With the thought of upsetting Sun and Night again and the life of my female friend and her mother, it's somehow making me conflicted and indecisive on what to prioritize.

Or rather, I just want to do both.

A way to find Trish and her mother without worrying Sun and Night.

It's a plan like that.

But every plan that I thought of has an underlying chance of being dangerous.

I know those goblins are hostile and they don't seem to care about their lives as well for some reason so that fact made them dangerous even more.

Trish and her mother are captured by the goblins. That is what I believe. And they obviously have sent them to the place with a concentrated amount of goblins.

The distance isn't to the point that simply wandering in the forest would lead one to it but it's close enough that groups of goblins go to the village in an attempt to raid it. And this happened recently.

I could think of several reasons as to why they're trying to raid the village and the most likely reason would be food.

Since there's so many of them in that place, they must have a shortage of food so to help with that, they send goblins to their deaths in an attempt to secure food from the village.

And only recently did they have this shortage of food as well, which explains why they only recently tried and raid the village.

But since that didn't work, they decided to just sneak into the village and kidnap Trish and her mother. Probably to eat them.

As for the group of 20 and up, they're probably just a distraction so that they could execute their plan without issues.

Of course, I might be wrong. It's simply my hypothesis on the matter. But if it is what I think it is, then the goblins are far more clever than I thought.

I shouldn't treat them like dumb rocks with the ability to move. And there's also this uneasy feeling that there might be something more to it than I thought.

But I shouldn't trouble myself for thinking about those unconfirmed things.

My objective right now is to save Trish and her mother. That is, if they're still alive right now and if they aren't, at least retrieve their corpse. And maybe taste their blood while I'm at it...

Oh, of course, I'm not that serious about the last part. I think that that'll be disrespectful in a way.

But my intention to find them still doesn't change.

The problem would be on how to do it in a less dangerous way.

"Snow?"

"It's nothing."

Currently, I'm sitting on Sun's lap and eating the food that Night made while I'm pondering over this.

And as to what I'm eating, it's two bread with meat in the middle and a couple of green and red vegetables. There's also Night's blood coating the meat as well.

Sun called it a 'sandwich'.

Even though it doesn't have any sort of connection with sand.

And as for the two brothers, they went back to the village chief's house to eat as well before they continue to search for Trish.

Though their cheeks were puffed up when they did that. It might be because I didn't give them any of my lunch.

Which I couldn't of course. There's blood in it. They'll most likely get shocked and creeped out or scared when they knew I have blood on my food.

And while I'm enjoying my sandwich, Sun spoke.

"Is it delicious?"

"Mhm."

"That's good to hear."

Then Sun wrapped her arms around my stomach and pulled me closer to her. She then nuzzles herself into my neck.

Usually, she would do this during our free time but it's the first time she did this while I was eating. It's nothing unusual but I felt that this might be something different.

Did something trouble her?

"...Snow?"

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

Huh? Shouldn't I be the one asking that?

"C'mon, you can tell me. I'm your mother right, Snow?"

"Um... There's nothing wrong?"

Sun pinched the tip of my nose when I said that.

"Don't lie to me now. Like Roosevelt said, your expression is really easy to read. And you looked troubled about something."

My expression really is easy to read...!

I don't really think that I'm that expressive though. Have my facial muscles been moving around without my knowledge?

"It's not serious."

Sun then turned my body to face her and stared at my face very closely with a very serious expression.

Then her eyes lost light when she found out something.

"... is it because of what we made you promise? About you not doing anything reckless like that?"

"N-no... It's not—"

"I'm sorry Snow but I don't have any intentions of giving you a free pass regarding that. After all, your life is so precious that I can't live without it."

"Su—Lilia?"

"Ah! I'm sorry for scaring you! I didn't mean to scare you!"

For a second there, Sun has gotten a bit scary but it seems like it's just her being protective of me.

And it doesn't seem that I have any say in that promise either.

It feels like if I gotten myself injured, Sun and Night might do something unexpected.

So I really need to save them somehow without getting myself in danger.

Hmm...

...A method to do that without getting myself into danger...

"How can I save Trish and her mother without getting myself in danger?"

I found myself asking Sun on the matter and she seemed to have thought about it seriously as well when I asked.

"Of course you'll find your friends to be something precious to you but a way to save her... Why not just leave it to the adults?"

"?"

"If you left it to the adults, you wouldn't put yourself in danger."

I've thought about that as well but it's not something that I feel comfortable doing.

Just leaving it to the village's residents to save someone I know, I'll feel pathetic if I did that.

"I can't just not do something..."

Sun shakes her head left to right as if telling me that I'm missing something.

"Do you remember what I said about the village chief?"

I nodded in response.

"Didn't you say that he looks weak? Then I said that he doesn't need to be strong to lead people. It's simply the same principle, Snow."

"... Then, I should lead the villagers to save Trish?"

"That's right. Since you already know who took Trish, it's only the matter of leading them to where it is and if you did that, you'll be doing a very major contribution. You'll be doing something."

