After we saved the children, we flew to the sky and took them directly to the town, ignoring the darkness of the night.
"Woaaah, amazing! Amazing!"
"I didn't know you were such an amazing magician, Chise-chan!"
"*Whee* I'm flying!"
I made the carriage in which children were aboard and the carriage that caged the bandits float in the air while Teto and I got on the flying carpet.
We were flying in the sky but I also made sure to keep the speed within a certain limit and the height to just several meters above the ground so as not to scare the kids. We only stopped our flight once so that the kids could have a break and fill their bellies.
We reached the town at around dawn with the kids, who fell asleep on the way due to being tired.
"What the hell is that!"
"A flying carpet and two carriages!? Didn't they leave on a flying broom!?"
"Who cares!. Look, they brought the kids back!"
The kids opened their eyes at the commotion and, when they realized they had arrived at the town, they leaned their bodies at the edges of the carriage and excitedly waved their hands.
"Dad! Mom!"
“ “Arim!” ”
While I was looking at the kidnapped kids who were rushing to their respective families, the dwarven chief who had been managing things until now came up to us.
"Thank you very much. I really can't express my gratitude enough..."
"Don't sweat over it. It's the duty of grown-ups to protect the kids."
The Town Chief's expression stiffened a bit when told so by me, an adult with the appearance of a child whose age stopped growing at 12 years old. I ignored his confusion and continued.
"Anyway, it's about the magic sword that those bandits stole..."
The Town Chief's eyes widened when I took out the fragments of the magic sword, which broke after being purified, from the magic bag.
"It was a dangerous magic sword that fed on people's vitality so I purified it myself without giving it any second thought. I apologize for not asking for your consent beforehand."
"...... Becoming the slave of power was the curse of the magic sword that my grandfather, also its maker, created by offering his life and blood. I have lost count of how many times I had taken it to the clergymen of the church in hopes of getting it purified but none had been able to succeed until now. So, I should be thanking you instead."
The Town Chief said so while holding the hilt of the broken magic sword.
He didn't say anything for a while, perhaps to sort out his feelings for the magic sword, and then turned to ask about how to deal with the captured bandits.
"Have you decided on what to do with the bandits?"
"The initial plan was to have the young ones visit the neighboring town on horses to bring some help at dawn."
This town used to be the hotspot for mining but, at this point, it had partially turned into a forest after the mines were abandoned.
So this town didn't even have a jail to accommodate the bandits or a court, let alone any knights staying here.
Besides, it would be hard to support so many bandits. And more than that一一
"How dare you! You have the guts to attack our town!"
"Take them out! I will kill them!"
"Let's make them regret laying their hands on our town!"
Anger reigned over the emotions of the townsfolk and the members of the vigilante corps as they kicked the bandits locked inside the cage and poked them with the hilt of their sheathed swords and spears.
The cage wasn't going to break apart with just that much but the bandits would be lynched by the maddened vigilante corps at this rate. There was also a chance that the bandits might retaliate.
"I'm going to take them to the nearby town and hand them over to the knights. So I would need someone who can act as a mediator between us and the knights, can you ask if anyone can do that?"
"It would be our honor. Chise-sama and Teto-sama are going to carry the bandits so we can have peace of mind!"
It was decided that the son of the Town Chief and the leader of the vigilante corps would be accompanying us.
I had them ride on the carriage in which we carried the kids and then left for the other town at sunrise while bringing bandits along, just like how we came back.
The whole process was pretty straightforward 一一
We reached the next town at 3:00 p.m. It was a big town with a decent flux of people. The knights who were in charge of protecting the town rushed to us when they spotted something suspicious flying towards their town.
We explained the ins and outs of the matter, entered the town, and then handed the bandits over to them.
They also checked out our past crimes with the «Sin Judgement Jewel» in passing while they scanned captured bandits and interrogated them in detail.
We safely finished the procedure of transferring the bandits while also receiving some money for catching them.
Speaking of the bandits, their leader, whose arms I had severed, supposedly had a bounty on his head for carrying out kidnappings in both the Gard Beastkin Nation and the Lovile kingdom, and also for instigating the poor farmers who were having a bad harvest in recent years. It was already dark by the time we received the bounty on his head.
"I'm beat...... It's really tiring to run around the whole day without getting a wink of sleep."
"Really, nanodesu. Let's book an inn and return tomorrow."
Sure enough, the fatigue of being sleepless for a whole day was taking a toll on us. My eyes were repeatedly fluttering due to drowsiness.
"I'm really sorry. You had to shoulder everything even though it was a matter related to our town..."
The son of the Town Chief and leader of the vigilante corps apologized to us like so but honestly, they also helped us out.
"I'm glad you two came with us. We could talk freely with the knights thanks to you two."
We may have plenty of fame and achievements as the A-rank party «Flying Carpet» however there were also a lot of people who took a long time to verify our authenticity due to our appearance.
It was really great that we brought these two reliable people from the town. They were the ones who explained the whole situation and smoothly handled the conversation on how to deal with the bandits, saving us from the knights insisting on checking out our origins.
"Alright, let's have a delicious meal and then we'll leave for the town tomorrow."
"We also have to continue with our investigation of the mines!"
We scheduled our plan to return tomorrow.
But things didn't go as we planned as the Guild master of this town came to us after learning we were in town so we had to meet him which took one day.
Then another day was spent meeting the feudal lord of this town when he heard that A-rank Adventurers came to visit his town.
But that wasn't the end of it. Another day was spent meeting with the Fathers of the churches who revered Liliel and Lariel who also came to know about us.
Thus, our departure was delayed for three days.
"*Sigh* We're finally back..."
"I'm tired. I want to eat the delicious inn food!"
We grumbled after we left the town and got on our flying carpet and carriage respectively.
The son of the Town Chief and the vigilante corps leader were also caught up in the delay due to us and also ended up extending their stay.
"I didn't know Chise-sama and Teto-sama were such amazing people."
"I thought you were just some whimsical kids who liked exploring caves. Never thought you two would be big shots."
And we finally transitioned to being awesome A-rank Adventurers in their eyes from being a duo of whimsical adventurers wandering around aimlessly.
Their stay had been extended due to being caught up in our situation so we also brought a lot of souvenirs for the townsfolk which we stuffed in the carriage and finally went back.
In this way, the unexpected kidnapping incident which put a stop to our exploration of the mines came to an end and we eventually went back to the mine investigation.
