“Hahh...hurk...”
The name’s Bareas, and I’m the slave trader of this town. Right now, however, I’d had to leave Solasidore because the guards came and raided my business all of a sudden! And if that wasn’t bad enough, apparently the hooligans I’d looked after as though they were my own suddenly decided to betray me and rat me out all at once! If it’d only been a few misdeeds exposed, I could’ve swept it under the rug, but they’d blabbed about all my crimes—even the minor ones I couldn’t recall! I mean, how do you expect me to remember all the slum girls I’ve played around with or female customers I’ve sampled, dammit?!
With Dominion’s power, I’d managed to give the guards the slip, and I fled to a forest outside of Solasidore. It was known as a dangerous forest with monsters, but this place might as well have been my second home. After all, monsters were also helpless against Dominion’s power, and in fact, I’d occasionally used the monsters here to dispose of any subordinates I found particularly displeasing. For the time being, however, I’d use the monsters to defend myself—unlike those delinquents who ratted me out, they wouldn’t be able to betray me!
“Phew... All right, I should be safe here. Rrgh... Dammit, what happened, anyway? Naturally I didn’t make any mistakes, so someone must’ve been out to get me. Right, that’s the only possible explanation!” And until I got revenge on the one who’d put me in this situation, my anger wouldn’t abate. There were many possibilities as to who, of course—I had a lot of enemies who were jealous of my power and prestige as a slave trader, and who would have a lot to gain from putting me out of business. But somehow, I was convinced it was her doing.
“You’re the culprit, aren’t you, Karina?”
I mean, out of all those I’d tried controlling, she was the only one who’d successfully avoided Dominion’s clutches, so this had to be all her fault! Everything started going to shit after she showed up, so there was no other explanation!
“Shit! Damn you, Karina! I’ll grab that bitch by the hair, drag her here, and have the slimes gradually devour her, starting from her hands and feet! Then once her limbs are dissolved, I’ll have a goblin impregnate her! Or maybe it should be an orc? Oh, what the hell—why not both?!” You deserve that much for doing this to the likes of me, after all!
But if that was the plan, I’d need to put the monsters here under Dominion’s influence. So after imbuing the jewel with magic, I headed deeper into the forest.
I made my way into the forest’s depths until I reached a settlement of goblins. As a human, normally I’d be unwelcome and quite possibly attacked, but thanks to the power of Dominion, they all fell under my command. In fact, I’d used this settlement a number of times before, so even without Dominion they’d come to regard me as something like their master.
Despite their hideous green color, they were humanoid monsters. Each was only about as big as a human child, but in groups they could easily attack a party of adventurers or kidnap a small girl. That was why they’d made their home in this forest, which was often frequented by adventurers.
At the same time, goblins were idiots and didn’t understand a lot of human language, so I was restricted to giving them simple orders. But if I ordered them to “attack her!” in a loud voice, they might sense hostility and turn on me instead. On the other hand, if I said to “bring her here,” they might kill her first. It had happened before, after all. If I told them simply to “capture” the girl, though, there was a good chance they’d sense I wanted her for sexual purposes and bring her to me alive. So that should be fine.
“First, I’ll tell them to capture Karina.” Even if Dominion didn’t work on Karina herself, I could still use it to sic the goblins on her. Imagining her begging for my forgiveness, I couldn’t help but smirk. Oh, the anticipation is killing me!
The goblins should already have two or three girls captive here, so maybe I’ll fool around with them for a bit to tide me over. The goblins tended to use them for their own breeding purposes, but hopefully they were still in a state to be played with.
I entered a miserable hut made up of tree branches and dirt and sat down on the crude grass sofa. Apparently for goblins this was the height of luxury, reserved only for the likes of royalty. Honestly, these creatures really were brainless—but I at least recognized their attempt at etiquette. A group of goblins that were new to the settlement and hadn’t been here when I’d last shown up came over to greet me. Hm? These ones were awfully large. Was one of their parents a human? These must have been hobgoblins, then. If they were a superior breed, that meant they’d be stronger and serve my army well.
Huh? The hell happened to this one? It’s a runt compared to the others, but it has a huge head. It’s sniveling and snotting all over the place too. Heh... What a moronic-looking goblin! Its face reminds me of a pig!
“Now then, what’s the first order of business? Guess I’ll start by finding an orc to serve me. I’ll need one when I’m having my fun with Karina. Oh, and I’ll need a slime too. Just you wait, Karina. You’ll regret ever crossing me!”
In the past, whenever one of my deeds was exposed, I could only use goblins in my efforts to cover it up right away. But now that the cat was out of the bag, I didn’t have any restrictions. I could use Dominion to put any monster I wanted under my control! With this power, I could even rule the world! Yes—from here on, my saga of world domination begins!
“What a genius idea, if I do say so myself! First I’ll attack Solasidore to destroy any traces of evidence. With the town gone, my criminal record will be wiped clean. Rather, they were false accusations to begin with—I never did anything wrong! The people who didn’t acknowledge me are to blame!”
The goblins watched me raise my voice and titled their heads in puzzlement, grunting unintelligibly.
“Oh. Well, you simpletons probably won’t understand any of this, but there’s a town over there. A bad town. There are women and food there. And a girl named Karina.” With nothing better to do, I explained it to the goblins in the simplest terms I could. “To attack that place, we’ll need to bolster forces—no, you probably don’t understand that, so how can I put it more simply? Er, we’ll need a bigger group to attack the bad town!” I raised my fist up in the air. The goblins cried out, as if all fired up.
“That’s right. Not just you goblins. We’ll need orcs and slimes too. The bad town is strong, so we need a big group! Understand, goblins?!” I tapped one of the goblins’ empty heads—the piglike runt from earlier. Actually, because his head was bigger than all the others, it made him look kinda cute. For a goblin, that is.
Now then, time to start my saga of revenge! Just watch me, Karina! Your luck ran out when you tried to oppose the future ruler of the world! I’ll *beep* you, and *beeeep* you, and *beeep* your *beeeeeeeep* for good measure!
Now where are those other girls you goblins captured? Huh? Another bunch already took them?! Goddammit! I’ll crush those fools! Those girls are probably already dead by now—what a waste!
#Side: END
My name’s Karina! Today, I went to the church to report to the Goddess! While I was at it, I gave my friend Siesta one large silver as an offering, and she was thrilled! Money sure is a powerful thing! Feelings can’t substitute for money, but money can substitute for feelings!
Anyway, the moment I sat down in the frontmost pew, I was whisked away to the Goddess’s space. Once again, I was surrounded by a starry sky. The white world I’d entered when I first met her must’ve been a one time only thing.
“O Goddess, I come bearing gifts!”
“And I’ve been expecting your arrival! Now hurry up and gimme the goods!” The golden-haired Goddess pounced on me out of nowhere. After peeling her off me, I took out Satie’s socks, which had been preserved in my storage space all this time. Ugh—perhaps because I’d preserved them shortly after I’d taken them off her, they still reeked. It also looked like there’d been a hole near the toe at one point, because it’d been sloppily sewed up.
And yet, the Goddess snatched the ragged, pitiful socks from me with joy. “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Full marks, Karina! Ohhh, the way the scent just makes your eyes water! The way you stole them from her, the smell, the preservation method, the shame! All of it was absolutely perfect! Excellent work! Ohhh... The way this hole here is even hand-stitched—this right here is what you call a veritable work of art! Ten out of ten, no notes! For this offering, I award you a full 100 SP!”