Goblin Slayer's day had started off like any other for him: woke up in the early wee-hours of the morning, completed his thorough inspection of the farm that Cow Girl and her uncle allowed for him to live on, and had his breakfast with her before heading through the countryside to take the road down to town. Having already prepared for the day the night before by packing his tools and weapons he would need for whatever he would need in his future endeavors, Goblin Slayer was carrying his rolled-up leather pack over his shoulder as he walked along the dirt road with nothing but the beautiful fields of various crops belonging to the neighboring farmers for as far as the eye could see.
He was a minimalist by nature, and didn't have much to look forward to except for meeting with his party at the Adventurer's Guild. However, his eight o'clock morning walk to town whenever the weather was clear and blue, with hardly a cloud in the sky; just the way he liked it. It wasn't until Goblin Slayer made his way further down the beaten path when the farmland began to transition into woods did his relaxing stroll turn into that of paranoia.
Walking underneath the shade of the branches full of green leaves from the nearby pine trees that grew alongside the path, Goblin Slayer could tell that there was a certain electric tension in the air that hadn't been there previously. Coupled with the realization that there were no birds singing their songs, nor any bugs chirping in what should have been the noisiest part of his journey, Goblin Slayer was feeling teamed and on high alert as he reached for the handle of his sheathed short sword.
Growing silent as his red eye through his helmet's face visor radiated with crimson light, Goblin Slayer remained perfectly still until finally detecting the presence of the invisible and tall figure who had been leering at him the moment he entered through the woods. "Reveal yourself, I know you're cloaked," Goblin Slayer commanded in his usual stoic and deep voice, as he immediately pulled his short sword out of his leather scabbard.
Extending his arm out with the tip of his short blade reaching upward at the spot in the air where he hoped whoever he had thought he caught spying on him was standing, Goblin Slayer remained steadfast and silent as he watched as a white-skinned woman with long-silky hair and horns materialized out of thin-air; a black geometric aura dispersing from her tall form, as she stood over him with an impressed look on her mystifying and serene face.
"Ah… So it's true then… You're the anomaly of this world that my clan has spoken of, only through rumors," the pale woman spoke in an angelic and wise voice; one that Goblin Slayer had heard plenty of times from those who thought highly of themselves. "That's quite the beautiful eye you have there… Please, allow me to show you mine," the mysterious woman said, before suddenly unveiling the sideways black and red eye that opened up in the middle of her smooth forehead.
Although the sight of the otherworldly red eye looking down at him with several black rings and markings on it was an off putting sight for him to behold, Goblin Slayer remained unflinching and courageous as he kept his sword raised toward the woman's slender neck. "I have no knowledge of anything in which you speak of. All that I do know is that you were attempting to hide yourself from the naked eye… Usually, those who cast invisibility spells often have nefarious reasons to use them… Unless, it is of course used to infiltrate goblin nests, in which case that is completely understandable."
For a moment, the mysterious pale woman seemed to be caught off guard by the way the fully armored man spoke, but after only a moment of thinking to herself, it became clear to her as to what he was talking about. "Ah… You believe that I am a witch? One that casts spells and uses incantations? And goblins, you say? Heh… Am I to believe that mere goblins are the bane of your existence?"
"Goblins are the bane of existence in general; they shouldn't be allowed to exist at all. They're nothing more than serial rapists who murder, pillage, and take from the innocent," Goblin Slayer declared with a hateful tone behind his words; one that immediately sparked an idea within the woman's head.
"From the way you describe them, the goblins of this world seem to be a far cry from those I've had run-ins with before… If they are such a blight to you and everyone who you surely wish to protect, then perhaps it would be wise for you to lower your weapon, for I have a proposal for you that would greatly benefit your interest," the woman said with a calm and neutral expression across her soft red lips.
Something inside of him was screaming at him not to trust the woman before him, as if every ounce of his very soul was conveying to him that she was not to be trusted. "… You could be attempting to deceive me, in order for me to let down my guard. Why should I trust a witch, especially one that tried spying on me?"
Letting out a condescending and dry laugh, one that lacked any sense of joy or humor in it as she remained completely stone faced, the woman found Goblin Slayer's assumption that he posed a threat to her to be ridiculous. "I thought I already made it clear to you that I am not a witch. I am Princess Kaguya Ötsutsuki, and if I had malevolent intentions with you, then I would have killed you and that red headed woman who you were having breakfast with this morning," Kaguya stated; revealing to Goblin Slayer that she had been watching him for longer than he assumed. "I only asked for you to lower your weapon away from my face, but it's distracting you, and bothering me."
