The Kidnapper’s Identity and Meeting the First Mini-boss of the Game

We quietly made our way through the maze-like ruins of the roofless Manor, without getting into many encounters. The occasional encounter we did have was taken care of by Sharon's <Sleep> spell. It was a very effective spell.

Also, we had confirmed from this that this place was indeed still inhabited by the kidnappers. Sharon's mental probe did the job.

Making our way to the courtyard, we finally found the thing we were looking for.

An old bulkhead door, leading to the underground.

"Is there anyone guarding the entrance from inside?"

"Doesn't seem like it. The small patrol was set mostly around the outside. We've dealt with them all. Everyone inside seems to be gathered in the cells. This Manor had a dungeon inside. That's where they're keeping the kids."

I furrowed my brows.

"Got it. Let's go fuck their plans."

"Fufu, that would be fun~"

'It's not supposed to be fun, though. She's not serious at all.'

Shaking my head, I opened the gate. It wasn't locked, thankfully.

Slowly climbing the steep stairs, we made our way downstairs.

***

[???'s POV]

"Damn it, what's taking them so long?! It's already past noon."

'Did they… no, no, no. That can't be. Surely they won't cut our contract like this? I waited here for days for the festival. Now you're telling it all my effort was wasted?! No. No!'

"Fuck, I'm gonna lose my mind at this rate…"

He kept murmuring, tapping his foot restlessly on the cold and damp stone floor, looking at everyone in annoyance.

"B-Boss, calm down. They'll come. It's only a matter of time—"

*BAM!*

The man's fist bashed on the old wooden table he was resting his hand on, almost breaking it apart from the little force he couldn't hold back.

"TIME is what we don't have, damn it! It's only a matter of TIME before the Knights start searching for the kids outside the gates. This place isn't that safe. What happened to the carriage I asked you to procure? We'll leave if we get no calls in an hour."

"I sent some of the guys to get one. But it'll be very hard to go in and out of the city. It's on lockdown. We can only hope some merchants are traveling through the road leading to the southern gate. It'll be hard to fight the guards, but it's much better than going inside the city and risking things."

"Find it quickly. Or else we'll have to leave these brats here and run away."

'The least I can get out of it is a few pennies from selling all the brats. I can't let them go back to the city. They've already seen and heard too much.'

The man kept tapping his foot on the floor until he heard a sound.

"What was that?"

He asked, looking around to see the source of it. His higher-than-average tier allowed him to sense things better.

"Hm? What's what?"

The bald man who was now acting as his right-hand man asked.

"A sound. I just heard something."

"Really? I didn't. I'll go check it out."

The bald man left with a few of his men to look for it.

A few minutes went by and things were awfully quiet.

Finally losing his temper, he stood up, walking towards the gate to see what was keeping them alive. But not before he placed a hand on the hilt of the shortsword on his hip.

When he finally walked up to the cellar hallway, he found something strange. All his men were lying on the ground, unconscious. There was no sign of struggle or blood.

"What the?"

He immediately went for the shortsword, pulling it out to fight the intruders.

'Did we get found out—?!'

"<Sleep>"

That was the last word he heard as he felt mana being used just behind him. He didn't even have time to turn back and attack or defend himself. The next moment, he fell down, face first, on the cold hard ground.

[End of ???'s POV]

***

"Oh my, this one was a high tier. I had to use more mana than usual."

I heard Sharon's playful and hushed voice, but my attention was on the man lying down in front of me.

'… What's he doing here?'

Looking at his 'Observe' page didn't help much.

[Name: Garl Jegar

Age: 34

Gender: Male

Race: Human

---

Tier: 4(Foundation grade: Copper)

Talent: Swordsmanship

---

Obedience/Reputation: 0/0

---

Remark: Annoyed that his contacts didn't show up on time.

---

Status: Sleeping.]

