Chapter 320: Woes of Adoration

After leaving the 'territory' of the now-absent orcs, Aiden raised his hand causing an abrupt stop in their steady march towards the outer regions of this humongous Forest biome.

"What is it Aiden?" Drake was quick to inquire about the sudden change in his friend.

Ignoring the man, for the time being, Aiden turned to look at his three servants. Smiling warmly at them, he spoke with his usual, calm, and friendly tone.

"[Goblin] Guys, we need to separate for the time being from here on out." He began, causing shock to spread through their faces. While the boys were trying their hardest to try to think back and find a fault, a mistake they may have done that caused their Young Lord to banish them; Galina was on the verge of crying and breaking down. Despair quickly surfaced on her pretty face, she felt helpless, unsure of what to do.

Seeing their expressions, almost made Aiden let out a chuckle, but knowing that it would be disrespectful towards their deep-seated reverence, he managed to hold back and continue on to explain his order in a bit more detail.

"[Goblin] Don't worry you guys have made no mistakes, there's no need for such concern. You guys should head back to your village and prepare your villagers. In a week, I will visit you guys, and bring all of you to the Minion World, just like we did with Roas and his orcs. They are just like you and him, we are under the same banner, the same family. We will create a new world where this blatant racism and hatred will not have a footing."

After listening to their Young Master, Gob and Glohn's faces visibly lit up. They were excited, elated about this promising future he was painting to them. Clenching their fists and raising in front of them they looked at their lord with determined gazes. 

Galina on the other hand, looked shyly, stealing glances at the young master. It seemed that she had something else to say but wasn't brave enough to speak against him. Noticing this, Aiden smiled warmly, reaching out with his right hand towards her. 

When she finally managed to gather the necessary courage to accept her lord's hand, Aiden swiftly pulled her into his embrace causing the girl to let out a surprised yelp and hide her deeply blushing cheeks by planting it deeply into Aiden's chest.

"[Goblin] Little Galina, what is it that is bothering you? Do not be afraid, you should know by now that you can tell me anything." While letting the ex-goblin girl work on calming her rapidly thumping heart, he tried soothing her by gently petting the top of her back.

He actually enjoyed using his fingers to brush her long, silky black hair, it gave a sort of comfort and a strange new feeling, something similar to pleasure…

Obviously, such actions did little to help calm the poor girl, instead, it just served as further fuel; her heart was beating so madly, that she started to be concerned about it jumping out. 

Understanding a bit more about her new, evolved physique, she tried using the Primal Energies from her newly established Core to regain some of her composure. As soon as she could feel the warmth of the energy spread through her body, reaching the very edges and furthest corners, she could finally leave the safety of her Young Master's chest and take a nervous step back. At the very least she wanted to show that she wasn't just a helpless little gal, but a worthy subordinate at the same time.

"[Goblin] Young Master, I… I.." She started, first with great confidence, that just after the first word began to quickly crumble down. Her speech stammered, she quickly felt the loss of her just regained composure to fail her.

As her eyes once more started to turn hazy with the rapid convergence of her tears forming liquid barriers, she suddenly felt the same soothing, warm energy enter her body through the top of her head. Using her right arm to rub her eye she looked ahead, only to notice Aiden's warm, smiling face, and his right hand atop her head. 

She wasn't stupid, being mainly a caster, her mind was quite bright, not just compared to other goblins, but among her evolved brethren as well. Being quite shy, especially in front of her Young Master's handsome, godlike visage… khm, in front of his dominant, manly gaze, she kept mostly to herself, and supported her friends from the back lines.

It didn't take that much for her to understand that Aiden used the very same method that caused their evolution back in the tower. This mystical, unrecognizable source of energy, that swiftly made its way into her core, first working to restoring her draining reserves, then to spread its cool and calmness in her body… In a few minutes she once again, found herself ready to express her true feelings to her Lord and Master.

Taking a breath of the fresh, morning forest air, she began to voice out the feelings of her heart together with the dewy air.

"[Goblin] Young Master, I… I would like to request that… you allow me to stay with you. Please…" 

"[Goblin] Galina, my dear…" Seeing the girl's expectant, hopeful gaze, Aiden wasn't sure what to do. While her physique changed, turning more human-like both in terms of weight and features, she was still at its core, a being that was labeled as a 'Monster' by the human society. Even if she could successfully pass the guards' inspection at the gate, the moment they made a mistake and were found out, the consequences would be dire…

Considering all this, Aiden could only give a wry, conflicted smile in return, and with a light shake with his head he was about to respond, declining her query. However, before he could do so, the silver-haired prince decided to speak up and intervene.

"Hey, Aiden…" He began. "Whilst I don't understand the language you are using, it's not that difficult to guess what the little Missy here wants to do."

As the two turned and looked at her with similar, questioning gazes, he reached for his right side to the small brown, leather pouch, that always looked strangely empty and reached inside it. First his fingers, then slowly his entire hand vanished in its depth, causing a wave of a surprise to flash through Galina's and even Aiden's eyes before they returned to their previous, smiling state.

Even without the System whispering to him, Aiden understood from a first glance that the small leather bag was enchanted with some kind of space magic. While he had already seen the wondrous, skull-faced ring over her Master's finger having similar features as his System Inventory, he didn't know if these kinds of magical items were common occurrences or not. 

After all, so far he hadn't seen another one during his time among the humans of this kingdom.

Drake looked quite busy as he searched for something in the magically expanded depths of his bag. It took him almost a minute and a half before the look on his face change into an expression of happiness. Grabbing onto the item he was searching for, he pulled his hand out of the bag, triumphantly raising it towards the duo. 

But there was nothing to be seen. No, that wasn't entirely true. 

His hand was balled into a fist, and from looking at it more closely it seemed that his fingers were tightly clenched, hiding something small.

With a questioning look on his face, Aiden looked up, urging his friend to not waste the time, and reveal what he wanted to show.

Drake gave a light cough, and spoke once again, with an obviously forced tone, trying to hide his eagerness, quite badly, unfortunately.

"Khm… So, I'm fairly certain, the lady would like to stay with you. While I can't understand for the life of me, why… I believe I can still be of some help." He spoke, immediately causing a wave of pink to appear on Galina's cheeks.

Even though she couldn't speak the human's 'Common' tongue, she could understand it with the help of the connection she shared with the young master. So, when the silver-haired human revealed her innermost feelings without any concern for her at all, she was ready to hide behind the man of her adoration, ready to bury herself just to escape the shame she was feeling at that exact moment.

However, Drake didn't seem to care about her much, with the same smile on his face he continued as he slowly opened his fist, revealing the tiny jewelry in it.

In his palm, a small golden ring was laying, with a tiny onyx-like gemstone placed in it. Besides the strange choice of materials, there was nothing unusual about it. At least for the first glance.

Aiden could feel strange energies, something he could recognize as Mana faintly radiating from the stone etched at its top. 

Just what was Drake trying to do?