Chapter Sixty-two – In which the seeds of change sown by Ark, due to his very nature of being an isekai protagonist, take root, grow, and split.

Chapter Sixty-two – In which the seeds of change sown by Ark, due to his very nature of being an isekai protagonist, take root, grow, and split.

~~** Interlude | Diana, Orchid, & Lilac **~~

“What is this cave-hole?”

Diana had entered the cave-hole she had heard from Berry that Husband was working on. The one which used to belong to Beast-talker. It wasn’t like the cave-hole belonging to Ivory and Truffle, nor was it like the beautiful cave-hole of Jewel, or the round cave-hole of Lily. Not even the same as the one Ark lived in. It seemed strange, but comfortable. It was wide and open like a cave-hole should be, but felt different, and Diana liked that for some reason.

Both Orchid and Lilac had immediately found the staircase and noticed that it was a way... up.

To these three goblins, the concept of up was exclusive to the forest. Up meant there was danger, and taking to the trees and climbing to a branch was something they had drilled into them by their mothers when they were first brought along on the hunt only a few days after crawling out of their mothers. There was no such thing as up in goblin-home. Not until now, anyway.

Lily’s daughters crawled up the strange sturdy stone path carefully until they peeked over the side and saw that they were high off the ground. They also found a new ground waiting for them when they reached the top, and three new cave-holes to explore. Diana was soon behind them and they all saw how each of the cave-holes looked almost the same. They each had a space for a bed, a treasure box for keeping things in at the foot of it, shelves carved into the walls which could store many many things, and plenty of available space to move around in. These rooms were also bigger than the ones Husband had made for each of their mothers.

“Diana? Should we take this cave-hole for us?” Orchid proposed.

“Maybe Daddy knew the human goblin wouldn’t want to live here. That’s why we each have a cave-hole.. When it’s our turn to get big-seed, we can have Daddy here for all of us to share.” Lilac voiced her thoughts towards the future.

“Hunters get their own cave-holes. We are all hunters... do you think there is enough room not to fight with each other over space?” Diana asked them.

“Why fight? Daddy says if we work together, protect each other, we can kill any beast!”

“Yeah! Diana taught us how to hunt! If we stay with Diana, we will become stronger!” Lily added.

“What about our things?” Diana pointed out something that each of the goblins also innately understood, the desire to have their own things.

“How about we keep things we care about in our cave-holes, and things we don’t care about in the big cave-hole?” Lilac suggested.

“What things don’t we care about?” Diana asked.UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m

“Lilac and I don’t have things besides our weapons and bone-charms.” Orchid replied.

“Then we get things! We are hunters now! We have a big cave-hole to fill! Get daddy to make things for us. Put things that look good in the big cave-hole, like checkers game or Diana’s stone picture game, and things important to us in our cave-holes, like bone-charms and weapons.” Lilac pointedly spoke.

“Yes, we need more things!” Diana agreed. “First thing a goblin hunter needs in their cave-holes is new straw for beds.”

“Then let’s go get straw now!” Lilac said energetically.

“Diana Artemis have straw... but come hunt straw with you to help carry many back. Husband likes bed with many many straw. Sleep for two whole suns on my big straw bed.” Diana proudly touted, not quite understanding what mana exhaustion was for Ark and why he could have slept on a pile of rocks and still been out cold.

“Diana, why do other goblins besides Ivory and Truffle not think to do this?” Orchid asked her older half-sister.

“I don’t know?” Diana felt the call for her own cave-hole, but it’s not like she ever felt the need to not live with Berry in order to have her own cave-hole. Diana felt that Berry was a good goblin to share a cave-hole with. She was a very clean goblin, and Diana also inherited through nurture the desire to be clean.

“Why not have Lily and Berry live in the same cave-hole?” Lilac suggested.

“What about when they have more strong ones? Not enough space.” Diana postulated.

“What is the problem with space? Look at this room. Daddy can just make more space! He can just go... up?” Orchid said the obvious, and all three of them realized how simple, stupid, and perfectly smart the idea was.

“So, when we have Husband’s strong ones... we have Husband build up?” Diana said, tilting her head up to the ceiling. The other two followed suit, and for the first time in their generation, they had a completely coherent human thought.

Which was then immediately drowned out by Lilac’s stomach rumbling.

“I need to shit.”

She wasn’t the only one. They had gorged themselves on redboar, far beyond what a strong one should be able to pack away.

“Then let’s go shit. We’ll tell Berry and Lily that we will take cave-hole when we’re older. But for now, we make it our base and plan hunts, like Husband said.” Diana agreed.

“Wait. How long does it take daddy to give big seed?” Orchid asked. Lily’s daughter’s education on adult goblin matters was not entirely complete, for obvious reasons.

“Okay, we give more time, take big shit, and then piss, and then it should be enough time.” Diana answered constructively. She very much wanted more sisters.

That day, when Lily’s two strong ones became hunters, they also saw, by peeking into Berry’s cave hole after taking an enjoyable shit, just how long it took for it to happen once. The three of them left the cave to go get more straw, each wondering how it could possibly be fun to put something in the same place where shit and piss came out. Thankfully their curiosity stopped there. They were still far too young to understand, and the thought of being great goblin hunters living together trumped everything else for them.

It took them two trips into the forest to gather enough straw. When they came back, their mothers were both lying down and patting their bellies. It took that long.

Diana, Orchid, and Lilac sat down and talked with their mothers, explaining that they would leave their cave-holes and live together after their new sisters were made. Any worries their mothers had about whether or not they would be eating well far into the future was put to rest immediately.

