I cut the string of the girl I saved and she hugged me, thanking me.
I told her to go home without deactivating my defensive skill because there might be someone still hiding, and she ran happily away.
“Alex …… you did something pretty bad-pon.”
“Hmm? What is?”
“…… Are you saying that Father is wrong!? I won’t let you go depending on how you answer.”
While calming Tsuki down, who is probably seething with killing intent because of the battle, Mami tells the rest of the story.
“This leader-like man is a slave trader-pon. I also want him to disappear emotionally …… but in this town, slave traders have an unspoken agreement, or rather, they pay taxes on behalf of houses that cannot pay taxes, so the lord can only turn a blind eye to them.”
“Is that normal in this country?”
“I don’t know that much-pon. But at least in this city, there are rumors of dark guilds, slave traders, assassins, and the like running amok.”
“So they can only turn a blind eye …… I’ll ask Julie about the vigilante group’s perspective later.”
Once we decided to return to Julie’s house…
“Um …… thank you for saving my daughter.”
A woman who appeared to be the mother of the girl we had just met came out and bowed her head.
When I asked her about the story, she told me that her husband had been injured and was unable to work.
Anyway, after I healed his injuries with healing magic, then she went out of the house…
“Oh, um, thank you for everything that you did done for us. But we don’t have anything to thank you with ……”
“No, this is just another chance of fate, so please don’t worry about it.”
“A-At least let me use my body ……”
“It’s okay! Seriously, it’s okay!”
The woman started to say something strange, and Tsuki’s face became grim again.
“Y-You already know that kind of thing at that age, you are a precocious child, aren’t you? If that’s the case, I’d be happy to come over to your house at night ……”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
After assuring the woman that she did not need to thank me, I dragged the men who had been beaten to a pulp and left unconscious, and gathered them in a little far away place…
“[Closure]”
I used the skill Mio gave me to lock the men in.
“For the time being, let’s hand these guys over to the vigilante group. We don’t know if Julie is awake now, so can you take us to some kind of vigilante group’s office?”
“…… Okay-pon. But don’t get your hopes up too high-pon.”
We went to the building marked “Vigilante Group,” wondering what Mami’s words meant.
The building was smaller than I had expected, but I put that aside and went to the reception desk.
“Welcome. How may I help you?”
“We caught some men trying to kidnap a child, and we were wondering if you could take them in.”
“You mean you caught bounty hunters?”
“I don’t know if they are bounty hunters or not, but they were trying to kidnap a girl right in front of us.”
“…… Please wait a moment.”
The woman at the reception desk disappeared into a back room with an extremely troubled look on her face and returned a short while later.
“Thank you for waiting. Please come this way.”
When I went to the room I was led into, a thin man stood up…
“I am the Deputy Head, Ryuho. I heard that you defeated the slave traders and saved the girl.”
“I’m Alex. That’s right, I just happened to run into a group of about ten men who were about to take the girl away, and I rescued her.”
We greeted each other and started talking.
“Well, thank you very much. However, if the man is a bounty hunter, we can give you the bounty, otherwise, it is hard for us to do anything. May I confirm who this slave trader is, first of all?”
“Of course. My skill is keeping them in place, so it would be great if you could bring a few people to help carry them. Also, I didn’t save them for the bounty, so I don’t need those things.”
“That would be very helpful. Then I will bring some of my men with me.”
“Please …… by the way, you said Deputy Head, does the Vigilante Group have more than one Deputy Head?”
“Yes. There are currently three Deputy Heads. Do you know any of them, by any chance?”
“No, I’ve just heard rumors about them. I just thought it was a good opportunity to ask.”
After that conversation, Ryuho said he was going to bring someone with him and left the room.
He was polite, but somehow untrustworthy …… I had that impression of him, so I kept my mouth shut about Julie, but I wonder if my guess was right.