Goblin Theater: first scène; the beginning of the end of the denouement

* Near this great mountain, surrounded by tall dead trees, was a small river with waters so clear that fish could be seen swimming peacefully. It was near this river that Sham would meet up from time to time to train and think to himself. Looking at his reflection in the water, he said

- What's happening to me? I was sure I'd never feel this way about humans again, so what's happening to me, WOQ?

"Do you have a personal or standard answer?

- Whatever you like.

"Goblins don't feel anything for humans. All they feel is hunger, and I'm talking about eating and fucking. After that, there's nothing more. But it's not impossible that in your case, your previous life had an influence on your true nature. But that's only temporary, because as you evolve, all that will disappear for a complete evolution."

- So... I did feel pity for her, didn't I?

"Possibly!"

- In the end, I'm only human. But with other people... what's the point of me thinking about all that. What's done is done and that's that. WOQ?

"I'm not deaf.

- Please teach me how to get strong really fast.

"Oh, did I hear politeness in your sentence? That's good, we're making progress. In exchange, I'm willing to guide you along the fastest path to power. But..."

- But?

"From now on, you must always address me as your mistress. I will be your master and you my little goblin slave. If you're not cute, then you can always dream about me helping you."

At the time, I thought to myself: WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS INTERFACE? But then I quickly relaxed and replied.

- I accept your clemency, O great mistress.

Even if it's going to be hard to be cute with that face. After all, she's a girl and they always have the weirdest and most incomprehensible tastes.

"Good! Good! Say it again".

- Thank you for your mercy, O great mistress.

"Subarashiiii!"

- Oh did you just speak Japanese?

"I speak any language of any world."

Even though I'm not Japanese, I still know what the word means. I realise she's more twisted than I thought but I could use that.

- So you could act as a translator too, that's interesting.

"Hm???"

I sensed some displeasure in that expression, so I corrected myself.

- O my revered mistress.

"That's it! Good boy! Good boy! I will now guide you on the road to power, but first you must complete your quest. Information: the daily quest..."

- Haa again? I'm sick of all these absurd quests.

* And that's how our two lovebirds found a place to wait.

"Excuse me? What did you just read?

* After that, WOQ gave herself heart and soul to help her boyfriend...

"Do you want to die narra?

* Do you? Were you talking to me?

"Who else do you see?

* Well, all the characters in our story, maybe hahaha

"You're never going to eat pizza again and as soon as we're done I'm going to torture you to death. You're going to regret this misreading for the rest of your life, you little pest. I'm going to slaughter you."

* Wow, what did I do wrong. I'm just reading my story. My big brother asked me to and he's the one writing the story, so...

"He wrote that the prota was my boyfriend?

* Eeeeh no but as you were expecting so much so I thought it would add a bit of romance to all this barbarity hahaha... Was I wrong?

"...you're dead."

* Yes, I was wrong. Ouaaaah WOQ, I beg your pardon. I'm really sorry! I swear I didn't mean to offend you. I'm really sorry, big sister, I promise I'll never do that again. Please forgive me, don't punish me.

"Keep reading, we won't talk about it again.

* So you forgive me?

"Read on!"

* Not until you forgive me or you'll...you...I promise if you forgive me then I'll add a shotacon to the story. You like that, don't you?

"Hmm I'm thinking."

* And also I'll call you Mum for a month so don't punish me.

"Ara Ara!!! Now that's something to think about.Also add an ugly bastard Netorare. Hahaha"

* Don't overdo it.

"What?"

* OK, I'll add that too. Shotacon and ugly bastard... Netorare. So you forgive me?

"Yes yes, keep reading. We're boring the readers with our nonsense."

* You started it.

"..."

* Nothing. So I was saying, our two umm I mean WOQ decided to show our hero the way to power. From then on, our dear hero's life took a new turn. He spent all his time trying to learn magic. And he was pretty good at it. Underneath her scary exterior, big sister is an excellent teacher. And so a week and a half went by.

* For a week and a half, the goblins set themselves a single task. They attacked all the surrounding villages to steal cattle and humans of all sexes and ages. They also attacked many merchant wagons and travellers passing through their area. They even managed to wipe out three groups of adventurers alerted to the presence of goblins in the area. The more time passed, the greater the number of victims, and the consequences were soon to fall upon the lair.

