The chest contained not only a robe but also a staff and a knife.
Surely it must have been used by a mage; both seem to be quite fine items.
During mobile experiments, I have faced off against orthodox mage-types who wore robes and wielded staffs.
Having utilized robes with effects that could defend against magic, as well as staffs that were either reinforced with magic or contained magic itself, I can somewhat make comparisons.
Of course, after the battle, all the equipment we seized, including the infamous masks, was confiscated.
Putting aside those bitter memories, I feel that this robe, by the look and touch, is slightly higher quality than those, and the staff seems to be made specifically for the use of black magic power, so I think I can handle it well.
As for the knife, it is probably a magical weapon, but I wasn’t quite sure how to use it—whether it requires a trick or a spell—so I need to investigate it more thoroughly.
Speaking of staffs, not everyone can handle the wands or books that mages use, and even among mages, there are affinities such as being adept at fire or water.
By the way, I wield black magic, while Sariel wields white magic, and the magical powers associated with fire, water, wind, and lightning manifest in colors like red and blue; when combined, they are referred to as primary colored magic.
The reason I can assert this is that I have a vague knowledge of magic in my head, likely a result of one of the modification experiments.
Thanks to this, I adapted to the existence of magic quickly.
Now, back to the topic, this staff seems to have been crafted specifically for black magic, and the moment I touched it, I understood how to use it.
It feels as if it’s tailored just for me, making me suspect that someone intentionally prepared it, but it would be most reasonable to think that the mage who lived here before was of the same type as I am—namely, a black mage.
In any case, I am fortunate that I am now dressed appropriately to visit the village; I feel like my luck has been rising recently.
However, under this high-quality black robe, I am only wearing a pair of trunks, so I cannot afford to let my guard down to prevent any accidental exposure.
I absolutely don’t want to get arrested for indecent exposure on my debut in the village; obtaining proper clothing remains my top priority.
“Alright, let’s go! Lead the way, Lily!”
“Okay!”
With excitement in my heart, Lily and I began to walk side by side.
I’ve heard from Lily that we are heading to Irz Village.
I had imagined it to be an incredibly rural mountain village, but it turns out to be a rather sizable village located along a highway.
As we pass through the forest and reach the highway, it becomes understandable.
However, it seems that even on the Pandora Continent, civilization is at a medieval level, as the highway is not paved with asphalt, nor is it laid with cobblestones; it is a dirt road.
Still, it looks wide enough to allow for two carriages to pass side by side, so it’s not exactly a narrow path; it might be a main road after all.
“If you go that way, you’ll reach Kuar Village.”
“I see, so the villages are connected by this road.”
From the small cottage where Lily lives on the outskirts of the Fairy Garden, Irz Village is the closest, with Kuar Village being the next closest; apparently, it would take Lily a whole day even if she flew there.
I won’t truly understand what it’s like until I walk there myself, though.
“If we walk straight to Irz Village, do you think we’ll arrive before noon?”
“Yeah.”
Since there’s no special hurry, let’s take our time.
And so, while holding hands with Lily or giving her a piggyback ride, we walked under the clear blue sky.
“By the way, there isn’t anyone else passing by.”
It has been two hours since we started walking this road, and I still haven’t seen any signs of people.
Is the traffic between villages not very active? With cars and trains in modern times, I suppose it’s different, but in this medieval level, it seems that unless you’re a merchant or traveler with a carriage, one wouldn’t leave the village.
I’ll gradually understand that as I live here; I’m sure I won’t find the right answers just by thinking about it now.
As I pondered, I finally spotted a shadow of a building up ahead.
“Hey, is that the village?!”
Excited, I dashed over; by the way, Lily is on my shoulder.
The structure was a small wooden house, clearly showing signs of habitation.
However, something about this house felt off in terms of scale.
“It’s kind of small.”
The door was only about the height of my neck, and although it was a single-story building, the roof was low enough that I could easily reach it.
It reminded me of the hobbit houses from a famous epic fantasy movie trilogy.
“Chrono, this is—”
Just as Lily began to speak, I sensed a presence nearby and immediately focused my attention there.
