That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Goblin Girl Chapter 22

-3 Years Later-

“Miss Illya? Miss Illya, where are you?” one of the maids yelled, looking for me in the garden.

Three years had passed since I arrived here as the Duke’s great-granddaughter and I was finally four years old. Time moved fast since I arrived here, and before I knew it, I was walking around with ease.

“Miss Illya, there you are,” my personal maid Lena said, peaking her head above the bushes.

“Hehehe~! You found me!” I yelled happily, jumping to my feet. Yes, that’s right, I can talk in complete sentences now! Growing up was the best. Though everyone now and then, I did lisp some of my words. But still, it was great that I could finally talk with other people.

Today Lena and I are playing hide and seek. I love playing hide and seek as it allowed me to roam around the mansion and discover new places. Plus, it was really the only thing that I could do. I tried to read books, but without understanding the written language, the only ones that I could enjoy were picture books. And to be honest, they weren’t that entertaining. The maids loved playing dress up with me, and while I didn’t mind it, it was obvious that they were having more fun than me.

“Come along, Miss, it’s time for lunch. Sola and Tully are waiting for you.” Lena said, gently holding out her hand for me to grab.

“I want macroons and cake~!” I yelled out triumphantly, messing up the pronunciation of macaroons, before grabbing Lena’s hand.

“As you wish, Miss Illya, but try not to overeat this time,” Lena said, leading me to the others.

To be honest, I’m surprised that I can live like this after everything that happened three years ago. Losing my family and then gaining a new one. Not to mention becoming the heir of a Duke. Everything had happened so fast that it was hard for me to process back then. I’m just glad that I can live peacefully like this. Even Damien had stayed quiet all this time. I thought that he might cause more problems for me. I haven’t seen him once in these past three years. The king, on the other hand, stops down once every few months. He’s much friendlier to me now than at the beginning. I still don’t know how I should feel about him trying to kill me before, but at least for now, everything is fine.

Everyone in the mansion pampers me and treats me like a princess. At first, it was a bit embarrassing, and I couldn’t help but hate the dresses they put me in, but in time I grew to like them. I mean, what’s so wrong with being cute? So what if had memories of my past life? I’m now just a goblin girl, or as everyone else believes, an elf girl.

Besides my great-grandfather, Sara, Sola, and Tully, the only one else besides the king that knew the truth was Lena. She was supposedly my grandmother’s maid before me. At first, Lena was quite shocked when she learned about the truth, but after spending some time with me, she really started taking a liking to me.

“Illya, you’re here!” Sola and Tully stood happily next to the table, wearing their maid uniforms. They were now ten years old. Sola looked like she was eighteen, and Tully looked like she was thirteen. Goblins live for twenty-five years at the most, so they age much faster than humans. Though compared to other girls, they were quite small, only reaching five feet tall, but for a goblin that was quite tall. The mansion was confused at first with how fast they grew, but thankfully Sara convinced them that their heights were stunted due to malnutrition.

“Sola! Tully!” I ran straight into their arms, hugging them tightly. “I missed you!” These days they have been busy training to become proper maids, so the time that we had to spend together was getting less and less. I was always excited whenever I got the chance to see them,

“And we missed you,” they said, hugging me tighter. To be honest, I never wanted them to work as maids, but they were the ones that had insisted.

“Hmm, no hug for me?”

“Auntie Sara!” I yelled, seeing that Sara was sitting on the other end of the table drinking a cup of tea. “Did you bring me a present?”

“A present? Is that the first thing that you think of when you see me?” Ever since I was two, my aunt would always bring me a present whenever we had tea together. It was only natural for me to expect a present at this point.

“I’m sowwy!” I yelled, letting go of Sola and Tully, running to her, holding onto her dress.

“I’m just kidding with you,” she said, patting my head. “Here, you go. I think that you’ll like this.”

“What dis?” I asked, looking at the plain black box she gave me. Upon opening, inside was a  bracelet with a red gem embedded into it.

“This is a magical charm. It will protect you from danger,” Sara said to me. “Here, try it on.” Sara placed the bracelet on my right wrist. I could feel my body get heavier as the mana from the bracelet started to seep into my skin.

