Chapter 229: Surprises

Dread washed over the seasoned orcish elite warriors for a second causing them to shiver and looked at the frail-looking male goblin in an entirely new light than before. Their first impression of this pipsqueak being a weakling lord of his species was completely wrong as it seems, and the little guy did hold some surprises in that small frame of his.

Their mixed expressions of surprise and shock lingered for a moment longer only, before it vanished from their faces, returning to the cold, collected demeanor as before. They were veterans, after all, they were trained to do their assigned jobs to perfection after all.

As his expression calmed and returned to the previous stoic look, the guard on the right nodded as he responded with his broken goblin dialect.

"[Goblin] You correct, sir. The slaves will be safe and sound. The reasons the building is placed outside the tribe was to make sure no "un… un…" He seemed to have trouble coming up with the right word, he was visibly struggling for a bit. "...unwanted mistakes" happen to the envoys' properties." Finishing the sentence, he let out a slightly longer sigh, looking visibly exhausted conversing with such an uncomfortable language. 

Still, the fact that it was capable of talking in it, and forming such long sentences, showcases his mastery over the language. Aiden had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised, he originally expected to have much more troubles with this ordeal as well. He was even prepared to defend the girls if he would have seen the need, but luckily that was not necessary. 

"Uhm. Thank you." Aiden nodded, with the same friendly, smiling expression he had before. Opening his palms, he motioned for the girls to give him their weapons, which they, albeit with great reluctance, acquiesced. 

In the next moment, with a flip of his hands, both weapons seemingly vanished into thin air, surprising the Guards once again at the inexplicable spectacle. Still, they did not say a word but only nodded saying that they are now clear to go through.

Motioning to the girls to keep their calm, despite their raging emotions, the trio resumed their trek and began to walk inside, crossing the gates.

"Why did you hold me back?! I would have ripped that guy into pieces!" As soon as they left the two guards and got closer to the building, Naybeah immediately erupted, letting out her anger and annoyance. Even though her voice was loud and could be heard by them, she didn't really care, nor did she have to, the orcs wouldn't understand the [Common] anyway.

The same, friendly, kind smile not leaving his face, Aiden lightly shook his head.

"I do not doubt it a bit. But if you do so, we would have needed to kill the other one as well. Then when the next shift of guards comes some hours later, they would either see their dead bodies or nothing at all if we would have taken the time to clean up. Either way, they would start investigating what happened, and knowing that they have some sort of sensing capabilities around their territories, they would quickly realize that we have killed them, leading us to not just fail to complete the plan and get the information we need, but the chance to slip past the camp and get into the Grotto we both desire." Aiden responded with a calm, but lecturing tone causing the amazon to avert her eyes towards the ground in shame and let out a defeated sigh midway through Aiden's lecture.

"I… understand. Sorry… hubby." She answered shyly after a short while, her chosen nickname causing Sarah to clench her small fists in annoyance.

Whisking with his right hand, Aiden smiled at the blonde amazon's reaction. 

"Don't worry about it." Then turning around, the smile turning into a serious, stern, fierce gaze, he looked at the hastily made door-like wooden barrier in front of them.

"Okay, girls. This is the spot where we separate. Remember, your main task is to just stay safe and sound. If you can get some info out from the people inside that's all the better, but don't risk yourselves trying to save everyone. You don't know when and how they got to serve their masters, and where their real allegiance lies anymore. Even if it's hard, focus on yourselves first and foremost."

Turning sideways, he looked at Sarah with the same focused, fierce expression.

"You got that as well, Sarah?"

Reluctance clearly visible in her eyes as their gazes met for a brief moment before she averted it sideways, Sarah clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"I know. I will try my best." She answered eventually, albeit with clearly great difficulties. It was obvious she had other objectives and goals in mind and will be hard to have her let go of those.

Knowing it would be pointless to argue with her any more, Aiden turned his head to the other side and looked at the blonde amazon.

"Naybeah. Make sure to keep her and yourself safe okay?" 

Still a bit conflicted about the loss of her weapon, and being berated by her chosen mate, Naybeah didn't respond, but only nodded at his words.

Seeing both girls hurt expressions, caused a strange, new feeling, a stinging, piercing pain surface, and shot itself in his heart. It was similar to the time when he first realized that Lilly was in deep trouble, but at the same time, it felt new, something he never experienced before.

This new feeling, however, wasn't pleasant, forcing him to think of ways to appease the troubled girls with something. 

Thinking about it for a bit, he let out a short sigh, before he pushed on the door with both of his hands, making it slowly creak open, and give some slight vision to the inside.

As the door gave way, it slowly revealed a sight that was hard to process at a first glance.

The entire inside was similar to something you would see in regular horse stables. The entirety of the interior consisted of several small, compact wooden stalls that for the most cases housed one or two humanoid figures, mostly human females, but you could see males, and some other humanoid-like species as well.

To the right, closest to them and the entrance, for example, were two much taller and thinner figures. As the only source of light was the thin trail of moonlight that seeped in through the cracks, it was hard to tell if they were males or females, but Aiden was leaning towards them being females judging by the feminine contours on their faces. They had golden, almost platinum-colored long curly hairs, which despite being messy and not freshly cleaned, still looked incredibly beautiful. They were most likely elves of some kind, judging by the long, pointed, and branded ears that managed to peek out from their lush mane.

They were dressed in drags, barely covering anything on their thin, underweight bodies. They were chained to a large wooden pole next to them wearing a large iron collar around their necks. 

Their eyes were hollow, they held no reaction or any sort of life in them as they turned to look at the newcomers. They told a tale of incredible pain and miserable existence that was just waiting for its end.

Clenching his fists, Aiden took a moment to calm himself, he continued walking forward looking for an empty stall to 'use'.

The hollow, lifeless eyes, lack of reaction, and miserable outlook weren't unique to the elves either, almost all the other stalls' occupants had the very same reaction or actually lack of as they crossed through next to them.

The only difference was a barely audible "Tsk" coming from the far corner, one of the very last stalls of the building. It was so silent, that it would have gone unnoticed if Aiden's senses wouldn't be much sharper than what could be expected of the form he was currently using. Giving a slight nod towards the far-right corner of the room, he alerted both girl's attention as they slowly walked forward the only source of sound inside the building.

Arriving closer, Aiden could only sense one figure inside the dark stall, hiding, sitting in the far-right corner of the small wooden stall.

"H-hello?! You okay there?" With a worried tone, Aiden looked towards the dark where the figure resided and called out for him, using the common tongue. 

His voice, although slightly altered due to his changed form, still carried the similarities of his original one, making it recognizable for those that knew the 'original' him. As the figure in the dark heard the lush, long, black-haired goblin inquire using the human's language with ease, it raised its attention to the green goblin. 

In the next moment, however, as it leaned forward, and as the shadowy figure's face entered the thin ray of moonlight and its face got revealed, it caused Aiden to almost jump back in shock. His eyes turning wide as an apple, he looked at the figure with shock. 

"You?! What are you doing here?!" He exclaimed, his eyes subtly glowing with their usual golden luster as his emotions began to, once again, go into a violent turmoil.