Book 8 ch 2-Goodbye, and thanks for all the dead goblins.

The boat docked at the nearest port, from there Goblin Slayer made his way across fields and towns, cities and villages on his path towards Slayer Keep, every single one of them was in a state of mourning with half flags, somber horns at sunset, with ashen faced men and women wearing black fabric attached to their working clothes.

Goblin Slayer once more remained silent at that, not telling anyone that he was him, he knew that they would not believe him anyway, that much he had grown as a person in his time with Slayer Keep.

His journey took much longer than usual, he took detours every time he saw telltale signs of wandering, nestles goblins, but even with these pitiful prey he noticed that his strikes that where once sure kills where now just crippling shots.

Goblin Slayer was tiring earlier than before and could fight for less time, the time in the lake of blood had taken its toll on him.

"Already, already..." Goblin Slayer said in lamentation to himself as he finally arrived at Slayer Keep and found that it was mostly empty, all of them where gathered on the path that lead to it and they were unveiling something.

"We have come here today to honor our founder and leader." Warrior said as he pulled of the cloth revealing that it was a statue of Goblin Slayer sitting on a blanket, polishing a piece of equipment as two dozen other things lay about that blanket, making an action that Goblin Slayer had done countless times in the past.

Goblin Slayer looked at them from the entrance of Slayer Keep, down at the foothill where the gathered group was.

"The first time I met him it was our first adventure, he appeared behind me seemingly out of nowhere and before we even started on the first quest he took us to the market and bought out of his own coin the equipment that me, Priestess, Mage and Fighter needed to actually survive and win in that cave. He bought them just like that to complete strangers. It was an incredible gesture of generosity on his part, but it was also after he all bluntly called us unprepared and unequipped for a low level starter quest, so the gratitude was also unbalanced by his very, very weird behavior. The guy had no filter if you sucked then he told you that you sucked, and then he told you how to not suck and even help you accomplish that. " Warrior said in bittersweet tone as the whole crowd of adventurers gave a bitter sweet giggle.

"It's funny, at one point we all expected that we might die in an adventure, but not Orcbolg, he always had a potion or piece of equipment that was used in a crazy way to make us escape death itself, and no matter what happened he always came out walking at the end of almost anything. I think that everyone one of us thought that Orcbolg would not die, that he was to pig headed to do so. Sometimes when I look at Slayer Keep I imagine that I'll see Orcblog theEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" High Elf Archer said and let out a screech of shock as she pointed a trembling hand in the direction of the entrance of Slayer Keep.

One by one, the Slayer all gaze to where she was pointed at and then they saw him.

Silence reigned the group as they all stared at the impossible.

"Tadaimasu." Goblin Slayer said like it was nothing, that was when the spell was broken.

Only one person in the world could treat such a feat as if it was nothing.

The massive group of adventurers all ran at him, but they were all beaten to the punch as Warrior, Priestess, Fighter, Wizard, High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, Lizard Priest, Sky Queen all reached him first and swarmed him.

Tears of disbelief where on their eyes as they hugged him in disbelief.

"You big idiot! Why didn't you say you were alive?! What took you so long?" High Elf Archer shouted and for once the entire group of adventurers was in agreement with her.

At that Goblin Slayer started telling them of what happened in the Demon Realm, in his dreams, the lake of blood, how he crossed the desert and reached Slayer Keep by traveling through the Commonwealth.

"It's great to have you back boss! Now Slayer Keep has its leader back!" Warrior said with glee.

"It already had it, or rather it had its current leader." Goblin Slayer said and looked to Priestess, by their line of succession from the chain of command she was no in charge and had been for the past 3 months following Goblin Slayer's disappearance.

"W-what! N-no! Goblin Slayer-san you're our commander!" Priestess said in protest.

"That's right! Stop being so block headed!" High Elf Archer replied.

"There is but one true man that we follow and that is you boss!" Warrior said in protest and the entirety of Slayer Keep agreed

"Elf, lass, boy, everyone, let the man speak." Dwarf Shaman replied as Lizard Priest and Sky Queen nodded in agreement, the more seasoned elements of the Keep had saw what the rest either could not see or didn't want to see.

At that Goblin Slayer held out his extended palm and tried to hold it at level, but it just kept trembling, not much, but enough.

