Irreversible change
"….What the fuck?" I gasped, literally spooked by my own aura. "What the fuck!" I repeated the same words as it seemed my brain couldn't even process how fucking terrifying my aura is.
The goblins shrieked in fear as I finally snapped out of my trance. "Uh… um, it's alright?" I tried comforting them with simple words but that did nothing to the fear generated by my aura.
"Bruh, calm the fuck down, I'm just here to talk!" I shouted at them as they immediately, practically shouted in response. "Yes, strong one!" And then proceeded to shivered even farther.
"You aren't even calming down one bit." I sighed as I put my hand on the shivering goblin leader with a bandana, "Listen, I'm just here to talk, and I'm not bothered about you seeing what you saw."
"Besides, I won't kill you, what do I even get from killing you? I literally have nothing to gain from killing you." Little did I know this would bring me serious consequences that would straight doom me.
"What's your name, kid?" I spoke to the still shivering goblin. "I-I… I don't h-have a n-name… strong one…" he responded. How did I know? From the voice of course. But something was seriously wrong here.
"Huh? You don't have a name?" I spoke in surprise. "Do you guys also don't have name or is it just that this guy is an outcast?" I turned to the other goblins. "W-we all d-don't have names… strong one."
The goblins spoke in sync. "Everyone in our tribe doesn't have names." They added. "That's seriously messed up though." I commented. "Everyone in your tribe doesn't even have a name?"
"Yes, strong one. Though we used to have a named one among us, he had already departed from us. He was the one who gave us hope in despair." The goblins shivered less but seemed to be in grief and pain… one that looks like that of losing a loved one.
"Woah, woah, calm down." I comforted them. "He already went ahead of you, huh?" I spoke with familiar empathy in my voice. After all, I too, had lost many loved ones in the path of life.
"So, how did you lose him?" I asked them with a solemn tone. "We lost him in a skirmish from the dire-wolves… strong one." They started tearing up and gasping for air as they remembered their destiny.
"Strong one…" The leader of this small goblin group spoke up first. "Hm?" I hummed in curiosity; he didn't even have an ounce of courage to talk just before this conversation. "Please help us…!" He pleaded.
My past started to flash before my eyes as I stood up and helped the goblin up. The memory of raging fire and blood still vivid in my mind as I spoke. "Sure, I will promise to help you in your storm of despair."
"But you have to give me something in return for this." I added. The goblins soon stood up one by one as they faced me with tears still evident and falling from their eyes, but a flame shown in their eyes beside that.
"I will give up everything that I have in order to save my family, friends, and tribe from the dire-wolves." The goblin leader spoke as a soft smile dawned on my face. "Then I take it that everyone of you surrender yourselves to me."
They briefly nodded as I spoke, "Bring me to your tribe." We walked back slowly to the place of their tribe as the trees gradually decreased in amount as we reached closer to their little village.
As soon as we got near the village, tension immediately visibly rose in the air as I basically paraded around the village until we finally reached to the place where I assume is the town hall where the village chief is.
The leader from earlier led me into the tent as I saw what seemed to be an old and steadily quivering old goblin holding a crude staff as support. I quickly sat down on the platform in seiza style.
The two quickly followed suit and sat down on the ground kneeling towards me, "Strong one… we request of you to help our insignificant village against the dire-wolves–" "I know what you mean old man." I interrupted.
"I will help your village against those mere pups, but I won't be giving you my service for free." I stared at the old man full of hidden intentions clear for them to see. "…I see, strong one, we will offer our loyalty."
My gaze softened as I smiled at the two. "I accept your loyalty. In return, I will help your little village against the dire-wolves." I spoke as I curtly stood up with a glorified aura surrounding me as I walked forward.
"Lead me around the village. I will firstly start with inspecting the over all situation of the village." I got out of the tent as the goblin leader from earlier quickly followed me and led me around the village.
What I saw was gloom, not hope. Heads hung down in despair and lost light of what seems to be tomorrow. I grit my teeth; I couldn't stand this sight. "Listen! People of this village!" I shouted strong enough for everyone to hear.
They all flinched in alert and looked in my direction as I banged my chest lightly. "I will be your new leader! I agreed to help you people in return for your loyalty! So do not be afraid and continue to go on!"
"Do not lose hope! If you lose yours then hope in me! If you don't see the light, find light in me! If you're lost, find refuge in me! You will not die! For I, am here!!" I shouted with all the air my lungs could give.
Finally, a spark of fire of determination appeared in their eyes. My smile lightened. "For what could possibly bring you down when I am here? Why despair alone when I am here to share the burden?"
They looked at me like I was their god and saviour as I reached out my hand and extended it towards all of them and spoke. "So why not put you trust in me? Why not live for me?" I beamed a brilliant smile.
