Chapter 110:
Crushed
“I’LL DESTROY THEM!”
The words rippled forth from Mile’s throat, but she swiftly shook the thought from her head.
“No, that can wait! That’s something that all of us should get to do together! For now, comforting this child is what’s most important!”
Indeed, Mile was honorable enough to prioritize the girl’s security over her own desires—lady or no, she was still chivalrous, gender norms be damned.
“You’re Salisha, right? From the beastfolk village? I’m about to ask you some very important questions. I’d like you to answer with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ okay?”
This was neither one of the humans who usually came to harass Salisha, nor one of the humans who brought her food and water, nor even one of the guests the merchants brought around
to gawk at her. Realizing this, the previously dispassionate girl turned once more to look at Mile. The moment she got a proper look at her, the rabbit-eared girl’s eyes went wide.
“Okay, are you ready? First off, do you want to flee this place and return to your village? Or would you like to flee this place and go somewhere other than the village? Or would you rather remain here?”
The girl was quiet for some time, and then said clearly, “Yes! No! No way!”
Perfect.
Satisfied with Salisha’s responses, Mile folded her arms, nodding heartily. Despite Salisha’s initial listlessness, she now seemed full of vigor. It didn’t occur to Mile to find it strange how she unconditionally trusted this total stranger. She was possessed of a baseless confidence that young girls were always fond of her. It surely didn’t hurt that she was wearing one of the cat-eared headbands she had a habit of putting on…
“I’m a hunter. I was hired to come rescue you. Can you hold out just one more day for me? I’ll be back tomorrow with my friends to collect you. In order for this operation to go smoothly, I need you to tell me anything that would be relevant, like how they’ve been treating you here, how many people come down here and for what, what time they feed you, and anything else you might be aware of. That will help me plan when and how we can come back for you tomorrow.”
Salisha gave a hearty nod and told Mile all that she knew.
It was only early in the evening, so they had plenty of time, and the isolation of the room meant that no one would be suddenly bursting in on them. Mile just had to keep her short-range search magic scanning the basement and the room that led to it. With her wildly acute hearing, there was no way Mile would miss the sound of someone opening or closing the door.
Because there was only the one exit, there would be nowhere to run if she did pick up on someone approaching, but there were plenty of ways for her to avoid detection, such as sneaking past them under her invisibility field or simply hiding herself and crouching in the corner of the room.
So as not to startle Salisha, Mile had warned the little girl ahead of time that she would be using some invisibility magic to hide herself, should anyone appear.
At any rate, Mile now had all the information she needed and made her retreat back to where her friends awaited. Naturally, as she made her exit, she took note of the security stationed at the shop in the evenings as well.
***
“So, Pauline, do we have the clear to go all in on this one?”
“Yes. In this case, the merchant who purchased Salisha is clearly guilty of an indefensible criminal act. He’s a malicious, habitual felon. If we simply sneak Salisha out, he’ll just try to get his hands on another little girl…whether beastfolk or otherwise. He must have a lot of help and a lot of connections to run an operation of this size, so it would be simple for him to link up with a new intermediary—what you and I would call a slave broker—or even make direct contact with the slavers themselves. Even without the criminals we’ve already taken steps to eliminate, they’ll find someone else in no time.”
“Hmm. This sort of merchant would have those kinds of connections. Plus, given that it was a young beast girl they got their hands on and not a human girl, we can suppose that they’d probably go after another beastfolk village—and if they couldn’t get their hands on a beastgirl, they might go for an elf or a dwarf or a demon or some other nonhuman race. If that were exposed, it would be a huge debacle…”
The ancient treaties were a tale from antiquity, not taken very seriously by anyone besides the royal families and nobles who insisted on passing traditions down to their descendants. Naturally, the Austien family were in the latter group, so Mavis was well versed in these matters. Thanks to their previous excursions, the rest of the Crimson Vow were now aware of these as well. Therefore, neither Reina nor Mavis had any objection to the more extreme measures Pauline had proposed. And as for Mile…
“He won’t get away with this!”
And thus, their plan was underway.
***
“I’m back to make some preliminary arrangements, Salisha!”
Well before the second morning bell rang, Mile made her way back to the basement where Salisha was imprisoned in her cell.
“First off, I’m going to put a little makeup on you. I’ll explain what’s going to happen next while I work.”
After using earth magic to block off the entrance to the basement so that no one would interrupt them, Mile deftly unlocked the cell door and stepped inside. In truth, blocking the entrance was hardly necessary; the earliest anyone came down to the basement each day was a little after the second morning bell, to offer Salisha a crude brunch. Still, Mile was never one to welcome unexpected guests. After all, she could not allow anyone to see Salisha’s new look until the time was right.
***
“The preparations are complete! I’ve done Salisha’s makeup and explained the plan to her,” Mile explained as she returned to the rest of the Crimson Vow, who had already packed up and paid for their room at the inn and were waiting in a nearby clearing.
“Then let’s not waste any time. Let Operation Extreme Measures commence. Full speed ahead!”
The name of the plan was a bit on the nose.
“Crimson V—er, Order of the Crimson Blood, roll out!”
“All right!!!”
***
Just as the second morning bell struck, the shop opened its doors. It was around this time that the town guard had finished changing shifts as well, from the night shift to morning, so the guards were bright-eyed and ready for action should anything occur. The streets were filled with people moving hither and thither on their way to jobs—though, of course, many workers would have been at work since much earlier.
Four adorable girls in hats walked along the main road, stopping just before a certain store.
“We’re here,” said one.
“Well then,” said another, “let’s do it. One, two…!”
