"We're going to search for Trish? Um... I don't think it's necessary now. Those guys are here."

I proposed to them my plans for today, but as I thought, Chris wouldn't accept it so easily.

This subjugation force group that everyone's been talking about recently are the ones that the village chief called for in order to solve this goblin problem.

Honestly, I'm not so convinced that they can do it. They're just 6 humans. Maybe a little bit stronger than the average villager but they're certainly outnumbered if they were to fight those goblins.

But if maybe I can lead them to save Trish... It might just be possible.

Although if Sun and Night would let me come with them is a different story.

My plan would be to just search in the shallower parts of the forest and see if I can't find any evidence or clue that might point towards where the goblin settlement is.

Of course, I more or less know where those goblins are staying at if I just follow the smell that they give off but if I told them that, I doubt they'll believe me and even if they did, Sun and Night would most likely wouldn't allow me to lead them to where it is.

So evidence is needed.

I also know of how unlikely it will be to find something by just looking in the shallower areas of the forest. I would like to go in deeper but since I'll be bringing Chris and Leo with me, I can't have them het into any sort of danger.

Even so, there might just be something that we can find. That's what I'm hoping for.

In the event that we didn't find anything, then I'll just have to depend on that subjugation group on Trish's rescue. What we're going to do is just speed up the process.

"Even so. Let's search. Right, Leo?"

"Un!"

As expected of the little human. He knows whose side to go with.

"But... Grandpa wouldn't allow us to..."

"We'll go, sneakily."

"That's right! Sneakily!"

"Haa... Alright fine but once we see a goblin, we book it, okay?"

I don't know why we're going to use books on this bu alright, I'm just going to assume that what he meant by that is to retreat immediately I have no intention of fighting goblins in front of these guys anyway.

I first explained to them my intention then we headed towards the outskirts of the forest. What we're going to do there was just to peer inside the forest while we walk the whole parameter of the forest.

This is actually quite relaxing but the two behind me thinks otherwise. They're awfully sweaty as well due how sunny it is today. Due to this, they're traversing the whole way while moving from shade to shade of the trees.

After a few minutes, while doing this, I caught the scent of a goblin nearby. As I was about to tell them about it, I realized that this smell is slightly different.

It's still putrid but there's something off about it. I could tell it somehow belong to something much larger than a goblin. Maybe a larger goblin? That must be it.

And this goblin seems to have noticed us but it didn't go and try to kill us. The opposite in fact. It went and walked away in the opposite direction.

Its behavior is certainly strange as well as it's height. If I have to guess, I'd say it's as tall as me whereas normal goblins are two heads smaller than me.

After a few steps of walking, we discovered a strange object from where I caught its scent from. It looks to be a metal rod thing but with intricate designs that I don't know the purpose of. The tool that Lacorte had given me couldn't identify this thing as well.

If i have to compare, it looks like an object that Chris worships in his hideout. At least it coyuld be if we found this in a different circumstance.

"What do you think this is?"

Chris asked as he pulled the object off the ground. We inspected it further and one of its ends is sharpened. Probably to make it easy to pierce into the ground.

And on its other end, contrary to its grey body, it's colored black and it smells like those black rocks called charcoal.

It isn't really that big. Its length is about half a Leo.

"Who knows? Let's show it to the village chief."

"Yeah, let's do that. Grandpa might know... It's actually pretty heavy."

I gesture at Chris to hand it to me to which he reluctantly did and it is as he says, it sort of heavy. It's definitely heavier than I expected. The cause might be because it's made of metal. But the strange thing is, it feels hollow somehow.

While I was inspecting it, Leo tugged on the cloth I'm wearing. When I looked at him, his expression seems to say that he wanted to try holding it as well.

Since he's a little human, he should be pretty weak so I just let him touch it while I hold on to the rod.

After that, we headed back. Our destination is towards the village chief's house. The subjugation group should be there as well.

Some of the villagers looked at us with questioning looks as to what we are currently carrying.

We decided to ingnore their gazes and continued our way towards the village chief's house. And in less than 15 minutes, we arrived.

As I sniff the air, I could smell 7 individuals inside the house. 2 of them smells familiar. The village chief and that other human that I still don't know the name of and what to call him. While the other 5 is most likely the subjugation group.

They're missing someone. And that one is the one with the foul smelling blood.

After Chris knocked on the door using his knuckles, the door opened after a few second delays.

