"Where am I..?"

"You're awake!? How're you feeling? You ok?"

"Huh? Gloria? What—"

"Thank god you're awake~! I was so worried about you..."

"Really?! I thought... you didn't like me."

"Don't get me wrong. I don't like you, like you. But it's also not that I hate you or anything. But... Gun likes you quite a lot, you know?"

"Really?!" Mihara raised her torso from the stretcher, a smile growing on her lips.

"Of course... You know, when that thing almost happened... the one with the Gahan guy. He went crazy for a second. Heck, he literally killed himself, and me in the process, just from how mad he was."

"Killed him—"

"Don't mind it, nothing happened. It's all good." Gloria hurriedly tried to backtrack, realizing the scared face of Mihara. "It's just... I don't want to see him like that ever again... And that means I have to take care of you."

"Thanks..." Mihara blushed as she lowered her face in joy. Seeing such a kind side of the dummy-head was a first for me, but the two's conversation lightened my heart a bit. From the get-go I knew Gloria was a kind and soft girl, but she kept hiding behind that bratty behavior. Seeing her being this wholesome was heartwarming.

"Don't misunderstand it! I'm doing it for him, because I love him."

"I know, I know." Mihara agreed, smiling wryly. "But I also love him as much as you do. So, I'll be counting on you to make him happy." Seeing them bond even further helped me relax, even though I knew I was doing something almost suicidal.

"Yes~ !" Gloria leaned forward, holding Mihara's hand. "... Are you feeling anything different?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Not much really..." Gloria tried to feign ignorance. "Don't you feel anything different to yourself at all?"

"Hmmm... Now that you mention it..." Mihara moved her tongue around, before pulling her mouth open to the side. "I do feel my mouth beeing stuffy... like, there's something different about it..."

"Like your fangs?"

"Fangs?! I don't have an—Oh..." Mihara opened her mouth, poking it with her finger, "EEEEEEHHHHHH! Why the hell do I have such large fangs?!"

"kukuku~. I guess you are gonna be eating a lot more meat from now on." Gloria giggled. "You don't feel like biting my neck, do you?"

"Now that you mention it... you sure look tasty..."

"Eh? What?!" Mihara's eyes widened. "Oi, oi! Don't go eating me! I'll scream! I'm too lean! I'm sure I don't even taste any good!"

"Hehehe..."

"You... You did it on purpose didn't you?"

"Sorry, couldn't avoid it."

"Humpf~!" Gloria pouted, but only for a second, before she and Mihara started laughing.

"Haaa~... This felt good."

"Right?!"

"But... Gloria... Do I really look that different?"

"Not really..." She lied, looking away.

"Okay..." I think Mih did believe her, but anyhow, it was clear she had indeed changed quite a bit. I'm not going to dig too much from here though... It'd feel pretty uncomfortable if the tables were turned, so I'll check up on her later when I'm back, and she knows I'm doing it. I'm not a creep, okay? "By the way... How long was I out?"

"Huh? Oh... Quite a bit to be honest... I got a bit worried about you."

"Is that so...? Hmmm... what about Gun?"

"Ah, he hasn't come back yet..."

"I see..."

"Don't get too worried though, if it had gone wrong he'd probably have told us something already."

"I see... I hope he manages to deal with those things..."

"Me too..."

--------------------------------------------------

(This conversation was translated to human language)

"The heck?!"

"It seems they have retreated, my Holy Lord."

"It does seem so..." I watched in awe as the Goblin King just turned back and walked away, towards their camp. 'Wait... Wasn't it Sacred? Since when did it become—No... that doesn't really matter, does it.' "Ahem... What do we do now?"

"I await your enlightened decision, My Holy Lord."

'This whole bootlicking is gonna get old pretty fast...' I thought to myself. "What options do we have? Care to help me out?"

"We could either rush outside and meet them, or we could wait for them to come, this humble me thinks."

"I see... If we wait we could... prepare ourselves better to meet them, no?"

"Ooohhh! Oh my Lord of pure wisdom! Yes, let's further study their behavior patterns and information on their race for being better prepared for the negotiation."

'Did you really have to make it sound like that?! ... Come on...' "Yes, now, could you please help me with—"

After sitting down for a second, he started explaining me the relationships between high-race goblins. It seems a Goblin King is a very rare occurrence, one that is to be feared for the power of making goblins become a very powerful army. Sounded very promising. At the same time, one thing caught my attention as I started going over the races on the menu... Goblins are way more powerful than I had fist thought.

"So, that Goblin King guy probably has many more high-level underlings other than those two?"

"That is most likely the case, Your All-mighty Highness" 'WHY DOES THIS SHIT KEEP CHANGING?!'

"Ahem... err... Right, you don't have a name... I'll call you Bleart."

"My lord?! UGHAAA—"

'Huh?! What the fuck?' I watched in disbelief as the goblinkin leaned over in pain while holding its chest. "Oi! Are you okay?!" I asked, to now answer, as it fell over on the ground in excruciating pain.

'Oh fuck! What happened? What's going on?!' I asked myself in panic as the negotiator seemed to be dying.

"HAAH! HaaH! Hah!" Then, out of nowhere, it put both his hands on the floor and knelt, before bowing on the ground. "Thank you! Your Highness! This one is overflowing with gratitude for your bottomless generosity and grace!"

"Huh? What happened?" I asked, without realizing that the presence of the being in front of me had completely changed.

"Your Grace has bestowed this humble me with a name. Allowing me to step one foot into the realm of legends. For, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and shall forever be your humble slave."

'... Was that that much of a deal?'