“We’ve come to collect the abducted beastgirl you’ve been keeping as a slave!”
Most upstanding businesses might have at best two or three guards on staff to deal with persistent and belligerent customers or local thugs. Having this many rough-looking characters on-site suggested that they were anticipating trouble—no doubt because there was something underhanded going on.
“What’s all this nonsense about?!” one of the staffers shouted at the four girls.
“Well, as you’ve just heard, we’ve come here to request the return of the abducted beastgirl who’s been kept here as a slave—”
“I’m not sure I would call standing outside a business making accusations a ‘request’! Also, I have no idea what you’re talking about! Cease this baseless slander!”
Pauline sneered at the man’s protests. And then, even louder, she continued, “My! We tried to handle this with a peaceful discussion, but these men who have captured and enslaved a little beastgirl refuse to even negotiate with us! Now that it’s come to this, I suppose we have no choice but to battle these fearsome foes in order to rescue the girl! Come now, everyone, let’s have an upstanding fight and save that little one!”
“All right!!!”
Pauline had made certain to repeat the keywords “beastgirl,” “abducted,” and “slave” as many times as possible. Then, the four of them doffed their caps, revealing cat ears (Mile), dog ears (Mavis), fox ears (Reina), and tanuki ears (Pauline).
“B-beastfolk…”
The shop staff and the gathered crowd were stunned.
Naturally, the Crimson Blood were all wearing the animal ear headbands that Mile had crafted.
“B-beastfolk…?”
“A-and four of them, no less…”
“Th-this won’t go over easy.”
“That should have been obvious from what they were saying!”
“Someone go tell the guards!”
Various people in the crowd began to mutter, but the members of the Order of the Crimson Blood paid them no mind, proceeding according to their plans. They had already declared war on the shop, which meant that there was no derailing the battle that was already underway. After all, they had already made it abundantly clear that these men were fiendish criminals, that this was a battle for the sake of rescuing an imprisoned little girl, and that they had no choice but to fight, as these criminals had refused to negotiate with them. Therefore…
“Wind Cutter!”
“Wind Edge!”
“Clay Pillar!”
“Water Lance!”
Shoop, shunk, ba-doom!
The Order of the Crimson Blood let off their spells one after the other, sticking to wind magic, spirit power (read: magic), earth magic, and water magic. It was only responsible to avoid using any fire magic in the middle of town.
“Why are you attacking our whole store?! Why not just us?!” the shop staff wailed. Of course, it was not as though they actually wished to have attack spells aimed at them directly; none of them were so peculiarly inclined. Still, one could not blame them for lamenting as their storefront, its expensive windows, and most of their wares were blown away before their very eyes.
And then, without a moment’s delay…
“Wind Cutter!”
“Wind Edge!”
“Clay Pillar!”
“Water Lance!”
Shoop, shunk, ba-doom!
“Stop it!” the men shrieked again. “Stop! Stoooop!!!”
“Wind Cutter!”
“Wind Edge!”
“Clay Pillar!”
“Water Lance!”
Shoop, shunk, ba-doom!
“St-st-st-stoooooop iiiiiiit!!!”
“Wind Cutter!”
“Wind Edge!”
“Clay Pillar!”
“Water Lance!”
Shoop, shunk, ba-doom!
“S-sirs, please do something about this!” the most senior of the staff begged the bodyguards, unable to bear the sight of such destruction any longer. Clearly, they hoped that if they could just shut the girls up for now, they might be able to deal with the situation properly later.
It was true that as long as there was no concrete proof of wrongdoing and no witnesses—both of which did exist but might mysteriously vanish—the company stood a chance of getting the town guard on their side, cozying up with the local nobility, and making the whole thing go away. They had probably done something similar plenty of times in the past.
“Guess we better,” the head of the bodyguards grumbled, giving the girls a once-over. “Little girls or no, a team of four mages and swordfighters is a bit much for you folks to handle…” Apparently, both Mile and Mavis’s attire meant they still counted as swordfighters, despite the fact that they were both using magic. “Oi! Let’s go, lads!”
“All righty…”
The bodyguards slouched toward the girls at a leisurely pace, clearly not thinking much of these opponents but realizing that they needed to earn their pay.
“Oh!” Mile loudly announced. “Those wicked villains are coming right for us! We’ll have to fight to protect ourselves in legitimate self-defense!”
Her delivery was incredibly stiff. You could have replaced her with a cardboard cutout.
“First up is me, Mavis, the swordswoman! Let’s do this!”
“What?” muttered the assembled. They had no idea what was going on.
The bodyguards stopped in place, equally confused.
“Uh, well, if I don’t go first, chances are pretty good that I won’t get a chance later…” Mavis explained, deadpan, before breaking into a grin.
It would be reasonable to expect the girls to assume a “hunter-like” formation, weaponizing the fact that they had mages among them and organizing themselves into front and back lines in order to compensate for the fact that, technically, they should have been at a severe disadvantage—both in terms of numbers and individual battle strength. To send their fighters out one by one was the height of folly, allowing each girl to become a sitting duck for slaughter—a mistake too stupid for even amateurs to make. No one who took the idea of battle seriously would do such a thing.
“I guess that makes sense…” Reina muttered.
“Now that I think about it, she really hasn’t gotten to fight much lately,” Mile quipped.
“We probably should let our leader have a bit of the glory here,” Pauline agreed.
The three of them took a respectful step back.
