Volume 2 - CH 53

2.53. What's the Meaning of This?

Three days have passed since the search started.

There are no abnormalities in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sections.

There was a day when I had a lot of free time, so on that day I went to the 4th section to investigate for a whole day.

Well, I found nothing.

As I learned from my investigation, it seems that not all slaves are treated badly.

Certainly there were some that had terrible treatment.

It wasn't a good sight to look at ...

For the last three days, I haven't progress at all, but the soldiers and vassals have begun to catch a number of slave traders who were slave hunting.

But they found out most of the slave traders has escaped.

Unfortunately, the ones that escaped were the largest slave traders in the continent.

They using the slaves from the slave hunting as their soldier, or rather as meat shield.

Only the rumors of a rout have left in the country and reached other countries.

So no one is going to the country where war may be set up, and now there are very few people lined up in front of the country gate.

The people did not go out of the country, but they tended not to go outside.

The families of the soldiers'  who were killed in action are deeply saddened ...

It felt a little uncomfortable, but I want them to wait for another four days.

However, the merchants who leave the country by carriage are very conspicuous.

First of all, the action taken by Gilnia was to tighten the security of the gate and make sure that the contents of the carriage were checked whenever they entered or left the country.

Until now, slave traders seemed to be able to surpass the situation by using bribes, but he paid particular attention to those who did such things.

He searched for the merchant's source, had the soldiers look it up, took the back, and then plunged them into prison.

It seems he is used to it ... I feel that Gilnia is more happy when he's doing this kind of work, don't tell me his mind is already broken?

It seems that the slave traders stopped relying on soldiers and tried to hunt slaves on their own ... It seems it failed.

Now he is in the process of interrogating the slave trader for other information.

It's not like I want to be here, I just sit next to Gilnia all the time.

"Gilnia-sama, are you okay?"

"Layton ... Yeah. No problem."

"But ... you haven't slept at all for the past few days, have you? You should take a break ..."

"Sure, I haven't rested much, but I'm feeling well. I feel like I've been rejuvenated for ten years! And Asure-sama must be struggling in the royal castle. We'll do our best. I have to do it. "

How can he keep on going?

You goddamn right.

I'm recovering him!

He says he's hardly sleeping, but he's not sleeping at all!

He hasn't slept for three days, you know! ??

It wouldn't be strange if he was worn out normally.

If I hadn't recover him, he would have fallen down and slept like a log, dear Gilnia!

You're welcome!

I hope it will improve my skill proficiency!

It's dangerous to be able to reduce sleep time with just recovery skills ... It's like a drug.

It probably also has the ability to get rid of fatigue.

How terrifying.

However, thanks to that, a lot of slave traders has been captured, and the information received from 3,000 soldiers is well organized.

I really want him to use that power to find Satella.

There are three sections that I haven't searched for.

Two places relatively close from here and one place that is close to the castle.

I think I'll be able to find out about two nearby places in a day, so I'll go find a place near the castle tonight.

If I'm not in the mood, I'm really in trouble, but ... I have no choice but to bet on three more sections.

"Isn't it boring just to hear this kind of information?"

Gilnia called out to me.

Sure, it makes me sleepy when I listen to it all the time, but it's important information for me, so I must throw the thought of how boring this is.

"Hmm. Even though Ouren-dono is a snake, it is really diligent.

It's not like I'm working hard ... It's for my personal selfish request.

But Gilnia.

It's not like I can warn you, but if Uchikage or Tenda knows that you're talking like that, your ass will be kicked.

Should I cover him if that happens, or not ...?

Well, I'll do that if it happens.

By the way, Gilnia and Tenda weren't surprised when I evolved and my body became smaller.

Did they get used to it ... I don't know if that was something you can get used to.

I'm kind of lonely if there is no reaction.

"GILNIA-SAMA!"

One of the soldiers opened the door and entered the room without knocking.

It seems like he was in a hurry and he sweats a lot.

"What happened in such a hurry?"

"The slave trader's carriage has gone out again! It seems that he sent a considerable amount of money as a bribe this time ..."

"Do they still think we can be swayed by that- ... Alright! Form a unit right now and chase after them! Never let them go! Layton! I'll leave the command to you!"

"Understood"

The butler, Layton, immediately began to move and bring the soldiers together.

It seems that the soldier mentioned earlier was telling other soldiers about it on his way here, and he was asked to secure the necessary personnel to form a unit.

A unit of 100 people had already been prepared.

If this is the case, it seems that we can chase them immediately.

Gilnia and I were watching the situation through the window.

I feel that there is no waste in movement.

This is amazing ...

Why does Layton go back and forth so many times?

It seems he forgot to take off his armor.

"Ah ... at this rate, the nearby prison is likely to fill up ..."

