I slowly, and warily, approached the small cage. A horrendous and repulsive dark arm slowly extended towards . Narrowing my eyes, I took a closer look at the creature inside. It was a dark-colored creature, like obsidian or a raven black. The fingers were thin and feeble, sharp short nails.
The face, it was utterly disgusting, it made wanna look away. I had never seen sothing so ugly in my life. The face was wrinkly, wide bulging eyes. It had hair, but that wouldn’t save its appearance at all. And those teeth reminded of shark’s teeth with their number. Just a bunch of teeth stuffed into the little mouth. I noticed its dark skin squirm and pulsed, and the creature flinched as though in pain.
I stopped, the cage blocked its hand from going further. As though in desperation, it turned into a fog, but the fog trembled at making contact with the black tal. The fog turned into a monster again. It crawled away and hugged its knees, and it started sobbing…?
A monster… crying? I never imagined seeing such a thing. The voice was so small, and the physique so little and feeble. It was like a small child. It seed intelligent, at least. What even was it? I was not sure. But it certainly did look familiar.
Like the Cursed Children.
Turning into black fog, the form of a humanoid. And the way they cover their body during the night, I could imagine they beco ugly after sunset. This thing here was likely like them.
I didn’t expect to encounter one of them here.
I thought the Cursed Children belonged on the continent. Did this thing get lost or sothing? It knew , called Goddess… How? Was it just so instinct or sothing? Or did this one see once before — but I doubted it.
Interesting.
I slowly approached it further. “You know ?” I asked in a low, gentle voice.
It slowly lifted its head towards . “Bright presence. Even more thirsty, hungry…”
Bright presence…?
“Must… Must not harm… Goddess… Must stay away.”
Oh wow… I’m impressed.
“You’re far away from ho, aren’t you?”
It froze and lowered its head. It seed young… Maybe it really was a child. I looked around, and I saw a tal pole stained with blood. I could imagine what had happened here. Cursed Children could never die, that might have provided a good amount of entertainnt for a sadistic person.
Still, how did this cursed child even end up here? No matter, I should bring this along, the others might know what to do with it. It had a connection to , I couldn’t pretty well leave it be. But I should keep it in the cage for the ti being. Pretty dangerous to let them out at night.
I stepped back and checked up on the won. I scratched the back of my head, I didn’t really expect these won to be here. But they were pretty ssed up. They looked up at , desperate, and with pitiful eyes. They all looked pretty ek.
I lightly kicked the bandit leader’s corpse. “He’s dead. You’ve nothing to be scared about anymore. aning you’re free to go.”
They all looked at each other. Then one finally spoke out in a strained voice.
“... W-Where would we go…?”
I guess they were not really in a situation to do much. And they didn’t know where to start. Well, they were already here, guess I’d bring them along back to the city. It wouldn’t cost much, really.
“Then follow back to the city. I’ll have the authorities take care of you. But for now… find so clothes.”
From the looks of it, and the size of this man here, there wouldn’t be any clothes for them here.
“But wait, I have sothing to do first.”
I approached the corpse and pulled out my dium dagger. I grabbed the bandit leader’s head by the hair. Coating the blade with fire, I began slicing through the corpse’s neck. Blood and flesh sizzled in the heat. It took a mont, but I managed to sever the head cleanly. I grabbed a nearby rope and tied the head to my belt, leaving it hanging on my waist.
What I did freaked out the won, judging from the little squeals. Maybe I added another traumatizing experience to them, in addition to the utterly traumatizing and terrible things they had already experienced.
“By the way, what do you know about the thing over there?” I pointed at the cage.
“... I-I d-don’t know… H-He… He just abuses her whenever he wants…”
Her? So it’s a girl.
“I see.”
I walked to the cage, used a little amount of Physical Enhancent and picked up the cage on the loop above it. Must be used to tie it up or sothing. Man, that bandit was wicked. Even I was never that evil, you know. I an, not like I was ever evil…
Eh. Morality is a tricky thing…
The monster girl was startled as I picked up her cage.
“I’m bringing you along.”
She remained silent. That was fine.
I headed for the building doors and kicked it open. I turned towards the won with a small smile. At least to calm them a bit and show my friendliness. See? I’m not evil.
“Follow . We’ll find you so clothes.” They seed hesitant about moving, fear evident in their eyes. “There’s nothing to fear. I’ve killed all the bandits in the base. Co.”
