I Became a Goblin Ancestor

Born as the son of the goblin Great Chief, living for over a decade.

Enduring the confinement, contempt, and mockery I suffered for the past decade or so, participating in the Great Chief test, and reaching this peak now – there were really many things that happened.

Perhaps the previous Great Chief, my mother, judged that I wouldn’t be able to grasp the qualification anyway and pushed me into the test under the pretext of duty, intending to at least severely injure me or take my life, but I overcame all of that with my strength alone and finally came here.

“It was really tough.”

The five Great Chief candidates other than myself, who were selected as the most talented in the village.

They seemed to try to kill me before taking the test, competing among themselves, and unleashed all sorts of sabotage, but I pushed through them with all my might and took their necks.

Even if they say the method was cowardly, petty, and dirty, what can those who are already dead say?

Since there was no one left in this test site who could spit out words of insult at me, I let out a sneer with no one to hear and focused my gaze on the goblin club stuck in front of me.

“Whew……”

And as I quietly stared at the club, waiting for the Great Chief ceremony she said she would start, a sigh escaped me without realizing it.

At that, the club chuckled and asked me.

『Are you nervous?』

“……I can’t help but be nervous.”

『Well… I suppose being honest is better than putting on unnecessary bravado. Then, sorry to ask while you’re nervous, but just in case, I’ll ask. You’ve already heard about and prepared for ‘what you have to give up’ to become the Great Chief, right?』

“Yes. I’ve already prepared.”

After a light question, another question follows.

It was a vague statement, so someone who didn’t know might not understand the question, but at least I knew what she meant by her question, so I nodded firmly when asked if I was prepared.

Actually, when I first heard about this condition from my mother, I really thought for a moment about giving up the position of Great Chief, but if I could become the Great Chief in exchange for giving up such a trivial thing, it was a cheap deal, so I had already made up my mind long ago.

And at my nod, she muttered that it was an excellent resolution and clearly stated that condition.

『By giving up your current gender and becoming a girl, you gain the qualification of Great Chief. If you’ve already prepared, there’s no need to ask further, I suppose.』

The thing that had to be given up and prepared for to become the Great Chief.

It was none other than giving up my current male self and becoming a girl.

When I heard about this condition, I was so shocked to learn that my mother was actually my father.

Of course, I had no intention of spending nights as a woman and having children to become a mother, as I was planning to exterminate the race the moment I became the Great Chief.

But apart from that, I had been constantly curious about why one had to become a girl to become the Great Chief, so I took this opportunity to ask her my question…

“I’d like to ask one thing, why exactly do you have to give up being male and become a girl to become the Great Chief? Wouldn’t it be better to choose a female goblin from the start?”

『Ah, that’s just this body’s preference. There’s no particular reason, so you don’t need to worry about it.』

“…I see.”

At this trivial reason I couldn’t have imagined, I barely managed to answer after a silence and inwardly let out a sigh.

I thought there might be reasons like a girl’s body could better accept the club’s energy, or it was a rule set from ancient times, but the reason for having to become a girl was just this.

However, given my position of needing to become the Great Chief right now with her power, I couldn’t voice such thoughts aloud.

And as I maintained this awkward silence and waited, how much time had passed when suddenly a small light emitted from the goblin club, and that light slowly began to dye the inside of the cave where she and I were with a golden color.

『Good, at this rate, the preparation for the ceremony will be completely finished in about 5 minutes. Then, while we wait for the preparation to finish, would you mind being this body’s conversation partner for a while since it’s boring?』

“Well, sure… I’ll have to be with you for about a hundred years anyway until the next Great Chief candidate comes along. I welcome conversation.”

To be precise, there won’t be any more goblins participating in the test as future Great Chief candidates, let alone the goblin race itself, but I hid such words under my tongue and expressed my acceptance of her request.

If the goblin race becomes extinct, I’ll really be spending a long time with her, the goblin club, so building a rapport by having conversations from now on wouldn’t be in vain.

So when I nodded, she expressed a small thanks and started to break the ice first.

『Whether it’s the original world before it was destroyed ten years ago, or this new world we’ve come to, living in the peaceful mountains is the same, but when I occasionally hear stories from your mother, the previous Great Chief, it seems that in this new world, monsters pour out from things called ‘gates’? By any chance, do you, Yeon, know well about these gates?』

“Ah, if it’s that, I’ve certainly heard my mother mention it occasionally too.”

The gates she mentioned were indeed something I had heard my mother talk about from time to time.

