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It started with a scheme—er, suggestion—by Guild Girl and Cow Girl. They had gotten it into their heads to go to the tournament to be held in the capital. High Elf Archer didn’t have to be asked twice; her hand shot up, and she exclaimed, “I wanna see that!”
“Yes, it sounds delightful,” Lizard Priest added.
Dwarf Shaman, who loved a party, concurred. “Not a bad idea, I suppose.”
Priestess, for her part, still felt some reluctance to go to a festival just to have fun. The last time I went to one of those…
Well, a lot had happened, and fun had been the last thing she’d had. Plus, this was a jousting tournament. She had to admit, she wouldn’t mind seeing what it looked like when knights fought, even once in her life. One of the accomplished female adventurers whom she admired so much was a knight herself…
“I’d l-like to see that…,” she said. She had made it her business to try to put herself forward a little more recently.
“Great! Doesn’t sound like there will be another chance anytime soon,” Guild Girl said with a smile. Having thus filled in the moat, Cow Girl struck the coup de grâce.
“C’mon,” she urged, with the proverbial tug at his sleeve. “Let’s all go! I’m sure it will be interesting…I think.”
“Hrm.”
With everyone else agreed, Goblin Slayer could hardly refuse. In fact, the leader of a party didn’t possess that much power. He could set the party’s general direction, but he couldn’t, for example, chase someone out of the group all by himself. As such, Goblin Slayer took a page from the ancient matter of the “nodding elf” and nodded silently.
So it was that they went bouncing along in a wagon from the frontier for many hours until they reached the capital. They greeted the guards, who looked exhausted from all the visitors, and passed through the gate, chatting all the while.
They found lodgings and were just discussing what to do when…
“Let’s make up for what we missed last time!” High Elf Archer said. Brooking no argument, she grabbed Priestess by the hand and went racing off.
“Eek!” Priestess exclaimed.
The way her hair fluttered behind her, the elf looked like she was bounding across lily pads. Priestess, clutching her cap to her head, could only manage a “Sorry! See you later!” as she was dragged away. Guild Girl waved to her.
Meanwhile, Cow Girl had a question. “What did she mean, ‘last time’?”
“When we previously came to the capital,” was all the explanation Goblin Slayer offered. That would have to have been more than a year ago. Well, maybe it didn’t seem so long to an elf. “We ended up slaying goblins,” Goblin Slayer added.
“Slaying goblins?”
“That’s right.”
“Ahhh,” Cow Girl said. Yes, that would make one eager for a do-over. Especially given what she had learned about goblin hunting during her brief stint on the winter mountain.
She couldn’t help wondering about the expressions on the other faces, though. Dwarf Shaman, Lizard Priest, and Guild Girl looked positively enlightened.
“Welp, mayhap we ought to take a little mulligan of our own!” Dwarf Shaman declared and clapped Goblin Slayer on the back with his thick hand. It made a sound like a stone striking a metal plate.
Lizard Priest stamped eagerly at that. “A fine idea. There must be many shops for an event like this. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
“Hrm” was the first sound out of Goblin Slayer’s mouth, followed by “Is that the case?” He was going to let them have their way.
“Very well, then, my two honored acquaintances,” Lizard Priest said. “We will borrow milord Goblin Slayer from you.”
“Don’cha worry! We’ll have him back to you by tonight,” added Dwarf Shaman. Goblin Slayer showed no resistance to being bundled off by the two, both of them much more imposing than any human. For that matter, he probably didn’t want to resist.
“It would seem,” he said with his usual flatness, “that the matter has been decided.”
With that, the three men were on their way, disappearing into the festive crowd.
“Oh!” Cow Girl looked like she was going to say something. She herself didn’t know quite what, but she felt like she shouldn’t let the moment pass. She wouldn’t have wanted to stop them, though—to stop him from enjoying his day off, his festival.
I wonder how long it’s been.
Even at the harvest festival, whenever that had been, he’d been on patrol for goblins.
A beautiful white hand settled on Cow Girl’s shoulder as if its owner knew just what she was thinking. Cow Girl looked up and found the person with whom she had shared him during the harvest festival.
“Hee-hee. No worries,” said Guild Girl. “There’s still plenty of time.”
“Um…” Cow Girl thought she could sense a plot afoot. Her heart was racing. “Time for what?”
“Well, since we’ve come all the way to the capital, I thought we could indulge in some fashion! The latest styles!”
Ah, now that was indeed a plot to get the pulse racing.
“Yes, that would be wonderful!”
She wanted to be a princess, but for that, you needed an adventure.
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