Star Rail: Starting with a Lyre, Living off Busking

Comission Overlap

The term referred to two adventuring parties simultaneously accepting the same commission, leading to clashes during the mission.

This type of scenario typically resulted from guild errors, where poor oversight allowed teams to take overlapping assignments.

Their current situation, however, was a bit more nuanced. The man known as The Goblin Slayer had followed tracks from a prior goblin den, stumbling upon this one in his relentless pursuit to eradicate the creatures.

It was sheer coincidence that his path intersected with the group that had formally accepted the commission for this cave.

Though uncommon, such occurrences weren't unheard of. After all, his initial meeting with the cleric at his side had been similarly coincidental—though under far more tragic circumstances.

At that time, the cleric's party had already suffered heavy losses: one dead, another captured, and a third poisoned, awaiting death. In the end, she had been the only one able to continue as an adventurer.

Both groups had been rookies, but their fates couldn't have been more different. Strength, luck, or perhaps even the whim of the gods had set their paths apart.

These thoughts flitted briefly through the Goblin Slayer's mind, but he quickly dismissed them. Instead, he spoke calmly.

"...You can take the commission reward. However, I hope you'll assist with the rest of the extermination."

Breaking the silence, his proposition was simple and direct, embodying what he believed to be the most practical solution.

He didn't care much for the paltry payment—money was never his primary concern. What mattered was wiping out every last goblin.

Teaming up with this evidently skilled party would make the job faster, allowing him to move on to the next group of goblins sooner.

The cleric, peeking out from behind him, studied the newcomers with timid curiosity. Her gaze lingered longest on March 7th, drawn by the overwhelming aura of divine favor radiating from her.

For a cleric devoted to the Earth Mother, that kind of pure blessing was impossible to ignore.

Perhaps the Goblin Slayer's suggestion isn't such a bad idea, she thought.

"Uh... We don't have a problem with that, but, well... how should I put this..."

March 7th scratched her head, her expression a mix of hesitation and awkwardness.

"What is it?" the Goblin Slayer asked, his tone cold but neutral.

It wasn't annoyance or distrust—if anything, he was prepared to leave if the group rejected his offer. In that case, he would simply patrol the cave later, ensuring no goblins survived to grow into "big ones" or shamans.

He'd seen too many adventurers underestimate goblin younglings, sparing them out of misplaced mercy only to face the consequences later.

"Ugh... Please don't get mad, okay? Pointing my bow at you earlier was my bad—I'm sorry!" March 7th blurted out, bowing her head apologetically.

Her unexpected reaction caught the Goblin Slayer off guard.

Adventuring teams like hers usually carried an air of pride. Acknowledging someone like him, let alone apologizing, was practically unheard of.

This level of humility was foreign to him, leaving him unsure how to respond.

Are they nobles? No, they don't seem like it.

Most nobles were cold-hearted, their manners reserved for fellow aristocrats or the influential, never for common adventurers.

Still, he had no time to ponder such trivial matters. Goblin slaying took precedence over social niceties.

After a brief shake of his head, he replied plainly.

"It's fine. Staying vigilant is important, especially in goblin caves. They love ambushing from the shadows."

"Wow, you're surprisingly easygoing! You're actually pretty nice," March 7th remarked, her casual tone breaking the tension.

Even the timid cleric let out a quiet giggle, which prompted March 7th to join in with a goofy laugh of her own. The carefree exchange brightened the mood, their innocence radiating a peculiar charm.

Seeing this, Stelle and Dan Heng eased their stances, though they remained alert. While Dan Heng had stopped March 7th earlier, none of them had fully lowered their guard until now.

Meanwhile, Venti approached the Goblin Slayer with his characteristic nonchalance, intending to strike up a conversation.

But the bard quickly recoiled, his face wrinkling in disgust.

"Ugh, you smell awful!"

"...Their noses are sharp," the Goblin Slayer replied, unfazed by the comment. "If I don't mask myself with their scent, they'll pick up the metal from my armor and ambush me."