“Berry and Lily will come eat at our cave hole. Bring our new sisters, too!.”

Ark had done something by his meager actions in trying to be a good father. He had awakened something that should not normally be present in goblin children. The three strong ones had a sense of true family now, and they would not abandon the ones who made them with Ark’s big strong seed. Instead they would become many, and become stronger, by working together past the hunt... past the goblin way.

It could be said that it was this moment when it all truly began.

The beginning of Goblinhome, cradle of the world's first true goblin civilization.

And it was all the fault of a single human who just couldn’t keep it in his pants.

~~** Interlude | Vera **~~

“So the name of Wyze is not lost on an uneducated sort as you are. Do you even know why he’s here, living among the goblins, so happy and care-free?”

“Why would I know that?”

“It’s because he wished for it.”

“He... wanted to fuck goblins?”

“HA HA HA! Goodness no. How crude you are. Ark wanted his life to have meaning. He despises humans far more than you ever could a goblin.”

“He does? Why?”

“Because he has forbidden knowledge. He knows things that should not yet be, not for thousands of years. Yet he doesn’t crave the power that would bring him... all his heart wants is a large family to care for.”

“But... goblins?”

“It is a matter of confidence, I imagine. Do you not think the son of Wyze could have a harem of concubines at his beck and call to learn all that he knows if he simply thought himself worthy of it? But he’s a particular sort. Doesn’t even show interest in those breeding houses most human men love frequenting.”

“But he’s a second-circle, whatever that is. He’s a nobody as far as magicians go!”

“Such an ignorant child. Ark was born into this world without need to be put into any circle. He is a circle of his own creation! He could quite possibly become the most powerful magician in this world if he had sufficient motivation. A rival even to my great self.”

“...T-then why can’t he escape? Why does he think you are some impossible thing he can’t hope to defeat?”

“That is a question I will not answer, as it would spoil the fun. But he can escape whenever he wants. The important word here is... wants, little goblin.”

“You’re saying Ark wants to be a slave to these goblins?”

“Is he?”

“What?”

“Is he a slave to the goblins? Or is he a slave to his desires?”

“Desires?”

“His common sense is not like ours. As I said, he despises humans. To him, these goblins are like innocent children. He knows he can kill them on a whim if he so chooses. But what have they given him? Pleasure! Children! Purpose! With nothing but a ruddy topaz stone, he has carved that mountain cave to his liking. Goblins untouched, unspoiled, untainted by their own cruel existence all yearn to be with him, to have endless children from his seed, his strangely powerful blood running through their veins now, and those same children are to be taught his common sense! Elves which have lived thousands of years, Dwarves nearly as long, the Beastmen and all the other races humans consider similarly civilized will not be able to hold a candle to what is to come with the goblins he sires! So run! Run back to your pathetic humans that would shun you, when you could be like a goddess at his side instead! That only shows how stupid you truly are. I would stand to wager that if he did something to make you a goblin, it is because he wanted you to be a goblin. That he wouldn’t detest you as you looked upon him for what you consider a sickening taboo, as your species does wholly.”

Stella began to laugh.

It was a laugh that sent cold chills up Vera’s spine.

“But don’t you find it interesting that you aren’t fully a goblin? That you retain at least a portion of your human appearance?”

“Are you saying I’m not going to become more goblin?”

“Do you think Ark would prefer it if you were? I, sadly, do not know of his ultimate preference. Nor do I know if he even has one. But humans are particular about the little things like that. What do they call that word in your tongue... nostalgia?”

“So... If I were to be the goblin he wants me to be... then I would rule a great civilization beside him in the future?”

“Perhaps. But it would be in name only, most likely. Is that good enough for you? To have a man powerful enough to change the very balance of the world as your mate? And all you have to do is pretend to be what he wants you to be... the rest of the way?”

“What about... my children?”

“Hasn’t that been taken care of already?”

“So they will be goblins...”

“Goblins of unparalleled power and ability.”

“What about me?”

“I cannot say, and I am not hiding an answer from you. I truly cannot say. But does it matter? That place may be a cave for now, but it could very well be greater than any castle ever known in the future. Maybe even during your lifetime. Your children will be favored, and depending on how you influence them...”

Stella laughed again.

“So all I have to do... is accept that I’m a goblin now?”

“Isn’t it amusing, little goblin? Ark is so simple a human, that is all you have to do.”

Stella had stood up. She looked different now. What Vera saw, that she couldn’t fully comprehend at the time, was Stella abandoning her humanity right before her eyes. But for what reason exactly, she had no clue.

“I will return to Ark. If it’s as simple as that, then... maybe it’s not so bad.”

What Vera took from the exchange she eavesdropped on... was hope. She was too innocent to know better. It was what Ark wanted in the first place, wasn’t it? The Great Protector had done what it had always done for the goblin tribe. It had convinced Stella to go back, and Stella had decided to accept being a goblin, which meant all Vera needed to do... was give her Husband a push.

Wasn’t it... perfect?

But Vera had no clue as to the ugliness of the human heart, because Ark’s morality was rooted in a different place–a different world. Goblins did not hide their truest desires. Goblins hunted, took what they wanted, and were lazy unless they had something to occupy their time.

This was something she could not have known, that what Stella would do after this encounter would so painfully hurt Ark later. That it would change a certain seed of fate which was supposed to take root, and would be a trial that all of Goblinhome, would have to face...