Kidnapping (5)

Outside the prison, Ariel immediately sprang into action upon hearing Susan's scream.

According to Lu's explanation, it seemed someone had tried to kidnap her, but Ariel had no idea about it.

Ariel had simply eaten cream buns and milk to her fill, taken a nap due to feeling lethargic, and woken up. Her body felt refreshed and her mood was pleasant.

So she decided to first escape from this place and then rescue Susan.

This was a goblin prison, and if a human from Herrington Village was in danger, that was the only thing to do.

The goblin prison looked quite sturdy, but for some reason, the door was not locked.

The goblins must have forgotten to latch it when they dragged Susan away.

Thanks to that, Ariel was able to simply open the door and head in the direction the scream came from.

A few goblins were seen snoring nearby. They were goblins who had fallen asleep from Lu's sleeping powder.

Ariel ignored them and kept walking. As she walked, a large door blocked her path.

From the sounds, it seemed there was a commotion happening inside the door.

Unfortunately, this door was not open. It seemed to lock from the inside.

"Looks like you'll have to break it down, sis."

At Lu's words, Ariel nodded and threw a punch.

BOOM!

With an explosive sound, the door flew off.

With the door gone, the space inside was revealed. It was quite a large space for a cave.

There were dozens of goblins gathered there, and a red goblin was sitting on some kind of chair.

And on the floor, Susan was lying unconscious.

Susan had lost consciousness when flung away along with the barricade door, but Ariel judged that the goblins had done something to her.

Tak tak tak!

Footsteps sounded from behind.

Jack and Tom had followed after.

Thanks to Lu's healing powder, Jack had regained consciousness and gotten up, but his body was not fully recovered yet.

Still, he couldn't just lie there, as the fairy had healed him and the elf had gone to rescue Susan, according to what Tom told him.

Although he was the one who had kidnapped the elf and fairy, since the situation had become like this, he wanted to help out a little.

But then...

'What was that just now?'

With an explosive boom sound, a huge door went flying.

It was a phenomenon caused by Ariel's punch.

Jack was perplexed but couldn't dwell on it further, because Susan was lying on the floor.

"Susan!"

Jack and Tom rushed over to Susan.

Susan's face had a festering wound, and blood was oozing from her waist.

She was breathing but unconscious.

"Kerek."

Meanwhile, the goblins stared at their king with dumbfounded expressions.

When with the Goblin King, all the goblins' actions were decided by the king.

But the Goblin King himself didn't know what to do in this situation either.

He had ordered them to catch the fleeing human woman, but suddenly the barricade door exploded and shattered. And an elf and human man barged right in without hesitation.

Was it dangerous?

The Goblin King quickly racked his brain.

It did seem dangerous.

They had put quite a bit of work into making that barricade door, so even if a troll body-slammed it, it wouldn't easily break.

For the barricade door to fly off in one hit like that meant there was a powerful being present capable of making that happen.

The Goblin King's gaze turned to Ariel. And Ariel also looked at the Goblin King.

"!"

The moment their eyes met, the Goblin King felt a chill run down his spine.

Ariel's appearance was clearly that of a child. Was she even 10 years old? But her expression lacked any sense of vitality or liveliness that a child should have.

It was out of place.

Perhaps contrary to her outward appearance, she was not actually young. Or maybe she wasn't even an elf to begin with.

A dragon? A demon lord? The Goblin King didn't know.

What was certain was that he was in grave danger right now, and needed to flee immediately.

The Goblin King gave an order,

—Attack the elf!

The reason he ordered an attack was to buy himself time to escape.

No matter what the true identity of the young elf was, there were only dozens of goblins here.

It would inevitably take some time to defeat dozens of goblins.

He could use that window to get away.

After giving the order, the Goblin King sprang up from his throne. He planned to escape through the secret passage behind the throne.

But then, he felt the inside of the cave brighten.

"?"

Turning his head, he saw a blue sphere floating above Ariel's head.

Whatever it was, the Goblin King felt it was truly dangerous. The moment he felt that way, Ariel lightly waved her hand.

Phissing!

The blue sphere split into dozens of pieces and shot out.

And that was the end.

All the goblins present had holes in their heads.

Dozens of goblins collapsed, and among them was of course the Goblin King.

Somehow his luck was good today.

With a hole in his forehead, those were the Goblin King's last thoughts before he stopped breathing.

*

Kanna, locked in the inn's kitchen storeroom, was discovered only after a few hours had passed.

After the village festival ended, Kanna's parents returned to the inn and found Kanna locked in the kitchen storeroom.

Kanna hurriedly explained to her parents that it seemed Jack's gang had plotted something.

Kanna's parents informed the village chief, and soon it was revealed that the village's shared carriage had gone missing and Nelson had opened the palisade to let Jack's gang pass through.

Moreover, considering that Tom's mother's sleeping pills had disappeared entirely, and Jack had tried to deliver the cream buns meant for Ariel instead...

It seemed Jack's gang had kidnapped Ariel and Lu and left for the city.

Considering Jack's usual behavior, it was easy to believe.

The village atmosphere darkened like storm clouds.

Even in their drunken state, people gathered at the village chief's house to discuss what to do next.

"We cannot let this pass. That young elf is the benefactor who saved Daisy's life, to repay kindness with enmity is an act deserving of divine punishment!"

"Moreover, the carriage Jack rode off on is the village's shared property. This is clearly theft. We must catch them no matter what."

"Catch them and teach them a lesson. So they never do this again."

