“…Oh, Arneau, is that you? Sorry,” he said, grinning, as I knelt beside him and cleaned the mud off of his face with a rag.
My childhood friend was tied up on the floor of a small, dark room. He came looking for me and got involved in this. The man he’d knocked out had paid him back in spades. I had the intuition to tell my colleagues that a man this handsome would be worth a lot of money if we were to sell him, so thankfully, they stopped short of disfiguring his valuable face.
“…This is why I told you to stay away from me.” After finally managing to get his life together, Sora was in this situation because he couldn’t help but follow me.
“I’m the one to blame. It’s not your fault. And by the way, what are you doing?” he asked, confused, as I cut the ropes around his wrists and ankles.
“Everyone’s busy preparing to switch bases. You shouldn’t have trouble escaping right now.”
He gave me a troubled look. “…Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to, but I can’t,” he declared, just as I’d expected.
“You can also probably find that girl and help her escape too. Everyone’s going to be too busy to notice.” Obviously he wanted to save his teammate, that nosy Katarina girl.
Neither of them were on the list of people we were supposed to kidnap anyway. The other guys just figured they’d sell them too because we couldn’t let them go home after they’d witnessed one of the children being recaptured. And given how everyone was so preoccupied about switching to a new base, it wouldn’t really be an issue. I thought that mentioning all of this would be enough for Sora to escape without any regrets. But…
“Oh, of course I have to save her as well. But I still haven’t paid back my debt to you,” he told me. Now that was unexpected.
“Huh? Can’t you tell what situation you’re in?”
“I know, but if I run away now, I probably won’t ever be able to see you again. Can’t have that.”
“I don’t even remember any debt you have with me. Get going already!”
“…No can do. It’s very important to me. And anyway, you like children. This job doesn’t fit you. Run away with us,” he invited, taking me by surprise.
I was so shocked I remained silent for a while. Not because he was talking nonsense…but because he was right. Actually, because I’d just realized he was right.
I hate kids. It’s a nuisance to have them cry while I’m at work, and that’s the only reason why I’m being kind to them. This is what I thought.
But now I remembered about the younger boys and girls I looked after back when we lived in the slums. It hurts to see children cry. Even while working a terrible job like this, I still felt protective toward children and small animals. And Sora’s words had finally made me realize it. Do I hate children? No… Maybe I’ve always liked them.
I could feel those hidden emotions resurfacing…but I couldn’t admit it, and made my point clear to him.
“You say that like it’s easy, but I’m knee-deep in this. I can’t run away anymore. If I tried, they’d just hunt me down. And I’m not like you… I’ve been in this world for too long. Its dirt has rubbed off on me.”
It all started back in the slums. I’d rummage through trash or steal from people just to be able to eat. Eventually, like most other orphans there, I ended up taking on dirty jobs for a living. You couldn’t just walk away from this world when you were tired of it. I started with stealing, went on to scamming rich people, and before I knew it, I was involved in child trafficking. I was way past the point of no return. Sora lived in a world different from mine, too far for me to reach him anymore. I knew that I was going to keep living like this until, one day, I’d die alone.
“…So just stay away from me from now on,” I told him.
He didn’t reply. I thought I’d finally convinced him to leave.
“…Even if people come after you, I can ask my boss to take care of that.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his head, whispering, “This is so out of character for me, but…” and then went on to say, “What I’m going to tell you is secondhand. It was that nosy girl you know about who first told it to me. But, right now, we’re both here, aren’t we? Our worlds aren’t different. We live in the same world.”
After delivering that cheesy line, he stretched his hand toward me. That’s right. Sora… He was always this kind of guy.
Back in the day, most of the children around us were always complaining about how bad they had it and insulting those who had it better at every opportunity. But not Sora. He didn’t let others influence him, and he wasn’t envious of anyone. I’d always liked that in him.
I used to think that, if we were together, maybe we could find a better life for ourselves…but he disappeared. He was caught and sold off. That happened a lot back there, but it still made my chest hurt. And even after leaving the slums and traveling from one place to the next, I never forgot about him.
