Chapter 33 Ban finally reveals his true color
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
Leo and Cassandra went shopping until nightfall.
Realizing that it was already dark, they went straight towards a nearby restaurant to eat their dinner.
This time, nobody bothered to interrupt Leo and Cassandra's dinner.
Afterward, they came to the branch of Sword and Magic of the Blacksmoke City to meet up with Claude and the others just like what was said to them.
Arriving at Sword and Magic, Claude along with some soldiers was currently standing outside as if waiting for someone. His face was also incredibly ugly, evidently showing something bad had happened.
"Hey Claude, what happened?" Leo asked as he approached Claude.
"Dandelion is currently missing!" Claude directly stated the reason behind his ugly expression.
"What?! Did the search already start? When did they last saw her? When did she suddenly disappear?" Cassandra started asking after finding out that Dandelion was missing.
"Yes, we already started searching!" Claude nodded his head. "David, Hannah, and Ban have been looking for her ever since we found out. I have also already ordered the other soldiers and mercenaries who came along with us to help, too,"
"When did this happen?" Leo inquired.
"It was this afternoon when we noticed that she didn't stay with the group. But we simply thought she only went shopping alone. However, Hannah suddenly found Dandelion's things measly scattered near a blacksmith's shop when she was currently walking around the blacksmith district,"
"After some investigation, she realized that something bad must have happened to her right after we separated. So, at this moment, we are only speculating the worst possible situation; she's been kidnapped by someone..." Claude said giving them a general idea of what had happened after Leo and Cassandra went to their shopping.
Leo quietly wore a serious expression after hearing what Claude had said.
"Are David, Hannah, and Ban searching with a team?" Leo suddenly asked.
"No..." Claude responded, but he abruptly stopped as he realized something.
"Fuck... That was such a stupid thing to do!" Claude cursed out loud before turning around, wanting to ask someone to remind everyone to move in teams.
Moving alone was such a dangerous thing to do right now since they still didn't know what the kidnapper's intention was. Claude really can't believe that he had forgotten about such an important matter in this sort of situation.
"Wait, don't report it yet! I feel like someone is working for those kidnappers within our group." Leo said quickly, stopping Claude from informing the others.
"What do we do, then?" Claude asked, feeling helpless at the current situation. Although he was a Mage and from one of the five major Noble Households too, it still doesn't mean that he has knowledge and experience in every kind of situation. In fact, he hadn't even yet experienced a situation like this before that's why he had forgotten such an important detail of moving in groups to search around.
"Did you assign them to a specific area to search?" Leo motioned Claude to come closer before asking.
"Yes!" Claude replied as he took out a map and showed it in front of Leo, "David is searching to the north of the smithing shop where Dandelions things were found, Hannah to the west, Ban to the east, and the other soldiers spread to the south."
Leo quietly paused for a moment, thinking of an idea. After a few seconds, he suddenly went to grab the map from Claude's hand as he said silently to the latter, "You go and look for David, while those others looked for Ban. I and Cassandra will look for Hannah, and let's gather afterward to look for Dandelion together. By the way, specifically don't tell anyone the reason why we are looking for them..." He quickly explained his plan.
After Leo finished explaining, Claude nodded his head as he called out to the others who were waiting with him at the side. After telling them about the new plan that they will go look for Ban, they then swiftly depart the place.
Leo and Cassandra also followed behind, since it was much easier to get to the smithing shop that Dandelion had gone missing by simply following them.
Soon, all of them finally arrived at the smithing shop where Dandelion was suspected to be kidnapped.
Claude nodded his head towards Leo before moving to the north. The other with them also moved to the east, while lastly, he along with Cassandra moved to the west.
Running around to the west, it didn't take long for Leo and Cassandra to spot Hannah, who was currently being chased by a bunch of people in a tight black outfit. Without wasting time, he immediately took out his bow and began shooting those people behind her.
With the assistance of Hannah's Magic spell, Cassandra fighting in close quarters, and Leo providing support with his archery skill, they finally killed all the pursuers.
"Thank you!" Hannah expressed gratefully while still trying to catch her breath.
"What happened?" Leo calmly asked the panting Hannah.
"While I was looking around for clues to where Dandelion could be, I was suddenly surrounded by a group of people. At that moment, I realized that these should be the people who had kidnapped Dandelion, and I thought of defeating them to ask about Dandelion's whereabouts. But, there were unexpectedly just too many of them, so I could only helplessly run away while fighting. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that I was already starting to get tired, and my ability to cast Magic spells was starting to get slow. Hence, I could only helplessly run away from the remaining people..." Hannah explained after finally being able to catch her breath.
