「Operation Commences」 Part 2
After the ninja girl left, I took a look behind the desk she originally came from. There was a small stone trapdoor opened under the desk.
There was a strong looking lock rolling around next to the door, having failed its purpose.
Peeking inside the door I found a small storage area, that contained a box full of metal ring and documents.
Apparently it was some kind of safe.
The heavy sack she was carrying might have been filled with the money. But judging from her demeanor and appearance, she only did this to cover up her true intentions here as a robbery. It's not like I can condemn her anyway because I take money from bandits.
I didn't know what she was looking for, but it didn't seem like it would hinder our operation. Based on the parting words she left anyway. There seem to be two more elves trapped in the feudal lord's castle. That would mean that the elf hunting had been authorized by the feudal lord himself.
If it's true, then I'll have to tell Ariane about it.
Once this rescue was done we might have have to infiltrate the lord's castle.
While contemplating that, I pick up one of the parchments from the safe. Removing the bindings from the documents, the contacts turned out to be a sells reports.
The amount on the contract was insane, it exceeded well over 10,000 suk.
The 10,000 gold price tag was the cost of the elves being sold here.
There were six more contacts just like this one, seven in total.
The contracts included the names of those that had already been auctioned off. They also had the names of the buyers as well, so it might be possible to track down the elves that had been sold.
Still, elf slaves seem to be sold at outrageous prices according to this contract. I wonder why there was such a high demand for men though?
I shoved the seven contracts into my luggage sack before putting the ten metal rings in after them. I wrapped the rings in a cloth and put them in a leather pouch to prevent them from jangling about.
The owner already has cold feet so he won't mind.
Once the safe was cleaned out, I took a look around the flashy room that reeked of flamboyance, but most of the stuff was on the bulky side.
Since my business here was done, I decided to prepare for the other two to join me a little early. I grab the key hanging on the door and unlocked it. Once they were done checking the rooms on each side, they should be heading here.
After a while, Ariane and Danka entered the room quietly and quickly closed the door.
"I only found a few small fry in the rooms, how about you?"
"There was nothing in particular in mine."
Both got result that they weren't happy about.
After hearing Danka's answer, Ariane's golden eyes were questioningly pointed in my direction.
"I gained some information. The captured elves are probably being held in the underground dungeon. There is also this."
I pulled the parchments I got from the safe out of my sack and handed them to Ariane. She looked at it them with suspicion for a moment before she opened one and glanced over the contracts. Wrinkles started to crop up on her forehead.
"This...!"
"Those are the elves sale contracts. Since the names of the buyers are written down in several places, you should be able to use it as a clue. There's more, apparently there are two more elves trapped in the feudal lord's castle."
"Where'd this information come from..."
Ariane looked up and glanced around the room as she asked that. The bodies inside the room have already become cold, and the boss was nothing more than a ornament for the desk now.
She judged that they were the source of the information. The source of the information is a trivial matter, what's important now is that we need to move quickly.
While I trusted the words of the ninja girl... it was merely based on my own intuition. Perhaps, it's better to let them develop their own conclusions here.
"Once we're finished here, we'll head over the feudal lord's castle. Hiring you was the right decision..., normally it wouldn't be easy to sneak into the castle."
She laughed while saying that and rolled the parchment back up before returning it to me.
"To think that the feudal lord was involved...! The elders have to be informed of this when we return."
Danka raised an eyebrow as he spit out that comment.
Judging by the amount of money involved in the elven slave trade, wealthy nobles and merchant must be apart of it; has my workload been increased?
I suppose I could collect some extra income from the feudal lord's castle...
"If our brethren are in the underground dungeon we have to go there at once. After that, the feudal lord's castle."
Danka nodded in agreement at Ariane's words and left the room. I follow behind Ariane and Danka using [Dimensional Step ]to prevent my armor from making noise.
We descended the stairway through the second floor to the first floor's central hall.
The disarray of the tables and chairs gave the hall the atmosphere of a pub, in fact there were even a few bad men hanging around. Fortunately they haven't noticed us yet.
Once Ariane gave the "fall back" gesture, we quietly returned to the second floor.
"As expected, it's impossible to reach the dungeon from here without being noticed. I'll take care of the ones on the first floor, while you two deal with the reinforcements from the second floor."
Both Danka and I nod at the suggestion, and Ariane pulls out her sword and focuses on the stairway to the first floor.
Then she leaps out in a flash.
From the the top of the stairwell, she leaped out with sword in hand; the gathered men were shocked at this occurrence.
『─Dance within this blade, flame─ 』
After she chanted in a low voice, flames started to run down the blade of her sword. The man she cut upon landing with the sword of fire, no only let out a spray of blood, but also had red flames wrap around his entire body and set his clothes ablaze.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
As the man's death throes filled the the large hall, sounds of activity from other rooms on the first floor and on both sides of the second floor could be heard.
As his body was roasted by the flames, the man fluently rolled about between the table and chairs. A few of the near by men tried to put out the flaming man, but Ariane simply attacked them with her flame sword causing the fire to get even larger.
