c16 9

The moat was maybe ten meters deep. Its width was even greater than that. Haruhiro eyeballed it at about twenty meters.
It’s not impossible to cross the moat, he thought. It’s a dry moat, so I can climb to the bottom and walk across. The problem is what comes after that. How do I enter Ahsvasin?
Should I just climb down and see what happens? No, now isn’t the time for gambles. The sun will be up soon. I should hold back for now.
Haruhiro decided to wait inside one of the buildings until night. Kiichi seemed to get that, and led him to a safe place. This time it looked like a closet, filled with sundry items. It was dusty, but easy to stay in compared to the last place. He hardly ever sensed any gobs, and even decided to lie down and go to sleep.
The day was long. He had plenty of time to think about things.
When night fell again, Haruhiro decided to check how far down he could go inside the building. He had a vague sense that there might be a space underneath the moat. If there was, could he get inside it through this building?
Once he had descended a long way, he found an exit with a door. There were no gobs around. He hesitated a little, but made up his mind.
He walked up to the door. He tried pushing and pulling the handle, but it didn’t budge. Then he tried turning the handle. That got the door to move. It slowly opened. He had tried his best to keep quiet, but it was impossible to open the door without making some noise. And it was more grating than creaking.
He peered out through the opening. Kiichi nimbly slipped through it.
It was a tunnel road. Faintly bright. A little farther down the way there was a T-junction. It looked like there was a lamplight past there.
He heard something moving behind him. A gob? There was a gob approaching from inside the building.
It would actually be more dangerous to turn back now. Haruhiro opened the door a little more, and went outside. He closed it behind him. It made an awfully big noise, and he broke into a cold sweat. Had the gobs inside the building heard that? He didn’t know. He’d already closed the door, so he had no way to check.
He must have gotten impatient, even though he hadn’t meant to.
He’d crossed a dangerous bridge now.
Kiichi vanished around the T-junction. To the left. Kiichi had turned left.
Haruhiro chased after Kiichi. Out of caution, he stopped at the Tjunction, poking just his face out so he could look both ways. He thought his heart was going to stop.
There. On the right side. Gobs. Not far. Maybe five meters away. They had a lamp on the ground, which they were squatting next to, doing something. They hadn’t noticed him. Actually, they were looking down at the ground. Copper armor. Helmets. Shields on their backs, and spears leaning against the tunnel wall. They were armed. These were guard gobs out on patrol, huh?
Haruhiro pulled his face back in. Kiichi had gone left. The guard gobs hadn’t spotted him. Well, from the way they were acting, they weren’t going to pay any attention to Kiichi. If they didn’t think something was there, Haruhiro might be surprised to find that they failed to notice him, too.
He checked the guard gobs once more. They were still squatting over there, doing whatever it was that they were doing. They seemed to be talking in hushed voices.
There’s no telling when the gobs in the building might come out of the door behind me.
I’m going to submerge myself.
Sink.
—Stealth.
Haruhiro went left at the T-junction. Even without turning back, he could tell what the guard gobs were doing. They were still squatting.
The tunnel road soon came to a stop, and turned right. There was no sign of Kiichi. The guard gobs seemed to be on the move. He heard footsteps.
Haruhiro continued down the tunnel road. There was another Tjunction. Kiichi poked his head out from the left side quickly, then vanished back down that path. Haruhiro followed. The road curved to the right as it descended. It had quite the slope. He caught up to Kiichi. Or so he’d thought, but Kiichi was fast. It looked like things opened up on the other side of this road.
It was wide.
Really wide.
And the ceiling was high, too.
There were no holes in it. Despite that, it was bright. No, in terms of the actual amount of light, it was probably dim. But it felt pretty bright.
There were these glowing things flying around. Not one or two of them, either. Lots of them.
What in the world were they? They looked like strings. Or snakes. But snakes didn’t fly. Were they insects? They didn’t look like they had wings. They were thin and flat, and gave off a slight yellowish glow. They just twisted around to fly along slowly. They varied a lot in length. Anywhere from ten to thirty centimeters. Some were pretty thin, too.
Were they alive? Maybe he ought to call them lightworms. It wasn’t clear that they were worms, though.
Whatever the case, thanks to the lightworms he had a fairly good grasp of what this place was like, even if he couldn’t see it clearly.
These were probably the underground gardens in front of Ahsvasin. There were lines of what seemed to be statues, and he could pass in between them. The statues were goblin-shaped. Basically, gob statues. They weren’t life-sized. They had to be double, no, triple their actual heights. But the statues were more than just decoration.