Without a second thought, he knelt beside a goblin corpse, plunged his hand into its gut, and pulled out its intestines. Twisting them tightly, he let the blood and fluids drip to the ground, releasing an even more acrid stench.

He glanced up at the others, who instinctively took a step back.

"You'll need to use this too."

"Gah... We'll pass," March 7th stammered, her face pale as she watched him work.

The cleric, accustomed to this gruesome routine, stepped forward to demonstrate. Smiling gently, she reassured them, "It's alright. The Goblin Slayer is right—this smell is a small price to pay to avoid a goblin ambush. You can always wash it off later."

After coating her white-and-blue priestess robes with goblin blood, she turned back to the group with a composed expression.

"Who's first?" the Goblin Slayer asked, holding the viscera up.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Dan Heng replied after a long silence, his voice firm.

For Dan Heng, the hassle of battling goblins paled compared to the thought of how long it would take to scrub off the stench afterward.

Stelle, though less squeamish, shrugged apologetically when she noticed the general reluctance among the group.

As for Venti, he shook his head emphatically, like a child refusing medicine. "I can use wind magic to maintain a barrier around everyone's body that blocks any scent. That should solve the problem, right?"

"…That's quite a convenient spell," the Goblin Slayer remarked without protest.

Still, as a matter of caution, he leaned closer to Venti to sniff. To his surprise, he detected nothing—no scent whatsoever. If not for the tangible presence of the bard's body, he might have questioned his own senses.

"Incredible!" the cleric exclaimed, her expression shifting from awe to slight dismay.

If only I'd known about that spell earlier…

She sighed inwardly. While she'd already resigned herself to being drenched in filth again, it didn't change the fact that she was still a young woman. Spending her days drenched in gore and viscera was far from ideal.

"If you don't mind, I could extend the barrier to you as well," Venti offered with a sympathetic smile.

But the Goblin Slayer quickly declined.

"Your magic is effective, but it's likely limited in use per day. Save it for emergencies."

Actually, it's not limited at all… Venti thought silently, but he decided against explaining. It would take too long to clarify the mechanics of his powers within the framework of this world.

Shifting the topic, the Goblin Slayer asked, "Besides masking scents, what other spells can you use? Could you invert that magic to strip the air of breathable elements?"

Dan Heng's eyebrows rose slightly at the question. From what he had learned during their time in this world, scientific concepts were often blended with or overshadowed by theology. People attributed many phenomena to divine intervention rather than investigation.

"Hmm… I could use a spell like that, but in such a confined space, it might harm everyone else here," Venti replied thoughtfully.

He continued, "On the other hand, I can cast supportive spells, like increasing movement speed or summoning wind fields to toss enemies around. And if needed, I can create wind walls to block ranged attacks."

"—Good. Those are highly practical abilities," the Goblin Slayer said, nodding in approval.

Hearing this, his mood visibly lightened. With Venti's spells, eliminating the more challenging goblins inside the cave would be significantly easier.

Out of respect for teamwork, he also inquired about the others' specialties.

Dan Heng explained his skill with the spear, a fact already evident from his precise movements. March 7th introduced herself as an archer who could invoke miracles from the Earth Mother, much to the cleric's delight.

However, explaining why she used a bow and didn't wear a cleric's robes required a fair amount of back-and-forth.

When Stelle mentioned her combat method involved using an "iron rod," the Goblin Slayer paused.

"…Pardon me. I must have misheard. What did you say?"

"It's fine. My method involves body enhancement spells to augment physical strength. For example—"

Stelle reached for a chunk of rock on the cave wall and, with a casual motion, crushed it into pieces. The fragments crumbled in her palm, falling to the ground as a fine dust.

"…"

The display wasn't extraordinary by itself, but coming from someone wearing what resembled a mage's robes, it was jarring.

The Goblin Slayer didn't doubt for a second that Stelle could crush his helmet—and head—if she chose to. Wisely, he refrained from further questions and simply nodded in understanding.

