Stray Soul

The last few days have been... hectic to say the least.

Not because there was a lot of things I had to do, no. They’ve just been hectic for me mentally.

I just keep remembering the faces of the goblins that died because of the demon, and I keep thinking if I could’ve saved them somehow.

Should’ve I been more careless while attacking the demon? Should have I learned a bit more goblin and ordered the goblins to retreat after the demon appeared?

And why did they continue fighting after it appeared anyways? The demon appeared after they defeated the undead, and they had ample opportunity to escape, and while some did, which I am grateful for, others didn’t.

And I just... can’t understand why they kept fighting and risked their lives.

Did they fear that I’d punish them if they escaped? Or did they just think they’d be killed by either the demon or the shaman even if they escaped?

I know that I’ve not instilled loyalty in them, as I’ve kept my distance ever since they came to me to negotiate, and I somewhat doubt that Gram instilled loyalty in them either.

So, I am just... confused, and I don’t know how to really feel.

I can’t exactly cry as I just don’t think I have the right to lament their passing after not even bothering to learn their names while they were alive, so there is just an emptiness in my heart that I am not sure how to exactly explain or get rid of.

The least I could do for them was make sure that their souls passed on without any problems, so I inspected each of them and freed their soul, and as they disappeared into nothingness I once again thought about where a soul went after dead and would there be a paradise for them.

Sure, there were gods with their paradises in the divine realm or whatever, but what would happen to the people who did not believe in those gods?

Would their souls enter their paradises regardless of their belief? Would they be reincarnated as me? Or would they just... stop existing?

I did not know for sure what awaited them, but I was sure that turning into a mindless undead was worse than anything that may happen to them.

In the coming few days, I just kept an eye on the adventurers, talked with Gram a bit, and watched as the goblins set up pyres to burn the dead.

And I learned that they only burned their dead if they had died in battle or while fighting, apparently to let them leave this world without having to worry about the things they left behind.

If they died of other reasons, like illness or just old age, they’d be buried in decorated vases that depicted their lives, and an item important to them, or just something they used a lot.

They’d asked me if I or The All Mother wanted them to change their funerary practices, but I let them keep it as I saw no reason to change it.

“William-san.” Rifu-san asked while I was watching the adventurers from afar, who were not doing a lot and just lying about.

“Yes?”

“My people should be here in a few moments with the books and the contracts, and the collar for the shaman.” Rifu-san said, and I left the adventures alone for the first time in the last few days, and being surprised by this, they decided to follow me after asking for permission to do so.

The books and the contracts were things I talked with Rifu-san about before, and other than those the “caravan”, if it could be called that, would be bringing some extra supplies like food and construction supplies, in addition to few plant beings and ents that’d be staying here for a few months, and... a collar.

A “slave” collar to be specific. I am putting the slave parts in quotation marks because, while it is used for well... slaves, its more widely used for just prisoners and such.

A normal slave collar is good enough if you want to keep someone locked up for a few days or a week, but I was planning on locking up Krone for... a few years at least, as he was not the kind of person to give up, if I believe what Gram told me that is.

So, one of the ents that was coming with the caravan was going to make a small surgery on him to block his mana pathways which... I was not sure was going to work.

The whole surgery was just the surgeon putting enchanted pieces of metal inside the body in specific locations to block mana circulation, which would stop the recipient of the surgery from using any skills or mana at all for as long as the metals were inside their body.

But as far as I know, you can’t really stop the mana cloud from just... expanding around the metal plates? So, I just didn’t think it’d work.

But Rifu-san assured me that it was going to, and thanks to it I wouldn’t have to worry about the shaman so, I was just going to trust her... and Grok was just going to go around with a collar for a few months, if you are wondering.

Though, he was the one who wanted to be put in prison with his father, so... maybe he’d rather stay in prison than become free?

Not sure, still going to ask him if wants to be freed though.

As I went out to the street, many goblins turned their heads towards me, but I ignored them for now and walked towards the temple, which I had converted into a prison and hospital, for now at least.

I was planning on meeting with Gram, but as I reached the temple, he got out of it, surrounded by a few goblins, and for a moment I was surprised by his speedy recovery, but I was also glad for it.