They were climbable, and every statue had armed goblins on top of it. Some stood, some didn’t, all keeping a wary eye for intruders. One was on the leg of a statue of a cross-legged gob, and another was sitting on the same statue’s shoulder with one knee up. Generally, there were always at least one or two armed gobs per gob statue, and sometimes there could be as many as five. There weren’t as many statues as the countless lightworms, but it wasn’t just a couple dozen of them. It was more than that.
Kiichi hadn’t stepped into the underground front garden. Obviously, Haruhiro didn’t, either.
He wouldn’t say that security was tight, but he still wasn’t convinced he could make it through.
The distance from one gob statue to another varied. Sometimes it was a meter, other times it was as much as three. He spotted gobs walking between the statues here and there, too.
If there was a battle going on, or something else drawing the gobs’ attention, he might have been able to do something. However, even if some were relaxing, these armed gobs were alert.
He had to conclude it would be tough. At this point, at least. If he took his time, he might find an opening he could use.
He didn’t feel confident. In fact, it was best to write this off as impossible.
No matter how cautiously he proceeded, the armed gobs would definitely find him. If even one noticed him, dozens would attack, and he’d be surrounded. From what he could see, a good number of them carried crossbows. He had to take that into account, too.
“...I have no choice but to do this,” Haruhiro said in the quietest voice he could, then crouched and patted Kiichi on the head.
Kiichi looked up at Haruhiro.
“I’m counting on you. Head back to the others.” Kiichi let out the faintest meow in reply.
Haruhiro nodded three times. Everything was prepared. He breathed in, then out, and stretched. He pulled a dagger from its sheath. Not his own. The blade was red. Hi’irogane. This was Viceroy Bogg’s knife. Nodding once more, he returned the hi’irogane knife to its sheath.
“I’m heading out.”
Haruhiro stepped into the front garden.
Instead of erasing his presence, he expanded his senses as far outside himself as he could, to their utmost limits.
It was like he wasn’t here, but looking at himself from somewhere else. Almost like he was another person.
The first to lay eyes on Haruhiro was the gob sitting on the left shoulder of the nearest gob statue.
The armed gob seemed to instantly recognize there was something there, and that it wasn’t one of its kind. It started to stand, twisted its neck around, and let out a “Wohw.” Then, thinking something like, Oh, come on, is that a human? it shouted, “Fauh!” and readied its crossbow.
That set a whole chain of events in motion. There was an excited hubbub from the armed goblins on all the gob statues. The first armed gob let loose a bolt from its crossbow. So long as Haruhiro knew the shot was coming, he didn’t have much to fear from crossbows. He twisted out of the way of the incoming projectile, but he didn’t run away. Not yet. He waited patiently.
The first armed gob jumped down from its perch.
At the same time, a little farther away, another gob took a shot with its crossbow from on top of another statue. Haruhiro saw this one coming too, so he dodged it with minimal effort.
The first gob hit the ground. Just before it did, Haruhiro rushed between the statues.
Four, no, five armed gobs stood in his way. Some had crossbows in their hands, while others had their spears pointed towards him. They were still confused, though.
 
 

Haruhiro charged the armed gobs. Only one of them managed to thrust its spear at him. Haruhiro stepped in, grabbing the shaft and twisting. The armed gob dug its heels in, trying not to lose its weapon. Haruhiro let go without fighting for it, and kept rushing them. He broke through in an instant, and continued past.
Haruhiro kicked one or two of them, sending them sprawling to the ground as he passed. He then took off running before the other armed gobs could attack.
He wanted to use the gob statues to keep the armed gobs from surrounding him. But he didn’t have the leeway to both think and move now. No matter where he went, no matter which way he turned, there were armed gobs there. Some of the clever ones had stayed on their gob statues, and were taking aim at Haruhiro with their crossbows.
How many times had a spear or bolt grazed him? He couldn’t afford to count.
Even if there were times he thought, This is dangerous, he mysteriously found himself unafraid. If he let everything frighten him and tensed up, or did something stupid, he’d either be badly hurt, or be impaled, or shot to death.
That said, he had to admit he was impressed he was still alive.
He’d long since lost track of where he was. At this point, there was always at least one armed gob within a half-meter radius of Haruhiro. The spear wounds in his left thigh and upper right arm were not shallow. They ached, and badly.
Before he had time to think, I may be screwed, Haruhiro had drawn the hi’irogane knife.
“Mod Bogg! Hi’irogane!” he shouted, raising the knife up high.
He meant to dodge the spear one of the armed gobs thrust at him, but felt a strong impact in his shoulder. It hadn’t skewered him, but the spear had shaved a bit off the top of his right shoulder.
