Taking a better look, the goblins that were crouching were bent over one of their fellow goblins, and that was what they were eating. They were sinking their teeth into a goblin who had died, stripping his flesh from his bones and digging out his organs.
“Close the gate! Hurry!”
Yori must have seen the goblins in the hole too, but she was totally unfazed by it. She and Riyo pulled on the gate Manato had opened with her, trying to close it now.
“Huh? Why?” Manato asked, as it wasn’t really clear to him why they were going to all the trouble, but despite his doubts, he did move to help them. Haru pitched in too, so they were able to get the gate door shut in no time.
“Are you planning to wait in here until they pass by?” Haru inquired.
“For now, yeah,” Yori said, moving away from the gate now that it was fully closed. “Depending on how the situation develops, calling Karambit and Ushaska is an option too. They’re both young and not fully matured yet, but they can fly for short distances. I wanted to get a proper look at what was inside here for myself anyway.”
Yori started walking along the edge of the pit. Her eyes remained focused on the farm’s goblins as she did. Riyo followed her older sister and glanced down into the pit a couple times, but otherwise kept her eyes pointed straight ahead. It might have been hard for her to look at it for too long.
Manato was shocked too. He had been somewhat able to guess that this was what they would find inside the farm after seeing the goblins in the cage cart, but the reality of it was even worse than he’d expected. It went way beyond whether they were being treated well or poorly. The conditions were so awful, it was hard for him to believe that the goblins were even able to survive in there. Was it really possible to live in such a place?
He found himself imagining what it would be like if they were human. Humans couldn’t live like this. They’d definitely die. Were the goblins living here really human like him? Could he call them that? For instance, could Manato call one of those goblins his comrade? Yori wouldn’t like his answer, but probably not.
The reason was because the goblins in the hole were paying almost no attention to them. It wasn’t that there were no goblins looking up, but there weren’t many. How many of them were there in the pit? It wasn’t just dozens. More like hundreds. Possibly even more. Regardless, even when one of the goblins happened to glance in the group’s direction, they immediately looked away.
It didn’t make any difference to them, so they weren’t interested? That couldn’t be right. If they were fellow humans, they should have been interested.
Unfamiliar people had entered the farm instead of the slave soldiers who ate them. “Who are those guys? What is this? What’s going on here?” It was weird that they didn’t ask those questions. Besides, some of them had just been taken away earlier. Why were they acting like nothing had happened, eating their dead, lazing about, and copulating?
“E’Lumiaris, Oss’lumi, Edemm’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
“Lumi na oss’desiz, Lumi na oss’redez, Lumi eua shen qu’aix...”
“Lumi na qu’aix, E’Lumiaris, Enshen lumi, Miras lumi...”
“Lumi na parri, E’Lumiaris, Me’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
The singing of the converted seemed to rain down from above. That should have been an unusual situation for the goblins too. There was no way that they couldn’t hear it. They should have been frightened or excited. They should have shown at least some kind of reaction. It was bizarre that they didn’t.
“These goblins were born here, and they’ll die here, unless they’re shipped out to be eaten,” Haru murmured. “It’s an environment where most living creatures wouldn’t be able to survive, let alone breed...but they happen to have adapted to it. They’re an incredibly tough race, and grow in number no matter where they are. The thralls of Skullhell are taking advantage of that trait.”
“I’ve considered that,” Yori said, coming to a stop.
They were close to a corner in the wall now. Riyo, Manato, and Haru stopped too. Yori didn’t turn to look at them.
“What if Yori were born here and raised like this? Everyone else is eating the dead bodies of their own kind, so Yori would do the same. She might want to leave, but if she ever tried to leave the pit, then she’d be caught and eaten by the guards. So she wouldn’t do that. She’d avoid thinking about it. Sometimes, the slave soldiers would come, and they’d take some of her friends away. But fighting back would only get her eaten, so she’d have to stay quiet. It could just as easily be her that they’d take. She could fight them with everything she had and it wouldn’t make any difference, so when her turn came, there’d be nothing she could do.”
Yori paused for a moment. “But even if that never happened, all she would ever do would be eat her comrades’ dead bodies, poop, sleep, and eat more dead bodies. The same thing over and over until she either died or was eaten. Nothing more. If Yori had been born here, that’s definitely how it would have been. Yori would’ve turned out the same as them. She couldn’t have become the Yori she is now. Yori just happened to be born as great-grandma’s great-granddaughter...with Riyo as her sister, and her other siblings too, and everyone else around her, and that was why she was able to turn out like this. She was given that opportunity. But if she’d been born here, everything would’ve been different. Yori’s the same as these goblins.”