It's nice to have a cool headed commander, but the appearance of Gilnia holding his head from behind was a little interesting.

◆

-Night-

Come on! It's my time to do my job ...

Before that, I made sure that Gilnia was in a good condition after I cast recovery skill on him...

I'll do my best in this one night.

Well, let's work together while we are there.

Otherwise, he is going to fall down, seriously.

Now that had him recovered, we will head to the area near the castle.

As expected, there are only inns and grocery stores near the castle.

It's night, so they are already closed.

There was a light spilling from the house and the road was dark.

For me, it's better to be so dark because it's easier to act.

Shortly after, I arrived at my destination.

This place is the home of a merchant who uses slaves.

Isn't it a place where you can find a lot of big merchants and branch offices?

I don't know what the kind of store was this for, but I only know that it uses slaves to bring the cargo in.

Since the owner is a big merchant, he used quite amount of slaves.

From my experience from searching this far, slaves are often placed in different building.

It seems that the owner never sleeps with a slave.

I think sex slaves are different matter.

So, I used the [Haze Manipulation] to find those people.

After searching for a while, I was able to detect something like a prison in the basement of a house several places away from the merchant house.

Slaves are often trapped in these prisons.

When the [Haze Manipulation] infiltrated the room, there were several people with shackles on their hands and neck.

It seems that there are about five people in one prison, and they are sleeping or rather, they aren't moving.

Once I know where they are, I visually check if Satella is there.

From the silhouette, there must have been some child slaves.

I don't know how many times I have infiltrated this kind of room, but I'm already used to it.

First, find a place where I can enter.

As a result of searching, it seems that there is only one entrance this time and the door is locked.

But no worries.

[Infinite Water Manipulation] is used to pour water into the keyhole to create a key mold.

Apply the water pressure using MP and turn as it is.

A clicking sound was heard from the keyhole.

Open the door a little and slip in.

As soon as I opened the door, there was a staircase leading to the basement.

I go down the stairs without hesitation.

This basement is very cold because it is made of stone.

It will get colder when it rains.

I think it's terrible to lock people in such a place, but I think this kind of underground is good for isolating their slaves.

I think the merchants don't want to show his slaves as much as possible.

As soon as I went down the stairs, I saw a prison.

Apparently there are several prisons, each of which has several slaves sleeping.

I searched for a prison that had any children in it.

I've been looking for Satella until now, but can I help Satella alone?

I think I should release all the slaves caught in slave hunting if these slaves are the victims, but I can't do that by myself.

The reason is that we don't know wich is the illegal slave and wich is the victims of slave hunting.

If I open up the debt slaves, it's make me I assust the jailbreak. Only Satella and Alena are now known to be illegal slaves.

If I ask Satella, I probably find other things, but I'm the only one who can protect Satella.

The current situation was that I couldn't take any action until I received some help.

As my benefactor Alena helped me to escape, but this time I'll concentrate on helping Satella and Alena.

Someday, all the people in the village of Arena will help, so please wait a little bit longer.

[Reporting. A presence has been detected.]

Whoaaaaah! ??

I was surprised!

I must stop moving!

I'm glad that my body is a snake.

If I'm a human, I'll definitely shout.

Geez this voice of heaven!

That's why you're a walking- no, void dictionary forever!

It made me quite cautious, but I decided to resume the search.

The first prison ... All adults.

Second ... This is also all adults.

The third is another one full of adults.

Fourth ... I found a child!

But it's a boi ... sorry boy ...

I checked each prison just like that.

But I can't find a girl who looks like Alena.

I searched the last prison, but in the end I had only found one child and that wasn't Satella.

I drop my shoulders, it's not like I have one.

I leave the spot early and find out if there is another place to trap the slaves.

There shouldn't be only one prison because that fella is such a big merchant.

I return to the ground again, deploy the haze and continue the search.

Then I sensed a strange figure.

The figure is not the one I'm looking for because it's not a kid, but something went wrong.

He was walking while being cautious of the surroundings.

It's clear that he doesn't want to be spotted by anyone.

It has nothing to do with me, but I was a little worried, so I thought I'd take a look at what he was doing.

When he approached, he wore clothes that looked very luxurious.

It's kind of strange to see someone like a royal vassal going out on such a night.

Besides, he is alone in this kind of place.

It would be strange if he didn't stand out.

After a while, a man in a black robe appeared and approached the man dressed like the royal family.

"Rudd-sama. Thank you for waiting."

"Slow! How long do you think I've been waiting for you!"

"Don't talk in a loud voice! Please suppress it ..."

Wait? Rudd?

This is the name I heard from Asure when we left Zenki-village.

I'm sure it's Asure's big brother, right?

Eh? Then, is he really a royal family?

Yeah, but why is Rudd in such a place?

Am I right? What's the meaning of this?