“Hi’irogane!”
Haruhiro raised his voice, grasping the spear with both hands and pushing it back with brute strength. The gob managed to keep hold of the spear, but was forced to its knees to do it.
“Mod Bogg! Hi’irogane!”
Haruhiro kicked that gob in the chin, and swung the knife around.
The armed gobs were shouting. They didn’t attack. They backed one, two paces away.
“Hi’irogane! Mod Bogg! Hi’irogane!”
“Hi’irogane, hi’irogane,” the armed gobs all said. No small number of them were looking around in search of something. They were clearly confused. What should they do? They couldn’t make that call for themselves. They needed someone to decide. That was probably what their reaction meant.
Kiichi was maybe ten meters away, on top of one of the gob statues. Looking at Haruhiro, of course.
Their eyes met.
—Or at least it felt that way.
Kiichi suddenly seemed shocked by something, and looked away. Where had his gaze moved? Probably to the top of one of the statues near Haruhiro. It happened right after that. Something came flying at him. He knew that much.
I’ll dodge it, he was thinking when something struck him in the neck.
Or rather, something like a rope wrapped around his neck.
Crap!
Am I gonna die?
“Gweh!”
It tightened around his neck. Then there was a jerk, pulling him upwards. Haruhiro struggled. He used his left hand to search for whatever was around his neck. It was hard. Metal? Like a collar. He strained his eyes downward, and saw it was red. Red metal. Hi’irogane? He looked up. There it was, on top of the statue next to him. A goblin. It had a big scar on its face. And Kiichi was looking its way. That one, huh? The goblin had a piece of red equipment, presumably made of hi’irogane. The rope or chain extending from it was wrapped around Haruhiro’s neck. Haruhiro was bound to the object that was strangling him.
“Sungyah!”
The scarred goblin pulled on the rope, or chain, or whatever it was. Haruhiro nearly lost consciousness. It was all he could do not to drop Bogg’s knife.
Kiichi was gone now.
The rope suddenly slackened, and Haruhiro fell to his knees.
Then the goblin pulled on it again.
“Ough...”
I may have messed up.
Sorry, everyone...



13. I Offer Up My Pain, and Pray
...I hear something.
What was that noise?
It hurts.
His body ached.
All over. “...Urgh.” A voice.
Was it his?
“Ahh...”
He tried to speak again.
It’s mine.
I knew it.
It apparently was his voice.
Which meant...
“I’m... still... a... live...?” Where is this?
It was dark. Almost pitch black. Almost. Not completely.
Still, it hurt. His body ached. That wasn’t all. It was more than just pain.
What was it?
Was he numb?
What was going on?
He didn’t know. He couldn’t even figure out what kind of position he was in.
He wasn’t standing. Wasn’t sitting, either. Did that mean he was lying down? He was on his side. Not lying on his back, or his front.
His left side was probably on the bottom. Was that why? The flow of blood was cut off, so he felt numb. Especially in his left arm. He couldn’t even be sure it was still there.
Could he move? He wouldn’t know until he tried to.
Yeah. I’ll try moving.
“Ngh... Nguh...”
He could move his right arm, somewhat. But even the slightest movement hurt like hell, so he didn’t really want to.
He wanted to just stay put.
“...I can’t...”
He couldn’t afford to do that.
Try things out one by one.
He tested his fingers, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. They moved, to a degree. On his right arm, the one not underneath him, at least. But was he tied up? He was probably bound at the wrists. His arms were behind him, tied with rope or something similar.
“...My feet, too...?”
It looked like his ankles were bound the same way.
He had a feeling it wasn’t good for him to have been lying on his left side for so long. He was already exhausted, and couldn’t feel anything. Not just in his left arm, but in his left leg, too.
He tried to get onto his back. He just needed to roll to the right. That was all it would take, but he couldn’t seem to do it.
“Fina... lly...”
With great strain, he managed it. His bound hands were underneath his body now, which was really uncomfortable. The numbness subsided, and pain grew in its place. Numbness or pain. Which was better? Both were unpleasant.
“This is tough...”
Well, he couldn’t complain. He was alive.
That was a spot of good luck within bad luck, you know?
He had thought he was about to die.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he had. That’s what the situation was like. He still half-suspected he was actually dead. But if he was, he shouldn’t be able to think like this, so he had to still be among the living.
Where was this? The place had a ceiling. There were walls to his left and on the side his head was pointing towards. There were bars on his right, and those lightworm things were fluttering through the air on the other side.
One of the lightworms came in through the bars. It leisurely circled around the ceiling.
