Dreadful Sight
As I’m running in the forest
“Bring me along as well”
, and Aerith runs over from behind.
“Aerith. How?”
“Nn? I mean, it’s been decided that everybody will sleep in pairs and yet Lei’s nowhere to be found. I was surprised since you were running in the forest when I tried looking for you with Presence Sense”
she tells me the reason while running. It ended up like that huh. However, the place I’m heading from now on is the bandits’ hideout. There’s no way I can bring her to a dangerous place where I don’t know what awaits
“……Geez. I understand what Lei’s thinking about; it’s great that you’re kind, but we aren’t women who are there just to be protected. We can protect ourselves too”
, she smacks my back while running. Good grief, this elder sister of mine.
“I got it. Help me then”
When I say that, Aerith nods to me with a smile. And then, seeing that our conversation has concluded, Light reveals himself diagonally behind me.
“Lei-sama, it was the right choice to have Aerith-sama come along”
And then, he starts saying something like that. What’s that about?
“The bandits’ hideout is located at a ghost town that is at the foot of the mountain that is in front. It is a village that can incorporate about 300 villagers, and there is to the extent of 200 bandits over there. I have not seen every room, but there are women being chained up in a certain room”
I understood the meaning of what Light was saying just now with those words of his. It seems Aerith also understood and she’s holding her mouth with her hand. All of the bandits were men, even just those who attacked us in the afternoon. Amongst that, there are women. Furthermore, if they’re being chained up, that means……
“……Unforgivable!”
Aerith mutters. Her magic power is whirling in anger.
“Calm down, Aerith. I understand that it’s unforgivable, but we’re possibly going to be noticed by the bandits with that magic power”
When I say that, Aerith takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. I too, find it unforgivable.
“Also, there was the sign of a strange magic power in the house of the man who appears to be the bandit’s leader”
, Light says to me. A strange magic power? What’s that?
“What’s that about?”
“It is a magic power that I have felt before a long time ago, but it is something that is a considerably long time ago so I cannot recall”
‘Ahaha’, Light laughs. It’s rare for the perfect Light who’s fundamentally capable of everything. However, a strange magic power huh. It’s necessary to keep an eye out for it. And then, we run in the forest for about 10 minutes.
“……Please stop. Over there is the entrance to the village”
Light says, and when I try looking at the direction where Light points, albeit simple, there’s a gate, and 2 male bandits are standing in front of it as lookouts. Inside the village, most of the houses’ lights have been extinguished, and the place that’s lighted up
is probably……
“So what are we going to do from here on out?”
“Yeah. We can charge in right from the front, but it’s quite unlikely that the captured women are only in that room. It’ll be troublesome if they’re taken as hostages. Let’s look for another place where we can enter and look for the captured women. Dark Magic Shadow Curtain”
I then cast Dark Magic on Aerith and myself. This magic, it’s a magic that casts a black mist-like thing around us and makes us difficult to perceive. We’ll be exposed if we’re seen from up close, but we’re far away and it’s the night so they probably won’t notice us. Light just have to erase his figure so he doesn’t use it.
In the vicinity of the village are fences that enclose it, but as I thought, it’s a ghost town so there are holes here and there. I shave that spot bit by bit with Earth Magic and change it into a size that we can fit through.
However, it begs the question, why a gang of bandits of this scale is staying in this ghost town. Normally, if a gang of bandits is discovered, the Feudal Lords nearby should gather soldiers and send them to subjugate the bandits, so it’s incredibly uncommon for it to become such a scale. Why?
“Lei, there are presences of people in that house”
As I’m deep in my thoughts, Aerith locates them with Presence Sense. We walked in the village for a bit, and it appears that nobody is using the houses near the fences.
It appears that everybody is centred around the largest mansion that’s in the deepest parts; the bandits are staying in the houses around it, and they’re leaving the women behind in the houses at the outer layer. And then, when we enter 1 of the houses
“Uu! Awful……”
5 women had collapsed over there. Ranging from the early 10s to the late 20s, their ages are all over the place, but altogether, everybody wears just 1 piece of cloth-like thing, they’re stained with dirt and bloodstains after being soaked by something, and they’re being chained from the collars on their necks.
Sweat, urine, all kinds of smell fill the inside of the house, it turns the stomach just by being inside. These people have been living in such an environment huh.
I look towards Aerith and she’s placing her hand on her mouth, making a face like she’s about to burst into tears at any moment.
“Aerith, are you alright? If you can’t take it then it’s fine for you to keep a lookout outside……”
“I’m alright. I’ve said so right from the start, I don’t want to be a woman who’s only protected by you. I’ll help out as well”
Aerith who then proceeds inside. Geez, what a strong person. When we go inside, perhaps she noticed the footsteps, the oldest-looking woman raises her face.
“Who, who is it? Shouldn’t it have already ended for today!?”
In response to those words of the woman, a young girl nearby raises her voice going, ‘Hii!’. And then her body rattles and she starts crying. ……It’s to the point that they become like this.
“It’s alright, calm down. We’re here to save you”
Aerith says and approaches them. I simultaneously dispel the Dark Magic I’d cast. Although the women were surprised by Aerith, who abruptly appeared from the darkness, it appears that they’re slightly relieved when they found out that the other party is a woman like themselves.
I’m watching that spectacle from a slight distance away. I suppose nothing good will come out of it even if me, a man, approach right now. They’ll just be frightened of me.
“Are, are you here to save us?”
“Eeh, that’s right. Don’t worry, my strongest fiance is with me so it’s alright”
Aerith who says and looks towards me. I guess it’s the first time the women noticed that I’m around, all of them become slightly nervous. Aerith explains and they finally loosen up, but all of them are glancing over and paying their attention towards my direction.
“It’s alright. He’s unlike those barbaric fellows here, he won’t assault you guys”
Aerith who says and smiles. After that, we heard about various things regarding this village. According to them, it seems it’s about 2 months ago that the bandits settled down in this village. It appears that the village wasn’t a ghost town until then. It seems these women were also women who were originally living in this village, and it seems they were living peacefully until then.
Over there, this gang of bandits appeared. It appears that the village’s people didn’t even have any means of retaliation against a gang of bandits of this number; the men and the elderlies were all murdered, the boys were sold into slavery, half of the women were sold, and the other half was made into outlets for sex.
It seems about 20 of the remaining women in this village are women who were here originally, and about 20 women were brought over from outside. It’s about 50 people in total huh. It’s more than I thought.
It’s difficult to set this number of people free at one go. Having said that, if we set them free house by house, it’ll take some time and there’s a high chance of being exposed. I wonder how should we go about this.
“What are we going do, Lei?”
It appears that Aerith also has the same dilemma. It can’t be helped.
“I’ll go on a rampage in the centre of the village. If I do that, they’ll probably direct their attention to me. In the meantime, Aerith will save the women. Light will be the escort for that. I’m counting on you”
Light nods to me when I say that. Aerith also reluctantly accepts. I take Rolgar out from the Item Box and head outside. Fuu, the anger I’d been suppressing breaks out. You’d better prepare yourselves, alright?
