Gear chuckled, rubbing the back of his head like a guy caught with his pants halfway down.
"Well, he said he'd show up when you came, but…"
He looked around, the forest silent, empty, no grand entrance, no dramatic boom—"
…He's late."
"What?"
Celeste crossed her arms.
"So you're gonna take me to your goblin hideout and let me meet this man?"
Gear actually laughed at that. A hearty, throaty one.
"Oh no, sweetheart, you wouldn't survive the smell."
But then—
"That won't be necessary."
A voice. Smooth. Dangerous. Familiar.
"We meet again… Hero."
Celeste froze. Her breath caught like a song interrupted mid-note.
That voice—it was like a dagger that her soul remembered.
She turned around—
And her eyes widened. Her pupils shook.
No fucking way.
That frame. That posture. That look that said "you're already dead and just don't know it yet."
It was him.
The Goblin King.
The very bastard who had knocked her and the others halfway to hell last time.
