Chương 26: Chapter 24

Waiting for a bit before she went ahead and cut the ears of the Goblins helped keep the exhaustion at bay. Sobelle was also fortunate enough to not get a single Goblin come around while she took her rest. She'd die of exhaustion if she fought any more than this. 34 goblin ears were placed alongside all the previous ones she had harvested, bringing the total up to 48. Which sounded like a lot but it really wasn't, 48 ears meant Sobelle only killed 24 goblins and that was only a days' worth of births.

She was glad that she'd killed enough to halt the growth of their population for today but knew that she needed to kill more. Sobelle sheathed her clean dagger and went off to pick up her boar. The animal was heavy and yet she still carried it for a few hours and brought it to the lakeside. There, she used her axe to chop the hardened flesh of the boar into several pieces. The axe was the only way this thing was going to get butchered now.

She removed parts that had been scarred from previous wounds or areas which had them, this alone cut a large part of the meat. Then she removed the hardy flesh of the boar, as well as the ones with pus in it, then she cut off the areas filled with parasites, be it worms or something else. Out came the intestines and other organs, Sobelle kept the liver and threw out everything else.

She then cleaned the leftover flesh and left it to bask under the sun on top of a rock while she made the structure that she'll use to hang them in. The building was fairly simple; it had a four sided wall made of weaved plant leaves, hangers made using branches that went out both the left and right walls, and a roof made with leaves. Sobelle then piled a bunch of tree litter on the ground beneath the hangers and set them alight. Embers released smoke into the air and the structure contained most of it.

Now all that's left was for her to put the meat on the hangers and then leave to hunt more goblins. Or rather, she wanted to go back to her village, sell people the leftover meat she didn't want, eat, and rest for a few hours. Then she'd go back and hunt goblins.

"You're finally back?" While the guards Sobelle passed on the way to the village looked bitter, the chief sounded hopeful while he talked. His eyes went to the burlap pouch Sobelle held.

"A lot of blood means a lot of dead Goblins right?"

"48 ears, 24 goblins." Sobelle gave him the count of how many she killed and then handed him the burlap. She then showed him the boar hide she used to store all the excess meat and bones.

"And a partially dead boar I took from the goblins and butchered."

"Count them." The chief handed the burlap to a man standing next to him. A member of the merchant family? Then he took the offered hide, he opened it.

"This is a lot, you're the one who butchered this?"

"It would have been too hard to carry otherwise." This was the alibi that she prepared when someone asked her what happened to the boar. It was better than telling everyone that she kept the good meat for herself.

"Good work then." The chief closed the hide.

"We need every bit of food we can get, so this is a good thing. If you want payment for it then just tell me."

"No, I don't want anything. I'm trying my best to help everyone too." Sobelle felt that it was better to make the chief grateful to her right now so she gave him something without asking for anything in return.

"I know, but you can still tell me if you want something. I'll see if I can help you with it." The chief left no room for arguments so Sobelle looked away to do something else while the merchant counted the ears. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Her eyes became glued to a scene a few dozen feet away from them. There, men and women stuffed wood and rocks into poorly made sand kilns.

"What's going on with them?" Her curiosity got the best of her.

"We have extra wood shavings from making all the..."

"Palisades."

"... Palisades, right, so we used them to burn copper to make arrows. We felt that they will be useful coming forward." So they were making arrows? Out of copper? That was the most expensive arrow Sobelle had ever heard of.

"We know it's expensive, but we can't risk getting rocks from the forest when goblins are around."

'And yet you sent me out there to kill goblins.' Sobelle did not resent anyone for this, as she herself wanted to do it. But that didn't mean she wasn't bitter about being compared to the other villagers. She trusted the chief but she still couldn't help but think the man only saw her as someone expendable. It was a stupid thing, she knew. If this was the case, then it was better to send a man since they did not help the goblins after they lost.

"She brought back 48 ears." The merchant had an impressed look.

"I never thought that was possible."

"It should be. Most of what Sobelle killed were the aborted goblins. Look at the ears." To explain his conclusion, the chief grabbed one of the dark green ears and flipped them over.

"See how it's light green on the inside? It means the goblin didn't grow all that well." Even with this critique, he gave Sobelle a proud pat on the back.

"This does not mean that what Sobelle did is not impressive, it still is. Killing this many goblins is not something a normal person can do." Sobelle felt no joy in hearing the chief's compliments. She silently handed him her weapons and started to strip off her armor, her father came running towards her at this moment and helped her with the chainmail.

"I need new bandages." Sobelle muttered as she checked her wounds. They were no longer fresh but still hadn't scabbed just yet.

"And a bath. I feel so unclean."

"Don't worry, someone will come help you in a little bit." The chief reassured her.

"Just go back home and wait."

"Thank you." Fruits were brought to Sobelle while she waited, and she ate them without complaint. Some bread even came her way, which she found delicious. Then came her bath and new bandages, the latter were brought to her by Chael while Somie took care of the former. Her eldest sister talked to her before she left.

"So you killed a lot of goblins huh? I saw the ears. There was a lot, at least enough for a quarter of a bucket." Somie paused, then added.

"Sorry I can't say the specific number, I'm not too good with that stuff."

"It's okay, you don't have to say that. And I didn't even care until you mentioned it." Sobelle caught her muttering something under her breath.

"Of course you'd say that." Somie thought she couldn't be heard but that wasn't the case.

"Is it hard? Killing goblins."

"Kind of." How could Sobelle describe her experience? She couldn't just say that she got into killing things after a few seconds of doing it, that would make her look like she was sick in the head.

"You get used to it after a while, and you can kill them easily right as long as they don't surprise you."

"Is that even possible? Goblins are green, so are the plants. The forest has a lot of them." By that logic, then yeah. They definitely were hard to kill.

"I prepare ambushes for them, I wait for them to come to me. Not the opposite."

"How does that work?" Of course Somie would ask her about it. Why wouldn't she?

"I piss on the ground and then wait for them to come to me." Sobelle silently watched her sister's reaction and just as she thought, Somie was disgusted. Though she thankfully didn't say anything, Sobelle intended to change this.

"Can you fill a vase for me? I wanna use it as bait. It's kind of tiring to remove my boots and pants every single time I do it." Sobelle never did this. Not once. But she lied anyway, because it made things easier if Somie agreed. If she could get the goblins to come to her whenever she wanted, then killing would go smoothly.

"What do you mean?" Was she playing dumb?

"You know what I mean." Sobelle's reply was the final breaking point and Somie scowled at her.

"Don't ask your sister this Sobelle. I— whatever. I wanted to talk to you and tell you good things for once but of course you'd make things worse. I'm leaving." Sobelle looked at the ground after Somie closed the door. Had she felt guilt about what she did then she'd be crying right now, instead she just felt disappointed.

"I didn't ask you to talk to me." Only the darkness heard her mutterings.