* It was a normal night for goblins. In the lair, many were sleeping here and there and others were going about their business. The night was fairly quiet. Towards the entrance to the cave, it was Sham and a dozen goblins who stood guard tonight. Sham was one of three posted just outside the door and behind them, in the cave, were the others, all well-armed with spears and swords and sometimes armour. Yawning, Sham said to himself

- Haa I'm sleepy. Why am I standing guard tonight? I thought I'd earned enough stripes to avoid this kind of menial task haa, but it's not very often that guards get decimated at the start of battle in fantasy stories?

* A thought that made him panic a little. He began by inspecting all the areas and nooks and crannies within sight before huffing and puffing, thinking

- Well then, what are the chances of that happening to me? Even if the goblins are extremely weak, after what happened to the other adventurers, the others will think twice before committing themselves. But that also means that those who come next time will be much stronger than the previous ones, won't they? Wow, that doesn't sound good. Well, there's no guarantee that it's going to happen now or even tomorrow. If it does, we'll already be a long way from here as this is only a temporary stopover...

That's when I felt a terrible pressure. Like a warning of imminent danger. I immediately put myself on my guard by observing the forest.

- This feeling, it's as if there were a bunch of terrible monsters hiding in the shadows of the forest. What the hell?

My whole body shuddered, but when I looked at the others, I wondered if I wasn't the only one to feel this monstrous pressure that sent shivers down my spine. So I began to back away slowly, step by step, towards the inside of the cave without alerting anyone, before asking the others to be on their guard. I reversed all the way into the corridor when

"Announcement: the quest event entitled Arcadia's Revenge has reached its conclusion.

The announcement shocked me, but what shocked me even more was the end of the announcement

- What do you mean, reached its denouement? When had it started?

I thought, surprised, when a female shadow appeared in front of the cave and slit the throats of the two guards with her sword. In the same way as she appeared, she disappeared before reappearing, cutting the heads off all the others in the corridor and ending up with her sword stuck in the head of one of them before kicking me in the ribs, sending me tumbling far into the cave.

We didn't see it coming and didn't even have time to shout to alert the others when we were decimated by a single warrior in fine silver armour with whitish-yellow hair and green eyes. It was like seeing the twin of the other girl whose life I had taken. Picking myself up again in the corridor after she'd broken all my left ribs, I thought to myself

- It's a copy of the other girl... wait... The quest is vengeance arcadia, isn't it? Avenge Arcadia?! But that doesn't make sense. But if that's true, does that mean this girl is here for me?

I don't think my body is waiting for information from my brain to act. Just the idea that this girl had come for me already had me terrified. I went straight to my feet before shouting loudly to sound the alarm. I fled like a coward without looking back, because after all, since my reincarnation in this world, this was the first time I'd met someone with such a monstrous presence.

* When Sham saw Arcadia charging at him, every cell in his body reacted by agreeing to run as far away as possible. I haven't got a chance, he said to himself before fleeing like a coward. But that was understandable, because his opponent and worst enemy looked very ferocious. She watched him run before huffing and puffing.The air blown out of her mouth made her look like steam, which made her even more monstrous in Sham's eyes. She got into position and disappeared again from sham's field of vision.

* Sham panicked and screamed again, only to see her come down on him with her sword and slice him in half. For a second, sham even saw Arcadia slice his head in two. It was a vision that terrified him, and the fear was clearly visible on his face. He continued to run, keeping an eye on his enemy who could only attack him from behind, and he was well aware of this. And just as he thought, for a brief moment, he saw the girl descend on him, preparing to split him in two with her sword. His reaction was instinctive as he retaliated to the girl's attack by passing his sword, capable of extending, under her armpit to surprise the girl. The girl avoided the surprise attack, which only managed to graze her cheek and deflect his attack, which narrowly missed the goblin.

* Sham had just escaped death in extremis and was well aware of it. He immediately took to his heels and fled into the cave, even though the girl hadn't moved for a while. Several goblins came out of the cave, charging at the girl with their weapons in great numbers. They were all in a rage and there were even two champions with them when another shadow appeared in front of the cave. He too was in armour, great armour, but instead of throwing himself into battle, he just took out a scroll and spread it around him. He then pronounced a formula before unleashing a veritable tsunami in a calm, composed voice.

- Raz marée!

