Sitting in an old armchair that used to be some big wig CEO’s special spot, I look out of the broken window of the office on the highest floor of this ruined skyscraper. Outside is a view of ruin and destruction, like some scene from a movie after aliens attacked. Which honestly, that isn’t so far off the mark considering that, like with the Kobolds, Goblins are aliens. They aren’t natives to Earth. Which mean that instead of being invaded by little grey men that want to probe our butts, it is instead little green men that smell like shit.

The internet conspiracy theorists were so close, but just a little off the mark.

Speaking of little green men that smell like shit, I look to our two alien guests that are cuddled up on the couch together. Only, they aren’t men, they don’t smell like shit, and one isn’t green. Nope, instead, they are a pair of evolved Goblin women that I am calling Hobgoblins, because them’s the fantasy rules, and I might as well use them instead of trying to come up with new names when that is entirely unnecessary.

The thing I am most thankful for about my two guests is the fact that they don’t smell like shit. The other Hobgoblins didn’t smell as bad as the normal Goblins do, but they still had a stank to them of bad BO, that made you want to try and drown them in a bathtub full of soup until the smell is gone. These two, on the other hand, they smell like flowers.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that the source of the smell is the little Hobgoblin named Vivviv. Her Field, even when suppressed as much as she can force it, seems to constantly produce the pleasant aroma of flowers around her. The scent has a tendency to shift slightly, changing from the smell of roses and tulips to the fruity smell of jasmine, and even to a spicy smell of something like cinnamon. If I am not mistaken, the scent seems to change with her emotions somewhat, but mostly just on a whim as well, like if someone had set their music playlist to shuffle with no care for genre. It makes her actually rather pleasant to be around. Plus, she is a cute little, short stack. With her messy green hair, that little crooked and off centered horn, a face full of freckles, big eyes and a button nose, and a filled-out figure that would make most Goblin lovers on the internet lose their minds over her, I find myself rather enjoying being around her. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that she is practically attached to Gra at the hip, and would probably bite me if I tried, I would be very tempted to try and give her a hug. She looks very huggable!

Makes me wish I had some cookies with me. I would totally share some with her.

As for Gra, the taller of the two and blue as ice. It seems like Vivviv has gotten her scent all over her, covering up her normal Hobgoblin stank with her own flowery scent. Viewed with mana vision, I can see that Vivviv has marked Gra’s body with her nature mana, a thin coat of green mana that seem to stubbornly hold onto Gra’s body like a layer of pollen, but yet doesn’t get in the way of her mana flow. It’s honestly rather fascinating to look at.

As for whether I enjoy being around Gra? That is a big MEH from me. Despite her being honestly pretty attractive, her traits as a Hobgoblin making her very human like in appearance while also giving her an alien like quality. Part of me, mostly on my Devil side, is still fuming and pissed at her for hurting my Demons. The rational part of me is able to keep this in check because I have already gotten revenge, having given her a fright and making her think I was going to do horrible things to her.

Regardless of my personal feelings, she just isn’t someone that appears to be easy to get along with. She is an introvert through and through, and besides Vivviv’s company, she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. If I interact with her, she will respond and communicate with me appropriately. But, left to her own measures, she is clearly more than content to just be left alone to read her books or cuddle with Vivviv like she is her personal hug pillow; a position that I am quite certain that Vivviv is more than happy to fill. But, I can’t fault her for being an introvert. I’ve had plenty of friends that were introverted as well, so I understand that that is just how they are. Besides, she is my prisoner, so it’s not as if I actually expect her to want to get along with or make friends with me.

As for marks, the reverse is also true for Vivviv’s body, but in a slightly different way. Gra has placed a mark on Vivviv with her blood, drawing a symbol on her left breast, right above her heart. Observing the symbol, it contained Gra’s mana and reacts to her Field. From what Gra has taught me, the mark protects those she puts it on from her magic without her having to actively focus on protecting them. It also comes with the nice bonus of keeping Vivviv from getting cold, and if she were to slap or break the mark, Gra would immediately sense it through her Field, much like an SOS beacon.

These Goblins have such a natural talent for magic. I hadn’t even thought of doing anything like this yet, but here they are creating magic runes and using their Fields in interesting ways.

Their smell and magic aside, Gra, Vivviv and I have been getting to know one another. I have spent the last three days just hanging out with them whenever I can, trying to learn everything that I can about them and their people.

