Chapter 33
---3rd Person POV---
Solaris burst through the Guild Hall’s doors with a loud crash. Chris, two steps behind him, flew past the beast and raced toward the Guildmaster’s office. Instead of taking the backstairs, she put her acrobatic skills on display, jumping and flipping her way to the second floor with elegant grace. She ignored the crowd below as they tried to make sense of the chaos.
“Guildmaster!” Chris burst into his office without knocking. “We have a situation in the slums! Lord Aremus has—”
Before she finished her sentence, Chris noticed the old man had company. Without hesitation, she lowered her head to show respect to his regal guests. The six men turned their gazes toward the frazzled thief.
“My sincerest apologies, Crown Prince Julius!” Chris began sweating bullets. ‘Shit! Since when did the Prince and his Entourage become members of the Adventurer’s Guild?! Am I going to be killed for appearing before him armed?!?‘
Julius noticed her reaction and sighed. “There is no need for formalities. We are here as ordinary adventurers, not as nobles. Please continue with what you were saying.”
Chris took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Once she had collected her thoughts, she started from the beginning.
“Guildmaster, we have a situation in the eastern slums. Lord Aremus discovered the hidden base of some illegal slavers. He requests aid for the hostages and the slavers.”
The Guildmaster rose to his feet. He grabbed the cane resting beside him and made his way toward the door.
“Prince Julius, my apologies, but we will have to postpone our meeting. This matter requires my immediate attention.” He kept walking without looking back.
Julius and his friends shot to their feet. “There is no need to explain. Allow us to offer our help in dealing with those lowlifes.”
The Guildmaster nodded. While it was dangerous, he felt it was necessary for the sheltered royal and his friends to see the darker side of society. Reports from the City Guard only told part of the story; the aftermath left in their wake was something one could only experience in person.
The Guildmaster stepped onto his private balcony and slammed his cane onto the floor. As the hall fell silent, he noticed Solaris at the door with a petrified Yunyun clinging to his back. “I want everyone to prepare for emergency deployment! We have received reports that a black market slaver’s base has been discovered in the eastern slums.”
He gestured toward the biomechanical raptor, which scanned the room for anyone it recognized.
“A group of our fellow adventurers was ambushed by them. The party leader stayed behind to give his party members time to come alert us!” The Guildmaster’s expression hardened. “Solaris, can you lead the way back to your master?”
<Rawr! Rawr! Rawr!> Solaris motioned for everyone to hurry.
He turned to leave just as Lucoa and Roxanne appeared. When they looked up to see where the Guildmaster pointed, they saw their pale-faced friend.
“Yunyun!” Lucoa and Roxanne shoved their way through the crowd. “What happened to you?!”
When they got closer, they noticed her clothes were torn and dried blood stained her face and thigh. Upon hearing their voices, her head shot up as she reached out for them.
“I… I was running an errand for Miss Wiz when I was ambushed,” Yunyun said, and slid off Solaris into Lucoa’s comforting embrace. “All I did was knock on the door, and several men jumped me. I tried to fight them off, but they were too strong. If Leon hadn’t answered my calls for help, I… I...”
“It’s alright, Yunyun. You are safe now.” Lucoa held her friend close as a scowl formed on her face. ‘Leon, massacre every one of those fucking bastards. Don’t let even one escape.‘
Beside her, Roxanne’s face darkened as she gripped the hilt of her blade. She knew Yunyun had taken a job off the books. Since it came from Wiz, a trusted friend, she had allowed Yunyun to go alone. Roxanne despised herself for not following Leon and Lucoa’s guidance.
The Guildmaster slammed his fist down on the railing. “Get out there and kick some fucking ass. I am awarding ten thousand dia per slaver’s head you bring back. Dead or Alive!”
Upon hearing the compensation, newbies and veterans alike leaped to their feet. With weapons in hand, they followed Solaris back to the slaver’s base.
As the guild hall emptied, Chris noticed a group of four familiar faces. With a grin, she leaped over the railing and sprinted over to them.
“Long time no see!” Chris draped her arms over the party leader and the Arch Priest. “Why have you guys been avoiding little old me?”
“It’s good to see you, Chris.” The brown-haired man gave the thief an exhausted look. “We haven’t been dodging you on purpose. It’s just been very busy as of late. Thanks to two certain people, who shall remain unnamed, we are several million dia in debt. A balloon payment is coming due soon, so we’ve been busy earning every dia we can.”
The individuals in question, an Arch Priest and an Arch Mage, scowled at him. While they wanted to complain, they begrudgingly acknowledged they had no leg to stand on. Their actions had put them in this situation, but they hated being mocked for it.
“Will you be coming with us?” the blonde Crusader asked, and leaned forward with a smile. “We could always use another pair of reliable hands.”
Chris gave her friend a thumbs up. “My people are already there helping with crowd control, so I have to go back. I cannot very well leave them to figure things out themselves. I am the brains of the operation after all.”
As they approached the door, they stopped to check on Yunyun. They looked at the traumatized girl with pitying eyes.
“It will be okay, Yunyun. We will get vengeance for you!” The brown-haired man pounded his chest.
“Thank you, Kazuma.” Yunyun released Lucoa. She stumbled backward, but she forced herself to stand under her own power. “Miss Lucoa, Roxanne, are you two going?”
The women nodded. Yunyun was their cherished friend. Anyone stupid enough to harm her would have to answer to them.
“Then… I am going too!” Yunyun clenched her fists with determination. “I… I am scared, but I cannot let everyone continue to carry me. As a proud adventurer, I have to stand beside my party no matter what threat we face. If I cannot do that, why did I become an adventurer in the first place?”
