Jack's gang, having left the inn on the carriage, soon stopped at the village entrance.

"Stop!"

A sentry guarding the village's palisade blocked their way.

Although Herrington Village was not a very large village, it had a sturdy palisade and the village militia took turns standing sentry.

Thanks to this, despite being located in the forest, the village had survived until now. Otherwise, it would have suffered greatly from monster attacks long ago.

Jack had expected the sentry to block them. He stopped the carriage and calmly greeted the sentry.

"Uncle Nelson. Working hard, I see."

"What is it, Jack? Where are you going at this hour with the village's shared carriage?"

"Running an errand for the village chief. He told me to fetch something from the next village over."

"Is that so?"

The sentry Nelson looked suspicious.

No matter what, sending someone on an errand at this late hour? And specifically the village's biggest troublemaker Jack? And Jack obediently accepted?

But thinking again, it might not be that strange.

Today was the village festival.

Unusual things could be excused on this day.

And the palisade was for defending against outside intrusion, not heavily guarding the inside.

"Alright, be careful out there."

Nelson opened the palisade gate. Jack nodded and drove the carriage through.

Nelson might get scolded by the village chief later for this moment, but Jack didn't care.

Once they entered the forest, Jack began driving the carriage faster.

The crisis was averted for now, but it was too early to relax.

The moment Kanna, locked in the inn's kitchen pantry, escaped, the villagers would immediately give chase.

They needed to put as much distance as possible before then.

"W-Will we be okay...?"

Tom muttered, hunched over.

He was still carefully holding Ariel in his arms, worried she might get hurt by the swaying carriage.

"She's the one who saved Daisy... Selling her into slavery is too much..."

"Shut up, Tom."

Susan glared at him.

"It's too late for that kind of talk now that we've come this far."

Susan paid no mind to Ariel. She was just imagining becoming a lady with the money from selling Ariel, bossing servants around, and a romance with a handsome noble.

Some time had passed since leaving the village. When the worried Tom started nodding off from exhaustion, there was a creaking sound as the carriage stopped.

Tom slowly opened his eyes, and Susan, who had also been dozing off, raised her head groggily.

"Jack, what's wrong...?"

Susan asked, looking outside the carriage. They had entered deep into the forest at some point.

"Nothing. Tom, toss me that sword over there."

Jack said as he got down from the driver's seat. The word 'sword' made Tom's face turn pale.

"A s-sword? Why..."

"Just give it here already."

It was Susan who moved at those words. She handed Jack the crude iron sword lying in the corner of the carriage.

"What's going on?"

Only then did Susan look ahead of the carriage. Some figure was blocking their path.

"It's a goblin."

Jack casually replied. At that moment, the clouds parted and the moonlight grew brighter, revealing the figure blocking the carriage.

Green skin and an ugly appearance.

A goblin.

"H-Huh, a monster...!"

Tom was terrified, but Susan remained as calm as Jack.

A single goblin really wasn't that big a deal. Among monsters, goblins were considered very weak.

If she put her mind to it, even Susan could probably beat one with a club.

"Kerrrrr."

The goblin made an unpleasant guttural sound as it approached.

Jack also walked briskly towards the goblin, sword slung over his shoulder.

Jack wasn't tense at all. He planned to swing the sword down and smash the goblin's head once they were close enough.

"Kerr, Kerr."

The goblin made that sound again. At first he didn't realize, but listening again, it sounded like laughter.

Jack's expression twisted.

"This bastard, daring to laugh at me?"

Just as the enraged Jack was about to swing his sword down, he noticed a shadow quickly approaching from the side.

"What!"

Jack flinched in surprise, tensing his body. At that moment, a sharp pain shot through his thigh.

"Ughk!"

What had approached from the side was another goblin.

While Jack was focused on the goblin in front, another goblin had rushed in from the side and stabbed a dagger into his thigh.

Watching his thigh spread red, Jack gritted his teeth. He never thought he'd be injured by mere goblins.

"Kerkerk."