We also came through a gate and settled in this world, but that was just a trade using our power, our mystery, as payment. Normally, the things that pop out of gates are all monsters without any intelligence, she said.

And those who stop them are humans with the power of ability, called Hunters.

In the world where our goblin tribe originally existed, humans were all weaklings without even strong powers, let alone abilities, but here, even powerless humans seemed to be stronger than most spirits by borrowing the power of tools.

However, these bits of knowledge were just fragments I had picked up from what my mother said, and I had never actually seen these human Hunters or their society, so I had to continue with a small apology.

“I’ve heard my mother talk about it, but I’ve never been outside myself. So I barely know anything, let alone know well.”

『I see… Indeed, the goblin race is so closed off and rare that you wouldn’t have had a chance to go outside. You, Shin-yeon, were in the same situation as this body.』

“Well, I suppose so. But from what I know, I heard that the goblin club can only separate its spirit from the club body, so haven’t you been able to wander around outside?”

『That’s not wrong, but even if I separate my spirit from this body, I can’t go far from the club that is my main body, so the limit was just occasionally wandering around outside the mountain. I know how the humans of this world have developed and live, but I’ve never seen those things called gates.』

“Ah, so that’s why.”

When I asked out of curiosity, knowing that she could wander outside, sure enough, the answer that came back from her was quite a disappointing one.

It’s true that she can wander outside, but she can’t see what she’s curious about.

It was completely like a dog on a leash, to the point where my situation of not being able to go outside at all seemed better.

‘Hmm… Maybe not.’

No… On second thought, my situation of not being able to go out at all and suffering to death seemed even worse.

But after this Q&A, that wasn’t the important thing, so I cleared unnecessary thoughts from my mind and gathered my wits, and looked around the inside of the cave, which was now filled with golden light to a different dimension than before.

Charreung—

“Wow……”

『Ah, it seems the preparation for the ceremony is completely finished now.』

Even without hearing her words, I could tell that the preparation for the ceremony was finished just by looking at this scene.

I had seen gold a few times in my life, but was it because these golden colors filling the cave were emitting light? It was a golden light that made mere gold embarrassing to even compare.

And the sight of those lights falling like snow inside the cave was truly a scene of indescribable beauty.

Perhaps if she hadn’t held my attention, I might have been lost in a daze for half an hour.

『Shin-yeon! Gather your wits. I’m really going to perform the ceremony now.』

“Ah, right. The ceremony… I was lost in thought without realizing it.”

『Well, it’s common to be mesmerized by this beautiful sight. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.』

I was here waiting with her to pass the Great Chief test and become the Great Chief.

Now that the preparation for the ceremony was finished, all I had to do was grab her and finally receive the ceremony in this body, so I soon put away my embarrassed face and slowly raised my hand to her.

Tup—

『Keep your hand raised like that. Soon changes will start to occur inside your body, and from then on, it’s a ceremony that takes a full half day.』

“Okay.”

Indeed, is this what it means to be a goblin club? The sensation I felt from the moment I raised my hand was fundamentally different from ordinary objects.

It felt as if I and she were becoming one as the Great Chief.

And at her words to maintain a stationary position when the changes begin, with my hand raised, I quickly sat down cross-legged in place, maintaining the most comfortable position possible, and placed my other hand on the handle of the club as well.

If I had to maintain a stationary position for half a day, sitting would be the most comfortable, and since the goblin club was unexpectedly not that big, only reaching my chest even when I sat cross-legged, it was something I could do.

『Good, that’s a wise choice.』

She praised me for my actions, saying it was good behavior.

However, such praise soon became hard to hear as my consciousness began to narrow, as if focusing on something.

As she said, as the feeling that something was slowly changing began to rise from within my body, my field of consciousness began to narrow.

And feeling such changes, I conversely took in the scenery outside, shining through the entrance from where I sat in the cave.

‘It’s beautiful.’

Just like the golden light filling the cave, the deep blue light shining from outside seems to create a harmony with nature.

‘……’

No, that can’t be.

For a moment, I denied the thought that had unconsciously crossed my mind in my dazed state, after a brief pause.

Such an unnatural blue light in nature?

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t consider the light outside to be natural, and I opened my eyes wide.

But having already started the ceremony and begun to feel the changes in my body, I couldn’t move to check the identity of that light.

I was only allowed to quietly observe.

And perhaps it seemed strange that I was staring outside with my eyes open as if surprised, soon she, who was conducting the ceremony, took a moment to look outside following my gaze, and.

『That light is…?』

That one sentence was the last voice in my memory.