The men were silent. There were some mages who, though young, were capable of going toe to toe with veteran swordsmen. However, in battles of pure steel-on-steel, physical prowess, raw ability, and experience were the deciding factors. That experience, more to the point, was a product of the months and years spent honing one’s skill, and the number of times one had immersed oneself in true carnage. Thus, while there were mages of tender years who could win against a seasoned swordsman, no young swordfighter could say the same—much less a woman of not even twenty.
“I’ll take her,” said one of the men with a sneer, stepping forth and unsheathing his sword. “I believe it’s time to teach the young mistress a thing or two about the world. Or perhaps a thing or two and then some…”
With that, the man took a stance…
“Godspeed Blade!”
There was rush of movement, and he collapsed on the spot. The fight was over in an instant.
The other men were bewildered.
Naturally, he was not dead; Mavis had only struck the man with the flat of her blade.
To those familiar with the Order of the Crimson Blood, this would come as no surprise. A man who lacked the skill to make it as a soldier or a hunter and probably neglected his daily training could never stand a chance against Mavis. She hadn’t even needed to break out her True Godspeed Blade.
“Next up is I, the magic knight and perfectly normal girl, Mile! I look forward to our fight!”
“Being a magic knight already bars you from being ‘normal’!”
Mile took a snappy step forward, ignoring Reina’s objections.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” another of the bodyguards snarled, stepping up. The fact that he acted alone was a testament to either his pride or his stupidity. If the former, he might have been thinking how pitiful it would look for all five of the remaining guards to attack at once. If the latter, he might have thought Mile nothing more than a dim-looking twig of a girl. After all, her hands were smooth, her movements amateurish, and her armor was clearly that of a swordfighter, not a mage. And, unlike Mavis, she was barely a teen, much less an adult.
A large ring of spectators (read: rubberneckers) surrounded the fighters. If the men swarmed Mile all at once, they would utterly lose face and never be able to work in this town again. Even if they won, five men against one girl just looked bad. Imagine a group of bodyguards who needed five whole men to take down a little rookie waif of a hunter. They would be the laughingstock of the town.
“I ain’t gonna kill ya, but yer gonna learn today that if you play with fire, yer gonna get burned,” said the man, readying his sword.
“Ultimate Technique: Lightning Sword!”
Mile launched a deadly blow. Technically, it was only a regular swing of her sword, but after Mavis had shown off her Godspeed Blade, there was no way she’d pass up a chance to say something cool as well.
With a sharp clink, her sword cut right through the man’s, then turned ninety degrees and smacked into his flank. Like Mavis, she had used the flat of her blade, so as not to kill him.
The four remaining men stared in wide-eyed disbelief, their emotions clear to all the onlookers.
Mile then stepped back…but the men had already lost a fair bit of their will, along with their pride.
“Hyaaaaaaah!!!”
They launched an all-out attack. With Mile and Mavis no longer in front of them, they were faced with two girls, both obviously rearguard mages. A pair of rookie mages would be unused to battle at such close range. They hadn’t even begun any incantations. Surely, they would be bowled over in an instant.
The bodyguards, as well as various protectors of citizens and merchants around the town, mostly worked with swords. It was tough to use a spear or bow in a crowded shop, and a blade made it much easier to attack or defend at a moment’s notice, and to match someone else’s timing and their swing. These men were still pros, even if they were working as low-ranking a job as this. They’d trained together, and could handle a preemptive strike at some rookie mages who hadn’t even starting chanting spells yet. There was no chance they could lose.
Normally, that is…
“Dirt Pillar!”
Shoom!
“Ouch!!!”
Within mere moments, dozens of earthen rods, a few centimeters each in diameter, erupted from the ground beneath the men’s feet, impeding their movement. Naturally, a number of them struck the men directly as well…right in the groin.
Some swooned on the spot, unable to even speak. Others crumbled, their eyes wide and spinning. And others fell sideways, impaling themselves on the pointed tips of the poles.
“Ice Spear!”
Next, a shower of icy spears came flying at them head-on. Their tips were blunted, but being struck with a spear of ice was still nothing to sneeze at. It was also clearly overkill, as the group of men had already lost the will to fight. At least they weren’t actually dead.
The crowd of spectators, men and women alike, cringed as they watched the scene unfolding.
Silent casting.
Unlike the true silent—and instant—casting that only Mile and the Wonder Trio could use, what Reina and Pauline did was something of a fake. They just did the incantations in their heads, which still took a fair bit of time. However, Mavis and Mile’s bouts had given them more than ample time to complete those incantations and simply hold the release, leaving them able to attack in an instant.
The five shop employees, who were at this point half—no, fully—in tears, came running at the girls, arms flailing. Naturally, Mavis took them all out without hesitation. It was unclear if their desperation stemmed from some sort of loyalty to the company or simply from their own concern over the consequences they might face later if they did not at least attempt to do something about this.
Given Mile’s stilted setup of the fight—and what they’d seen of the takedown of the bodyguards, who all seemed to at least be alive—the shop staffers must have come to the conclusion that their best bet was to be defeated without being too terribly injured. That way, they could at least be able to show their faces to their bosses after the fact.
Given that a double-sided blade had no blunt edge with which to strike, Mavis instead pulled her sword, scabbard and all, from her belt and struck the men down without even unsheathing it—a duller blow than even the flat side. This was out of consideration for the men, since even striking them with the flat of a blade would be too harsh for a group of complete amateurs. In other words, the men had in fact succeeded in avoiding too much physical damage.
(Scabbards weren’t usually this durable, but this was one Mile had made.)
