With a throttled “Oh!” to keep the noise down, they began. The goblins watched the perimeter, while Enri and Nfirea began gathering the herbs.
Although Enri had been prepared for the work to be difficult, they were fortunate and soon found growths of Enkaishi. The dense sheets grew thickly in the cracks of tree trunks.
“It’s over there. We found where they grew right away. As I thought, it’s best when I’m with Enfi.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. We’re lucky we found it in a deserted area. If there were monster tracks, it would be pretty nasty.”
To the two humans, the large quantity of herbs, while not exactly a treasure in its own right, was akin to a small mountain of coins. Enri desperately fought the desire burning in her heart. This place was dangerous, it was better that she put her greed aside and worked to steadily complete the job.
However, Enri knelt down, and began to pluck, minding the roots of the herbs.
Enkaishi’s medicinal value resided in its roots. But you couldn’t just pull the roots out like that. Grasses like these were incredibly hardy, and they would grow again as long as the roots remained. It seemed a shame, but depleting this patch of herbs (which had been quite a challenge to find in the first place) by overharvesting it would be like killing the goose which laid the golden egg.
A strong odor seared her nose as she did the picking, but since she was used to that sort of thing, the smell didn’t impede her work. Compared to Nfirea’s house, this smell was like heaven.
She plucked the herbs stalk by stalk, holding the harvest under her armpits to avoid crushing it by accident, and then carefully placed it into the bag. If the goblins came to help, they would probably have finished faster, but they were too busy watching their surroundings. Enri wasn’t nearly stupid enough to take them off their sentry duty to help her.
In comparison, Nfirea’s harvesting methods were like poetry in motion. He swiftly pulled them out of the ground without pause, in such a way that didn’t damage their potency as medicine. This technique would even impress fellow professionals in his field.
Enri silently watched Nfirea, who was staring at the herbs with a diligent expression on his face. The face that had become so familiar looked like someone else’s before her.
…He’s a man now.
“…What’s happened?”
Nfirea suddenly raised his head. He must have sensed the stoppage in Enri’s work.
Although she’d done nothing, Enri still lowered her head in embarrassment.
“Ah, well, I think Enfi’s amazing…”
“Really? I didn’t think it was that fantastic. I’m only a dabbler when it comes to herbalism. This level is about par for the course.”
“…Is that so.”
“I guess.”
The conversation ended thus, and in the slow passage of time, the stock of herbs in their backpacks grew. After filling up slightly more than half of their packs, the goblins crouched next to the two of them, as if looking for somewhere to hide.
Seeing Enri’s surprised face, Kaijali silently gave a hand signal. This was an emergency. Enri, who understood, pricked up her ears. From the distance came the sound of plants being trampled underfoot.
“This is…”
“Something’s coming. It’s coming for us… or rather, it’s advancing and most likely it’s going to end up here, so we need to get away from here for a bit.”
“…Then, we won’t need the noisemaker decoys?”
“That’s right, Ani-san. It’s better if we don’t have to use those, it feels like things will go bad if we do. Now let’s move.”
The five of them began moving away from the direction of the sound, hiding in the shadow of a nearby tree. They didn’t go further because they didn’t want to chance making noise on nearby vegetation. If the other party was just advancing forward, there was no need to risk discovery like that.
Since the tree wasn’t very big, it couldn’t hide all of them. The most they could do was crouch at its roots and hope they weren’t too obvious.
Like this, the five held their breaths and prayed that the source of the sound would turn in another direction. But unfortunately, this did not happen, and the figure making the noise finally came into Enri’s field of view.
“Eh?!”
A tiny gasp of surprise escaped from Enri’s mouth.
It was a ragged-looking little goblin.
His body was covered in tiny wounds which bled profusely. His breathing was rapid and uneven, and the smell of his blood and sweat spread throughout the area.
Even though goblins were already smaller than humans, this goblin was small even for another goblin. To Enri and the goblin’s trained observation skills, they came to the same answer of “child”.
The goblin child looked fearfully to his rear, in the direction where he had come from. There was no need to listen up for the sound of trampling plant life that followed from behind him. From the looks of things, they were hunter and prey.
He frantically moved his spasming feet, taking cover in a patch of shade different from Enri’s own.
“That―”
“―Quiet.”
Gokoh had not even looked at Enri as he interrupted her. Those unrelenting eyes were fixed on the direction where the kid had come from.
Just over ten seconds later, the hunter revealed itself.
It was a huge magical beast that resembled a black wolf. The reason why they could instantly tell it was no ordinary wolf was because of the chain wrapped around its body. The serpentine chain did not hinder its movements at all, as though it were merely an illusion. And two horns sprang from its head.
Nfirea muttered the name of the beast to himself.
“Barghest…”
Although it could not possibly have heard him to answer, the barghest barked like a dog. Then — its face twisted. It was an evil grin that no mere beast could ever make. It slowly looked around its surroundings and its eyes settled on the tree where the goblin child had hidden.
Just like the beast it resembled, the barghest had a bloodhound’s scenting ability. There was no way it could not sniff out the goblin child who had bled so much on the way here.
From the look of things, the reason why the goblin had managed to get here wasn’t because he could resist the barghest. Rather, it was because the barghest was a sadistic creature; or maybe it was because it was a hunter that liked to play with its food.
Suddenly, the barghest stopped moving, surprise knotting its face, and it stared at the place they had gathered the herbs from.