Chapter 99: Kidnapping a Little Loli
After a long while, Wrath regained his composure and led his little sister over to the duo.
"Thank you very much," he said, offering a polite bow to express his deep gratitude. If it hadn't been for Shirazawa, their village would have been completely wiped out.
"No need to be polite." Shirazawa shook his head. To him, helping Wrath was merely a side quest. "I know you have a mountain of questions, but go ahead and take care of your village first. We won't be leaving just yet."
"Right!" Wrath nodded solemnly. He immediately set to work rallying the survivors to clean up the aftermath.
For a settlement harboring several hundred goblins, the grim cleanup process was handled with efficient speed. Over a hundred goblin corpses were piled in the central square. The most jarring sight among them was the fallen Ogre Chief, standing nearly three meters tall, his chest cleanly pierced by an arrow. A heavy cloud of grief saturated the village. Wrath stood silently by the edge of the square, his hands clenched into fists as hatred pooled deep within his gaze.
By the time a massive pyre reduced their fallen kinsmen to ash, the sun had officially dipped below the horizon. As they buried the remains, every surviving goblin's face was masked in profound sorrow. The village had lost the bulk of its young, able-bodied vanguard, and their chief had been ruthlessly executed. With winter looming just around the corner, their survival prospects looked exceptionally grim.
"What should we do now?"
The surrounding kinsmen shifted their collective gaze toward Wrath. Although he was still young, goblin culture inherently revered strength. It was little Wrath who had defeated the invading force to salvage what was left of their home. They were entirely willing to defer to his counsel.
Faced with the desperate inquiries of his people, Wrath's brows knitted with deep worry. The surviving population consisted entirely of the elderly, the weak, and the disabled; securing daily hunting quotas was going to be an immense challenge. The immediate future looked bleak. Right now, the only viable option floating through his mind was to solicit aid from his past-life classmates.
That evening, Shirazawa sat peacefully near the village gates, wrapping his arms around Shiro as they enjoyed the cool mountain breeze. A violent gust of wind swept across the clearing, messing up Shirazawa's hair. He instinctively tightened his embrace around Shiro—nothing beat the comfortable body temperature she naturally radiated.
"Kagurilu!" a soft, squeaky voice echoed from directly behind them.
"Hmm?" Shirazawa tilted his head slightly, spotting a petite little figure standing at the village gates, staring intensely at them. Her large, dark eyes blinked rapidly in the moonlight.
"Kagurilu!" The young girl tilted her tiny head, repeating the unintelligible phrase with absolute innocence.
"Hey there, what's up?" Shirazawa ruffled her hair, offering a gentle smile. The little goblin standing before them was undeniably adorable—if he recalled correctly, she was Wrath's little sister. However, because neither party could understand the goblin language, they simply engaged in a silent staring contest.
A pristine white magic circle suddenly ignited across Shiro's palm before she gently tapped her finger against the young girl's brow. Using a temporary telepathy spell, she seamlessly translated the core intent of her words.
"Please... help us," Leest implored, her voice so faint it sounded like the buzzing of a mosquito.
"Help you how?" Shirazawa asked.
"The village is about to enter the freezing season. We have no food reserves left. If this continues, many of my kinsmen will die." Leest dropped her head, her voice growing progressively lower. She flatly refused to watch another member of her family perish, and driven by pure desperation, she had somehow mustered the courage to approach the duo. Though they were humans, they didn't seem like wicked people.
Shirazawa's brows knitted as his gaze drifted toward the smoldering village behind her. He wasn't some kind of deity harboring grand delusions of engineering a monster utopia. Goblins were fundamentally weak; rather than expending precious resources to cultivate a goblin unit, he would much rather focus on hatching a fresh batch of elite spider monsters.
Just as he prepared to deliver a calculated refusal, a sharp pinch instantly caught the tender flesh of his waist, courtesy of the girl in his arms.
"We will do it~" Shiro took the initiative to accept. Staring down at the thoroughly adorable, pint-sized goblin, an intense wave of maternal instinct seemed to visibly radiate from her.
"T-Thank you..." Tears of profound relief instantly streamed down Leest's cheeks. She delivered a deep, clumsy bow to Shirazawa and Shiro before spinning around to bolt back toward the interior of the village. "Brother! The village is saved!"
"Sigh~" Shirazawa let out a deeply helpless sigh. He had flawlessly maintained his pragmatic boundaries, only for a literal closet traitor to undermine him from within his own embrace. *So what if the kid looks a little cute? You are a literal Goddess, how on earth did your psychological defenses get obliterated that effortlessly?*
"Aze, how about we just take the little girl along with us?" Shiro murmured softly, her internal maiden impulses entirely overflowing as she looked at the young girl's retreating figure.
"Uh, that's probably not the best move, right?" Shirazawa rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling slightly awkward. What was the exact value of dragging a low-tier goblin along on a dangerous campaign? Was she supposed to function as a glorified party mascot? Now, if she possessed the potential to eventually evolve into something akin to a powerful Ogre, he might consider it.
"That was a statement, not a question," Shiro shot him a sharp look, flatly denying him a single window to voice a refusal.
Witnessing her unyielding stance, a barrage of imaginary black lines cascaded down Shirazawa's face. He could see right through her agenda; Shiro was fully planning to adopt this little loli.
"Fine, fine. If you like her that much, we'll bring her along." Since active resistance was useless, he chose to default to compliance.
"Hehehe~" After indulging in another brief moment of intimate cuddling, the duo rose to their feet and casually navigated their way back into the heart of the settlement.