It was worth noting that the Crimson Vow had chosen to begin this farce precisely at the second morning bell, just as the shop would be opening, so there would be no customers in the store. Since all the employees had come rushing out when the commotion began, there was no one inside at all. Indeed, the attack only began after Mile confirmed this fact with her search magic, so even though the preliminary attacks aimed at the front of the store had been unleashed at full strength, there shouldn’t have been any human casualties. And even if there had been other attendants deeper inside the store, any sounds of explosions or destruction would have surely sent them flying out the back door. There was no danger of harming anyone with subsequent attacks.
Thus far, there had been no sign of any higher-ranking staff member, like a head clerk or the store’s owner. It stood to reason that they, too, had probably fled from the back entrance and were in the process of making their way around to the front of the shop. Anticipating this, the girls began firing their magical attacks at the shopfront again.
Just then, a voice cried, “St-stop! What are you doing?! O-oh my Goddess! My stoooooooore!”
A rotund man came tottering forward, flanked by several other fellows. His face fell the moment he laid eyes on the scene.
“I take it you’re the criminal who abducted a young beastgirl and are holding her as a slave? The scoundrel who directly violated the ancient agreements, and wishes to launch again the war between humans and demi-humans?” Reina announced ominously.
“He must be one of those cultists who aim to restart the Great Demi-human War…” Mile proclaimed in turn.
The owner went white as a sheet. If what they were claiming was proven to be true, those directly involved would be beheaded, all the shop’s assets seized, and the firm left to ruin. No wonder he looked panicked.
So, why would he have done something so foolish as engage in the slave trade in the first place? Well, like most criminals, he would have assumed that he would never be found out. No employee or servant would ever risk their own life, let alone those of their families, for the sake of some slave they had no connection to. Furthermore, any customers he might have made aware of his work would be members of a select clientele, the sort one shared a mutual trust with—or rather, shared incriminating information, in order to assure some kind of mutually assured destruction. And if a prospective buyer were to spill that dirt, it would be simple enough to testify to that snitch being an accomplice in the matter and dragging them down with him. Even if turning oneself in were to lead to a more relaxed sentencing that would extend only as far as perhaps being decapitated rather than hanged—which, at the end of the day, amounted to a rather insignificant difference. No, nothing good could come of incriminating oneself. Regardless of how everything played out, the snitch would be on the same slow boat to hell as the company’s owner.
Furthermore, for all the talk of beastfolk and demons being “equal” to humans, there were still plenty of people who would have reacted very differently had it been a human girl in question. Yes, there had been agreements at the time of the great ancient wars, but those had been mostly a result of conditions that the fearsome elder dragons had forced upon humans.
Demi-humans, simply put, were not human. Thus the name. They acted as though they were human but could never—so the bigots said—attain full humanity. They were but half-baked imitations.
Unfortunately, there were still many who subscribed to this incredibly outdated way of thinking, and perhaps even worse, those people were convinced that everyone else truly felt the same way somewhere deep down. People like this would happily keep a beastchild—a demi-human—as a pet, like some kind of animal, dragging them out to parade in front of guests, just as this merchant did.
And in case someone on the payroll should go to the guards, a merchant like that would have been sure to make friends with the lord in charge of this town and have the head of the town guard on retainer, so anyone who came to talk to them would be apprehended and forced into criminal indenture. Should any of the merchant’s family members raise a fuss, they would find themselves faced with trumped up fees for damages owed and saddled with piles of debt.
There was no one under the merchant’s employ who would dare say a word, knowing the consequences they would be inviting.
It should go without saying that any particularly honest sorts would have already been weeded out of the merchant’s household ages ago. Some would have gotten the axe, some would have quit on their own, and still others would have been forced to take the fall for some past wrongdoing that even they did not seem to recall…
Selective pressure is defined as a natural selection process that eliminates those individuals who are underperforming, or unfit, to ensure the continued survival of the species. In a company like this, a similar force would work to remove the most morally upstanding and reasonable individuals, leaving behind only those with the adaptability to follow the orders of their less than scrupulous boss. Put simply, all of the employees still left would be as bad as their employer.
“There’s no way that this could have been going on without the staff all knowing,” said Mile.
“So what you’re saying is, it’s fine if they end up in the crossfire, so long as we don’t kill them?” Reina confirmed.
Mile quickly amended her statement. “Just the store employees! I don’t think that all of the maids and other low-ranking servants back in the living quarters are involved, so keep them out of it!”
“Uh, whatever…”
Reina’s face twisted, clearly less than happy to have to rein herself in, but her friends were well aware that she would never harm someone who did not deserve it.
“Anyway, let’s get back to it!”
“All right!!!”
“Wind Cutter!”
“Wind Edge!”
“Clay Pillar!”
“Water Lance!”
Shoop, shunk, ba-doom!
“Stoooop iiiiiiit!!!”
And thus, the Order of the Crimson Blood continued their reign of destruction, heedless of the desperate pleas from the owner and his staff—until the town guard arrived on the scene…
***
When the guards finally arrived and saw what lay before them, they stopped, speechless.
Where were they right now? The site they had rushed to was the storefront of one of the most preeminent mercantile firms in town. Or at least, it was supposed to have been.
They stared slack-jawed at the unrecognizable mountain of rubble that was once allegedly the shop. Now, only about one-seventh of its former structure remained. For some reason, in the middle of the mountain was some sort of passageway, about two meters wide, that seemed to have been spared the destruction.
When he finally came to his senses, the captain of the guard shouted, “What the hell is going on here?! Someone! Explain this!”
However, there was not a peep from any of the onlookers. No one seemed to want to get involved. Those associated with the business were either too shocked to respond or else kept their eyes to the ground, none too keen on getting involved with the authorities. And those who had gone to call the guards had obviously been away from the scene when the destruction had occurred, so they had no explanation for the current situation.
