I spent who knows how long cleaning the room to the best of my ability. I didn’t really care much about neatness (I mean I lived in a goblin den all my life, what do you expect?), and so I was really just pushing all the boxes into one corner and brushing off the dust with my hands.

A creak sounded from behind me. I turned to see Syllica’s head popping up from the trapdoor.

“Hey. I just wanted to check up, everything doing alright?”

I dusted off my hands, turning to address her, “Yeah, I’m just doing some cleaning. You?”

“Just washing up before heading to bed. Ah, and before I forget, we’re going to the guild to get you signed up tomorrow. We’ll probably be taking a minor quest too.”

She smiled sheepishly, “We’ve got to pay rent somehow.”

I nodded in understanding, even though I didn’t know anything about rent or human housing customs at the time. After a few moments of silence, she ducked her head back into the corridor,

“Well, we should probably be going to bed now, we’ve a long day tomorrow.”

Before she could fully withdraw, she hesitated. After several seconds of contemplation, she popped her head back up over the ledge again.

“You don’t have to answer this if you don’t feel comfortable, but…”

She bit her lip,

“Why don’t you take off your wraps?”

I subconsciously grasped my face, feeling it’s deformed shape.

“It's…” I ran through the options in my head. Just revealing my face was a definite no go, so the only choice I had was to lie. The problem was that humans were far more perceptive than I’d imagined, they could tell lies from truth relatively well, especially from an inexperienced liar like me.

“...complicated.”

She took the cue, waving her hands in front of her, “Ah, don’t worry about it! It was rude of me.”

“No it's fine, I should be the one apologizing. I’d be suspicious of me if I were in your position too.”

This time she answered without hesitation, “What do you mean? You saved us, that’s more than enough reason for us to trust you.”

I didn’t respond to that statement. What was I to say anyway?

“...one day.”

She tilted her head.

“...I’ll explain it all one day.”

Surprisingly, she looked content with my proposition. She smiled, “There’s no rush. What matters most is whether you’re comfortable with telling us.”

The conversation ended there, I didn’t want to push my luck any farther. My speech was far less developed than I would’ve liked, especially for having one on one conversations.

Maybe taking the cue, she ducked down from the trapdoor. We exchanged goodnights and she retreated back to her room.

I sprawled myself onto the bed.

There was a very precise reason as to why I was so cautious around her, and it lies within our races.

Goblins, you see, value three things more than anything else. Gold, food, and sex.

Regarding that last one, for some odd reason there are no female goblins.

The only way for us to reproduce is to lay our seed into other races, mostly humans. Yes, our only reproductive tactic is rape. That is why we’re seen as monstrous. Our biology has evolved around this tactic. Extreme fertility and as a result, extreme lust.

What most people don’t know is that goblins have an extremely keen sense of beauty. (Mostly) all races share the same definition of beauty, this is because of an evolutionary trait. Wide hips, an even face and fair skin, all these things appear more oftenly in more fertile women.

The different races have evolved to see these traits as more appealing. This is especially the case for goblins. Since fertility is everything for goblin reproduction, being able to pick out the most fertile females is extremely important. This is also why all goblins are hideous, they don’t have any females to attract since they reporduce through rape.

In a sense, elves are similar, but on the other extreme. Elves are extremely infertile, so finding a mate that is as fertile as possible is also extremely important. This is why nearly all elves are extremely attractive.

I think you know where this is going. Me, a part of a race that is extremely perceptive of beauty and that possesses rampant lust, and her, a race that is the most attractive of all the races.

In fact, taking an elven woman is almost like a trophy in goblin culture. Elves know that goblins are their worst enemies, so they guard their females intensely.

The only saving grace in my situation was the fact that I was probably born with less reproductive desire. Again, probably a result of the mana vein.

I shrugged the troublesome thoughts from my head. There was no time to think about such trifling things. I instead opted to drift into a deep slumber, with my wraps still on of course.