The Two Leaders

Just like the beast it resembled, the barghest had a bloodhound’s scenting ability. There was no way it could not sniff out the goblin child who had bled so much on the way here.

From the look of things, the reason why the goblin had managed to get here wasn’t because he could resist the barghest. Rather, it was because the barghest was a sadistic creature; or maybe it was because it was a hunter that liked to play with its food.

Suddenly, the barghest stopped moving, surprise knotting its face, and it stared at the place they had gathered the herbs from.

Ah—

Enri pulled her face back. The others quickly followed suit.

Behind the tree trunk, Enri opened her hands. Her skin was green and speckled with stray bits of plant matter. Beside her, Nfirea did the same thing.

The sap and juices from the herbs we picked…

This was the same sort of thing that Nemu was soaked in when she ground up the herbs. Although those with numbed noses (like themselves) wouldn’t mind, but the powerful stench still hung in the air. Her heart raced, and Enri thought it was annoying.

“It’s started moving. …Is it coming this way? Hasn’t noticed us, has it?”

Unlai, with his ear on the tree to listen, flashed a querying hand sign.

“…are you telling me it can’t use its sense of smell?”

“What do you mean, Ani-san? Don’t monsters have very sensitive noses…?”

“It’s because of that,” Nfirea said as he explained himself.

The key point was that because it had an extremely sensitive sense of smell, the stench floating in this area was particularly effective against it. The barghest had confused the scent of Enri’s hands and bag with that of the already-harvested areas. Even better, the smell had covered up their original scent.

It was also possible that the barghest had torn up the herbs to smoke the goblin child out.

Although the powerful stench was everywhere, if they fled in haste, the displaced air from where they were fleeing might catch the barghest’s attention.

“Then, let’s use the kid as a sacrifice and be done with it. We don’t know how strong this barghest is, and engaging it without prior knowledge would be too risky.”

These cold words made Enri look at Gokoh’s face.

However, these words were logical ones. The goblins put Enri’s personal safety as their top priority.

With that in mind, avoiding combat with that magical beast was only to be expected. They would sacrifice one of their own kind for that without a second thought.

The words he said, judging by their conviction, were not mistaken at all.

However, Enri hated this sort of thing. Even if they were of different species, not helping someone you could help would disgrace herself as a human being.

Who knew, if she had not been a silly village girl who had never known a goblin attack and lacked a sense of danger, she might not have thought that way.

Enri looked around to the others. The goblins knew Enri’s wish. They just didn’t want to speak it.

After that, Enri looked to Nfirea.

“Enfi…”

“Haa… I’ll help. Who knows, that goblin child might become a valuable source of information. If we don’t find out why he fled here, it might end up causing danger to the village.

The goblins knitted their brows.

“Is there a chance you might lose?”

“Certainly. But if that’s a barghest, we’re in luck. Greater barghests are pretty strong. But from the look of that guy’s chains and the size of his horns, I don’t think he’s of that type. If it’s just a barghest, we’re sure to win.”

“Wait a minute. Ane-san is going to stay here, right? You should avoid danger.”

Enri swallowed. She knew what she was saying was only to satisfy her ego, and her foolish words would endanger not just herself but the others around her. But even so, Enri still opened her mouth to speak.

“…If we abandon someone we could have helped, it would be as bad as tormenting him ourselves. I don’t want to be like those people who harm the weak. Please!”

Kaijali, who had been watching Enri’s earnest expression, sighed in defeat. At the same time, the monster’s strange bark rang out. They could clearly hear the sound of mocking laughter within it. In response came the goblin child’s pitiful wail.

There was no more time for confusion or debate.

“It can’t be helped. Get him, lads!”

The goblins took the lead in jumping out, followed by Nfirea.

Enri felt a terribly wrenching pain in her heart as she watched the warriors who went into battle to fulfil her wishes.

All she could do was watch them from behind.

Then, Enri thought, at the very least I should stay here and watch them, without allowing myself to lose focus for even a single moment.

The four who had leapt out saw the barghest pressing the goblin child down beneath it. The goblin child sported new wounds but was not dead yet, because the barghest had the bad habit of toying with its prey.