Chapter 33 – Krebskulm Liberation Front (Part 2)
A night had passed since we came to this city. Let’s continue collecting information in this city with Yuu, who logged in a little later—.
“… Not here either, huh?”
“It’s not going to be that convenient.”
— We continued to search into the night, but… there had been no progress at all! I logged in as soon as I came back from school, so we had been walking around for a few hours now.
“… It would be good if there’s at least a slave that goes outside alone. At this point, even a runaway slave would do.”
“Another commotion…?”
While I was strolling down the streets of “Belzenstock City” at night with Yuu, we came across a commotion down an alley.
“… What’s going on? Is it a slave rebellion? Let’s go check it out, Yuu.”
“Sure… well, sounds like someone is in distress.”
When I pulled Yuu with me into the alley, a man was pinning down an early teen girl of about 14 years old and had his hand raised ready to strike a little girl of about 8 years old —.
“H-help! Please help!!”
“Ah! Shut up you brat!”
— Looking more closely, there were slave seals on both of the girls’ left cheeks. Such a coincidence that they were screaming for help.
“— Okay, I’ll help you.”
Right after I finished my sentence, I decapitated the man who was on top of the girl. His head fell to the ground.
“Eh… this girl severed a guy’s head without an inch of hesitation…”
Yuu is muttering noisily behind my back again, huh? Well, that’s how he is. I’m going to let him be.
“A demon?”
“Well, in a sense, you’re not wrong…”
Yuu was muttering a rude comment about me in response to the smaller girl’s remark, didn’t he?
“Did you say something, Yuu?”
“Huh? N-no! I didn’t say anything!”
As soon as I held my shortsword up to his throat, he reacted as cowardly as usual and begged the question…
“… Well, whatever. By the way, what are your names? If you have nowhere to go, let me take care of you.”
“Huh?! Really?! I-I’m Nia!”
I left the cowardly Yuu alone and turned toward the girls.
Right when I was wondering if there were any runaway slaves, I found these girls. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity.
“Ni-Nia!”
The younger one, Nia, seemed to have been through many hardships and was staring my way full of expectation.
On the other hand, the older girl seemed wary and was being cautious, which was understandable.
“Don’t worry. I’m not your enemy. Would you please tell me your name?”
“… I’m Mea.”
She might have realized that the only future waiting for her would be misery. Although feeling suspicious, she chose to rely on me.
Since that’s the case, let’s move from such a dark alley.
“Mea and Nia. All right. Let’s leave this place for the time being —.”
“— What are you doing to those children? Depending on the situation, you might not get away without consequences ….”
… When we tried to leave as soon as possible, a big and strict-looking man called out to us.
“What is it, so suddenly? What an impudent person. I was just helping these children.”
“….”
The man glanced at the headless corpse and then turned toward the girls.
“So it seems.”
The man seemed to believe what I said after Nia, the younger girl, nodded in confirmation. He was such a distrustful man.
“Oh, so you believe me? In that case, I’m going to take these children with me.”
“No, we will take custody of those children.”
When I thought we could finally leave that alley, the man did not budge an inch… Is he intended to get in my way…? Huh, wait a minute? Not only his left cheek bore a slave seal, both of his arms had similar seals as well.
As a slave, he has a good physique; and what was his intention directing his intent to kill toward us since a while ago?
“… Custody? These children? A slave like you? Please don’t joke around.”
I decided to provoke him for confirmation. Well, I never thought that I would have a chance to ‘play’ after all.
“What will you do with runaway slaves anyway?”
His murderous intent swelled after my provocation. He seemed to be quite strong indeed.
Ah, I guess I was lucky tonight, eh? It seemed that I would be able to recruit them earlier than expected.
“Eh…? Wait a minute, Rena. Why are you being belligerent —?”
Yuu was being cowardly as always, but I couldn’t stop smirking.
