"Who's the leader here?" the black haired prick called coldly. It was easy to sense the hostility and contempt in his tone.
As such, Karl felt no need to be respectful to him if he was going to belittle his men.
"I am, though what business do we have? I don't believe we have met before," Karl spoke, hoping to get an explanation of some sort. Karl wasn't the commanding officer of this endeavour, but he was by far the most accepted leader.
Arrogantly striding up to Karl, the ostentatious prick said some rather random statements.
"If I remember correctly, the slave trade is illegal, no?"
"It is indeed illegal," Karl didn't get where this was going. Despite having a last name, Karl was not a member of the upper class and couldn't understand deep noble euphemisms. At most, he could guess that the prick was saying he was a slaver, but that most likely wasn't the case. He was clearly a member of the Moonshine, and the wagon was even marked as a prisoner wagon.
This guy must be here to stir some kind of trouble.
…
"Oh, so you recognise that then you should be repenting, no?" Yamada spoke mockingly at the group of slavers.
"What are you on about?" Karl growled. Heh, smirking, Yamada felt like he busted his guise, making him lose his composure.
"If you don't release the captives, then I'll have to get rough with you,"
"We don't have any captives pal, but if you're referring to the prisoners, then I'm gonna have to stop you th-"
Ignoring the rest of the generic bad guy's lines Yamada cut him short and gut punched the leader. This was going to be his first real taste of combat, and he wasn't going to miss it! Some easy slavers to start off, before eventually facing tougher foes.
Drawing his sword Yamada taunted him. It was a silver broadsword, with a faint pinkish hue, showing its affinity toward the stars. As a reward for sparing the head knight of the Royal Knights, he gained the Heroic Sword Arts skill. A sword art fit for the Hero, that would evolve to become stronger in respect with his own growth.
"What's the meaning of this?!" one of the slavers yelled out toward the Night Knights rather than Yamada.
"Sir. Hero, my apologies for interrupting you, but can I ask why you are assaulting them?" one of the Night Knights questioned Yamada for the poor slavers.
"I believe it is obvious, I am removing crime from the Kingdom," He spoke in a know it all tone.
All the Knight could do was back off, they were all given explicit orders not to annoy the Hero and to fulfil his wishes to their best degree as long as it did not cross the line. Beating up the guards didn't cross the line but it didn't mean the Knight felt it right to just let it happen. But he could only hope the poor guards could defend themselves well enough.
…
As a result of sucker punching the most reputable and respectable man among them, the prick might as well have signed his own death warrant. Everyone's vigour was restored as they all drew their weapons and moved toward him.
"You're gonna pay you bastard!"
"You messed with the wrong people, you prick!"
Okay, the things they were saying were cheap villain lines, but they were without a doubt the poor, innocent victims here.
A group of guards surrounded Yamada as they attacked from all sides, however, his System supported swordplay managed to fend the lot of them and as he parried with his right hand, he threw a condensed essence ball with his left. Causing a detonation of fire and wind to blast away half of the encirclement. Taking care of the mobs, he stared at the elites that finally made a show.
One of them was draped in black as he held a scythe with a white bird on his shoulder, the other held daggers in each hand and was of abnormally high stature. Without a doubt those two were villains, and they seemed to be the leader of this motley group as well. Judging by the cultist looking fellow, there must be a secret organisation behind these slavers conducting illicit activities in the dark.
Rushing toward the prick, Jeffrey swung his scythe outwards, in an attempt to get a quick hit on him. It was back stepped away from, however, Savage wasn't just sitting still, he got behind the prick and jabbed a dagger at his waist while the other slashed at his shoulder joint. Though the cheap daggers only left but a mere scratch on the expensive armour.
Turning around the assailant diagonally slashed down, only to be put caught by Savage's daggers and keeping them both locked in place for a moment, but that moment was enough for Jeffrey to sweep the hero's legs from beneath him using the scythe, and layer numerous combination attacks as he lay defenceless on the ground. Savage wasn't idle either as he dished out a beating on the prone hero.
Being experts at kicking a man when they're down -literally- the hero wasn't given a chance to retaliate or even get up for that matter. To make the situation seem worse, even the bird was having a go at pecking at the hero.
But Yamada wasn't going to continuously take this beating laying down! Charging up essence he let it explode on himself, forcing the elites to back off.
Spitting out some blood, he raised his hand as the fundamental essences gathered toward it. The beat hero still had some fight left in him, not that Jeffrey or Savage were really intending to kill him. Trying to intercept, the ball Lily launched dozens of small star essence based attacks, but it was unsuccessful as the Hero threw the condensed pile of essence in his hand, lobbing it near the prison wagon.
"Oh shite!" Karl exclaimed. Was that his goal all along?!
However, it didn't do too much damage to the wagon, only damaging the exterior walls allowing the prisoners to easily exit if they put a bit of force against the wall.
Noticing this opportunity the convicts didn't let it escape, pushing past the wall and attempting to flee. But the guards standing around weren't going to allow that. While Jeffrey and Savage kept the hero busy, the guards tried to apprehend the convicts.
"Help me out here!" Yamada called out toward the Night Knights.
This put the Knights in quite the bind. Before they were just watching this show unfold, but now that they were being called into the play, this raised a couple of questions.
Should they take the Hero's side, when he was clearly releasing criminals and beating up the law enforcers? Or should they do the objectively and morally correct action of helping out the poor guards and restrain the Hero?
Each action had its own consequences.
If they helped the Hero, they would gain his favour, but their reputation would be in tatters from beating up their own allies and allowing wrongdoers to move around freely.
Whilst, if they helped the guards, they would incur the Hero's dissatisfaction, however, they would be more ethical in the eyes of common folk, upholding their reputation.
A truly difficult choice.