Cow Girl's Uncle

Cow Girl's Uncle (牛飼い娘の叔父, Ushikai musume no Oji) (shortened to "uncle") is the owner of the farm and the uncle of Cow Girl. His farm is viewed as very important to the Frontier Town and is counted amongst the Town's Leadership.

Appearance
Cow Girl's uncle has brown hair, a pencil mustache, and wears a white shirt with grey pants. In the later volumes, he begins to feel the affects of his age as he is starting to "grey up", and not being as strong as he used to be.

Personality
A caring man, Cow Girl's Uncle took his niece in when his sister and husband were killed during the Goblin raid and even Goblin Slayer when he realized who he was. Cow Girl's Uncle is very hard working and loving towards his niece, making sure she is safe and has a happy upbringing, even encouraging her to "get out and have fun" more often.

His relationship with Goblin Slayer is extremely complex; on one hand he desires to help the young man, enjoys the rent, added security, and extra help he brings to his farm, on the other though, he believes Goblin Slayer is far too damaged from his trauma and training from Burglar. He also can't decide whether he is annoyed or entertained by Goblin Slayer's "one word answers" to his serious fears for the man's mental and physical well-being. Though he never voices it aloud, he does pity Goblin Slayer and understands his life has been nothing but hardship and his death would only further devastate his niece.

In various passive-aggressive ways, he explains disapproval of Goblin Slayer's genocidal obsession and expresses there are other lifestyles available; dangling a future with Cow Girl on the farm as one possibility, but only if Goblin Slayer gives up being an adventurer someday.

Background
Once a soldier, he used the fortune he earned to become a landholder, and now runs a dairy farm outside of town. When his younger sister married, she moved out of the Dairy Farm to her husband's village, leaving him the sole heir to the farm. At some point, his farm become large enough that the Frontier Town consider his farm as a Branch Castle or a "Fallback Position" in case of emergency. Because of this, his farm became considered a valued asset to the town.

Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One
By sheer luck, he had gone to pick up his niece from her village before a goblin horde attacked it that night. Upon learning that the village had been completely decimated and that his sister and brother-in-law had been killed, he adopted his niece. Despite his efforts, his niece became reclusive and barely left the farm.

Five years later Goblin Slayer, passed by the farm and Cow Girl discovered he was her childhood friend. He approved her request to let him stay with them but informed that he had to pay rent. Although he was at first glad to see his niece happy again, after asking Goblin Slayer if he had thought of settling down one day, Goblin Slayer simply stated that there were more goblins to kill, which led Cow Girl's Uncle to believe that Goblin Slayer had gone mad.

Goblin Slayer Volume 1
For the next five years he kept his relationship with Goblin Slayer mostly to a landlord and boarder, as he assumed that Goblin Slayer was no longer sane. Though this never stopped him from trying to break through to the young man in hopes he could heal someday and marry his niece.

However, he starts to accept Goblin Slayer when he sought to protect the farm from goblins and told him to at least say goodbye to his niece as he does. Goblin Slayer couldn't do it, but promised to protect the farm as he left. He remarked Goblin Slayer's stoicism was what he hated most since it shields his feelings from others.

Goblin Slayer Volume 3
Upon hearing Goblin Slayer had invited his niece "on a date" to the Harvest Festival, he gifted his niece her mother's fancy dress and proceeded to read Goblin Slayer the riot act; only to realize Goblin Slayer didn't quite understand what he was trying to tell him and just gave up knowing Goblin Slayer would at the very least keep her safe.

Goblin Slayer Volume 9
During the particularly long and cold winter, Cow Girl's Uncle was called upon to deliver some needed provisions to another town nearby but couldn't make the journey himself and asked his niece and Goblin Slayer to do the delivery. He would go on to chastise his niece for thinking she could go out in a nice dress during the middle of a winter blizzard and suggested using riding pants instead.

Later, when Cow Girl returned two days later in a hurry after being ambushed by goblins and an Ogre, he immediately prepared to go to the Town to request help, but Goblin Slayer's party had come to the rescue earlier. He was grateful for their safety but couldn't show more concern as he had to prepare another shipment of goods to replace what the ambush destroyed.

Goblin Slayer Volume 10
During the onset of Summer, a Wine Merchant from Water Town approached him with an extremely lucrative offer for his farm to convert it into a barley farm and even offered a marriage proposal for Goblin Slayer. Despite these generous offers, he declined and even informed Goblin Slayer about the offers which seemed strangely too generous to him. In the end, he admitted despite liking his way of life, he admitted he was getting older and strongly hinted to Goblin Slayer again that he'd like for Goblin Slayer to retire, marry his niece, and take over for him.