"So basically," Ryuji said slowly, seated in the main hall of his fortress and looking at the boy in front of him, "most if the adventurers are orphans or children from families that can't afford to feed them. They learn some swordsmanship, grab whatever broken weapons they can find, and then either join the army or become adventurers. And the nobles and kings don't care about your lives at all. As long as you don't steal from them, it doesn't matter."
The boy nodded.
Ryuji roughly understood the situation in the Goblin Slayer world now. It finally explained why so many adventurers met miserable ends and ended up as nothing more than breeding stock for goblins.
To put it simply, it was completely different from the anime depiction, where everyone wore shiny armor and possessed solid combat skills, only dying because of carelessness.
In reality, most people sent to hunt goblins were like the boy in front of him: orphans since childhood, never having enough to eat, wielding poor-quality weapons, and lacking any form of systematic training.
The kingdoms in that world had likely abandoned these low-income populations due to financial collapse.
The kingdoms still controlled high-level combat power. Even if goblins ran rampant, as long as their numbers weren't in the hundreds of thousands, it wasn't a big problem. Sending out a few experts could easily clear them out.
As for goblin kings, goblin champions, etc., they were no match for the powerful individuals under the kingdoms' control.
Therefore, low-level goblins, which even slightly trained farmers could defeat, naturally weren't a major issue. They could even serve as a filter.
Adventurers who managed to struggle out of these low-level missions were worth recruiting. Those who died on such missions were just trash, not worth attention.
And frankly, there wasn't enough money to care even if they wanted to.
From the boy's account, Ryuji learned that the Demon King's army was currently putting pressure on the kingdom. Basically, if you didn't become an adventurer, you had to join the army. While the army's benefits and treatment were good, incidents of unpaid compensation had already occurred.
Under such circumstances, there was simply no capacity to provide defensive infrastructure for remote villages.
Unless a high-level monster appeared, goblins could easily slip under the radar using the Goblin God's "cheating" methods.
And when enough rookies died, higher-ranked adventurers would eventually be dispatched to stabilize things.
On top of that, goblins were also enslaved and attacked by other monsters, even serving as food for some monsters, truly at the bottom of the food chain.
That was why, in the eyes of these adventurers, goblins weren't considered particularly powerful monster species.
Thus, the people of the Goblin Slayer world now faced two situations.
First, the sharp, powerful monsters that could kill them with one stab. On the other side were the goblins, sneaking in for a shallow cut that at most drew a drop of blood, but constantly repeating it.
Which to prioritize was obvious. And given the financial situation, Ryuji felt that even if they killed the Demon King as in the original plot, the kingdom might not have the funds for stability. Not undergoing a dynasty change would be considered divine blessing.
There was no way around it; economic problems are always the biggest problems.
If the kingdom were truly wealthy, the goblins in the Goblin Slayer world wouldn't be a problem at all. Sending groups of high-level adventurers to hunt goblins every now and then, and even the buff given by the Goblin God couldn't withstand that.
However, there was still one very sickening aspect of that world: as a playground for the gods, the Demon King could never disappear. The same went for high-level monsters.
Therefore, the sharp blade capable of destroying humanity always existed, and humanity naturally had no time to deal with the parasitic goblins that could undergo a qualitative change at any moment.
Ignore the Demon King, and everything ends in one sweep.
Ignore goblins, and they'd probably be wiped out during some future catastrophe anyway.
This was the situation humanity faced in the Goblin Slayer world.
"…Even so," Ryuji muttered, "your world is still pretty tragic."
He casually picked up a roasted leg of lamb and tossed it to the boy, who had been talking nonstop without getting a chance to eat.
Ryuji was a man of principles. He wasn't about to make someone work on an empty stomach.
Especially since these people also came to solve the problem. Even though they accidentally entered this world, their courage was commendable.
But now, the real problem was...
"The gods of that world couldn't possibly be unaware that goblins on this scale were far beyond what the Sword Maiden and her group could handle. So why send them here to die?" Ryuji muttered. "Was it because the dice roll came out wrong… or is there some deeper meaning?"
He looked down at the Scales Sword he had confiscated, curiosity flickering in his eyes.
Slowly, he drew the blade from its sheath and ran his fingers along the surface of the sword, which radiated a dense, sacred aura.
The Sword Maiden herself had already been locked in his room under guard. He planned to sleep with her later.
If this were any other world, Ryuji would never have acted so casually. But having stayed in this world for so long, Ryuji still hadn't realized that his urge to sleep with any woman he caught was somewhat abnormal.
Especially...
"Hmm?"
As Ryuji stroked the sword, an image of the Sword Maiden's voluptuous figure suddenly appeared before Ryuji's eyes, along with her blindfolded appearance similar to 2B's.
In reality, the Sword Maiden he held captive still wore her ponytail, and her eyes weren't blind. And yet, Ryuji's desire surged violently all the same. The urge overwhelmed him so abruptly that even though he had wanted to continue analyzing the gods of that world, he couldn't restrain himself.
He stood up.
As he walked through the opulent corridors, more and more images of the Sword Maiden flooded his mind in increasing detail: her kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath, and even scenes from the anime where her...
"Something's not right..."
Ryuji abruptly stopped at the door of his room.
He looked down at the Scales Sword he had been holding in his hand and frowned.
He keenly sensed that his desires were somewhat abnormal, yet he didn't feel anything influencing his will.
"What the hell is going on?"
Before he could think any further, the situation changed.
During the brief moment he paused to think, an aura of World Power flared from inside his room!
Ryuji's eyes widened.
He kicked the door open without hesitation.
Inside, he saw a slender figure writhing on the bed. Her hands were compulsively caressing her pussy, and her eyes had become vacant. Clearly, she had reached her limit.
And the source of the World Power...
Was from her vagina.
"…For fuck's sake."
At that moment, Ryuji finally understood just how excessive, how utterly shameless, the gods of the Goblin Slayer world truly were.
~~~~~~~~~~
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