They looked at each other in hesitation, but altogether, they started standing up and heading for the exit. But they still stuck close to each other. I guess that was supposed to be expected. They found strength in each other as fellow victims. Like comrades.
I sort of wanted to talk about how they got here and the kind of situation they went through. But I didn’t think I would get proper responses, and so I decided not to ask. Not because it was insensitive or anything, I wouldn’t care about that, it was just pointless. And quite unnecessary. Their life was not my business.
I led them to one of the houses. I put down the cage and gave it a little tap.
“Stay here for the mont.”
I beckoned the won to enter the house. “Careful though, there are many gory deaths here.” I awkwardly laughed, trying to make light of the situation. But it didn’t have any good effect whatsoever. When they entered, they were pretty disturbed by the bloody scene. I showed them the cabinet where the clothes were. “Pick whatever fits you. And make it quick. We have to get out of here as soon as possible.”
It took so ti for them to finish up, considering how slow and weak they were. Hey, if you were abused that long, and I doubt they were well fed, your body wouldn’t exactly be in a good state. Even worse when considering their psychological states. I just hope they wouldn’t be a bother much when traveling to the city. But I thought I could just leave them to Velar. He was a good man, he’d do fine.
Once they were done, as I carried the cage with the monster in it, I led the group to the spot where Velar was. By the way, I also put a sheet to cover the cage and hide the monster girl. You know, for when we reach the city. I would prefer not causing any more complications.
When we arrived, Velar was understandably shocked to see the several won I brought along like a parade. I introduced them briefly to each other, and said that Velar would be protecting them. That should settle their restless thoughts a bit. Disregarding the part where Velar was a towering man…
Velar glanced at the head hanging on my hip, and he nodded. “Looks like you have him.”
“Yeah.”
“How hard is it?”
“Challenging, but I persevered.”
“Doesn’t look like you fought head on.”
“We didn’t. I killed him stealthily.”
He looked surprised. “I thought he was strong. You managed to hide from him?”
I shrugged. “Guess so.”
“Is the training in your holand that intense and high level?”
I actually didn’t know how to answer that. “... Let’s just say I’m pretty good with the sneaky stuff.”
“Sneaky stuff…?”
“Anyway, let’s get moving. We have a long way ahead of us.”
***
The walk there was not exactly easy. We had to briefly rest a couple of tis. Reason being were the won. As ntioned earlier, they were not in a good state. I tried to cast my healing magic on them just to end this faster. It helped sowhat. But there was not really much to heal…
Well, it was not only them that was tired — too. But I could still walk far ahead and do more. I imagined in the past I wouldn’t be this tired, but oh well… At least I wasn’t vomiting blood or sothing.
Anyway, we reached the city. We asked the guards by the gate for help. Thankfully, despite it being still dark out. The guards were pretty shocked to see the group. And then they were even more shocked to see the head hanging on my hip.
“Hey, is that…?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s the bandit leader Yachi.”
“How…?” They looked at with wide eyes, as if they had realized I was actually soone powerful.
“Does it matter how?” I asked.
“... Um… No.”
“By the way, is the Bureau open at this ti? I was hoping to drop this off imdiately.” I was not particularly fond of carrying a head all around. It was disgusting, to be honest.
“Yes. The Bureau is open all day and night.”
“Oh wow, that’s convenient. Alright, can you please take care and help these won? They’re the victims of this guy here,” I casually said as I patted the decapitated head. “I’ll also report them to the Bureau.”
“Of course. We’ll look after them for the ti being. They look starving.”
“Thank you.” I turned towards the won. “I’ll be leaving you to them. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”
The guards brought them into their own building for shelter. But I grabbed one of the guards on the arm, and gripped it tightly. He was caught off guard, and he slowly turned towards with an unnerved expression.
“I went on my way to save them. Make sure you treat them nicely. Otherwise, it would displease .” I would not like to waste my efforts.
The guard nervously smiled. “O-Of course. We’ll treat them nicely, and find a way to help them return to their families.”
“Good. Be sure to do that.” I let go of the guard’s arm and watched them go.
Once that matter was done, we continued on into the city. And then I handed out the cage to Velar.
“Hm?”
“Velar, go ahead to the ship. Bring this with you. Show this to Taneva.”
“What about you?”
“I’m dropping the head off.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.”