When no one gave him any response, the guard captain looked around, troubled. “You there!” he shouted, spotting someone. “You work for the Hunters’ Guild! Tell me what happened!”
Unfortunately for the man in question, the guard captain happened to recognize him. At the captain’s words, he held his head in his hands, not looking especially happy. They were near the center of town, so while the guard barracks were close, the nearest guild branch was closer, and all the hunters and staff had come rushing out when they heard Mile’s initial proclamations. For the hunters, it was just a way to kill the time, but the guild clerks were worried whether the fight might involve the guild somehow. All they knew clearly at the moment was that this fight definitely had nothing to do with them.
No good could come of any guild member or employee getting themselves involved in a situation of this magnitude. At best, they would be expelled from the guild; at worst, they would be hanged. So they were merely here to observe and gather information. Suddenly being called out while they had been doing nothing but watching the fight surely would have been exasperating.
The man turned his head left and right, hoping that any of his colleagues might come to his aid, but they all carefully averted their eyes—nor did any of the hunters step in to help. Left with little choice, he slowly pointed—his eyes hollower than the world’s most lifeless fish—towards four young girls who stood huffing through their noses, looking very proud of themselves.
It was a silent appeal from the bedraggled employee, who clearly wished to involve himself as little as possible with this situation and direct the guard to the real culprits. The guard captain turned to the girls, seeming to understand the guild employee’s reticence. At which point, the poor man heaved a sigh of utmost relief.
“You four,” the guard called. “Can you explain what’s going on here?” For a guard, his tone was fairly polite. This might have been because he had seen the ears atop their heads—which would have been hard to miss—and realized that, as a public official, he had to maintain an appropriately respectful stance toward beastfolk. Alternatively, he might simply have realized that this was an incredibly delicate situation that merited the taking of precautions, simply because—beastfolk or not—they were a group of young girls, including some children.
He likely assumed that the guild employee had pointed out the four of them merely because they were aware of the circumstances behind the current situation or because they been observing the scene from the start. It was unthinkable that they might be the cause of the dreadful state of the shop before them.
“Well,” said Mile, “before we get into that…” She removed her cat-ear headband. The others followed suit, removing each of theirs.
“What?” came a voice.
“What?” others piped up in confusion.
“Whaaaaaaaat?!”
The guards and spectators were dumbfounded.
The members of the Crimson Vow had only worn the disguises so as to make it more difficult for any third parties to intervene, but they knew they had to reveal their true status at some point. Failing to do so would only mean that the beastfolk would end up getting blamed for the whole incident. At this point in the game, it did not matter if anyone else tried to step in, so it was time for them to make their status as humanoids abundantly clear.
There were more screeches of disbelief, but now it was up to the guards to take charge of this scene, the captain in particular. Realizing that these were not beastfolk, but indeed four human girls, he now took an even politer tone in spite of his obvious continued confusion.
“Young ladies,” he said, “could you tell me what you saw here today?”
Though clearly annoyed at being treated like a child, Reina turned to the man, clearing her throat. “What we saw were these pieces of trash who have imprisoned a beastfolk child in a dungeon, keeping her as a slave, and those worthless men writhing on the ground there, who tried to attack us when we asked about the child—and I suppose that hidden door, right over there, which leads to the dungeon?”
“Wh…?”
The captain was lost for words. In Reina’s explanation, she had mentioned kidnapping and enslavement only in passing, but she was speaking quickly enough that the captain seemed to think she had witnessed these crimes. This was, of course, intentional on her part—she had memorized her lines the night before.
“Th-this is utterly baseless slander!” the merchant frantically protested. Yet, unfortunately for him, he had not listened closely to what Reina had said. If he were in a clearer state of mind, he would not have overlooked the most fatal part of her statement. Hearing the terms “imprisoned in a dungeon” and “slave” left such a strong impression that he completely missed another key phrase: “hidden door.”
“Mile!”
“On it!”
At Reina’s command, Mile headed straight through the passage that cut into the rubble, put her hands on the ground, and flung open the door. Because the area around her was clear, nothing obstructed the view, so the guards and spectators could see everything. Naturally, that was the reason she had made sure to clear the rubble in the first place.
A minute or so later, Mile emerged, carrying a young girl in her arms.
“Oh my—!”
“How horrible!”
“What is going on?”
The crowd began muttering in horror.
The girl Mile carried was dressed in rags, a bandage wrapped around her head, and the skin around her left eye bruised a deep crimson. Her left arm was in a filthy sling. Her right leg was wrapped in more bandages stained a deep red.
Silence fell over the street.
“I-I have no idea why she looks like that! I dressed her in clean clothes, and I never once harmed her! There must be some mistake! Someone else did this!” the merchant valiantly protested, but no one so much as acknowledged him, let alone believed his words. After all, he had just admitted to being aware of the girl’s existence and the fact that she had been in his care.
“There is a dungeon in the basement. You can see it for yourself!”
At Mile’s suggestion, the captain directed two of his men to go underground. They returned, confirming, “There’s a dungeon down there—or rather, a number of prison cells. Judging from the chamber pots and the blankets, they appear to be in active use. The lock was broken open on one of them…”
In fairness, there were some minor differences between a prison and a dungeon, though in practice they were not all that different. A prison was not a place for holding criminals who were en route to their sentencing, but the place to keep someone under long-term arrest for the safety of themselves or others. As such, the accommodations were somewhat better than your average jail cell. The Crimson Vow had purposely referred to the place as a dungeon, but the guards would not lie to the captain in their report.