'This guy… Wasn't he the first minor villain from the game? Why's he here? He's weaker too. Did he gain 2 new levels in next the 2 years when canon starts? Or is the canon already fucked and everything has changed? Shit, I have so many questions. And I don't suppose you can answer me?'

[I'm unaware of everything that's happening around the world. I only have access to your life, not others'.]

'Yeah, I thought so. Now, what to do with him? I can… get rid of him right now and stop the first few troublesome events from occurring. Is he already part of 'them'? I can't tell… Even if I get rid of him here and now, I'm not sure I'll definitely stop the starting events from happening. Should I do it? And I don't know if I can kill him. Maybe Sharon can? But should I ask for something like that from her? Sigh, so troublesome. Let's just hand him over to the knights and let them lock him in.'

I would end up changing my mind soon, however. After what I'd see soon enough.

"He looks like the boss of the runts here. He's definitely stronger than the rest. But other than that, there's not much to him. He's a nobody."

I turned to look at Sharon looking at me indifferently. She didn't show any hints of agitation or curiosity in her demeanor.

'Did she not read his mind? If he's part of 'them', she must have got some info out of him about 'them.''

And my suspicions held true. When I looked at her with 'Observe', I got all the answers that I needed.

'She definitely knows.'

I had to hold back a frown, fearing she might figure out that I had caught on to her, even with my face behind the mask.

"Did you find something in his memories?"

I asked, not showing any signs of agitation.

"Mm? Well, he's the mastermind behind this incident from the looks of it. He and his thug buddies were planning to capture and sell the children into slavery. In short, they're scums. It'll be better to tie them up and call the knights on them."

"Hmm. We will do that. There might be more of them left though. Let's make sure we get every culprit."

"Roger~"

20 minutes later, we had captured and tied all the kidnappers in one place. Without much effort, really. They were all easy with the Mind magic spells. Sharon also somehow had a long rope with her. Why? I didn't know. But she did.

"Waaaa…"

"*Sniff* I was so scared…"

"Thank you, big sister."

"Don't worry, dears. You're in safe hands. Big sis took care of the bad guys. They'll be punished for kidnapping such cute children. I and my partner will take you back to the knights in the city and then you'll be able to go back home to your mommy and daddy."

I looked at Sharon who seemed to be calming the scared and sobbing children. She seemed pretty good at it, judging by how most of the kids were now quiet and only a few young ones were sobbing.

It was a heartwarming scene to see the kids being freed from the bad guys by a heroic adventurer.

But I had to check on her Observe page a few times, just in case.

'Well, at least she's being genuine here from the looks of things. Does that mean she's only wild and erotic when she's with me? … Ugh, why do I like that thought so much?'

Thankfully, she was a reliable helper. She did do everything here, from taking out all the bad guys to helping open some of the locks. I had mostly just followed her.

It kinda hurt my pride, but it was better than me fighting them and alerting the rest in the process.

[No need to bring your ego into this, Alex. Just be glad this matter was solved peacefully.]

'True.'

"Um, mister."

I felt a tug on my pants.

Looking below I saw a young boy, of age 12, calling for me.

"Yes?"

"Um, one of the bad people beat a girl really badly after getting angry. They took her to that room. S-She wasn't moving. I-I think…"

I grimaced, hearing his words.

But I held back my emotions and patted the boy's head who seemed like he would start crying at any time. Clearing my voice, I spoke.

"… I see. I'll go check. You stay with the big sister over there. You're all safe now. No one will hurt any of you."

He nodded meekly and went back to the group of freed children surrounding my crazy but reliable female companion. She looked so kind and gentle as she petted the little children around her. Almost like a mother bird or a reliable elder sister, to be more appropriate to her age.

Turning away, I walked toward one of the locked basement rooms, fearing the worst.

'Did those fuckers really go that far with an innocent child? What if she's…?'

Feeling mild anger boiling inside of me for some reason because of this situation, I gritted my teeth and breathed sharply to hold in it and opened the door.

***