novelraw Chapter 19 : Looted
Chapter 19 : Looted
Chapter 19: Looted
Robin’s back became soaked with hot blood.
What rolled and tumbled across the ground was a goblin’s head.
“Ambush!”
When Paul shouted thunderously, the mercenaries gathered around the campfire grabbed their weapons and rushed over.
“Kekek!”
“Kerrrk!”
Robin also drew his sword.
Calimacos and Paul cut down the approaching goblins one by one each time they came near.
“Robin, don’t show them your back—step back while facing them.”
“Yes.”
Following Calimacos’s words, he inched backward toward the campfire.
The goblins pushed with numbers, but since a head flew off every time they approached, they no longer dared to come closer.
“You ugly bastards, get away from our little cutie!”
Mirian arrived first, holding up a torch.
Thanks to her, their field of vision brightened, and they could see the creatures clearly.
The goblins before them were a darker deep-green than ordinary goblins.
“You’re all dead!”
Each time Torgen swung his axe, a goblin’s head split open.
When Brandok and Felix thrust and withdrew their spears, a deflating hiss followed.
“They’re running. Torgen, stop!”
Perhaps lost in the one-sided slaughter, Torgen swung his axe without pause.
Only after Mirian shouted beside him did Torgen stop.
“Wait. Who’s watching our gear.”
At Calimacos’s words, everyone turned their eyes toward the campsite.
Goblins were flooding into the empty camp and plundering their belongings.
“Th-those bastards!”
“Get theeeem!”
Torgen’s curse and Paul’s shout burst out at the same time.
Swaeeeeeak!
Brandok’s thrown spear pierced the goblin rummaging through the food.
He then nocked arrows and shot at the goblins trying to flee.
“Good job, Brandok! Keep shooting!”
Everyone except Brandok dashed toward the campsite.
Mirian, the first to arrive, began cutting down goblins.
Using a curved blade, she moved smoothly as if dancing.
“They’re bolting. Torgen!”
Five goblins lifted pack bags over their heads and ran toward the dark mountain.
“Don’t worry! Hrrmph!”
Torgen pulled the arm holding his axe all the way to his side, swelling his muscles to their limit.
Muscles bulging as if about to burst hurled the axe in an instant.
Hoong hwoong.
The axe whirled fiercely as if devouring the air.
With a vicious sound, the flying axe shredded through the group of goblins and continued far beyond.
Once Calimacos and Paul arrived as well, the goblins were slaughtered in moments.
Around the campsite, goblin corpses lay strewn.
All seven raised their torches, but no living goblin could be found.
“Attacking after dark—pretty cunning bunch.”
“Mirian, come here and brighten this up.”
Torgen and Mirian walked off to retrieve the axe.
Calimacos surveyed the wrecked campsite and checked his pack.
“Everyone check your gear.”
Paul hurriedly examined his bag and frowned.
“Damn. The jerky and hardtack are gone.”
Felix reacted no differently.
“My whetstone and blanket are missing.”
Torgen returned with Mirian, the axe slung across his back.
They brought back wolf meat, but it had rolled on the ground and was in poor shape.
“Torgen, Mirian, was there anything else over there?”
At Paul’s question, Torgen and Mirian shrugged.
“Nothing but the wolf meat.”
“Check if anything else is missing.”
The others also discovered several of their possessions gone.
“My throwing axe is missing.”
“Aaah! My coconut oil’s gone!”
“What would you even use that for.”
“It’s my secret to keeping my skin supple. And now it’s gone.”
Torgen looked at Mirian in disbelief, but Mirian was sincerely furious.
Robin checked his backpack; nothing was torn or punctured.
Fortunately, nothing was missing, and he felt relieved inside.
“Brandok, why are you just sitting there. Don’t tell me your whole pack’s gone.”
When Calimacos asked, Brandok pushed aside the rock he had been sitting on.
