Chapter 17: The Day Before

The night was cool, and the spring breeze blew against the wooden fortress where the goblins peacefully rested. They very rarely could afford to sleep but, ever since their god had arrived, their sleep had lengthened, and their mind had a greater clarity than ever before. It was as if a door was opened or as if a boulder was lifted off the shoulder of their minds.

Shortly after Scitus had left, Many goblins wished to take rest while he was away. They endlessly worked and had found it difficult to perform their old rituals. However, Seresa had taken command and ordered them to continue their work. This was at Maximus's behest who No longer wished to lead. Even before Scitus had arrived he had felt it was time for a new Era. If summoning Scitus had Failed, he would have soon after named the next Elder.

Despite their initial reluctance, once the construction was halfway done, they finally realized that they were constructing something that many humans constructed for protection against monsters like them and other wild creatures. Their admiration for their king grew and their construction speed increased.

Seresa during this time, aside from overlooking the construction and helping with the warrior training, had begun to learn English. At one point the work had become so large that she fainted from exhaustion. Shortly after this, Echo 2 decided to order Echo 1 to do the training regiment himself saying to her dear brother. "Brother, I know your smart enough to do the training yourself, so do it!!" Echo one could feel a tinge of fear in the back of his circuits as his sister stared him down. He had only recently become conscious and it seemed that his sister realized that fact, he didn't want them to find out just yet. He wanted to surprise everyone, he had hoped to yell in the middle of his father's dinner and yell, "Father look at me!! I have free will!!" He wanted to see the dumbfounded face his father would, though the look in his sister's eye told him he would live to regret to cause trouble for their father.

The night was nearly over, most goblins were fast asleep, the human had been tied to a post at the center of the encampment for the comfort for of the goblins. Beside her rested Arisa who had been asked to watch over the Human. Just out of her line of sight lay a larger than normal tent, made from the skins of dead deer, inside this tent was Scitus, Robin, Seresa, and Echo 2.

Robin listened intently to Scitus, as he spoke of the battle plans against the Goblin King and his minions. Seresa nearby listened to his every word suppressing her quicking pulse. The emotion was foreign and terrifying to her. Though she hid her alarm especially after she noticed Echo 1's mocking grin, "she knows what's wrong with me!!!" Seresa thought.

"at the very least this feeling won't kill me I don't think." She thought as she looked at Echo 1 who at the time wryly smiled in her direction.

Seresa's ability to comprehend complicated and abstract concepts had greatly increased. Her English was still not complete and was still at most at the first-grade level but even so, the new words had allowed her to create new concepts in her mind. Even before she learned English her mind had widened, it was as if Scitus was a beacon of light that opened their mind. this new found intelligence had allowed her to draw a certain conclusion. Robin, Teal, Cecilia, Thomas, William, and herself all held some great importance for Scitus. He had seen something in them that was greater than they could see in themselves. She could not see it yet but she knew it to be true.

"You managed to train them well huh," Scitus commented on Seresa's hard work on training the combat regiment. His voice brought Seresa back to earth and she smiled as she remembered the disheveled look on all the goblins, even her brother by the end of the training had become tired. None of them had ever experienced anything so intense. Their training was similar to army training in Scitus's world, even there, after heavy body enhancers, the soldiers would tire after a day of training. Scitus assumed, and assumed correctly, that the goblins, being physically superior to humans, would be able to handle the intense training. "Yes." Seresa responds after a few moments reminiscing, her face quivered slightly without her intention. "again?" she thought as she resisted the urge to press her fist against her heart. From one corner of the tent she hears a chuckle come from Echo 2, "She is still mocking me.", she thought as her face began to glow a strange tint of light green and red. “Teacher is too cruel”, she thought to herself as she resisted the urge to run from the tent as she and tried to ignore the heat rushing to her face.

“it was quite a sight to behold master.” Echo 2, who had been taunting her student, began to explain the training unit’s situation. She told how some would nearly end up with broken bones, and the time when William beat three goblins in a fight. Even the construction crew stopped and watched the fight, one goblin going as far as to say that even an ogre would be no match for William. An exaggeration to say the least but it was not entirely without merit. Goblins had never trained to fight they had always used simple weapons and fought with brute strength alone, the strongest goblin was often the winner. The older goblins, after Williams fight, would occasionally join the training but were only able to bare an hour of it.

“But I must say, Seresa impressed me the most, she is the best student I’ve ever had.”

“She’s the only student you’ve ever had.” Scitus thought as he gave Echo two a curious glare, wondering if the Echos had been improved since his initial design. He didn’t remember giving them such sophisticated AI.

“how is William” trying hard, to push the problem in the back of his mind he decided to ask Seresa of what she thought of her brother’s progress after a week of training.

“Very strong, my brother now strong.” She still speaks in incomplete sentences, but that is to be expected. Scitus thought as he carefully listens to Seresa, making sure to understand her accent. The accent wasn’t particularly strong, but it wasn’t light either, Scitus had to take a moment in-between each word to make sure he heard correctly, her incomplete sentences only complicated the matter. Even so, despite all of that, he was happy that she was able to speak English, albeit very little. Normally a person can’t learn a language so quickly, but echoes were incredibly efficient teachers, making sure to take into consideration the student’s learning style and observing their strengths. It helped that Seresa was quite clever too.

“Echo 2,” Scitus, remembering about the language efficiency, remembers another strong point of the Echos. That is, their incredible ability to learn languages, if they are given enough context clues and listen to the language enough, they can learn any language within a month. Though what Scitus had in mind was a different case, the language of the human was similar to many languages in Scitus’s world, “it should be easier to learn the Human language here” Scitus thought.

"Could you please try to learn the human girl's language." He said as he placed a hand to his chin as if to show the people in the room that he was deep in thought.

“of course, master!!” Elation can be heard in her voice as she walks out of the tent and towards the girl tied to the post. To Her surprise, Arisa was there, she had fallen asleep beside The human.

"So, you were saying." Scitus asks seresa about the events that occurred during his absence. Asking whether there were any problems, such as hunger, sickness or social problems. Seresa answered the best she could, in both Goblin tongue and in English. Scitus was patient, making sure to listen to her every word, little did he know that the most difficult part for Seresa was not speaking because of her low language ability. He wasn't aware that her heart kept beating so quickly that she would often lose her pace. Despite her Teacher's taunting, Seresa was already missing her company now that it was only Robin and Scitus, she felt even more embarrassed. She feared that Scitus would discover her strange attitude and she feared that Robin would tell her brother of her behavior. It was a losing battle for her as she struggled to explain the details of the week's events.

By the end, Seresa's voice was nearly a whisper, but Scitus wrongly assumed that she was simply exhausted from lack of sleep, He patted the goblin on the head once more before saying, "Thanks Seresa, I knew I could count on you.", at this point, Seresa nearly collapsed as she felt her heart nearly burst out of her chest. "I can't go on like this!!!" she thought.

With the conversation with Seresa finished, she went straight to bed, making sure to calm her heart for when they meet again the following morning. She resolved her self to act more casually with him, no matter what it took she would act like she did before, playful and sly as she acted with everyone else.

While she slept, Scitus spoke with Robin about the strategies they would use and the preparations that Robin needed to make for it work. It wasn't a long conversation and before long Robin too, was able to fall fast asleep in his tent.