Chapter 51 Punishment
The table was filled with a lot of food including different types of monster meat, bread and wine produced by girls in the city, it was a pleasant sight to see all these foods in one place but they didn't have any seafood because it was extremely hard to preserve them and the lake was filled with a lot of monsters that are too dangerous for them to explore and hunt.
Even though there was a sea nearby the city, they didn't try seafood frequently because it was too hard for them to travel all the way to the opposite side of the forest without encountering a dangerous beast.
The first time Nikol came into this place, it was his sheer luck that he encountered a giant spider instead of a poisonous one otherwise he already would have been food for spiders.
Although the table was filled with great food, people around it weren't in their greatest mood, especially Emily who was looking rather displeased with all this arrangement.
"Chief, why don't we eat first?" Nikol said to ease the grim atmosphere.
"Eva, you too,"
Everyone looked at him with a smile and nodded their head, Nikol didn't feel great eating monster meat but he imagined them to be chicken or pork and gulped them down.
Some of them were rather tasty, even more than normal chicken but the rest were tasting like gutter water for him, everyone was hungry seeing all this food so they quickly started to devour the food on the table,
Lydia, Eva, Emily and some other girls came as invitees for this dinner, overall there were six girls in the group without counting the ron tribe.
All of them ate what was on the table rather quickly especially Nikol who was rather hungry for some reason, but Alva and Emily weren't in their greatest mood whole throughout the dinner.
"Well, since everyone enjoyed the dinner, let's get into our purpose for this dinner," Usha said gaining the attention of everyone.
Eva was displeased that she took the lead but, she silently waited until Usha finished her speech,
"As you all know, my daughter caused some problems for some people and harmed Emily today,"
"I talked with her about it and she regrets what she did and wants to apologise to Emily for causing her trouble," At her words, Alva got up from her chair,
"I'm deeply sorry for what I did to you Emily, I wasn't in my right mind when that event happened," Alva said with a full bow showing her regret.
Usha and Eva both had a satisfied faces but, Emily looked annoyed by her sincere apology,
"So you will get away with an apology after all that?" Her question made both Usha and Eva twitch their eyebrows.
"Then what do you want me to do?" She asked with a confused look.
Even Nikol and Lydia had no idea what she wanted,
"You need to be punished, don't you?" Emily said with her usual stubborn tone.
"Oh~that, I actually wanted to give her a punishment, don't worry about it Emily, I will punish her," Usha interfered with her.
Emily looked at her for a minute but she quickly ignored her words and talk to Alva,
"I can't believe you will really do that, so can I give her a punishment," She asked Usha with her normal cocky tone.
Usha felt hurt by her words, she straight up disrespected her in front of everyone with her words. Eva could have laughed if this wasn't serious, even she understood that her daughter's attitude was a bit cocky.
"Yeah, go ahead," Usha agreed with her despite the disrespect she had to endure, if Eva was the one to tell something like that, dinner would have already been a warzone but, she was patient with Emily.
Alva couldn't say anything about it as she was the person that is about to get punished.
"As a punishment, you will stop associating with this one," She said pointing at Nikol, who was innocently listening to their arguments.
"What?"
"..."
Nobody expected her to tell something like that. Emily could have asked something from Alva or could have given her a real punishment but instead, she choose something like this.
"I - I can't do that," Alva said with a confident look.
No matter what obstacle comes in her way Alva decided to always be with Nikol, so her blood boiled hearing a request like that but, she didn't explode like before because her rational mind returned to her.
"Emily, don't go too far, just give her a proper punishment or else sit down," Eva interfered this time.
"Emily, why are you saying something like that?" Lydia also questioned her.
Usha didn't say anything as she kept observing the result, she didn't want her daughter to abide such a ridiculous punishment from anyone. She had the freedom to choose who she associate with because she wasn't a kid anymore.
Even when she was a kid Usha never treated her like a kid so, she was rather tough on her.
"Why does everyone like this goblin so much? Everyone keeps saying Nikol this, Nikol that," At this point, she even forgot about pretending to give a punishment to Alva.
*Cough
"Me? Goblin?" For a minute, Nikol couldn't help but feel his self-confidence breaking down with visible sound.
"Shut up, Emily," Both Usha and Eva said at the same time.
Alva's face was distorted by anger hearing her insulting words, but only Lydia stayed calm despite all this. She was trying her best not to laugh seeing Nikol's face.
"All of you are idiots, especially you," She again pointed at Nikol. He couldn't help but wonder why she hated him so much. He didn't even meet her before this dinner.
Emily ran back from the dining room with an angry look on her face after everyone disagreed with her words. Lydia followed her just in case so she won't cause any problems.
"I guess I'm hated, but I really have no idea, what I did to her." This was the first time Nikol really got confused with someone's behaviour.
"Is she a tsundere? But she had hatred in her eyes toward me, maybe I'm thinking too much," Nikol thought looking at his hand.
"Guys, do I look like a goblin?" He didn't know why she said that he looked like a goblin out of all the monsters in the forest.
*Pfft
"Someone laughed? Who laughed at my poor self?" Nikol felt embarrassed about it.
"Don't take that girl seriously, she's always like that," Eva didn't want Nikol to misunderstand Emily, she knew Emily was a good girl but since the Dark elf attack incident she changed a lot.
"Maybe I didn't properly guide her," She remembered how she was busy managing the tribe when her daughter needed her the most.
"Don't worry about it, I wasn't actually taking her seriously, anyway, Eva you should move into this mansion instead of staying with other girls, you're an official leader so you should be treated just like Usha to avoid the future problems," Unknown to both Usha and Eva, Nikol was becoming the most important figure of these tribes with his authority.
Even though both of them were reluctant to do it, they couldn't go against his words. He didn't even force either of them, they just wanted to impress him, at this point instead of competing physically they were trying to win his trust and favour.
"I will consider it," Eva replied to his request.
"Usha, you don't have a problem with that right?" Nikol didn't want to force either of them so he asked about it from her.
"Not really, we have enough room for her," She said looking at him with a smile but inside she was cursing Eva for agreeing to his request.
"Alright, girls, I'm going to rest for today, see you tomorrow," Nikol got up from his seat while yawning.
Since It was almost close to midnight all of them felt sleepy,
"I'm going back too, hopefully, Lydia managed to stop Emily from going crazy," Eva gave her farewells and left the room.
She totally forgot about the punishment because right now, it was her least concern.
"I'll go with Nikol too then," Alva tried to follow him to his bedroom but, Usha caught her by her ear.
"Where are you going? Just because she didn't give you a proper punishment, don't think I will let you go, come here," She dragged her back while saying goodbye to Nikol.
"I guess, I will be sleeping alone today," He muttered to himself looking at all the maids cleaning the table.
Even though they are called maids, their outfits were more of a combination of maid and bikini, at this point, Nikol got used to seeing these half-naked girls everywhere otherwise he would pop covers every single second.
*Yawn
"What a hectic day," He walked along the hallway and opened the door of his room but, surprisingly it was already open or rather, someone was already inside his room. He panicked for a moment and took a defensive stance but seeing it was a cute and chubby girl his body automatically eased up.
He looked at his wrinkled bed, a girl was lying on his bed with a satisfied expression on her face,
"Who are you?" He asked looking at her.