* It was a terrible tidal wave that swept through the cave, cleaning everything in its path. All the goblins were swept along by this attack, which spread through every floor of the lair without exception and with the same terrible violence, sweeping away everything in its path. Our hero was no exception and suffered even more than the others, given that he was quite close to the door. In no time at all, the cave was clean and full of water.

* Towards the door, and despite the violence of the attack she had taken, the young girl was completely unharmed and hadn't even moved an inch. Of the goblins who had come to approach her, only one had survived and withstood the surging waves, only one champion was still trying to get up and attack the girl when, a man appeared just behind him as if he were invisible before thrusting his sword into his head and killing him with one blow. He then addressed the girl

- Your cheek is bleeding! It's strange, but I could have sworn that this attack wouldn't have done anything to you. Did I overestimate the resistance of a heroine?

* A heroine, that's what the girl was, or at least that's what her companions called her. After that, another guy in armour entered the cave with a team of four: a young mage, a druid, an archer and a thief accompanied by a thief. The thief said

- Be careful what you say, goblin killer. I won't let another insult go unchallenged.

* The man in armour replied

- I'm sorry, but that wasn't an insult, it was more of a remark. I've already told you, but your sword is much too big for a simple goblin and your fighting style isn't really suited to this kind of terrain and I think you've understood that with this exchange. If you have a dagger style, then merge it with your agility, it'll be much more effective.

- Yes, I've noticed that.

* replied the young girl, holding her cheek.

- I don't mean any disrespect, but you're used to killing dragons, whereas I'm used to killing goblins, so in future, I'd ask you to stick to the plan. Without a good plan, we won't get very far, I can guarantee you that. Goblins are not dragons. They have no pride and will use every trick in the book to keep us at bay, so...

- OK, I get it. I got carried away earlier but I shouldn't have. I'm sorry!

* pronounced the girl, putting her sword back in its sheath. At that moment, the man standing next to her made a personal remark in his head.

- She's different from her sister. She's capable of controlling her anger if it serves her purpose. I see, she's not a hero for nothing.

* Among the group who arrived with the thief, the young mage said

- What's up? The original plan went wrong, didn't it? What do we do now?

* The man in armour turned to him and said

- I've got a second plan and it's already underway.

- Have you? You've already launched it?

* Pronounced the archer with a hint of suspicion as the man looked down at the ground and the water flowing beneath their feet in abundance. The archer gasped and shouted before saying

- I can't believe it, you've done it again? We agreed never to use that. Now we're going to smell like death for months haa, my husband's going to spend all his evenings laughing at me again.

- Don't worry, it's not the same. This time I only used taoudeni germ salt. The very particular property of salt means that it's often fatal to Goblins, but above all, it weakens them to the max.

- Wow, now you really do look like a crazy psychopath.

* The thief who had approached Arcadia then said

- So what's next? Did you have to flood everything? That's clever, because we might not be able to kill them all because of that. Think about it, what if some places become inaccessible because of the flooding?

- You asked for my help, didn't you? It's because you know I always carry out my missions well, so let me do what I know how to do: which is to kill all the goblins in this lair. You two just follow my instructions and that goes for you too.

* Pronounced the man in response to the thief's question to dot the i's and cross the t's. Although it wasn't his intention, the thief still sensed pride in his words, but his group seemed to be quite used to that. The thief was about to react when Arcadia, who had been silent for a while, grabbed him by the hands and said

- To each his own hunting ground. So let's follow his instructions. I'm sorry again about earlier.

- I've forgotten.

* After that, Arcadia took a breath with a very determined air, thinking

- That sword was my sister's. If that goblin has it then it only means one thing, he's the one who killed my sister. What's more, he used it on me. He's dangerous...it doesn't matter, they're all going to die here anyway. I'm going to destroy this nest of goblins.

* At that precise moment, only the man in armour noticed the furious face and the rage boiling inside Arcadia, but he didn't utter a word and continued to explain his plan to the others. At the same time, a little way into the cave, Sham was standing up in a puddle of water. He vomited a great deal as he gradually came to his senses. He thought about that terrible woman before saying to himself

- I've made a big mistake in accepting this challenge. Is the end so near?

* A question that will soon be answered. But Sham was right to wonder, because what he doesn't know is that this quest started far, far away from him and that he was only the end of this quest, or rather the final boss of this quest, if I can put it that way. But the only thing I'm sure of is that our story was about to have its first major turning point. With that...