10
“Man, that really was a stupid thing you did. It helped us out, though!”
As the man spat and laughed, it took everything in Subaru not to crack a smile. They were in a dimly lit hut with its windows shuttered to obscure the outside. The only light source in the room came from ragmite ore, and it only faintly illuminated their surroundings.
This gang was clearly used to playing dirty. That was Subaru’s assessment, at least.
“If you’d stayed holed up at that manor, that freak maid of yours could have kept you safe. Luckily for us, you just wandered out into the open. Got a little cocky, did we? Eh?”
The rough-looking man kicked Subaru. He and the rest of his band sported a savage demeanor that just screamed, We are goons! There were eight of them in total, some inside and some outside the hut. Even if Subaru put up a serious fight, they had the numbers to easily beat him to death if they wanted to.
“What’s this? Aww, how precious. Somebody’s shaking. Come on, lover boy, comfort her.”
Beside the grimacing Subaru was a shivering girl hanging her head. A goon taunted her, and Subaru protectively grabbed her hand while the other men laughed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be okay. We’ll escape somehow…,” Subaru assured her.
“That’s brave of you. But there’s no way you’re getting outta here. We took lots of precautions to make sure that crazy maid won’t find us. Then again, we’ve got the girl now, so we don’t need you. After we give you a good thrashing, we’ll letcha go.”
The man made a show of cracking his knuckles. Subaru gulped quietly and firmly squeezed the hand of the shivering girl.
The peasant’s dress barely covered her body. Her exposed shoulders looked so fragile. Subaru gently put an arm around her to shield her from the ogling eyes of the thugs. When she shuddered, the men whistled. But then—
“Is it true?! Did you really get the girl back?!”
Following the shout, the door violently burst open, allowing outside light to shine into the dark hut. Subaru reflexively squinted his eyes as he beheld the backlit figure at the door, who was panting and gasping for air.
Several blinks brought the newcomer into focus. Subaru could see it was a young man. He was dressed well, and his hair was immaculately combed. The young man looked around the room, his eyes widening when he spotted Subaru and the girl. He cried, “Ohh, Liliana! At last I’ve found yo— Wait, who’s this man?”
“Some rich guy’s manservant who’s been hiding her. We caught them together, and—er, young master?”
The young man’s gaze stayed on Subaru, his cheeks reddening in the blink of an eye. From the way his goons were cautiously sussing out the young man’s mood, it was clear that he was their employer—the mastermind.
As Subaru came to this conclusion, the young man snorted wildly and shrieked, “You bastarrrd! Wh-who…gave you permission to t-touch herrr?!”
“Errr—ahh?!”
The roaring man’s kick sent Subaru flying into a wall. As Subaru’s eyes rolled from the sudden attack, the goons filled the silence with their own yelling.
“Y-young master, what was that for?!”
“B-b-because! That bastard was getting all cozy with my Liliana!”
Shaking off the goons who were trying to hold him back, the young man knelt before Liliana. Keeping his eyes on the floor, he extended a hand and said, “Ohh, my dearest Liliana. We finally meet. ’Tis I, Kiritaka, your love slave. When I heard the infamous demi-human lover brought you into his manor, a waterfall of pure anxiety nearly ripped my chest asunder. Ohh…ohh…Liliana…!”
Apparently, the man named Kiritaka loved hearing himself talk. However, Subaru couldn’t refute the accusation—he was aware of the marquis’s terrible reputation, so all he could do was don a sour look. Instead of responding to Kiritaka, Subaru rubbed his sore shoulders, turned to the goons, and said, “Hey, doesn’t it bother you, working for this asshole?”
“He pays us well. Just snatching that one little girl is gonna keep us flush for quite a while. So we can overlook his…you know.”
From the way the goons talked, it seemed they did know what their boss was all about. Now that he was aware of the gritty circumstances, Subaru foresaw a misguided conclusion to the brouhaha around Liliana.
He had just assumed that Liliana was targeted because of a certain song, but it was Liliana herself who made Kiritaka burn with desire. The way he expressed his love was maniacal, but Subaru could see nothing else guiding Kiritaka beyond that.
“What happened, Liliana?! Why won’t your precious eyes look upon me?” When Kiritaka was confronted by the girl’s unbroken silence, his obsessive cries of passion came to a halt. His brows knit together, and he asked, “Why aren’t you speaking…? Did they do unspeakable things to you when they brought you here?!”
“Stop it, young master! We did exactly what you told us to. And I shouldn’t have to say this, but nobody in their right mind would do anything with a flat-chested, prepubescent girl like—”
“When will these pesky flies buzz off, I wonder?”
A girl’s voice growled just as Kiritaka and his men began to squabble. The moment he heard it, Kiritaka looked up, his face reddening in shock. He was the only one who noticed that the voice of the girl before them did not belong to the one they were after.
“Wh-who the hell are you?! You aren’t my Liliana!”
“You don’t deserve to know Betty’s name.”
Right as Subaru was silently thinking, But you just told them your name, the pigtailed girl rose to her feet. Unlike Liliana’s, her hair was twisted into two tight rolls.
“Outside and inside, we have nine people. I wonder…will all those fingers be enough to give us what we need?”
An instant later, the hoarse screams of the men echoed off the walls of the hut.
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