Chapter 3 (1/2)

Volume 1

Chapter 3

Rio walked along the winding street before turning into a hidden path . The path led directly to the red light district1 .

Following the main road in the red light district, he saw many soldiers looking awfully busy .

The red light district’s main street was located closer to the slums than the market and commoner district’s main street .

When the day turned into night, the streets became overflowing with prostitutes and men trying to buy their bodies .

Sweet voices calling out and negotiations being made could be heard along the street .

Public order in the red light district was surprisingly good due to nobles being among the many customers soliciting the area’s services .

Only upstanding brothels were permitted to operate in most of the Kingdom .

The few doing operating illegally situated their business near the slums .

Rio was heading to that part of town .

Upon arriving, the sounds of competition between legal brothels immediately ceased, replaced by an eerie silence . Not a single person could be seen .

It was in such a place that Rio was passing through .

There were no good feelings associated with that place .

It took him less than a minute to arrive in the slums .

“Get lost!”

Then, Rio bumped into trouble .

A little distance from him were four rough looking men wearing leather armour with cheap swords strapped to their waists .

The four men gave off the feeling of hoodlums .

An awful lot of noise was coming from the direction of the thugs . Two of the men were carrying large sacks on their shoulders .

One sack moved as if a large animal was inside .

“What’re you doing!? Where’re we going!? Who are you!? Let me out! Don’t think things will end like this! Father won’t forgive you! I’ll send all of you flying!”

Glancing at the noisy bag and the appearance of the shady men, suspicion arose in Rio’s mind .

The voice of a young girl could be heard from the noisy sack .

“Che— she regained consciousness . Shut up! Quit fussing around!”

Loud voices could be heard from the dubious quartet .

The bag instantly slightly shook and shriveled .

“Idiot! Watch your voice!”

“Ye-Yes . Sorry aniki2 . ”

The way the loud man was apologising suggested that aniki’s position was quite high .

It seemed that aniki was also the group’s leader .

“Che— for 10 gold coins this bag is awfully suspicious but this job is really profitable . ”

The one referred to as aniki frowned while clicking his tongue . Judging from his expression, the baggage was proving to be very troublesome .

“Hehe, but 10 gold coins is really an unbelievable reward . With just this, we can spend 10 months drinking and playing around with women . ”

All the underlings were smiling, their faces full of lust .

The leader was not disturbed at all .

In this country, one gold coin was enough to feed a common family for two months .

By the way, if he remembered correctly, the exchange rate for money was 100 copper coins for 1 silver coin, 50 silver coins for 1 gold coin, and 25 gold coins for 1 mystic coin .

“What kind of person’s inside? Based on the size and weight, I’d say it’s a girl . ”

Unable to contain his curiosity, one of the men carrying the sack asked the leader to check what was inside .

“Maybe it’s a merchant or noble’s daughter… Oi, open the sack!”

Curiosity getting the best of him, the leader displayed a vulgar grin and ordered the sack to be opened .

“Are you sure?”

“Hmph, that man never said we couldn’t open the sack . And we need to find out if the contents are worth more than what we’re paid for . We’ll request another payment during the handover . ”

The subordinates cheered hearing those words while the leader snorted .

“You, watch the surroundings and don’t let anyone come near . Well I doubt anyone’ll come to this place anyway . ”

The leader ordered the man to set his bag on the ground . The man who was ordered from before had a “Let me see her face too” expression on his face .

But in Rio’s eyes, the lackey’s vigilance was extremely sloppy .

“Well then…”

After confirming their surroundings, the man placed the sack on the ground and roughly opened it .

“Kya!”

With a thud, a soft slender limb was exposed, together with a scream coming out from the young lady in the sack .

“Hehe, now we can enjoy a young woman to ourselves . ”

Smiles crept onto the sketchy quartet’s faces after hearing the young lady’s cream .

They leisurely unfastened the ropes binding the sack .

Only 10 seconds were needed to finish the deed .

After seeing who emerged from inside the bag, the men leaked voices of admiration .

What they saw was a young girl around the same age as Rio .

Silky violet-blonde hair, purple coloured irides, and a determined expression; the charming girl had the appearance of an angel .

Due to her features and attire, she exuded the atmosphere of a high class individual .

Possibly she was the daughter of a noble .

Her exceptional beauty mesmerized Rio in an instant .

