[Pursuit]
The suspicious men I found in the royal capital during the king’s birthday festival.
They might be remnants of the riot group that had put Tayte in danger. With that suspicion in mind, I followed the men with Tayte and Kleine.
Tayte was a non-combatant, being specialized in healing magic.
So I’d have Kleine cover for her.
She might not be as strong as Andrei, Jarvis, or other members of the Knights of the Academy, but Kleine could hold her own in a fight.
Reina even had mentioned to me before that she would have recommended Kleine to be the next student council president had I stayed the same as I had been last year. Her brightness was simply outshined by her broken-specced classmates—me included, objectively speaking.
However, Kleine wasn’t discouraged by the situation and kept on working her hardest to improve herself.
Principal Abigail likely appreciated that part about her which was why she had put her in the student council.
We followed after the men, but after turning around the corner…
“Huh?”
We met a dead end.
“What’s going on…?”
“Might they be hiding somewhere…?”
Kleine and Tayte looked around suspiciously.
It was strange.
Even if they did have hidden themselves, the question was why? They didn’t seem to have noticed us at all… At that time…
“Well, well, looks like he was right. Some little rats really have been on our tail.”
“But you ran out of luck now that we found you.”
“Oh? The girls’re pretty cute, ain’t they? They’re gonna fetch a good price.”
The three men appeared behind us when we should have been following after them.
They all had weapons in their hands and seemed to be ready to fight.
…What piqued my interest though, was the ‘he’ the first man mentioned.
It sounded as though they ambushed us after receiving a tip from him that they had been followed.
The words “They’re gonna fetch a good price,” also bothered me.
Could it be that they… were engaged in human trafficking?
“Whatever you guys’ work is, I recommend you to quit and start making an honest living.”
“““Gyahahahaha!”””
The men laughed vulgarly.
If the fact that they had cut off our escape route and their leisurely attitude were anything to go by, I’d say the informant didn’t tell them about our strength.
“Think we’re gonna let you leave after you saw us? My bad, but that ain’t happenin’.”
“What a coincidence. We have no intention to let guys like you roam free, either.”
“You’re brave, boy. You tryin’ to look cool in front of those girls?”
“Just give up and save us some trouble. But of course, if you insist… we can have fun with the girls in front of you, hehe.”
“…Shut your filthy mouth.”
I reached the limit of my patience.
From what they said, it was clear they would do the world more harm than good if left unchecked.
So—I’d best arrest them!
“Hey, you seriously going to do this?”
“We’re three grown men, and you’re just a kid who hasn’t even grown hair. Can’t you do simple math?”
“We’re not gonna call you a coward, so just hand over those girls.”
“I refuse.”
With that, I pulled out my Holy Sword.
It immediately released a wave of mana that assailed the men, as if it could feel my anger.
“““Huh?”””
The men stood still in shock at the sudden change in the situation.
Talk about good dummy targets.
I cast a restraint spell on the three of them to immobilize them and then released a lightning spell as a punishment for what they had said.
“““Abababababababa!?”””
A lightning bolt struck them as they were restrained—this should be enough to make them feel a little remorseful.
After that, we handed over the men to some patrolling knights.
The festival had just started and we had already encountered trouble… maybe similar incidents were happening in other parts of the royal capital.
Calling out to Tayte and Kleine, I decided to continue patrolling the surrounding area.
