The Kidnapper’s POV

A/N: An unintentional and indirect reference to a popular novel on this platform.

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[???'s POV]

The man was not having a great day. No, quite the opposite. He was practically fuming. From the giant MESS that this had become.

It was not supposed to go this way.

'How did it end up like this? It was not supposed to go like this…'

When he'd been given a chance to join 'them', he'd found himself attracted to their more than generous offer. All he had to do was prove himself by doing a "small", "insignificant"— according to 'them'— 'chore' for 'them'. He even got a team for it.

All he had to do was look over them. Not even do the 'chore' himself. He just had to look over them. That's all.

'Fuck, I didn't know that they'll ask me to do something like this.'

He looked at the face of the frightened children, locked behind bars inside a dim dungeon-like space, trying their best to not utter even a single sound. Fear was etched in their eyes. Yet some of them struggled to hold back their sobs. And that annoyed the man.

"Shut up, you damn runts! Or you'll be the same as the one lying there!"

He pointed to a corner where a body was lying, unmoving. The features of the body were not recognizable, partly due to the lack of light in that corner and partly because it was a bloodied mess adorning torn rags and bruises all over.

But judging from the small stature, it was certainly someone young. Not a child, but by no means a proper adult.

It was hard to tell if the said body was alive or not.

"And that one was the best find among these little shits. Damn it! I'm fucking nuts. I shouldn't have gone too hard on the beating. But what could I do? The fucking shit bit me! Little shit's canines almost tore my damn skin. … Sigh. If only I had a potion to fix her up. Eh, fuck it. It's useless now. Let her die. The little shit deserves it."

The man murmured to himself, ignoring the children who had finally gone quiet for most parts, except for the occasional muffled sobs.

It all started with a single mistake. One mistake that led to all this mess, to his downfall before he could even properly begin to rise up the social ladder. And now possible death, if 'they' found out he had fucked up, which he knew they most definitely would, what with the loud explosions going off on the main street in the city of Maximus and the commotion it'd created. The Marquis was outraged and was doing a citywide search for the perpetrators.

'I shouldn't have listened to those damned heretics. Fuck!'

…

24 hours ago.

The same man was detailing his men and some extra additions to the plan of action for the day.

"Listen carefully, you lot. All you have to do is make use of the crowd gathered in the festival today to slip up some kids. Doesn't matter which ones. Just take them at random for all I care. But DON'T let anyone see you, let alone capture you. If you do get caught, say you're working alone. You tell them anything more, and you can be sure that I'll hunt you down, whenever you get out of prison. I'll make you regret blabbering out…"

'Not that they should know too much. I've not given them too much information.'

One of the men listening to his explanation-turned-threat spoke, pointing his thumb at a separate small group of people who were covered from head to toe in dark-colored cloaks.

"Boss, what's the deal with these weirdos?"

The man glanced at the one who asked and then at the said "weirdos". Grunting, he spoke.

"They're nobodies. They're here to help you transport the kids to a secure location. One of them is a space mage who is good at teleportation magic. That's all you need to know. Once you're done with the quota, you take the haul to the assigned location where you'll see one of them with the said magic waiting for you, along with one of us. Just give them a nod and they'll take you back to our temporary hideout in the sewers. From there, you know what to do. Follow the secret path and get to the rendezvous point. After that, we just wait for 'them' to collect the kids. Our job will be done once they come and collect them. They will take care of the rest. Got it?"

"… Aye, boss. But I sure hope they're trustworthy. I would rather not work with suspicious guys like these."

The man sighed in annoyance. The scarred-faced bald guy who'd been speaking—and who looked pretty suspicious himself— was smart for someone of his profession and stature. But he agreed with the guy's sentiment. He was smart enough, probably smarter than the rest of the small-time thugs here, to see the possible flaws and loose ends.

But the man could do little to solve this issue. This strange group had somehow found out about his secret plan and approached him with an offer he couldn't refuse.

"It'll be much easier to transfer the goods via teleportation magic. They're here because I've decided to trust them. But if they make any trouble or hinder our work, let me know. I'll 'talk' to them."

He glared at the cloaked figures, leaking a fierce killing intent.