When I found him in this town, living a proper, good life, I was so happy. I wouldn’t be able to escape this world. But if Sora had managed to, that was enough. I believed that. I tried to distance myself because of it.
And yet… I wanted to reach out and grab the hand he had stretched toward me. My own hand was soiled, and I couldn’t muster the courage to touch his. He probably sensed my hesitation and stepped closer to me, forcefully taking my hand.
“Let’s go,” he said, and I found myself nodding.
“Excuse me. I happened to hear your conversation,” a voice near the door spoke.
I looked there and it came from one of the new recruits. He wasn’t memorable in any way and I barely had any interactions with him. If he’d heard us, we had to do something about him. I started thinking of how to take care of him. He seemed to be alone, so we could just beat him up, knock him out, and leave him here.
Probably understanding my intentions, he put his hands up. “I’m not planning to report you to the higher-ups or anything. Actually, I’ll help you escape.”
Not that I was one to talk, but I knew better than to trust words from the mouth of someone doing this job. Thus, I didn’t feel any safer even after he’d told me that.
“To be honest, I want to burn down this whole operation. But I need your help,” he explained with a grin that showed his pointy teeth.
He pulled back the hair that was partially covering his face, and I saw that his eyes were golden. I knew that face. This man…
“…The Golden-eyed Wolf.”
That name was famous across most battlefields in this and the neighboring countries. He was known as a fierce beast of a mercenary with golden eyes. I’d seen him myself, just once, in a town near which a war was ongoing. I couldn’t forget how intense, how powerful he looked then. How could I not have realized who he was after working alongside him?
“Oh, you know of me?” he asked, amused.
The forgettable air he used to have around himself was gone for good. I didn’t know that the Golden-eyed Wolf was able to hide his aura so well. He really was as impressive as they said, if not more.
“…But what are you doing here?” I asked him. Why would a famous mercenary be in this peaceful country, moonlighting as a common thug no less?
“I have my reasons to want to crush this den of snakes,” he claimed with a shrug.
If someone as strong as he had a grudge of some kind with the organization, it meant that this whole affair was even worse than I’d recognized at first. It also meant that this time, I was really risking my life. This realization, however, felt distant from me, as if the Arneau risking his life was a different person.
“Unfortunately,” the man continued, “I haven’t been able to find out who’s at the top of the ladder. Don’t you know anything about that, Arneau?”
I knew that if I were only interested in my own safety I’d better shut up. But I also thought that, with the help of this man, I could save Sora, Katarina, and all the kidnapped children.
“I only know the local boss. I think that there’s someone still higher, a powerful noble or something, but we’re not important enough to know.”
“I see. Then tell me about that local boss, please. I’ll get the information I need from him. Just leave it all to me,” he promised, grinning again. Looking at this man and his dependable attitude made me feel safe.
★★★★★
“Wake up. Hey. Wake up!”
“Hm? Is it morning already?”
I heard someone call out to me, and as I woke up from my comfortable sleep, I saw a man I didn’t recognize standing in front of me.
“No, it’s still night,” he said, furrowing his brow, before muttering to himself, “How can she sleep peacefully like this? Does she have no fear or something?”
Huh? What’s he talking about? And who is he anyway?
I looked around me and realized that I was neither in my room nor in the Claes carriage. I was in a small, dirty room full of children who looked scared.
Ah-ha! I remember now. I chased after Sora and I ended up being kidnapped and imprisoned here!
“Right, right,” I whispered to myself, satisfied.
“What is she going on about? I can’t keep up with her,” groused the man. Then, with a suspicious look in his eye, he demanded, “Now that you’re awake, let’s hurry up and go.”
“Go? Where?” I asked.
“This place was found out and now we have to move under the cover of darkness. Don’t give me more trouble than I’ve already got,” he complained.
Did this mean that Regina and Maria had found this place? If so, they’d come to save me eventually. I’d better stay here. But resisting this man sounds dangerous, and Cezar told me to behave.
