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Half a year had passed since then. I was already twelve years old and my growth was also accelerating.

My chest was growing big enough to start getting in my way, and my hips were also gaining more flesh.

My waistline on the other hand had turned so thin it made me worry, turning my already dainty body even more slender.

Thanks to the hair shampoo, my hair had turned even glossier, supple, and dazzlingly beautiful, so much that people started to stop and stare at me.

Their reaction was quite similar to the time I disguised myself as Haumea. Wasn’t I standing out a bit too much?

At any rate, we gained a periodic income with the Horton company by providing them with Mixus mushrooms, and our wallets were quite full now.

Even after our initial requests, we took on the commission to provide the seasoning supplies whenever a chance arose, so Cloud’s savings were accumulating favorably.

That day, as always, we finished our classes and headed to the Adventurer’s Guild.

I hadn’t been showing myself in the music room lately, so I really needed to attend one of these days, but our work took priority now.

We met up with Michelle on the way, and just as we passed the Guild’s door, we witnessed a fight unfolding there which was fiercer than usual.

“W-What’s going on?”
“Who knows?”
“I’ve never seen so many people at once.”

Cloud rushed towards us after he sighted us with his sharp sight as we stood and looked around restlessly. He held a commission ticket in his hand.

Looking closely, the other Adventurers around us were also holding them similarly.

“Nicole, Nicole. Check this out, hurry!”
“Good afternoon, Cloud. You have to start with the greetings.”
“R-Right, good day. Have you ever said that before?”
“Well, I’m becoming a big sister now. I decided to seriously work on my manners.”
“Ah, I see… No, wait! Look at this. There’s a Goblin outbreak.”
“Oh, Goblins?”

Goblins—They were a species of apparitions called imps.

They had the height of children, in other words, around our height, but they were strong for their size.

They were as strong as an adult in terms of strength. Still, an average person could somehow deal with it if it was just one of them.

On the other hand, they were dim-witted, even falling below Kobolds in extreme cases. The danger they posed still remained unchanged, so the Guild immediately issued subjugations the moment they were discovered.

“Well, there are exceptions like Den too…”
“Nicole, who’s Den?”
“Uhh, Lord Maxwell’s acquaintance, I guess?”

I didn’t lie. He was Maxwell’s acquaintance. Still, this much ruckus over some Goblins was strange.

“So? I assume that’s not all, is it?”
“Yeah. Actually, there are rumors about the Lord appearing.”
“What is this Lord?”
“Michelle, he is talking about the Goblin Lord. In simpler terms, it’s like a group leader.”
“Like a village chief?”

Michelle said quizzically while joining her hands at her waist. That gesture made her chest stand out due to being sandwiched by her arms.

So sly of her to emphasize her ginormous chest while asking an innocent question. Look, Cloud’s eyes are totally glued on them! Even my eyes were lured there.

“I feel like that’s close, but not really… They say a smart Goblin evolves into a Lord. A group of Goblins that have a Lord follow a command and act quite like a military force.”
“I see.”
“Not just that, the reproductive power of the group seems to be fortified too, they are multiplying at a fierce rate. If things go bad, some small villages could get wiped out.”
“What, that’s scary…”
“That’s why, the Guild is putting maximum priority on their extermination. Even an army might get dispatched.”
“S-Should we go home?”

Michelle easily tucked her tail between her legs. She was fundamentally a peace lover. Hearing that armed forces might move was enough to instill fear in her.

“Well, we are still minors, plus we are only first rank, so we shouldn’t be forced to participate.”
“Really? Thank god.”

We had a three-years of history working as Adventurers, but most of our work consisted of gathering herbs and hunting. We weren’t assertively trying to hunt monsters, so our rank stayed unchanged.

For that reason, there should have been no risk of us getting involved in the current turmoil, but…

“I have a report! Clear the path!”

One Adventurer suddenly rushed in.

He wore easy-to-move leather armor and matching leather boots. His getup told me that he was specializing in covert operations. Seeing that he had a casting support wand on him, he seemed to be a magician on top of it.

Since he had a report, he must have been the one responsible for scouting this time.

The man rushed to the counter and reported it to the Guild Master who had come to hear what he had to say.

“I have a report. Is it fine to do it here?”
“Yeah, go ahead. I have to report it to everyone later anyway.”
“Well… There really are Goblins there. They are about a five days walk from town to the north. Numbers are unclear.”
“Unclear you say?”

If he managed to scout a place five days of walk from here, he must have used Flight like Maxwell to do it from the skies. With that Magic, a round trip was quite possible under this time.

The Guild Master snorted in displeasure at the report. But that was only to be expected. The scout was saying he didn’t know the number, so what was the point of him scouting then?

However, the man seemed to have sensed the Guild Master’s displeasure and quickly corrected his statement.

“No, the reason I said unclear is that there’s so many of them that I couldn’t count them all. It was not on the level of a hundred or two at the very least.”
“What did you say!?”

Over two hundred Goblins… That was a number that would be impossible to have without a Lord.

Normal Goblins would only be in the groups of ten or so at best.

This number might be beyond the hands of the Adventurers alone.

The man had yet another sad news to make.

“Moreover, they are heading towards this city. It might be better to request dispatch of the army. At this rate, they will reach us within five days.”
“Y-Yeah… That’s right. Hey, go contact the guard station. And you go report to the royal castle. Those numbers would be beyond something gate guards can handle.”
“O-Okay!”
“Oh, and you, contact Lady Cortina and Lord Maxwell. If the army will move, their assistance would be necessary too.”
“Understood!”

The Guild staff rushed out in a hurry after receiving instructions. Watching their backs, I started worrying in silence.

Cortina was going head to battle. Yet I was not able to rush to her side.

After all, if I participated in this subjugation, I would end up involving Michelle and others too.

Nevertheless, if I tried to participate on my own, people around me, Cortina included, would stop me.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, I was still time-locked from using the Polymorph spell. I couldn’t transform and participate, either.

“Ugh.”
“Nicole?”
“I’m just worried about Cortina.”
“Ah, you must be… Is there something I could help with… I wonder?”
“Michelle, your legs are trembling. You shouldn’t force yourself.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Cortina is reliable even if she looks like that, so she would be fine.”

Even though I said that, I myself was worried too.

I decided to wait for Maxwell to arrive and try what I could to allow me to participate.