As their silhouettes stepped into the clearing, the surrounding villagers immediately parted to forge a path, tracking their movements with absolute reverence. In their eyes, these two individuals were the literal saviors of their lineage.
Shirazawa scanned the perimeter, noting that the atmosphere of the entire village remained intensely heavy and despondent.
"Shirazawa, my sister mentioned that the two of you have agreed to solve our food crisis?" Wrath stared at his two familiar yet profoundly altered classmates, a complex cocktail of conflicting emotions swirling in his chest. Since all three of them could seamlessly communicate via their native Japanese tongue, language friction was completely non-existent.
"Correct, but it comes with a strict condition," Shirazawa nodded. He was a firm non-believer in distributing uncompensated charity. The explicit payment for this transaction was, naturally, the young girl Leest.
The exact second the condition was articulated, Wrath's expression underwent a violent, defensive shift. "Absolutely impossible!" He flatly vetoed the proposition without a single shred of hesitation, his tone sharp and unyielding. That was his precious little sister; he would never allow her to be bartered away like a commodity.
"Don't misinterpret things. We aren't acquiring your sister to function as a slave; she is going along to explicitly enjoy a premium lifestyle." Shirazawa patted his shoulder, his tone shifting into absolute seriousness. "You surely don't desire your adorable little sister to spend the remainder of her life rotting away inside this barren, primitive wilderness, right? Rest assured, the exact second she is strong enough to secure her own physical safety, she is entirely free to venture wherever she pleases."
Following the systematic breakdown of the long-term projections, Wrath plummeted into deep reflection. Realistically speaking, this arrangement did represent a drastically superior path for Leest's future. At the very least, she would be permanently liberated from enduring the harsh, impoverished struggles of the village.
"Fine! I accept the terms." A few moments later, Wrath raised his head, a highly bewildered question surfacing within his mind. "What exactly is your core objective for executing this transaction? My little sister doesn't appear to harbor a single unique trait or high-tier capability."
Hearing the question, Shirazawa shot a thoroughly exasperated look toward the silent Shiro beside him, before leaning in close to whisper directly into Wrath's ear. "An absolute, uncontrolled overflow of maiden instincts. I'm sure you catch my drift."
"Uh..." Wrath was rendered entirely speechless.
The exact second he finished his covert complaining, a surge of agonizing pain instantly radiated from his waistline. He genuinely failed to comprehend why women universally possessed a primal attraction toward violently twisting a man's kidneys. If they accidentally fractured the internal components, they would be the ones suffering the long-term consequences!
"Ouch~ what the hell did you pinch me for?"
"I distinctly heard that." Shiro shot him a ferocious, warning glare. *To think he actually dares to slander me right to my face. Just wait until we return to the room; I am executing full domestic disciplinary action.*
"Cough~ cough cough~" Witnessing the intensely playful, intimate dynamic playing out between the two, a wave of profound envy flitted through Wrath's mind. The distinct scent of romance was suffocatingly thick here.
The following morning, right as the first rays of dawn began to crack across the sky.
A red and a white silhouette quietly departed the perimeter of the goblin village. Trailing closely behind their heels was a thoroughly adorable, pint-sized little goblin. With every three steps she took, she would repeatedly turn her torso around, frantically waving her stubby little arms toward the assembled villagers.
"Everyone, make sure to wait for my return~!"
"Brother, I'm heading out now!!"
Leest shouted in a sweet, high-pitched voice, her small hands continuing to wave frantically until the settlement boundaries faded from view. Originally, she had been incredibly reluctant to abandon her home and part ways with her older brother. However, the moment she realized she could trade her personal freedom to seamlessly guarantee the survival of her entire clan, she had decisively chosen to march away alongside the duo. If her sacrifice could ensure her people's continuity, the transaction was an absolute steal.
The kind-hearted Leest remained completely oblivious to the fact that what awaited her on the horizon was a dazzling, extraordinarily brilliant new chapter of life.
Wrath had ultimately declined the invitation to join their traveling party, choosing instead to remain rooted at his base of operations. While he deeply respected his classmates, he couldn't bring himself to abandon his struggling kinsmen to pursue a solo journey. Regarding the grand operational truths concerning the remaining reincarnations and the impending, systematic collapse of the world, Shirazawa had delivered a complete, unrestricted explanation to him.
The two made a solemn oath: the exact second Wrath officially evolved into a definitive Goblin King, he would mobilize a massive army to rendezvous with their faction. A campaign centered around saving the literal world sounded precisely like the brand of hot-blooded adventure he refused to miss out on.
Before departing, Shirazawa left behind a massive cache of premium winter survival provisions, alongside a single, high-tier spider monster—serving as a decisive trump card to streamline Wrath's conquest of the Mystic Mountains.
After all, Wrath possessed a truly terrifying ceiling of growth; once fully realized, his raw power could easily rival a standard Demon Lord. The second his power crossed a certain threshold, activating his unique anger skill would trigger a staggering ten-fold amplification, forcefully capping his strength straight to the absolute system limit. The singular drawback was the complete, immediate sacrifice of his cognitive rationality, effectively rendering him a high-destructive-output meat shield.
With Wrath's sector temporarily secured, the trio navigated their way back to civilization.
However, the exact second they crossed the threshold of their inn, Ariel marched forward to deliver a chaotic piece of intelligence: Sophia had been forcefully abducted. Furthermore, based on preliminary witnesses, the perpetrator appeared to be a highly specific elf sporting a golden, twin-tail hairstyle.
In a single fraction of a second, Shirazawa and Shiro felt their internal processors emit a chaotic buzz.
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