The little goblins cheered as they got pumped up with energy from my speech. I can see it in their eyes, the light that they once lost. Words are meant to communicate with other people, to share your thoughts.
"Let's all work together for a brighter future!" I added as we started the buffing up of the village defences. Starting from literally nothing as the village didn't even have a simple fence wall setup. "Hmmm…"
I hummed to myself as I walked over to a nearby tree and took out Chōetsu and Nèizài and proceeded to cut up the tree into 3 x 3-inch-thick sticks and handed them to the goblins to set up the fence.
I proceeded to do deforest the surrounding area of the goblin village until a large clearing was made in the surroundings, though I purposely left tall stumps for later use for string traps and attaching light sources.
As we already gathered enough wood to build a sturdy fence in the perimeter of the village, I ordered the other goblins to fetch for sturdy and long ropes of vines that we could use to tie the wood together tightly in the forest.
In the meantime, I assigned hunting groups based on each goblin's capability and started a hunt with the first batch of newly appointed hunters. I did this in order to just teach the goblins how to properly hunt prey efficiently.
I taught them how to track and pick up certain scents, common weaknesses of animals like the neck head and heart are areas to aim for, how to properly use weapons to hunt, tactics on attacking and such.
We returned back ho-, to the village as I carried most of the heavy prey back. "But Akali-sama! We could carry it ourselves; you don't need to burden yourself with such menial work!" The goblin leader from earlier exclaimed.
"It's precisely because it's just menial work that I am willing to do it, besides you guys are already tired. And my name is Akutagawa Akari! A, K, A, R, I! My surname is Akutagawa!" I responded as the goblins backed down.
We continued to walk back to the village in silence as the only sounds were chirping birds and rustling leaves. "Thank you, Akutagawa-sama, you really are kind." One of the goblins spoke as the others followed.
For the first time I came unto this world, I felt the warmth of kindness. "Nonsense! All I-…" -I flinched. All I experienced in this forest ever since I reincarnated was death, flames, frostbite, and the wild animals trying to kill me.
And it all ended up with me washing up to get rid of blood. It was just death, or cause death. I never felt a touch of kindness in this forest. I stopped in my tracks as I looked a little towards the back and so did the goblins.
"Akutagawa-sama?" They spoke. 'Nothing alike them.' -I thought. When I contacted with the goblins, they welcomed me and trusted a stranger into their place. "Nonsense…" My voice weakening. "All I am doing is following our agreement!"
I reasoned as I harrumphed while continuing to walk forward to the direction of the village, speeding up a bit as the goblins began to jog to catch up, and I sped up in a directly proportional manner. "Akutagawa-sama, wait for us."
I ignored them as I left them in the dust. "It's your fault for trying to get back at me." A soft, warm smile graced my face as I ran back towards the village. I set down the prey as I arranged for the goblins to prepare food.
While most of the goblins that were busy preparing tools and food were unavailable, I taught the remaining available goblins how to tie the sticks together better and helped them set up a small part of the fence.
As the rest of the hunting team returned, all I was met with was a group of heavily panting goblins slowly inching over toward the village gate while carrying large prey that we hunted earlier. "Akutagawa-sama…"
They cried out in mix of joy and trauma as I turned my head to the side, looking at the construction of the wooden fence. "Hmph, that's what you get for messing with me. Go back and prepare the prey with the others."
They trudged over to the main camping as tired sighs escaped their mouths. "I hope you learned your lesson." I spoke as the goblins doing the construction shivered as they looked at their clearly exhausted brethren.
What are you looking at?! Get back to work!" I shouted at them as smile crept unto my face. "Yes Ma'am!" they exclaimed. I put my left hand on Chōetsu, "This is fun. Maybe I will enjoy my stay at another world." I spoke.
Lunch time soon came as all of us gathered into the village square for the food. Nobody ate as everybody waited for em to take the first bite. I took up a skewer as I bit into the meat, savouring carefully.
"Hmmm… Its good." I spoke as the faces of the goblins immediately brightened. "But it's certainly not the best though." And they immediately drooped back down. "Hey, it's good enough though so you don't need to worry about that."
"It's good, it's good! Though there's room for improvement!" I added as the goblins cheered and ate with me in joy. Some of the goblins that hunted with me even started sharing some stories about my kindness and power.
I continued eating in silence as I watched over all of the goblins, absorbed in the joyous atmosphere. From when I first step into the village, to the current hour, the expressions, and emotions the goblins displayed were so different.
"It seems that I brought a new change into this village, and an irreversible one at that." I spoke, my voice drowned out by voices filled to the brim with joy.
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