Leo nodded his head, seemingly getting some sort of clue as to who was behind all of this.
"Let's go look for Claude!" Leo said before going back to where they came from. Hannah was already with them, so they needed to meet up with Claude to proceed with the next step of the plan.
Arriving at the smithing shop, Claude and David were waiting for them.
Claude nodded his head to Leo as they started moving to the east, where Ban was assigned to search.
Since Ban was still nowhere to be found, they needed to go looking for him to proceed with the next part of Leo's plan.
But to their surprise, Leo and the others started seeing a few wounded soldiers.
Claude hurriedly went to help the soldiers while asking them what happened to them.
"Sir Claude... Ban suddenly attacked us..." One of the soldiers said, evidently struggling due to his injury.
Realization instantly dawned upon Claude as he understood that Ban had betrayed them. He called out to Hannah and said, "Take them back to Sword and Magic!"
Hannah nodded her head immediately before starting to assist the wounded soldiers.
"I had always thought Ban was up to something no good with those despicable eyes he always wears. Did anyone of you notice at that time when we were fighting against those bandits, that he was obviously not putting much effort into protecting our fellow soldiers and mercenaries? He was just letting them suffer and die!" David said, feeling angered by Ban's betrayal.
"Let's go and find him as fast as possible before his other fellow kidnappers can do any harm to Dandelion!" Claude said as his eyes turned icy cold. He started running deeper to the east.
Leo, Cassandra, and David immediately followed along.
Along the way, the soldiers that Claude had ordered to look for Ban could be seen fighting with some unknown group of people in an open field.
Putting his hand in front, Claude closed his eyes and concentrated as he began gathering Mana around the air. Not long after, a magic circle made out of Mana that he had gathered appeared in front of his palm.
"Meteorite Flame!"
Tens of balls made of fire shortly appeared out of thin air.
With a wave of Claude's hand, the flaming balls shoot directly toward the unknown group of people.
*Boom! *Boom! *Boom!
Dozens of small explosions echoed out as the flaming balls hit their target.
The people who were hit by the flaming ball were directly sent flying away, as scorching burned marks appeared where the ball of flame had hit them.
After knocking out most of the unknown people, Leo and the others dashed forward to where they suspected Dandelion was being held hostage.
Running for a while, their group finally found an abandoned warehouse, evidently the hideout of the kidnappers as they spotted more kidnappers than they'd encountered along the way specifically protecting this place.
When Leo and the others appeared near the abandoned warehouse, a scream full of pain echoed loudly inside.
It was Dandelion's voice, and it sounded like she was being tutored...
Leo and the others didn't hesitate and rushed inside.
Along the way, they encountered some kidnappers who tried to block their path, but they were quickly sent out flying by David's Mana Sword, a basic spell that Mages learned at an early stage.
Arriving inside the warehouse, Leo and the others instantly saw Ban trying to seemingly rape Dandelion, who was currently being tied to a chain.
Dandelion's face at this moment was covered in tears and her eyes were in full despair. Her clothes were already ripped into pieces, revealing bluntly her white skin, breasts, and some of the lower part of her body.
While massaging Dandelion's breast, Ban abruptly turned around as he sensed that he had company around, "Oh, you have finally arrived? Tsk, I thought I could still taste her body. Too bad..." He shook his head as if feeling helpless that Leo and the others had arrived.
"By the way, who was able to find out that it was me?" Ban said as he put back his clothes. He was truly curious as to how he was found out that quickly. He could confidently claim that his plan was foolproof because he didn't leave any clues to point to him and he was also with them the entire time during and after Dandelion was kidnapped. So, no one should have thought of suspecting him at all.
That's right, Ban's plan was indeed so well constructed. No one would have deduced that it was him in a short amount of time. In that given time frame, he would have more than enough to play with Dandelion and allow his men to escape away from the place with her while he returned to the group and pretended that he found nothing.
However, out of nowhere, Ban suddenly found out that some people were looking for him. He wanted to know how he was found out, and who that genius that has found out about his bright plan, too.
Leo let out a short laugh as he said, "You found yourself!"
"What do you mean?" Ban asked, feeling confused.
"Oh, What I meant to say is, it was you that pointed yourself as the man behind the kidnapping!" Leo said mockingly as he shook his head.