Chapter 355: Not Again

Climbing down was much easier than climbing up.

Though in my case, I was climbing down less, and falling more and more. 

"AhHHH!"

The little thing screamed as it grabbed my neck tight. 

I didn't care how but I was going to get down before the afternoon, whether this mountain liked it or not.

Sliding- jumping off, sometimes even just trying to glide- and failing miserably, yeah, I tried everything.

I did still retain my sense of pain and a bit of fear. But both were dulled to such an extent that I could just ignore them. And even if I chipped off a finger or two, assuming I had enough fresh blood and meat, I could regrow them.

Probably. 

'Is this why undead are constantly searching for living food?'

It was a fair concern but- I couldn't be too sure. After all, there was still a possibility of me being a vampire as I was bitten or scratched by Viola's father. I couldn't quite remember what had happened though.

"No more." The thing screamed and screamed and then started crying. "NO more!"

This went on. 

Eventually, it'd given up.

Sniff!

It did sniff pretty often and leaked snot everywhere though. 

Sigh.

***

After roughly another hour or two, we found ourselves at the base of the mountain and took a break.

Early!

It wasn't even afternoon yet and I could go on regardless of the minor cuts and bruises. The thing with me though, couldn't. It had lied down on the ground, panting, looking up at the blue sky and the white clouds. 

I guess the sky was blue no matter where we went. Too bad most of it was covered by the black leaves above our heads. 

"What could be-such a reason that you'd want-to keep going even -if you die?"  It stuttered about four times, trying to say that.

I didn't quite understand why it was tired. After all, all it did was just sit tight on my back while I did most of the climbing- or rather falling. 

"It has nothing to do with you."

It didn't try to get up, rather it reached for the sky. "You're such a handful." Was it trying to grab the clouds in its imagination or something?

"Yeah, you're the last thing I want to hear that from."

It snorted. "Gry-o-le. Or are you incapable of remembering names?"

That almost struck a nerve. I clicked my tongue. I guess it was about time I acknowledged it as a living being, rather than 'it.'

But this thing was a goblin!

'But a living thing regardless.' 

"That bastard killed my friends, innocent people, toyed with my life- sent-" I paused. 

Now that I thought about it, the emperor always had a reason to lie to me: there was always a reason behind his acts. He wanted me to get stronger, he wanted me to come fight him. For that, he was willing to even let me go back then but I persisted and-

Was there more of a meaning to it?

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Perhaps- 

Or, maybe he was just too bored and-

I snorted. No matter how I tried, I could never understand something like that monster. 

It could have been that he just wanted to kill time and that was just a prank he thought of, it was certainly possible. 

"So, you want revenge?"

"Something like that, you can say. I'll get rid of the emperor and-"

Gryole sighed. "And then deal with the demons? Humans outnumber demons by three to one. And demons outrank goblins by four to one. In the end, everyone is just trying to survive. By killing their emperor, do you think you'd be able to maintain the balance? What if humans get greedy and decide to just eradicate the demons and then conquer the world?"

I thought for a second. "Aren't you like a baby compared to others? And you're a goblin, why are you saying these things? Or to be more precise, how'd you know?"

She didn't look at me, rather just stared at the sky. "I told you, I'm special. Maybe-" She paused. "Maybe you'll kill me soon, so I'll tell you while there's time. I'm a special goblin who's born every ten centuries to guide my people to salvation. This knowledge is imprinted in my brain. These thoughts- these memories- these feelings, are not of my own. Perhaps- I don't even exist."

For someone who didn't exist, she certainly knew how to complain. 

"And that salvation is?"

"I do not know."

She didn't seem to be lying but I couldn't just trust the words of a goblin, even I wasn't that naïve. 

"Anyway, that's enough dillydallying. Let's get to the ruin."

We were almost there. If we kept pace, we could reach the ruins in maybe half an hour. I didn't see any goblin settlements around. Maybe they were hiding, or maybe they were a bit to the west of here. 

I did see the remnants of old walls, buildings, houses here and there. Just rocks, bricks, one or two pavements. 

'To think once this place was full of life.'

There were still undead everywhere and the ones here were mostly just half breeds. Demons. 

I guess where there was life, there was always going to be death. 

Gryole stood up and instead of clinging to my robe, walked ahead. "It'll be best for you if I were to walk in front." That way she'd be able to prevent any unwanted attacks from goblins- or so her reasoning went. 

I was wary. I didn't trust her, not one bit. 

"Sure." But I didn't let it show- at least not too much.

***

Sometimes, out of nowhere, people could get sick.

Out of nowhere, you could contract a terminal illness. 

Out of nowhere, your parents could die in an accident. 

And sometimes, even if you tried your best, even if you stay as careful as you could, even if you pray as hard as you could-

You could die. And so could the people right next to you. 

My friends died- they died right in front of me. They were killed. I failed to protect them, but they didn't fail: after all, I was still here. I was the one who let them die- it was my fault. 

My fault.

I wanted to bury those feelings- I never wanted to remember those- and that's why I was keeping myself busy with revenge and that's why I was running away. 

But-

It was almost as though those very feelings were being played right before my eyes.. Someone I knew, someone I swore to protect was about to die.

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