The group went to protest, but they stopped when the Guildmaster slammed his cane down.
He nodded. “Well said, Yunyun! Many people would allow themselves to succumb to fear and fall into unending despair. Instead, you have chosen to trust your friends and challenge it head-on. That is the very spirit of a true adventurer. Those who acknowledge their fears and rise to the occasion find hidden strength they never knew they had.”
With a sigh, Lucoa and Roxanne agreed to let Yunyun come with them. Together, the eight of them raced back to the slums.
---Leon POV, Fifteen Minutes Later---
I returned to the Mortal Realm with the battered and beaten slavers in tow. After I verified they were not part of a Chaos cult, but merely clueless middlemen carrying out dirty work for hard cash, I stayed my hand from killing them. Death was too quick a punishment for vile people like them. Instead, I would see them toil away for the rest of their lives to atone for their crimes. To sate my rage, I used them as punching bags until they became quivering piles of gore. Only then did I mend their bodies a bit and bring them back.
“Sit there and wait for the authorities to arrive. Attempt to run, and they will haul your crippled bodies to the dungeon.” I gestured toward the open space where the front wall used to be.
The several dozen men shuffled over, their crude shackles digging into their skin. Once they were seated, I turned my attention to their captives. One by one, I ripped the doors off the cells and helped them walk outside. As the last captive upstairs hobbled into the sunlight, Solaris returned with hundreds of adventurers in tow.
“Lord Aremus, we have come to—” Julius’s words died in his throat.
In a flash, the slavers threw themselves at the adventurers’ feet. They clung to their legs, snot running down their faces, and begged to be hauled away. All of them wanted to be as far away from me as humanly possible.
“Well… This was a letdown.” Brad sheathed his sword with disappointment. “I thought we would get to kill some slaver scum.”
“I would not worry about that. There is still plenty of action to be had.” I stepped out and handed a worn map to Julius. “After a bit of persuasion, they coughed up the rest of their hidden bases here in the capital. There are seven locations left. To keep casualties to a minimum, I recommend a coordinated, simultaneous attack on all locations.”
Julius and his friends memorized the map, then handed it over to the next team. As the rescuers made plans, I cleared my throat to grab everyone’s attention.
“If you do not have a strong stomach, I recommend staying away from the basement. These vile mongrels have been mutilating people to cater to their wealthy patrons.” I stared at the souls of the slavers. Their tiny lights flickered with terror. “Those who can stomach it, cover the victims and see they are taken to the Temple. I will cover their medical treatment from my own coffers. You will be compensated with ten pounds of gold for each victim you ferry there.”
My words silenced everyone. Ten pounds of pure gold was equivalent to six hundred and twenty thousand dia. It was a hefty sum for something so trivial, but I felt it was worth every dia. As a moral, upstanding man, I felt it was only right that I used my vast fortune to help those in dire need.
With an outstretched hand, I handed down orders. “Bring the heathens to justice and see their operations are brought to ruin. Drag their broken bodies through the streets. Let the people know this blight has been cleansed, and the nightmare is over!”
Rallied by my words, the adventurers cheered as they raised their weapons in unison. Without another word, they broke into teams and disappeared into the maze of streets. Once they were gone, my party, our receptionist, and some fresh faces came forward.
“Looks like the whole gang is here.” I gave them a grin. “How are you holding up, Yunyun?”
“I am doing better now. Thank you for asking,” Yunyun said.
Without skipping a beat, Olivia stepped forward, dressed in her priestess gear.
“What do you need from us?” Yunyun asked, and stared at me with her hands clenched around her staff.
“We have critically wounded people downstairs. Between Miss Aqua, Yunyun, you, and myself, we should be able to save everyone.” I turned to the others. “Miss Darkness, Lucoa, and Solaris, can you help ferry people upstairs as we heal them? Mr. Kazuma and Miss Megumin, please escort the liberated captives and their captors back to the Guild Hall.”
“You sure they won’t try to run for it?” Kazuma asked, looking at some of the burly men with wariness.
In response, the slavers crawled over and bashed their heads against the cobblestone road. Kazuma looked at them in fright and took a few steps back in shock.
“Please do not joke like that! We will not make a run for it, I swear!” One slaver looked up at him with primal terror. “He will track us down and torture us even worse than the first time. You cannot even imagine the pain of someone picking through your mind with a dull butcher’s knife. Every searing second he rooted around in there was absolute—”
Ahem.
The slaver’s mouth slammed shut as cold sweat beaded down his face.
“That is quite enough out of you. What I did to you pales compared to what you have been doing to innocent people.” I turned toward Chris. “Have your men search this place top to bottom for any hidden caches. I am not looking for valuables. What I am after is correspondence, documents, ledgers, and anything of that nature.”
Chris stepped forward and rubbed her grubby hands together. “I do not suppose you would be willing to pay us for our labor too, would you? It is a hard life out here in the slums. Even if it is a few ounces of gold, we would be very grateful.”
I nodded. “I suppose that is fair. How about half a pound each? That includes Kazuma’s team as well.”
“You got it, boss man!” Kazuma’s attitude changed on a dime. “Let’s get moving! Megumin, I will take care of the thugs. You handle the others.”
Megumin nodded. She had not heard a word he said and instead fixated entirely on the reward for this job. With that kind of money, thirty-one thousand dia, her dream of buying a quality staff was within reach. Together, the two giddy adventurers led the caravan away.
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