Although he wasn't going to lose his composure, Goblin Slayer wasn't at all willing to gloss over the fact that Kaguya had been stalking him. "And what right do you have to violate the privacy of others? I won't allow you to speak of harming Cow Girl; even if you were speaking hypothetically," Goblin Slayer said protectively, while Kaguya suddenly lost her stoic facade the moment she heard the name of the large breasted farm girl she saw earlier.
"… Excuse me, WHAT?! Did you just call your own friend "Cow Girl"?! How…! H-How misogynistic of you!" Kaguya scolded with her small white eyebrows furrowed, as she immediately slapped the short sword out of Goblin Slayer's hand with enough force to shatter its blade, as the handle flew out of his armored hand and into the faroff bushes. "You speak ill of my character, yet you insult your own friend by calling her a cow?! And for what?! The size of her breasts, you sexist pig?!"
Having not expected for it to be possible for anything to have moved as lightning fast as Kaguya's hand had done, Goblin Slayer remained frozen to where he stood; looking up at the pissed off woman, while coming to the conclusion that she wasn't lying about being a mere witch. "… You're under the impression that "Cow Girl" is a cruel alias for her; perhaps one that plays off the size of her chest?" Goblin Slayer said in a calm manner, while subtly taking a step away from Kaguya, only for her to follow suit by taking a step closer to him. "Rest assured, that is the name she willingly goes by."
Unable to believe that someone would be named "Cow Girl" and be accepting of being called that for the rest of their life, Kaguya rolled all three of her eyes at Goblin Slayer. "I refuse to believe that answer. And what might your name be: "Knight Boy"?" Kaguya asked rhetorically with a heavy amount of sarcasm in her voice.
"No, my name is "Goblin Slayer"; I am to goblins as what they are to us," the man corrected, and remained still as Kaguya gave him a dumbfounded look.
"… You can't be serious. You mean to tell me that you've ALWAYS been called that? Since birth? And… A-And her as well?" Kaguya asked curiously with disbelief in her voice, to which Goblin Slayer nodded back in response. "What sort of cruel parents did you two have, to be given such demeaning names...?!"
"You're under the wrong impression. those names merely reflect our professions, and they're the ones we give out to those who we aren't close with," Goblin Slayer explained, while subtly shifting his hips, in order to loosen up a scroll he had tucked away underneath the leather pouch he kept on back of his belt.
Opening her eyes while everything about their names was becoming clearer to her, Kaguya was able to recompense her once she was reassured that the person who she would be making an accord with wasn't a despicable person. "That… That makes more sense… Now, where was I…? Ah, yes, my offer to you," Kaguya said aloud, while trying to once again get back on track to what she wanted to speak about in the first place.
"You will come with me, and slay the rest of my clan, so that I may stand unopposed by those traitors. In exchange, I shall rid this world of all of its goblin populace; the endeavor shouldn't take me longer than but a brief moment," Kaguya approximated with a graceful confidence in her voice, as Goblin Slayer watched as ten black orbs that were completely void of any light manifest themselves behind the pale-white woman. "Give me your word that you will be my champion, and I shall make your dream a reality at this very moment."
The deus ex machina solution that Kaguya was offering to his seemingly never-ending issue was tempting to say the least, but Goblin Slayer was able to have enough foresight to realize when something that sounded too good to be true, it usually leads to disappointment. "What help could I possibly offer to you? If you're capable of performing such a miracle at a whim, then why do you need someone like me?" Goblin Slayer asked with a distrusting voice, all the while slowly lowering his hand back; being ready to activate the deflection ward sealed into his hidden scroll at a moment's notice.
Curling her red lips into a promiscuous smile, Kaguya slowly raised her hand up to grab a hold of Goblin Slayer's helmet; caressing the side of his metallic visor like one would do when showing affection to their beloved. "You don't understand your importance, do you? You operate outside of the chains of destiny themselves. Your existence is not beholden to the control of outside forces, such as fate or even the effects of my Rinne-Sharingan…"
"… Your ignorance of my power comes solely from what I've just explained. If you weren't special, there wouldn't be any need of me to ask anything from you," Kaguya explained; having purposefully chosen an area along Goblin Slayer's usual route that blocked his view of the sky, Kaguya had activate her Infinite Tsukiyomi genjutsu above the treetops of the forest. Planning on using everyone in his world as hostages if he were to refuse her offer, Kaguya had no intentions of leaving empty handed.
"Help me put an end to the evil of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, and I shall end the existence of every goblin in your world… What do you say, Goblin Slayer? What do you have to lose?" Kaguya asked with her smile curling upward slightly; knowing in the back of her head that, contrary to what she had said, Goblin Slayer had EVERYTHING to lose.
Even though the same voice inside of him that was telling him to distrust Kaguya was still calling out for him to refuse her offer, Goblin Slayer's hatred for goblins burned brighter than his intuition. "… Okay," Goblin Slayer replied in a calm voice that almost sounded like he was bored with what she had to offer.