A rather deep pit lay beneath it, and in it Brandok’s personal belongings remained completely intact.
“Hiding your gear there—what a piece of work.”
“It was the captain who told us to stay cautious because anything could happen outside. I only followed his words.”
Because Brandok wore a helmet covering his entire face, his voice echoed.
And he wore leather armor covering his entire body.
He could be considered the perfect model of a battle-ready mercenary.
“Brandok! Next time stash my gear too.”
“Mirian, your gear is your responsibility.”
“Torgen is right. If I were to stash yours too, I’d have to dig the pit wider, and rocks large enough to hide it aren’t common.”
Only Brandok’s and Robin’s belongings remained intact.
They could still make it to the nearest village, but the loss wasn’t small.
Not all their capital had been taken, yet it was too much to simply ignore.
“Captain. Shouldn’t we take revenge. Losing an axe that’s like my own child breaks my heart.”
“I’m crying too because my coconut oil’s gone. For a woman, upkeep is everything.”
“With that face you’re crying? At least wet your lips before you lie.”
“What? And your axe is like your child? Who throws their child at a monster!”
Leaving Torgen and Mirian bickering, Calimacos turned his eyes to Brandok.
“I don’t mind. I’ll follow your decision, Captain.”
“Felix, what about you.”
“I think we should go after them. The village isn’t far from here anyway, and goblins—you could wipe them out alone, Captain.”
Calimacos closed his right eye as though thinking.
Paul looked at him and spoke.
“I’m against it. Our goal right now is to escort Robin to the barony. If it were just us, fine, but taking Robin into a monster den is dangerous.”
“I think so too. Then let’s move a bit farther and set up a new campsite.”
When Calimacos made his decision, Mirian and Torgen clicked their tongues.
Felix also looked disappointed, but no one complained.
Paul’s stance was the reasonable one.
“I want to go find what was stolen.”
Everyone focused on Robin at his words.
“I’ve fought goblins before too. I won’t drag anyone down.”
“With that longsword you can’t even lift properly?”
“No, but even bare-handed I’m confident I can win, Captain.”
Whenever combat began, he experienced time slowing in moments of danger.
He named that ability Thought Acceleration.
With that ability, he believed he wouldn’t die to goblins.
Calimacos weighed whether he could fight while protecting Robin.
The deliberation was brief.
“If you’re that confident, fine. When the sun rises, we’ll look for the goblins’ den.”
Paul shook his head but respected Calimacos’s decision.
Mirian, Torgen, and Felix brightened.
Brandok pushed goblin corpses out of the campsite as if nothing mattered to him.
“All right, clean up the bodies while listening. Tonight we stand watch in teams of two. Paul and I take first shift, Mirian and Torgen next, Brandok and Felix last. Understood.”
“What about me?”
“Kids sleep early. You grow taller if you sleep early.”
Calimacos waved his hand dismissively.
“I’ll take a watch too.”
“Our little cutie needs good sleep to fight goblins tomorrow. Want to sleep in big sister’s arms?”
“I’m fine, Mirian.”
Robin was treated like a child in the mercenary group.
Being ten years old, it wasn’t unreasonable, but he didn’t like it.
He didn’t know what Baron Tefir thought of a bastard child, nor how much reward he offered.
‘I’m not Jeremy. And yet the mercenaries are being too good to me.’
The reason Calimacos was escorting Robin to Baron Tefir’s domain was unclear.
Just because he had been a close friend of Jeremy.
To tell Baron Tefir about Jeremy, they were escorting him a long way.
Not only that, they fed him and prioritized his safety.
‘There’s no such thing as kindness without price.’
Robin was the weakest in the group.
If they faced a threat too much for the mercenary band to handle, and if abandoning Robin was the better choice—
They would drop him without hesitation. To prevent that, he had to prove his usefulness.
He didn’t want to be dead weight.
Until he could pull his weight as one full person, he intended to do whatever small task he could.
