Husband of the Goblin Tribe

Chapter Twenty-two – In which Prima makes Ark an offer he can’t refuse, even if he is emotionally troubled by what it involved doing.

I woke up to being cared for by Prima. I figured out why I was so tired. It was mana exhaustion. Going crazy in remodeling Truffle’s room had managed to wipe me out. Usually when the mana of a human bottoms out, they fall unconscious for a few hours, and symptoms of a fever appear on the outside, while the inside of the body feels cold.

I’d experienced it a few times when first learning how to use magic, though for some reason it seemed to have been delayed for a while.

I can surmise that it was probably to do with the topaz more than anything. It’s not a vivid focus, so using land magic with it is like pushing a thick milkshake through a small straw. It takes a bit more effort to do so because of the low quality of the stone. On the other hand, if I had my white quartz focus orb, I could probably use land magic on the entirety of the breeding cave without even depleting half of my body’s base mana reserves.

There’s no convenient thing like HP or MP in this world, so mana has to be consciously checked. I had simply been, as my lovely main wife Prima would put it, a stupid Husband.

Most mana exhaustion runs its course in about a third of a day. The main reason why passing out happens is because the magic organ in the body is acting like an extra lung and forcing the body to go unconscious so it can take a few heaving gasps of mana. That is to say, there is something ever-present in the air of this world, much like an inert gas, and that is essentially mana.

But it’s volatile. It’s not like nitrogen, but more like methane. This is why magic is possible. It’s surmised in this way by many scholars and theorists, because magic goes boom. That also is exactly why I wanted to be a force magician. It’s not like formula magicians can’t go boom, but creating magical formulas is pretty much a ton of thinking and math and shit. I can’t calculate Pi to the one hundredth digit instantly on command. That’s for math geeks, and so are formulas.

The most I’m willing to calculate mentally is the quadratic equation, which means my formula magic skills are at like the entrant-to-intermediate stage. But enough rambling about magic. Right now it’s all about making an excuse. I overused magic, and because of that depletion I was yet again unable to keep my promise about one new goblin a night.

I explained why I had passed out to Prima, and that I was fine with being punished. But I did beg for something to eat and a lot of water to drink so I could get back into the swing of things for tonight at least.

Prima was willing to accept my explanation, not doling out a particular punishment, but instead saying she had a certain goblin she wanted me to handle tonight. I agreed to it readily, and also agreed not to use magic today in order to recharge my batteries to full. I’d handle Ivory’s room the following day. Prima would make sure I had torchlight if I needed and she let a much wanted pair of visitors come in to see me.

Berry along with Diana.

I had a good reason to put on my underwear and play bouncy with my daughter now. Did I do all sorts of dad things? I did. Dragon and horsey, and even some game where she tries to claw my hand. Welp, I wouldn’t be a good dad if I didn’t let her win a few, even if I have a few punctures on the back of my hands to show for it now. Dads are built tough, what can I say?

Not gonna lie though, I think Berry is a champ for being able to just go right at raising Diana with minimal help from the useless me. I don’t even want to know what parenthood without diapers is like. Berry’s room is immaculate, but I can’t help but think that’s because she’s always busy.

A true gobwife.

It was just a short visit, though. Berry was on the way out with Diana again to go hunting. But I was happy Prima let me have that visitation right now. I ended up taking a small nap again while Prima hunted something for me to eat. She came back and woke me up with fire meat and a full waterskin which I devoured earnestly. I was glad I could count on Prima for these kinds of things.

I was also introduced to the goblin she wanted me to meet.

Triangles. And no, that was not her name.

There is probably a great depth to this girl. She had braided greenish blue hair and a nice rounded nose, but the thing that stood out to me the most at first glance was that she had like small triangle tits and that’s the only thing my eyes decided to focus on from that point forward.

“And who is this one?”

“Born from same mother.”

Prima was introducing me to her sister, sort of. She didn’t say the same litter, only the same mother, so they had some kind of natural blood relation. There was also an answer to the reason Prima was always so quick to call someone stupid.

Her sister was stupid. Or to be politically correct here for non-goblins, this goblin had some kind of mental hiccup. I won’t say she’s retarded, just… she has that kind of slow look on her face, both similar and different to that of Truffle. Maybe behind those eyes she’s calculating, but she comes off as being slow to react and respond and not quick enough on the uptake that Prima would consider a goblin normal for being. This meant I was about to have a handicap romance with my wife’s sister.

“Is… she older or younger than you?”

“Prima from first. Stupid-one from third. Came out stupid.”

“Is there a sister from the second litter by chance?”

Prima just shook her head.

“Second all men. All men killed. Mother only goblins live.”

So no male goblins, children or otherwise, were spared at all when this tribal holocaust happened, and as far as siblings went, only Prima and her sister survived.

Okay, good to know.

“And you want me to give her big seed?”

“Not care how Husband do. Okay Husband need hit her.”

“I will not be hitting her.”

Prima shrugged off my response.

“Stupid-one not listen Husband, hold down, put big seed inside.”

Now, I had engaged in consensual rape the night before yesterday and I was perfectly fine with that, but this was another matter entirely. I wasn’t even sure if this goblin could consent. She remained a part of the pool of goblins I had yet to interact with that are on the to-do list, but now that I know she’s…

I’m not going to discriminate.