Was this a jail, or something like that? It might be. It was like he was in solitary confinement.
“This’s... bad...”
The shoes he’d been wearing were gone. He was barefoot. It wasn’t just his shoes. He had no clothes, either. All that he had left was his underwear.
That they might take everything he had on him had been within the realm of expectations. He’d even prepared for this eventuality. He’d hidden thin razors all over his clothes, and in the soles of his boots.
Had they seen through that? Or had they just stripped him as a matter of course? Either way, this was maybe the third worst outcome he had imagined.
The worst was him dying, obviously. The goblins killing him. He’d managed to avoid that, apparently. For now, at least.
The next worst was not being killed outright, but close to it, and left in no state to do anything. It looked like it wasn’t that bad.
The next to next worst was being taken captive, with nothing on him that he could use. Basically, the exact situation he found himself in now.
Where was this? Inside Ahsvasin? What if it was outside? That would be a problem.
Was there no way to confirm he was inside Ahsvasin? The lightworms. The first place he’d seen them was in the underground gardens in front of Ahsvasin. There were lightworms here, too. This jail cell was inside Ahsvasin. That’s what he wanted to assume, but it was no more than an optimistic assumption on his part.
He shouldn’t make his move yet. He had to wait. Wait? For what?
Until he could be confident that, whatever else had happened, he had managed to make it inside Ahsvasin.
Would waiting bring him any certainty? He might wait only to be tortured, then killed. No, if they meant to kill him, they’d have done it already. That was one way to look at it. If it were humans he was dealing with, he’d be more or less sure of it.
But they were goblins. He couldn’t even guess at how goblins thought. They might have had some process that they went through before killing humans they captured inside the New City.
For the moment, he was in pain, unbelievable pain, but he was managing to tolerate it somehow. It could get worse, though. He might lose too much blood, or his wounds might fester, rendering him unconscious. He might die like that.
The spear wounds in his upper right arm, left thigh, and left shoulder were not shallow, after all. His neck hurt pretty bad, too. That was where the goblin had gotten him with that weird tool. His face bothered him, too. They must have dragged him here, because he had suffered a fair number of scrapes and bumps along the way. His nose was either bleeding, or had been but already stopped. Anyway, it was completely stuffed up. He could only breathe through his mouth.
His belly and back were probably hurt pretty bad, too, but he couldn’t tell through all his other suffering. Pain was canceling pain out. No, it would be nice if that was true, but he just couldn’t judge how serious the pain was. It was still there.
I can’t wait — probably.
It was impossible for him to just relax to begin with, but if he was going to keep trying to tolerate the pain and then just die anyway, that was too pathetic. It was hard to claim he had reserves of strength left, but he realized he should probably move while he could. Or rather, that he had no other choice.
He was going to have to rely on the option he’d wanted to resort to the least. What else could he do? He’d already decided on it. He just had to act now.
It was impossible while he was on his back, though, so he rolled back onto his left side once more. His wrists being bound was trouble, but he somehow managed to get into a position that let him feel around his right side with his right hand.
It wasn’t easy. His left shoulder, which was on the bottom, hurt especially badly. His breathing was labored.
It hurts. Why does it hurt so bad? Oh, screw this. I can’t take it anymore. I want to quit. I want to cry, too. I won’t, though. I don’t know. Maybe I am crying. It’s okay to cry. I mean, no one’s looking. I won’t, though.
The nails on both his hands were sharpened, not trimmed.
I didn’t want to do this. Not if I could avoid it. I will, though.
He started scratching his flank with his index finger. Hard. As hard as he possibly could.
No dice, huh? This isn’t going to work. Not like this.
He pinched his skin between his index finger and thumb. He twisted, and twisted harder.
“Ngh...! Guh, guh, guh, nghhh...!”
He wanted to loosen his grip. Obviously, he wouldn’t.
His skin tore.
“Owwww...”
He had a hole in his right side now.
I think it’s large enough to put my finger through. No, looks like it isn’t.
He would have to expand it, then.
You say that like it’s going to be easy.
No one had said anything of the sort. He forcibly widened the hole, and stuffed his index finger in. Under his skin.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap. I don’t like this. I really don’t. I don’t want to do this. But he found it.
It was there.
The relic.
The bud-shaped object that Hiyo had implanted in him.
He’d known it would be, though. What good did just knowing that do him? It was nothing to be happy about. He had to pull it out now. He couldn’t grab it with his index finger alone. He’d need his thumb, too. Did he have to hurt himself even more? Yeah. He had no choice.
“Ghhhhhhhhhhhh... Ahh... Urghhhhhhhh...”
