Suddenly, an idea occurred to me.
I jumped down beside Tala to execute the idea that came to me on the spur of the moment.
"Hya—!"
"Be quiet."
Startled by my sudden appearance, Tarla almost screams, but I quickly stop her by covering her mouth.
When she realized it was me who had appeared, she relaxed her shoulders in relief.
She appears to be fine now, so I remove my hand from her mouth.
"Zechs-san! Onii-chan and the other are…!"
"I know. I'm going to help them now, but I'm going to need some help from Tala."
"T-Tally's help?"
Tala's eyes trembled as she returned my question.
I know you're worried about what she's going to be asked to help with, but rest assured that I don't intend to make her do anything reckless.
"Don't worry, It's very simple. When I give you the signal, step out in front of them. While they're focused on Tala, I'll try to suppress them."
"Eh? B-But, that means Zechs-san is—"
"It's fine. I'm strong, you know?"
I looked straight at Tala.
I can't gauge the strength of my opponent, but I understand my own strength. I am still not very skilled in magic, but if you take into account the other things, I should be able to be as good as a low-ranked knight. If I were to use the game as an analogy, I would say I am slightly above level 20, which corresponds to the end of the first semester of freshman year.
In addition, the maximum level is 99. The average for civilians is 10, the average for combat jobs is 35, the top in the country is 5 7, the last boss is 70, and the hidden boss is 99.
Returning to the subject.
If the in-game level descriptions are correct, I, with the minimum level of a knight, can wipe out all the thugs by myself. However, considering the irregularity, I would like to leave the decoy role to Tala. There's enough distance between us that I don't have to worry about being attacked even if one of them is a magician.
Seeing how confident I was, Tala nodded her head in agreement.
"All right, let's do this right away. We'll do it in ten seconds."
"Eh, wha—!?"
After I said so, Tala began to panic as if she wasn't prepared to do this yet.
But there's no time to wait for her to get ready.
"I'm sorry, but if we don't move soon, Caron and the others will be taken away."
All three of them had already had their hands and feet tied. Caron could use magic, but Dan and Miria were in a situation where they could not escape.
Knowing this, Tala showed a nervous expression.
"A-All right. I'll do my best…"
"All you have to do is show yourself in front of them, and I'll take care of the rest."
I patted her on the back, though only to ease her mind.
Her shoulders seemed to relax somewhat, so I ran up to the rooftop again.
As I looked at the thugs attempting to flee the situation, I mentally counted down the seconds.
The first targets are the three who are holding Caron and the others. My first priority is to secure them. Worst-case scenario, I would leave the other two bandits alone and consider escaping.
After counting to ten, Tala's voice rang out.
"Give Onii-chan back!"
It was a piercing cry that didn't seem to come from her normally calm self. Thanks to her efforts, the attention of the thugs was completely focused on her.
At the same time, I leap into the air. Naturally, I begin to fall according to gravity, but it would be too late, and the thugs would've attacked Tala by then.
As a result, I devised some countermeasures.
Turning my head to the ground, he released Mana at my feet from a handstand position. I poured out half of my magical power, as much as I could.
The released Mana is compressed to the size of a five-centimeter cube, with a slightly dangerous glow to it.
When I judged that I had compressed it sufficiently, I slammed the sole of my foot into the cube of Mana.
Normally, Mana has no substance, so it would pass through this kind of thing.
However, my feet firmly stepped on the cube. If so, it was inevitable that my falling speed would accelerate.
The five-fold [Body Strengthening] gave me so much leg power that I flew into the middle of the thugs like a bullet.
The only ones who can react to this speed are those who can be strengthened five times like me or those who have more physical ability than I do in my strengthened state.
But, there's no way a person like that would be here. After all, none of them could react, and I took the opportunity to knock the three men unconscious, who was holding Caron and the others.
Only one remained. As expected, he is already aware of my presence, but I will finish him off.
At high speed, I dive below the thug and threw a punch at the pit of his stomach.
But—
"Wha—!"
I unintentionally cried out
What's more, the thug dodged my attack. It was no accident. he was clearly able to react to my speed.
Unlike before, now there's no added gravity. Because I have the physical ability of a pure four-year-old, even if it's strengthened five times, there will be people who can catch up to it. However, the movements of the enemy in front of me did not seem to be simply superior in physical ability.
I am just guessing, but I have a feeling that he is trained in some kind of martial arts.
I kept this doubt in my mind as I rushed toward the thug.
As a result, all of my attacks were just barely avoided.
It's not like he can see it, but I felt like he's just narrowingly avoiding it. Therefore, if I give him enough pressure, I might be able to defeat him.
But it would take time. If I gave them that kind of time, the four people I'd just knock out with a surprise attack would get up.
It would have been different if I had been familiar with martial arts, but unfortunately, I didn't learn it considering the body of a four-year-old child. I also had no such experience in my previous life.
The thug seemed to understand which way the advantage would tilt in his favor if he took his time, and he was smiling because of it, albeit desperately. This is infuriating.
The attack and defense lasted one minute, and I was beginning to show signs of impatience. But then, the battle ended abruptly.
The reason is—
"Ugeh—!?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The thug's head and abdomen were hit by an explosion, and his hair was on fire because of it.
To extinguish the burning flames, he began rolling on the ground. Without missing the opportunity, I knock him out unconscious. I then put the flames out of pity. I think the hair follicles are already dead, though.
Acknowledging that the fight was over, I turned around.
There was Caron, looking a little tired.