But I mean, this is one of those what the hell should I do? kind of things. Obviously people being treated as mentally handicapped, even if they are goblins, should have the opportunity to find love and be as normal as they can be… but we’re talking about stuffing enough virile seed inside of her without her even possibly knowing about the hell known as motherhood that will befall her. I mean, even Berry seems to be having a rough time with raising Diana… and she’s capable!

“Prima, what does she know about me giving her big seed?”

“Tell what need know. Husband put seed-stick inside, three moons pass, she have strong one.”

“Okay. Now how much of that does she actually understand?”

“What mean?”

“How prepared is she for what it means to be a mother? To have a strong one? Are you her support system? Can she hunt on her own? Do you hunt for her? Does she even have the first clue as to how to raise a strong one? About feeding it food, milk from her milkies, cleaning up after it?”

Prima frowned at me before yelling.

“All goblins get big seed!”

I returned the favor.

“Who is caring for the strong ones that come out of her?”

“Stupid-one! Need have strong ones. Even if stupid!”

If I wasn’t already suffering from mana exhaustion and had the makings of a headache, I’d have an actual headache right now.

“Where does she live in the cave?”

“Across Prima cave-hole.”

“Okay, so you are at least able to keep an eye on her. Can we take a field trip to her room, please?”

“Why Husband want go?”

“Just humor me, please.”

“Fine. Show Husband.”

I followed Prima along with the dimwitted goblin to her cave-hole and it was not good. Her room was a mess. Not an unkempt mess, but a nasty hoarding mess. There were bones that had pieces of rotting meat with maggots on them scattered all over, bed straw was strewn about all over the room, she had one of those bone-charm dolls that looked like it had been heavily gnawed on, and it was just pure atrocious living conditions here.

“Who looks after her?”

“Look after self.”

“Does she actually hunt?”

“Prima… take hunt…” The way Prima hesitated while saying it was both dubious and concerning.

This… was not good. This girl was not even remotely prepared for what it means to have a child.

And Prima fucking knew it.

The tightness in her face as she saw me make that judgment was clear, torchlight or not.

Yet, I could only lower my head and sigh.

“This is when I actually become a monster, Prima. I want you to know. There is no way she has any actual fucking clue what is going to happen to her.”

Prima was about to say something but I threw a hand up before her face, urging her to not say anything.

“I can only imagine you goblins have some kind of ridiculous immune system, because she should be dead from living in these horrible conditions. Now, I’ll put a strong one in her belly as you want, but you’re damning them both to a cruel life by making her a mother without a strong support system in place.”

Now, I speak from the heart here when it comes to this kind of thing. My youngest brother in my previous life was antisocial, and later diagnosed as being on the spectrum. He had things he liked, sure. He was good at video games, especially puzzle games, but only our mother was ever truly able to communicate with him at any real level. He’d come to the dinner table, but always kept his head down, eyes averted, and hardly ever talked with us–his siblings, or our father, and conversations often felt like they went over his head with how rarely, if ever, he had any input or opinion to contribute.

There was no lover in his life, and no visible future for him outside of his room and his computer.

He would have not made a good father, and that’s my opinion as his older brother. But, this is an opinion. I never got to see him become a father, and to the best of my knowledge when I died, he had never once had a sexual encounter, be it with a man or a woman.

Prima and her goblin sister only shared a near similar hair color, with her younger sister having more of a witchy-blue tint. Almost nothing else looked the same, so maybe I can reduce it further and say at the genetic level, they are possibly half-sisters and not much else.

“Prima, I can’t even sit down in this room… It’s… beyond my ability to. She’s clearly unfit to be living alone.”

Prima’s face tightened further.

“So, she’ll stay with me from now on.”

“Stay Husband?”

“Yes. We’ll clear this cave-hole out slowly. Have her only take the things she absolutely wants or needs to keep, and move her to my cave-hole for now. I’ll make a special room for her with my land magic, and I’ll look after her. If you’re going to put this kind of burden on your younger sister, then she needs to be cared for the entire time.”

I watched as Prima’s face softened a bit.

“But you’re going to help me prepare her for what’s going to happen. I don’t like the idea of just forcing myself on her. Can you give me that much to work with?”

“Prima tell other goblins not pick tonight. Understand because stupid-one only chance.”

It’s worth noting that her sister hadn’t spoken a single word to me up to this point. She was standing right there, and had to be listening to us talk, but that was it. As a goblin, she wasn’t particularly ugly or anything either, but I wasn’t exactly familiar enough with goblin appearances to note tell-tale signs of things like Down’s Syndrome, so as to what developmental issues she had, I had no way of knowing or diagnosing.

I just had to wing it, and do my best as I began setting in motion the events which would put a burden on her so heavy that the devil itself would build me an air-conditioned express elevator to the lowest ring of hell just for the thought alone of what I was about to do to her.

Squatting down enough so that we were at eye level, I took her hand in mine and asked her to pick her three favorite things in this cave-hole, and that from now on she would be staying with me in mine. She could take her time in picking, but only three things (for now), so they should be special and important to her.

She seemed to grasp what I was asking her to do at least, and she was able to look for the items she wanted on her own. One of them was the bone doll that had signs of being chewed on that I saw earlier. There was also a smooth round stone, and the last was a shiny metal spoon that had once been mine, and was likely one of the leftover spoils from my pack.

So, with those three things in hand, we departed from her filthy cave-hole for now, and moved back to mine. We had to snag Jewel along the way, but I wasn’t planning on going overboard with what I needed to make from magic. Just a small room big enough for her to live in.