'That and I can't let them out of our sights. It'll be a disaster if they leaked the intel to the authorities. At least until we're done with the job, I need to let them do what they want. After that…'

"Rest assured, we won't interfere in your mundane work. We just have a small business of our own. It'll be taken care of immediately. Things have already been set."

One of the cloaked figures, the leader presumably, spoke.

"This is just an alliance of ease. Remember that. You fuck me up, I'll fuck your entire damned cult or whatever you bastards are part of."

The cloaked figures didn't have any outward reaction to his words.

"Understood."

The leader of the cloaked figure spoke simply.

The man sighed again, annoyed and irritated by their lack of fear from his threat and bloodlust.

'Fucking heretics. I swear if this goes even a little wrong…'

…

It had gone wrong. It had gone horribly wrong!

'Fuck, why the hell did those fuckers blow up the main street?! What were they after in the first place? They told me they had some quiet business to deal with and wanted a few of the kids we captured. Then we'll never see or talk to each other after the deal was done.'

He had accepted it since it wasn't that big a deal. All he had to do was increase the number of kids captured by a few. The team assigned to him was experienced in that kind of work, so it wasn't a big deal.

And yet...

'Now the fuckers have gone missing—probably ran away— and I'm stuck here just outside the fucking city where the knights are going crazy with their search. What the hell did those motherfuckers do to make the knights this crazy? Well, other than blowing up the fucking main street! Fuck!'

It was a miracle that he had managed to escape, not just alone, but with most of the others and he had even managed to get a good haul too.

'It was the right call to send some of my men to get some of the kids from the slums. They're all disgusting little shits, but surely it'll be fine. 'They' didn't tell me what kind of children they wanted. Only to get any we could find from the city during the festival.'

Now the man waited patiently for his future employers (or possible future death, if they didn't fancy his hard work) to come and finalize his mission. If they accepted his work, he was sure to get into their ranks and begin climbing up the ladder. If not… he gritted his teeth in anger.

'Fuck! It won't end like this!'

[End of ???'s POV]

***

"Is this the right place?"

I stared at the abandoned ruin that looked like it used to be a manor a century or so ago. Now, however, it was just a broken down place of no interest to anyone. Other than maybe monsters or suspicious people.

We had come out of the dimly lit room about half an hour ago, which happened to be an old log cabin with a basement. Still, it'd looked habitable.

This place, on the other hand, was too run down. Ruin was the right term for it.

Another thing of interest was the fact that the place was surrounded by trees and there were no signs of people or recent infrastructure anywhere around.

I could see part of a thick tall wall a fair distance away.

'Can't believe all this time we were outside the city. No wonder she wasn't too afraid of knights finding us out so soon. Also, why was there a random log cabin in the freaking woods?'

"Yup~ this is the place. But I don't think it's a good idea for someone like you to go and probe around on your own."

Sharon's hushed voice echoed in my ears. She didn't need to be so close to my ears to speak. We were alone there, as far as I could tell.

"… I'll be fine. You said there were only Tier 1 and Tier 2 thugs. I can handle that much. Plus…"

I turned to look at her, her lips lightly touching my cheeks in the process. I spoke quietly, with our faces incredibly close.

"I have a reliable adventurer bodyguard by my side in case things go wrong."

Though the 'bodyguard' part was somewhat questionable, she was certainly reliable when she was by my side as a Tier 5 rogue-mage.

"Fufu, of course. I'm happy to help after that generous payment~"

She licked her lips seductively, reminding me of the ridiculous number of times she sucked me dry—or at least tried to suck me dry— just this morning. She had told me more information about the kidnappers, namely their hideout, which she just "happened to hear from one of the thugs," when I was pounding her silly from behind.

As if she hadn't already told me she was a Mind mage. They were experts at extracting information from people's heads. She sure was bold and reckless to use it openly in front of me though. Definitely not an ordinary woman, if she still held a seemingly legit adventurer's license plate despite that.

I could tell it was real by the unique magic signature it emitted when I passed mana through it. That's how the Adventurer's Guild maintained the legitimacy and identity of their Adventurers. Not just anyone could make a fake ID and act like an Adventurer. Though, people certainly tried.

"… Anyway, I just want to go quickly and check something."