The two goblins mocked Jack.

"You damn bastards!"

Jack's eyes rolled back.

Even if another goblin joined, it didn't change anything. Goblins were small monsters that didn't even reach Jack's waist height.

He just had to take care of both of them.

Jack charged at the goblins, swinging his iron sword down.

With a cracking sound, one goblin's head caved in.

"Haha, the idiot was acting up."

The goblin with the caved-in head convulsed briefly before collapsing.

The goblin next to it just watched with a dumb expression.

Jack raised his sword again. At that moment, a chill ran down his spine.

"W-What is..."

Countless red lights appeared in the surroundings.

Roughly over several dozen.

They were all goblin eyes. Not just one or two.

There were dozens of goblins.

Jack shouldn't have stopped the carriage. He had let his guard down thinking only one goblin blocked them.

The moment he stopped the carriage, being surrounded by dozens of goblins was an inevitable fate.

"Kerrr!"

Dozens of goblins charged at Jack. Before he could even swing his sword, he was knocked down and buried under the goblins.

"Agghh!"

Goblins mercilessly stabbed him with daggers. Goblins clawed and bit his bare flesh.

Jack's body was instantly shredded. In his fading vision, he saw goblins swarming towards the carriage too.

Tom, Susan, the elf and fairy would not be spared either.

*

"Ugh, my head..."

Lu opened his eyes along with a hangover. It seems he drank fairy wine to the limit and lost consciousness.

It was a common occurrence for the wine-loving fairy.

Lu flapped his wings and created healing powder, then applied it to his body.

The fairy's healing powder was also effective on himself, so the hangover quickly disappeared.

"Phew, I can live now."

Lu sat down on the floor and looked around.

"But where is this?"

The floor and walls were all made of glass. It seemed he was trapped inside a glass bottle.

Lu didn't know if he had entered this glass bottle himself, or if someone had put him in.

He pressed against the glass and looked outside, but couldn't see anything. It was just darkness.

Lu didn't know, but when the goblins had ambushed Jack's group, Susan had dropped the glass bottle Lu was trapped in.

The goblins took Jack's group and Ariel away, but didn't notice the trapped Lu in the fallen glass bottle.

They had no reason to care about a fallen glass bottle.

So, Lu was left behind like that.

Lu decided to first escape from this glass bottle. As long as it wasn't a magic cage, escaping wouldn't be difficult.

He just needed to sprinkle flight powder to levitate the bottle, then drop it to the ground to shatter the glass.

Clink!

Using that method, Lu escaped the glass bottle. The stuffy air cleared up and his vision opened.

"Umm..."

This wasn't Herrington Village where Lu was. It was deep in the forest.

What happened to lead to this situation?

Perhaps the broken carriage debris nearby, the bloodstains and footprints on the ground could provide clues.

Lu flew around carefully observing the surroundings.

It seemed there had been a battle here. No corpses, but the spilled blood indicated someone was heavily injured. 

There were human and monster footprints on the ground.

The monster prints far outnumbered the human ones.

It was reasonable to think a group of monsters had ambushed the humans.

The monsters were definitely goblins, judging by the small footprint sizes. In this forest, only goblins would leave such tiny footprints.

"Hmm..."

Lu's expression darkened. Though usually mischievous, Lu was a fairly rational thinking fairy.

And to Lu, this situation seemed quite serious.

Normally, goblins weren't very threatening monsters. 

They had weak bodies and no special abilities.

But when they formed mobs, it was a different story.

If a goblin mob relentlessly swarmed, even a troll would eventually fall.

They overwhelmed with numbers rather than power.

However, it was rare for the dim-witted and ill-tempered goblins to form mobs.

Usually they wandered alone, or in groups of two or three at most. That small a number could only hunt feeble beasts.

If they attacked humans, they'd just get beaten and chased off.

But judging by the footprints, the goblins that ambushed the humans numbered in the dozens. 

They had formed a proper mob, like an army.

There could only be one reason for that.

A goblin king must have appeared.