Goblin Slayer - Volume 8 - Chapter 3.1

Interlude – Of The Hoyden Who Wanted To Go On An Adventure

“Argh, my big brother’s the worst!” The girl danced on the bed, her hands pounding the blankets. “He gets to go here, there, and everywhere, while I’m not even allowed to go outside!” 

“He can’t help that, right? It’s his job.” 

“But they say the fiery stone from heaven fell on the mount…” 

“Were you not told not to speak of that so carelessly?” Her friend and servant, the person who took care of her affairs, gave her a strained look. It was the same expression the girl got every time she complained about her older brother who hurried from one place to the next. 

It only made sense that the woman should find the girl’s rants discomfiting, given that the girl’s brother was her employer. The child knew that perfectly well, but human nature kept her from really accepting it. 

“Big Brother, he used to be an adventurer, but when I say I want to be an adventurer, he gets all upset.” 

“That’s because he knows the evil and the painful as well as the good.” 

Bah. He hadn’t even taken an arrow to the knee. The girl puffed out her cheeks and gazed out the window. 

Even from the earliest hours of the morning, an immense stream of people came and went from the capital. Every kind of person came from everywhere in the world, for every conceivable reason. She would never get to experience it, locked up in this room her whole life. 

“Lucky them…” 

“Are you truly so eager to go outside?” 

“Well, sure I am,” the girl replied immediately, rolling over on her bed. 

“It’s not all good things out there,” her friend said diffidently. 

One outrageous plan after another went through the girl’s head as she glared at the ceiling. She had heard stories of towns where girls were expected to leave home at a certain age, almost as a rite of passage. So why shouldn’t she—and why shouldn’t she become an adventurer? 

Maybe one day I’ll kick those walls down. As if I could. 

Everyone has had similar fantasies. Most, of course, never act on them. They know that so many fail and meet trouble in the process. 

But then, no one who doesn’t act on those fantasies can ever succeed. Neither Fate nor Chance can tell you how the dice will land; the only thing you can do is roll them. 

Only those who had never rolled the dice, the girl thought, could sit and offer platitudes. But at the moment, she wasn’t even allowed to roll the dice. It rankled her terribly. 

I hate it when people just make decisions for me. 

Decisions about the future, about what she could do, about the world—about everything. 

One day, she would likely be betrothed and then married. It was more or less unavoidable, and she knew that. 

But I haven’t seen anything yet. 

She’d heard the world was overflowing with damage caused by goblins. She had heard songs about a hero who assaulted a fortress atop a mountain of ice to rescue a damsel in distress. The king and his ministers and the court mages and the army, they had all known about the goblins, yet none of them had done anything. 

Because they had never seen it, I’m sure. 

Even her brother—he said he had once been an adventurer, but he refused to share any stories of his adventures with her. He had probably just let his party members protect him. In all likelihood, he hadn’t been all that important. 

He probably didn’t even know anything about goblins. 

“Hmm… That makes sense.” 

She couldn’t decide because she had never seen. 

She had to see for herself and then make a choice. 

The gods might be the ones who rolled the dice, but it was she who decided what to do. 

“…Tell me, you said your big brother is a merchant, right?” 

“Yes. Though he’s my cousin. He leaves the moment they open the gate every morning, makes his sales, and then comes home,” her friend explained, apparently under the impression that the mercurial girl’s thoughts had already turned to other things. 

“Huh,” the girl said, crossing her arms where she sat on the bed. Her mind bounced from one thing to the next. 

Then suddenly, her friend looked out the window and said, “Oh my.” 

“What’s going on?” 

“It seems your honorable brother has returned home.” 

“Really?!” 

“Yes, I see his carriage there.” Almost before her friend was finished speaking, the girl had jumped out of bed. She ignored the woman’s attempts to make her change and went flying out of the room. 

Passing servants looked at her in amazement; then they would realize whom it was and simply sigh in resignation. 

“Welcome home, Big Brother!” 

She greeted him as warmly as she could, thinking: 

Now he’ll never suspect I’m going to sneak out tonight.