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The adult woman, Karen had rescued from the goblins was blushing deeply. With a fluttering heart, she wrapped herself in the tiger-hide coat Karen had discarded.
After Karen told her to leave, she immediately ran over to the little girl, picked her up, and said to Stark,
"Thank you. I'll never forget what you've done for us. Milady, let's go."
She hurried off toward the place where the fallen knights lay scattered across the ground.
Watching the two leave, Stark smiled, happy that they had managed to save someone.
But she failed to notice the goblin Karen had kicked away at the very beginning sneaking up behind her.
It slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground.
Looking up at the goblin's lewd grin and the drool dripping from its mouth, Stark screamed in terror.
"Don't come any closer! I'm a man!"
Of course, the goblin couldn't understand human language.
And even if it could, would it have stopped?
Panicking, Stark desperately crawled backward. By chance, she grabbed a rock and hurled it at the goblin.
The goblin casually tilted its head and avoided it.
Next, Stark tried to kick it away.
Her foot was caught on the very first attempt.
The goblin's free hand reached toward her crotch.
The next instant, Karen smashed it with his metal rod, sending it flying into the forest.
In a completely unsurprised tone, he said,
"I knew it. You're female. Female hormones can't fool a goblin's nose. Goblins don't have females."
"..."
Stark didn't answer.
She had never imagined her secret would be exposed because of a goblin.
But coming so close to being violated by a monster made her realize something.
If Karen hadn't been there...
She would've become a goblin's plaything.
Used from morning until night.
Every position.
Every twisted fantasy.
Until the day she died.
Karen, on the other hand, didn't care at all that she had lied.
To him, it merely answered a question he'd been wondering about.
Looking at Stark still sitting on the ground, he said impatiently,
"What are you still sitting there for? Get up."
Startled back to reality, Stark pressed her hands against the ground and forced her weak body upright.
Just then, she happened to notice the goblin Karen had knocked into the woods fleeing.
She immediately pointed at it and shouted,
"Hey! It's getting away!"
"If it gets away, it gets away. Do you want to chase it?"
Karen responded with complete indifference, asking her what she wanted to do instead of giving the reaction she expected.
His attitude infuriated Stark.
If those goblins weren't wiped out, more women would eventually become their victims.
She didn't know whether Karen was an experienced adventurer, but she knew he possessed far more knowledge than she did.
Even she, a complete amateur, could see the consequences of letting the goblins escape.
Yet Karen wasn't doing anything to prevent it.
Overcome with anger, Stark grabbed Karen by the collar and shouted,
"Why aren't you chasing them?! You know perfectly well that if you let them go, more women will be violated! Isn't hunting down monsters your job?!"
"So I asked you—do you want to chase them?"
Even with Stark grabbing his collar, Karen calmly repeated the same question.
Stark's grip loosened.
In a much weaker voice, she replied,
"I'm not an adventurer. There's no way I could kill them..."
She knew she was nothing more than an ordinary person.
She barely even used attack magic.
Chasing goblins herself would be little more than walking to her own death.
That was why she wanted someone as strong as Karen to do it.
The orange-haired woman was grabbing my collar and yelling at me.
Why was I getting scolded by someone who'd done nothing but hold me back?
And on top of that, she was ordering me around?
She had nothing.
No money.
No strength to fight monsters.
Sure, she believed I had the ability to kill them.
But where did she get the confidence to think I'd obey her?
I brushed her hand off my collar and said what was on my mind.
"What gives you the right to order me to kill them? Whether I do it or not is my decision. I don't need you questioning it."
The moment I finished speaking, the orange-haired woman suddenly shrank back.
Speaking rapidly in a defeated tone, she said,
"I-I'm sorry. If you hadn't saved me, I might've... I just couldn't stop thinking about other women going through the same thing, and I lost control of my emotions... I'm sorry. Someone as weak as me had no right to order someone as strong as you. I deserve to die for being so arrogant..."
"That's enough."
I cut her off.
She'd even switched to honorifics when addressing me.
Did she have a split personality or something?
Society worked on a simple rule.
Those with power had the right to speak.
Those without it could only obey.
People naturally respected and feared those stronger than themselves.
Deep down, they assumed the stronger person would make the better decision, so they followed them.
The orange-haired woman had nothing that earned either my respect or my fear.
So why should I listen to her?
What really annoyed me wasn't what she'd said.
It was her attitude.
People should know their place.
If you're weaker than someone else, then be humble and endure it.
Acting however you pleased would only make people dislike you.
If you're willing to bear the consequences, then do whatever you want.
Even slapping someone across the face is fine—
as long as you're prepared to accept what comes afterward.
I turned around and looked at the orange-haired woman, who was staring at me anxiously, afraid I'd leave her behind.
"Come with me."
I led her into the forest.
Using my detection magic, I followed the path the escaping goblin had taken.
Eventually, we reached the mountainside, where a cave came into view.
"A cave?"
"A goblin nest."
"How do you know?"
"Goblins reproduce rapidly. The ones we fought earlier were only part of the group. I let that one go so it'd lead us here."
"I see... I yelled at you without knowing any of that."
The orange-haired woman sounded guilty for having blamed me.
I ignored her and cast a magic toward the cave entrance.
"Wall"
A brown wall, clearly different in color from the surrounding rock, completely sealed the entrance.
"What are you doing? Why are you standing like that?"
I lowered into a half-crouch.
My left hand stretched forward.
My right hand drew back beside my waist.
"Charging up. Hah!"
As I twisted my waist, pulling back my left hand while thrusting my right hand forward, the "Wall" shot straight into the cave.
"Huh?! Wall can move?!"
The orange-haired woman stared in shock.
No one had ever imagined that a defensive magic could be used this way.
"Wall" is a basic earth-element magic.
To most people, it existed only for defense.
No one had ever thought of turning it into an offensive weapon.
It all came down to the commands you gave the magic.
If you programmed a travel distance or a stopping condition in your mind, then used the motion of your outstretched hand to designate the direction, the wall would move.
The maximum distance depended on age—
one meter for every year of the caster's age.
The cave wasn't very deep.
To prevent the wall from bending and leaving gaps the goblins could hide in, I programmed it with the command:
"After hitting the back wall of the cave, continue moving another five meters before stopping."
That way, it would crush everything from the entrance to the deepest part of the cave.
As for the women the goblins had captured...
My method would crush them to death along with the goblins.
Even if they were rescued, they would never truly recover mentally.
In the end, they would only choose to end their own lives.
Using "Detection", I confirmed there were no living creatures left inside the cave.
We could continue our journey to the capital now.
"Let's go. Every goblin inside is dead."
"Really?"
"If you don't believe me, go in and see for yourself."
"N-No, no! I'm too scared... I believe you. Let's just go!"
Terrified, the orange-haired woman hurried down the mountain.
If she was that scared, why bring it up in the first place?
Honestly...
Why force yourself to relive something that frightened you so badly?