The room was dark. Within the shadows were boys and girls with
nervous looks on their faces, their bodies writhing. There were four girls and
three boys, seven children in total. All of them were around my age. They
were all naked, all with beast or elf ears. Their hands were bound behind
them, and they all shrank from me.
Sweet, innocent girls, naked and cuffed. I never thought the day would
come when I would see this. What a precious sight it was—like a young
version of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, a Buddhist Bodhisattva. This was
Eden. No, perhaps it was heaven. Had I finally arrived in heaven? No, I still
hadn't found the green baby yet!
This was no time to get excited. With only one exception, their eyes
were all swollen from crying, and several had bluish-black bruises on their
faces. My head cooled immediately. They were crying and screaming, so
they probably got hit for being noisy.
The same thing had happened when Eris and I were kidnapped. In this
world, kidnappers showed no concern for the children they took captive.
Ruijerd must have heard them being mercilessly tortured from his spot in the
neighboring room. That was why he couldn't hold himself back.
From a quick glance, they didn't seem to have been sexually abused.
Perhaps because they were still young, or perhaps because it would lower
their sale value. Whatever the reason, it was the one mercy amidst this
misfortune.
Normally I would look at naked girls and hope they'd allow me one
quick grope of their breasts, but right now, my inner pervert had been
weakened. I had just decided to become a Wise Old Sage before
disembarking from the ship, after all. Sadly, my new profession hadn't
increased my intelligence at all.
Three of the girls were still sobbing, tears running down their cheeks.
Two of the boys regarded me with terrified looks on their faces. The third was crumpled on the floor, barely breathing. I healed him
first before removing the shackles from his wrists. His mouth was gagged so
tightly I couldn't get it off. With no other choice, I had to sear it off. It might
have burned him a little, but I figured he could handle it. I did the same for
the other two boys, healing them and taking off their wrist cuffs.
"U-um…who are…?"
The words were spoken in the Beast God tongue so I was slightly taken
aback, but I could speak it, at least. "I came to save you. You three, go act as
lookouts at the door. If you see anyone coming, tell me immediately."
The three of them exchanged nervous glances.
"You're men, right? You can at least do that, can't you?"
Their expressions hardened and they nodded, running off toward the
door. There was no other meaning to my directions. It wasn't like I just
wanted them out of the way so I could ogle the girls without interruption.
Ruijerd was causing a ruckus above, so probably no one would come
this way. Still, we couldn't take any chances. Before I entered the room, I had
set my demon eye to show me one second into the future, but I wouldn't be
able to see anything if I didn't look behind me.
I proceeded to remove the girls' shackles. Some were more well-
endowed than others, but I didn't discriminate. I admired them equally as I
took off their binds. I also didn't touch them more than was necessary. I
wanted them to think of the Rudeus before them as nothing short of a
gentleman.
I also healed their bruises. It was my time to enjo— err, I mean treat
their wounds. After all, you had to touch someone to heal them. So there was
no other meaning behind it. Yes, one of the girls did have bruises on her
chest, but I swear I had no ulterior motives.
This one had a broken rib. That couldn't be good… And this other had
her femur broken. Those men really had been vicious.
The girls hid themselves with their hands as they stood up. They
removed their gags themselves. Was it my imagination, or was the strong-
willed girl with cat ears glaring at me?
"Thank you for…hic…saving us." The girl with dog ears thanked me as she shyly hid her body. She spoke in the Beast God tongue, of course.
"Just to make sure, you can all understand me, right?"
When they all nodded, I breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently my Beast
God tongue was intelligible.
It seemed Ruijerd still wasn't done, and I couldn't lead these children
through a slaughterhouse. It might cause them further trauma, so maybe I
would just admire this scenery for a little bit longer…or not. I should
probably ask them about what happened.
"If you don't mind me asking, why were you all brought here?"
"Mew?"
I directed my question to the cat-eared girl, the one who seemed the
most headstrong. She was the only one among the seven who didn't have a
fresh trail of tears down her cheeks. Instead, her body seemed to be the most
battered, broken and bruised. Not quite as bad as what Eris had experienced,
but her injuries were still the worst. Second worst was the first boy I helped,
but unlike that boy, she still had a spark of life in her eyes.
This girl might be even more strong-willed than Eris. No, she was
probably older than Eris had been back then. If they were the same age, there
was no way Eris would have lost.
