“I see. I’m afraid I’ve never seen these faces before. Please understand that since they are not bounty hunters, we cannot offer a bounty.”
Ryuho and his men, the vigilante group’s men, came to the place where I had them locked up with my closure skill.
Ryuho looked at the slave trader’s face and immediately said he didn’t recognize him.
“Well then, we’ll take care of the rest.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave them to you.”
For a start, these slave traders would now be judged, and I decided to deactivate my closure skill and leave them to it.
For now, I thought this was the end of the matter and decided to go to the street where the vegetables and fruits were sold, which I had originally intended to go to.
“Alex. If you want to buy crops, you can go to the stalls around here-pon.”
“Okay. Let’s look around a little bit.”
I was looking at the stalls that Mami showed me…
“Father ……”
“Yeah, it’s all right. I’m aware.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s probably one of the vigilantes from earlier. He’s not that powerful, and I’m sure he’ll be easy to talk to.”
Feeling eyes on us, I picked Mami up and runs into the alley with Tsuki, quickly ducks and grabs the arm of the man who hurriedly chases after us.
“Hiii!”
“You’re the one who was with Ryuho just now, aren’t you? What do you want from us?”
“P-Please wait a second! I’m not from the Ryuho Faction! I was just ordered to follow you! Please spare my life ……”
“Ryuho Faction? What is that?”
Even though I only grabbed his arm, his face changes into a horrified expression and even begged for his life.
I wonder if he thinks I’m a monster or something else.
…… At any rate, according to him, the city’s vigilante group is divided into three factions with three deputy heads.
One is the Julie faction, which gives top priority to protecting the people of the city, and the other is the Ryuho faction, which gives priority to making money for the members of the group.
And the remaining faction, which does not belong to either faction, is the do-it-yourself faction.
“And you don’t belong to either of them?”
“T-That’s right. And Ryuho asked me to find out who you are, because you are not even part of the vigilante group and you are powerful enough to defeat these thugs with your bare hands.”
He …… is not lying, it seems.
On the bright side, I think they want to recruit us for the vigilante group, but I don’t think that’s the case.
“Heh, I didn’t know that-pon. So, you have a completely different attitude toward people.”
“If Mami doesn’t know, does that mean his story is a lie?”
“Wait a minute-pon. I’m just helping Julie, so I’m not a part of the vigilante group-pon. So I didn’t know about the internal troubles.”
I see. So, Mami was hired by the vigilante group to fight the Red Dragon.
Perhaps it was only those who agreed with Julie’s idea who tried to get rid of the Red Dragon, even though it was called a vigilante group.
“U-Um …… can I go home now?”
“…… If you can swear not to follow us in the future. We have nothing to hide, but it is not pleasant to be followed. If I see you again, I’ll make sure you can’t move again, okay?”
“Y-Yes! I will never do it again!”
He appealed with teary eyes, so I let go of his arm and he ran away with tremendous momentum.
…… The fact that his arm looked as if it was hurting was quite an exaggeration.
“Seriously, what’s his deal-pon?”
“Who knows. For now, let’s resume the research we were originally going to do on this town. First, let’s look at the vegetables …… Hm?”
“Hmm? Alex. What’s wrong-pon?”
“No, it’s a very weak force, but it looks like someone’s hitting me …… So, that’s what it is!”
“W-What’s wrong, Pon? Holding me all of a sudden …… It’s really embarrassing to do it in the middle of the city-pon. Let’s do it at Julie’s house-pon.”
“What are you talking about!? Anyway, can you run, Tsuki!? We’re going back to that girl’s house quickly! Mami, please show us the way!”
“What!? T-Then, go right at the next crossroads, then …… Y-You’re too fast-pon!”
After all this time, I now know why that man was following me earlier.
That guy, Ryuho, is with the slave trader …… or he is freeing him for money or something.
The only reason I felt like I was hit all of a sudden was because I had not deactivated my paladin defense skill and that girl had been hit.
It was an attack that wasn’t so much of a damage to me …… but still!
I ran, guided by Mami, who clung to me, and in front of the house we had just left, a carriage was parked.