There we saw the subjugation force.

Now that I could get a proper appraise them, I noticed their unique features.

The one with a large sword on his back is the biggest of them all and his eyes look scary and his hair is red, which is a good color in my opinion so he doesn't look that much scary to me.

Then the next one is the one with the yellow hair. On his waist hangs two swords inside their case and he seems to give off a friendly aura.

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The one with the bow that's placed over his shoulders looks a lot like Night back when we were traveling. He looks very serious but it isn't to the point that he's scary. It's more like you could sense a great deal of respectful aura in him.

The next one would be the one that stands out the most. It's the human with the big hat. Since I'm at her eye level, I could somehow see her face. And she looks like she's an angry squirrel that hadn't slept for who knows how long.

Since she glared at me, I immediately turned my gaze towards the last one.

She's the one that Night mentioned to be the battle priestess. She's also the most welcoming among the group. Her smile is like that of Sun. Very gentle looking and in the level to what I can call as motherly.

"Chris, Leo and... Snow? What is it that you want... And what is that?"

The village chief pointed at the strange metal rod I'm holding on.

Looks like the village chief doesn't know what it is which is unfortunate but I presented it to them anyway.

They all tilted their heads when they saw it. Except for one person.

The smallest of the group, the mage, looked at it with round eyes. And although barely noticeable, her shoulders looked to be shaking as well.

"Something wrong, Morgan?"

The man with the red hair noticed the mage's reaction as well and inquired about it.

The mage named Morgan looked at the red-haired human for a second before returning her gaze back at the rod.

Since her gaze tells me that she'd like to inspect the rod further, I placed it on top of the table in the center of the room.

Upon doing so, she quickly grabbed the rod and tried to lift it up to which she has a hard time doing.

"Holy... It's heavier than it looks...."

But the weight didn't stop her as she looked at it with strange vigor.

"This... Could this be...?"

"Oi Morgan. Don't go making this longer than it should. What is it?"

Morgan growled at the yellow-haired human before speaking.

"It might be a tool in performing a [ritual]."

"Say what?"

"Oh my..."

"Is that the truth?"

The three, yellow-haired human, the priestess, and the red-haired human exclaimed as if they've heard something truly unbelievable which I don't even know what it means.

And it looks like the two little humans didn't know what it is as well and as for the village chief, he has this complicated expression as if he's having a hard time understanding what's so surprising about this.

Seeing our reaction, she explained a bit more.

"I don't know exactly which ritual it is but that's not the problem exactly. The problem is, that there's a goblin [shaman] in there. They're the ones who would do something like rituals and not only that, they can use magic which would make them even more dangerous."

It indeed sounds like it's something very dangerous and everyone in the room agrees on that fact as well.

"Seems troubling... I advise that we shouldn't act on this and wait for reinforcements."

The one with the serious look spoke some logical words.

"No... It might be too late when they arrive. The ritual might be done at that time."

"Then why don't we just search for these rod things and interrupt their ritual channeling crap?"

Then the yellow-haired human interjected but it looks like it's not viable.

"Sam. Just shut up. That's not going to solve anything. They'll want just replace the ones we took and they might just place it on somewhere else that we can't possibly reach. When we fail to find them, the ritual will happen anyway."

The yellow-haired human named Sam looked downcast from either his idea being completely useless or that he can't think of something that'll get them out of this predicament.

"Hm... Then what do you think we should do?"

The next one to speak is the red-haired human.

"I can't say... The only thing I can think of is to just go in there and kill the shaman but that would be too risky and we might just get lost in the forest if we don't plan this right."

The room is then filled with silence after she said that. All being troubled on how to solve this.

Of course, I could greatly help them in their search if they let me come with them but I doubt they'll believe me. And even if they did, they might get suspicious of me as to why I know where they are which would cause unnecessary trouble.

In the end, I could only indirectly help them in this matter by telling them the general direction.

"I know whe—"

Before I could even finish my sentence, a certain someone entered the house. It's none other than the grey-haired human with a stinky smell of blood.

"Yo, I'm done setting up the traps in my end. You should all go and do yours."

The human nonchalantly entered the room as if it was natural and the first thing that he looked at was me before he looked over the people in the room.

Sensing the weird air around, he asked.

"Is something the matter?"

"You see—”"

The one who first answered the human is the village chief and after he shortly explained it to the human, the grey-haired human let out a long sigh.

"So what now?"

