do that."

"Thanks." Sobelle should have felt warm, but she was tired and quite frankly, she didn't feel the need to accept Thetras' compliments when she knew he already loved someone else.

"I just did everything I could."

"Sobelle, lead them to the camp. And also the other corpses." The chief broke their little moment and reminded them of the work that needed to be done.

"Coke back soon, it's noon so the greenskins are celebrating. They'll send out more scouts after this."

"Got it." Sobelle ate that particular piece of knowledge like a prisoner being fed bread. No one spoke as they made their way to Sobelle's alcove. The guards looked at her in doubt every now and then, but Thetras' presence stopped them from saying anything. He was big enough that he intimidated two full grown men, how unfair must that be to them.

'Well I guess they always complain about things being unfair, so it's not that different from how they usually are.'

"Oh wow, there really are goblin corpses here." One guy said as he kicked the greenskin. He looked at Sobelle with widened eyes, "and you actually killed them? How?"

"Yes. And I don't know, it just happened." Sobelle never intended to explain anything to these people.

"They chased me and kept grabbing me and I just fought back every single time. I'm also faster than them." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"How'd you run around a forest though?" The other man murmured. He gave another corpse his own series of kicks, "they're really dead huh? This is actually impressive stuff Sobelle, I didn't know you had it in you." His begrudging respect made Sobelle begrudgingly appreciate his presence.

"Thank you, but I was just defending myself."

"Goblins can be pretty feral, so maybe they weren't thinking much when they attacked her." While that did make some sense, and Sobelle did use the greenskins' own rabidness against them, it wasn't the whole truth.

"That doesn't change anything, Sobelle fought five goblins and killed all of them." Thetras came to her defense even though it was wholly unnecessary. Sobelle didn't care that someone tried to rationalize her win, as she knew it was pointless to do so.

"I only see three here." One of them retorted, his tone sounded like he was looking for a fight.

"Where's the other two?"

"Follow me." Sobelle led them into the forest. They stopped at the spot where she killed the two other goblins.

"They were killed here." Sobelle pulled out the metal knife she left on one of the Goblins' head.

"And this is where I first encountered them."

"In a forest?" Thetras' shock was mirrored by every single person present.

"This place looked like the prime area where they'd be at their strongest, what happened?"

"I'm smarter and faster than them." This was not incorrect. Sobelle pinched fan-like leaves around her knife and used that to wipe off the excess blood from the blade.

"They couldn't outrun me even if they tried."

"But you killed two of them here—""Maybe she set it up!" One guard yelled. His impatience clear. This was also why Sobelle hadn't bothered to convince them of her competency.

"Did you ever think of that? Women lie all the time! That's all they do! Let's just take these back to the village and be done with it." Sobelle huffed but let the men carry her kill. She silently hoped that they'd get diseases from carrying the corpses but stopped herself before her thoughts got any worse. She wasn't the type of person who wished harm on anybody. She wasn't like them. She never will be. Back at the village, the chief whistled. Impressed.

Everyone else stood behind him, wary of not just the goblins, but Sobelle as well.

"Good work girl, I never knew you had it in ya! Guess all that training in the morning finally paid off huh?"

"Training?" Thetras spoke up for Sobelle by saying this. As she too did not know what the chief referred to when he said she trained. She didn't train anything as far as she was aware.

"Well yeah, the things she did every morning were the routines of soldiers back at the capital. Maybe she overheard her father talk about it at some point and decided to do it, but she did. And now it let her live after she faced goblins, not only that, but she killed them too."

"The soldiers only ran and did push ups, she did other things that I never knew about." Saltor pridefully added. He directed an approving nod at Sobelle.

"She's smart enough to change things so I'm not surprised she managed to out maneuver a bunch of stupid green skins."

"So you were actually training?" Thetras laughed.

"That's what that was! I wondered why you're so muscular for a girl but I guess that explains it! You're basically a mini soldier huh?"

"Mhmm." Sobelle only hummed in response. She made her way to the gate. She stopped in front of her father, "I need to rest."

"Go for it." Saltor did not stop her, which was good. She thought he'd check if she had any bite marks or something that would cause her to be sick.

"Good work kid. You earned it." [Be wary of infections! You have gotten so many wounds and are bleeding out several times over! You need to be careful of becoming sick! Boil some water and clean yourself with soap, this lowered your chances of getting sick from being guaranteed to almost zero. Make sure to wrap all your cuts in layers of bandages or fabric as well! Be sure they are freshly washed and clean, then replace your bed sheets.] Sobelle read the Gods' message as she walked.

They guided her in ways that could sometimes be confusing but every single one mattered. She did not dislike them for being absent during her fight, she knew that they believed in her and did not doubt her for even a second. They knew she'd win.

"Father? Can you boil me some water? I don't wanna go to sleep with blood in my clothes and I feel cold." She stopped and made her demands. She could do this much after everything she went through right?

"I'll tell Creyla to do it."

"Can you also tell her to get me some soap? And also I want my bed sheets and pillow replaced, and I also want spare clothing so I can bandage my cuts."

"What, are you gonna tell me to be your slave as well?" The woman in question growled. She looked at her husband.

"I am carrying your child! I shouldn't be doing any of that!"

"Then I'll get Somie to it." Saltor relented, probably because Creyla was right. She shouldn't be doing any hard work while she was pregnant.

"Don't worry Sobelle, you'll be fine. That's just how it is after you kill your first humanoid."

"Thank you." Sobelle had no idea what her father was saying. She was just exhausted.