Okay, what the hell was I getting all competitive over?
By the way, this girl's breasts were the second largest in the group. I
could see them getting obnoxiously big as she got older. The number one
spot went to the dog-eared girl from just a moment ago. To be so advanced at
such a young age…she'd be ridiculously sexy when she got older.
Outrageously so.
"We were playing in the forest when a strange man suddenly grabbed
us, mew!"
It was a shock to my system. Mew! Her sentence ended in "mew"! A
real mew! Completely different from Eris' imitation. This girl was a real,
genuine cat beastfolk. It wasn't just because she was speaking in Beast God
tongue either. She definitely said "mew" at the end there. Amazing. I wanted
to grope her breasts.
No. I couldn't get distracted. "So that means all of you were taken against your will?" I tried to tamp down my emotions and remain cool as I
asked.
The girls all nodded. Good. If they'd been sold by struggling parents,
or sold themselves because they didn't have the means to live anymore, then
our efforts to free them would have been in vain. Good. We were saving
people. I was really glad about that.
"It's over." Ruijerd had returned. The mossy green color was gone
from his scalp, and a forehead protector was fastened around his head. His
clothes were pristine. There wasn't a single drop of blood on them. I
would've expected nothing less.
"Good work. Were there any other people held captive?" I asked.
"None."
"Then let's find some clothes for these guys. They'll catch a cold if we
leave them like this."
"Understood," Ruijerd replied.
"Okay, guys," I told them. "Please just wait a little bit longer."
We split up and started searching for suitable clothes. We couldn't find
anything for children. Their clothes must have been stripped off and
discarded when their captors abducted them. But what for? I didn't
understand. It was a mystery to me why they left these kids naked. Not
having clothes was a serious problem. We couldn't even take them into a
clothing store if they were naked.
"Hm?" I happened to glance out the window, only to see a mountain of
dead bodies. Each of them bore a single stab wound, either in the heart or the
throat. Seeing something like that would have terrified me long ago, but this
time it was reassuring. Still, I didn't expect there to be so many of them. The
smell of blood hung thick. It would lure monsters.
Let's burn these quickly, I thought, and stepped out of the building.
I stood before the odorous mountain of corpses and created a fireball.
A radius of five meters seemed appropriate for this use. In fire magic,
increasing the power of a spell also increased its size for some reason. I
didn't want to smell the stench of burnt flesh, though, so I decided to
incinerate them in a single blast.
"Whoops!"
The resulting fire was clearly too powerful, because it instantly spread
to the building. I quickly turned to water magic to extinguish the flames.
That was close. I almost turned myself into a pyromaniac.
Aw crap, maybe I should have stripped them of their clothes first, I
thought. They would probably reek of blood and turn my stomach, but they
could still be worn after I washed them.
"Rudeus. I'm finished."
As I was preoccupied with those thoughts, Ruijerd came out of the
building. The children were all with him, all clothed. By clothed, I meant
they were all in feathered robes.
"Where did you find clothes like that?"
"I cut the curtains."
Oho. You are a clever one, I thought. A true font of wisdom.
***
The next objective in our mission was to return the children to their
homes. That meant bringing them to the city and guiding them to their
parents.
I lit the torches at the building's front entrance and made each of the
children carry one. I decided to take a different route back. It would be
troublesome if another smuggler found us, and that underground route was
probably created to protect people from the forest's beasts. We didn't need
that.
"Mew!" The cat-eared girl suddenly cried out. The noise echoed in the
darkness around us.
"What's wrong?" I asked, wishing she wouldn't be so loud.
"Mew! Was there a dog in that building we just came out of?!" She
clung to Ruijerd's leg. There was a clear look of desperation on her face.
"There was."
"Why didn't you rescue it?!"
That's right, there was a dog. Wait, that was a dog? It was freakin'
huge.
"You guys came first."
Their reproachful eyes fixed upon Ruijerd.
Oh, come on, I thought. We just saved you guys. There's no reason for
you to give us that look. "Just so you know, he's the one who saved you."
"W-well, I'm grateful for that, mew. But…"
"If you're grateful, then you should say thank you."
When I said that, they all bowed their heads to him. Good, I thought.
You should all be more grateful.
This might have been a mission we were given by a smuggler from the
organization that kidnapped them in the first place, but it was also true that
Ruijerd was genuinely concerned about them. Though it was also true we
were demanding their gratitude when they'd never asked us to save them.
