Inside An Adult Game As A Former Hero
chapter-7-1

“My name is Samuel. Take care of me."

The giant in leather armor held out his hand. He grabbed my hand and shook it a few times. Seeing that he was holding a wooden shield, this guy must be the tank of this team.

“From this side on, Gemina, Tom, and Marilyn.”

“Hello. This is Gemina.”

A brunette woman with two daggers tucked into her waist.

“This is Tom. Take good care of me."

A man with a lot of freckles with a big ax behind his back.

“Marilyn.”

A chic looking woman with a bow and quivers behind her back.

These were the party members the receptionist had spoken of.

"Mr. Cloud, we will be counting on you."

“…why you are being so formal?”

Marilyn mumbled with a dissatisfied expression on her face.

“Yeah, you don't have to be so formal. If you want to speak informally, please speak informally. In fact, that would be more comfortable.”

“Rea…”

“Hahaha, no no. How can we speak like that to a B-class adventurer?”

Samuel covered Gemina's mouth and spoke with a big smile on his face.

"Really? Then I'll speak informally.”

However Samuel couldn't stop Marilyn, who spoke openly. Samuel's face turned white when he saw that happen.

“Hey, Marilyn, you…!”

"Stop, you are just overeating too much. More than that, are we leaving today?”

"Yeah? Ah yes. Because the sooner you hurry, the better… Ah, Mr. Cloud, If you have any difficulties…"

"Do not exist. Let’s go right away.”

"All right! Let's go, guys!"

* * *

“Our village was a very poor one. It was difficult to even procure three meals a day, even if we continued to work all the day except for resting during sleeping hours. So the four of us made a promise back when we were young. Let's get out of village and make big. Then come back and save the village."

A day had passed since I left the city.

If there's one thing I had realized during this time, it's that this guy named Samuel talks a lot.

He keeps telling stories of the past that I'm not even curious about, and even if I tried to stop him vaguely, man, he was too dumb to understand.

But, this guy is too kind to me to just directly dismiss him as being noisy.

So I just listened with one ear and let it flow out through the other.

“As for what happened then—”

"Samuel."

“This guy, Tom…”

"Samuel. Gemina is calling.”

Marilyn slapped Samuel on the back.

Patak-!

Listening to crisp sound, the force applied was by no means small.

My lord… weren't you guys close friends?

“…Marilyn even if hit me a little softer, I would have noticed.”

"Noisy."

“Geeez… Gemina? Why did you call me?”

"Shh!"

Gemina, who was taking the lead, raised her index finger to her lips and pointed forward. I approached quietly and looked where she was pointing at—to see six goblins carrying a small boar.

“What should we do?”

“Mr. Cloud, what would you like to do?”

Samuel handed over Gemina's question to me.

Gemina and Marilyn looked at him in dissatisfaction, but he didn't budge, waiting for my answer.

“I will say, we should follow. If they are from the den we are looking for, we can kill them altogether. Or—"

"Or? There's even more?”

“Marilyn, you…”

Marilyn interjected in a slightly irritated voice. Samuel tried to rebuke Marilyn, but I shrugged.

“Or you can inform the guild for dealing with them if we find too many more later. Let's stop arguing now and go after then. And, don't make a single sound. It will be annoying to find another trail if we got caught."

Samuel, who was about to rebuke Marilyn, closed his mouth shut. Marilyn also clicked her tongue and turned her head away.

We followed the goblins stealthily.

Fortunately, these guys didn't make any unnecessary fuss while sneakingly trailing those critters.

After folowing them to a distance, we found what looked like to be a goblin's lair…

‘…what?'

As I watched the goblins enter, I couldn't help but tilt my head.

It didn't make sense, the place they entered was a cave large enough to fit in a large wild bear.

“What's wrong?”

“That cave, it's was too big for some green αss goblins to live in. Why did they settle down in such a place?”

Goblins are small like children and have comparatively weaker muscle power. Their nails are a bit dangerous, but other than that, they are a race with nothing special.

A species—where it will not be even a little strange even if they go extinct from nature at any time.

Nevertheless, they persistently survived in the harsh ecosystem.

It was possible because they were clever and wicked.

They're not natural hunters, but they know a hunter's patience. If you set a trap and have the persistence to wait, no doubt that someday it will catch its prey.

They're not natural fighters, but they know how to kill creatures. Pushing the advantage of numbers is the norm, and surprise sneak attacks their favorite.

It is a race that should never be neglected just because it looks weak.

The goblins in the world I was previously dragged into, digged and then used burrows that only they could go in and out of, just like ants.

Therefore, in order to clear the goblin den, the whole den had to be collapsed or smoked to cause suffocation to force them outside.

Who will take the risks and crawl in to fight? Of course for those who even crawled in, half of them came out injured. Because all kinds of strange traps were waiting their arrival.

So why are these shrewd critters living in a place where foreign wild enemies can attack so openly?

It was strange.

“Why are you so obsessed with their home? I guess they just took it because it looks good to live. Where could there be a plausible reason for a dumb goblin's mind?”

Marilyn murmured gruntingly.

This time, Samuel didn't say anything different, either.

Judging by their reaction, they seem to know what kind of stupid creature a goblin is…

Hmm… So the goblins here are different than the ones where I used to live in, aren't they?

How did you survive being so stupid?

They should have been long gone extinct under the fangs of other monsters.

Maybe that?

The absurd setting I had only seen in mangas? The innate race gift of possessing a whopping monstrous fertility?

If they get pregnant just once, they will deliver five or six babies at same time, something like that?

“Hey… I want you to make a decision now…”

Gemina came to the side and urged.

I thought a little and said.

“Let’s go in.”

You can't destroy such a large cave, and you can't suffocate with smoke either, so there's no choice but to go in and rampage in a straight way.

* * *

The inside of the cave was so dark that it was completely invisible without a torch, and it was also full of sticky moisture.

We walked through the cave in the order of Gemina, Samuel, Marilyn, Tom, and me, Cloud.

From a young age, Gemina was the most agile and brightest of the four. That's why she took the lead in this situation.

Tuk. Tuk.

Marilyn tapped Samuel on the shoulder. When he turned around, she spoke in a low voice that only Samuel could hear.

“What are you think?”

"What?"

“Why are you being so courteous to that man?”

When she was young, Samuel was a village alley bully and a dependable older brother.

It was him who thought out the plan to revive the village by teamwork with the four of them. Marilyn held deep respect for him… It was only natural for her to feel offended when he acted like a humble side kick in front that man Cloud.

Samuel signed.

“I rather want to ask you. What the hell are you doing, acting like that in front of a B-class adventurer?”

"Huh?"

“Except for me, who is a D-class, all of the others are E-class. Just what were even thinking while being so rude to that B-class? Do you know how much my heart palpitated when I saw you like that?”

"Ah! What's with that doofus look? Where did the alley bully I knew go? Did you go to the city a year earlier and became a coward?”

“I did came a year earlier, so I saw a lot and realized a lot, you idiot. And, how whackingly dangerous these high-ranking adventurers are!”