Chapter 27.

Oh, he could imagine a fair share of problems but none of them should be something he could help with. Her parents were dead, village ravaged and she had been enslaved and tortured. Wait-did she want revenge? That was something he could manage fairly easily. He had a name, after all, he doubted if it would take more than a week to track the man down. Normally he would be a little creeped out by the idea of killing a man...but killing the piece of trash who had given her those scars would be an honour. Adrain still remembered the bruising, the cuts and the internal bleeding that he had seen through Blindsight. Anyone who did that to a child deserved to die slowly.

Raphtalia looked at him, uncertain, but determination won over her fears and she rushed out her sentence, "Please save Rifana from the fat man!"

Adrian blinked, looking to Trystan and Isis for a little help, he could guess whom she meant by the Fat Man, that must have been the slave trader or perhaps Rabier, if the man was fat but who the hell was Rifana. Adrian remembered a Keel who had been in Rabier's basement but Adrian had figured that the child would not be there right now given that he had been found in the cell after about two months or so. No child would survive for two months in Rabier's care.

Trystan, unfortunately, interpreted his look as a sceptical one, "Big brother you have to help!" Even Isis was nodding in support.

Adrian sighed and said, "I'll need a more detailed explanation."

He looked at Raphtalia's terrified face, "Raphtalia, please tell me exactly what you are talking about. If it is in my power to help I'll do my best okay?"

It was reckless to make a promise like that. He had no idea what had happened to the girl...but he could guess. There was only so much that the light novel could cover. It was entirely possible that there were far more children who had been tortured alongside Raphtalia.

The thought made his fury rise and Raphtalia's rambling explanation of her friend being beaten every single day after the 'fat man' bought them stoked it to an explosive extent.

Once she was done there was only once answer that he could give no matter how badly this disrupted his plans.

"We'll try to help her. I promise," he said, his voice cold, Adrian paid no mind to his tone. He needed more information. He saw Raphtalia smile at his words but ignored it for the moment. It would be cruel but he would not give her false hope.

"But," he continued, and watched her wither, " it will be difficult. We need to track her down, take out that man before he can trigger the seal or use her as a hostage and ensure that none of his supporters can track us down."

He wasn't telling her the main problems but he suspected that she knew it. She just didn't care to think about it.

"That's fine." said the ten-year-old in a teenaged body, her tone determined and for once it was without any fear.

She bowed deeply, "Thank you ." she said, and when she raised her head it was with a smile. There was no joy in it but it seemed that she was content.

It was a shame that it was all too likely that the girl would be dead long before they got there. Still, as the three children went to sleep and he took the first watch he opened up his Cartographers Sword and accessed the Map skill.

It didn't show him exactly where Idol had his territory but it was easy enough to guess where the Demi-human dominated locations were given that he knew where the Seatto region was. They would have to travel there and then refine their directions.

It grated on him to abandon his plans for Cal Mira but it seemed that he was far less pragmatic that he wanted to be. Risking his future for a slight chance of saving a little girl.

How pathetic that he was actually satisfied with this course of action. He was far too sentimental and in this world, it could very well get him killed.

It was truly fascinating to see the night sky with his sensory enhancements. To any human back in his world the difference between night and day was obvious, even with the advent of electricity, the darkness could never be chased away entirely but with his Infrared and Ultraviolet Vision-based powers the night was just as bright as day. It honestly didn't look like what the movies portrayed, it was that he could simply see and describe a lot more colours than normal and Adrian loved it.

With Blindsight to watch over the area to ensure his safety he could relax a little while meditating and experimenting with his new skills. He had unlocked a fair number of them and while he was aware of the ones which were useful in direct combat this was the first chance he had gotten to test out some of the more subtle powers. It was truly remarkable just how versatile the Sword was, he had considered it before, but it was clear that this thing was not meant to be used in battle. Or at least its' primary function was not combat. He had gained more than ten times as many crafting, sensory or miscellaneous skills like Plant Modification or Analysis than he had combat powers and that spoke louder than the words in a light novel.

He needed to figure out what the actual purpose of the Legendary Heroes actually was, fighting the waves was probably just one aspect of the job but given the abilities, it granted it was very, very unlikely that it was the only one. It was quite unfortunate that his best source of information was probably Fitoria and he had precisely zero intention of seeking her out, no matter that raising Isis and Trystan would earn him some points with her.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he stood up on the large wooden platform and stretched a little. He balanced himself carefully and made sure that his actions weren't too abrupt, the wooden carrier was a lot better desgined than his pathetic initial designs and had more than ten projected swords being used to move it but they were nearly five hundred meters in the air and while Adrian was certain that he could use Dash to easily get them all to the ground safely it would be a very rude wake up call if the disk toppled, especially since the three of them had just fallen asleep no more than an hour ago.

