| Crisis (3)|

"You...Have some cute tricks. Here's your weapon! Catch it!"

Shit.

I was in a bad position right now. Danton wasn't tall but his reach was still a good amount longer than mine. He also had a sword, which he now deemed it necessary to use, that further increased his range.

Wasting no time, the leader dashed toward me and threw back the knife that I had just launched at him. I easily dodged, but not in time to react for his next move as he swiped my ankle with his sheathe. As I stumbled to regain balance, he used that chance to grab ahold of my ankle and flipped me upside down.

"Just give up. You can't do anything with your little body." The leader sneered before I saw him have a surprised expression while taking his attention off me.

"What are you doing there my gold bag"

20 meters away, to my right, I saw a boy with a wolf head? The boy is on all four, like a predator ready to pounce at its prey.

'Is he...the one?'

I thought while recalling Sylvia's message.

His body then emit a faint purplish glow before he kicked off the ground, which launched himself towards us at a surprising speed.

'Mana!'

The leader's mana surged as he lifts his left hand up, muttered a chant as a fireball appeared hovering on his palm.

"I'll give you the-"

>BAM!<

I won't stay idle, so I punched the hand that was holding onto me as I concentrated mana. I used a fire attribute technique, releasing all of the mana focused on my fist and aimed for the weak joint of his wrist.

A loud crack, followed by a howl of profanities indicated the attack was enough.

"AAAARGH!"

His broken wrist released my ankle and I landed awkwardly on my back. Quickly jumping up to my feet, I picked up Pinky's knife and used the chance to charge towards the wounded leader. But I didn't have to do that as...

>BAM!<

The wolf head boy arrived in front of the leader and punch the leader's forehead...

The result amazed and also surprised me.

The leader didn't even get knocked back a meter before he fell lifelessly...

That's when I realized, the wolf head boy didn't punch the leader's head but pierce it instead with his mana imbued index finger.

>Thud<

The boy then landed on the ground, face first after finishing the leader.

It seemed like he exhausted himself and that the adrenaline that kept his wounded body overcoming its limit has been used up.

Now that things have been solved here...all there's left now is the immobile Mike.

'This must be the boy Sylvia mentioned...He really is as unique as she said'

I redirected my attention back towards Mike after briefly starring at the boy.

I couldn't use Danton's sword since it was too large and heavy for my body so I made use of Pinky's knife one last time and swiped Mike's jugular. The poor fighter couldn't really contest or run away with his useless leg and died with a look of disbelief. Much like his two comrades, fed to the hounds.

It seemed that the elf girl knew that there was fighting going on by eerie quiet.

I climbed up onto the back of the carriage where she was supposed to be, only to be met with nothing.

>Crack<

I heard the sound of dried stick cracking and turned my head towards the source of the sound and found a girl's head exposing from behind the tree trunk.

I walked over to the tree trunk and spotted her shivering with dirty rags minimally covering her privates. She studied me in surprise and doubt, her eyes almost saying,

'He can't have been the one who save me, right?'

I untied her as she remained silent, her swollen turquoise eyes never leaving my face.

Tired and feeling gross, I helped her up and simply stated,

"You should go back home now."

"Hic...hic..."

She probably didn't know whether I was an enemy or friend until now, but once the word 'home' was said, a look of relief washed over her tense face and she broke down.

"Hic! I was so scared! They were going to sell me! Hic! I thought I was never going to see my family again! Hic! WAAAAAA"

.

.

It had felt like a good hour before the little elf girl was finally able to settle down. I didn't blame her; being forcibly kidnapped would cause trauma even for adults, even more so since she seemed to be only a bit older than I was.

As I sat next to her, comforting her, I realized how bizarre of a scene this made. A four-year-old boy tenderly patting the head of an elven girl in the back of a carriage as four bloody corpses were being devoured by beasts just next to them. There's even a bandaged unconscious wolf head boy on the carriage.

Of course, I am the one that gave him first aid.

I realized something while tending the injured wolf head boy. It's that he isn't a half wolf but is actually human but wore a wolf head as a helmet of sort, I respect his privacy and found no head injury so I didn't have any intention wanting to know what's hidden under his wolf head.

Anyways, back to present.

"W-What happened to those bad guys?" the elf girl sniffled, her voice coming out a bit nasally.

Not knowing if telling the seven-year-old about killing was appropriate, I simply dismissed it by telling her, "Err...they ran into a very unfortunate accident."

She studied the hesitant expression on my face with the raise of a brow, only to look back down and whisper, "Serves them right."

Looking closely at her now, I couldn't help but notice that she carried all of the necessary features that would allow her to blossom into quite the beauty later on in the future.

With long gunmetal gray hair that I mistook for silver in the sunlight, the girl's disheveled state couldn't mask the innate beauty that she seemed to radiate from her pores.

A pair of gleaming teal eyes shaped like perfectly rounded almonds quivered as her perky nose was so red from crying that it matched the color of her rosy lips. While all of her individual facial features seemed to be carefully molded gems, on the fair creamy skin of her face that was the canvas, it brought her features into a surreal, almost phantasmal work of art.

Of course, this was me just observing her from speculatively as a gentlemen and king who enjoyed beauty in the world.

I helped her up to her feet before speaking again.

"Those people that tried to kidnap you aren't going to chase you anymore. That being said, do you think you can make it to your home by yourself?"

Instantly, her eyes retracted in fear as a panicked expression spread throughout the rest of her face. As tears welled up and both her hands clenched tightly to my shirt, even an infant would be able to tell what her answer was through her actions.

"Look, I need to get home too. Aren't elves generally safe in this forest?" I let out a sigh, trying to pry open her claw-...I mean fingers, from my shirt.

She violently shook her head, much like a dog drying itself, and rebutted, "Beasts only scared of adults...Parents warned me that children will get eaten by hounds or tree golems."

I would normally be pretty amazed about something like a tree golem, but it was becoming pretty hard to find something that surprised me after witnessing a demon king meta morphed into a dragon.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to come up with a solution for all of this.

"How long does it take to get to where you live from here?"

"..."

Still holding onto my shabby shirt, she looked down and admitted, "...I don't know."

I held in the temptation to let out another sigh, since the poor girl looked like she was about to cry already, and agreed to take her back home.

The Kingdom of Elenoir was quite a long ways north so my only hope was that there would be a teleportation gate there that can could me back to somewhere, anywhere, in Sapin.

"...Okay. Then go and wait inside the carriage, help me look after that boy for me would be really helpful as wel-"

Before I could finish speaking, the girl interrupted me with a terrified expression.

"Eek! W-Where are you g-going?"

"Haa...Gathered some necessities"

'Well, I didn't want her to see the mangled carcasses of the slave traders when even I found it hard to my stomach.'

"O-Okay..."

The girl agreed to wait inside the carriage.

"Phew~"

I sighed before finding a backpack small enough for me to wear without it dragging on the ground, I carefully folded and stuffed a small tent inside, along with a leather water bag and some dried rations. I picked up Pinky's knife from the ground where I fought Danton and George and strapped it to the front of my waist to balance the awkwardly large equipment on my back. Before heading back into the carriage, I freed the forest hounds after realizing that, while they were able to pull a carriage, they weren't able to be ridden.

Arriving at the carriage, I found myself looking at a funny situation.

"Grr!"

The wolf head boy has woken up and is staring at the elf girl. It's hard for the girl to make eye contact with him because of his wolf head that is always expressing a scary look.

"Eek!"

***