In regard to their people, both of their opinions of them are honestly rather lacking. Gra finds the vast majority of her people to be annoying, and the little ones – as they refer to the normal Goblins – to be almost animal like. Despite their ability to sort of speak, the regular Goblins are honestly not that much better than they used to be before the change occurred, and honestly can’t even be considered as people for the most part. They are just barely capable of forming a coherent thought beyond ‘Me hungry.’ or ‘Me Horny.’ They are basically on the level of being very smart monkeys that stumbled upon how to make fire. Only to promptly use that fire to burn everything down around them.

In fact, for both Gra and Vivviv, they have hardly any memories of their time before becoming Hobgoblins. It is all just a blur of vague images and urges, their lives ruled by animalist desires more than anything else until their minds were awoken by their evolution. Effectively, the day they were changed, was the day they were truly born. At least as far as they are concerned.

Vivviv’s opinion of her fellow Hobgoblins, unlike Gra, is less that they are annoying, and more that they are scary. Which makes sense considering that she is little and lives in a system that puts the most powerful at the top, and the weak at the bottom. If it wasn’t for Gra’s protection, Vivviv would have ended up as one of their leader’s breeders or getting claimed by one of their ‘Brothers.’

That had taken some time to figure out, and initially, I was under the assumption that the Goblins ritualistically practice incest. But no. Brother and Sister, with big and little as modifiers, are their way of referring to their fellow Hobgoblins under their leader, Father. Those of the first generations or that are more powerful, are called big Brother/Sister. Same generation or similar level of power don’t get a modifier. While the newer generations or those that are weaker, are called little Brother/Sister.

In the case of familiarity, like between Gra and Vivviv, the titles get dropped and they just refer to each other by name. Though, in their situation, Gra would be big Sister, as a member of the very first generation, one of five, while Vivviv would be little Sister, being much weaker and a member of the newest generation, one of about thirty, of which only six showed a talent for magic.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Back to the subject of incest though… The Goblins don’t exactly keep a family tree of who is related to who, and due to having no memories of their time as a regular Goblin, they can’t even remember who their own mother was. Add to this that most of the Goblins reproduce though orgies or simply whenever they feel like it, sometimes forced, and that Father has personally sired many offspring of his own, I don’t find it too hard to believe that there is probably at least some of that going on… It really doesn’t help that they all refer to each other with familial terms…

Which leads me to this Father person, real name Grigut, but he prefers to go by Father or King. He calls his Hobgoblins, demons... Which is stupid, how could these cute little things cuddling on the couch possibly be considered demons, especially when compared to the big, beautiful bastards that I made?

Which further leads us to the present, where I am talking with these two about their maybe daddy, the Goblin King.

“So, why does Father hate me so much? You told me that he is coming all this way just to find me, right?”

Gra answers with a shrug as she pulls Vivviv over to lay on her lap, poking at the freckles on her shoulders as she is seemingly counting them all. “Yes. I honestly don’t know the reason why though. All I know is that he wants revenge against you for some reason. He will sometimes tell us stories about his life, but I usually skip those. I got bored of hearing about the time that he killed and fed upon the Great Snake that ate one of his old nest mates, or about the time when he slayed the mighty Tusk Walker and ate its flesh. Or this other time, and that other time… That’s how all his stories go. He fought something big and amazing, and then he ate it.”

Now that I am not suppressing her Field, she can put much more mana towards her translation spell, making her speech much cleaner, another amazing discovery of the Goblins that I am totally going to steal for myself.

Why does he want revenge against me? What the hell did I do?

“What about Vivviv, does she know why?”

Gra doesn’t even bother translating the question to the shorter girl for me and simply shakes her head. “She’s only ever talked with Father twice, and it had nothing to do with you… Hmm, but he did mention that the Gods had spoken to him.”

“The Gods?”

“Mhm, Father can speak with the divine. I was there once when it happened. They speak into our souls, and they like to laugh at us, calling us little. Personally, I don’t like them very much, but apparently, they have been giving Father lots of helpful advice since before I evolved, so he does as they say. Personally, I don’t think we can trust them, and I don’t think he does either for the most part.”

“These Gods, they wouldn’t happen to sound like a little boy and girl, would they?”

“Hmm? I think so? I have no idea what a little boy or a little girl sounds like, but their voices aren’t very deep, and they certainly sound like they are young.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

“But I’m not? I’m physically incapable of doing so.”

“What? Uh, no, it’s an expression for showing exacerbation, I know that you can’t lie to me right now.”

“Oh, ok.” She says with a shrug as she continues to poke at Vivviv’s back. When she decides to scratch the smaller girl’s back, just between the shoulders, Vivviv lets out a happy sound and stretches out like a cat on their owner’s lap.

This is all starting to make much more sense now! Of course those damn kids are behind this. And they are even playing at being Gods no less! But I know that those little shits are just riding on the //World Tree’s back!

