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Chapter 136 – First errand 3
136 First errand 3
“Huh
? Who is that child?” The five children who returned were between the ages of 10 and 13-14, three boys and two girls.
“You’re wearing nice clothes
 Why is this girl here? Hey, Sherry, if you are not careful, people would think we kidnapped her, everyone might become a criminal slave, why didn’t you stop her! Who brought her here!!?”
The eldest boy, who seemed to be the leader of this group, yelled at them, but the girl, who seemed to be the eldest of the stay-at-home group, Sherry, shook her head.
“
She came by herself. It’s a ‘child of this side’.”
“Eh
?”
The leader boy was flabbergasted, but Sherry should have understood such a danger. And although the child’s clothes and pretty face and limbs were higher quality, the rest was generally the same as everyone here. Her face that mixes well with the rest is not looking down on everyone, and it gives the feeling that we are standing on an equal footing.
“
But even if this kid is fine, if her parents complain, it’s over. It’ll be a scandal, so there’s a possibility that people will think we kidnapped her
”
“She has no parents, and the person who picked her up told her to come here.”
“



”
After hearing Sherry’s story, the leader boy said, “So apparently, the ‘person who picked her up’ doesn’t want to hang around with fleas and lice, huh. It seems this person has no intention of taking care of this child.” It was an unavoidable thought.
“
I see. I’m Malloy, and I’m the one in charge of this place. Come visit us anytime!”
After thinking for a moment, the leader boy called out to Riette-chan, apparently, he accepted her.
And after playing with all the orphans for a while, seeing that the elders started preparing food, Riette-chan seemed to have decided to withdraw.
“ I’m going home for today, thank you for playing with me!”
Saying so, Riette-chan left the place. She probably thought that if he stayed here any longer, the orphans would share what little food they had with her, and she felt very sorry for that
 Or did she just think that the meal Kaoru made was much better than the unsavory meal here?
“Huh? Eh?”
By the way, Sherry, who was thinking, ‘She has nowhere to go’ said, with a bewildered voice, was left behind by Riette-chan who simply went back home

*　　　　　*　　　　　*
“
those are my thoughts, Yuta, Roche, Sherry, they’re all good people!”
“Umu, good job out there, Riette-chan. Keep it up tomorrow too!”
“Yeah!!”
*　　　　　*　　　　　*
“So, how was it, Francette?”
“Yes, she was having fun playing with the orphans. Nothing has changed, and according to Emile’s research, everyone seems to be quite sincere considering their circumstances
”
“Thank you
 Well then, shall we finish this tomorrow? After that, it’s up to Riette-chan to go play at her own will regardless of her duties. It’s not something that I’ve ordered her to do but what she wants to do
”
“Ehh
”
Francette had a gentle look in her eyes.
To tell the truth, Francette, someone who is so serious, inflexible, and has a stubborn character, wasn’t hated by any means, but she didn’t have any friends that she could open up and talk to. Besides, it’s not like she has bad eye for people

*　　　　　*　　　　　*
Then, the next night, Kaoru said “Those kids have passed. It’s decided they’re qualified to help me if something happens, so the investigation is complete. You can always play with those kids.” After hearing Kaoru’s words, Riette-chan’s face lit up, and after that, she began to visit the orphans by herself from time to time.

Of course, at that time, Francette and Emile were secretly serving as escorts.
That overprotective Kaoru wouldn’t let Riette-chan go out alone.
And today, it was Francette’s turn to be the escort.
As usual, Francette is sitting on a tree branch that has become her usual spot.
It seems that Emile also uses the same place, and each of them has made adjustments to make it more comfortable, such as a protrusion for hooking a water bottle, and a branch that has been shaved to make it easier to sit.

It’s like a “secret base” made by a child.
“When the season changes and the leaves begin to fall from this tree, we will have to find another monitoring location.” A good place where the cold wind doesn’t blow in as much as possible

“Uh
 No, my stomach
”
Francette is a knight. So, in the past, during meals or doing other businesses while doing escort and security missions you could switch temporarily with someone else. Apart from that, she wasn’t on the mission alone, and it was normal for a replacement to be on standby.
Yes, unlike ninjas, they weren’t trained to not eat, drink, or go unclean during missions, so they needed to rehydrate and excrete aside from eating.
And that’s what she’s done several times during this mission as well.
“Because it’s a riverbed, the visibility is good, and there’s no shade nearby
”
Muttering so, Francette headed to a place a little further away.
No matter how old you are, especially when you are becoming middle aged, and even though she has done it many times in outdoor activities, as expected, it was a bit embarrasing in places where there was a possibility of being seeing
 especially the “big one”
But at this moment, Francette wasn’t worried about the orphans at all, and she thought it wouldn’t matter if he left the guard station for ten or so minutes. ‘Kaoru is abnormally overly anxious’, she thought.
“Yeah, the same ‘you’ll regret later due to naive thinking or carelessness’ as always
 “
*　　　　　*　　　　　*
“Here she is!”
When Riette-chan was playing with the young orphans of the stay-at-home group as usual, two adults approached her, and when they said that, they suddenly rushed over to her.
“Start attack!”
The leader of the group who stayed behind, Sherry, shouted without hesitation, and the orphans who heard that cried out and squatted down, clutching a suitable size stone in both of their hands. After throwing the stone with the right hand at the adults with all their might, they switched the stone with the left hand to their right hand and threw it again.
Crouch, pick up a stone, throw it twice, and crouch again.
The six orphans other than Riette-chan kept throwing stones over and over again, as if they had trained many times
 no, they were actually training
 It’s a riverbed, so there’s no trouble replenishing stones.
“Kidnapping to make them illegal slaves or play things.”
“Or just for fun, torturing and killing like a game.”
In preparation for those damages, they probably practiced many times. It was a fairly well-coordinated attack for young children, between the ages of 4 and 8.
“There’s no way people of this age can match an adult’s legs even if they run away.” Kidnappers will easily seize and carry off any targeted child. That’s why they decided to bet everything on stone throwing, as even a child’s strength could beat an adult depending on where they hit. Anyway, even if it fails, the number of people who can be caught will not increase. One adult can only hold one child, and it would be difficult for one adult to hold down two children.
“Damn you guys!”
The thrown stones hit the adults many times, but because they cover their heads with both arms, if they hit their limbs or torso through their clothes, the strength of a young child could break an adult. I couldn’t put out enough power to make him faint. 
it was enough to inflict considerable pain, but
 the distance wasn’t that great, the rushing adults quickly reached the children and punched and kicked them with all their might, depriving the children of their combat power in an instant.
It wasn’t deadly, but it was clearly an excessive attack for a young child, as it could have broken bones and other after effects if done poorly. With this, even if you take a lot of trouble, the value will drop significantly, too shallow for a kidnapper.
Riette didn’t participate in the stone-throwing, so she wasn’t beaten and she just stood there dumbfounded.
“Okay, we’ve dealt with the obstacles. Well then, let’s catch the prey for the request!”
At this point, Riette-chan finally noticed.
The purpose of the adults is not the orphans, but herself.
It’s true that I’m wearing the best clothes, clean, and likely to sell well.
In that case, they narrowed down the prey to the one who is likely to sell for the highest price among the all of them. So it doesn’t matter if the other children die or get seriously injured. That’s why they punched them with all their strength and kicked them away unnecessarily strong just to avenge the pain suffered from the stone throwing.
“Grrrrrrrrrr
”
Riette-chan bared her fangs.
That’s right, the fang that bit Francette’s neck before and dealt a big blow