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Day 47
When I woke up as usual my [Intuition] sprung into action.
It’s telling me that I should stay in the cave and hide myself quietly, and that if I move I’ll regret it.
I activated [Hiding], that was boosted from [Job-Assassin], and [Conceal Presence] at the same time as I headed toward the back of the cave where Blacksmith-san, the Sisters, Alchemist-san, and Redhead made themselves at home.
I relaxed, lately it has become my hobby to fill in the unexplored area in my mental map, yesterday I created a replicate of myself of my flesh and blood that was as tall as my waist — the overall ability is halved, because it behaves in a certain way, it also has some free will — and sent it out.
This replica had the ability [Infused Liquid Restoration] that I got from the Grey Slime, which makes it so that if it receives damage to its limbs or gets pierced by something it can restore itself to a certain degree restore by absorbing the necessary amount of water, which is why I tried making it.
Its current combat ability is rather low compared to me, but it is still reasonably strong, so it won’t get killed easily. It can also run fast.
Using [Metamorphosis], the replica changed its appearance to that of a large wolf and sprinted outside. After seeing it off I went back inside.
I assigned some Goblins of my generation from the logistical support group «Pleasure» to assist Blacksmith-san, because it would be inconvenient all by herself, having considered making new cookery for the Sisters’ place. Then I analyzed the old medicine that for some reason hadn’t degraded at all which we secured from Velvet’s inheritance at Alchemist-san’s place. After doing all these things, time passed.
And then it happened.
The place where Gobukichi-kun and the others were practicing is linked to the cave’s entrance, it’s called the Great Hall. It was the largest space within the mine. Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, Redhead, and the others practicing hard here, wielding wooden swords.
At that time my 【Sense Presence】 detected some enemy contacts approaching the entrance. The species name on display was “Elf”. Furthermore, the name of the Elf male I drove out the other day was mixed in among them. Even I didn’t expect that they would turn up this soon.
Quickly I called the Goblins inside and made preparations. Luckily, since they were already in the middle of training, they already had their equipment on, so they finished preparing shortly.
After a simple inspection of the equipment, we hid ourselves in the trenches we made beforehand near the Great Hall. We simply waited in place where it’s easy to spring a surprise attack against the invading Elves. I had Gobue-chan continue mining for the time being, the sound of her mining that can be heard throughout the cave will be used for cover.
A short time later, the armed group of Elves entered the cave.
Hobgoblins like Gobukichi-kun notwithstanding, for the Goblins to win against the twenty five quiet and swift yet bloodlust Elves armed with specialized weapons, even when facing them three to one, would be hard enemies to deal with.
The mood was already full of hostile intent, but still, I needed to capture them and hear their story first.
Alone, I flew out from behind cover while using my [Intimidating Roar] and [Scaled Horse's Neigh] together loudly and made them flinch, furthermore I immediately activated [Intimidating Glare] and [Snake's Evil Eye] which gave me the chance to capture them with my threads.
After lining up the captured Elves, I beat up the Elf who was the next clan chief's (and other titles that didn't concern me) face with my red spear while I had a quick talk with them.
Yeah, I seemed to have deeply injured his pride the other day.
After two days had passed, his fear of me faded a little bit. Once he was able to think a little clearly, he decided that he had no choice but to kill the one who looked down on them thinking, “Why does a noble Elf such as me blablabla…, if I’m not afraid of the likes of the ogre this and that…”, so he took along elite level Elves from among his subordinates, allowing himself to be controlled by his emotions and attacked. As a result, they arrived at the current predicament having had the tables turned on them.
I pity the other Elves for working under such a boss. The two female Elves from the other day also hung their heads before my eyes. I was a little curious and tried to speak to them, but they refused to listen.
The pain the subordinates had to bear for the sake of an incompetent boss struck a chord with me, so as expected, killing them as they were did not sit well with me, and I did the following more or less out of sympathy.
- Give up on the next clan chief candidate Elf, he’s dead.
- Fight in a mock battle with Goblins and Hobgoblins other than me. Without killing your opponent, make them faint or otherwise make them incapable of fighting. If you succeed at this you win.
- If you win the mock battle, you won’t be killed, if you lose, you will be killed and eaten.
