Nutcracker

The group continued their travel to the base of the mountain.

While the difficulty increased for the knights since the number of people they needed to care for increased significantly, they still powered on.

Staying until nightfall would risk the lives of the others, so it was up to them to pick up the pace.

Thankfully, the beasts seemed to have calmed down now and returned to their respective territories, making their journey slightly easier.

Dealing with a few beasts instead of a massive wave was far easier for them.

After a few hours, they reached the base with relatively no mishaps.

The knights did their job properly and managed to keep everyone else from getting so much as a scratch.

The group set up a fire and brought the corpses of some of the beasts they killed.

Since there was no shortage of beasts coming after them, they had an easy time procuring dinner.

It wasn't long before the pleasant smell of meat sizzling stimulated everyone's hunger.

Especially Arvell, Zen and the freed girls.

They hadn't been able to eat much for quite a while.

Only the captured slave traders were unable to enjoy the sight before them.

They knew this was only the calm before the storm.

Once they were brought before the duke, they would be tried and punished for their crimes.

No one could save them then.

While they wanted to escape, they were suppressed by magic-sealing handcuffs, making them so weak even Arvell could beat them in a fight.

A toothless tiger was no longer a threat.

One of the women looked at those slave traders and then looked back at the knights.

"Is it ok if I can beat this bastard up? I want to at least make them feel the same pain I did."

Naturally, Rupert who had the highest authority in the group answered her.

"It's fine if you rough them up, but just don't kill them. We might be able to get more information out of them and crackdown on the slave-trading ring."

"I understand," The woman nodded.

If they could prevent tragedies like this from happening to other innocent people, they would reluctantly avoid killing the slave traders.

"Do you mind if we join you?"

Upon hearing their conversation, the other girls got up as well, including Selena, the girl who got punched in the stomach for crying, as well as the girl who bit her tongue off.

The women cracked their knuckles and approached the slave traders menacingly.

The tables had turned.

The hunters had become the hunted.

"Please… It was a joke! See! We were just… ugh… taking you on a scenic trip! We meant no harm!" One of the slave traders quickly spoke.

One of the women looked at the man and kicked him in the face.

"You punched a girl in the chest for crying about her dead father! You bastards forced this girl to bite off her tongue to protect her dignity! You used our loved ones as bait for the beasts! HOW THE HELL CAN YOU FIND THE CONSCIOUS TO CHALK IT ALL UP TO A JOKE?"

The man's nose made an eerie cracking noise, as it started to gush blood.

The girl who bit her tongue off walked over to the guy who tried to rape her.

"Please, I was just trying to save your life. You would have died if I didn't heal you! Let's just get alon- ARGHHHHHHHHHH!"

The girl brought her leg down straight onto the man's 'little brother' crushing it into a pulp.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"No…. Please, anything but tha- ARGHHHHHHHHH!"

*Pop Pop Pop*

Ominous popping sounds rang out as the men cried out in pain.

Slowly, one by one the slave traders had their 'little brothers' shattered.

Arvell, Zenos and the other male knights all felt a calamity-class danger directed towards their manhood and instinctively crossed their legs.

They needed to cover their family jewels for protection!

Despite being the captain of a knight order, even Rupert felt a chill go down his nether regions.

Even Lykos gripped his 'holy sword' for protection, it didn't matter to him that he was in an ethereal form.

The danger still felt just as real.

'Even if I use my rejuvenation skill the nightmares would remain.' Arvell shuddered.

Having your balls crushed as a man would be quite traumatizing after all, to say the least.

"Even the commander is scared stiff!"

"I wonder if our men would scream that loudly? You know, if they swapped spots that is?"

The female knights watched this play out in amusement, it wasn't every day they could see their fearless commander shivering like a traumatized kitten.

Hearing their words, the men broke out a cold sweat.

'To make jokes even after seeing a man's little brother get ground into paste? Women are scary…' The men unanimously thought.

"I'm going to go take a walk… To improve my cardio…"

One of the men stood up.

A glimmer of hope rose in the hearts of the men.

"Me too… My wife keeps telling me to lose weight!"

"I need to go take a piss!"

One by one the men rose and began walking away.

This scene was far too horrific for them to continue witnessing.

These were iron-willed men, who could withstand grisly torture and still keep their mouths sealed.

But…

This…

Even though they knew the slave traders deserved it…

They couldn't watch anymore.

Only Zen, Arvell, Uriel and Rupert remained behind.

Arvell and Zen were far too exhausted to move, so much so that they'd rather just stay seated, while Uriel and Rupert had their dignity to maintain as the vice-captain and captain.

"How much farther is the Silvercolt estate?" Arvell asked.

Arvell decided to change the direction of their conversation away from the bandit's shattered manhoods. For the sake of everyone's sanity.

Rupert understanding Arvell's intentions, was more than happy to oblige him.

"We would need another day of travelling by foot. If we depart tomorrow at dawn, we would arrive by nightfall.

Zen raised an eyebrow after hearing this.

"I was meaning to ask this for a while, but where are the mounts? Did you all come here by foot?"

Rupert had an awkward smile.

"Yes… This was supposed to be somewhat of a covert operation. We just wanted to send a survey team to quickly assess the situation with the rank 6 beast. The 4th circle mages were just sent in as a backup in case there was a fight. We decided to travel light, so we left the mounts behind."

Rupert sighed.

"If we knew this was going to turn into a search and rescue mission, we would have brought our mounts."

The nearby knights nodded their heads tiredly.

It would have been far easier on them had they just brought their mounts.

"Travelling back would take only a couple of hours. It only took us a few hours to get here since we ran here at top speed."

Arvell didn't care too much.

It was just one more day.

It didn't matter too much.

"Still, that's not too far then," Arvell reassured.

"On the plus side, at least the journey there will be far easier from now on," Zen added.

"Yeah! The number of beasts from here on will be far less than before!" One of the female knights nearby happily agreed.

Less work for them was far better than working their asses off.

'The distance from the Silvercolt estate to the capital would be around a 5-day journey on foot. However, If we can hitch a ride, it will be quite faster. Maybe around a 3-day trip by carriage.'

Arvell nodded.

'I can probably ask Zenos if I could join him, he doesn't seem like he would mind.'

'Yeah I agree, he would think of it as a way of 'repaying you' for what you did.'

They had less than two weeks before the entrance exam, so Arvell Ideally wanted to make it in time to properly register for his admission.

Shortly after the group had dinner together, and decided to call it a night.

***

In the pitch-black darkness, a figure silently walked toward the sleeping girls.

The figure was silent, silent to the point where one would need to strain their ears to even hear the figure's footsteps.

The only thing notable about this figure was his eyes.

Eyes that glimmered like amethysts in the darkness.

It would have been an alluring sight, had anyone been awake to witness it.

The figure stopped in front of a girl, and gently removed the blanket covering her face. He looked closely at the girl, but shook his head and moved on.

After repeating this several more times, he finally found the person he was looking for.

He brought his hand down onto the girl's mouth as if he wanted to prevent any sounds from leaking from it.

[Rejuvination]

The figure's hand glowed blood red, for a few moments.

After accomplishing his task, the figure left.

Without anyone noticing him or his actions.