At the Northern Fort

They were a couple who seemed more refined compared to the youths of a farming village, but were otherwise dressed in a rather ordinary manner.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

The woman pulled the man's sleeve, but the man shook her off and said-

"I came up with a good idea."

"A good idea?"

The man picked up me, who was directly in front of him, in a rather rough manner.

"I'm sure that these guys are the pets of some rich household. Otherwise animals like these wouldn't be dressed in such clothes."

"So?"

"You idiot, use your head! We kidnap these two and then demand ransom in exchange for them!"

Seeing such a normal-looking youth that didn't particularly seem like he'd do such abominable things spout such words surprised me a little.

Although the ones we wanted to abduct us were a different bunch.

"But, isn't that a crime?"

"If we do it well, then we won't get caught. And once we get the ransom we'll be able to pay off our debts, right? If we do that then we'll be able to get married."

"Marry!? Really!?"

The woman who didn't seem terribly on-board with the plan up until then instantly showed some eagerness at the mention of the word 'marriage'.

You know, from what I can see, this kind of man seems like the sort to go back on his word in the end and not end up marrying you. He stinks of the scent of a loser too.

"That's why you should help too. For the sake of our future."

"Alright!"

The woman's eyes were sparkling. The both of them were a hopeless couple.

While they weren't complete villains, they were a bit disappointing.

"First we gotta identify their owner. Oi, you there, black one. Guide us back to your home."

The man spoke to Kugalg while still carrying me crudely underneath one of his arms.

I couldn't really hate him after seeing him seriously trying to talk to an animal, but right now his actions were an incredible nuisance.

Even though we looked like this, we were currently in the middle of a very important mission.

Kugalg suddenly crouched down, putting strength into his legs, and then in the next instant, he had jumped to the man's chest in one breath.

"Woah!?"

And then, he gripped the man's clothes with his claws so as to not fall down.

The man tried to rip Kugalg off him, but his claws just dug in deeper and deeper.

"Ow ow! Wai-, it seriously hurts……!"

Kugalg's claws are thicker and bigger than a cat's after all, I thought to myself detachedly, still held underneath the man's arm.

It was hard to feel any sense of danger from this couple.

"Kyaa!"

Then, the woman that had been standing behind me let out an abrupt scream.

She was pointing at my bunny rucksack with a pale face.

"A-A snake……!"

Father's snake had poked its head out from the gaps of the rucksack, causing the woman to shriek upon seeing him.

However, the man who had noticed the snake as a result of her scream showed an even bigger reaction.

His jaw dropped so far down it made me concerned as to whether or not he would dislocate it by accident as he shouted.

"UWOOooAHHHH!? I…really can't deal with snakes! Seriously…..!"

"Ah, eh? Really? Hey, wait!"

The man flung me away as he ran off. Seeing that, the woman chased after him in bafflement.

"……ow!"

I collided against the ground, falling on my back. However, since Father's snake, which burrowed itself back into the rucksack, acted as a cushion, I didn't get injured.

Before I noticed, Kugalg had separated from the man and came towards me.

"Are you okay, Milfee?"

"Yeah."

What the heck was with that couple?

"Let's head back to the main road."

The enemy might not have realised that we were here, so I figured that we should once again head out to a more populated place. That was when it happened.

Four men started to walk down the alleyway towards us from the direction that the couple had run off to.

Three of the men were completely dressed in black, with a piece of cloth concealing half of their faces.

The remaining man had a sort of hoodlum-like feel to him, and he was dressed sloppily in gaudy clothes.

While the black-cloaked men had a rather brisk walking style, the hoodlum-like man didn't have such refined movements.

(They've come!)

I recognised the black-cloaked men.

They were the enemies that we had been waiting for!

"You stand guard at the front of the building."

"Yeah yeah."

One of the black-cloaked men gave the hoodlum-like man an order.

The hoodlum-like man stood in the entrance of the alleyway and glared at the main street.

"Kyun kyun!"

I reflexively ran towards the three people that were approaching us.

Geez! You're so slow! We almost got kidnapped by the wrong people!

The three black-cloaked men expressed bewilderment at my sudden familiarity with them as they exchanged glances amongst themselves.

"Is someone carrying food on them?"

"No, I'm not."

"I don't have any on me either."

One of them pulled down the cloth covering their mouth and asked, but the other two shook their heads.

"Is it really a spirit?"

"There's no doubt about that."

"It's like a dog that's used to humans."

While saying such rude things, one of them took out a folded up burlap sack.

"To begin with, I've been thinking about this since Gouda, but what's with these outfits? What the heck are Cromwell and Gauss thinking? Making spirits wear such absurd clothes like this."

"You can see how dumb they are from it."

What did you say!? -for a moment, I was about to raise my voice in protest, but when I heard their next words, the desire to do that vanished.

"If it were Captain Sarrell, then he would've prepared more elegant clothing."

Reacting to that statement, the ears underneath my hood perked up.

Captain Sarrell!? Just now, you said Captain Sarrell, didn't you!?

As expected, these black-cloaked men were Captain Sarrell-san's subordinates.

Meaning that since we pretty much knew the true identity of the mastermind behind everything already, we might as well drag out the person himself.

It wouldn't be too late to run away after bringing Captain Sarrell-san to a point where he can't make any excuses to get away.

"It's not just this absurd clothing. I can't believe that they'd let child spirits walk around town all on their own. Isn't Cromwell too careless?"

A serious-looking person with a sharp look in his eye said.

"Gauss is with them, you know. That person respects a person's autonomy, and he also lets his subordinates do as they like. That's why he's letting these spirits do as they like. He doesn't realise how it'd be better if he did what Captain Sarrell would do, placing strict restrictions to restrict their movements."

One of the people whose face was deeply concealed within his black hood gave a sarcastic grin.

Could it be that these people are following Captain Sarrell-san's orders voluntarily?

Since Captain Sarrell-san was in a position of authority where they would have to obey any orders he made, I had assumed that they were following his orders reluctantly.

"I'm sure that's how it is. Commander Gauss is the overly optimistic sort after all."

The last man, a short statured and meek-looking man, gave a faint laugh.

Aren't you looking down on Commander-san a bit too much? Despite how he looks, he's put a lot of thought into things, you know!

"Now then, hurry up."

After the sharp-looking person said that, the meek guy opened up the burlap sack.

"Will they go in obediently? We mustn't treat the child spirits too roughly……"

"Hmph, leave it to me. I had a dog when I was a kid, actually."

Saying that, the hooded person extended a hand towards me.

But it seemed like he was a bit nervous.

"Don't struggle. You better not struggle. If you stay still, then I won't hurt you. Don't go calling your parents either."

Even if you don't act that cautiously, I won't call Mother, nor will I move.

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