Naturally, when Mile had extracted Salisha, she had not sliced clear through the wooden lattice but instead made it look as though she had bashed the lock numerous times with the butt of her sword.
The merchant glared at the guard captain, gritting his teeth, rage on his face and murder in his eyes. The clothing and bandages and the dirt and traces of blood on the little rabbit girl were, of course, a trick of costuming and makeup. Mile would never have harmed Salisha, and the girl was not actually being physically abused. Mile had merely carried up a young, imprisoned girl who had been playing make-believe as an injured person in order to pass the time. There was no chicanery happening here.
“Listen! I don’t know what’s going on! I’m not the one who hurt her!”
Nor was there any falsehood in at least that part of the merchant’s claim…
The merchant and his clerks, along with the employees Mavis had struck with the sheath of her sword; the other hired hands and servants who had come out from the back; and, of course, the bodyguards were all taken in by the guards. Afterward, they would be questioned, with easier sentences for those who had known nothing of the girl’s enslavement. At the moment, however, there was no telling who was guilty and who was innocent, so they had no choice but to detain the whole lot.
By putting on this big of a production, the Crimson Vow had made sure it would be impossible for anyone to cover up the matter of the beastgirl’s imprisonment. With a crowd this big, there were bound to be merchants from other cities or countries, undercover agents, and others. There was no way to hide what had just occurred. Furthermore, to keep from catching any heat themselves, the local lord and any lower-ranking nobles and officials subordinate to him would be sure to wash their hands of the merchant. As would the upper brass of the guards, any previously friendly smaller merchants, and everyone else.
It was almost certain that the capital would be hearing of this. As would the leaders of other fiefs…
The ancient treaties were arrangements put in place by all the races combined so as not to rekindle the flames of the Great Demi-human War. To enable the sort of crime that would risk those treaties was considered a grave sin. Violators would be struck down with impunity, for the protection of all. If one were to even suggest supporting these sinners, one would soon find oneself on the wrong end of a sword.
Any noble or merchant worth his salt should be well aware of this, but alas, there would always be a few hardheaded men who refused to study history, as well as those dunces with an unfounded sense of invincibility who figured they would never get caught or have to face punishment.
If they’d had only one cell down there, they could have claimed that it was for the sake of locking away some relative who should not be seen by the public eye or some such, but there’s no way for them to come up with a satisfying excuse for having that many. Plus, we managed to expose the hidden safe with the damning documents inside of it by destroying the walls around it, so the authorities should hopefully find it pretty soon. Now then, time to make our escape…
“H-hold it right there!” The captain of the guard called out to the Crimson Vow as they tried to slip quietly away, Salisha in tow.
Hmph.
The Crimson Vow—or rather, the Order of the Crimson Blood—all sighed internally. They had been hoping to fade peacefully into the background, but this was, of course, an unrealistic hope.
“We need to get a witness statement and testimony from you all. Come to the guard headquarters with me. This is just standard procedure, and we may or may not need you to give your report to our lord as well… You needn’t worry. Judging by the circumstances, it’s clear that the merchant was in the wrong here. I’d just like to get your statement. And also…” He trailed off, glancing at the wreckage that had once been the merchant’s shop.
They had clearly overdone it. It was only natural that they should have to give some justification for that as well.
Crap, thought Reina.
This is bad, thought Mavis.
Well, we’re in a bit of a pickle, thought Pauline.
We need to find some way out of this, thought Mile.
For a group who fancied themselves on the side of justice, they were not especially keen on actually being cross-examined themselves. If the guild were to get involved, it might come out that the four were not registered under the strange name they had shouted earlier—the Order of the Crimson Blood—but rather, the Crimson Vow. Of course, giving a false name in and of itself was not a huge issue. It would have been a more serious matter if they had claimed the name of some other party that actually existed, but there was nothing truly problematic about them using a different name to take on an independent job that was not brokered through the guild. It was not as though there were not more prominent parties who regularly gave a false name when taking on volunteer jobs that were below their station, so as not to harm their reputations—much like when well-known manga artists secretly publish adult works under a separate pen name.
Still, in this case, the members of the Crimson Vow were not too keen on their true identities being linked to the job they had just done.
A secondary matter was the fact that Salisha’s injuries were purely superficial—a product of costume and makeup. Obviously this was problematic. How would a young girl who was locked away in a cell have managed to do all that on her own? How would she have gotten her hands on cosmetic products? Where would she have learned how to create false wounds? If pressed, Mile would have to explain that perhaps Salisha had gotten a little help from a certain someone.
Another problem: Mile herself had be the one to issue this job, which meant that, in essence, this was a wholly independent action. If they had merely rescued Salisha, it probably could have been written off as a chivalrous act of justice, but leaving the shop in its current position went a bit too far. It was almost certain they would be asked why they did not simply inform the guards of what they knew rather than taking such drastic action all on their own. Of course, if they had gone to the authorities, it was possible that those who were being bribed would have quashed the matter and instead taken the Crimson Vow into custody, but they couldn’t exactly say that to the guards themselves, who would insist they would never be party to such corruption. Even if the guards themselves were unimpeachable, there was no telling where the merchant might have informants, who might have tipped him off at the slightest whisper of the Crimson Vow’s plans. This was just another reason why the hunters had no choice but to take matters in hand themselves—for Salisha’s safety!
Yet as sound as their reasons for acting had been, it was less than ideal to be asked to explain any of them to the guard captain. All members of the Crimson Vow were very much in agreement about that.
“What?! Stand down, you pompous fools!” Mile turned to the captain and began an arrogant proclamation, hoping to bluff her way through. “You don’t require our testimony to know that those scumbags got their hands on young girls like this one through kidnappers and their intermediaries! You shall receive the evidence you need and more from extracting their confessions! We are merely enacting the will of the Goddess El!”
