Chapter 41: No more home

The air suddenly grew heavy.

Why?

What’s going on?

Did something happen to their tribe... something that made them unable to go back?

Now that I thought about it more carefully, why had these two goblins been out in the dangerous forest at night in the first place, being chased by those enormous horned wolves all the way to my castle?

Something about their situation didn’t quite add up.

At first, I had simply assumed they had gotten lost in the darkness. Maybe they had been busy hunting a rabbit or gathering something in the forest and failed to return home before sunset.

But after seeing how confidently they could draw a map of the surrounding forest, that explanation felt less and less convincing.

They obviously knew the area quite well. And if they understood how dangerous the forest could become at night, there was no reason for them to be wandering around out there unless something had prevented them from returning home.

Which left another possibility...

They couldn’t return.

Yeah, that has to be it...

...

However, although I desperately wanted to ask them directly, I had no idea how.

After all, I couldn’t speak a single word of Goblish.

Fuck! If only the System were kind enough to give me a proper translator!

But just as I was lamenting my terrible communication skills, something suddenly clicked in my mind.

Wait a minute... a translator?

I do have a translator!

That was when I realized another rather revolutionary way to use my [Quest Creation] skill.

Thanks to some magical effect, the System could already present quest content in a form that both the goblins and I could understand perfectly. To me, the quest scroll always appeared in English, but to the goblins, it could very well be displaying the same information in their own language.

If that was the case...

Why not exploit that functionality?

Why not turn the System into my personal translator?

"Muahahaha!"

I laughed internally like some player who had just discovered a ridiculous bug and was already planning how to abuse it.

"This is brilliant! Absolutely BRRRRRRILLIANT!"

"Sometimes, you just have to think outside the box!"

Excited by this sudden breakthrough, I spent the next full minute racking my stony brain and carefully figuring out how to make it work.

More specifically, I needed to find a way to structure the quests so I could extract information from them as efficiently and clearly as possible.

Hmmm...

It’s impossible to hold a full, natural conversation using [Quest Creation] alone.

But simple yes-or-no questions...

That should be perfectly doable.

I immediately canceled the recruitment quest and created a new one in its place.

Prerequisite: None

Quest Info: Your ruler wishes to understand your current situation. Answer the following question according to the instructions below:

"Did something happen in your tribe that prevents you from returning?"

If yes, nod.

If no, shake your head from side to side.

If you do not wish to answer, cross your arms. Your ruler will not pressure you if you do not feel safe sharing.

Quest Type: One-Time

Objective: Respond using the provided gestures.

Time Limit: 1 minute

Reward: None

Punishment: None

****

The two goblins took a moment to read the quest.

Their eyes gradually widened as they realized what I was trying to do.

Then, almost simultaneously, they both nodded.

A nod meant yes.

"Damn! I knew it!"

"So they really can’t go back!"

A surge of excitement rushed through me.

At last, I had found a working way to communicate with them!

It felt a little strange to be this excited when my citizens were clearly dealing with something terrible, but I couldn’t help it. This was a breakthrough I had been desperately waiting for ever since they arrived at my castle.

Now that I knew they couldn’t return, the next obvious question was simple.

Why?

I quickly issued several more targeted quests, each presenting a possible explanation I could think of. As a webnovel author in my past life, imagination had always been one of my greatest strengths.

Did you break some kind of forbidden rule and get exiled?

Were you sent out on a special mission and unable to return until it was completed?

Do you have a serious grudge with someone powerful in your tribe and had to flee?

Or...

Was your tribe attacked, forcing you to escape?

At that final question, both goblins nodded again, while their expressions immediately became heavier.

I see... so your tribe was attacked.

My investigation had taken another important step forward.

Now then...

Who would be ruthless enough to attack these goblins?

A powerful monster?

Human adventurers?

Or...

Another goblin tribe?

****

In the end, after a careful series of yes-or-no questions, I was finally able to squeeze a few more details out of them.

Their tribe had been attacked by some kind of enormous, terrifying spider monsters.

According to the information I managed to piece together, the creatures had descended upon their territory and completely overwhelmed the tribe.

Gopuro then pointed toward a specific location on the map—The same region marked with the skull-and-bone symbol.

"Wait..."

"Those spiders came from there?"

So that mysterious region wasn’t just dangerous. It was the source of the monsters that had attacked my citizens’ former home.

I continued questioning them, trying to determine what had happened to the rest of their tribe.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a clear answer. For all I knew, Gopuro and Gopuran might have been the only survivors.

But that wasn’t even the most concerning part.

As I continued asking questions, I discovered something far more alarming:

Their tribe wasn’t the only one that had been attacked. Other goblin tribes had also fallen victim to the spider monsters. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

And judging from the scattered information on the map, it seemed the spiders were spreading outward, advancing deeper into the forest, expanding their territory with every attack.

A cold realization slowly settled over me.

Sooner or later...

If nobody stops them, they’re going to reach my territory too.