Chapter 85

Chapter 85. The Old Woman in the Tower (10)

The man who had been limping forward collapsed face-first onto the ground with a short scream.

Seeing that, I turned my head and followed after Rene, who was walking toward the wagons.

At that, the young ladies who had been looking back and forth between me and the masked man sprawled with his cheek against the ground called out to me again in flustered voices.

I slowly turned my head toward them.

“U-Um. Is it all right to just leave him like that?”

“He is probably unconscious. It should be fine to leave him alone, but it would be better if you hit him on the head with a club every ten minutes.”

“Ah, yes. No, um, are you not going to chase the others?”

Perhaps because some of their tension had eased, the women looked around and spoke while scanning the men who had fallen to Rene’s swordwork.

One of the young ladies was even bold enough to remove a man’s hood, check his face, and frown.

“What would I do if I chased them? Should I kill them all? They have suffered serious injuries and will be in pain. It should be fine to leave them be.”

After saying that, I pointed at the five men lying on the ground and opened my mouth again.

“And if you do not mind, treat the ones among them who are seriously wounded and tie them up with rope.”

“Yes?!”

The women shouted with furrowed brows.

I turned my head and walked toward where Rene was as I spoke.

“At this level, there may be bounties on them. You would not want to take in corpses and collect the bounty, would you?”

At that, the women’s voices no longer reached me, and I approached Rene with quick steps.

When I went around to the back of the wagon, I was soon able to see her. Rene was tending to a middle-aged man who looked fairly respectable as he lay on the ground, together with two young ladies. (He was a middle-aged man with quite a belly.)

Judging by the sight of the sobbing young ladies, he seemed to be badly hurt.

When I approached closer, the middle-aged man had a long sword wound across his chest.

On top of that, blood was still flowing from the wound, making the young ladies’ white faces even paler and causing Rene to frown.

“This will not do. Everyone? Please move your hands.”

“Hic, waaah~ Leader! Please do not die!”

“Sob, sob! Yes, p-please, hic~ save our Leader, Lady Elf.”

Though the young ladies were crying, they obediently took their hands away from the wound at Rene’s words.

Rene gave them a small smile, then clasped both hands together and muttered something for a moment.

And as I watched her clasped hands slowly shine with a pale green light, I gave a bitter smile.

If this was how it was, there was nothing for me to help with.

When Rene’s shining hands approached the wound, the bleeding stopped, and the wound slowly began to close.

And the young ladies who had been crying beside him also saw the color returning to their Leader’s face, then wiped away their tears and smiled brightly, or else were overcome with emotion and continued shedding tears.

They really were impossible young ladies.

I gave a small laugh, took my gaze away from them, and moved forward to look around, only to see some horrific sights.

In a dark corner up ahead, two men were lying on the ground.

One of them had been split in half from the head down, and the man beside him had been cut through the waist and was lying on his own legs.

I firmly suppressed the nausea rising in me and turned my head, wondering if perhaps.

And I discovered that the man called Leader was holding something large in his hand.

After looking closely, I realized it was a falchion.

I looked for a moment at the Leader, who was groaning as he received Rene’s treatment, and at the young ladies crying beside him.

Then I gave a faint smile, walked toward the corpses, and moved the bodies that had been split in two to a place some distance away.

It would be a serious matter if the young ladies saw them and were startled.

But what kind of people were they, for there to be this many women?

Could they be?

Damn it! Why was I thinking in a strange direction?

After moving the corpses like that, I went looking(?) for any other injured people or bodies that might still be around, recognizing the surroundings by the light emitted from Rene’s magic.

Then near the freight wagon, a man sitting with his sword stuck in the ground and his back leaning against the wagon wheel raised a hand toward me with a grin.

“Are you an adventurer? Thank you for helping us.”

It was a gentle, low voice.

I answered with a smile and looked at him for a moment.

The man had a few strands of hair left over his forehead, while the rest of his hair was all swept back.

His thin-looking face and small eyes, which seemed almost as if they were smiling, somehow seemed to make those seeing him for the first time lower their guard and feel a sense of friendliness.

He had the face of an uncle from next door.

On top of that, he wore thick travel trousers and a shirt, and strangely enough, combat boots with polished metal plates attached on the outside.

What was he? A bodyguard?

With that question in mind, I walked in front of him and bent my knees slightly as I sat.

