Less than an hour in and we’re already leaving Castel. Even for an alien like me, going to a human settlement without any money was an embarrassingly stupid mistake. Worse, my two companions had zero sense on how to earn a living. They only knew how to pillage and fight. However, they still knew more about Wadia than I did.

Before discussing anything further, we decided to get out of town first before thinking of our next move. I hoped that would minimize suspicion, if we weren’t suspicious enough.

Since Castel was on the border of the south, the south of it was facing barren land and desolation. On the other hand, the north faced towards lush vegetation. Monsters, however, couldn’t freely come and go to those forests as they were heavily guarded.

A few hundred meters away from Castel, we huddled under a tree. Due to spur of emotion, I mindlessly blurted out hunting goblins, forgetting the reason why I even agreed to help Lureschka. Stupid.

“Say, Bria, isn’t hunting monsters for the sake of earning shlings make us pretty much like the humans?” I asked, my voice croaking.

“No, not really. Even though our Lord commands a huge force of demons and monsters, not every monster succumbs to her. As such, there are many who don’t share her visions and attack the humans as well. There are also cases wherein some under our command choose to disobey our Lord’s orders and attack the humans. Either case, they should be eliminated,” Bria explained nonchalantly.

With that, my worries subsided. I asked Bria where the closest goblin settlement was within the area. To my surprise, Bria didn’t know. She quickly casted a search spell looking for monsters within a kilometer radius.

Bluish mist came out under her foot, and her eyes glowed white for a couple of minutes, then she finally said, “Hmm, there’s a cave with a few. It’s not a colony, but more of a group.”

***

Rihoku bit the final goblin, who was still gripping its dagger. All in all, we, Rihoku and I since Bria and Shiki insisted that it was still part of training, killed a total of four goblins. I took out Kiriwan and cut the goblin ears, remembering what the old lady told us.

At that moment, I recalled Rihoku and my first hunt together. I honestly did spare Rihoku out of respect for being my first real opponent, but there was also another reason. I couldn’t stomach killing an animal, be it a monster. However, I knew that moment couldn’t be forever eluded.

Our first hunt was a Kobold, a humanoid with the head of a hyena. For some reason, it was straying by itself. I didn’t bother thinking about it. It wasn’t really that strong. Rihoku quickly pinned it, and I followed. I used Wind Cutter and used Kiriwan to end it’s life, but I couldn’t forget the feeling of my stomach turning upside down. I puked my lunch and breakfast together and felt nauseated for the next few days. Even Bria’s potions didn’t work.

Now, I looked down at the green corpse on my hand, both of its ears missing. I smiled. I can now cut the ears of goblins with ease, huh. I sure did come a long way, literally and figuratively.

I looked at our catch. Shiki was holding the rope where eight pieces of goblin ears were hanging. It kinda looked like some sort of bizarre necklace. We managed to kill four goblins. A quick calculation and I figured that they should exchange for 12 shlings. How far could that get us? I wasn’t sure. But using the restaurant’s food prices, which ranged around 2-3 shlings, I figured we could at least put something in our stomachs.

“Alright, that should do it.” I sheathed Kiriwan and looked at Bria and Shiki, who were conveniently “guarding” the entrance.

“We’re finished?” Bria replied in a confused tone.

“Yeah, we’ve killed all the goblins. We should bury them and finish up here,” I told her.

I developed a habit of making sure to properly bury the creatures I killed or hunted If I could. At first, Shiki found it a waste of effort and energy, as he put it. But he eventually stopped caring and let me be.

“Oh, what about those at the back? Should we just leave them be?”

“What back?” This time, it was my turn to be confused.

Bria entered the cave and casted an earth spell, making the stone wall, which I thought was the end of the tunnel, move. It revealed three more goblins, but these were relatively small compared to the ones littered on the floor.

Shocked, my eyes widened. “Are they young goblins?” I asked.

“Yes. I suggest we kill them and exchange their ears for how much shlings we can get. They’d just die if we leave them here anyway,” she explained matter of factly.

Of course what she said was true, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Even though I was considered as a Demon, I still had plenty of humanity inside me. “No, no, we can’t do that,” I vehemently stopped her.

“Then what should we do?”

“Hmm.” I thought for a moment. Bria was right. They’d probably die if we just left them here. I looked at the trembling young goblins. I figured they might have figured their fates after seeing their parents, or so I assumed to be their parents, lying on the floor. Seeing me all serious, Rihoku rubbed his body on my leg, then it hit me. “Can’t we take them in like Rihoku?”

“Certainly not, my liege,” Shiki responded, which probably was the first time since the pub. “The Nighthowl decided to follow you on its volition. I cast my doubts that those goblins would voluntarily follow us after seeing what you did to their brethren, perhaps brood.”

Damn, is there really no chance of saving them? Can we really just kill them? An idea suddenly came to mind. Wait… If I only need them to follow… Let’s give it a try.

This was actually the first time I was going to do it, so I was a tad bit nervous. I approached the goblins, who reflexively stepped back, gnarling their small but sharp teeth.

“It’s okay,” I tried to appease them, which obviously didn’t work as the biggest tried to snap its teeth at me. Okay, so how do I use it?

Remembering what Bria taught me when I was first trying to figure out how to cast Wind Cutter, I channeled my mana at my fingertips. But after I did that, I had no idea what I should do next. Damn it. What’s the point of giving me this gift if I don’t know how to use it, Lureschka?!