Mile was careful in her wording, so as not to falsely imply that she was an oracle speaking the words of a goddess directly but was just a messenger, conveying the goddess’s will secondhand. In all fairness, there was (in Mile’s head) an extremely complex and unnatural pun behind this, something to the effect of her doing some laundry later to wash away her sins, but of course the guards didn’t pick up on any of that.
“Th-the will of a goddess?”
“El? I’ve never heard of that one…”
“Servants of a goddess, carrying out her divine will…”
They were a group of girls, two of whom were still children, who had known of the existence of a young girl who was trapped underground, and had bravely stepped forth to save her. What remained of the store looked like it had been struck by heaven’s wrath, and there truly was no way that the path to the girl’s prison could have been the only part of the site to remain clear without someone’s intervention. For the more pious believers, this was more than enough proof that a goddess had been involved.
Naturally, there were many pious sorts among those who made their living on the battlefield. Only the most soulless criminals did not cling to some system of belief when their very lives could be snatched away by the whims of fate at any moment.
As a result, then, the guards and their captain were a faithful bunch.
“Our only duty is to see this girl safely home. It has been ordained that the punishment of the evildoers be carried out by Her pious servants who are in a position to do so. Do you all fancy yourselves such individuals?”
“O-of course, my lady!”
The captain took on an even more polite tone—clearly a reaction to the increasingly strange circumstances and, perhaps, the mention of the goddess’s will.
“Well then, we shall leave the rest to you. Let your judgments be wise… Fare thee well!” Mile exclaimed, immediately activating an invisibility field around them so that the Order of the Crimson Blood and Salisha vanished before the crowd’s very eyes.
Mile left the sound barrier down, instead holding a finger up to her lips to signal for the others to keep quiet. This way, they could hear the crowd but not vice versa. Salisha understood the signal and nodded, the plan having been thoroughly explained to her the night before.
“Th-they disappeared…” the crowd muttered, frozen in shock.
The girls began moving quietly towards the rubble and sat down in the shadows where no one would approach them. Because the invisibility field was not tangible, if anyone else stepped through it, they would see them. They would never be able to get away from the scene while the streets were still packed and someone might bump into them at any moment.
Making a tangible barrier, meanwhile, would cause a stir when someone suddenly collided with something that they could not see. Under those circumstances, they would quickly find themselves surrounded. So, it was better that they wait until the spectators dispersed and they could get away cleanly.
It feels like I dropped the ball here, Mile thought. I should have come up with a more efficient way for us to escape. But we have to know what’s going on out there, so I can’t put up a sound barrier and let everyone talk…
No matter how skilled at magic Mile might have been, she still had not figured out how to manage that… It truly was a waste of talent.
“…se…”
“Praise…”
“Praise the goddess!!!”
“Praise her servants!!!”
What? the members of the Crimson Vow were stunned at the shouts that were beginning to arise from the crowd.
“Praise the goddess!!!”
“Praise her servants!!!”
“Praise the goddess!!!”
“Praise her servants!!!”
“Praise the goddess!!!”
“Praise her servants!!!”
An expression of utter bliss played on Mile’s face, drool practically spilling from her lips as Salisha clung to her tightly, her face buried in Mile’s bosom. The others watched her, nonplussed, figuring they ought to allow her at least this much of a reward for all her hard work on behalf of the kidnapped beastgirls. The rest of them could not say they would not be equally happy to claim the role of the hero who had rescued the young damsel—under those circumstances, Mavis would had much the same reaction as Mile’s now.
Still…just how long was the crowd going to keep up this cheering?
***
After quite some time, the crowd finally dispersed, and the Crimson Vow were able to make their exit, meeting up with Shurana, who had been waiting for them. Together, they all left the town behind. Worried for her physical condition after having been locked up for so long, Mile carried Salisha on her back, Mavis carrying Shurana in turn so as not to hear any complaints of unfairness. She got the sense that Shurana might have been feeling anxious after having to wait longer than anticipated, perhaps worrying that she had been left behind. It was typical of Mavis to be so considerate—and this was one of the reasons that she was so popular with girls, though of course Mavis herself did not seem to realize this.
As she held tight to Mavis, Shurana’s cheeks pinked.
“Okay,” Mile started. “That’s mission complete. Now to just get them back to the village.”
Though Mile had not included the words “as slowly as humanly possible,” her intention was obvious to everyone. They avoided calling her out about this less out of consideration for Mile and more so that they did not put the young girls on edge.
“So now we’ve dealt with the actual kidnappers, the merchant intermediaries, and the distribution center, where documents with all of the relevant proof should have been confiscated by now.” Pauline summarized their progress to date, then continued.
“All of the slave acquisition and sales routes that company controls, and all of their clients, will be rounded up. A lot of their victims should be rescued and freed. There are a lot of situations where you can get by with bribes and working your connections, but good luck when it comes to matters involving the old treaties. No human would want to touch something that could see their entire family beheaded for even the slightest involvement, not for just a little bit of profit. The cost-benefit analysis just doesn’t work out. Typically, the kinds of people we’re dealing with here can utilize their money or influence to make problems go away, but when this much information has already gotten out that’s no longer possible. No one is going to step in to help them out once things have gotten to this point. On the contrary, they’re likely to give all that they can to help put the issue to bed before the flames spread and they end up as collateral damage. If we were talking about a human victim, the whole thing might have been a little less complicated, but when there are other races involved, things get serious fast. In other words, the circumstances worked out in our favor,” Pauline explained.
