"Pauline will probably say something like, 'It's my personal matter,' but now that it's come to this, it's a problem for all of us. Besides, even if this attack hadn't happened..."
"We are comrades bound by the soul..."
"Yes, by the 'Red Oath'!"
Mavis and Mile continued Reina's words.
Thus, while Pauline was away, the three of them decided that they would intervene in Pauline's family affairs, that this decision was made as the 'Red Oath,' and that even if Pauline opposed, they would enforce it as a 'majority decision.'
And so, the interrogation of the bandits began.
The three who had been turned into torches were restored by Mile to a state where they could at least talk. The more interrogators there were, the higher the chance of discord among the bandits.
"...First, are you active hunters? Or ex-hunters who have been expelled?"
As Reina asked, Mile was playing with a fireball and a red water ball on the palms of her hands. It was a magic she had developed with Pauline, so of course, Mile could also use 'Ultra Hot.'
While the men shuddered at the sight of Mile's hands, they thought.
Their weapons and armor had been taken, they were tightly bound, and reinforcements would arrive in a few hours to escort them. They would not be released until then. Even if they were released and their bodies were free, three of their companions were in no condition to fight. There was no way they could win in this state, when they hadn't even been able to win in a fair fight.
The men resigned themselves to the fact that retaliation was impossible and thought that their only option was to try to reduce their punishment. They might be spared the gallows, but the worst-case scenario was a lifetime of hard labor in the mines as criminal slaves. Of course, 'a lifetime' wouldn't be very long...
However, if things went well, they might be assigned to easier work or be released after a few years with a 'fixed-term punishment.' If they were lucky, they might get away with just having their hunter qualifications revoked. If they could somehow pin all the blame on the client and claim that they had just accepted the job without knowing the details and had been deceived...
It was a claim that wouldn't hold up if they thought about it, but the men had no other choice but to bet on it. They had no choice but to try to win some favor, no matter how small the hope...
To make the girls feel some sympathy for the bandits who had attacked them.
It was a futile attempt.
And so, the men's confessions began.
"We, we still have our hunter qualifications! We're all C-rank..."
The interrogation, which continued until the escort carriage arrived, revealed that the men were active C-rank hunters who, despite being in their late thirties, had almost no savings and, in an attempt to get a substantial amount of money before their physical decline forced them to retire, had taken on illegal jobs outside the guild.
It's not that working outside the guild is illegal; it just means that if something goes wrong, you can't get help from the guild. What's illegal is the content of the job.
Various illegal requests, such as murder, kidnapping, and assaulting a woman to break up a marriage. This time, the request was from a father who wanted his daughter back, which was relatively normal among illegal requests. However, the method was brutal, as it involved hurting the daughter's friends.
According to the men, they thought the client wouldn't care about the details as long as the goal was achieved, and they only intended to threaten the girls and give them a little pain, not to hurt them too badly. Whether this was true or not was questionable...
The men insisted, "It's true! That's why I talked so much! If the client was the friend's father, I thought you wouldn't report it to the guild or the guards, and you wouldn't get involved with him again... I thought I was doing you a favor! If we hadn't taken this job, a real criminal would have taken it and things would have gotten much worse..."
It was a reasonable argument.
However, the nasty, lecherous grins on their faces at the time. If that was an act, these guys could have made a living as actors.
What was confirmed again was that the request came from the head of the Beckett Trading Company, which had its headquarters in the capital of the Boardman Viscount's territory, four days' travel from the capital, and that the head, Pauline's father, was also issuing various illegal requests through back channels, making a lot of money despite his flashy operations without being caught.
"Please, please, try to put in a good word with the guild and the guards! We really only intended to give a few hits! In fact, we didn't even touch you, and the request was from a father who wanted his daughter back, which isn't that strange a request, right? We're fellow hunters, help us out! You'll end up taking jobs outside the guild too when you get older and have no savings and are worried about your future! Come on, really, please help us..."
"It's not that you didn't touch us, but that you couldn't touch us, right?"
"Also, the first simultaneous attack on me was clearly a lethal attack, right?"
"We can't defend you because we don't know the truth. We'll just report the facts as they happened, so you'll have to defend yourself to the guild and the guards. We're not the ones who decide the charges and the punishment."
"Th-that's..."
The men looked desperate at Reina, Mavis, and Mile's matter-of-fact responses.
"If what you say is true and can be proven, your punishment might be lighter. That's good, isn't it? It looks like you'll get off with a light punishment..."
Mile smiled sweetly.
Of course, it was a sarcastic smile. She seemed to be genuinely angry, which was rare.
"Y-yeah, I'll give an accurate and detailed testimony about the speed, strength, and trajectory of the swords that were swung at me by two people at once, so you can rest assured."