He asked no one in particular. Since no one still knows what to do, no one answered. And as for me, I find this a great opportunity to let them know what I can do to help.

"I know where they are."

When I said that, everyone turned their gazes towards my direction.Â

"You?"

"Yes."

To the red-haired man's single word question, I nodded and answered firmly.

But as expected, he and the rest of them looked at me suspiciously. Even Chris and Leo.

I think I should be more specific? Saying that I know where does sound very suspicious so I should change as just knowing the direction of where they are.

But before I could speak, the grey-haired man said something completely out of my expectations.

"Hey, Rodan. Why don't we accept this kid's help?"

"That seems rather stupid, don't you think?"

The red-haired human called Rodan immediately voiced his refusal on the idea.

I could certainly understand why Rodan wouldn't like the idea in the first place but the odd thing is, why this grey-haired human think it's a good idea.

"Frankly, we can't think up of anything good so why don't we just give this a shot. We'll just do some scouting and once we spot the goblin village, we retreat. Let's leave it to our future selves on what we will do with that information."

The others looked at themselves before they begrudgingly nodded at what this gray-haired human had said.

"It is as Rus says, it wouldn't hurt to try it out. Since we already know that there's a shaman in there somewhere, it is almost guaranteed that what we are actually dealing with is a goblin village."

Then the serious looking affirmed on the idea.

"Looks like we'll be relying on you, kiddo."

Then Sam closes one of his eyes in a stylish manner and gave me a thumbs up.

"You better not be lying."

The small mage female said in a bitter than as she glared at me.

"Since everyone agreed, that's what we're gonna do. You'll be coming with us kid so do get ready."

Woah. Wait up a bit... Why is it confirmed that I'll be going with them? I don't mind of course but they've decided on this way too fast. And they kept calling me a 'kid' which meant that they see me as someone young. Would this actually be fine? To rely on someone young like me that you don't even know if I'm actually saying the truth or not? I mean, my plan was to just tell them the general direction and leave them to that.

But of course, I'm not complaining with this development but still...

"Hold on a minute, guys! She's a child! We can't go and bring her with us! And we don't even know if she's even saying the truth. I'm sorry sweety but I just don't believe that you do."

The voice of reason with the form a priestess with shiny hair spoke out in the midst of absurdity.

And after she said that, I think I heard someone clicking their tongue...

Ignoring the tongue clicker, for now, I couldn't agree more on what she said. They've agreed on the grey-haired man, Rus's, idea way too easily. Even Chris, Leo and the village chief all nodded their heads on this.

Well, it would be convenient for me if they did believe me on this but I expected it to take more convincing.

"Alright... Then we'll do this, miss Celidonia. We'll have this girl lead us and if we don't spot a single goblin in the next 30 minutes, we scratch this and think up of another idea."

Rus raised an eyebrow as he looked at the priestess, Celidonia.

Celidonia made a bitter face before replying.

"You can't be possibly saying to bring a child in a dangerous place like inside the forest... Regardless if she knows something or not, it would be too reckless to do that!"

Rus let out a long sigh before continuing.

"You have to see how grave our situation here is and how desperate we are right now. Look, we're even relying on the help of a child. That's how desperate we are. Or are you saying that you know another way? If so, we'd like to hear it."

"That is... But still—”"

"Celidonia. That's enough. We'll go with Rus's plan."

Before Celidonia could finish, Rodan interjected.

"Sir Rodan! You can't possibly be..."

"We don't have a choice. And it's not like we will be putting the child in front of the goblins and leaving her there. We'll properly protect her."

You could see that Celidonia has more to say but she instead lowered her shoulders and muttered "... Very well," in a low voice.

"Alright. Here's what we're gonna do..."

To summarize, Rodan told the serious looking person whose name is Tristan apparently that he'll be staying in the village to set up the defenses while the rest, including me, will be going to the forest.

The navigation will be left to me as well.

Rodan gave me this role without even confirming if what I know is simply the direction or the actual specific path.

I also tried to tell him this I couldn't find a good opportunity so that's that. It shouldn't be a problem since I know the general direction as to where those goblins are.

And Rus also seems to vouch for me on this as well so it's all the more hard for me to say otherwise.

Then Rodan mentioned about the other technical stuff that I don't have anything to do with so I ignored them.

But there's one thing I'm concerned about from all of this and it's that I still haven't asked for Sun and Night's permission.