8 Chapter 7

After another night, we arrive at a village. The village was small, and it has only about 20 houses at most. Nonetheless, it has more farming lots than it necessarily should have and it also has a small ranch that keeps a few livestocks, all of which were protected by fences that covers the entire village. Although small, it was striving decently.

At the entrance of the fences, we were welcomed by a middle-aged man. He introduced himself as the village chief and led us to a small empty house. Villages like this always keeps an empty house or two to welcome guests like us. It's not really necessary, but it became normal for them after they experienced a lot of harassment from visitors who always demands a place to stay at. Of course, it's supposed to be free of charge, but we're paying them anyway for the trouble.

The house we got is a little small, but it was clean and well-made. I'm satisfied with it, but Fin seemed like he wanted to say something. He most likely wanted to complain, but seeing the apologizing look on the chief's face, he remained quiet and thanked him instead. He probably understood that this is the best they could get us, seeing how it was a bit better than the other houses the villagers live in. It was unexpected, but my assessment of him goes up a little.

"I can't believe I'll get to stay with Eria-sama in a single room..."

I ignored Fin's silent mutterings and entered the room. There were two beds, two chairs, and a single table inside. It looks like it was made to only accumulate two people.

After I left our things there, I went outside again, only to see Fin and the chief still talking. The old chief was a little afraid of Fin earlier when he saw the emblem on his shirt pocket, but as soon as Fin interacted with him in a friendly tone, he relaxed and became more approachable.

"You say that goblins are terrorizing your crops?"

As they continue to talk in a casual way, the topic went to the direction of food, and soon, they were talking about goblins.

"Yes, they have been stealing some of our food, crops or livestock. Sometimes they don't even steal, they just destroy things."

"I see..."

"Please don't worry, mister noble, I already have a few of our men and myself ready to deal with them. We found their nest in a cave near the village... they're just goblins, we can deal with them," the chief confidently said.

The way he said it, it seems as if he wanted to prove to a noble like Fin that even villagers like them can do things like dispatching a nest of goblins on their own. I don't doubt they could actually do it, but if they get unlucky, some of them could get injured, or worse...

"Then, how about we help you?" I butted in.

"Eria-sama!? You can't be bothered to deal with mere goblins! They can handle it themselves!"

"Tha-that's right, miss elf, we can't bother you with this!"

"No, I'm just worried about you. You can't let your guard down with goblins... if it turn out there's too many of them, your men could be wiped out."

"I have four men coming, with me, we total of five... surely, we can deal with them."

"Have you dealt with a group of goblins before? If one of them got just one of you, you all might lose composure and let your guards down. It's a small possibility, but you might get wiped out... if that happens, surely the remaining goblins will go for whatever's left in this village."

The chief's face turned pale as I tickled his anxiety.

"That's why it's the adventurer's job to hunt down goblin nests. All untrained villagers can do is to defend their village from them or kill one or two scouts or deserters."

"But, Eria-sama... such a thing like hunting down lowly goblins does not suit you."

To my surprise, Fin still refuses to let me do it. I thought for sure he would get excited for something like this. I guess his ideal targets were stronger monster.

"It's fine, just think of it as additional payment for letting us stay here in this village. Besides, we will only watch after them, if they can do it themselves, then we won't do anything else," I tried to convince Fin.

"I guess... it might also be interesting to see how normal people deal with monsters like goblins..." he murmurs.

"I'm sorry, but you might get disappointed if you come. As the lady elf said earlier, we're not trained in any fancy way of dealing with monsters," the village chief nervously comments.

"It's fine, it's fine..." I reassured him in place of Fin. "Then, let's go there now... this is a good time to deal with them. Goblins usually rest and guard at daytime and hunts at night, we'll get them all at once."

"Ri-right now?"

"That's right. You said you guys were ready, didn't you?

"Of course...!"