As if on cue, three blue windows popped up in front of me.

[Subjugate Goblin Lvl 5

(yes) (no)]

[Subjugate Goblin Lvl 6

(yes) (no)]

[Subjugate Goblin Lvl 8

(yes) (no)]

Shocked, I literally jumped back. What?! I just have to think of using it to activate Subjugate?! Realizing that, I had another idea. I thought hard about activating Wind Cutter, but I only ended up embarrassing myself. Not even a slight breeze activated. Before I died of embarrassment, I quickly selected yes on all windows, then three more windows popped up.

[Subjugating Goblin Lvl 5…

Target is resisting subjugation…

Subjugation success]

[Subjugating Goblin Lvl 6…

Target is resisting subjugation…

Subjugation success]

[Subjugating Goblin Lvl 8…

Target is resisting subjugation…

Subjugation success]

[Congratulations on leveling up! You are now level 13]

Huwew, subjugating monsters feels terribly familiar. Plus, I can level up by subjugating monsters?! Should I catch them all? Haha. Nah…

“Oh, so you chose to make them your slaves. Indeed, they have no way of going against you that way. Good thinking, Kaito,” Bria complimented.

I could feel my heart jumping in joy. It was seldom that either of them gave any words of praise. “Yeah, I figured it would be easier that way.”

“What’s your plan?” she asked. “I don’t think bringing them to Castel is a good idea.”

“I actually haven’t thought that far.” My voice trailed off, embarrassed that I had overlooked such an obvious problem. “Well, let’s bury their parents before thinking about that.”

I whistled to Rihoku, who quickly understood and started digging a few meters away from the cave. That left me to carry the four green slabs of meat to their graves, since Bria and Shiki wouldn’t really lend as much as a word to help. Well, that was supposed to be the case, but I had just acquired three new slaves, as Bria had put it. I’d rather call them subordinates, though. I figured experimenting as to what I could do with them wasn’t that much of a bad idea.

“Ah, so, uhmm, can you guys even understand me?” I told the goblins in a slow, gestured manner. Pretty much people’s go-to reaction when facing a language barrier. In response, the goblins snarled at me, and not the good kind. It’s more of the come-closer-and-I-will-kill-you kind of snarl, which didn’t help me figuring out whether they could understand me or not.

“Okay, great. Uhmm… How about jump?”

The goblins didn’t budge and just kept snarling at me. I figured they couldn’t really understand me, but then, they suddenly limped, looking weak and exhausted. The smallest one cried in pain. The biggest jumped, then it helped the other two do the same. After jumping, they seemed to have regained energy.

Oh, so they do understand me. I wonder if I’m speaking a universal tongue. Anyway, it seems that subjugation doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll follow me like Rihoku. But it looks like some sort of power is keeping things order.

“Okay, since you can understand me, then let’s get to work. You, big one, help me carry this one,” I commanded while pointing to the nearest goblin corpse. “You two, go carry another.”

Their eyes lit. The two smaller ones seemed terrified, but the biggest was more defiant. When they didn’t move for a few more seconds, they momentarily became weak again, forcing them to heed my command.

After putting the first two goblins into the hole Rihoku dug, we immediately proceeded to the next two. Finally, Rihoku covered the grave with the soil he dug out of it.

“So, what are you going to do with them, Kaito?” Bria asked, boredom evident on her face.

“We’ll leave them here,” I replied. “They’ll have to tend to themselves for today. We’ll check on them tomorrow.”

“Whatever you wish to do, Kaito.” Bria shrugged, obviously not giving a single care.

I turned to the goblins. “You heard that. Look out for yourselves today.”

The biggest goblin glared at me, its eyes flashing with anger. I just shrugged it off and motioned for them to go. After all, I couldn’t and wouldn’t stay with them just to keep them safe.

As the goblins went back into the cave, we also headed back to Castel.

***

When we arrived, the sun was already setting. We quickly went back to the adventurer’s guild to redeem our rewards. Based on the games I’d played in my previous life, adventurer’s guilds should always be open, but I didn’t want to risk it and be homeless on our first day.

“Yes, how may I help you?” the lean attendant asked, putting on a trained smile.

As much as I hated talking to other people, I was forced to do it since I was sure Bria and Shiki would do worse. “Uhmm, we would like to get the rewards for the goblins we killed.”

“Oh, is that so. Please put the goblin tongues on this box.” He pointed to a box with a cloth on top.

My eyes shot wide open, and my heart raced. “Tongues?! I thought we were supposed to cut the ears?”

At that moment, the attendant laughed hysterically. “Hahahahaha. I got you good. You’re the ones from Turg, right?” he asked, still laughing.

My ears got hot, and I badly wanted to run, but I managed to force a response. “Uhmm, yeah, we are.”

“Hahahaha. Welcome to Castel! Now put the ears on the box,” he repeated, now flashing a genuine smile.

I sheepishly put the necklace of ears on the box. The attendant got the box and inspected the necklace.

“Eight ears received, so four goblins. A bit little for a party of three, don’t you think?” He raised his brow and stared at us mockingly. “Nah, just kidding. Hahaha,” he added. I figured this weird lanky dude must love joking. But since he was literally holding our pay, I kept it to myself.

The attendant continued, “Alright, everything seems fine. As per rewards, three shlings per goblin. Here’s twelve shlings, people of Turg.”