Even though Zaitenmodi's responses had become considerably faster, to the point that I wondered if he actually did much aside from send me messages, the guide that he'd elected to send me would apparently take a few days to arrive.

  Whatever sort of guide it was.

  It didn't convince me to stop trying to grow haoma on my own in the meantime though.

  After all, even if it was flawless in terms of growing it in Naraka, the Lost was a whole different world.

  Terrans failed to grow anything here, so there was no reason to assume Narakans would be any different.

  Of course, I'd been referencing Terran guides by using the phone the guild had given me, but I used them more as a starting point than as an authority.

  To begin with, Terrans had an abundance of information and there was little certainty attached to any of it, so it wasn't something that could be thoughtlessly relied upon in the first place.

  And of course, there wasn't a single place on Terra that matched the Lost's unusual climate, never mind the particulars of its seemingly lifeless soil.

  Yup. Now that I had a microscope, I could finally confirm it.

  The Lost's soil had no life. In fact, it couldn't even sustain life, unless I mixed in various other materials.

  Burnt Lost wood and crushed leaves apparently worked as food for Terran microbes. Not being able to rely on the soil itself meant that gardening in the Lost would be a constant effort.

  They didn't seem to want to eat the Lost flora while it was intact. It wasn't as though they couldn't, but that it was just too difficult to be sustainable.

  Even bacteria is forced to weigh cost and benefit.

  ***

  Lilac's situation was quite strange.

  She'd come to many strange conclusions to try and explain it. Had she become a courtesan, or perhaps an advisor?

  But who was Kid?

  It wasn't impossible for a goblin to have such a human-like appearance. Actually, Lilac thought to one particular possibility.

  Goblins were monsters, entities whose biological existence was on par with a Skill.

  Thanks to that, even their genetic code was steeped in magic.

  That's how they could undergo metamorphoses, becoming hobgoblins, orcs, and eventually even ogres... although the ratio of goblins that did advance was quite small.

  In rare situations, it even let them breed with other lifeforms.

  Half-goblins.

  They were quite rare, yet Lilac had seen them before.

  Most were actually half-orcs, since that was the level of authority and power a goblin monster needed to obtain to have access to a ready supply of slaves for their own entertainment.

  Actual half-goblins were so unheard of that the term applied to those who had hobgoblin parentage rather than true goblin parentage.

  They could not advance.

  Lilac wasn't sure how she knew this, but she realized that she knew an awful lot about goblins, things she'd never realized had long become common sense to her, at least not until Kid started tutoring her.

  Half-goblins could never advance, but they could acquire Skills.

  Because they could not advance, all goblins understood their position in society as fixed. A half-orc was forever beneath the ogres. A half-goblin was forever beneath an orc.

  But because they could gain Skills, they quickly advanced in power up to that ceiling. Half-orcs were simply more valuable than ordinary orcs.

  Orcs who were accustomed to serving ogres could accept being rewarded for giving their masters a superior existence. Even those who ruled like small-time lords outside any ogre's authority could tolerate such an existence, and find a way to profit from it.

  But an ogre would never accept something as superior to itself.

  So there weren't any half-ogres.

  If there was ever a true half-goblin, that is with a goblin parent rather than a hobgoblin or an orc... such a child would still be at the bottom of the barrel in any but the smallest of tribes.

  Such a child could possibly even be viewed as a slave, rather than as a person like half-orcs are.

  Yet such an existence could eventually become superior to hobgoblins, orcs, and even ogres, but only as a slave. As a goblin, they would forever be the lowest existence, looked down on even more than other goblins for lacking the capability to advance as one.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  'Is my master a half-goblin?'

  It would explain why she lived alone, away from other goblins, and yet not far from what seemed to be a vast slave population.

  Why she was able to intermingle with other slaves when she needed to, and yet command authority.

  And to Lilac, for whom the supposedly innate superiority of the goblin races was conditioned into her, why she was a dungeon boss of all things.

  With those red eyes and her occasionally speaking of the Demon King with a casual familiarity, she understood who her non-goblin parents might be.

  'A half goblin... half demon...'

  Lilac inadvertently gulped when she realized the truth of her master's existence.

  Unaware that it was just a strange fantasy from a strange child.

  ***

  As I taught Lilac math, science, and the imperial language, as well as arts and chores, pretty much giving her the best equivalent to an atlantean education as I could muster, she occasionally taught me in return.

  I was hesitant about it at first.

  Her area of expertise seemed to be goblins and how to survive as one of their slaves.

  Of course, if I ever found myself enslaved by them, it could be undeniably valuable knowledge. Since I was an immortal existence, I couldn't simply rule it out, either.

  If goblins ever overcame humanity, they could someday rule Terra and the Lost.

  I doubted such a day would come anytime soon though, so I felt no pressure to learn about them from Lilac specifically.

  If anything, I'd originally felt that I should avoid the topic, not wanting to uncover old wounds...

  But the girl only seemed happy to help.

