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chapter 55




After the three men fell ungracefully to the ground, I ran over to Grulf and Milka.
“Ar-are you alright? Mister Locke?”
“Grroof-groof!”
“I’m fine. I am an Adventurer. An F rank Warrior.”
“That’s amazing!”
Milka sounded very impressed.
She probably had no understanding of the rank system.
Grulf was licking my face, and so I patted him on the head.
In the meantime, Serulis and Luchila caught up with us.
Serulis understood the situation immediately and began to tie the three men up with practiced precision.
Luchila was looking around us cautiously.
“Mister Locke. Will you hand these men over to the authorities?”
“Should I call them for you?”
“Well, yes. I will hand them over, eventually…”
I asked Milka,
“So these are the money lenders who took your house?”
“That’s right. They took the house and…uh, there was something about renunciation of inheritance? And I was supposed to be free…”
It was best to renounce your inheritance if there is nothing but debts.
That way, she would have no responsibility to pay off her grandfather’s debts.
In other words, there was no basis for these men demanding any payment from her.
Still, that would not matter if Milka had money.
These thugs operated in the underworld, and they would break the law in order to get their money back.
However, Milka was clearly just a child with no money at all.
Even the money that I had given her to buy the tools was little more than a child’s allowance.
It was not enough for money lenders to take on the risk of having broken the law.
It was all very strange.
I looked around us. It was a back alley, and so there were not many people here.
However, just to be careful, I relocated the thugs to an abandoned shed.
“I’m going to ask them a few questions before handing them over.”
“How will you do it?”
“Like this.”
I used the Illusion spell that I had learned from Luchila.
These thugs were very low in magic ability, so they were very susceptible.
The illusion I showed them, was of five very strong-looking men.
I used Goran as a model for their build. Because Goran looked strongest out anyone I knew.
As for the faces, I based them off the most evil-looking face I had ever seen.
It was a little difficult to make each person look unique, but I did my best.
As soon as the thugs awakened, I began to threaten them.
“Hey, you bastards! It seems like you’ve been interfering on our turf.”
“Ah!”
Being surrounded by a group of such frightening men was enough to make the thugs squirm.
“How are you going to make it up to us? Eh?”
“These must be the guys who have been going around like they own the place.”
“They must be. We should cut their fingers off and send it to their base.”
“Ah, that is a great idea. It would be a good warning.”
This was to make the thugs think that we were from an opposing faction.
“No-no. Listen to us.”
“Eh?”
“We are working for Kabino, who lends money in the third district.”
They explained desperately. Thankfully, that was just the information that I wanted.
However, I continued to trick them.
“You must be lying to me! Why would Kabino’s underlings be wandering this area!”
“These guys must think very little of us.”
“We should cut off one of their arms to make their position a little more clear.”
“That’s certainly an idea.”
The worst of the illusions pulled out a short sword.
The thugs were sweating profusely now.
“It’s true. We aren’t lying.”
“We were looking for a young girl in order to retrieve her grandfather’s debts.”
The frightening illusion continued to intimidate.
“Now you are just talking nonsense. This granddaughter is merely a child.”
“I understand your meaning. But children can be tricked and be worth some money!”
“You wouldn’t get a whole lot through tricking a child. You better start telling me the truth!”
“We weren’t going to make the child pay. We would sell her. There are secret routes that pay very well.”
“Oh. And do you do this kind of business often?”
“I know what you are thinking. You’ve never heard of this, have you? Well, it is an operation that Kabino is attempting to start, so it is no wonder.”
“Attempting? So no children had been tricked just yet?”
“Ah, not yet. But we have our eyes on many children. Perhaps there will be some work for all of you as well.”
These were some hopeless scum. I would have to crush not just them but this Kabino as well.
The only good thing about all of this was that it hadn’t started yet, and no children had been harmed.
The illusion pulled out a club.
“It looks like I won’t be able to let you live after all.”
“What?”
The thugs looked shocked as the illusory club came down on them.
“GHAGH!”
“GYEAGH!”
“GOGHH!”
As it was an illusion, there were no visible wounds. However, the pain was felt.
This continued for some time until the thugs became unconscious from the agony.
“Now…we can hand them over to the authorities.”
“Aren’t you going to go and defeat this Kabino?”
“It might be better to let the authorities handle it. What do you think, Milka?”
“Huh? Oh. But also… What was wrong with these men anyway?”
Only the thugs had been able to see the illusions.
And so to Milka, the thugs had seemed to become talkative out of nowhere.
Not only that, but they had suddenly started howling in pain before passing out. It would have been very surprising.
“They must have been on some dangerous drugs.”
“Is that so. How terrifying.”
Milka said believingly.
After that, I, Serulis and Grulf, each carried one of them in order to turn them in.
As Serulis was the daughter of Lord Morton, I let her do the explaining.
Serulis gave a proper account of Kabino’s plans as well, so I thought that everything should be fine.
I thought this, but the officials looked a little troubled.