"I'll go back and free the dog. Ruijerd, you take these guys to the city."
"Understood. Where should we go once we get there?"
"Wait just outside the city," I instructed. I retraced my steps.
Where were we supposed to take them after this? That was a difficult
question. At first, I considered bringing them to the Adventurers' Guild. Then
we could put out a request saying, "We have children in our custody; please
search for their parents," and entrust the kids to the guild. That would be the
end of it.
However, Gallus said himself that the smuggling organization wasn't a
single group. If we moved too openly, we would be discovered. Considering
our conversations, Gallus wouldn't be able to help us if that happened. Our
involvement was better left undiscovered. For our sake as well as his.
In that case…what if we left the kids with the city garrison and fled the
city as quickly as possible? No, if the kids talked, our identities would be
discovered. Then the smuggling organization would find out. Plus the rainy
season was almost upon us. If we left the city, we had nowhere else to go. We
might even be mistaken for kidnappers ourselves. Hmm. This was troubling. Perhaps I hadn't considered this thoroughly
enough. I had been sure we could free them, but I'd put too little thought into
what came after that. Maybe we should pin the blame for the attack on
someone else? Yeah, maybe that was a good idea. If I wrote "The Demon
World's Great Emperor Kishirika was here" on the wall, they might actually
believe it. Kishirika did say to rely on her if I needed anything, after all.
"Welp." I'd arrived back at the building, still undecided on a course of
action.
***
I found the room where I previously saw the magic circle. When I
entered, the beast greeted me with a suspicious look in its eyes. It didn't wag
its tail, and it didn't bark. It was lethargic.
"It's definitely a dog."
It was a puppy chained within that magic circle. You could tell it was a
puppy at a glance, but it was enormous. It was about two meters tall. Why
were all the dogs and cats of this world so big?
Its fur had appeared white when I first looked at it, but on closer
inspection, it was actually silver. It seemed to glitter, but that was probably
due to the lighting. A large silver baby Shiba Inu, with a refined, intelligent
look on its face.
"I'm going to help you—ooouch!"
The moment I tried to enter the magic circle, it repelled me. Not quite
like a zap. The sensation was difficult to explain, but it was like the pain
receptors in my brain were being triggered. It seemed this magic circle was
actually a barrier. A barrier was a type of healing magic—a construction I
knew nothing about.
"Hmm." I studied the borders of the magic circle. It emitted a bluish-
white light, faintly illuminating the room. The light coming from it meant that
mana was circulating. If I could cut off the source of its fuel, the circle would
disappear. Roxy taught me that. It was the quintessential method of removing
magical traps. The fuel source… In other words, a magic crystal.
Yet as far as I could see, there was no such crystal to be found. No…
that just meant I hadn't found it yet. Where had they hidden it? Probably
underground. Maybe I should use earth magic to remove the circle? Who
knew what would occur if I tried to forcibly dispel a magic circle such as
this?
Hm, wait, I thought. Wait, wait, wait. Let's think about this more
simply.
How were those guys even planning to get this dog out of that circle in
the first place? There hadn't been a magician amongst the corpses I'd seen.
There had to be a way for a complete beginner to remove this trap.
First I considered where the magic crystal could be. I thought it had to
be underground. However, if it were underground, those guys wouldn't have
been able to pull it out. It had to be somewhere they could extract it. But it
also had to be somewhere where it could still fuel mana into the trap.
"Hm, so above rather than below?"
I decided to check upstairs. I went to the room directly above, where I
found a smaller magic circle and what appeared to be a wooden lantern. In it
was what I assumed was a magic crystal.
Very good. I was lucky to be able to find it with my first guess.
I carefully lifted the lantern and the magic circle below gently
dissipated. When I returned to the ground floor, I saw that the one
surrounding the dog was completely gone. It seemed the upper and lower
circles had been linked together after all. Nice, nice.
"Grrr…!"
The dog looked menacingly at me and snarled as I approached. For as
long as I could remember, animals had never liked me. This wasn't any
different.
I studied the dog's physical condition. Its growl was still a powerful
thing, but it didn't have the same strength in its body. It looked exhausted. No
doubt because it was hungry.