That was the gist of it.
As I finished explaining, I untied the threads for all of them except for the next clan chief candidate Elf.
When I did that, one highly loyal Elf tried to kill me, but I broke his chin with a punch and gave him a concussion. Then I grabbed the unsteady Elf by his head and shoulders, and killed him by twisting his neck until it broke.
I told Redhead, Blacksmith, and the other girls to stay inside until I came back, then I devoured the fresh corpse, heart and all.
Ability [Elf Language] learned.
The Elves didn’t stop trembling.
Because their bodies were frozen in fear, I said “The fight with the humans is close, and yet you’re fine with dying unseemly deaths in this kind of place? Don’t you want to live?”, to put some fighting spirit in them.
Those were my own words, yet they sounded shameless.
Still, for now it had an effect, everyone became motivated.
And then, the mock battle began.
The final result, of the 23 Elves who participated in the mock battle, 17 survived.
I had to say my condolences to the people who got Gobukichi-kun, Gobumi-chan, and Hobusato-san. Of the ordinary Elves and Hobgoblins it’d usually end up with Elves winning nine out of ten times, but the strength of Gobukichi-kun and the others who have continued to train already greatly surpassed that of an average Hobgoblin.
Though it’s regrettable for the defeated who begged for their lives, there will be no mercy for those who come to kill us, I killed them after saying that.
It’s a pity, but this is war. Besides, it was the other side that pulled the trigger first. There’s no need for sympathy.
The six who lost — — all were male. No, it became that way after I rigged the matches because intentionally killing a beautiful woman is unpleasant—— were all delicious.
Ability [Inhabitant of the Forest] learned.
Ability [Elemental] learned.
Ability [Archery Proficiency] learned.
Ability [Tracking] learned.
Ability [Hiding] learned.
When I finished eating the losers, I turned to the winning Elves who were staring blankly in a dazed state, after putting all their equipped magical items in one place, I tied them up with thread again.
They complained about not being released, but I pointed out that I didn’t say they’d be “released”.
I only said that they wouldn’t be killed, it's not my fault if they misunderstood. Although I help those who are one-sidedly oppressed such as Redhead, I don't have an ounce of mercy for an “Enemy” that has attacked.
This mercy is “Not killing” them.
That’s how it is… Breaking it down, there are ten men and seven women, let’s cooperate to increase the number. Oh, I said I hated doing it by force before, and I will never do it by force. It’s true.
But I administer an aphrodisiac made from my body fluids to all of them. I had them thrown in jail and gave a strict order that they shall not be touched unless they they wanted to be touched.
Because they may relieve each other if they were in the same room, they were placed in their own separate prison cells.
Though the male Elves can’t bear any children, well, they could still be used for relieving one’s libido. They look good anyway.
But geez, I’m rather grateful for their timing. The Goblins of the same generation as me, and the older Goblins could no longer be satisfied with just the female Goblins, and a lot of stress has accumulated. Because of the harsh training we’ve had until now, they’ve somehow been distracted from this issue, but they’ve gotten used to the training so their limit is fast approaching.
That’s why I am grateful for this.
…Are you saying I’m acting like a villain? Nope, it’s troubling me that you’ve gotten the wrong idea. In the first place, it was the other side who started it.
They had lost while trying to kill us, and yet you tell us, who were attacked, to release the prisoners peacefully? That’s just not possible. We were unreasonably attacked, so if we strike back there’s no way that would count as being villains.
We didn’t even have rules regarding prisoners of war to begin with, so even doing things like this is no problem. What one does with them is up to them based on their own feelings.
Also, although I'm judging myself, let me say it first. I still believe I made the rules relatively fair.
At such a sight, the Elf ringleader began to say something, but I ignored him.
After the 17 Elves had been taken to jail, the one Elf left behind became material for various things. Things like new torture methods and lectures on vital spots of humanoids.
Of course, he ended up in my stomach in the end.
Ability learned: [Overcharge]
Ability learned: [Discount]
I ate a fair number of Elves. The individual abilities of those I ate were high and on top of that they held duplicates of the useful skills I already had and improved them. Yeah, I was so thankful that I could even pray for them.