Danka came out of one of the rooms on the second floor and started to kill men that were trying to reach the first floor, with a sword covered in light. From this side it looked like a dance where no one was fit to partner with Danka.
I recall that the elves were a group that specialized in magic, but seeing the swordsmanship these two, I may have to rethink that assumption.
Since the men coming out of the farther back rooms could see what was going on, they tried to take another path around Danka, but I fired off [Rock Bullet]at each of them. Rocks the size of fist not only tore new holes into the men but also into the wall behind them.
The guards listening to this outside could join the battle at any moment.
Using [Dimensional Step], I transfer in front of the front door and lowered the large bolt on the door to prevent anyone from getting in or out. None of these people here would ever leave this place alive.
"You bastardddd!!!"
A man trying to raise the moral of the group came charging at me from behind. When he got in range, I lightly throw my fist out in retaliation.
I felt the man's skull shatter before he was blow away, only after crashing through a table and chair did the impact with a wall stop him.
The physical abilities of a level 255 body were a bit overkill for opponents of this level.
Suddenly, a large wall of fire came from the within the compound. I think one of the men Ariane set ablaze with her sword might have ran towards the kitchen. Apparently some of the cooking oil caught fire.
While the building was made of stone, it was filled with flammable objects. Columns of flame started to spring up all over the place.
"Kyu〜n..."
Ponta, who was a top my head till now, wrapped herself around my neck and turned her ears downward because she didn't like the fire.
It like I'm wearing a fur scarf next to a blazing inferno.
Looking around I saw that the the clean up of the second floor was complete as Danka had already made his way to the first floor. Ariane had shock off the flames from her sword and was searching perimeter.
I could hear that someone was knocking of the large front door and faintly make out a yelling voice. The door seemed to be thicker and heavier than I thought, and combined with the firmly placed bolt it meant that no one could get in easily.
"There are the stairs to the basement!"
As the fire spread through the first floor, I look in the direction that Danka called out to and saw a stone staircase leading to the basement, that was hidden behind the main stairwell.
Frowning at the rising temperature caused by the fire, Ariane took off the hood of her cloak and gave a silent "follow me" gesture before running down the gloomy stairs.
Danka quickly follows behind, and I bring up the rear.
"What the hell!!? Gyuaa!!!!"
The scream of a man and the sound of metal clashing alerted me that there was a fight going on below as I descended the stairs.
"Fuck!! Why are you in this place!! What are those guys upstairs doing!!!"
I heard the sound of something hitting the floor, and when I arrived it was already over.
The basement was unexpectedly spacious, and the walls were lined with cell doors. The smell of the three fallen men's' blood was mixing with the earthen smell of the basement was a little disgusting though.
While covered in blood, Ariane reached down to one of the fallen men and rips off a metal key ring from his waist before running to one of the cells.
"I'm Ariane Glenys Maple! I'm here to rescue you!!"
When she delivered her introduction, something hit the cell door like a brick and caused a loud 「Clang」sound to resonate.
"That's a lie!? Warriors from maple have come to help!?"
Judging by appearance the girl against the cell door and shouted in surprise and joy was around 17 years old, and the girls that appeared after her looked even younger than that.
They all wore the same metal collars the children in the forest had on.
Ariane quickly inserted key after key into the keyhole looking for the right one. Before long, I hear the sound of the lock clicking and the girl burst out of her cell, the other girls were soon freed as well.
While the girls gave their gratitude to Ariane, I noticed that the flames had reached the top of the stone stairs. The removal of the 『Magic eating collar』 will have to wait, we don't have the time to take things slow.
"Ariane-dono, the first floor has been consumed by the flames. We should hurry."
When the girls noticed my voice, a number of screams were let out and they all hid behind Ariane.
Due to my body being covered by a black cloak and my face by my helmet, the first impression with the girls wasn't very good.
"It's all right, this man is a helper that I employed. Is this everyone that had been captured?"
The girls smiled a little before simultaneously nodding their heads at her question
"Arc, our business in done here."
All right. I'll transfer us outside of town in a moment!"
I approached the group of four girls that were around Arine, and I evoked the magic when I was sure Danka was within range.
"[Transfer Gate]!"
The dimly lit basement was illuminated by the light of the magic formation that appeared beneath our feet.
The four elf girls had a variety of expression as they clanged to Ariane as the floating sensation of the magic phenomenon occurred.
Despite the girls' anxiety the floating sensation went by in an instant, their vision went dark, and the curtain of the moonlit sky proceeded the darkness.
The flow of the river could be heard and even the shadow of the six arch bridge could be seen. On the other side of the bridge, Diento's city wall could be seen.
The girls surrounding Ariane looked around in amazement as they couldn't understand what happened in that instant.
Along with the sounds of the river and the wind blowing through the grass, the high-pitched sound of a bell could be heard from the towns direction. It was the alarm bell to inform people of the fire.
I could see smoke rising and a faint red glow from the other side of the city wall.
It was a sight that everyone in town could see...