It was in. He got his thumb in, and was able to grab the relic. Now he just had to pull it out. That wasn’t hard. Pretty simple, really.
“Auuuuuuugwarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!” Just then, a scream echoed through the room.
What was that? Goblins?
It probably was. He was hearing goblin voices.
And noises. Sounds. Footsteps? Approaching.
Oh, crap. What was he going to do now? The relic. He almost had it.
All he had to do was pull it out. Was it okay to do that? Or not? Should he leave it there? But he was bleeding. He had other wounds, too, though. He was already covered in blood. They wouldn’t notice.
The footsteps were pretty close now. Something struck the wall or bars as they approached.
“Oh, geez... I don’t know what to do...!”
He pulled out the relic, holding it in his right hand, and turned to face the bars.
It hurt. Oh, damn, it hurt. His side. Because it was a fresh wound. That had to be making it hurt even more.
It came, striking the bars with a red stick as it did.
The scarred goblin.
It had a number of other goblins in tow. Four? Five of them?
It looked like the thing the scarred goblin was holding was the same weapon from before. The stick had a ring-shaped part on the end that could be detached and thrown so that it would catch the enemy by the neck. Was it like a lasso?
The scarred goblin gave directions to the other goblins with it.
One of the goblins stepped forward and touched the bars. It looked like there was a door there. They were going to unlock and open it.
His eyes stopped on the goblin at the rear. Hold on... Was that even a goblin?
Its skin was awfully pale compared to the other goblins. It looked white, at least under the illumination provided by the lightworms. From a human perspective, goblins had hunched backs, with their heads sticking out in front. But this goblin was different. It stood upright, though it was still about the same height as the others. It had a scrawny, frail build and, in another departure from what was common in goblins, it wore a loose black robe.
The door opened, and the scarred goblin entered.
That white goblin, could it be an ugoth? Wasn’t it a sage?
The scarred goblin walked up to him. It stepped on his head.
“Yee, hee, hee, hee!” Screw you.
It would be a lie to say Haruhiro wasn’t angry, but he was more interested in the goblin he thought was an ugoth.
The other goblins didn’t enter the cell.
“Hey...!” Haruhiro shouted with everything he had. The ugoth looked at him. If Hiyo wasn’t lying, ugoths understood the human language. He was going to yell something more, but the scarred goblin ground its foot into his head, then raised it up high and—
Huh? What? What is it gonna do? Kick me? Is it gonna kick me?
“Agah...!”
Oh, he felt that one. For a moment, he blanked out. What about the relic? It was fine. He was holding it. It was still in his hand, barely.
Just as he adjusted his grip on the relic, the scarred goblin kicked him again. In the chin this time. If he hadn’t clenched his teeth just in time, he might have bitten his tongue.
His head felt hazy. He had to be careful not to drop the relic. No matter what, he couldn’t lose it. He had to hold on tight. If he dropped it, he was finished.
“Do... you... speak...”
Ugoths were supposed to speak the human language. He wanted it to hear him out.
“Daaaag!”
The scarred goblin struck Haruhiro with that tool. The ring opened, wrapped around his neck, and closed. He couldn’t breathe. It hurt.
“Do you speak the human—” It was pulling him.
The scarred goblin was trying to drag Haruhiro.
It was no use. He couldn’t talk. All that came out was, “Gah,” and, “Goh.” Was it time?
Should I use the relic now?
The scarred goblin was unrelenting. And strong, too. Haruhiro was bound hand and foot. He couldn’t walk. With his hands tied behind him, he couldn’t even crawl on all fours. The goblin kept dragging him like that. Oh, crap. Forget if that goblin was an ugoth or not. He couldn’t breathe. Was he going to pass out? Or, worse yet, die?
The scarred goblin didn’t stop once he was out of the cell. It kept dragging Haruhiro. How far was it planning to take him?
If that’s how it’s going to be, I’ll use the relic.
No — wait.
The scarred goblin was trying to take Haruhiro somewhere. With an ugoth. Ugoths supposedly served the mogado. If Hiyo wasn’t lying. What did that mean?
“Uagh, gah, guhh...”
It hurts, damn it. I can’t breathe. I’m suffocating here. You’re killing me.
The scarred goblin kept dragging Haruhiro. Where was it trying to take him? It had chosen not to kill him.
Right. Yes, this hurt, and he was suffering, but Haruhiro wasn’t dead yet. They’d taken him down easily in the underground garden. This had to be deliberate, right? The scarred goblin was holding back in some way. Maybe it was dragging Haruhiro in a way that wouldn’t knock him out.

Chapter end