Chapter 19: A Day the Goblins Will Remember
Night always arrives quietly.
In a simple, dark dungeon, a golden goblin was recording everything that happened that day on a piece of bark.
The old goblin scholar knocked on the door, pushed it gently, and appeared behind Altair. At this moment, he was already standing before the members of his clan. In front of Altair, he looked both joyful and a little overwhelmed.
When the emperor of their clan was born, all members of their clan heard Altair's true name and kept it in their hearts. Not a single one of his people did not long to meet His Majesty, and not a single goblin failed to wish to contribute as much as possible to His Majesty.
They were weak, half-human creatures, living at the bottom of the food chain. Any human could threaten them, and any beast or monster could easily bite them to death. They were weak and vulnerable, numb and ashamed; they wanted to change but were powerless.
For years, the shrewd violet goblins had always thought the old scholar was muddle-headed. He had reached old age and no longer grieved the deaths of his people, nor would he struggle anymore. Instead, he slept and drifted in a daze.
But they did not know that the old scholar had never been confused from beginning to end. On the contrary, he was very clear-minded. He merely chose to be "confused" while fully conscious, unwilling to face the inevitable future, unwilling to face the unchangeable suffering of the present.
That day, in order to avoid human encirclement, the young scholar could not accept the fate of his people being oppressed and exiled. He resolutely led his people to the more dangerous central region of Qirwood Forest, drove out a portion of his own people, and used them as sacrifices to tell humans that they were so fragile as to be unworthy of concern.
Among them were his parents and his children. Yet humans continued to kill his own people, forcing them to reproduce quickly and send more out from the central region to the outskirts to fill the gaps and form a fragile line of defense.
Even while hiding here, they still had to face the invasion of predators at any time. Although this was the most barren place in all of Qirwood Forest, with dead trees and barren hills everywhere, they themselves remained prey to other predators, eaten and swallowed.
He struggled for years, but in the end, realized there was nothing he could do. He could only watch the children he had painstakingly raised be killed one by one.
All the pressure rested on him, yet he was powerless. He could only lead his people to survive in this small cave, and that shameful life continued to this day.
However, in this process, under the sieve of the environment, newborn individuals continued to diminish, and the wisdom of newborns gradually faded. Perhaps one day, unable to withstand all this pressure, they would become purely unintelligent creatures.
And at that time, would they still be themselves? Would their race be declared extinct on that day?
It was not that effort was impossible, but that there was no hope, and all effort and struggle were not worth it. And now, God had given them hope. Perhaps this was their last hope before they vanished.
From this moment on, they would use their bodies to pave the steps to the altar of their clan's emperor on the cliff. This was the faith of their tribe, accumulated over thousands of years of oppression, slaughter, ridicule, and being treated as insignificant—a surge of despair unafraid of death and torment.
Before they plunged into the abyss, they would push their noble emperor step by step toward the sky.
"This is not a day for celebration, Anrus. It's a day to remember."
Altair slowly turned and looked at the old violet goblin scholar, whose expression was full of excitement, and slowly closed the book with words on the piece of bark.
"Anrus, remember today. This is the day when a noble leader, together with our people, sacrificed everything under the iron heel of humans for the future and hope of our people."
"Your Majesty…"
The old scholar knew what Altair was speaking of. The old violet goblin who held out at the outskirts of Qirwood Forest until the very end was one of his children.
Altair touched the bark diary that recorded this historic day with his fingertips, a trace of sadness in his eyes.
"Anrus, I will leave this forest and take you and the souls of my people who have died with me. Our ancestors were driven out for their ugliness, and our tribe was marred for its weakness, but all this will change in the near future.
One day, I will tell all humankind in this world that no race will remain so humble forever. They do not seek symbiosis, and we will not desire a humble peace."
Anrus slowly knelt, his eyes dim. "Your Majesty, we will follow you forever."
At night, there is always more than one quiet place.
In the female knight's cell, Cassvia stared silently at the cell door, leaning against the cold wall, listening to the sounds from the other room behind her. She hugged her legs and remained silent for a long time in the darkness of night.
In those years, there was a noble girl with her hands in her pockets, who did not know what destined love meant. Until one day, the girl saw a human maid with pointed ears and was stunned for a long time.
Such ears were very beautiful in her eyes. Her mother said that they were the thin ears of elves.
From her mother, the girl learned that there existed in this world a noble kind of being called elves. And the maid had elven blood in her veins.
The girl's mother did not know that this scientific education had opened a new world for her daughter, and that she had embarked on a path of no return.
The noble girl, like a prisoner falling into an abyss, developed a powerful love—almost obsessive and fanatical—for this race with beautiful ears.
Those thin elven ears seemed to have touched the heart of the young girl, awakening a strange XP within her.
She began frantically searching for information about elves in books. After seeing more and more elf–human hybrids, her desire did not diminish; instead, it grew stronger.
That day, she raised the sword in her hand, looking heroic. She said in her heart that if the child to be born later were not a younger brother but a younger sister, she would go to the distant Elven Forest to seek an elf for herself.
Her dream was to find an elven husband. Fortunately, her father's concubine gave birth to yet another daughter. She began to pursue her dream.
The girl's words at that time were overheard by an instructor at the Princely Academy she attended, and they provoked uproarious laughter.