Still, those chains were suspicious. There was probably some meaning
to the pattern etched upon them. Maybe I should remove them. No, that might be dangerous. If those chains were restraining its power, then the
moment I released them, it might attack me. I could heal a little bite, but…
"What should I do so you don't bite me?"
When I asked that, the dog responded, "Woof?" It titled its head at me
as if it understood the words.
Hm.
"If you don't bite me, I'll take that collar off of you and return you to
your master. How about it?" I spoke to it in Beast God tongue, and when I
did, the dog ceased its growling and quietly stretched itself out on the ground.
It seemed it did understand. Being in a different world was convenient after
all. You could even talk to dogs.
I tried using magic to sever the chain. It broke easily. Once it did,
power instantly returned to the dog's body. It immediately stood up and tried
to dash off, but I stopped it.
"Wait, wait, you still have a collar on you."
It looked at me and obediently lay down once more.
I tried my best to remove the collar, but it had no keyhole. If there was
no keyhole, there was no way to unlock it. That was weird. How did they
intend to ever remove it? Or did they never intend to do so? It was a tough
battle, but I managed to find a joint in the collar. Apparently this was one of
those collars you couldn't remove once it was snapped on.
"I'm going to take it off now, so don't move." I carefully conjured
earth magic into the small juncture where the collar joined together, using
magic to force it open. There was a clang, and finally it came off.
"There we go."
The puppy shook its neck. "Woof!"
"Whoa!"
The dog hooked its front paws on either of my shoulders, and its
weight knocked me over. I fell limply to the ground, and the dog started
slobbering all over my face.
"Woof!"
Aah! You can't, little puppy! I have a wife and husband…! I tried to push the great silver ball of fur off of me, but it was too heavy
and, moreover, soft and fluffy. Silky and soft. That was all well and good, but
it was heavy. Its weight on my chest was enough to make my bones creak.
Moving it seemed difficult. I gave up on not being licked since there was
nothing I could do. Instead I focused on enjoying the feel of its fur until it
grew bored of lapping at my face.
And boy was it fluffy. Or, as the kids say, "a floof".
For you to be this soft… Hey, wait. You're using some kind of fabric
softener, aren't you? I thought, only for another voice in my head to reply in
kind. Aww, but I'm not using anything~
***
"Bastard! What have you done to the Sacred Beast?!"
"Huh?"
Just as the ball of fur finally seemed satisfied, a voice rang out. Still
sprawled on the ground, I looked up, wondering if one of those smugglers
had managed to survive.
I was greeted by chocolate-colored skin, beast ears, and a tiger's tail.
Ghislaine…? No, it wasn't. They looked similar, but it wasn't her. The hairy,
muscular part was the same, but there was something a bit different.
Ghislaine's biggest feature was absent. It was the chest—this person's was
flat. This person had pecs where Ghislaine had a full bosom. It was a man.
The man put his hand to his mouth, as if he were about to shout.
Ah, crap! He's going to do something. I've got to run. But I can't
move!
"Doggy, move. I need to run from this guy!"
The dog moved.
I scrambled to my feet and activated my demon eye. I could see what
would happen.
The man has his hand still pressed to his mouth. I thought he wasn't going to do anything, but then suddenly he roared.
"Graaaaah!" The volume was overpowering. It was a voice many times more
shrill than any Eris had ever produced. The sound felt like it had mass. My
eardrums rang, and my brain trembled.
By the time I realized what was happening, I had collapsed. I couldn't
stand. This was bad. I had to heal myself, but I couldn't move my hands.
What the hell was this, some kind of magic?
Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I couldn't use magic? I tried to channel my
mana but…no good.
The man grabbed me by the collar and lifted me into the air. I was
brought level with the frowning face of a man, his brows knitted together.
"Hm. Still just a kid. Can't bring myself to kill you."
Ah, it seemed I was safe. Thank goodness. I was glad I looked like a
kid.
"Gyes, what is it?"
Another man appeared. He looked similar to Ghislaine. but had white
hair. An older man.
"Father. I've subdued one of the smugglers."
"A smuggler? Isn't that a child?"
"But he was trying to attack the Sacred Beast."
"Hm."
"He had an obscene look on his face as he fondled it. Perhaps he isn't
the age that he appears."
N-no, you're wrong. I'm twelve. I'm definitely not a forty-five-year-old
man on the inside, I protested in my head.
"Woof!" When the beast barked, Gyes and the other man both took a
knee before it.