“Ngh! I don’t wike it!” I yelled, tearing it off in a nervous fit. Even after these three years, my mana level was quite low. Adding more than what was in the necklace given to me by Lilith or taking it away would hurt me.

“Illya! That’s no way to treat a gift given to you,” Sara said, upset with how I was acting. “Please apologize right now.”

“But it hurt me!” I yelled, unable to control my emotions. I didn’t want to sound like a brat, but I couldn’t help it.

“It hurt you?” Sara looked confused, looking at me and then at the bracelet. No one in the mansion knew about my low level of mana. During these past three years, she had done her best to stay away from anything magical. She didn’t want her family worrying about her.

“Hmm, it doesn’t hurt me,” she said, trying it on for herself. “Illya, it’s not nice to make up lies. Please apologize.”

“No! It hurt me! I didn’t lie!” I yelled, mad that she didn’t believe me.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry,” she said, picking me up and sitting me in her lap. “I know that you don’t lie. Would you please tell me why you said it hurts you?”

“It… it makes me feel weird and heavy,” I said to her, just describing the feeling so that she wouldn’t find out about my condition.

“Weird and heavy? Well, if you say so, I will check in on it,” she said, patting my head. It was obvious that she didn’t believe me, but at least I didn’t have to wear the bracelet. “Though Illya, there is still something that you have to do.”

“…I’m sorry,” I said, knowing that yelling at her before was not the proper action I should have taken. Despite having memories of a past life, I was being very childish.

“Very good. Now, since you apologized, it’s time for us to have some cake. It’s your favorite strawberry shortcake.”

Lena brought out the cake slice and a small plate of macaroons for us to eat, and I wasted no time in eating it all up.

“Hmm, it looks like someone is going to have to start learning their table manners soon,
Sara said, watching over me, delicately eating a bit of cake. She was far more graceful than I was. I wonder if I could grow up to be like her one day.

“Table manners?” I asked her, eating a macaroon whole.

“Yes, sweetie. As the great-granddaughter of the Duke, you need to be able to hold yourself up high when compared to everyone else. Proper etiquette will be a must in the future. Though if you want, we can start your lessons now.”

“No, thank you. I wanna play some more!” I said to her. There would be time to learn boring etiquette later. For now, I wanted to spend my childhood having fun.

“Really? Would you rather play than allow me to be your teacher? Auntie is very sad,” Sara said, fake tears rolling down her eyes.

“No! I want Auntie Sara to teach me!” I knew that her tears were fake, but I couldn’t help but give in to her. To be honest, she’s been more like a mother to me these past three years than an aunt. I didn’t want to make her disappointed in me.

“Very good. I knew that you would come around.” Sara looked happy to see me comply with her wishes, patting me on the head even more. “And when you're older, I can teach you how to wield a sword.”

“Really!” My eyes light up with excitement. I have seen Sara spar before, and it was amazing. Since then, I have always wanted to wield a sword just like her.

“Hehehe~. That won’t be until later, but you must promise to keep up with your other lessons.”

“Fine! But you promise to play hide and seek with me first!” I said back to her. “I wanted to have fun with m family for as long as possible.

“You have yourself a deal,” Sara said, playing along with me. “Though I doubt that you’ll be able to hide from me for very long. I quite good at hide and seek.

“Hehehe~! Your it!” I yelled, jumping off of her laugh and running away from them before anyone else could agree to play with me.

I loved playing hide and seek. It allowed me to explore the mansion much more than I thought possible. Every time I played, I found something new. It was exciting. And today, I was going to try a place that I never tried before; the rose garden. In the back of the mansion was a garden surrounded by hedges covered in roses.

Sara told me in the past, this garden belonged to grandmother. Great-grandfather has made sure to keep it in the exact same condition that she left it in to honor her memory. I knew that if I hid here, no one would be able to find me.

And it turned out I was right. After what felt like forever, they still hadn’t found me. Seeing that it would probably take some more time until I was caught, I determined that it would be fine if I went deeper into the garden. There was a tree in the center of the garden which I had been dying to see. There was no way that I could miss this opportunity.

When I got there, I was surprised to see that I wasn’t alone. Lying down at the foot of the tree was a girl, and she… she had horns!