*Interlude*

Beastman race.

A race consisting of people with some animal traits. They are the second most populous race next to human. As such, this race's population live across the four continents.

Unlike other race that has almost same features to each individuals, beastman's traits depends on the type of animal trait they have. Therefore, within this race, they are divided into subcategories based on each animal traits.

For example, a beastman with rabbit trait can have rabbit ears and tails. They will be regarded rabbit type. Beastman's type is a crucial identifying point as it determines not only the beastman's physical trait but also other things such as their lifespan. In this case, a rabbit type beastman will have an average lifespan of 160 years.

Most Beastmen living in Elverwad continent live in a big city called Sivenna the Beastman Capital. That capital has a hierarchy system similar to humans as it divide people's class by 3 categories: Royalty, Noble and Commoners.

Griselda Kisatoa is the first daughter of four siblings from Kisatoa family, the noble family of rabbit type beastman. She once lived inside the Beastman Capital until 70 years ago.

During her 16th birthday, Griselda went through an adulthood trial. Adulthood trial is a ceremony where beastmen who reach their adult age must go through a trial that is set by the Beastman Royalty in order to be regarded as a respectful adult. In rabbit type beastman's case, their adult age would be 16.

Hence, the 16 years old Griselda formed a party with three other party members:

30 years old Thesiemi, a commoner horse type female beastman. She will act as healer of the party. She is wearing a priest' white robe, a magical equipment that will reinforce the effect of her healing magic.

18 years old Mocmet, a commoner tiger type male beastman wearing spikey gloves and chain mail outfit. The short brown haired young male is the first vanguard of the party.

18 years old Glendea, a commoner tiger type female beastman holding a big purple iron scythe while wearing red robe. The short blue haired young female is the second vanguard of the party.

With Griselda acting as both leader and attacking mage of the party, they must go to a certain altar through forest path within a week.

Griselda's party already know each other for a long time. Not only that they are close friends, but they also trained for years in order to become strong enough to achieve their own dreams and goals.

Thesiemi wanted to become an adventurer strong enough that she can take many profitable quests to send money to her family.

Mocmet and Glendea also wanted to become strong adventurers. But their end goal was to travel around the world.

As for Griselda, she wanted to become strong enough to be recognised as the one who will become the next head of Kisatoa noble family.

They are well-prepared enough to take on the trial. And many people also expected good results from them.

However, on the fourth day of the trial, Griselda's party was ambushed by an overwhelming number of goblins at night. Their number is so many that the party can't do anything to retaliate.

*thud!*

"!?"

The attack was so sudden that several goblins already pinned down Griselda's body before she knew it.

(Wha...!?)

Seeing her body being pinned down by many green hands muddled Griselda's mind with so much horror that she never experienced before.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Griselda heard a female scream but cannot identified whose scream it is due to her current state of mind.

*grip!*

"!"

Then Griselda felt that someone grabbed her left bunny ear.

Griselda looked at the person who grabbed her ear. And then she saw a goblin looking at her with nasty grin.

*slash!*

"!?AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

Unimaginable amount of pain went from Griselda's left ear towards her brain. Griselda screamed her lungs out due to the pain and tears started flowing down from her eyes.

She was so shocked and scared that her mind cannot think of anything but the her incoming demise.

The goblins laughed when they look at Griselda's expression. Those goblins took pleasure from looking at the Griselda's expression of despair, especially the goblin who continuously cackling while holding the Griselda's ear that he just cut.

*smack!*

However, when Griselda was about to pass out, she suddenly saw the cackling goblin got kicked by a white-skinned foot.

*splatter!*

The kick was so strong that it smashed the goblin's head like a broken watermelon. Lots of blood spilled out from that goblin's smashed head.

The blood was also spilled to Griselda's face, but she is no longer in a state of mind that can care about the goblin's blood.

"... !!!???"

It took few seconds for the other goblins to realize the death of one of their brethens and the fact that a black-haired elf was standing near them.

The elf with ponytail hairstyle and black outfit was none other than Veilene Reverangel. She was looking at the goblins with slightly angry eyes.

The other goblins besides the ones near Griselda also noticed Veilene's presence.

Looking at the goblins, Veilene started talking.

"I admit... you guys got guts for disturbing my sleep-"

"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

One of the goblins suddenly cut Veilene's sentence by screaming and jump towards her at the same time to attack her with a wooden club.

*grab! Splatter!*

However, Veilene just smashed the goblin's head to pieces simply by grabbing it really hard. She does not mind the goblin's blood on her right hand at all.

After that some goblins tried to attack Veilene while the others try to run away.

But what comes next surprised Griselda in different way. Veilene killed all the goblins with her bare hands. She does not let a single goblin there out alive.

Veilene's display of strength was so phenomenal that Griselda forgot about her pain until the slaughter ended.