From the shadow of the small house appeared a goblin holding a scythe.
“Is that a survivor from yesterday?”
Though it looked a bit different, dressed in simple rags and leather, it was donning a matching set of cloth clothes; it was still a green-skinned goblin, though.
More importantly, how could a monster appear in a place like this? Perhaps the occupants of this house were attacked; I feared the worst.
Prepared for battle, I adjusted my stance, ready to fire “shotgun shells” at a moment’s notice—
“What’s up, bud? You know Lily?”
“Huh?”
The goblin suddenly spoke to me in fluent Japanese.
Well, to be precise, it was speaking the original language of this world, but due to modifications, my mind was able to understand it automatically; that’s not the issue at hand right now.
“Hello!”
“Hi! You don’t seem to be here to sell medicine today.”
“Yeah, today—”
A casual conversation suddenly starts with a goblin. What on earth is happening? Why is it so friendly when I slaughtered its kind yesterday?
“Oh, um—”
Seeing that it didn’t have the atmosphere of combat, I steeled myself and spoke up.
“Oh, I forgot to ask who you were. Since you’re with Lily, you don’t seem like a bad guy.”
“I’m Mao Kurono. Pleased to meet you.”
I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say to this goblin, but I ended up introducing myself politely.
“Oh, thank you for being so polite! I’m Varts, by the way. So, you have a last name; does that mean you’re a noble or something?”
“Noble?”
“Chrono is a mage!”
“A mage? Oh, I can see you do seem to fit the part.”
“Yesterday, we took care of some goblins together.”
“Is that so? We’ve been noticing more goblins around lately, so I was thinking we might need to go hunt some in the mountains. Truly, thank you; I appreciate it.”
Why is the goblin happy about having been eliminated?
“Say, Lily, isn’t this guy a goblin?”
I hesitated to ask the goblin directly, so I quietly inquired Lily.
“Yep, he’s a goblin.”
Lily replied casually, looking as if she didn’t understand why I was asking such a thing.
“Ah, do you know little about monsters, bud?”
“Uh, yeah, I would be grateful if you could enlighten me.”
“Oh, well, to us, there are all kinds of goblins, but those from other races have trouble distinguishing the differences.”
“So, while he is a goblin, he’s different from the ones I destroyed, right?”
“That’s right! You’re sharp; you caught on in one go!”
Varts, the laughing goblin, looks the same as the ones I killed, but conversing like this makes him seem entirely different.
Although they share the same appearance, he feels just as human as I do inside.
“So, that means you’re a villager from Irz Village?”
“Yep, I grow vegetables and herbs over on the outskirts.”
So that’s why he’s got a scythe; in that appearance, a blade looks like nothing but a weapon, but I suppose I’ll get used to that eventually?
“Irz Village is a goblin village, then?”
“Nah, there are humans, beastmen, and all sorts of others. Is this your first time in places like this?”
“Yeah, it is. I’m coming here for the first time, so it’s full of unknowns.”
Yeah, I’m not lying.
“I see, this area has many villages mixed with various races all living together. I’ve heard there are also villages where each race lives separately, and those coming from those places are often surprised.”
I see, so there are multicultural villages and single-race villages. I had thought this world consisted entirely of humans, but here, intelligent talking monsters like Varts are treated equally with humans.
The single-race places seem exclusionary, but if places like this are mainly diverse, there seems to be room for even outsiders like me to be accepted.
Varts is friendly towards me; I think it’s a significant factor that I’m seen as Lily’s companion.
“Well, everyone around here is nice, and you’ll get used to it quickly; there are humans like you as well. If you head straight, you’ll reach the village center, and since you’re with Lily, they’ll let you in without problem.”
“Is that so? Thank you for sharing all this.”
I feel it would be rude to keep him too long, although I want to ask a bit more, I will save that for another person.
“Alright then, Lily, when the medicine’s ready, please remember me.”
“Okay! Bye-bye!”
And so, I parted ways with Varts, the first villager, and headed towards the center of the village.
I ended up using one whole chapter just to discover the first villager! At a glance, it seems difficult to distinguish between wild goblins and villager goblins. I need to be careful not to accidentally exterminate them.