There was no mistake; a noble’s daughter had just been kidnapped .

But for what reason? For such important cargo, they would not be handed over for transportation to some hooligans .

Rio was speechless and had no idea what was going on .

It was safe to say they must have received inside help from guards of the noble’s house .

“Ah— Curiosity killed the cat huh? This is bad… we may have overstepped our boundaries . ”

The leader nervously scratched his head with a difficult expression painted on his face .

They must have understood what it meant for them to kidnap the girl . They finally realised the gravity of the situation .

“Well good thing we only carried them this far . After reaching to our destination, let’s ask for additional payment . C’mon, let’s go! We gotta finish this quickly . ”

The criminals’ plans continued along with the girl’s misfortune .

Being glared at by the goons, the young girl tightly shut her eyes .

“Well come on . Quietly get back in the sack again . ”

“NO!

!”3

The young girl raised her hands up and recited something . Something started coming out from the palm of her hands .

However before the phenomenon of magical power could be converted into a magic spell, the girl received a sharp kick from the leader .

“Agh— gah ho…”

Rio was startled witnessing the young girl being blown away .

At the same time he was fascinated by the magic she was about to release .

Rio could only use his magical powers for body and flesh reinforcement while that young girl was doing something else entirely using an unknown technique .

Before the magic discharged, something resembling geometrical patterns floated in front of her .

“Che, that was a close one . I let my guard down . To think she’s a magic user, as expected of a noble’s daughter . ”

The unfamiliar word “magic” reached Rio’s ears .

“Uu~…”

Looking at the young girl clutching her stomach in pain, one of the hoodlums opened his mouth .

“E~tto, she’s not dead yet right?”

“It’s alright . She’s still moaning in pain . ”

“We don’t know if they’ll give us our payment for damaged goods…”

“Ah? Ah, well we’ll know at that time comes right?”

The leader’s outrageous conduct made his underlings tremble in fear . They responded by giving him troubled smiles .

From their conversation, they were a bunch of worthless people .

(What should I do…?)

While suppressing his impatience, Rio pondered at the question .

The young girl would not die from only that level of a kick .

But at this rate, she would be abandoned .

Or he could head over and provide her some assistance .

But that was easier said than done .

There were four opponents, based on Rio’s estimations they were no threat to him .

Still, even with his abilities he was not had doubts he could flawlessly defeat all of them .

Moreover they were all armed while he was unarmed .

His opponents would not hesitate to kill him .

Even though Rio practiced ancient martial arts in his previous life, he had never once taken a person’s life .

In other words, Rio had to fight barehanded against a group of four armed men who had experience in committing murder .

Furthermore, if he was slashed by one of those cheap blades, the injury would most likely suffer an infection .

Rio was strongly against killing other humans .

He recalled the words of his grandfather who was also his master .

If he remained in his position, the scene before him would soon disappear .

But the incident would not end just like that; the young girl would be moved somewhere against her will .

Rio heard from rumours that some brothels in the area sometimes held sadistic events where people gathered and tortured young girls .

There was a chance the girl in front of him would be sent to one such place .

However the incident unfolding before him had nothing to do with him .

Hiding and watching the group depart the area would leave a bad aftertaste, but there was no need for him to risk his life for a complete stranger .

Really? Was that really okay?

While Rio was mulling over those matters, by coincidence, it really was a coincidence, one coincidence on top of another, the girl’s line of sight matched Rio’s .

Noticing him, her face distorted in fear and anger . Seeing that, Rio felt he could no longer run away .

Another man came over with a sack .

The man suddenly started moving; he focused his line of sight on the young girl and let go of the sack .

“Ah!”

With a thud, a soft resigned voice resounded from inside the sack .

“Kya~”

From inside the bag, a young girl similar in age was kicked letting out a similar voice .

“Che— Oi, she’s not injured right?”

In a tired voice, the leader asked the man carrying to sack to verify the content’s safety .

With an evil grin, the subordinate opened the bag to confirm .

They were distracted, it was now or never .

(Damn it all!)

Rio wrapped his entire body in magical power in an instant and launched himself like a bullet . No other human being his age would be able to achieve the same speed .

He was shocked at the acceleration and resistance he never felt before . Even with his flesh reinforced, his body was still that of a child’s and should not be able to produce something to this extent .

Success of failure would be decided in an instant so immediately Rio seized the initiative .

“Na?”