"Thank you, Caron. You really saved me there."
"I'm glad that I was able to help you, Onii-sama!"
That's right, The explosion just now was Caron's fire magic. The intermediate-level [Explosion], is a highly lethal attack magic that explodes and sets the target on fire.
She shot intermediate-level attack magic without hesitation, which surprised me, but it was better than leaving an opening in front of the enemy.
"I'm glad you're safe."
"I was sure you'd come to rescue us."
I hugged Caron, who was uninjured as far as I could see. She hugged me back happily.
Her hands were slightly trembling as she clung to me tightly. On the surface, she was acting tough, but deep down she must have been terrified. I wonder if it included the fact that, for the first time, she had hurt another person with magic.
Anyway, there was no doubt that everything that had just happened was beyond a child's capacity.
I patted her back gently, trying to reassure her. As I treated her carefully as if she were a cracked object, her nervousness slowly melted away. I think I'll sleep with her tonight, and I don't think she needs to worry about the current situation anymore.
It's a shame to leave, but we can't keep hugging forever. There are, after all, other victims.
"Onii-chan! Miria!"
Tala, who had been watching the situation from a distance, finally arrived and called out to the two.
We also turned our heads in her direction.
Miria was in tears but did not seem to have any external injuries. She must have been mentally burdened, but I will fix that with Mind Magic in secret. At the very least, she will not be traumatized.
Dan, on the other hand, seemed to have been hit pretty seriously in the face, and his face was swollen. He was also clutching his stomach and moaning. I estimated that he had a broken nose and several broken ribs.
These are serious injuries. With the physical strength of a child, these injuries could have killed him if he had been in bad shape. I don't know what these thugs are taking so seriously against a four-year-old boy.
Then, while I was upset at the thugs' outrageousness, Caron opened her mouth.
"Onii-sama, actually…"
According to Caron, Dan was injured protecting the two of them. So he's proud that he, as a man, is the one protecting the girls? That's an old-fashioned way of thinking, but, well, this is a medieval-style world after all.
Normally, I would scold him for his reckless behavior, but this time I'm going to tolerate it. Thanks to him, I was able to get here in time.
When I looked at Caron, she was looking at me too with her eyes are shining with anticipation.
Yeah. I knew that Caron would want to act this way. I've taken care of her in many ways so that she would grow up to be such a gentle child.
I smiled bitterly and nodded my head.
Then, Caron ran up to Dan with a big smile on her face.
I didn't need to say what she was going to do.
However, I cannot sit idly by and wait for her to finish the treatment. If I don't cover up the situation to some extent, it could develop into a troublesome situation later on.
"I'm not used to this yet, but I guess I have no choice."
I release my remaining Mana and covered us up.
What I'm going to do now is apply [Disguise].
The magic spell [Disguise] has a logic that can be activated by any attribute so that anyone can handle it. Therefore, with a little modification, it can also be used with non-attribute magic.
I wasn't the type to pass up on magic that could be useful in a variety of situations, so I had learned it from Shion ahead of time.
I'm still learning it, so I can't use it perfectly yet, but I can at least block information from the outside world.
In addition, I also use my detection spell to detect the surroundings. There seem to be no observers within a one-kilometer radius. So, the treatment will probably not be exposed to a third party.
The problem is Dan and the others. It's impossible to mislead the three people involved. I have no choice but to explain to them and ask them to keep quiet.
Worst-case scenario, I could try to bind them with Mind Magic, but I didn't want to do that if possible.
As a user, I can understand that there's no limit to Mind Magic. It can manipulate the minds of others without limit, and if I improve my skills, I can easily brainwash them. It's a power that makes someone become a world ruler.
I, who have common human nature, have no such desire for domination. I don't want to fall into the path of brainwashing anyone, so I didn't want to use mental magic, except for buffing, and on my enemies. Of course, this self-discipline is not absolute, but—
"Huh? I'm…"
"It worked…"
While I was deep in thought, Caron seemed to have finished his treatment. Dan was back to a clean, uninjured state, staring up at the sky in a daze.
Milia was sobbing and hugging him. It was a natural reaction since her childhood friend had survived a near-death wound.
At first, Dan did not fully understand the situation, but then his head began to work, and jumped out of his spot.
"Kyaa…!"
"That's right, the thugs from earlier... Huh, eh!?"
Dan, who was not paying attention to Milia being bounced off the ground, was looking around and eventually found the hoodlums lying unconscious. Then his eyes rolled around, not knowing why they were stretching.
Dan was in a state of confusion, but Tala walked up to him and brought him back to his senses by dropping a fist on his head.
"Onii-chan!"
"Ow!"
A thumping sound echoed. Even I, who was only watching from the side, was beginning to feel the pain.
"Zechs-san and Caron-san saved. So, thank them first!"
"Eh? What do you mea—"
"Thank them!"
"Ouch!"
Again, a thumping sound echoed. It's a good sound, but doesn't that hurt Tala as well?
After the contrarian exchange between the Magura siblings, I looked at Caron, and thought, "How can they be so different from us, even though they are siblings?"
Then she seemed to be looking at me, and our gazes met. Apparently, she was thinking the same thing.
The unexpected heart-to-heart communication made Caron and I both start to laugh.
Our laugh was louder than I had imagined, and the other three paid attention to us.
At first, the three of them were surprised when we suddenly started laughing, but the laughter became contagious and they started holding their bellies together.
We had fallen into a dangerous situation, but there was a peaceful moment.