Chapter 218: Woes of the Heart

His lips twitching due to the constant poking of both women, Aiden gently grabbed their hands peeling them off from his skin. 

"It is still me, in just this… 'disguise' as Naybeah so cleverly stated. It's nothing more than an elaborate deception. Whilst I look and feel like a goblin, I am still…" He wanted to refer to himself as human, but suddenly he found it incredibly difficult to do so. In the end, Aiden had to change his wording slightly, as he found an inexplicable aversion towards humanity all of a sudden. "...myself, Aiden."

Continuing with her scrutinizing look, Sarah and Naybeah as well slowly took in the boy's new appearance. "That still doesn't explain how you managed to converse with the orc. I know they have intelligence and not just mindless beasts some may think…" Sarah gave a sideways glance at the blonde amazon. Before Naybeah could respond, however, she quickly continued.

"But still, to converse? I never heard of anyone else being able to speak their harsh, grunting dialect. So that begs the question, how did you converse with the orc shaman?"

Already expecting the question, Aiden retained his calm this time. Slightly shaking his head, he explained with his usual, friendly smile donning his face.

"I don't speak Orcish if that's what you were referring to. However…" His friendly smile, curving slightly higher, transformed into a wryly shining grin as he continued his speech, but this time using the [Language: Goblin] skill, conversing fluently in the goblin's native tongue. 

"[Goblin] However, I can speak goblin quite adequately." 

(A.N.: When otherwise not stated in the format I just used above, the speakers would be using Common.)

The sudden change and harsh sounding alien words caught both girls by surprise. They could not understand a word what the boy had just said, but from the sound, it did feel similar to what they would usually hear when facing the little humanoid monsters in combat.

From the uninitiated, the goblin speech could barely be recognized as intelligent at all. Most of their phrases and verbal phrases were similar to throaty gurgles, and garbled yells. However, behind that garbled mess, there was an actual, defined language with its own words and grammar. 

It had its own sophisticated ruleset, its vocabulary and it was capable to provide all the expressions as the generally accepted and spoken Common was capable of. Even though, that besides their own race and maybe some of their allies, nobody spoke it, it was still a valid language.

"W-what was that?!" Almost at the same time, both girls yelped with surprise after hearing Aiden's strange words.

Seeing their reaction was in the range of his expectations. With a light chuckle, he responded to the exclaimed question.

"Don't worry, I haven't gone insane or got cursed or anything. It was just me, conversing in Goblin. I can actually speak it." He gave his best, and most 'honest' smile he could to further back up his words. He knew that all this info was a lot to take in, but since he now took this leap and decided to entrust them with this half-truth, he would go through with it all the way to the end.

"H-how can you speak their language? Who taught you?!" Sarah continued with her questioning, sounding even more shocked than before. "I never heard of anyone speaking it, nor did my mo-, *khmm*, my Mistress ever mention anybody speaking it." Masking the mistake that she almost referred to her Mistress as her mother which was not allowed under any circumstances, Sarah, averted her eyes in embarrassment.

"Those who raised me, have taught it to me." Without any thinking, Aiden immediately blurted out a prepared response. Although he looked calm, inwardly he was starting to sweat, focusing on keeping up with his own lies and half-truths to sell this story to the girls. 

Hoping to guide the conversation forward, his expression returned to his usual friendly smile.

"So, with this knowledge, now I can explain what the old orc has told me." Turning around, he looked at the still unexplored right path ahead. "This path will take us to some sort of holding place for slaves. The orc tribe supposedly has many visitors currently, gathering for some reason that I couldn't understand. Also…" His eyes shifted to the still skeptical-looking purple-haired girl, looking at her wryly. "... both of you were spotted outside. I think I managed to convince the old man, that you both are my slaves, that I brought with me, but I'm not sure how long that lie would hold. One thing is for certain, we need to come up with a plan if we want to get inside, and my only idea is for me to use this disguise of mine."

"Hmm…" Listening to the boy's words, Sarah finally showed signs of easing up. Gently reaching for her chin, she began caressing it as she got lost in her own thoughts. 

On the other hand, Naybeah didn't take long to be convinced. Accepting her Chosen Mate's explanation, the wide-reaching smile returning to her expression, she looked at the goblin-formed Aiden.

"Could you… you know… return to your normal self? If what you say is true then we should wait with whatever we do, we shouldn't do anything until sundown anyway."

"Y-yeah, you are right…" Finding it increasingly harder to match the strange gaze that the blonde amazon continued to give him, Aiden stuttered a response before his figure once again began to blur and vibrate. 

His body suddenly began to grow, his muscles contorted and twitched as they expanded and reformed to match his human form. His skin began to lighten, and regain its healthy bronze shine. The wild, unfettered hair returned to his slightly calmed but still lush state. In mere moments he returned to his previous, 'default state.

"Is this better?" Giving an inquisitory look at the tall amazon, Aiden asked with a kind tone.

���Hell yeah, much better!" Seeing that Aiden returned to his old self, the earlier wide, and loving grin returned to Naybeah's face. With the light-red, pinkish tinge coloring her cheeks, she looked much happier. 

Witnessing his shapeshifting skill again in action, Sarah remained silent for a while longer, contemplating several thoughts, before she nodded as she eventually spoke up.

"I agree with Naybeah. We should wait for whatever we are planning to do until around midnight at least. Although I'm not sure how much we can trust an orc's words, even if it was given to something he mistook for an allied envoy, we shouldn't rush ahead into the enemy grounds any more than we already did. Let's go back and find a place to lay rest and come up with a plan."

Looking at her, Aiden found her demeanor slightly changed, colder, a bit more distant. Although he had some ideas about at least some of the thoughts clouding the purple-haired woman's mind, he could only sigh for now, and just hope they can talk in private later.

"Okay then, let's head back and search for a good place! Come, guys!" Grabbing Aiden's hand, the amazon turned towards the way they originally came from, and with large and wide steps she turned to leave whilst pulling Aiden behind her.

Deciding against voicing her displeasure of this sight, Sarah only clicked her tongue as she followed the two from behind. Meanwhile, as her eyes lingered on the Aiden-sized bag that the tall amazon continued pulling.

Just who was this boy? Was he even human? Are this strange skill and supposed knowledge he revealed was something that he learned from the family he so far didn't talk about much? She knew about his supposed sister, a blonde girl that visited and got into trouble in the slums some time ago, but besides her, there was no information available about his background at all. Where did he come from? How did he just appear in this backwater place? His speed, his strength, his incredible sight, senses, and now his wide range of skills… These were all beyond the capabilities of human limits. 

Could such a powerful skill be a bloodline inheritance? On top of that, the fact that he could converse in the Goblin's language with such ease was something she just couldn't wrap her head around.

But even if she would accept all of these, there was the fact that he was completely immune to her family's bloodline skills. The mental barriers he had his mind wrapped around were proven to be too much not just for herself but even for her Mistress as well! 

Resting her eyes on the back of the long, black-haired youth, Sarah let a troubled sigh escape her pouting lips. Despite all of this, the words of her Mistress kept resounding in her mind. For some reason, the more she traveled with this boy, she found it all the more alluring. The thought of getting closer to him started to sound more and more pleasant, and this thought was incredibly scary for Sarah.

Still, it was hard if not impossible to control the heart...