Seeing my hesitation, the man’s tone grew harsher. “Listen now, stop wasting time. No point in staying here. I was told not to mess you up too much, since they want to sell you, but I have permission to beat you up a little bit, you know?”
He then grabbed my arm, and I was so surprised that I lost my balance and fell forward. I closed my eyes, bracing for the impact, but there was none. I felt someone supporting my weight.
“Huh?” I opened my eyes and I saw the blue hair I knew so well.
“Are you all right?” Sora asked me, directing his blue eyes straight into mine.
“Yes. Thank you, Sora.”
I took a better look at him and saw that his clothes were dirty and his face covered in wounds.
“Are you all right?” I asked him, worried. Somebody had definitely beaten him up.
“Yeah, don’t worry.”
“But…” I started to say, but I was interrupted by another familiar face calling out to us from the door.
“We don’t have long. If they all noticed, we’d have a really bad time. Hurry up.”
“Cezar!”
“Sorry for the wait, Katarina. It’s night already. Ladies should be back home, sleeping.” He grinned his usual grin.
He’d probably found the information he was looking for and had come to save me along with Sora. I also noticed that the man who had grabbed my arm was now lying flat on the floor. Sora had probably knocked him out. In any case, we had no time to lose. We had to run away. They told me that the building was still full of thugs and that escaping together with the kidnapped children was going to be difficult.
“We’ve moved faster than I expected, so I called for help, but the reinforcements aren’t here yet. The thugs here aren’t much to worry about individually, but could be a problem if they outnumbered us. Katarina, I heard that you can use magic. Can you defend yourself?” Cezar asked me, and I told him that the only spell I could use was Dirt Bump, which, on a good day, could maybe make someone trip over and fall.
“What are you talking about?” Sora rolled his eyes. “You have an awesome familiar with you.”
“You’re right!” I have Pochi with me!
“How can you even forget about that?” he asked, disappointed.
“To me he’s more like a cute pet.”
“Cute pet? Are we talking about the same huge deadly wolf here?”
He had a point, but most of the time Pochi was a tiny little puppy who liked to play fetch in the garden. Of course he actually was a Dark Familiar. I knew that could be dangerous. Since he couldn’t come out to play unless I was in the mansion, even if I didn’t forget about him, I often forgot that he lived in my shadow.
“I see you two are busy talking, but we really have no time. If you have anything useful up your sleeve, take it out.”
“Yes,” I answered, and then looked at my shadow. “Pochi, come out!” I called, and my puppy appeared with a cute bark.
Cezar, who’d never seen him, looked surprised.
“Wow. Magic’s really amazing.”
Even in Sorcié, I was probably the only one who had a familiar living inside their shadow, but since this probably wasn’t the time to explain that, I just smiled instead.
“Okay. Let’s go now.”
Cezar, who already knew the building, was in front, and Sora and I followed him, bringing the children with us.
I looked at Sora, who was the last one at the back, and asked him whether he knew Cezar already.
“I just know that he’s a famous mercenary and that he’s here to destroy this organization. You two know each other, right? How?” he wondered.
It seemed that he didn’t know that Cezar was actually a prince of Ethenell and he wondered why we were acquainted. As for me, I knew that Cezar used to be a mercenary, but I didn’t know that he was a famous one.
“Hm, it’s kind of a long story, so I’ll tell you once we’re back home,” I dodged the question.
I could have just mentioned to him that we met in the castle’s garden while both pretending to be servants, and then when I went after Maria to save her, I realized that he’s actually someone important. After that, I learned that he’s in fact a prince. But telling Sora all that would probably have raised even more questions, so I decided I’d just explain the whole thing more calmly later.
“Sure. I can imagine that you accidentally lured him toward you like you always do.”
“Me? Lure? I’ve never done something like that!” I replied.
Or was he talking about fishing? I hadn’t fished in a very long time, though, so I wasn’t sure.
“I mean when you manage to get friendly with anyone in such a short time. It also happened with Arneau, right?”