“A caravan?” He asked, after which Griz whispered to him something, after which his eyes opened, and he asked a bit about what the caravan was bringing.

And as I quickly went over what the caravan had, he became more than interested in it... though his face went sour after I said that the ents and the plant beings would be staying here for a few months, which I could understand as he was just worried about me gaining more power.

Then he started ordering people around to get ready for the caravan as I called the adventurers over to me and continued to walk towards the eastern gate pointing towards the dungeon.

The caravan was supposed to come from the mountains, as that was the shortest route from Rifu-san’s domain to here... well, not the shortest apparently, but the underground was kinda infested by another deity that was trying to kill Rifu-san, so it was pretty unusable.

And there was no way we were going to bore a hole through the mountains... at least for now, so from the mountain tops they came.

As I stood outside the gates, waiting for the caravan to come, naturally a lot of goblins came to look too, and as everyone looked at me, I became a bit ashamed of my body as...well, it was currently made from the corpses of both the bear, the turtle, and the pale lizard.

Though, I hadn’t gained many stats after I combined the 3 bodies as... well, all 3 were pretty beaten up, and brains of the 3 were mostly smashed too!

So, I needed to get a new body... but tomorrow... preferably after I kill some monster in the dungeon... maybe golems have big brains?

I mean, they are just moving piles of rock, I know, but they must be getting their intelligence from somewhere... oh?

“What is that?” I muttered to myself as I saw a... dust cloud appear in the distance?

And I started hearing something running in the distance.

*thud thud thud*

As... whatever made the sound came closer though, the noise it made got louder too!

*THUD THUD THUD*

And as the sounds of the steps got louder and louder, I started being able to make out the sound of some trees falling with the steps, though they were drowned out by the seer intensity of the steps.

And soon, I started catching glimpses of something above the tree line, and it looked like a... small fort?

I mean... not really, but that’s the closest thing I can compare it to.

Whatever it was, it looked like a small fort made out of melding trees together, and as the tree fort approached, I was able to make out a myriad of colours and flowers budding out of it.

And as the gigantic fort approached the clearing around the goblin village, and finally broke through the treeline, I saw that it was not a simple walking fort, but a fort, made out of melding trees together, that was on top of a small walking island supported by a gigantic turtle, which was also made out of melding trees together and was also using the island as its shell.

As the turtle, carrying a 2 story building, came to a stop, I was awed by its size, which was easily 15 meters tall or so, but before I could admire the amazing creature in front of me, the creature quickly dug itself into the ground, and disappeared from sight, and as the ground stabilized, a door flung open from the first story of the building, and a... sunflower walked out?

It was... roughly 160-170 centimetres tall, as far as I could tell. It wore many ornaments on its body, from 3 bone earrings attached to 3 of its petals, to a necklace made out of bones, and to rings made out of metal with crystals adorning them.

And the most eye catching of them all, his cane which was seemingly made from carving a gigantic bone. It was engraved in metallic inscriptions that were unfamiliar to me like all others I had seen before, but what caught my eye about the cane was that the singular yellowish-orange gem atop it.

Though, its beauty was drowned out by the orange-white suit the sunflower man wore.

It was seemingly made out of fur or hides, and it had dashes of red and yellow here and there other than the overwhelming orange and white.

His boots were... well, boots. There was seemingly nothing interesting about them other than being made out of leather, though as my eyes went back to his face, my brain just... stopped.

Its mouth was open wide, probably to smile, but its teeth were... unnerving. They were black and brown in colour, and even from this far away I could tell that they were sharp enough to tear flesh from the bone without problem.

And its eyes, if they could be called that, looked like yellow crystals, or pods filled with some yellowish liquid, with a singular black dot in the middle.

And as it rushed out of the building, it smiled at me with glee, and quickly came in front of me, and made a flurried greeting by quickly bowing down, and though I could not understand what it was saying, I could understand that it was talking to me as I heard it say “William” very clearly.

And, though I was surprised by this character that had suddenly appeared, my attention was drawn towards the plant beings that had started rushing out of the back of the caravan with crates.

And after they started rushing out of the caravan like a flood, other “Ents” started leaving the caravan too, and came in front of me to bow down.