Chapter 20 (1/2)

Volume 1

Chapter 19

「Operation Commences」 Part 2

After the ninja girl left, I took a look behind the desk she originally came from . There was a small stone trapdoor opened under the desk .

There was a strong looking lock rolling around next to the door, having failed its purpose .

Peeking inside the door I found a small storage area, that contained a box full of metal ring and documents .

Apparently it was some kind of safe .

The heavy sack she was carrying might have been filled with the money . But judging from her demeanor and appearance, she only did this to cover up her true intentions here as a robbery . It’s not like I can condemn her anyway because I take money from bandits .

I didn’t know what she was looking for, but it didn’t seem like it would hinder our operation . Based on the parting words she left anyway . There seem to be two more elves trapped in the feudal lord’s castle . That would mean that the elf hunting had been authorized by the feudal lord himself .

If it’s true, then I’ll have to tell Ariane about it .

Once this rescue was done we might have have to infiltrate the lord’s castle .

While contemplating that, I pick up one of the parchments from the safe . Removing the bindings from the documents, the contacts turned out to be a sells reports .

The amount on the contract was insane, it exceeded well over 10,000 suk .

The 10,000 gold price tag was the cost of the elves being sold here .

There were six more contacts just like this one, seven in total .

The contracts included the names of those that had already been auctioned off . They also had the names of the buyers as well, so it might be possible to track down the elves that had been sold .

Still, elf slaves seem to be sold at outrageous prices according to this contract . I wonder why there was such a high demand for men though?

I shoved the seven contracts into my luggage sack before putting the ten metal rings in after them . I wrapped the rings in a cloth and put them in a leather pouch to prevent them from jangling about .

The owner already has cold feet so he won’t mind .

Once the safe was cleaned out, I took a look around the flashy room that reeked of flamboyance, but most of the stuff was on the bulky side .

Since my business here was done, I decided to prepare for the other two to join me a little early . I grab the key hanging on the door and unlocked it . Once they were done checking the rooms on each side, they should be heading here .

After a while, Ariane and Danka entered the room quietly and quickly closed the door .

“I only found a few small fry in the rooms, how about you?”

“There was nothing in particular in mine . ”

Both got result that they weren’t happy about .

After hearing Danka’s answer, Ariane’s golden eyes were questioningly pointed in my direction .

“I gained some information . The captured elves are probably being held in the underground dungeon . There is also this . ”

I pulled the parchments I got from the safe out of my sack and handed them  to Ariane . She looked at it them with suspicion for a moment before she opened one and glanced over the contracts . Wrinkles started to crop up on her forehead .

“This……!”

“Those are the elves sale contracts . Since the names of the buyers are written down in several places, you should be able to use it as a clue . There’s more, apparently there are two more elves trapped in the feudal lord’s castle . ”

“Where’d this information come from……”

Ariane looked up and glanced around the room as she asked that . The bodies inside the room have already become cold, and the boss was nothing more than a ornament for the desk now .

She judged that they were the source of the information . The source of the information is a trivial matter, what’s important now is that we need to move quickly .

While I trusted the words of the ninja girl…… it was merely based on my own intuition . Perhaps, it’s better to let them develop their own conclusions here .

“Once we’re finished here, we’ll head over the feudal lord’s castle .  Hiring you was the right decision……, normally it wouldn’t be easy to sneak into the castle . ”

She laughed while saying that and rolled the parchment back up before returning it to me .

“To think that the feudal lord was involved……!  The elders have to be informed of this when we return . ”

Danka raised an eyebrow as he spit out that comment .

Judging by the amount of money involved in the elven slave trade, wealthy nobles and merchant must be apart of it; has my workload been increased?

I suppose I could collect some extra income from the feudal lord’s castle……

“If our brethren are in the underground dungeon we have to go there at once .  After that, the feudal lord’s castle . ”

Danka nodded in agreement at Ariane’s words and left the room . I follow behind Ariane and Danka using 【Dimensional Step ]to prevent my armor from making noise .

We descended the stairway through the second floor to the first floor’s central hall .

The disarray of the tables and chairs gave the hall the atmosphere of a pub, in fact there were even a few bad men hanging around . Fortunately they haven’t noticed us yet .

Once Ariane gave the “fall back” gesture, we quietly returned to the second floor .

“As expected, it’s impossible to reach the dungeon from here without being noticed . I’ll take care of the ones on the first floor, while you two deal with the reinforcements from the second floor . ”

Both Danka and I nod at the suggestion, and Ariane pulls out her sword and focuses on the stairway to the first floor .

Then she leaps out in a flash .

From the the top of the stairwell, she leaped out with sword in hand; the gathered men were shocked at this occurrence .

『─Dance within this blade, flame─ 』

After she chanted in a low voice, flames started to run down the blade of her sword . The man she cut upon landing with the sword of fire, no only let out a spray of blood, but also had red flames wrap around his entire body and set his clothes ablaze .

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”