"U, uh....?"
Drip, drip.
Water droplets fell and struck my eyes, and my consciousness rose with them.
Damn it. Where... am I?
I vaguely remembered getting knocked on the head by some fairy and passing out, at least.
"Mmph? Mmph? Mmph?!"
Damn it, what the hell. My mouth is gagged too? At least I can see ahead of me, so my eyes aren’t covered, and...
My body...
No good. My body is tied up too. Not to a chair or a pillar or anything like that, but wrapped up tight with rope or something, so moving is impossible.
Then, using the faint light that reached me, I looked around.
The place I was in was some kind of room. There was one window, but it had been set so high that it only let in a sliver of light.
The room was about medium-sized. Big enough for six or seven people to come in and throw a dance party, if they wanted. There was a ladder chained in place, a desk, and a side door at the back. And what I could see was...
"Mmph.... (I’m screwed.)"
Tooth extractors, clubs, blades, and on the desk, a knife-like tool and a syringe that looked similar to surgical instruments. There was even a chair that looked like the kind used for operations in a hospital.
Damn it. These blades are supposed to be considered filthy, so hardly any fairies even want to make them, and these bastards went all out?
They were planning to squeeze me dry properly. There were still bloodstains on the floor that hadn’t even been wiped away. Damn it, now I’m feeling sick again.
This was probably the final stop for debtors who hadn’t paid back what they owed. They’d either have their mana drained out of them until the end, or be sold off to nobles with terrible tastes.
So I should probably get out of here as fast as possible...
Fortunately, the door locked from the inside. In other words, if I could somehow get these ropes off, I could get out of the room. And luckily, there were plenty of blades here.
"Mmph... mmph...!"
Wriggling my body as best I could, I rubbed the rope against one of the blades lying on the floor.
"Mmph....!! (Got it....!!)"
Maybe the edge had been sharpened really well, because after a few rubs, the rope was cut clean through. These fairies were strangely sloppy.
"Phaa... all right, I’m alive now, at least, but..."
After removing the gag tied around my mouth, I fell into thought for a moment.
No matter how I looked at it, there was no way the people who prepared all this would be this sloppy. They’d probably been kidnapping people and handling things right away until now, so they never had time to worry about details like this.
Then there must be some reason for it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have needed to bind me up so carefully; they could have just restrained me in that chair.
Either way, this was a chance. I didn’t know exactly where I was, but there was no guard inside this room. So first, I picked up one of the blades on the floor and pressed my ear to the iron door to listen for sounds outside.
............
Clang...
...thud
"Wha... is goin’ on?!"
"My lord... this damn...!"
"...Hey!! Right now... everything’s screwed...!!"
"Catch them all...! Defy...!"
"...Oh? I don’t know what’s happening, but something’s broken out..."
What I could hear from outside was shouting, things breaking, people getting hit, and the clatter of doors opening and closing.
From the sound of it, it seemed like some huge brawl or something had broken out. In that case, the story changes. Opening the door and walking out now would be dangerous.
Click, click...
This was a melee. It had the feel of a chaotic street fight, and going out in the middle of it would be risky. I could get clipped by a stray fist or club.
And just then, I heard the sound of a door being opened with a clatter. Then I should wait. From the sounds of it, this room’s door would be opened soon too, so I could decide then whether to go in swinging or not.
My hiding place was behind the door, a perfect position for a surprise attack.
...thud...
Clang...
Clack...
Clang...
Clang.
It opened...
The clattering sound came closer and closer, and before long, the door to the room I was in opened. And stepping quickly inside was...
"Ah, Capris! I found you!!"
"...Baban Si?"
Click, click...
Baban Si came into the room with a relieved smile, holding a lockpick in one hand. ...Huh? What is going on here...?
"Um... so... could you tell me what exactly is happening right now? I get that some kind of brawl is going on, but..."
"Ah, yes! Well... this place is a secret hideout for the loan sharks, and at the request of the Grimalkin lord, the Queen’s knights came and are arresting them."
".....Huh????"
My head couldn’t keep up, and it couldn’t make sense of what I was hearing.
Wait, I can understand that the loan sharks brought me here. But suddenly? The Grimalkin lord told the Queen’s knights about this?
Wasn’t he the one who’d been turning a blind eye to the loan sharks’ activities?
Click, click...
"No, no, hang on. Even if that’s true, how did they find this place, and how did you come here with the Queen’s knights?"
"Ah, that’s..."
...Suddenly, Baban Si fell silent. And only then did I notice the tear stains around her eyes.
...I didn’t know what had happened, but it was probably best not to pry. It must have been something very painful for her.
"Well then, can I leave now?"
"Ah, yes! Everyone staying here and the others have already been subdued and taken away by the Queen’s knights! And this was the last room! So if you just go out now..."
Click.
At that moment, before Baban Si could finish speaking, the side door at the back of the room opened with a click, and in that instant...
"Duck!!"
"Huh? Eek?!"
Whiiish──!!
With a sharp sound, an arrow flew over the two of our heads.
Damn it. If I hadn’t ducked, that would have hit me for sure...!!
"Tch... damn it, I missed...!! Was the one who made this thing incompetent or what...?!"
And then the fairy who appeared behind them was a loan shark fairy, pressing a towel against the bleeding wound on his head while aiming a crossbow at us.
This loan shark fairy, who was probably more familiar to Baban Si, was currently on the verge of losing his mind.
Suddenly, the lord who had been covering for their activities had stabbed them in the back, and their activities—in other words, human trafficking—had been reported to the Queen.
So the Queen, having heard the lord’s petition, had immediately sent the fairy knights to wipe out the criminal organization, and from what I could hear, the other branches had all been raided too, with people being executed on the spot or taken to Camelot.
Damn it!! That wasn’t why I’d fed that lord so much money!!! Just how much did he run his mouth for them to deal with him before he even had a chance to expose him?!!!
Dammit, but I’m lucky. I’m thorough. I prepared well. See? Even those fairy knights didn’t know about this side door, did they?
All I have to do now is take down those bastards glaring at me like that, undo the chain holding the ladder, and climb out through that window. Then I’m out...!! There’s a river outside. Those bastards will just think I drowned!!!
"So, in other words... you bastards who know I’m still alive can just die alreadyyyy!!! I’m running out of time hereeeee!!!!!!"
With a wild shriek, he tried to fire a second arrow he had reloaded at a speed too fast to see.
But then,
Kwaaaang────!!!!!!
"Heeheeheeheehee!!!!! I have now transcended even Her Majesty’s lawyyyyy!!!!!!!"
"Aaaahhh!!! Hand over our bossssssss!!!!!!!"
The fairy mage, with a fish-shaped pastry in his mouth, burst in through the wall with a deafening crash.
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