"I apologize. We should have moved with more haste, but instead we
were late in our rescue."
"Woof!"
"To think that this boy would lay his hands on your holiness…
Gah…!"
"Woof!"
"What? It didn't bother you? How benevolent…!"
They seemed to be having a conversation, although the dog was only
saying "woof woof" the whole time.
"Gyes, I found Tona's scent in a room in the basement. She was here.
That is certain," the old man said.
Who was Tona? From the context of their conversation, I guessed it
was one of the beastfolk children.
"Let's take this young boy back to the village and interrogate him. He
might have taken them somewhere. And once we make him spill, we'll set
out again and search—"
"There's no time. The last ship leaves tomorrow."
Gyes gritted his teeth.
"We have no choice but to give up. Consider it fortuitous enough that
we managed to save the Sacred Beast."
"And what'll we do with this?"
"Take him home with us. He may be a child, but if he was working
with those smugglers, then he'll have to be punished."
Gyes nodded and tied my hands behind me with a rope. Then he
hoisted me onto his shoulder. The dog toddled along behind him, glancing
worriedly at me.
It's okay. Don't worry. These guys don't seem to be smugglers, I told
myself. They came here to rescue those kids. So if I talk to them, they'll
understand. I just have to wait until they'll let me.
"Hm…" When we stepped outside, the elder twitched his nose. "The
smell lingers."
"A smell? The stench of blood is so thick I can't tell."
"It's faint, but it's the smell of Tona and the others. There's one more
as well. That demon's scent."
The moment he mentioned "that demon", Gyes' expression hardened.
"Are you saying that demon took Tona and the others?"
"Hard to tell. Perhaps he saved them," the old man suggested.
"No way. That can't be."
It seemed they had caught wind of Ruijerd's scent.
"Gyes. I'm going to follow the trail. You take the boy and the Sacred
Beast and return to the village."
"No, I'm going with you," Gyes protested.
"You're too short-tempered. And that boy may not be one of those
smugglers after all, you know?" Unsurprisingly, the elder's words had a
wisdom to them.
That's right, I thought. I'm not a smuggler, so please let me explain.
"Even so, there's still no mistaking the fact that he touched the Sacred
Beast with his filthy hands. This boy smells like an aroused human. As
unbelievable as it sounds, he showed signs of sexual excitement toward the
Sacred Beast."
What?!
Absolutely untrue! I thought. I do not have any sexual interest in dogs!
Helpless naked young girls, however… No! That's not a good defense, either!
"In that case, throw him in a cell. But do not put your hands on him
until I return home."
"Yes, sir!"
The older man gave a nod before running off into the darkness of the
forest.
As Gyes watched him go, he said to me, "Hmph, he just saved your
hide."
Yes, he truly did.
"Well then, Sacred Beast, let's run a bit. I'm sure you must be
exhausted, but…"
"Woof!"
"That's what I thought!"
And so, draped over Gyes' shoulder, I was carried off deep into the
forest.
[Ruijerd]
Ruijerd was close to the city, but Rudeus still hadn't come back. Was
he lost? No, he would've used magic to send a signal into the sky. Did that
mean there was trouble instead? Ruijerd had disposed of every last human in
that building, but perhaps Rudeus had run into backup that showed up from a
different location. He should probably go back and check, just to be sure.
No. Rudeus wasn't a child. Even if an enemy did appear, he would be
able to handle them. Rudeus' defenses could be weak, perhaps because he
was young, but he wasn't so naive as to let his guard down in enemy
territory.
Besides, right now he didn't have Eris to worry about. If Rudeus used
the full extent of his powers, he couldn't be defeated. The only problem was
that he was conflicted about taking a person's life. If he limited his powers
too much, the tables might be turned on him. No…he wasn't that foolish,
surely.
Rudeus didn't need his concern. Still, Ruijerd was troubled. If he
continued into town with the children like this, he had a bad feeling about
what might happen.
He'd faced similar circumstances many times before. He would rescue
children from slave merchants and attempt to return them to the city, only to
be mistaken as a kidnapper himself. His head was shaved and the jewel in his
forehead was hidden, but he was poor with words. If the garrison stopped him
for questioning, he had no confidence in his ability to explain what had
happened.
Surely the humans of the city would take care of things if he just left
the children there, right? No, Rudeus would definitely have some choice
words for him if he did that.