Isis and Trystan were both quite tired after running for a few hours. The two filolials had been the first two parts of his plan for moving to Rabier's domain as fast as possible. First, it had been Isis in her Filolial form who had carried him, Raphtalia and Trystan, in his human form. Then Trystan had swapped with her and carried them and now it was Adrian's turn to use the carrier to transport them. It wasn't anywhere near his top speed but it was an effective system to transport the group as a whole. Ideally, they could just keep on moving continuously but Adrian was certain that they would need to take a break sooner or later.

Adrian turned his attention to Raphtalia as she started to stir, the child had not been able to rest very well since she had made her request to save her friend and since Isis and Trystan had fallen asleep first, coiled up with each other, Raphtalia, for once, wasn't snuggled up with Trystan in his filolial form. It seemed that her nightmares had returned because of that. He sighed and sat down next to her, the layers of cloth and cushion making it quite comfortable, and began to stroke her head, making sure not to touch her ears. It took some time but she began to calm down.

He flared Blindsight, expanding the range by feeding it a bit of SP and Magic Power, he hadn't expected much, a monster that was targeting them or one that he might have to be a little careful for at most, which was why when he saw a group of three apparently non-existing things fighting a Drakon he almost stood up.

Adrian carefully ran through his sensory suite, his carrier almost stopping before he set it to moving a bit slower, he didn't want to warn anyone but found that none of his skills could actually find anything odd about the scenario. Normally, that would mean that he would have considered it okay and checked other places but with the Drakon moving in an attack pattern, the soil being dislodged and trees and the ground getting cracked open by both the Drakon and its opposition...well his skills telling him that nothing was there just made him more suspicious.

He swallowed the thrill of fear as the distortions, which he remembered having detected right after he left the capital, killed the Drakon with some difficultly. It seemed that while he could not spot them he could find the drops of blood the spilt after an injury. He had no information on them but one thing was certain. They were after him and they had chosen to hide their presence. They were his enemies.

The only question was if they had reported back to their masters and if so what their masters were doing.

Adrian shook his head and kept his carrier moving, carefully trying not to move faster or slower than before. They were a threat but they were not a threat at this exact instant. Hell, given how long it had taken them to kill the Drakon, Trystan and Isis could probably kill them all but that was never the danger of spies. Adrian needed to interrogate them, he needed to know what they had sent off about him and who they served.

Then he needed to kill them before they got reinforcements. If he was lucky they would have not sent their reports in yet. Though he doubted that fact. Adrian felt his fear and anger rise, no one from Melromarc would be happy about their pet Hero slipping off the leash and then ally with Demi-humans and monsters, Adrian was fairly certain that they would kill him but he doubted that they would be so kind with his children.

His determination crystallized and his mind turned to plan. They needed to be introogated and killed, their masters determined and hunted down it was the only path forward.

Adrian looked at the accursed Sword that was leashing him to this world and said, " You had better be good enough,"

He wasn't sure if the glow on the gem was acquiescence or an insult.

Waking up three young children after they had spend hours working hard was difficult. Waking them up to tell them that you wanted them to move away from battle so that retreat was easier was much harder, espcially when they wanted to help.

Well, Raphtalia didn't seem to want to help but it seemed that she felt obligated to do so.

"Isis," he explained with a sigh, " we don't have much time for this. We've gained a small lead on them because they are injured and tired but that won't last. Please listen to me I'm doing to so that I can retreat more easily. It will keep me safer than any other option."

For once Isis looked like the child she was, her face was scrunched up and she looked to be on the brink of tears, " ...At least let me help you! I won't get in the way and Trystan can take Raphtalia to safety."

Trystan looked mutinous at her words but didn't say anything. It was remarkable just how easy it was to read the boy in his human form. Raphtalia looked back and forth, nor saying anything, looking scared and worried. He felt like a monster for making these children worry and it underscored his previous thoughts, he had dragged them into his orbit and potentially ruined their lives. His frown and fury deepened as he realized that if these spies had already made their reports then none of them would ever be safe, his plan of letting Raphtalia live life free from the chaos would be impossible.

Adrian hesitated but had to admit that while she wasn't as strong as him she should be able to take on their enemies with ease, plus he could carry her while using Dash, it was far from impossible. In fact, Adrian could see a few advantages, she was his magic expert, or at least as close to it as anyone in his party could get to.

Yet, she was still young, lacked his advantages and hadn't even classed up yet. Stat boosts from the monster and filolial series or not she was not experienced and she was still less than a week old. He didn't want to have her witness torture and execution.