  So I realized that she wasn't some pitiful creature that had been freshly traumatized.

  She'd been a slave to those creatures for so long that she struggled to imagine any other way of life.

  If goblins ever did beat humanity, me striving so hard to show her freedom might ultimately become a form of abuse. I couldn't say she seemed happy with her lot in life, even now she was often fearful in ways that were heartbreakingly tragic... but at least she didn't realize how miserable she was.

  I felt conflicted.

  Truthfully, I was unhappy with myself for simply taking on such a burden without considering what could come of it.

  The moment she spoke Lost, a language that ought to have died a very long time ago, I should have realized how difficult of a situation it'd be. I should have just let the Terrans take care of her.

  Imperials, at least, seem to think of themselves quite highly for being charitable. It wouldn't have been a bad life.

  'No... I probably took her in because I realized what she might be...'

  This kind of sentimentality was probably why I always got myself betrayed in these survivable sort of worlds.

  Anyway, what she taught me wasn't going to be all that useful, because I'd have to ensure she never ended up in their control ever again.

  But she seemed awfully happy to be the one teaching, so I didn't let any presumption of the lesson's practical value affect my enthusiasm to learn everything she knew.

  Perhaps categorizing everything in a logical and rational way would eventually help her break free of her conditioning, too.

  I just hoped she didn't suffer too much when she did.

  ***

  As a small reward to Lilac for all of her recent growth, we went back to Terra the next time it snowed.

  Savi stayed back at the cave. She wanted to continue some of the material studies I was doing on the cave itself.

  This time, after getting dressed in our bulky winter clothing, which I'd since paid for despite Van's attempts to stop me, we went to an actual city park.

  "(It's very cold here...)" Lilac said.

  Her speaking her mind had once been quite rare, but it was gradually happening more and more lately.

  "(We can go back if it's too cold,)" I answered her, reaching over to muss her hair up.

  She took it as an excuse to move closer to me.

  I didn't mind. If she really was too cold, my body heat at least could keep her a little warm until we got back.

  "(It's not too cold... it's just strange... oh, s-sorry.)"

  "(Sorry for what?)"

  "(Bothering you about it...!)"

  "(I'm not bothered, but you can bother me a little bit. That much is permitted, you know.)"

  For some reason, her face turned all red after that.

  But she didn't seem sick when I checked, so I guess she was just embarrassed.

  Immortal or not, unlike a fake like me, she really was just a child.

  "(I'll buy you more hot chocolate later,)" I promised her.

  But that seemed to just make her more flustered.

  "(Y-you don't have to..!)"

  'Of course I don't.'

  I also didn't have to spend the day playing with her and the few other kids who'd shown up to the park to play in the snow that day.

  But I still did.

  ***

  We made snowmen.

  One boy, more prepared than any of the rest of us, even brought stuff to dress them with. Oversized buttons, old scarfs, frozen carrots for their noses.

  He was awfully prepared.

  I accidentally ruffled his hair, being used to rewarding Lilac every time she did good.

  He turned so red that his friends laughed at him and had to apologize afterward. Even I laughed a little bit, and of course as the source of his embarrassment, I apologized too.

  "Sorry, sorry. I'm used to this child," I explained briefly, ruffling Lilac's hair with the certainty that she wouldn't be as bothered by it.

  Although... she turned red too, but all the kids had the good decency not to laugh at her for it.

  "Is she your little sister?"

  "Hmm... not exactly... but that's probably the simplest way to think of it for now..."

  "Huh? What's with that mysterious answer? Do you have middle schooler syndrome or something?"

  I wasn't sure what that was a reference to.

  But another kid answered for me.

  "She's a real dungeon boss, so... I don't think it's middle schooler syndrome for her... she really is just cool!"

  "Good point... hey, what's it like being a dungeon boss? How'd you become one, anyway?"

  I could just tell them, but death was usually a taboo topic to share with children of such prosperous times, so I simplified the details a bit.

  "I inherited it, I guess. I was the only one who could, so I became the boss by default. Lilac wasn't there when it happened, or she might have become the boss instead."

  In truth, if there was a way to make her the rightful boss of the Lost, I considered making that a long term goal.

  If she wanted it, anyway.

  In any case, we played with these good-natured children for a few hours.

  Children weren't so bad.

  Perhaps because their motives were often simpler and usually more honest, or perhaps because I didn't have to look up all the time just to see their faces, but I preferred them to adults.

  Though I felt out of place either way, no matter who I was with.

  And while I wasn't an adult myself, it also wasn't accurate to call me a child, so I quickly became akin to the older sister of the group. Not a guardian or adult per se, but still someone responsible.

  I ruthlessly used this responsibility to break up the group and send everyone home after they'd played long enough, not wanting any of these children to get sick after they'd so generously let us strangers play with them.

  Of course, Lilac and I went on our way home too.

  As I'd promised, I planned to get her a hot chocolate on the way.

  But plans never go the way they're meant to.