I was vigilantly standing by on the tree for a few hours. As expected, it was finally time for the watchmen to change shifts. It would be too risky to make my move from here. After the attack, I transformed into the watchman and waited around the area for my station to be relieved. The other person wasn’t suspicious of me at all. It seemed that I could sleep for the next five hours. In other words, I was free to move around among them for the next five hours.
“Then, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Yeah, we’ll be rich when all this is over.”
It would be good if that’s the case …. Otherwise, I would send all of you to the land of the radish familiars.
With a brutal status disparity with the radish familiars in their homeland, harsh labor would await day and night making it utterly impossible to enjoy happiness. Speaking of which, the only consumable food would be the carcasses of the radish familiars. They tasted good and are rich in vitamins but lacked basic nutrition. Ultimately, nothing but death would await!
*It depended upon individual imagination and impression.
After receiving permission from my comrade, I returned to the group of criminals with a dignified attitude. The negotiation between Iris and the chief criminal was still progressing. It was a bit too far to identify the chief’s face. Currently, confirming Eliza’s safety took precedence than identifying his face. There were several armed men gathered in one place. It appeared that the hostages were being gathered there.
I was approaching where they were. A man that seemed to be a comrade thought my approaching to be suspicious.
“What? Aren’t you taking a break?”
Uh-huh, these guys took their work very seriously. How unfortunate they were kidnappers.
“Which hostage was cuasing a ruckus?”
“Huh? Didn’t you see it, too? It’s that woman.”
The criminal pointed to a woman whose hands and feet were bound, and whose mouth was gagged. That was Eliza in the flesh! It was you after all. Eliza seemed to be tired and quite offended, but no apparent injuries. I was glad she was unharmed.
The hostages were being guarded by a total of five watchmen. I could beat all of them if I tried. There were a total of about ten watchmen on the lookout. The rest would most likely be sleeping.
“How long have the negotiation been going on? I’m tired already.”
I showed my frustration to my comrade, so as not to sound unnatural.
“Leave it to the boss. You should rest. When you wake up, you’ll be taking over my post.”
“I’m so frustrated, you know. I only cared about the money here. Why is it taking such a long time?”
“Calm down. You’re tired. Go take a rest.”
I scowled at the hostages, then at the comrades as well.
“Argh! So frustrating!”
I scratched my head, kicked hard on the ground, and punched a nearby tree.
So troublesome! While mumbling those words, I entered the encirclement, where the hostages were held, and pretended to fall asleep.
“Hey ….”
Expectedly, my comrades let me be and held back in giving me advice to not aggravate me even further, since I displayed such blatant irritation. I led them to assume that I was tired from lack of comfortable rest, just like everyone else.
All right, was it about time to call the plan a success?
All hostages were helpless with both of their hands tied. After I stormed into the encirclement, everyone kept their distance from me to prevent being unnecessarily burned by my raging frustration.
That was also convenient. I pretended to be restless in my sleep to the extent that it wouldn’t raise suspicion, and then gradually rolled over closer to Eliza.
After rolling close enough to where Eliza was, I whispered a word for her to hear.
“Don’t turn around. It’s Kururi Helan. I’ve come to rescue you.”
“… Hmmph.”
A slight voice leaked out from her gagged mouth. She started to fumble.
“Don’t move. It’d be bad if we were found out.”
She stopped.
Quietly lined up on the ground were a bearded kidnapper, who was pretending to be asleep, and a tightly bound noble’s daughter.
“Did your memory come back? I remembered a few more. It doesn’t change the fact that I still hate the woman named Eliza Deauville, but Eli is a different story. I can’t afford to harm Eli.”
“… Ugh.”
She appeared to be complaining about something, but I wasn’t about to listen to it.
“After this, I’m going to annihilate the five criminals who are standing on watch around here. I want Eliza to protect the hostages. Is there anything in your memory that would be useful for battle?”
After thinking for a moment, Eliza nodded.
Why should a noble’s daughter like me fight?! Undoubtedly, she must have been thinking along that line. But for the time being, she would cooperate in order to be saved. After all, Eli had a ferocious side. To a certain extent, Eliza’s fighting power could be relied upon as well.
“I will slash the ropes that bind your hands and feet. That would be the signal to start.”
She nodded again for consent.
I had been on the verge of becoming an autonomous lord. Since the feeling was surging forward, I thought that my sincerely long-time held wish was about to come true. However, life had a different plan. It caused a troublesome incident like this to occur.
Rahsa had been reminding me to have more self-awareness that I would be an autonomous lord someday. However, all that could very well be annihilated. Then I should do it. I took a deep breath. I started kneading some mana.
A surprise attack had to be executed in an instant. Focus, focus. I created a blade of flame. With it, I immediately cut off Eliza’s restraint. Eliza and I rose to our feet. Showing a strong-willed face, Eliza stood in front of the hostages. That should be enough work for her.
I zapped towards the kidnapper that looked most skilled from behind him and pierced through the chest with the blade of flame. The remaining four criminals were stunned and took the counteroffensive. Due to the difference in ability and superiority compared to the one I incapacitated, they were swallowed entirely by my blade of flame before any one of their swords could reach me.
I released all the restraints of the hostages.
Excluding the watchmen on the lookout and the chief criminal, five men were still resting. I thought of disposing them, but rescuing the hostages was the top priority, after all.
I used dragon wave to give Poobe some instructions. If Poobe could convey my intentions to Rahsa’s dragon, then his dragon to Rahsa, the Iron Heat Corps would be mobilized immediately. Ergo, the ten watchmen at the perimeter would soon be annihilated.