I get it, but there are some problems with that as well.

"But they won't believe me that the goblins did it in the first place and goblins are strong when there's many of them."

"Then we'll convince them for you and you'll just have to lead them in a way that you wouldn't have any problems with that! Did you know, Snow, that there's a [General] that managed to defeat an army with a thousand [soldiers] with only a hundred? You should just do the same thing! If it's you, Snow, I'm sure you'll be able to do it."

Uhhh... Sun, you're overestimating me...

But I guess she has a point.

Lead the villagers in such a way that they'll be in the least amount of danger.

It's easy to say it but in actuality, it's really hard.

And I also still have my reservations regarding involving the villagers as well. It doesn't sit right with me to use other lives for this but if they have the same goal as me then maybe they'll be willing to do it anyway.

There's also the matter that it's my very first time to lead something. I'm sure that the village chief is better at doing the leading than me. He's old in human standards after all so he must know a lot.

But if it came to that, then...

"Have confidence in yourself, Snow."

Have confidence in myself...

Alright, I'll make it work somehow.

•••

A little later Chris and Leo returned and Sun went back to the house as well to continue her summarizing thing.

As the two slowly approached, I did the wave gesture thing at them and they waved back as well.

"Did your mother returned already?"

"Yeah."

"Did you already saw what you want to see in the house?"

"Yeah."

Then, with a "Let's continue searching for her then," we walked off.

Though when Chris said about searching for Trish, all they did is to shout her name as we walk in the village.

Honestly, it wasn't really helpful at all. I don't even know why they wanted to search around the village as well. But since Leo is doing it so vigorously as well, I couldn't say my protest.

But the walk was enjoyable in its own right. I get to see what Night meant when she said that this village is growing the ingredients that she brought before.

Just at the opposite end of the village, there's a really wide flat area with lots of plants planted, positioned in neat rows.

There's also humans tending to those plants and some of them, cutting them off of the ground. Probably collecting them.

I told Chris that we should check out this wide area for a bit and examine the plants but he refused.

"We can't play around, Snow. We need to find Trish quickly. Who knows what she is experiencing right now."

With Chris' scolding, I reluctantly followed along with them.

But I did make a promise to myself that I would definitely go back to this place after everything is done.

An hour later, they thankfully got tired and we took a rest back in the plaza.

There they took out some water from the well to drink.

I insisted that I should be the one to pull the bucket up but Chris didn't want to for some reason. So I stayed there, sitting on the ground under the shade of a tree while Leo is in between my legs as I wrapped my arms around him.

And it seems that Leo interpreted my action as me being really worried about Trish.

"It's okay! Well definitely find Trish!"

Oh Leo, your encouraging words almost made me think that these useless yelling and roaming around is actually effective.

Of course, I didn't say that to him.

"See? I told you I can do it."

Chris said as he returned to where we are, hugging a large wooden bucket.

He then places it in front of us, spilling a few drops of water in the process.

It was impressive though. For him to lift something like this. Sun had trouble lifting the same amount as well and she's a few years older than Chris at that.

And once the bucket filled with water was put down, the two took turns scooping up water with both of their hands and slurping from it.

Chris looked at me as if saying "Not drinking?" but I shake my head.

As they were drinking, I realized that this is a good opportunity to talk about that.

"Chris."

"Hm?"

"I'm serious about the goblins, taking Trish."

After hearing me say that, wiped her mouth with his wrist before speaking.

"It couldn't be goblins, you know? We've already confirmed that."

"It's the goblins."

"Like I said—"

"It's the goblins."

Chris looked at me dubiously went I cut him off.

Since I can't really prove why I think it's the goblins, maybe I can convince him with my seriousness on the matter.

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"..."

We continued to stare at each other like that while Leo is completely unaware of what we're having.

An argument through the eyes, as I'd called it.

This staring thing continued on for a while until Chris sighed, breaking of eye contact.

"Okay... Is the method on how you came to that a secret?"

"Yes."

"... Alright... I'll believe you then. You don't seem to be making a joke."

Success.

I then turned my gaze towards Leo who is looking in wonder on our exchange.

"Did they really take Trish away?"

"Yeah. It could only be them."

"Yeah... The goblins hurt uncle Rich too... They're bad guys so they must be the one that took Trish."

Looks like Leo believed me as well.

These two had been very easy to convince. Though I shouldn't expect the same to the other humans.

I should think that they're simply an exception, not the rule.

So with that in mind, how could I convince the rest of the humans that it was really the goblins that took Trish in the first place, despite the pieces of evidence that tell otherwise?

Sun said that she and Night would help on that, and I could have Chris and Leo help me as well but with only us, I don't think we'll be convincing anyone.

But I guess the only thing we should do is to try.

And also, I've thought of a person that should make the whole convincing thing be very easy as well since it's a person that the villagers should have high respect for.

It's their leader of course. The village chief.