50 Saving Some Merchants

After that little incident at the cake shop, it was time for the next most exciting thing on our agenda! My first quest!

I had changed out of that dress into my combat gear this time despite my [Fashion Forward] boon since the armour could let me store my weapons better.

Again, Mother waited for me outside and let me go in on my own. I've already figured out that this was less likely that she was letting me deal with this on my own but more because The Guild people might recognise her and blow her cover or something like that.

Again, I already decided not to care so much about it and just rolled with it.

Moving towards the board, I took a look at the list of quests and realised they had been divided into their relevant sections of branches. Thus, I went towards the Mercenary side of the quest board since my current affiliation only allows me to take Mercenary quests.

The quests were also sorted by ranks so it was easy to find the F and E rank quests on the board.

Let's see what we got…

'Find lost pet', 'Mow lawn', 'Deliver letter', 'Investigate missing person', 'Accompany caravan', 'Deliver herbs', 'Hunt down my ex', 'Protect me from my crazy ex', 'Help with Goblin infestation', 'Find the legendary Dragonslayer blade of Eternity'...

Oh? I can do the E rank Goblin infestation one.

Since it's an E ranked quest, I'm guessing there should only be a handful of them and more of a nuisance than an actual threat. The location of the goblin nest is also just a little ways down the road and into the forest, so I can simply fly there and deal with it quickly.

What's more, it's already sunset so the darkness of the night would actually help me even more.

I went ahead to take down that particular quest, bringing it to the counter.

Oh, coincidentally, I got the same receptionist again.

"Oh, hello Miss Aster!" She greeted me with a smile. "I see you've chosen a quest?"

I nodded and passed over the paper to her, "Yes, I have. Although I never really got your name?"

"Oh, silly me! You can call me Clara! Thank you for your support!"

"Ah, likewise!"

She then looked down at the request, "Oh? A goblin subjugation quest? Even though it's E ranked, it would be best to take them with a group. There's around twenty of them I believe. Would you like me to put up a party request?"

"Og, there's no need, I can solo it. I've fought large groups of goblins by myself before," I assured her.

"Umm… It's also almost nightfall though, are you prepared to camp out today?"

"Oh, that's fine too, I can fly there!"

She looked at me for a few moments before nodding her head, "I see, in that case, how about I register you as the taker for the quest but you wait until tomorrow to set off? I'll put in a party request just to see if there's anyone else interested in going along? There might be a few Mercenaries trying to raise their ranks too."

Hmm… She doesn't believe me, huh? Can't blame her though, since even I know Meslatars don't have wings powerful enough to fly at my current age.

I guess from her understanding, I might just be some newbie who is trying to show off after getting lucky with the test.

I decided to just nod along but I'll set out right away after this.

Clara took the quest notice alongside my Guild card, placing it inside some kind of box before taking the card out.

"There, the quest is now registered to you! You can pour your mana into the card and it will show the Guild quests that are currently registered to you!"

I tried doing that and an image that showed the notice I had taken from the quest board appeared in front of the card. I'm guessing if I were to take multiple quests, multiple images would also appear.

I thanked Clara for her help before leaving the building. Despite her not trusting my abilities, I know she was just trying to look out for me so I don't hold it against her.

"Ara ara? It seems my little one has chosen your first quest?" Mother asked with a knowing smile on her face.

I nodded and quickly showed the quest to her.

"Oh? Goblin subjugation? My little one will have no problems in that case~ Shall Mama follow you?"

"It's ok, Mommy, I'll take care of it by myself!" I assured her.

"Ufufufu~ Then Mama shall go and get an inn for us to stay in the city~ I'll come find my little one when you've returned!"

She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before skipping away while humming a tune. I have a feeling that she might just watch over me from afar despite saying that.

I made sure to leave through the city entrance first before spreading my wings and flying away. I didn't want to risk getting into trouble for something like illegally flying out of the city since I don't see anyone else doing it.

With my trusty map as my guide, I found the location of where the reported Goblin infestation was.

Unlike the ones I found back in Dragon Sanctuary who chose to live in a cave, these had built up a few primitive huts and had settled themselves in a small clearing.