"No, instead of that, it might be better to just expel them from the village. Tom is still somewhat better, but Jack and Susan were no help to the village anyway."

"Right, they were always just causing trouble."

The villagers' opinions were united.

Catch Jack's gang and rescue the elf. Then either punish Jack's gang or expel them from the village.

Even Jack's gang's parents agreed with this. No matter their children, there were misdeeds deserving punishment.

This incident was a serious enough misdeed that even parents could not cover for them.

The village chief naturally agreed as well.

"Then let's immediately pursue them once dawn breaks."

It was deep night now. Leaving the palisade in this state would be dangerous.

They could get lost in the forest or encounter monsters. If that happened, casualties would be unavoidable.

Though impatient, the village chief decided to wait quietly until morning.

No one objected. The villagers knew how dangerous the forest was at night.

Fortunately, they could roughly guess where Jack's gang had headed.

"They definitely went to the city, those guys. They were always blabbering about wanting to live glamorously in the city."

*

When the goblins and Goblin King collapsed, Ariel put all their corpses into her inventory.

Unlike troll corpses, goblin corpses didn't seem particularly valuable, but it didn't matter. Since she had plenty of extra space, she could stuff them in without issue.

"At least the Goblin King will be worth a decent amount. Such a rare specimen."

At Lu's words, Ariel nodded.

Indeed, the Goblin King was different from the other goblins. His skin was red and he was slightly larger.

While she didn't know why that made him a king, he certainly wasn't ordinary. Someone might want to buy him.

Once she finished cleaning up, Ariel approached Jack's gang.

Susan was still unconscious, but thanks to Lu sprinkling healing powder, the wounds on her face and waist were healing.

The facial scar would be unsightly, but Lu couldn't do anything about that. For now, preventing the wounds from festering and helping them heal well was the best she could do.

Jack and Tom had their heads hung low in shame.

If not for Ariel and Lu, they would certainly have died to the goblins.

To owe their lives to the ones they had kidnapped, they had no face left.

At least in the past, Jack might have been more shameless. But this incident had completely crushed his arrogance.

He had faced reality. He was nothing, and the world outside the village palisade was dangerous.

More than anything, it was the majesty that Ariel displayed.

She blew away the huge gate with a single punch and swept away dozens of goblins with a single spell. For someone like him to have tried to kidnap Ariel, it was such a foolish thought.

Even if it hadn't been an attack by the goblin horde, Jack would not have accomplished his goal.

The moment Ariel woke up after arriving in the city, it would have been over.

Ariel was that much of an overwhelming powerhouse that couldn't be trifled with.

Jack dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry. I did something I should not have done. Even if I had ten mouths, I have nothing to say..."

Ariel and Lu were benefactors of the village. They had saved the village chief's daughter, Daisy.

He had kidnapped those two benefactors.

No matter how Jack was, he knew it was an outrageous act. He had just turned a blind eye, blinded by greed.

And then, they were attacked by goblins and faced a crisis of death, yet they were shown grace again.

If not for Lu's healing powder, Jack and Susan would not have survived, and if Ariel had not dealt with the goblins, Tom too would have died in the end.

So Jack could not raise his face at all right now.

All he could do was sincerely apologize.

"I'm sorry too..."

Tom also knelt down beside Jack.

With the two of them acting like this, the one feeling awkward was Ariel. Their actions were too burdensome for her.

Initially, she didn't really understand what Jack and Tom had done.

They said they kidnapped her, but from Ariel's perspective, she had just woken up in a goblin prison after sleeping.

So she left the prison, defeated the goblins, and put their corpses into her inventory.

It may be true that they committed a wrongdoing, but honestly, Ariel didn't really feel it. Perhaps it was because she hadn't suffered any particular harm.

"Ahem."

Lu, who was beside her, cleared her throat and asked Ariel.

"Sister, what should we do?"

Like Ariel, Lu also felt a bit burdened.

Although she didn't like the human race and found these guys detestable, to Lu, they seemed to be sincerely repenting their sins.

If Ariel and herself had suffered harm, it might be different, but at this level, it might look better to just magnanimously forgive them.

"Shall we forgive these guys?"

At Lu's question, Ariel nodded as if she had been waiting for it.

"!"

Then Jack and Tom suddenly raised their heads.

Ariel seemed to have a load off her mind, and Lu felt the same way. This situation had been somewhat uncomfortable for Ariel and Lu as well.

"Th-thank you...!"

Not knowing Ariel and Lu's thoughts, Jack and Tom were overwhelmed at being forgiven and shed tears of gratitude.

*

Ariel and Lu headed back to Herrington Village. Jack's gang followed behind at a slight distance.

While Ariel and Lu were fine, Jack's gang was in an utterly exhausted state. They had to walk the distance they had ridden in the carriage overnight.

Their dream of selling the elf and fairy as slaves and living glamorously in the city had been shattered in a single day.

Still, Jack's face looked somewhat bright. He seemed to feel refreshed somehow. Susan and Tom had similar expressions.

The morning sun was rising. A gentle breeze blew, carrying the fresh scent of grass.

Compared to the nightmare they had experienced last night, everything now looked simply beautiful.

It was fortunate after all that they didn't die. With that thought, Jack silently thanked Ariel once more.

From now on, he would have to straighten his mind.

They had lost the village's shared carriage and two horses, so he would surely be scolded heavily, but if he sincerely repented and worked hard to make amends, it would be fine.

When they arrived at the village, he would also have to apologize to Kanna.

As Jack had these thoughts, the palisade of Herrington Village came into view.