“We’re done cleaning up. Go sleep.”
Except for Calimacos and Paul, the mercenaries lay down and finished preparing for bed.
Krrrrrk.
Not long after, Torgen’s loud snoring echoed.
Robin lay pretending to sleep, then rose after about thirty minutes.
Only the crackling of the campfire filled the surroundings.
“Why aren’t you sleeping.”
Calimacos spoke without even turning his head as Robin approached silently.
Paul also sensed him but kept his eyes on the fire.
“I can’t sleep.”
The two mercenaries kept their words to a minimum.
If he couldn’t sleep, they wouldn’t force a child to bed.
Robin sat near the campfire and observed them.
Both men had the murky blond hair commonly seen.
Their washed-out blond hair caught the firelight and gleamed reddish.
Awooou!
Whenever animal cries echoed, they glanced toward the source.
If nothing threatening appeared to the naked eye, they listened to the fire’s crackle and stared into the darkness again.
Standing watch wasn’t much.
If danger seemed near, they awakened their comrades.
If not, it was only a long, boring stretch of time.
Calimacos yawning wide or Paul tilting his head to fight sleep made that clear.
For mercenaries it was dull, but for Robin it was a new experience.
Building a campfire on an open plain and keeping watch stirred many thoughts.
Days of persecution at the orphanage.
Meeting Jeremy after being dumped at Burt’s general store. The warmth that felt like family for the first time. And death.
Lost in thought, time passed quickly.
“It’s time to switch.”
“I’ll wake them.”
Paul shook Torgen and Mirian awake.
They rubbed their eyes and rose without complaint.
“Ughh, good work. Torgen and I will take over, so go sleep.”
“If anything happens, wake us immediately.”
“Rest well.”
On his way back to his place, Calimacos hooked his right arm around Robin’s waist and lifted him slightly.
“You saw how watch works, right? Go sleep.”
“I’ll do it next time.”
“Stubborn kid.”
It was the first night outside the city. The stars in the night sky sparkled unusually bright.
Robin didn’t like that sight.
Because his precious friend had died while the world stayed unchanged.
Because in this vast world, a single person felt like nothing more than dust.
Hating that feeling, he clutched the necklace.
It felt warm, perhaps heated by his body.
Sssak sssak.
As they climbed the mountain, soil and weeds let out cheerful screams.
At the front, Calimacos halted and signaled with his hand.
Ahead. Enemy spotted.
The mercenaries gripping their blades tightened their hands.
Seogeok.
Felix slipped forward quietly and cut a goblin’s throat.
Swaeaeaeak.
Before the goblin beside it could scream, a spear pierced its neck.
It was Brandok’s clean throw.
“They’re obviously lookouts.”
Calimacos nudged the goblin corpse with his toe.
“Their hideout isn’t far.”
“Paul, can you track them.”
Paul examined the goblin footprints on the ground carefully.
“This much is easy. Going right away?”
Calimacos grinned.
“What’s the point of asking. We go now. Lead the way, Paul.”
Paul went ahead, following the goblin tracks.
The depth of the prints, how much dirt covered them, and their direction—everything was information.
Not only footprints; they also used monster droppings for tracking.
Marks left by a stone axe scraping a tree, a single torn cloth scrap—nothing was overlooked.
‘Tracking is harder than I thought.’
He watched closely as Paul traced the goblins’ trail at the front.
The presence of a group of monsters grew nearer.
‘I think I get the gist. I should remember this for later.’
After an hour of pursuit—
The mercenary band found the goblin settlement.
‘There are many.’
From a distance, at least over a hundred goblins seemed to be living together as a community.
It was Robin’s first time seeing so many goblins.
He had thought he could face goblins alone, but he had been wrong.
“You’re amazing every time, Paul. Thought you might be a bloodhound.”
“A goblin settlement of this size is rare. What now.”
Robin waited for what would come from Calimacos’s mouth.