Known troublemakers

"Cure."

The blue-haired young man stepped forward through the falling bluish particles and spoke up, with his eyes focused on his green-haired friend.

"GHAAAAAA!"

Freed from the paralysis status effect, Ace could take a deep breath, but that only increased the pain from the arrows stuck in his chest and hand.

"Alright, we got a few seconds… Don't bite your tongue off."

"Wha…? AURGHHHH! URGH...!

The blue-haired savior glanced over his shoulders at the falling particles while firmly grabbing the arrow embedded in Ace's chest, pulling on it without letting his friend say a proper word and then immidiately doing the same with the one in his hand.

*squelch*

"Mend."

"HURGH!"

Then the blue-haired young man used another spell—this one caused a rather nasty sound to come out of Ace's chest, making him let out a pained growl.

But after that, the green-haired youngster was as good as new before the final blue particle dispersed upon contact with the ground - minus the damage to his clothes, of course.

"Ugh… Couldn't you have… show up a bit earlier, mister Lazurii…?"

Ace groaned, taking the hand that his friend offered him, and stood up.

"Everything was under control. We are in a party together."

"Haaaa… fair. What did you do with those people… and do you have any idea who they might have been? Like, actually. They were talking some pretty freaky stuff."

Lazurii shrugged his shoulders dismissively and grinned at his friend, who breathed out before nodding and inquiring with a frown.

"They have been teleported somewhere where they can not cause trouble. As for the other detail… it isn't the right place and time to speak about it. You do have some prior commitment to see through, after all."

Lazurii answered partially before motioning at the group of tied-up, sobbing young bandits.

"You got a point, I'll… huh…?"

Ace opened his mouth just to close it again and nodded in agreement before freezing up as the sound of a level-up resounded in his ears at the same time that the last particle of blue light disappeared.

"...teleported…?"

"Straight to the afterlife."

Ace gulped down his saliva and asked, staring at Lazurii with shocked eyes, but his friend merely shrugged his shoulders with a lighthearted smile.

"...."

Ace opened his mouth to ask either way, but his eyes wandered off to the side as if he was reminded of something. So, instead of speaking up about the level-up, he turned around, towering over the bound youths.

"You might have figured it out or not, but those people from before weren't adventurers. Most likely, there is no quest or bounty for your heads - but alas, that possibility is more of a matter of time."

The green-haired young man declared with a strict expression, at least attempting to make an eye contact with every single juvenile bandit, although in few cases they were too shaken to actually realize that was the case.

Luckily, at least two seem to understand the situation, at least judging by their expressions.

"Lean and Nii, you two do have a rather commendable sense of responsibility. But by now, you should have realized that your little family will get torn to shreds in minutes if someone even a little bit capable puts their sight on you. This King orders you to take responsibility for all of them, not by dying but by showing them a proper way to live."

"...?!"

Ace gazed upon the two teenagers - adults in their human nations - the guard who called himself a leader and the freckled girl who so desperately wanted to save him - to the great surprise of the individuals in question.

"I'm on a little quest myself that my friend here graciously agreed to help me with. You are to follow us for a few days in order to gain some basic skills that, after being honed, should allow you to become functioning members of society without the fear of being hunted down."

"But…!"

"What are you even…?!"

Ace declared in the same icy voice, causing the pair he was addressing to fidget and try to talk back.

"This isn't negotiable."

Ace cut them out without even batting an eye.

"I expect that you do realize that even if you do sneak away and go back to… this way of life… you will die. How much of a life expectancy does even a skillful bandit have? Two to five years, at most. And unfortunately, none of you is even remotely suited for banditry."

The green-haired youth shook his head asked only to immediately answer his own question while staring down the pair that shut their mouths and lowered their heads while receiving the scolding.

"First of all, we have to take care of your criminal record. Laz, if you would be so kind to this King."

"But of course."

Ace ended up letting out a sigh and turning to his blue-haired friend, who nodded with a rather sinister smile.

Without much delay, Lazurii raised his hand and waved it. Even though it was almost a dismissive motion, what it caused was a straight line of vibrant pale blue light to shot up seven feet from the ground and then spin around creating a two-dimensional circle.

The next moment, only the edges of the circles kept the glow as the rest of their surface faded away, revealing not the forest behind them but what looked like the inside of a building.

A standard adventuring guild, judging by its looks.

And not even an empty one, but one with a couple of adventurers hanging around and some people lining up to the guild's receptionist's counter wanting to put up a request.

"!!!"

"!!!"

Everyone inside the guild appeared to be just as shocked at the sudden appearance of the magic gate as the tied-up juvenile bandits who forgot to even cry because of the sight.

"Your little headache has been taken care of. This is whatever was possible to salvage…"

Lazurii didn't bother with introductions and went straight to the point, flicking his finger back and forth and causing the pile of goods next to the captives to levitate and then float straight through the gate.

"Here is the compensation for the affected."

The blue-haired young man pointed out, taking out two gold coins and tossing them at the pile on the other side of the gate.

"Spread the news. That bunch is no longer your problem and requires no persecution in any kind or form."

Lazurii added, making sure to step out of the way so all the captives were clearly shown.

"...!?"

"...!"

In particular, one man was staring in disbelief at Lean, and the boy gritted his teeth and faced away.

"Who do you think you are to te-nfgh…?!"

One of the people waiting in line to put up a quest spoke up angrily. Maybe it was a merchant who was a victim of the bunch—who knows—anyway, he wasn't given a chance to finish his sentence as the receptionist threw himself over the counter to block the man's mouth.

"U-understood, my lord! There will be no problem! Our guild will make sure to make the proper announcement!"

The ghastly pale receptionist, who couldn't take his eyes off Lazurri's extremely distinct hair color, assured hurriedly while bowing his head repeatedly as he held down the trader, unaware of whom he was trying to talk back to.

"Good."

Lazurii nodded, and after speaking a single word, he closed the magic gate, not giving anyone a chance to add anything to the conversation.

 "I didn't expect you to be willingly taking a detour like that."

The blue-haired man snickered at his green-haired friend, who had already started cutting the shackles he had put on the bandits himself.

"Take it as my very own twist on the nobless obliged."

Ace shrugged his shoulders and responded with a cheeky smile.