Having been expecting for a far more dramatic reaction, one that would reveal inner conflict or warrant a speech, Kaguya's smile dropped and she was once again left stunned by how lackadaisical Goblin Slayer had sounded. "That's… T-That's it? I offer you the chance of a lifetime, one that will put your life in danger, and all you have to say to that is "okay"? Really? That's IT?!" Kaguya shouted with a flabbergasted voice, as she was growing frustrated with how underwhelmed Goblin Slayer was while in her divine presence.
"… Yes," Goblin Slayer replied with the same indifferent and deep voice of his that was becoming irritating to someone who was more used to extreme behavior like Kaguya was. "Before I embark to complete my end of the accord, I must tell my friends that I'll be gone. They surely will be asking to come with me… Tell me, am I permitted to bring my party along for the journey?"
Considering the benefits and drawbacks of having to bring even more of his friends along with her, Kaguya couldn't help but to respect Goblin Slayer for bartering for more than what she had originally planned on exchanging with him. "… You can bring them with you for company, I suppose. But unless you have a death wish for them, perhaps it would be best for them to find quarters in the village of Konohagakure while you're out vanquishing my evil clan. I shall provide you with everything you need, including allies as well. Once you've completed your end of the deal, you'll be allowed to return home with your friends, if that's what you desire."
"… I see. Okay," Goblin Slayer said, once again unintentionally ticking Kaguya off, to the point where she was beginning to feel tempted to smack his helmet clean off his head, just to get an actual reaction out of him.
"… You have until sunset to bring who you want with you, and tie up your affairs: I'll be waiting for you near Cow Girl's farm. By the way… I challenge you to find a single being with green skin at all in this world within that time period: you won't," Kaguya declared proudly, while secretly hoping for some sort of emotional reaction from Goblin Slayer.
Wanting more than anything to believe what Kaguya had said to be true, Goblin Slayer remained skeptical of the idea that someone was capable of slaying that many goblins with such ease; especially when claiming to do so without any irrefutable proof. … "If what you say is true, then I shall be eternally indebted to you. I will take you up on your challenge, and see if there are any goblins left to slay. Until then, I shall see you when the sun sets over the farm," Goblin Slayer said as his departing words, before beginning to turn his back on Kaguya.
Although she should have been content with how well things had panned out for her, Kaguya couldn't help but to feel her burning curiosity of wanting to know what Goblin Slayer looked like before he left her company. 'He's had that helmet on even during breakfast… What if he's disfigured, or not even human?' Kaguya wondered to herself, before suddenly reaching out to grab Goblin Slayer by his shoulder from behind; ending the Infinite Tsukuyomi before he had a chance to see a glimmer of it through the parted branches just down the path.
"Wait… Before you take your leave, I… I have but one request from you; one that doesn't necessarily lean on the balance of any dire circumstances, it's one that would merely satiate my curiosity," Kaguya explained, while Goblin Slayer simply turned back around to give her his undivided attention. "May you… May you remove your helmet? I would very much appreciate it if I knew what my champion looks like, as opposed to you merely just being a faceless tool."
"… Okay," Goblin Slayer replied, as he reached up with his armored fingers to delicately loosen the latches that kept his iron helmet secured. Pulling it up and off of his head, Goblin Slayer revealed to Kaguya his beautiful and masculine face; his alluring scarlet eyes, and gray bangs that hung over them, along with the rest of his full head of messy medium-short hair.
Having not expected at all for Goblin Slayer to be as breathtakingly handsome and eye-catching as he was, Kaguya's wise and enigmatic composure follied. With her byakugan eyes opening up wide, Kaguya's once pale face was beginning to turn crimson with how hard she was blushing; reminding her of the time she was bested by Naruto, when he used a "Reverse Harem Jutsu" on her. "I… I-I… I shall see you later, Goblin Slayer; f-farewell…!" Kaguya stuttered out with a frantic tone in her voice, as she immediately covered her blushing face before vanishing before his very eyes within less than a nanosecond.
Confused as to why she was in such a hurry to leave, Goblin Slayer decided to not give it much thought, as he figured she probably had things to do other than just wait for him to fact check her previous claim of having just eradicated the entire goblin species. "… What an odd woman," Goblin Slayer said to himself, before reaching behind him to tuck the scroll he had loosened from his back pouch; shoving it back between his back chain mail and leather pack, incase there came a time where he needed to use it against a powerful spellcaster.
Only stopping to unwrap his rolled up leather satchel to replace the sword short Kaguya had broken earlier, once Goblin Slayer was finished preparing himself for the rest of the short journey down the dirt road, he slid his armored arm through the leather strap of his rolled up pack, before beginning to once again make his way down to town, and to where his party members were waiting for him at the Adventurer's Guild.