"Understood. Let's proceed."

As he led the way deeper into the cave, his demeanor shifted. The heavy air of grim determination lifted, replaced by a lightness that even the cleric had never seen before.

She glanced at the group behind her, marveling silently.

They don't seem like rookies at all. What are adventurers of this caliber doing here?

Unable to suppress her curiosity, she asked, "Your team seems incredibly strong. Why are you hunting goblins instead of larger monsters, like those in the Demon King's army?"

March 7th scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. "Well, we're not exactly rookies. We came here from another world. When we learned we needed to register as adventurers, we did so at the border."

"After completing a few commissions, the guild is reviewing our records for a rank promotion, but until then, we're stuck with porcelain tags," Venti added with a smile.

"Oh, I see!" The cleric's eyes sparkled with newfound understanding. She then bombarded them with more questions about their world: "Do you have a Demon King there? What gods do people worship? Without adventurers, what do people even do?"

The Goblin Slayer's question, however, was far more straightforward.

"Do you have goblins there?"

"Hmm… Not in the worlds we've been to so far," March 7th replied after some thought.

"I see. That sounds like an enviable world," he said, a rare trace of longing in his voice.

The moment passed, and he refocused on leading the way.

Eventually, the group came across a grisly sight: a shamanic totem adorned with human rib bones.

The Goblin Slayer examined the totem carefully before glancing toward a shadowed passage nearby.

Poor lighting in the cave made it easy for adventurers to be drawn to the totem and overlook hidden threats—a fatal mistake his cleric companion had witnessed firsthand.

"Over here," he said, signaling the group to follow.

The narrow, winding path gave the impression of walking through a giant creature's intestines.

At its end, they found a small crawlspace that only goblins could fit through, alongside a rotting wooden door barely hanging on its hinges.

Before anyone could comment, the cleric's expression twisted in disgust, as though she had caught the stench of rotting fish left under the sun for days.

Venti, ever considerate, cast a scent-blocking barrier over her and the Goblin Slayer.

Though he was used to such smells, the Goblin Slayer accepted the barrier without complaint. It was rare for anyone to show concern for his comfort, and he wasn't about to dismiss it with a tactless remark.

He approached the door and, without hesitation, kicked it down.

The loud CRASH of the door hitting the ground echoed through the cave, stirring up a cloud of dust and swarming flies. A wave of rancid air followed, its potency making it clear just how vile the room beyond must be.

"What is this place?" March 7th asked, her voice uneasy.

March 7th squinted into the darkness, struggling to make out her surroundings. The oppressive gloom pressed heavily on her, limiting her vision.

"It's a goblin dumping ground," the Goblin Slayer said flatly, without turning around. "This is where they dispose of their broken women."

"Wait, what did you just say—"

"March," Dan Heng interrupted suddenly, his tone firm but not unkind. "Can I ask you to stand guard outside?"

Venti stepped in front of her with a cheerful grin, as if trying to defuse the tension. "Exactly. We made a lot of noise earlier. If the goblins corner us here, we'll end up fighting in the garbage pit, and that's hardly a glamorous look for a maiden, right?"

"Hey! You can't just cut me out like this! That's so unfair!" March 7th protested indignantly.

"What's in there that's so bad you're—"

She pushed Venti aside, her curiosity outweighing her caution. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light, she finally saw what the two of them had been trying to shield her from.

Her pink eyes widened in horror, pupils contracting sharply. Her stomach churned violently, a wave of nausea and dizziness overtaking her in an instant.

March 7th clapped a hand over her mouth, bending forward as dry heaves wracked her body.

Nearby, Stelle placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, her face grim.

At the far end of the room, in the filth-strewn darkness, were two women. Their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, their skin marred by deep cuts and festering wounds oozing with infection. The stench of disease and rot permeated the air.

One of them was unmistakably dead.

The other sat motionless, her vacant eyes staring ahead, her expression devoid of life or humanity. She was little more than a husk.

---

T/N: A sad sight

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