Hmm… That’s right, they mentioned a Goblin when they spoke to us. They mentioned something about a Fox, an Orc raising a family, and a Dwarf that is apparently still a baby or whatever, but I can worry about those some other time. The Goblin must be Father. But why does he want revenge against me? When I was still human, I kicked around a few Goblins because they were harassing dad and me, but they specifically call me the Grey Demon, so that means they know me as I am now, as a Demon, not as a human… The only other interactions I’ve had with Goblins after my change was that nest on the highway…

…

Hmm… I killed most of the Goblins in the nest, but I let some of them go because my rampage freaked me out, didn’t I? There was what, like seven of them left out of like thirty or forty some Goblins? Was it one of the remaining Goblins that became Father? Did he swear revenge against me because I killed his family?

… Holy Shit, I created a shonen anime villain! Am a bad guy? I guess from their point of view, probably… Shit. So, all of this is my fault then… Shit… Shit, shit, shit! What kind of coincidence is this!? First, I become this, and then I subsequently created my own enemy? What am I, a Stand User, is this shit contagious or something!?

Gra speaks up again as I am getting lost in my thoughts. “So, you have talked with the Gods?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, yeah. Well, sort of. They just showed up and started making fun of me and wouldn’t answer any of my questions, but basically.”

She just nods her head, her face looking like what I just said makes all the sense in the world.

“Alright, so I have an idea as to why this Father guy wants to kill me, and it looks like those little shits are leading him to me. They probably just want to watch us tear each other apart, those little fuckers…”

“Mhm” Gra noncommittedly grunts as she nods along, petting Vivviv head now, who is currently resting face first into her lap, purring like a lazy cat with her eye lids half closed as she is about to nod off. She can’t even understand our conversation without Gra translating for her, so the cute little, short stack is probably bored out of her mind and ready for another nap.

Now I want to go home and cuddle. I miss Sky… Hah, focus on the mission Lain.

“So, slight change of subject, but I have been meaning to ask you, Gra. Why is it that you are so willing to help us with this”

“You mean besides making a deal in exchange for our lives?”

“Yes. Though it has been short, and we could only talk for short periods until we got here, we have been getting to know each other for a couple of days now, and I am getting the feeling that you really don’t care if we were to kill your leader. If anything, it seems like you want us to kill him.”

“… I can’t lie, our contract won’t let me… I… I don’t believe that Father is the best person to be leading us. He is hellbent on his desire for revenge and conquest. He leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Where he leads us, nothing but ash and bone is left behind. Even as thousands of our kind die for his desires, he just keeps pushing forward. He speaks as if he cares for us, as if he loves us, but he just sees us as tools to be used. He gave us knowledge and power, but beyond that, he doesn’t help us become… people? The little ones still act like animals. My Brothers and Sisters only worry about their personal power and fulfilling their desires. We are greedy and selfish things that only care for what we want and nothing more. They don’t even care that they are living in a destroyed city. We could have settled down anywhere. We could have built a home. But instead, because of his desire to kill you, we are instead mindlessly charging forward to fight and die against HIS enemy.”

“I thought you didn’t care much for your fellow Hobgoblins, let alone the little ones?”

“I don’t, but it doesn’t mean that I want to see them all die. We have the potential to be more than what we are now. More than destructive little creatures that can only spread chaos and spend their lives fucking each other in blood-drunk orgies as we devourer our own dead. I would like to think that we can be more than that…”

I just watch her for a short while as she pets the girl snoozing on her lap, her body and the couch slowly getting covered in vines, moss, and flowers, until they are looking like a fairy mound in the corner of the room.

“Gra, I’m glad that I didn’t kill you. When everything is over, if you’d like, I could help you find a place of your own.”

“Why would you do that for us?”

I simply raise my left arm for her to see. “People deserve to be free. I wouldn’t wish for my Gremlins or my Demons to be unhappy.”

Her eyes go to my arm, and then up to my hand, where the tip of my pinky finger has turned black, dyed by my newest contract with the two Hobgoblins snuggling across the room from me.

“… You will have to kill Father for that to happen… I wish you luck.”

Gra goes quiet after that, using her free arm that isn’t petting Vivviv or covered in vines and flowers, to open her book and start reading.

Taking the hint that she doesn’t want to talk anymore and deciding to leave the two be for a while, I turn my big boss man chair around and look out into destroyed city, dyed grey by ash, heavy black clouds hanging over head like a dark shadow over a rotting corpse.

So much for reclaiming this place. Oh well, I’ll see it reduced to rubble if I have to, if it means keeping my loved ones safe.