“... I understand.” He received the cage. “Keep safe.”
“Yeah.”
And then he went on carrying the cage. Surprisingly, that monster kid was pretty well behaved. I quite expected the Cursed Children would co and check her out. But they didn’t. Perhaps they were being careful, especially that they were currently in monster forms and thirsting for blood. They might visit co day.
I headed straight to the Bureau. The streets were surprisingly peaceful, save for the people drinking in groups. But I didn’t give them any thought and looked straight ahead. I sensed soone following . They just never give up. Even following all the way to the bandit base. Whoever it was, they were pretty skilled.
I entered the Bureau, and there I saw the staff girl from before, Machi. And she was not the only one. There were also other people, the warriors. Drinking and sleeping. Guess that was one of the reasons why this place never closes.
As I walked in, she noticed .
“It’s you. What are you doing here at this…? Huh?” She noticed the head dangling on my hip.
I pulled the head out and presented it to her face. “I’ve brought the head of the bandit leader, Yachi Miyagawa.”
“Eeeh?!” She recoiled backwards away from the head. “W-What?! Really? Uh, it does look like him. But really?!” She stared at with a dumbfounded face.
“Really.”
The other warriors heard our conversation.
“Miyagawa?!”
“That’s him!”
“She killed him?”
“How is that possible?”
“Who is she?”
“No way. Is this a trick?”
“Impossible. Look at the neck, it’s real.”
More and more warriors ca to gather to see the head and . Machi quickly spread out her arms to control them.
“Everyone! Keep away! Return to your business. Leave the matter to us!” She pushed them away. But it was more difficult than she had expected, these warriors were naturally stubborn after all. She turned towards . “L-Let’s get inside the reception room.”
She quickly dragged to the reception room. Once we arrived and she closed the door, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Please sit down and let see the… head.”
I placed the head on the table and sat down on the nearby seat. She grabbed the nearby bounty sketch and compared the head.
“I didn’t expect to see you at this ti,” I said. “You don’t go ho?”
“I had to take overti. One of my colleagues got sick, and I had to cover her shift.”
“I see.” That must be hard.
“... That’s certainly him. This is amazing!”
Not really. I didn’t even feel pleased, not in the slightest. And that irritated intensely. And also saddened greatly.
“The chief should have been here to see what happened. But he’s not here…”
Lucky then. Don’t have to et with soone important.
“Anyway, I’ll give you your reward. But before that, can you please share the events leading up to this?”
“Well… I found their base by interrogating so bandits. After that, one of them led to their base. And then the next night, I cleaned up the entire base, and then finally, killed the bandit leader. Didn’t need a direct confrontation. Just killed him through a surprise attack.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “There’s no way it was that easy! You’re even so casual about it!”
“That’s the summary of it. Do I really need to get into detail about how I killed everyone?”
“Mm… No…”
“Excellent. I should ntion, the bandit leader had several won captives, or slaves. They’re in a terrible state, you can imagine what they’ve gone through.”
Machi pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes… It must have been terrible.”
“We gave them in the care of the gate guards. Please look after the won as soon as possible.”
“I’ll send so people imdiately once we’re done.”
“Thank you. Anyway, are we done? It’s late. I’d like to take the reward and go.”
“O-Of course. Please wait a mont!”
She left, and a short while later, she returned with a bag of coins.
“Here’s the reward money.”
I received the money. “Thank you. Now then, I shall go.”
I stood up and headed for the exit.
“Please wait. What na should we credit this achievent to?”
I paused and thought for a bit. “... Just write Vogue.”
“Vogue?”
“Yeah.”
I quickly left the building, ignoring the barrage of questions the warriors were giving . Thankfully, Machi and the other staff stopped them.
I walked down the street and let out a sigh. That was a boring mission. It was boring because I didn’t feel anything good afterwards. Every mission, there should be that feeling of satisfaction. But now, it was just too empty.
This is fucked…
I sensed the observer again. I paused, gripping my fists. This guy was starting to annoy . I was not in a good mood, and they dared to watch over ? So fucking irritating. Why couldn’t people just leave the fuck alone?!
How hard was it to just leave be? It was always like this. Ever since I ca to this world. No one would just leave the fuck alone! After everything that happened today, I was standing at the edge of my patience.
I groaned angrily. Fuck this guy. Gotta end this bullshit.
After taking a deep breath, I quickly disappeared into the darkness.
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