Chapter 85: Poetic Justice (5)

“Keuk…!”

The 「Bandit Boss」, looking resentful, used the axe in his hand to prop himself up on the ground and tried to raise his trembling knees with difficulty.

But it wasn't to swing the axe again in a futile attempt at resistance.

“J-Just spare me!”

But literally, to try and grab my pants leg.

In fact, he had only used the axe as a temporary cane to lift himself up, and in the end, he threw it on the floor.

“No, please spare me!”

A bandit… or rather, a brawny, muscular man that one would usually associate with a bandit boss.

At that completely anticlimactic sight, I couldn't help but let out a laugh.

“You don't care about your dignity at all, do you?”

Well, I guess he has no subordinates left to show his boss-like side to.

“I-I'll do anything! Just give me an order, si…? Sir!”

“Then tell me.”

I said, lightly kicking away his desperate hand that was trying to grab my ankle.

“If I tell you to die right now, can you die?”

“…Y-Yes?”

“Well, I'm kidding.”

I looked down at him and deliberately gave him a mischievous smile.

“If you just answer our questions diligently from now on, I promise. We won't kill you.”

“A-Ask me anything!”

At that, the boss, like a person who had finally grasped a glimmer of hope, began to look up at me with eyes full of anticipation.

In the meantime, my companions came to my side one by one.

“Are you serious?”

Among them was Ibi, who was wiping the blood off her dagger.

“You're going to spare that piece of trash? Don't waste time and just kill him.”

At Ibi's words, the boss flinched.

“And, how do you know he won't lie?”

At the same time, Toric was picking up the axe that the boss had just thrown on the floor.

Then, as if to say that he would immediately strike him with this axe if he made any foolish move, he began to glare at him with fierce eyes.

“N-No, I won't!”

Seeing that, the boss shouted urgently.

“I'll tell you everything I know, just please spare me!”

It was a scene that somehow overlapped with the image of the ‘guest’ we had captured a while ago.

He had also begged so subserviently.

Although he hadn't even used honorifics.

I wasn't the only one who thought so, as Ibi also let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

“Like boss, like subordinate.”

“Trash only gathers around trash. Would guys with honor do things like human trafficking?”

“…He really is a shameless person.”

As you can see from the fact that even the gentle Lily frowned, calling him detestable, he was a guy overflowing with trashiness.

But, even trash had its uses.

“First, hand over the key.”

In the prison, about ten people were locked up in iron cages.

They seemed to have been startled by the sudden commotion outside, and after all the bandits guarding this place had rushed out, and not long after, the boss himself was opening the iron cage, they seemed to be unable to properly accept the current situation.

But when the iron cage was finally thrown wide open, they seemed to belatedly realize that we had come here to rescue them.

“Th-Thank you! Thank you!”

And that they were free.

“I thought I was going to be sold off like this…!”

They, who had hurriedly come out of the iron cage, expressed their gratitude to us one by one even while they were still confused.

But, there were also those who couldn't.

The injured were like that.

They were probably those who had resisted during the kidnapping process or mercenaries who had been hired as guards.

They had only stopped the bleeding by wrapping their wounds with torn clothes instead of bandages, and they all looked pale from not receiving proper treatment.

Because of that, even though the iron cage was open, they couldn't even get out, let alone stand up easily from their spots, and could only gasp for breath.

“It’s okay now, everyone.”

As soon as she saw the injured, Lily immediately ran to them and calmly cast a healing spell.

“Don't worry. I'll heal you.”

Through the 「Prayer of Healing」, a ‘multi-healing skill’ that could heal several people at once.

『Heal their bodies and minds.』

A gentle light enveloped the injured, and their complexions gradually began to return.

“Th-Thank you, Sister…”

“How can we ever repay this grace…”

In the meantime, Miki and Toric were unlocking the handcuffs and shackles of those who had come out of the iron cage.

I received one of them and put it on the boss's wrists and ankles instead.

The boss, of course, showed an unwilling expression, but he didn't resist.

To be precise, he couldn't.

“If you move, you know what happens, right?”

“Y-Yes…!”

Because Ibi was holding a knife to his neck.

Before long, the moment all the shackles of the injured that Lily was treating were unlocked, a notification popped up that the quest objective had been achieved.

But the quest had said to rescue the trapped ‘slaves’, but strictly speaking, they were not slaves.

Because there were no brands on their bodies yet.

“They’re not slaves yet.”

In fact, Ibi noticed this and asked, finding it strange.

“Hey, that damn old gee… Don Paulo sends his subordinates to you guys. Wasn't he buying slaves?”

“H-He’s not buying them.”