That silenced every single present adventurer.

"That battle, that Rat God, I survived it, but it was not cheap, he broke things in me that are not fully healed, that can never be truly healed again. On the way here I killed a few wandering goblin groups. They were foes that...that gave me trouble, when before the Rat God they would have been routine...I can't do it anymore, lead the Keep, be the Grand Marshall, go on quests, train the new recruits, at least not all of them, not anymore. So from now on I'm only going to focus on training the new recruits, it took me 5 years to become a rookie and another 5 to become a fully formed adventurer. I need to start now and I just can't multitask anymore, I can barely single task as it is." Goblin Slayer said as he looked at his trembling hand.

"Sooner or later winter comes for all. But from it spring appears, HEY CHILDREN GET OVER HERE!" Cow Girl shouted and from the nearby village hundreds of children, humans and Demi's all scrambled to Sky Queen's call.

"Who are they?" Goblin Slayer asked.

"Orphans from these chaotic times, they would have starved, but Sky Queen's flying horde gathered them over time as we returned from that whole skaven wedding fiasco. They are mine now, or rather ours now. Children, this my husband Goblin Slayer, returned from death and chaos, he'll be training you how to become strong and wise when you're big." Cow Girl said and the children all gathered around Goblin Slayer in fascination at the new father figure in their lives.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all." Goblin Slayer said and shook hands with each and every one of them, and despite his general awkwardness he was seemingly good with children as the orphans all took a liking to him.

"I've prepared a scenario for this day and it saddens me that it has come so soon. I suggest that you declare yourself the Grand Master of the Order of Slayer Keep. This rank will make you still retired but day to day activity will be performed by the Queen or King of Slayer Keep. Once Priestess feels that she must also retire then she will also receive the rank of Master of the Order, and each successive master will form a council that will advise, carry out and protect the King or Queen of the Keep." Wizard said, laying out her organizational schematic.

"Tono, I would advise you to keep your title of Grand Marshall from the High King, it will make things easier for us if our most renown member has such a rank." Noble Fighter advised.

"We should also send word that we acknowledge Master Slayer as the Grand Master the Slayer Keep of Eight Peaks by the Sea, and the same for the Order Slayers of the Sea tribes. We don't want there to be problems down the line and having the future leaders of the orders fight with each other for a title." Sky Queen added.

"Agreed, but before that there's one thing we must do and it's of the utmost importance." Goblin Slayer said and the group became silent at that, what could be so important that Goblin Slayer considered it top priority.

"And what's that?" High Elf Archer asked with dread, flashbacks of goblin guts coming back to haunt her.

"Have a party." Goblin Slayer said and the entire Slayer Order was silent from surprise.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?

They all exclaimed.

"Are you sick?" High Elf Archer asked.

"No visible head trauma." Wizard said examining Goblin Slayer.

"What did you say something like that Slayer-san? Are you allright?" Priestess asked in concern.

"Yes, I am fine, no head trauma or disease." Goblin Slayer replied.

"Then why did you say something like that?" Warrior asked and the whole of Slayer Keep nodded, wanting to know the answer.

"You all said that I needed to have more fun, now that I'm retired I can do so." Goblin Slayer replied and a wave of incredulous surprise washed over them all.

"B-Beard Cutter has decided to take it easy and have more fun!" Dwarf Shaman said in disbelief.

"We have witnessed a miracle!" Priestess said as tears streamed down her eyes, the rest of Slayer Keep nodded in agreed as they two cried and offered a prayer of thanks to the Gods.

"Why am I always surrounded by so weird people? Why can't they be normal like me?" Goblin Slayer wondered in his mind, but that did not last, he now had new things to do with his life.

And the first thing was for him to take of his helmet and look at his friends and comrades, his new apprentices and to the sky above.

"This helmet feels, like it's time for me to not wear it so much." Goblin Slayer said as he continued to look at the sky as his souls was healed a bit more, perhaps fully from past trauma.

And though he could not see her, Goblin Slayer was sure that his sister was smiling with joy at him.

The sky was clear that day, soon it would be cloudy as peaceful times never last, one day the horrors of goblins and demons would return.

But not today, today even Goblin Slayer could look up and say:

"It's a beautiful day."