Afterwards, Griselda forced herself to stand up and Fortunately, Thesiemi did not get any fatal injury.

However, Griselda and Thesiemi were shocked when they saw Glendea. Glendea already lost consciousness while being in a state way worse than Griselda.

On top of that, Mocmet was found to be dead after having being beaten up relentlessly by the goblins.

Therefore, the survivors had no choice but to give up the trial and retreat. Of course they failed the trial as a result.

Those who failed the trial won't be able to take the trial anymore. For beastman, failure of the trial will be recorded in their life record to differentiate them from the truly skilled beastman that managed to complete the trial.

Though this trial's method was put aside the moment that the people in Elverwad finally had access to Astral Measurer. This decision was made because the society in Elverwad always consider the power of a person is proportionate to how much mana they can hold (The Astral Level).

However, Griselda failing the trial was still an irrefutable fact. Not wanting a failure being the head of Kisatoa family, her family pulled the right of being the family head from Griselda and it was decided that her younger brother will become the next head of Kisatoa family instead as if the family expected that the little brother will succeed the trial in her older sister's stead.

Griselda, who was already berated by her family for betraying their expectation, decided to focus more on her party members not only because she wanted something else to distract her mind but also because she was genuinely worried about them.

Therefore, she met with Thesiemi and decided to visit Glendea. It was not their first time visiting Glendea ever since the trial incident. Glendea was the one who is mostly scarred by that event. Not only in physical sense but also in mental sense as she was really close with Mocmet and finding out about her death took a toll on her mental health.

Despite their injuries, Griselda and Thesiemi have been visiting Glendea almost every day to check and support her. It's not a hard thing to do since the three of them lived in the same city called Beastman Capital, a city where the major population consists of beastman.

That day will be no exception. Upon being welcomed by Glendea's family, they immediately went to Glendea's room.

After knocking the door, Thesiemi went ahead and opened the door. Knocking the door is just a form of formality as both Griselda and Thesiemi knew that Glendea was not in the state to open the door by herself.

"Glendea, good mor-"

However, Thesiemi stopped her sentence upon seeing what was inside Glendea's room.

The first thing that Griselda noticed was the sight of a pair of feet that is floating above the ground. And Griselda slowly moved her sight up...

She saw Glendea's body with her neck tied to a rope hanging on the ceiling. For a minute, she thought that it was just a bad nightmare and wished that none of it was real.

Everything fell apart for Griselda that day.

The feeling of not having her left ear.

The feeling of not being able to meet her family's expectations.

The feeling of losing people who are close to her.

Not being able to withstand those losses, Griselda lived aimlessly from that day on.

That is until she heard a certain announcement.

'Anti-Goblin Alliance'

The races in Elverwad Continent formed an alliance in order counter the goblins who were continuously attacking people. The alliance goal is to kill all goblins who are believed to be the most filthy but dangerously smart monsters.

Upon hearing the news, Griselda remembered the trial incident once again.

(That's right... They are the reason why I lost everything... GOBLINS...!)

She finally had another purpose in life... which is to kill all goblins.

She immediately joined the alliance and participate in the battle against goblins.

Despite goblin's huge population, they are powerless against the alliance consisted of powerful races such as Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Lamia and many other races.

Together with Alliance members and Thesiemi, Griselda continued to destroy Goblins' habitats within Elverwad Continent.

She directed all her hatred towards the goblin race. That was the only way for Griselda to move forward.

And then after 20 years of fighting goblins...

"Haah haah...!"

A pair of male and female goblin kids can be seen running through the forest at night. The goblin boy ran while pulling the goblin girl behind him as if they were running for their life.

However, when they finally got out from the forest, what awaited them was a steep cliff. Below that cliff was a valley whose depth cannot be seen by naked eyes.

Of course both kids had no choice but to stop running when they reached the cliff.

"R- Roe..."

The goblin girl called out the goblin boy's name with worried tone.

"We must not stay here for too long. Let's-"

Before the goblin boy finished his sentence. A whip-like attack came out from the forest with speed that eyes can't easily follow.

*schlak!!*

The moment the goblin boy looked at the the goblin girl, half of the goblin girl's neck was already torn by the whip slash attack.

"!!?? NAEEEE!!!"

The goblin boy quickly held the goblin girl's falling body.

"No... this can't be real... NAE!!!"

The goblin boy started crying and called out the goblin girl's name again and again. But the goblin girl already closed her eyes and will never wake up ever again.

*tap tap*

And then the goblin boy realized that someone walked out from the forest.

That someone is none other than Griselda. The goblin only recognised her as one of the his village's attackers. The rabbit type female beastman with only one ear was definitely the one who attacked the goblin girl as she is holding a whip made of water.

Griselda looked at the goblins with killing intention. Then she slowly raised her right hand which is holding the water whip.