“Are you a bodyguard? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. I am not. And I am not a bodyguard. I am merely a hired freight porter.”

“Ahh~ I see.”

I nodded at his words, stood up, and held out my hand.

“Is anyone else hurt besides you?”

“No, there is not.”

The one who said that was a man walking out from the forest on the opposite side, pushing aside branches.

He was a man with short hair and sharp eyes, and red blood dripped from the main-gauche and longsword he held in both hands.

The freight porter, who had grabbed my hand and was standing up, gestured toward him with his chin and said,

“That friend is the bodyguard here.”

The man turned his head toward us, then asked the freight porter standing beside me,

“Mr. Garant, who is this person beside you?”

“He is someone who helped us. Together with the person treating the Leader over there.”

So the freight porter’s name was Garant.

After hearing his explanation, the man turned his head toward me and gave a slight nod.

“I am Rick. Thank you for helping us. Mr. Garant? Please check the cargo and see what goods are missing.”

“Understood. But Rick, what happened to the ones who ran away?”

At that, the man named Rick wiped the longsword and main-gauche in his hands on his trousers, then put them into their sheaths and smiled coldly.

“There will be no future trouble.”

“You worked hard.”

At Garant’s words, he gave a slight nod, then quickly walked toward the women and the Leader.

Watching that, Garant pulled the sword stuck in the ground free, put it in its sheath, then climbed onto the wagon loaded with cargo beside him and began turning his head here and there while muttering something.

I looked up at him for a moment, then slowly opened my mouth.

“Would you like some help?”

“Ah? No. Thank you, but I will decline. This kind of work is faster when I do it alone.”

“Yes.”

When I nodded, Garant turned away with a smile and continued checking the luggage.

I turned around and looked around near the wagon.

Then I came out to the place where I had fought earlier. There were traces of combat here and there, but the masked men who had attacked this place were no longer there.

All I could see was the man who had been knocked unconscious when I hit him in the head with a stone earlier, being dragged along by the legs by two young ladies.

“One, two! Heave-ho! One, two!”

“Would you like some help?”

“Yes?”

At my words, the two young ladies looked startled.

I gave a small laugh, grabbed one of the legs of the man they had been dragging with one hand, and walked toward the young ladies who were groaning as they dragged unconscious men over to tie up the fallen men.

“Please step aside.”

“Ah, yes.”

After making the young ladies who had been sweating as they moved the men step aside, I grabbed two unconscious men by the collars, one in each hand, lifted them, and laid them facedown in a line.

At that, nearly seven young ladies clasped both hands in front of their chests, looked at me with faces of wonder, and made startled expressions.

Thanks to that, I had to feel a little embarrassed.

“Wow~ He is so strong.”

“Amazing. He can lift a person with one hand?”

“I wish I had a man like that too….”

“Girl, what about Jace?”

“Please pretend you did not hear that.”

“Huh? You are that man we saw at Grandine’s during the day?!”

When I turned my head, one young lady was pointing at me with a startled face.

The young ladies beside her also turned their heads toward me one by one, clapped their hands, and recognized me.

“Ahh! That is right! I remember now. The married man!”

“What? Married? Aww~ What a waste.”

At the word “married,” half of the young ladies whose eyes had been sparkling at me turned their heads away.

But some of the young ladies continued looking at me with sparkling eyes, and because of that, I felt a chill run through me.

Ugh, a shiver….

“So you finally recognize me.”

I said that, then used the rope placed beside me to tie the men’s arms one after another, like linking sausages.

The young ladies watching me, unlike women who had just been robbed, burst into laughter at the sight of the men lying in a row with their arms tied together.

“Kyahaha~ Look at how they are tied up!”

“Hehehe! It is rather funny, is it not?”

“Um, excuse me.”

“Yes? Ah, right. Thank you so much for helping us. Now, girls. You should thank him too.”

And so, in the end, I received thanks from about ten young ladies.

In chorus, no less.

“Thank you very muuuch!”

“It was nothing. Um, by the way, is anyone among you hurt?”

“No, no one is.”

The young ladies smiled kindly and nodded. I looked up at them for a moment, then turned the men who had been lying facedown over again.

After all, if I left them like that, it would not be good for their breathing. (I also thought an unfortunate accident where they suffocated might occur.)

After finishing the work, I rose at the sound of footsteps and turned my head toward where Rene was.

