After turning a few times in the narrow alleyways, Shulim arrived at a cluttered district of old buildings.
Looking at the sprawling old district before her, Shulim couldn't help but feel a bit troubled.
“Hey! You there, kid, do you know what kind of place this is?! How dare you trespass—eek?!”
A fellow wrapped in a gray robe that hid his face shouted aggressively at Shulim. However, the moment Shulim turned around and met his gaze, he gasped in fright, immediately spun around, and bolted.
With a guide, she probably wouldn't have to search on her own, Shulim thought to herself as she watched the fleeing gray-robed figure...
Inside a pitch-black wooden shack in the old district.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
“Hmph! Behave yourself!”
The buzzcut thug bound Fran tightly with a rope, then threw her directly onto the wooden floor.
“Ow!”
Fran cried out in pain, then forced her head up to look at the two men.
“What on earth do you want?! Let me go, quickly! If my father finds out, he'll never let you get away with this!”
The two thugs burst into hearty laughter as if they had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Hahaha!”
“Is this girl for real?”
“Oh, we're so~ scared! So, where exactly is your dearest daddy right now~?”
Bam!
The bald thug kicked Fran square in the stomach.
“Ah!!”
Fran let out a cry of pain. “—Cough, cough! It hurts!”
Her body began to tremble from the pain.
Directly after, the bald thug squatted down, reaching out with his right hand to pin Fran's head against the floor.
“Yo~, milady, it seems you still don't understand your situation~! The two of us are illegal slave traders who specialize in kidnappings! Do you know what that means?”
“Hehehe~!” The buzzcut thug chimed in with a sneer. “It means you're going to be sold to some godforsaken, distant place to be someone's slave~!”
“So give up any hope of anyone coming to save you. The town guards will absolutely never set foot in a place like this. Tomorrow at the crack of dawn, we'll pack you into a cargo crate and ship you out of town. See how much thought we've put into this? You'd better fetch a good price to repay us~!”
“Hahaha! Exactly, exactly!”
...
Listening to their unbridled words, Fran sank deeper into despair, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.
“Oh~, are you crying? Cry all you want, this is your own fault anyway. What is a noble's young miss doing running off to a dangerous place like this all by herself? Isn't that practically begging to be kidnapped? Hahaha~!”
Hearing the bald thug's mocking words, Fran felt immense regret.
Why did she have to make trouble for Shulim? If she hadn't pouted so foolishly, she wouldn't have refused her family's carriage ride. If she hadn't been so impulsive and had actually considered the consequences before entering this place, she would never have run into this.
What would happen to her now? Would her father go mad with worry if he found out she was missing? Was she really going to become a slave? Sent to work in some mine, or delivered to some shady organization to be used as experimental fodder, or bought by some disgusting person...
No. Why did this have to happen to her?
No, she didn't want this. She would rather die than become a slave!
Anyone, please, is there anyone who can save her!
“No... I don't want this...”
“Huh? What is this brat muttering?”
The bald thug leaned his ear in closer.
Fran sobbed, “I don't want to be a slave, I don't! Someone, anyone, please save me...”
“...This girl,”
“Hahaha!”
The two thugs burst into raucous laughter.
“This girl still hasn't accepted reality yet, has she?! Listen up!”
“There is ab-so-lute-ly no way anyone is coming to save—”
Boom—!
Before the bald thug could finish his sentence, a loud crash echoed from the doorway. The old wooden door flew inward, slamming heavily against the wall and shattering into pieces.
The once-dark room was instantly flooded with light from outside.
“Looks like I didn't arrive too late.”
The sudden change in brightness made it hard for everyone in the room to adjust. They couldn't help but squint, trying to make out a figure standing against the light.
Once their eyes adjusted to the light, the people in the room finally saw clearly who was standing at the doorway.
It was a girl about eight or nine years old, holding a wooden stick.
“It... It has nothing to do with me! I didn't do anything!”
Not far behind her stood the fellow wrapped in a gray robe. After panic-strickenly blurting this out, he scampered away in a hurry.
Shulim didn't care about the guide's departure; this had nothing to do with him anyway.
“Who... who on earth are you?”
The fact that a young girl had destroyed the door was shocking, but the bald thug didn't lower his guard for a second. On the contrary, his nerves were tighter than ever as he stared solemnly at the girl in the doorway.
Shu... Shulim?!
Fran's eyes widened, staring at Shulim in disbelief.
Why was she here?
Did she come to save me?
Did she hear my call for help?!
And then she came here all by herself to save me...
“Ah, and here I was wondering what it was, but it's just a brat? Yo, she looks about the same age as this one. Did she come looking for her lost friend?”
Compared to the bald thug who was on high alert, the buzzcut thug was clearly much slower on the uptake. Upon seeing that it was just a young girl, he didn't sense any danger at all and instead casually walked over.
Talk about luck, sitting around and having money deliver itself right to their door! Looking closely, this kid... wasn't she top-tier merchandise?! Big bro, they were filthy rich this time—
“Get back here right now, you idiot!!!”
The bald thug roared, but it was already too late.
While the buzzcut thug was still utterly confused as to why his boss wanted him to stop, a voice echoed nearby.
“【ᛋᚷᚺᛜᛈᚠᛞᛃᛡᚪᛚᛏᛗᚠᚺᛜᛖᛄᚠᚳᛜᛃᚾᚪ】”
“...Reinforce.”
Immediately following, a flash of light and shadow occurred, and something vanished from their line of sight.
“Get out of the way—!”
“Gleaming Light.”
Two voices rang out almost simultaneously—one familiar, the other whispering right by his ear.
“Huh?”
The buzzcut thug only caught a high-speed flash of light and shadow out of the corner of his eye before losing all consciousness.
Boom—!
The buzzcut thug's massive body flew backward, slamming directly into the wooden wall several meters away and crashing right through, leaving a gaping hole.
The room grew even brighter as a result.
“You bastard!”
The bald thug was absolutely furious.
“【ᛋᚷᚺᛜᛈᚠᛞᛃᛡᚪᛚᛏᛗᚠᚺᛜᛖᛄᚠᚳᛜᛃᚾᚪ】”
“—Reinforce!”
He too began to emit a white glow as he roared, charging at Shulim like an out-of-control beast.
Everything had happened far too quickly. From the moment the buzzcut thug walked over to the moment he was struck down, it occurred in a literal flash, leaving the boss no time to save him.
“【ᛒᚠᛏᛋᛜᚻᚠᛏᛖᛡᛣᛏᚠᚳᛜᛖᛄᚠᚳᛜᛓᚠᛃᛖᛚᛜᛓᛃᚱᛗ】”
“Swiftness.”
Shulim's face remained entirely calm, devoid of any emotional variation.
The instant the bald thug reached her, she lightly tapped her toes on the ground, vanishing from the spot.
Boom—!
After another deafening crash, another large hole was torn into the room.
The original darkness was now entirely a thing of the past.
Shulim tilted her head, looking at the large hole the bald thug had crashed through, and raised her wooden stick, taking a defensive stance.
“Did I make a mistake? Should I have faced him head-on just now...?”
Rate on N.U.