Fear, Confusion, Anger and all sorts of emotions dwelled in the goblin boy's heart.

With tears flowing down his cheeks, he shouted at Griselda with angry tone.

"WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS!? WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU??!!"

As Griselda's right hand reach the back of her body at the same height level as her chest, she made eye contact with the goblin boy. Before Griselda delivered the finishing blow, the goblin boy shouted again.

"You... All of you... I SHALL NEVER FORGIVE ALL OF YOU!!!"

His last shout surprised Griselda and she threw the whip with timing faster than her planned timing. It severely reduced the whip's power but still has the same speed as her previous speed.

*schlak!*

"!!??"

It destroyed the goblin boy's right eye. The impact pushed the boy's body and made him fell from the cliff.

"..."

Griselda looked at the remaining corpse of the goblin girl. And then she looked down at her right hand which was holding a small blue orb inside the handle part of the water whip.

That was the last time of Griselda Kisatoa killing a goblin.

*End of Interlude*

_________________________________________

Griselda who is sitting on one of church's benches looks up to the ceiling before talking again to continue telling us her past.

"That time, I tried my best to not let that goblin's words get into my mind. But the more I tried to ignore those words, the more that those words constantly rang in my mind."

Griselda is currently sitting at the center while Thesiemi the nun is sitting at her left side. I am sitting at Griselda's right side while Miika, who is sitting on my right side, looks at Griselda with serious expression as she continues to tell her past.

"Ever since then, I always dreamt about that goblin and his words. Why would I kill them... and the fact that he will never forgive me..."

Griselda looked down again before continuing.

"I still remember my motive of course. However, that goblin's words reminded me of myself during that trial. It's as if that he experienced the same emotion that I felt back then."

Griselda directs her gaze towards the big cross inside the church while continuing her talk.

"Then a disturbing thought came to my mind. If I made him experienced the same emotion I felt back then, then my action was similar to what the goblins did to me..."

"But that's-"

Thesiemi wanted to reply but Griselda cut her sentences.

"I know. My action was the obligation as Anti-Goblin Alliance member. Even if my motive is personal, what I did was necessary to prevent more victims from goblins' attack."

Griselda touched her torn left ear before continuing.

"However... every time I tried to attack another goblins... that goblin's words always came to my mind and it ended up immobilizing my body. After multiple failure attempts, I came to realization that there was something wrong with me and I cannot kill goblins anymore."

Then Griselda clasps her hands on top of her thighs while continue talking.

"I left the alliance not too long after that together with Thesiemi. We decided to not go back to Beastman Capital and wandered around Elverwad Continent. Eventually, we met Stephanie and were invited to live in this small town."

Stephanie Elbint Rakusha is the Guild Master's full name. I need two seconds to remember this fact while Thesiemi starts talking.

"We wandered to search another safe place to live. So Stephanie really saved us back then. He is really such a kind man."

Then Griselda smiles a bit before talking again.

"He is kind indeed. So kind that his kindness cannot be understood by most people."

"? What do you mean?"

I asked that to understand more about Griselda's last statement. Griselda then looks at me before answering.

"The goblins that you helped before. Their group once asked for Stephanie's permission to let them live at least near Liasr Town."

The government system in Liasr Town is reinforced by it's Guild.

Towns in Brahmastra Continent where all laws are reinforced by Kingdom's personnels such as knights. This system is similar to cities in Elverwad except that each town in Elverwad is protected by a Monarch that represents the royalty race governing the city.

Liasr Town does not fall under those categories as it is meant to be a multi-racial town where no race is superior to others. So the Guild Master created a different government policy by using Guild as both law enforcer and protector of the town... which is something I didn't believe the first time I heard about it from Antarea.

Like hell I would acknowledge that mess of a guild as the government of this town. But the guild members are the ones who guard the town's gate and other places so... I shall not talk about those thoughts out loud.

More importantly, there is something strange about Griselda's statement that I need to clarify.

"The goblins asked permission to live near the town and not inside the town?"

Griselda quickly replies to my question.

"They never expect to be accepted inside the town in the first place. After all, they even got rejected from living near other cities."

... don't tell me... that this town is actually a nicer place compared to other cities and towns in this continent.

Thesiemi then talks again.

"I think it was around 20 years ago... At that time, the Anti-Goblin Alliance already stopped their activity so people won't just blindly attack goblins. But that does not mean that all other races can accept living with goblins that easily... Ah."

"? What's wrong?"

Griselda says that while looking at Thesiemi who stops her sentence midway. Thesiemi immediate replied.

"I just realised... we've been talking non-stop for quite a long time. You guys must be thirsty by now. I'll take some water."

"Then I'll help."

When Thesiemi stands up, Griselda says that and also stands up.

"! Then I'll-"

"It's fine. You guys walked a lot today right? Just take it easy for now."