But the ones who emerged from the darkness beside the wagon were not Rene, but the man named Rick and the man whose arm had been wrapped in a white bandage instead of a hood.

They walked out, then looked at the surrounding young ladies and spoke quickly.

“We will begin checking personnel now. When I call your name, answer for yourself. Given the situation, I will not accept proxy attendance.”

At that, the young ladies gathered in front of him shouted brightly.

“Yes!”

Rick pressed his palm to his forehead with a face that suggested a migraine was coming on, then lowered his hand, hardened his face, and quickly called the names.

“Miss Ruri.”

“Yes!!”

“Miss Judy.”

“Yep!”

“Miss Gina.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Scarlet.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Mary.”

“Yes!”

“Miss Rosette.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Minire.”

“Ah?!”

“What are you doing right now, Miss Minire?”

“Ah, hahaha! I-I was just checking if there were any handsome men… Hic! I am sorry.”

The blond young lady who had been removing the hoods from the men lying in a row and checking their faces answered with a silly grin.

Rick frowned slightly, then continued calling names again.

“Miss Julia.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Kate.”

“…….”

“Miss Kate!”

“U-Um, Kate was taken by those men earlier, hic!”

It was clearly the young lady who had been called Julia last.

She opened her mouth while crying, and Rick ground his teeth and shouted.

She had been taken.

“Damn it! Kaaaaate!!”

Rick clenched his teeth again and tried to regain his composure, then turned his head toward the frightened, trembling young ladies and slowly called the next person’s name.

“Miss Erika?”

“I am here.”

Rick turned his head and found a young lady with long hair tied back like a horse’s tail.

Seeing Rick’s current state, the young lady frowned slightly, jerked her thumb backward, and spoke again.

“Liris is treating the Leader’s wound with the elf right now.”

“Ah, I see. Then the remaining person is….”

“Chelsia?!”

It was the startled voice of the man with the bandage wrapped around his arm, and the women looked around in surprise as if searching for the owner of that name.

But what came out a moment later was one man’s desperate scream.

“Oh! No. Chelsiaaaaa!!”

At the man’s scream, I looked around with a rather poor expression.

I found Rene standing beside me with her hands covered in blood.

She took a handkerchief out of my pocket and wiped the blood from her hands while glancing at the man who was shouting and sitting on the ground as if all strength had left him.

Rene spoke to Rick, who was looking down at him with a sympathetic gaze.

“The treatment is finished. The Leader will be all right.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you very much, Lady Elf.”

At her words, Rick and the young ladies gave strained smiles.

Because two of their companions were missing.

And after watching their smiles, Rene gave a bitter smile.

“Please call me Rene. But it seems another matter has come up?”

At that moment, the man sitting on the ground suddenly knelt and bowed his head toward us.

Unlike Rick, he was a man with somewhat long hair, and he was the very man who had been playing cards with the Leader lying over there at the pub during the day.

He placed his hands on the ground, bowed his head, and pleaded with us in a voice that sounded close to tears.

“With only us, we cannot go rescue the women they took. Please help us!”

At the man’s cry, the ten or so young ladies slowly turned their heads toward us with faces of desperate pleading.

Rick, who had been watching them, frowned and let out a small sigh, then also bowed his head.

“Could you help us? We will compensate you.”

“Dancing is the only thing we know how to do, but if you want, we will show you for free. Please find Kate and Chelsia! Please?!”

Ten young ladies and two men asked us for help, threatening with their faces that they would cry if we said we would not find them.

I looked bewildered at their words and actions, then turned my head and looked at Rene.

She expressionlessly looked down at the man kneeling on the ground with his head bowed as he asked for help, then asked me in a small voice they could not hear.

“Han, what would you do if I were taken by a dragon? Would you kneel before him like that man and beg him to give me back?”

At her words, I smiled gently with my eyes.

“Yes. I would.”

“And if that did not work?”

“Even if I lost an arm or a leg, I would fight the dragon and take you back.”

At my words, Rene turned her head and gave me a warm smile.

I felt my heart flutter at her smile.

Rene quietly looked at me for a moment, then turned her head and gave them a bright smile.

Smiles spread across the faces of the young ladies and the men.

I added one more sentence after that, causing words of thanks to pour from their mouths.

“Yes. We will help you.”

“Thank you so much!”