Mavis and Reina nodded in agreement.
“At the very least, we can assume that we’ve wiped out the illegal slavers in this kingdom for now. Everyone—beast, human, and otherwise—should be safe.”
“Whenever there’s an opening in a lucrative market, though, someone else is sure to step in,” sighed Reina with a resigned shrug.
But Mile chimed in, her eyes gleaming, “I don’t think that merchant was the only surviving member of his species.”
She never passed up a chance to make a reference. That was a Mile Guarantee…
***
“We’ll arrive at the village soon,” muttered Mile.
She’d been in high spirits after getting her fill of cuddling with Shurana, the fox girl, and Salisha, the rabbit girl, but now that it seemed her paradise was almost at an end, there was a listlessness behind her smile. She’d known the moment would come, but it still hurt for her days of bliss to finally come to an end.
“Enough! We already walked here slower than we needed to. You should be plenty satisfied by now,” Reina chided.
“Well, I suppose you’re right,” Mile grumbled. Though her appetite could never truly be satiated…
Fwoosh!
“Ahh!!!”
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline shrieked as something suddenly flew down from overhead. Mavis immediately drew her sword, while Reina and Pauline brandished their staves and began their incantations.
Mile, meanwhile, did not appear surprised. Normally, she might not have bothered running her search magic this whole time, but she was not one to skimp on safety precautions when she was protecting two young girls. Furthermore, having to keep her guard up for monsters or other assailants by non-magical means took effort—effort that would have kept her from fully enjoying her time with the girls. To even consider such a thing was utterly unforgivable.
“Shurana! Salisha!”
The thing that had dropped down in front of them—which just so happened to be the lookout who manned the outer edges of the beastfolk village—called the two girls’ names. It was a small village, so naturally they all knew each other by name. This man knew exactly who the two missing girls were—and also recognized the Crimson Vow, who themselves had been in town not long before.
“Y-you four…”
He began to say something to the Crimson Vow but was suddenly so overcome by emotions that he couldn’t speak. He didn’t have to. The members of the Crimson Vow gave him a silent nod and continued walking forward. The lookout nodded back, perhaps because he was simply still unable to form proper words. This was the point where he normally would have gone running and shouting to the other villagers to let them know what was going on, but as he was currently on lookout duty, he had some decorum to maintain. Only a fool would leave a hole in the village’s safety net and expose them to danger simply to satisfy his own emotions. Running around screaming to alert the others would not make the children’s homecoming any safer.
Plus, it was this group of human girls who deserved all the glory. So, the man calmed himself and returned to his duties, while the six girls continued farther into the village.
“Shurana! Salisha!”
“Oh! Oh my goodness!”
“Someone go tell their families! Call the chief!”
There was an immediate commotion. This should have been no surprise. The culprits behind the kidnappings had been captured, sure, but the villagers still had not held out much faith in the humans being able to return their offspring. They were well aware that the merchants and nobles of other lands had connections with powerful people who were beyond the control of the local lords and the Hunters’ Guild. So, all they could think to do was capture and punish the culprits who had come into their home—the kidnappers themselves—in order to make an example of them. These were, of course, men who had abducted a number of beastfolk children, so few would argue they deserved to return home alive or even enjoy a death that was quick and painless.
The difference here was that the Crimson Vow had not only captured the kidnappers, as they had been hired to do, but also gone above and beyond what was asked of them to retrieve the victims. Such kindness was a surprise.
And on top of that surprise was the most important surprise of all: two young beastgirls returning to the village safe and sound.
“Shurana!”
“Salisha!”
“Sherry! Where is Sherry?!”
“Ah…”
Mile had already removed Salisha’s makeup and false bandages and gotten both her and Shurana cleaned up in the Crimson Vow’s portable washhouse. They were dressed in normal clothing from Mile’s inventory—she kept children’s clothing on hand just in case, though what she picked out was much finer in make, and a bit more stylish, than what the children of this village normally wore.
That, however, was not the issue.
“Sherry! Why isn’t Sherry here?!?!”
Sherry was, of course, the girl who was called Lilia back at the count’s manor—the one who had wished to stay behind. Now, her family was jostled aside by the families of Shurana and Salisha, who rushed to their daughters, weeping joyfully.
“What happened?! Why is Sherry the only one missing?! D-don’t tell me…”
“Sh-she’s…alive. She’s not dead!!!” Mile shrieked as a woman who was probably Sherry’s mother grabbed her by her jacket and hoisted her half into the air. However, the woman was not satisfied by the response and only hoisted her higher.
“Grr…”
“Auntie, please!”
“You’re choking her!”
“Let her down!”
The other members of the Crimson Vow frantically tried to get the woman’s attention as the collar of Mile’s jacket seemed to tighten around her neck. Obviously, a feat like this was something only one of the beastfolk could achieve. Even an older woman like this, who did not look as though she was trained for battle, was possessed of superior strength. Or perhaps it was merely that her internal limits had been surpassed as she raged over her missing daughter…
Eventually, the others were able to rescue Mile, but the hardest task still awaited them: reporting the unfortunate news to Sherry’s mother, father, and brothers. They could not do it in front of the throngs of other villagers. This was a rather shameful discussion to be had, for both Sherry and her family.
“W-we’ll tell you more later! At the chief’s house! Relevant parties only! Please just let us rest for now!”
Mavis’s desperate plea—and the fact that Mile had said that Sherry wasn’t dead—was enough to finally bring the woman back to her senses somewhat. The other villagers attempted to calm her down, and the Crimson Vow stepped aside to give them space.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login