Griselda's statement prevents Miika from helping them. So Miika decides to not stand up as both Griselda and Thesiemi walk away.

Then I think about Thesiemi's statement regarding the goblin incident.

I read the record of the goblin incident in my family's library before. The time where the messenger from Sanrock nation discussed with Anti-Goblin Alliance about the theory of Goblin not being a monster is around 37 years ago. The discussion took almost 1 year to finally convince the Anti-Alliance Goblin to cease their activities. With only around 16 years passed after stopping the hunt, of course not all people in Elverwad can just change their mindset about goblins.

Also, people living in Elverwad are most likely from races that has way more lifespan than human race's lifespan. 16 years for them is probably as fast as how human experienced few months of their life. That is just how different their sense of time compared to human...

This psychology of different races is something that I probably won't ever understand. And this is only of many differences. Different ways of living and physical traits can lead to many kinds of mindsets. This is especially true when it comes to understanding about other races' mindset.

I won't expect myself to understand every decision making that people from other races made.. and I won't force any of them to understand human's... or rather, my way of thinking.

Therefore I shall turn my brain off from asking just what is the logic behind the forming of Anti-Goblin Alliance and it's disbandment. It's just too bothersome for me.

As I think that, Griselda and Thesiemi return while holding wooden cups of water on both of their hands. Thesiemi handed one wooden cup to Miika whereas Griselda handed over one wooden cup to me.

After all of us drink a bit, Thesiemi continues talking.

"At the start, we are also against letting the goblins living near this town. But then Stephanie gathered all residents of this town back then. And start asking this question..."

"...?"

"...?"

Miika and I look at Thesiemi with questioning expressions. Then Thesiemi continues talking.

"Magic... and race... those two things are indeed part of ourselves. But are you guys really okay with having your own worth measured by only those things?"

"!"

Miika looks surprised hearing that. But I think that just sounds like something he would say indeed.

Then Griselda finished all the water from her cup before talking again.

"I was really shocked back then. What he did basically just doubting about the long time tradition and mindset of people living in Elverwad. In the end, everyone else just barely accept Stephanie's proposal to give permissions to the goblins."

Thesiemi then smiles a bit while starts talking.

"Now that I think about it. That was an absurd thing to do... especially the part about questioning about measuring person's worth with astral level. Our guild test systems were invented by him and Rimikia precisely because he does not want to use Astral Measurer. Even though all other guilds use them..."

Then Griselda quickly replies.

"I agree. However, as absurd as it sounds, I think I understand what Stephanie is trying to say."

Griselda looks at me before continue talking.

"Shion. I... I don't want to see goblin that way anymore."

Griselda closes her eyes.

"It's not like I'm fine with being around them. Even now, I can close my eyes and still remember clearly the day where the goblins took everything away from me. However..."

Griselda opens her eyes before talking again.

"That goblin boy... and the goblins that you helped before... They are not the ones who hurted me and my friends. That is the truth. Which is why I don't want to blame them... or even see them in negative light for what they did not do. So... please help them."

"I also wanted to ask for the same thing. If you guys can help them get accepted in this town... then please, by all means."

Thesiemi says that right after what Griselda said.

"... Understood."

I stand up as I say that. Miika quickly understands that I am about to leave so he quickly stands up as well.

As both Miika and me reach the church's door, Griselda calls both our names.

"Shion. Miika."

"?"

"?"

Both Miika and me turn behind to look at Griselda.

"Thank you."

Griselda smiles while saying that.

"... huh? Mmph!?"

I close Miika's mouth before he says more. Therefore, I decide to reply in his stead.

"You're welcome. Well then, excuse me."

Both Miika and me leave the church right after I said that.

.....

....

...

On the way towards the town's gate, Miika asks me something.

"Will this... be alright?"

"About what?"

I quickly reply to his question.

"Griselda... It's not like I understand her feelings... but after all that happened to her. Won't it be hard for her to accept Ean and others?"

"It won't be easy indeed. But since she's the one who wanted to accept them, then we just need to do our job."

I reply without looking at Miika's direction while walking.

"You're... right I guess..?"

"... Stop beating around the bush. What do you want to say?"

Miika's unsure tone irritates me a bit and that's why I ask him with a slightly irritated tone.

Miika thinks for few seconds while walking before replying to my question.

"It's not like I hate goblins... but I'm not really sure if it's necessary to force all the people here to accept goblins..."

Right... I guess he does not understand the guild master's goal... but I doubt that my explanation will help in that regard...

"Methods aside, the goal of trying to get along with one another itself is nothing wrong."

"Is that... so..."

Miika can only say that as reply. So I decide to continue talking.

"Besides..."

Right as I want to continue my sentence, flashbacks of when I was betrayed by Nelsia suddenly comes to my mind.

"... Living while continuously hating someone... can be really painful."

Miika becomes silent right after hearing my answer.