"Mew, Mister, I'm sorry about before, mew."
While he worried, one of the girls came over and patted his leg. The
other children looked similarly apologetic. It almost felt like they were the
ones rescuing him.
"It's fine."
It really had been a long time since he'd used Beast God tongue,
though. The last time he used it was… Hmm, just when was it again? He
couldn't remember using it much at all since Laplace's War.
"The Sacred Beast is a symbol of our tribe, mew, so we just couldn't
leave it behind, mew."
"So that's it. I didn't know that, but still, I apologize." She smiled at
Ruijerd when he said that. He really did enjoy how children weren't so
terrified of him. "Hmm…"
Suddenly his third eye sensed someone rapidly approaching. Their
speed was incredible, and their aura was strong. They came from the
direction of the building they'd left behind. Was it one of the smugglers'
allies? But they seemed too adept for that. It couldn't be, he thought. Did they
actually defeat Rudeus…?
"Get back." He had the children take cover behind him as he readied
his spear.
The victor would be the one who struck first. He would bring them
down in one blow.
Or so he thought, but Ruijerd's opponent stopped just short of his
reach. It was a male beastperson, holding a thick hatchet in his hand. The
man was clearly wary as he took a stance of his own. He was elderly, but he
had a calm, composed and dignified air about him. The air of a warrior. Yet
Ruijerd would kill him if he were in league with those bastards from before.
Someone who let something like this happen to children of his own race was
no true warrior.
"Ah, Grandpa, mew!" The cat girl called out to the older warrior and
rushed to him.
"Tona! You're all right!"
The old warrior welcomed the girl into his arms, a look of relief
crossing his face. Ruijerd lowered his spear. Apparently this man had come to save the children. Ruijerd was wrong to doubt him as a warrior; he was
clearly an honorable man.
The dog-eared girl also seemed to know him, and dashed over to him.
"Tersena, you're safe too. I'm glad."
"That man over there saved us."
The old warrior put his sword away. Then he approached Ruijerd and
bowed. It seemed he was still wary of Ruijerd, but that was to be expected.
"Thank you for saving my granddaughter."
"Sure."
"What's your name?"
"Ruijerd." Superdia, he thought to add, but he hesitated. If the man
knew he was Superd, it would just put him on guard.
"Ruijerd, is it? I'm Gustav Dedoldia. I will repay this debt to you
without fail. First, I must return these children to their parents."
"Yes, you should."
"But it's dangerous to make children walk at night. I'd like you to
explain exactly what happened." As he said that, the elder started walking
toward the town.
"Wait," Ruijerd called after him.
"What is it?"
"Did you look inside of the building?"
"I did. A depressing place that reeked of blood."
Ruijerd pressed on with his questions. "And no one was there?"
"There was one. A male in the form of a child. It seems he had a
perverted grin as he fondled the Sacred Beast."
He realized who it was immediately. Rudeus. So the kid still gets that
grin on his face, he thought. "That's my companion," Ruijerd said.
"Oh dear!"
"Don't tell me you killed him?"
It didn't matter if it was a misunderstanding that caused it. If they'd
killed Rudeus, Ruijerd would have his revenge. He would see the children to
their parents first, though. Eris too. That's right… Eris was alone right now.
That worried him.
"I had him taken to our village so we could interrogate him about the
location of his co-conspirators. But I will have him released immediately."
Rudeus, the idiot, had let his guard down. That boy… His defenses
were always weak, even though his mental resilience was high. Then again,
Ruijerd had no room to talk given that his mental resilience was third-class in
comparison.
"Rudeus is a warrior. If you don't plan to kill him, there's no reason to
hurry. Let's prioritize the children first."
The beastfolk did not torture as humans did. At most, they would strip
him of his clothes and throw him in a cell. Rudeus had no qualms about
people seeing him naked, after all. Just the other day, he'd said something
strange to Ruijerd: "If Eris tries to peek in on me while I'm showering, you
don't have to stop her."
Plus, there was Eris to worry about. Rudeus always entrusted Eris'
protection to Ruijerd. He always worried more about her than about himself.
Ruijerd was better off protecting her than chasing Rudeus down.
"I have my reasons for not exposing my true form," Ruijerd said. "I'd
like you to lead the children on and find their parents."
"Hm… all right then." Gustav nodded, and Ruijerd headed back
toward the city.