Side: Jessica
Once my conversation with Yuki regarding the Jilva Empire's movements drew to a close, I made my way to a specific destination.
That location was...
"Oya? Welcome. I'm kind of buried in work right now, so just grab a seat anywhere and feel free to brew yourself some tea-ssu."
It was the private quarters of Steve, the Goblin General who had just been handed an entirely unreasonable set of demands by Yuki.
"Yes, I'll help myself then."
I casually filled the magic kettle (the one that boils water) from the faucet, flipped the switch, and waited for the water to boil.
Once you learn how it works, it's simple... But when I first arrived here, I couldn't believe such things were possible and found myself thoroughly confused by reality. To be perfectly honest, the mere fact that water flowed directly out of a metal tap was a massive shock to me. The underlying logic was simple enough, yet it was a concept that had never once crossed my mind.
The fact that Yuki came from another world suddenly felt very believable. The things he thinks of often seem completely unrelated to anything we would imagine, yet they undoubtedly improve people's lives.
"So, what brings you here?"
Oh, right—I wasn't here to mentally evaluate Yuki.
I had come because there was something I wanted to ask Steve.
"Yes, I came because I wanted to talk to you."
Setting down my tea, I looked around Steve's room.
After the mercenary company—or rather, Weed—took over the ruins, training grounds and private quarters for officers had been built in astonishingly short order. This was one of those rooms, belonging to General Steve.
To them it was apparently modest, but to us it was a room packed with unbelievable technology... The kettle that boils water, the faucet, the electric lights that make night as bright as day, high-quality paper, ballpoint pens, and so on.
The biggest surprise was that a goblin was using this room.
Not only that — he wasn't trashing it. He was sitting at a desk with organized papers and documents, actually working.
"Ah—does it look completely bizarre to see me handling paperwork like this?"
Perhaps noticing the shift in my expression, Steve offered a self-deprecating remark, as if he found his own situation equally unnatural.
"Not at all. For someone holding the rank of General, executing administrative duties is entirely logical."
"As a General, huh. Then how about the sight of a goblin sitting at a desk like this?"
"To be honest, I've never seen it before. The goblins I know are..."
"Right. Lowly creatures wearing nothing but a loincloth, or completely naked, brandishing crude weapons to raid human settlements and forcibly impregnate women, yeah?"
"I would not go so far as to... well, yes... that represents the baseline definition of a standard Goblin in our world. Though, if I were to add anything further, it would be that they are occasionally kept as livestock to serve as disposable tools of war."
"Yeah, that sounds about right-ssu."
Despite my blunt assessment, Steve didn't harbor a shred of anger and calmly continuing to process his paperwork.
"However, I've come to understand that the goblins under Yuki's command are completely different. Including you, Steve."
"That's nice to hear. Still, Jessica-neesan, considering I thoroughly thrashed you in our battle, I'm surprised you can speak to me this casually without holding a grudge."
"What happened was part of a battle. If we carry grudges from war forever, peace will never come."
"You're a real mature one, aren't you? But not everyone thinks like that. We've managed to integrate pretty smoothly into Weed's society by now, but even here, the moment a new resident or visiting adventurer sees us, they either freeze up in pure terror or actively try to pick a fight with us because we're goblins."
"That's..."
Discarding a lifetime of beliefs isn't easy.
No matter how different Steve and his goblins are from ordinary goblins, people who don't know them still see them as vile monsters.
"And that's exactly why the Boss keeps dumping these ridiculous jobs on us that put us in the public eye."
"Eh?"
"By doing that, it burns a clear image into the public's mind that we are being thoroughly overworked. It makes us look completely submissive to his authority. Furthermore, it demonstrates to everyone that we are capable of receiving absurd orders and executing them flawlessly without stepping out of line. And because of that, we end up earning a high degree of professional respect within Weed, just like the evaluation you've formed of us, Jessica-neesan."
"The way you describe it makes it sound as though Yuki planned all of this deliberately..."
"Of course he did. He's deliberately helping goblins fit into society. The same goes for the other monsters. But since goblins have the worst reputation among humans, we get priority on these jobs."
"...Just what is Yuki thinking?"
"Hm? You've heard about the mana depletion problem, haven't you?"
"I have. But what does improving the status of goblins have to do with that?"
"Ah—yeah... Most people stop thinking at that point. The Boss is also considering the possibility that monsters may hold information about the mana depletion problem."
"What!?"
Monsters being the root cause of mana depletion...?
Wait... there are indeed monsters capable of actively consuming environmental mana. Or rather, when mana gathers, monsters are born. It wouldn't be strange to reach that conclusion...
But why had I automatically assumed that exterminating them was the only solution?
...Especially when I can have a proper conversation with Steve like this?
"In case killing them doesn't solve the problem, it would be bad. So it's better if we can talk to them. And if we can talk, maybe we can convince them not to attack people anymore in the future. The bridge for that is..."
"Monsters trusted by humans... Like Steve and the others."
"Well, something like that. Slakichi and Mino-chan were also candidates, but Slakichi can't operate for long here due to the mana depletion problem, and Mino-chan is a legendary monster. So, there's only me left."
I finally understood.
All of Steve's treatment had been for the sake of solving the mana depletion problem.
No—surely the status of goblins would rise in the future as well.
Yuki might very well possess a terrifying degree of political genius.
After thanking Steve, I returned to Yuki's laboratory.
He was probably doing something utterly unimaginable again.
* * *
Side: Steve
Phew, looks like Jessica-neesan finally headed out-ssu.
"...Honestly, even after dumping all that work on me, the Boss already has most of the paperwork prepared-ssu."
I allocate the budget prepared by the boss to the necessities for this upcoming operation.
"You could argue he's being incredibly soft on us... but... our real purpose is something else entirely."
I muttered a quiet monologue entirely to myself, staring at the closed doorway through which Jessica-neesan had departed.
"We monsters are the ones who will stop the boss if he ever goes mad—even if it means killing him."
Man, he dumped the most troublesome responsibility onto us.
If the Boss really went insane, we'd also have to deal with all the ladies protecting him.
...And Princess Aslin would likely become an enemy too.
"First things first, I need to figure out how to remove this subordination order..."
The absolute obedience magic—or skill—the Boss had placed upon my soul, had to be broken first.
Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to fight him-ssu.
"If you can't even do that much, you won't be able to kill me."
That was exactly what he told me.
"Obviously... but that's still asking the impossible-ssu!"
As always, I spent five minutes thinking about how to lift the Boss's absolute obedience, then flopped down for a nap.
The paperwork could wait until later.
It’s not slacking off, okay? I need a mental break-ssu.