Mavis was also angry, angry...
"Then, let's have some tea while we wait for Pauline to bring the carriage."
At Reina's words, Mile and Mavis nodded.
Pauline returned with a carriage and several mounted riders around noon.
Considering the travel time, the time it took to explain the situation, and the time it took to arrange the carriage and personnel, it was on the early side.
"Mavis, are you okay, okay!"
The first to jump out of the arriving carriage was Euan.
"Little brother..."
Mavis smiled wryly as Euan hugged her.
Seeing this, Mile and the others thought,
((He's not rejecting him...))
"You, you tried to harm Mavis!"
The men, questioned by the noble-looking young man, hastily tried to explain.
"N-no, we just tried to intimidate her a little..."
"What! You tried to intimidate Mavis? ...That's a hanging offense."
"EEEEEEEEEE!!!"
Mile and the others watched as Euan and the other hunters and guild officials who got off the carriage with Pauline greeted them and loaded the bandits onto the carriage.
"By the way, why weren't you at the inn this morning, little brother?"
"I went to the guild first thing in the morning to deliver a letter to Father that I wrote last night. When I got back to the inn, Mavis was gone, so I rushed to the guild... I had no choice but to wait for Mavis to come back at the guild, and then I heard that woman, who was Mavis's escort, telling the guild people that 'Mavis was attacked'..."
He seemed to have stumbled over his words at some point, but his rude tone didn't change.
And he said 'Mavis' was attacked, not 'Mavis and the others' were attacked. The others didn't seem to matter to him.
"S-so that's how it was..."
Mavis, who was slightly bowing her head and fidgeting, was actually ashamed of having doubted her brother for a moment and felt guilty towards him, but Euan, who didn't know this, thought, 'She's blushing because she's happy to see me! How cute!'
"Mavis, guh!"
Euan, who tried to hug Mavis again, was stopped by the three, who were finally getting annoyed, and groaned as his neck was squeezed.
As the four of the 'Red Oath' walked alongside the slowly moving carriage, they discussed what to do next.
"We're going, to Pauline's family home."
"Eh..."
"Why are you surprised? It's only natural."
"B-but, it's my personal matter..."
"Sure, as expected..."
Reina's response to Pauline was so predictable that Mile and Mavis couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"Eh..."
Pauline, confused by this, let out a puzzled voice.
"To begin with, your father hired those guys..."
"Eh? The head of the company is not my father?"
"Wh-what?"
"I said in my first introduction, 'I am the daughter of a mistress of the Beckett Trading Company, a medium-sized merchant.' I never said the head of the company was my father, did I?"
"Wh-what!?"
The shocking truth was revealed.
And the story of Pauline's family was told.
Pauline's parents ran a store.
The family consisted of kind parents, Pauline, and a younger brother two years her junior, four in total.
The store was of a decent size, and in addition to a few key servants, including the head clerk, it employed many apprentices, stable boys, and porters. The father, who was sweet to his wife and children, was a solid businessman who did not engage in shady deals, and perhaps because of his character and the trust he earned through honest business, the store was doing well. Until that day...
One night, thieves broke into the store.
The thieves tied up Pauline's family and the night watchmen, stole everything from the safe, and then killed only Pauline's father before leaving.
Then, to the grieving Pauline's mother, the head clerk handed a piece of paper.
A 'Store Transfer Document'
It was a document transferring the entire store to the head clerk in the name of her husband.
It was impossible. Everyone thought so.
However, the authorities recognized it as valid, and everything became the head clerk's property.
The old-time assistants who protested were fired, and the head clerk's cronies were hired to fill the gaps.
Then the head clerk told Pauline's mother.
If she didn't want her children to end up on the streets, she had to become his mistress.
And the mother accepted it.
When Pauline, who heard the story, harshly criticized her mother, the mother said,
"My role as his wife is over. My duty now is to raise his children well as a mother. And when you two come of age, that's when..."
The mother said with a ghastly smile,
"I will fulfill my final duty as his wife again..."
And so, Pauline devoted herself to training and studying.
The head clerk, now the head of the Beckett Trading Company, would surely sell her to a noble or somewhere else as a gift when she came of age.
She would escape just before that, gather money and power for a counterattack, or try to be sold to a place with as much power as possible, ingratiate herself with the master, and incite him to take back the Beckett Trading Company. For that, she needed to increase her value. Fortunately, she had a talent for magic. She would develop this talent. She also needed knowledge about business. And a heart of steel.
Thus, the timid, kind-hearted girl who had lived a carefree and happy life, surrounded by her family's love, disappeared, and a wolf was born. A wolf in sheep's clothing...
This happened when Pauline was twelve years old.
"..."
The three were speechless.
Then, Euan, who had been listening to the story, muttered.