Volume 2 - CH 99

He has been complaining for a while since then, but he has regained his composure, perhaps feeling refreshed after saying it out loud.

Dolce, who is kind to children and dissatisfied with slave traders, he may be a good guy.

At least from my pov, his evaluation went up.

After hearing his complaints, it became clear that Dolce was a victim too.

It seems that he accepted the illegal slave and thinking they were orphans.

Dolce did not know that the children were illegal slave.

So he searched for the best aristocrats and merchants and sold them.

There seems to be only one orphanage in this kingdom, and it seems that they cannot afford to accept new orphans.

It’s a terrible story, but most of the unacceptable children go to slave dealers, and it seems they can’t do anything after they’re sold out.

The owner who bought them wouldn’t want to let their slave go easily.

Besides, it would be more profitable to sell them once again to a slave merchant than to give them to an orphanage.

The orphanage tries to take in children who are in the slave dealer, but they don’t have the money to took them in.

Dolce knows this, but he was scratching his head, unable to do anything on his own.

He is really a good guy.

“……I’m sorry that I can’t help you.”

“I don’t mind. I know you’re a good guy. Now, tell me. What happened to Alena?”

“I’m very sorry, but she’s not here ……”

“Then where is she?”

“One moment, please.”

Dolce began rummaging through a nearby bookshelf.

He began to pull out more and more documents, mumbling about this, that, and the other.

In no time at all, his desk was filled with papers, but there were still more papers left on the bookshelf.

After watching such a situation for a while, Dolce reacted when he had about a third of the papers out of the bookshelf.

Apparently he found the thing that he wanted to find, he approached me, holding one of the papers and taking care not to step on the papers that had fallen on the floor.

“This is it!”

“I’m glad that you have the records of your stuff.”

“We’re still small enough that we’re still putting it all together. And with child slaves, sometimes they get sold off to us again, so it’s more convenient for us to have information on how much they sold for and who we sold them to.”

“That’s neat.”

“Well, this kind of information is a trade secret. But that’s not the point. Here are Alena’s documents.”

I received the documents from Dolce and tried to see the content.

Apparently, she sold for 50 gold coins.

The person who bought her seemed to be a noble family called the Ramleys.

Dolce also seems to choose people to sell slaves to, so he tries his best not to sell to people who would break them immediately, but he sometimes fails because he can’t always tell from their outward appearances alone.

Incidentally, it is not possible to buy back slaves, so it seems that once they are sold, the slave dealer are no longer able to take them back.

However, since we were able to narrow down where the slaves were, it was a good thing for the time being.

“Is Alena okay?”

“I would love to know that … I sold it more than two weeks ago. I hear that the Ramleys use a lot of slaves … but they’re mostly caretakers. I don’t think it’s a problem. But … “

Two weeks ago would be around the time …… I arrived in the Kingdom of Garot.

So when I arrived in the Kingdom of Salettana and came here, Alena must have been sold immediately.

That’s a quick turnaround.

Dolce looked concerned after I explained.

He said it was no problem, but something was bothering him.

“Is there anything wrong?”

“Yes … the Ramleys often buy slaves, but they don’t sell them.”

“And there’s something wrong with that.?”

“When we sell slaves is when they are no longer useful or needed. If that were all there was to it, there would be no problem, but there are rumors that concern me….”

“Rumor?”

“First of all, someone said they never saw his slaves inside the mansion. He also said he never saw them outside or in the yard. …. And I also heard he’s doing something to prevent them from being sold. Isn’t it? Or he did something unpleasant to the slaves? “

That’s some ridiculous rumors.

But they have no idea if it is true or not.

So the guards are not going to make any move.

Because it’s just a rumor.

When Ramley came here to buy slaves, he often got asked about it, but he gave them the short end of the stick.

However, we could no longer leave Alena in a place where such rumors were spread.

I have to come back as soon as possible and report to Uchikage.

“I appreciate the information. I shall go now.”

“Speaking of which, …… what are you going to do when you hear something like that? Don’t tell me you’re going to rob them or something?

“No matter whether the rumors were true or not. Of course I’ll rescue her.”

“Pardon me!?”

He was terribly surprised.

Is it that surprising?

Alena was caught in slave hunting, right?

Then, there’s more reason to rescue her.

But apparently that was not what Dolce was concerned about.

“Th- that’s reckless!”

“How can you be so sure?

“The Rumleys have an S-rank wizard adventurer as a bouncer! Just breaking into the mansion is difficult enough, but escaping with a slave is impossible! Even if you’re able to save them, you’re considered trespassing, aren’t you? Then you can’t blame me if you’re dead later!

“So that’s how it is?”

“Th-that’s what it is.”

Seems like a bit of a big wall is standing in the way.

An S-ranked adventurer and moreover …….

It’s also a wizard.

It is certainly troubling, but that is not a reason why we can’t rescue her.

We’ve got all this information.

We’ll figure out the rest.

But …… Dolce is very cooperative, as is his concern for me.

It’s hard to believe that the guy who said information can be a weapon is willing to give it to me for no reward.

“I mean, Dolce is being very cooperative with me. You even tell me things I didn’t ask you to tell me. …… Why is it?”

“Eh? Because I also got information from you.”

“? Did I give you information?”

“You taught me about slave hunting, didn’t you?”

…… Now that he mentioned it. I did.

It seems that I was the one who informed him without asking him.

This was a terrible misinterpretation.

That’s very impolite of me.

“… I see. Well, I’m going.”

“No, wait a minute! You absolutely can’t!”

It’s not a matter of if you can’t, it’s a matter of if you’ll go or not.”

Dolce then seemed to try to convince me for a while, but I won’t change my mind.

After doing so for a while, he finally gave up.

“Ughh … It seems it’s useless to stop you …”

“My bad.”

“So, why don’t you just buy the bouncer’s information at the end?”

“…… you don’t think I’m going to die,don’t you?”

“What? That’s not what I mean!”

No, this is what you thought, no matter how you look at it.

Just look at how upset he is, it’s obvious.

That’s quite rude.

I have no information to buy from someone like that!

“I don’t need that information.”

“O, okay. ……”

“I just want to ask you one question.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you trying to keep me here?”

I’d never met him before, but he was pretty persistent in trying to convince me.

That genuinely bothered me.

Normally, I wouldn’t try to persuade someone I just met for the first time.

When I asked him that, Dolce put his hands on his head and looked a little sad.

Then he began to talk.

“… I didn’t want to …… lose someone who was willing to do that much for the child slaves that I used to take care of, so I ……”

“You really think that I’m going to die then!”

He’s really rude!

Imma smack his head!

But well … that’s right.

Dolce probably likes children.

So it must have been very hard for him to sell the kids from here to somewhere else.

But with this kind of work, they must also have to sell children.

Why do they continue to be in the slavery business?

“Yeah,…… because you can’t help …… without someone who understands …… these places.”

“You’ve got a good sense, ……. I’ll help you with that when I get back safely. See you later.”

I waved lightly and quickly left the tent, as I knew that if I talked any longer I would be detained for a while again.

I didn’t see Dolce’s face at the end, so I couldn’t tell what kind of expression he had on his face, but I’m sure it didn’t look good.

Alright, then I’ll report back to Uchikage.

I know where Alena is, and we’ll be able to do something about it.

But is the problem an S-rank bouncer?

Even if we face each other, let’s take it as a good opportunity to know how good an S-rank adventurer is.

Alright. Let’s go.