I forged weapons.
I did nothing but forge.
Pouring killing intent and hatred into every one.
The goblin village was annihilated.
The only survivors were me and Brother Lazaraza, who had been subjugated by a Monster User just like me.
There might be other goblins who escaped, but I doubted it.
Proud goblins would never turn their backs on the enemy and flee.
If anything, children might have been allowed to escape.
But I couldn't imagine child goblins surviving that harsh mountain range after being driven from their homes.
The humans occupied the goblin village for about seven days, stripped it of anything useful, and withdrew.
They took me and Brother Lazaraza with them.
They brought us to a small village at the base of the mountain range.
The village didn't look like it had been there very long.
A few years, at most a decade or two—I didn't think it was older than that.
Men and women of all ages lived there, and at its center was a unit led by the Monster User.
He was probably a soldier from some country.
His subordinates had a rough air about them, but the Monster User himself carried a certain refinement.
Maybe he'd been nobility once.
I still didn't know his name.
The Monster User went by two different names.
I couldn't understand their language, so I had no way of knowing which was his actual name.
I figured one was his name and the other was something like a rank—squad leader or the like.
My body still refused to obey my will.
It only followed the Monster User's commands.
Brother Lazaraza was the same—even when we were together, he couldn't speak.
He was surely boiling with killing intent inside, just like me.
After arriving at the human village, we were given a small measure of freedom.
We had to agree to conditions: don't attack humans, don't do anything detrimental to humans, don't try to escape, don't kill yourself, and take initiative in acting for the humans' benefit.
But in the end, I still couldn't talk to Brother Lazaraza.
He was kept in a separate location from me.
I was given a different task than the one given to Lazaraza.
"Forge weapons," it was.
And so I forged weapons, over and over.
The compulsion made it impossible to slack off.
My finest weapons were taking shape.
And the ones who would use them were the people who destroyed my village.
It was humiliation.
If I could have killed those men with a curse, this village would already be ruins.
I poured that level of hatred into every weapon I forged.
`Proficiency has reached a set threshold. You have acquired the Skill "Curse LV1."` Ha ha.
I actually acquired it.
But I couldn't use it.
Because it would be detrimental to the humans.
Even if I wanted to, my body refused to activate the curse.
What a troublesome compulsion.
And so I kept forging weapons for as long as I could.
What surprised me was that the Monster User treated me relatively well.
After that initial treatment, I'd braced myself to be used until I was disposable.
But he didn't push me past my limits with the forging. He made sure I had proper meals and a place to sleep. He even let me keep the Appraisal Stone.
I still couldn't understand his words, but I could tell the Monster User was taking care of me, in his own way.
That said, it didn't make my killing intent or hatred disappear.
Every time the Monster User took a weapon from me, Appraised it, and smiled—that killing intent surged anew.
This power wasn't honed for your sake.
The Monster User seemed to have an Appraisal Stone of his own.
A higher-level one than mine, at that.
The chill I'd felt the first time we met—it apparently came from being Appraised.
He must have Appraised me, discovered I had the Weapon Forging skill, and decided to bind me this way.
I would forge until my MP ran out.
Once my MP was gone, I couldn't forge again until it recovered.
During that time, I secretly trained myself.
I'd been given a small hut—a converted village storehouse.
It was cramped, since it had originally been a small storage building.
And because the Monster User's hold over me was so absolute, there were no guards watching me.
That spoke volumes about how much he trusted his own ability.
I did bodyweight exercises in the tight space.
Push-ups, sit-ups, back extensions, squats.
I didn't expect these alone to make a real difference.
But even a little improvement was worth something.
I had no intention of staying under the Monster User's command forever.
Someday, I would kill him.
I just didn't have a way to break free of his curse yet.
But I would wait for my chance.
And when that chance came, I needed to be a little stronger.
Otherwise, I might squander the one opportunity I'd get.
Honestly, I didn't even know if such a chance would ever come.
But I clung to that sliver of hope.
I refused to give up.
Until that chance arrived, I would keep this killing intent and hatred burning.
Dreaming that one day those flames would consume him entirely.