“Oh, that’s what you meant.”
Even in my past life, it took me no time to become friendly with people. It must have been because, thanks to my good luck, I was always surrounded by kind people. Arneau, too, despite being a bit cold, was kind underneath. Huh… Now that I think of it…
“Sora, what happened to Arneau? He was caught too, right?”
When I found Sora, Arneau was with him. I also remember him entering the building with the two of us, so I thought that he’d been caught too, but now I couldn’t see him.
Sora looked a bit surprised, but then, after a moment, he smiled.
“He’s gone to stop the thugs. He’ll meet us once we’re out. Don’t worry.”
“Is that really safe?” I asked.
These thugs were kidnappers. Wouldn’t it be dangerous for a single person to try and stop them? I suggested that maybe we should go and help him, but Sora shook his head.
“It’s his way to set things right… At least that’s what he said. And he can hold his own in a fight. Let’s just trust him and wait.”
I didn’t understand what exactly Arneau had to set right, but Sora looked like he wouldn’t budge. I just nodded and went along with it. Right about when we were done talking, we ran into a man who was probably working with the kidnappers.
“Hey, you… What are you—” he sputtered, but before he was done, Cezar had already knocked him out. This was the kind of speed one expected from a famous mercenary.
Unfortunately, another man walked up on us moments later.
“H-Hey! Someone’s running away with the kids!” he shouted, calling for reinforcements.
Cezar clicked his tongue in annoyance, and then warned the children to stay behind him. They were scared, but they listened to him and didn’t move. Sora was also on guard. As for me, I couldn’t really do anything if we had to fight, but I made a fighting pose just in case.
One after the other, thugs started coming out of the neighboring rooms. There were a lot of them. If this was an RPG, I’d try to run away without fighting…but in reality we had no choice. We were surrounded. Even if we wanted to run away, we would need to knock a few of them out to do so.
“Are you trying to steal our merchandise?!”
“Don’t you think we’ll let you off easily!”
The men shouted all kinds of threats as they started attacking us.
Cezar dodged all of their blows and swiftly moved behind them, counterattacking. Realizing that Cezar was out of their league, they moved toward Sora, only to be met with another excellent fighter. I wasn’t fighting, but Pochi had become bigger (just a little, since we were inside a building) and was biting and scratching anyone who tried getting close to me.
Knocking out some and intimidating others, we managed to clear a path between the mobsters, proceeding toward the exit while taking care of any thug who still tried to fight us. We eventually managed to leave the building thanks to the combined efforts of two young men and a dog.
“…Just how many of these people are there?” I muttered exhaustedly.
Even outside, there were still gangsters surrounding us, shouting while they attacked us. They reminded me of cockroaches. When you saw one of them, you could be sure that there were a hundred of them hiding nearby.
Cezar, Sora, and Pochi were doing their best, but the difference in numbers was starting to become too serious even for them.
One of the thugs slipped in between our three fighters and tried to grab one of the children.
No! I quickly moved in front of the child to protect him.
But since I wasn’t as strong as Cezar or Sora, and my magic wasn’t that impressive either, I just got caught instead.
“You’d better stop moving if you care about her!” the man shouted while closing his hand around my neck.
Cezar and Sora stopped fighting, looking nervously at the man, and Pochi, while he was still baring his fangs, knew he couldn’t do anything in this situation.
“Good. Now go back inside,” the man crowed, suddenly feeling like he had the upper hand.
It’s all my fault…again… Sora being caught was my fault to begin with. Just how much trouble am I going to be for my friends? I have to do something! I have to get free! I mustered up my courage and, with all the strength that I had, I bit the arm of the man who was holding me.
“Wh-What the hell are you doing?!” he screamed, loosening his grip a bit, but I didn’t get away in time and he caught me once again, gripping my neck even more tightly now that he was mad at me.
“Ugh!” the sound escaped my throat. I might have made things even worse.
“Katarina!” Cezar and Sora both shouted at once, while Pochi growled. And then, I saw a light. A soft light engulfing all of us like a mist.