Chapter 1 – New Overlord

That bitch…

Myne and Motoyasu, they set me up. They just wanted to use me for my starting money and throw me away when they were done with me. And that's what they did. They even got me to throw away the silver I stored behind my shield. Well, why not give them everything, huh!?

It's not like anyone here believes me. The second I walked out of the castle, I heard the whispers. 'Rapist'. Everyone already heard about what Myne accused me of trying. News spreads fast here.

I shouldn't just be sitting here. I should be going out and getting XP and getting stronger…but I can't. My attack stat is crap.

"Psst!"

Heh. Maybe that's why they wanted to get rid of me. Since I can't level up properly, might as well throw me away. Well, I'll show them. All I need to do is fight in the Waves, right? Then I can go home.

"Psst!"

But that's going to be a long time from now, isn't it? I can just tell. It's nearly night on my third day here, and I have nothing to show for it. How can I possibly…no. I'll make it. If it's the last thing I do, I'll make them regret doing this to me!

"Psst!"

I look around for whatever is making that annoying noise. It's not like there's a lot of things around me, since most of the merchants have already packed up for the day.

"PSSSSSSST!"

With how loud it is, there's no way I can't find it. There, in between two of the buildings across the street, is a short…something. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a goblin. It has tattered leather armor and a club in its hand. I'm not that surprised they exist, but how did one get into the city? Are the guards terrible at their job?

"What?" I ask. If nothing else, it's a lot more friendly than the people. It has a dumb smile on its face while waving at me.

"You the hero, right?" The goblin asks, its voice making me think it's a man…boy…male.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Hero from castle? Hero king yells at?"

This thing is starting to piss me off. "Yeah! What do you want!?"

The goblin does a little dance, smiling. "You are! Havoc find bad hero! Hard to see in castle. Too many humans."

"Yeah, you found me." I grind my teeth. If I grab him, how long will it take to kill him? A balloon took five minutes to kill. Goblins are supposed to be weak monsters, the weakest, but I think he'll be stronger than a balloon.

He starts waving at me again. "Come, come! Gnarl want to see you. Be a bad boss!"

"A bad boss?" I repeat.

"Be baddest boss!"

This thing is too stupid to even talk right. "Not interested."

The goblin goes still. "You no come?"

"That's right. I'm staying right here." It's not like I had any intention of following it anyway. Why should I?

"But…" The goblin scrunches up its face, like it's trying to think. "But minions need new overlord, and bad hero make bad overlord."

"What?" Just what the hell is this thing saying?

"Gnarl tell it!" He starts gesturing to me again, trying to get me to follow.

"Why should I?" I repeat myself. Talking to him is pointless, but at least he's distracting me a little.

"Get strong! Lead minions! Rule world!" The goblin says, striking poses.

Ruling the world, huh? Is that what I'm supposed to do? Well, I can't say getting strong is something I don't want. And leading minions? Like him? Eh…

But maybe I should follow him. What else am I going to do? Besides, what can he do to me? Those knights tried hitting me, and they were more hurt by that than me.

I stand up and walk over to him, the goblin standing barely at my waist. "Fine. I'll come with you."

He gives a toothy smile. "Come, follow!"

We go through a few alleyways, going between buildings and stalls, avoiding roads. With the sun nearly set, it's not like we'll be seen easily.

After a few minutes, the goblin lifts up a broken grate against a wall that leads underground. Actually, this might go under the castle. I follow along.

The tunnels are dark, the fading light from outside doing nothing to help. If they weren't so narrow, I'd worry about going down a wrong path. And if the goblin didn't look over his shoulder and show me his glowing yellow eyes every so often, I'd assume I was left behind.

After what feels like forever, light comes back. We then go into an open area underground, white rocks providing light. And…

"Who this?"

"Looks short."

"Naked man!"

I'm already done with this place. More of these brown goblins come near and start saying stupid things. I'm not even naked, just in my underclothes. Because that's how I was dragged to the castle! If only I could find my way back, I wouldn't have to deal with this.

"Now, now, what's all the noise about?" Hearing someone actually talk normally improves things slightly.

The goblin that spoke is much older—assuming the white hair and beard/goatee aren't fake. This one is closer to gray and has more clothes on, though he's still barefoot like the others. There's a weird staff-thing on his back with a light-rock hanging over him.

"Gnarl! I find bad hero! He make bad overlord!" The goblin that brought me here says.

"Hm." The old goblin, Gnarl, approaches me and looks me over. "Ah, yes, the hero that attempted to rape his companion."

"I didn't do it!" I yell at him.

"No? Pity." Gnarl shrugs as he keeps examining me. I didn't think he would believe me—or even really care if he did, I guess—but seeing him not care doesn't make me feel any better about any of this. "Hm. Well, you might have what it takes. Perhaps you could make a powerful overlord."

"Why would I want to?" I ask. Enough was enough. "All I want is to go home."

"You don't want revenge?" Gnarl asks. He has me there.

"Doing my job and going home is more important." If I can make all of them pay for what they did in the process, that's fine by me. That doesn't mean I'm about to go along with whatever a bunch of goblins want, and not at the expense of leaving.

"Hmmm." Gnarl runs his leathery fingers through his goatee. "If the Waves destroy the world, I suppose there will be nothing left to rule."

"Good." I'm glad he understands.

"And if a hero wants to forgive the princess that framed him, who am I to judge?"

"What?" I stare at the old goblin. "What did you say?"

"The red-haired woman that joined you before was the first princess of Melromarc, Malty Melromarc." Gnarl says. "Truly an evil being, but too petty for my tastes. No real power of her own. She'd make a terrible overlord."

Gnarl spoke, but I can barely hear him. Myne is actually a princess? Then the king…he was in on it. Father and daughter framed me. And for what? Why? Why!?

"Havoc, take this hero back up to the surface." Gnarl waves his hand at me. "He's no use to—"

"I'll do it."

"Hm?" Gnarl looks up at me.

"I'll do it. I'll be your 'overlord', or whatever." Even as I say the words, I can hardly focus. Myne. Malty. I will make her suffer. Her and her father.

Gnarl grins. "Now there's an evil look for you! Come. Let me show you around, Sire."

Sire?

…Yeah. I think I like how that sounds. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do, what I'm supposed to be. Those three can go play at being heroes. I'll be the evil Overlord.

Author's Notes:

I'm starting this story as part of NaNoWriMo. This and another story, a Familiar of Zero fic, will be ~1,000 word chapters. One or the other will updated every day for November (I say that, but I'm uploading one of each right now). If either one is well-liked, I'll continue working on it after November.

I'm kind of speed-running the beginning here. Trying not to spend too long on it. Need to start doing some proper overlord-ing.