Re-written date: 7 / 13 / 2025
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Chapter 51: The Ignorant Adventurer Party's Goblin Subjugation
Northern Territory – Winterhold
A fifteen-year-old blonde girl pushed open the doors to the Adventurers' Guild and walked straight toward the reception desk inside. The rowdy chatter of adventurers echoed throughout the hall, and with every step she took, her nerves tightened. Her grip on her staff grew just a bit firmer.
She wasn't from a wealthy or noble family—just a simple orphan raised by the church. Like all orphans, when she turned fifteen, she was released from the church's care and expected to choose her own path in life.
Unlike the others, however, the girl had always been blessed by the light. From a young age, she could channel the power of holy miracles by offering sincere prayers to the God of Light. Because of that, the church naturally extended an invitation for her to become a full-fledged sister, to remain safely within its walls for the rest of her life.
But she declined.
Instead of staying with the church, she chose to walk out into the world—alone—and set foot inside the Adventurers' Guild. Because ever since she was a child, she had a hidden dream: to become an adventurer.
Standing before the counter, and struggling a bit with her words, the young girl in her priestess robes said awkwardly, "U-um... I'd like to register... as an adventurer."
The receptionist, a woman with a kind smile, guided her through the registration process patiently. Once everything was done, she handed the girl a white porcelain adventurer's tag and smiled. "That completes your registration. I pray for your future success."
No sooner had she received her tag and turned to browse the request board, than someone called out to her.
She turned and saw three other young adventurers—one boy, two girls—all wearing white porcelain tags like hers.
The boy leading the group spoke first. "Hey, you're a priest, right? Our team's short on support. Want to come on a quest with us? Sorry it's so sudden, but it's an emergency request, and we really need all the help we can get."
"An emergency?" she asked.
"Yeah. Goblin extermination," the boy said firmly.
The receptionist behind the counter, hearing that, looked like she wanted to say something but held her tongue. The boy continued confidently, "Those damn goblins raided a village, stole food and livestock—and they kidnapped some girls. We've gotta rescue them before it's too late."
"You're all porcelain-ranked adventurers, right? Do you plan to go with just all four of you?" The receptionist finally spoke up. "That sounds dangerous. Can't you wait a bit longer? There might be other adventurers willing to team up—ideally someone with experience—"
But the young swordsman, clearly irritated by the interruption, snapped back, "Are you kidding? They're just goblins. Four people is plenty!"
The receptionist tried one last time. "Even so, it's best to bring someone more experienced for this kind of mission—"
"We don't have time to wait!" the boy cut her off sharply. "There are kidnapped girls waiting for someone to save them. We're not going to sit around and do nothing!"
Faced with such certainty, the receptionist had nothing more to say. She could only watch silently as the four young adventurers headed out.
Among them, the priestess girl—who'd somehow gotten pulled into this party—couldn't shake the sense of unease building in her chest. Like a shadow growing thicker with every step, a dark feeling clung to the group, refusing to leave.
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"Cut! That's the end of the first scene! Great job, everyone!"
Because the first scene took place entirely within the Adventurers' Guild, filming had been relatively straightforward. But things were about to get more complicated.
Soon after, the group made their way to a predetermined filming location in the nearby Nightshade Grove.
Although only the cast needed for this scene had been called, a bunch of other adventurers had tagged along anyway—curious and excited about the whole movie-making process, even if they didn't have lines.
At the entrance of the cave, Belldia and Viz—whom Edward hadn't seen for a few days—waved at him from afar. The area around them had changed drastically. After all, they had spent the past several days working non-stop to complete the location setup and props for Edward's production. Even the laziest workers would've made noticeable progress after that much time, and the site now looked completely different.
Thanks to the needs of the shoot, the place was now bustling with support staff assigned by Eliza. These included the props team, lighting crew, set designers, and more.
However, as soon as some of the northern adventurers spotted the headless knight—who naturally emitted a fear aura—they immediately went on alert. Unlike the southern adventurers, who might panic and flee from such an undead, the adventurers from the North lived with the mindset that they could run into a top-tier undead or magical beast at any moment. That meant they were far more likely to respond with an immediate all-out attack if they thought the threat was real.
In fact, if Edward hadn't quickly explained the misunderstanding, Belldia might've ended up getting hit with a surprise attack in the middle of setting things up.
Once things were cleared up, the filming resumed.
The scene being shot today involved the rookie adventurers charging into a goblin den, ignoring all warnings. Due to their inexperience, the entire party gets wiped out—except for the Priestess, who's rescued by Goblin Slayer. She then joins him in purging the remaining goblins.
It might sound straightforward, but the actual filming was far from easy. Many of the scenes were violent and bloody, and Edward had to rely heavily on clever camera angles to avoid making them too graphic. Thankfully, the original work was already very careful in that regard—rarely showing direct depictions of the slaughter. Edward only had to recall the visual language from the anime and recreate it.
However, the real challenge for this shoot wasn't the human actors—it was the extras playing the goblins. Getting people to act is one thing. Getting monsters to follow stage directions is an entirely different beast. It would've been just as hard as trying to make your pet cat do twenty backflips on command.
If Viz hadn't mentioned that liches could learn a spell called Puppet Magic—allowing them to control mentally weak monsters—Edward might've resorted to having people dress up in goblin suits instead.
Luckily, Viz had made impressive progress over the past few days. Watching the goblins now—lined up in formation at the cave entrance, quietly waiting for instructions—Edward was genuinely impressed. With a little more effort, he thought she might be able to open a traveling monster circus with Lawrence someday.
With the goblin issue resolved, the last major question was—
"I'm ready, Director."
The voice came from behind the helmet. It was Saeki, standing stiffly in his full armor. Maybe it was the nerves of being around so many people again, or the constant worry that his undead identity might be exposed. Whatever the reason, his movements were clearly tense and unnatural.
But Edward didn't see that as a flaw. In fact, it matched the character perfectly. The real Goblin Slayer was supposed to be a withdrawn, emotionally detached man. That air of discomfort Saeki had—Edward thought it suited the role better than any trained actor could have managed.
And it seemed the others agreed. The adventurers who had followed along to spectate and had read the script were stunned when they saw the fully armored figure walk onto the set. For a moment, some of them genuinely believed the real Goblin Slayer had stepped into their world.
Once the rookie adventurers and Daphne were in position, Edward took one last look at the cave, now dressed to meet his specifications, and gave the call.
"All right, everyone to your places—'Goblin Slayer' Act Two, ready to shoot!"