'Like, why the fuck would some no-names even dare to kidnap the only son of a freaking Marquis? And if they are actually related to the evil god's cult and/or the bombings. I'll be out of this place once I've confirmed my suspicions.'

"Very well. I don't really care either way. But that's a cute mask you've got on, fufu. We should have had some action with you wearing that."

"…"

I was currently wearing a mask and my wig. I'd bought the mask from the festival. It was just a simple wooden mask with the face of a random beast.

I had it and many other things that I had in my storage ring handed back to me by Sharon after we were done with our 'morning exercise.' I'd quickly stored everything of importance from the ring to my Inventory.

'Damn, this woman is hornier than me. And I'm pretty damn horny, all things considered. Why else would I agree to fuck a crazy chick like her?'

"I just don't want anyone knowing my identity or that I was here in the first place alone or, heck, even with a suspicious woman."

"I'm not that suspicious. You can trust me~"

"Yeah… right. Sure…"

"Fufufufu."

'All kinds of problematic things would happen if this news got out. I wonder if I can really trust her with this secret though. Sigh, not like I have much of a choice here. I hope she's not a blabbermouth.'

"Relax~ I'll not blurt it out to third parties."

"…"

Shaking my head in defeat, I turned back to analyze the ruin from our hiding spot which was a treetop a bit further away from the place.

'From what she told me, they seemed to be child smugglers, kidnapping children and selling them off to forced slavery or whatever somewhere unknown. Definitely scummy pieces of shit. I don't wanna play hero or anything, but it annoys me that they tried to kidnap ME, those sons of bitches! I'll make sure they rot in the dungeon cells for the rest of their lives AFTER I cut off their legs, arms, and dicks and turn them into limbless turds—'

[Calm down, Satan. Your evil persona is leaking out.]

'—Ahem, I mean, I can't let those fuckers get away with it. They'll pay.'

[Sigh, I still think it's a bad idea to do this without prior planning or preparations. We don't even know if they're still there. What if they have a backup who's stronger than even Sharon?]

'… I know it's risky. That's why Sharon's Mind magic will come in handy. And don't forget I have a couple nifty spells of my own. I may not be as strong as her Tier-wise, but my Mana is definitely much higher than anyone on my Tier should have. We've already confirmed so with our tests.

And besides, I am really unsettled by the presence of those cultists. What if they were supplying children as sacrifices for the ritual? I'm not heartless enough to just ignore it…'

[You can let the guards know and let them handle it. Why take the risk?]

'It'll be too late. We've already wasted a whole day doing… stuff. We don't even know if they're still there. Telling the knights and letting them handle this would be ideal, but I can't waste any more time. You know what they did to the children they kidnapped in the game, right?'

[…]

[Just take care not to get hurt.]

'Don't worry. It'll be fi—'

[Don't jinx it, idiot!]

'Right. Okay, okay.'

I probably wouldn't have done something so reckless normally. I'd been way too adventurous and happy-go-lucky for a while… not sure why. (A/N: W-Why are you guys looking at me?!)

But since there was no answer to that question, even from Iris, I decided to focus on the mission.

"Just make everyone inside sleep with your magic without getting caught and we'll be golden. Then you can probe one of their minds and figure out their plans. After that, I'll go tell the knights about everything and we'll go our own ways from there. We'll be able to save the children if they're still there too. Got it?"

"Aye, aye, handsome leader~"

"Sigh, take this seriously, Shasha."

"I'm serious~ Don't worry. I can handle all the goons there easily. You just stay back and enjoy the show~"

'I hope so.'

I was so going to a dungeon once this was over. I needed to be stronger. Tier 3 wasn't enough. Not even close to enough. I needed to be at least a Tier 7 or higher to survive such random encounters if I ever had any in the future.

"Darling, you do know that Mind magic is illegal? You'll be in deep trouble if someone found out you endorsed it."

"Excuse me? And what about you? You're the one using it. I can get away by acting innocent and claiming I was under your mind control. Plus, I'm an upper noble. I'll be fine. You, on the other hand, will be fucked."

"My, how cunning. You'll really do that to me?"

She made a fake sad face, while I knew she was just fooling around. This woman didn't care if someone saw her using that illegal magic. I didn't know why.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

I gave a vague reply before finally deciding it was time.

"Let's go."

***