Their stats were the same as the others so this should be an easy quest, until I realised that the number of Goblins inside the village seems to be a little too small compared to the number of huts around. Like… There's five huts that would easily fit five Goblins each but I'm counting only four of them gathered around a cooking pot.

Clara also said there should be around twenty of them, so where's the rest?

I even flew around for a little bit but it doesn't seem like the other Goblins are inside the huts too.

Ah, I guess most of them are probably out foraging or raiding. Guess I'll just deal with the Goblins around here and wait for the rest to return.

I dropped straight down in the middle of the village, surprising the Goblins that were there.

Three of them drew their clearly stolen swords while the last one fumbled with his bow.

I didn't let them have a chance to do anything else as my summons appeared behind them and cut them down easily.

I'm still making more summons every day and I have quite a sizeable force now, like maybe around a thousand of them? Most of them are the weak versions of me though and I only have like ten that are as strong as me right now.

I had them collect the Mana Crystals from their dead bodies and also cut off their ears which would serve as my proof of defeating them.

Just in case, I also sent my summons to check the huts and found them all empty, but the bed cots inside of them definitely suggested there should be more than four goblins staying here.

Thus, I called up more of my summons and left them to hide around the place in preparation of ambushing the others when they came back.

I didn't have to wait long as shouts came from the forest a few minutes later and I spotted a group of twenty Goblins moving through the forest, obviously returning to this village.

They were not alone though.

A few of them were dragging a few wagons behind them, each one containing several boxes of food, spices and various other items that were obviously meant for trade.

Needless to say, they definitely raided some poor merchant caravan to get this loot.

As if to confirm my suspicions, being dragged along behind them were several Mahun women that had their hands tied with rope and their mouths gagged.

Despite their struggling, the Goblins continued to pull them along towards their village while shrieking at them.

Well… Looks like I'm going to become a heroine again.

The Goblins rolled into the camp and started chattering noisily, most likely to call out the four comrades they had left behind to guard the camp.

Too bad I already hid the corpses so the only way they would know those four are dead is if they go close enough to the cooking pot to see the blood stains.

While they were still distracted, I dropped myself down in front of the captives and spread my wings out protectively, successfully gaining the attention of everyone around here.

"Boo."

That was all they heard before my summons came out of the shadows and sliced the Goblins apart, leaving just one for me to kill with my dagger who just so happens to be the one pulling the captives' rope.

Just like that, the entire group of goblins were decimated. Easy.

I dismissed my summons and turned back to face the women, "Hello. I'm sorry I couldn't save you all earlier. I'm Aster, a Mercenary from the Guild. I got a request to clear out the goblin infestation here."

It's important to introduce yourself upon a first meeting, even more so when these people are obviously still in shock and fear so I have to reassure them first before doing anything else.

Hearing my words, they eventually calmed down enough to allow me to free them from their restraints.

One of the more well dressed ladies came up to me and curtsied, "Thank you Miss Aster, for coming to our rescue… I am Linette, the current leader of this merchant convoy and the heir of the Tiara Merchant company. If you hadn't come when you did… No doubt these monsters would have had their way with us before we would be slaughtered like animals…"

I waved my hand, "No thanks needed, it's normal to help someone who is in need after all. I only regret that I could not prevent this before it happened."

I didn't miss out the fact that she claimed to be 'current' leader of the merchant convoy, meaning that most likely the former leader was already killed or something.

Most likely the Goblins killed all the men in their raid and captured only the women.

She curtsied again, "Regardless, I would like to reward you for your help. Is there anything you would like? Anything from our cargo is free for your choosing."

I shook my head, "It really is fine. I'm more worried about you girls needing to recover from this though?"

She smiled, "We were already prepared to die before Lady Aster came to save us. If Lady Aster is hesitant to accept a reward for saving our lives, then how about as payment for escorting us to Dragon View Trade City?"

"Hmm… I suppose I can do that, I have to head back there to report the quest completion anyway. What do you have in mind?"

"In that case, please allow me to offer you the most valuable item we have here."

I thought they would be bringing me some kind of precious metal but when the item was brought to me…

In front of me was a young girl with lupine ears and tails and the only one among the females to be cuffed with a collar while wearing a shirt way too big for her size.

"This is Hisei, an Inugami slave we were planning to sell in the Trade City and we now offer her to you."

Ah… I should have expected the slave girl event…