“Then what? Why is that bastard taking the guys you kidnapped?”

“We’re not making them into slaves and selling them… he’s taking them to Tiaria, to make them himself.”

“So, that bastard ordered you guys to kidnap people to make into slaves?”

“Y-Yes, that's right….”

“…No, why?”

Ibi, hearing the boss's answer, looked completely baffled.

It was understandable, because although Don Paulo was a big shot in the underworld and was involved in all sorts of crimes, he had never dabbled in the slave trade until now.

To be precise, there were occasional cases where he bought those who were already slaves to ‘use for himself’, but he had never once acted as a slave trader who made and supplied slaves himself.

Of course, it wasn't because he was a good person, but because it was his principle.

He had taken great care to maintain his image as a big-shot businessman, and had publicly stated that acting as a slave trader was a low-class act that would tarnish that image.

“That crazy bastard.”

In his own words.

“That's something only lowly people do…?”

But, now?

And he's not even using his own subordinates, but going through the trouble of ‘outsourcing’ it to these bandits?

“He said that he had to procure them from a place far from Tiaria to avoid their eyes.”

“Eyes? Whose eyes? Who are they?”

When the boss showed a moment of hesitation, Ibi gently pricked his neck with the tip of the dagger she was holding.

Then, along with the red blood that trickled down from the tip of the blade.

“Tiaria's, powerful people…!”

The answer came out.

“What?”

“He said that if he kept buying a large number of slaves from outside, he would be suspected…!”

“…Wait. So, he's doing this to avoid the eyes of those bastards… not to make slaves and sell them to the noble bastards in Tiaria?”

That, indeed.

“Why on earth?”

Was something Ibi couldn't understand at all.

“I-I don't know…!”

“Ah, you don't know? Then you want to die?”

“I-It's true…! That's all I know…!”

Ibi pushed the boss's head back and pushed the knife further, saying not to mess with her, but even in that situation, the boss couldn't answer.

Because that was really all he knew.

In the end, Ibi clicked her tongue and let go of the hair she had pushed back.

To the boss, who looked relieved as if he had just been saved, I patted his shoulder and said that it was okay now.

“Then, let me ask you one last thing.”

“…Yes, please do.”

“Where did you put the merchant who sold us out?”

This time, a question that was easy to answer came up, and the boss answered immediately and actively, as if to make up for it.

That he had tied him up in his room so that he couldn't escape.

He even answered a question I hadn't asked, saying that the reason he had tied him up was in case the information about us wasn't true.

“──Good.”

Thus, the ‘last question’ was over.

“A promise is a promise.”

I lightly patted his head as if to praise him for being so clever.

“Since you answered the questions diligently, I won't kill you as promised.”

At that moment, the boss's expression brightened noticeably.

“R-Really!”

As if it had been worth it to grovel no matter what we did.

“Are you serious?”

At that, Ibi frowned and lightly raised and lowered her arms, as if she didn't like the decision, but.

“Yeah.”

She soon realized my intention, relaxed her expression, and shook her head with a small smile.

“We, that is.”

Just in time, the injured, who had regained their strength after Lily's healing was over, belatedly came out of the iron cage.

As much as Lily was sweating with a somewhat tired expression, they looked so full of life that it was hard to believe they had been on the verge of death until just a moment ago.

“…….”

And, of vengefulness.

The boss they were glaring at was in a situation where he couldn't resist properly, with his arms and legs bound.

And just in time, Toric silently threw the axe he was holding in his hand—which was originally the boss's—in front of the boss.

As if to return it.

Clang!

The axe, which made a metallic sound as it hit the floor, was left lying there in front of the boss.

The boss, for a moment, looked down at the axe with a dazed expression.

And when he looked up again, his face, which had been flushed with anticipation until just a moment ago, had turned completely pale.

“W-Wait, the promise is different…”

『Kneel.』

I cut off the boss's words with a 「Word Command」.

“I told you, didn't I? We are the poetic justice that has come for you.”

Then, I looked down at him and said firmly.

“The one who suffered should be the one to repay it.”

Because that's poetic justice.

“W-Wait──”

The injured surrounded the boss.

Leaving behind the loud noises that began to echo, we left the prison.

“Hey.”

As the boss had said, Jude was tied up in his room.

“Heeik…!”

As soon as he saw us enter the room, he was so startled, as if he had seen a ghost, that he fell off the chair he was sitting on.

“I warned you, didn't I?”

I approached Jude step by step and raised one corner of my lips in a grin.

“I said not to get any ideas because I have no intention of letting her be taken.”

Jude, who had fallen to the floor, writhed with his bound arms and legs and crawled back on the ground.

But before long, he was blocked by a wall, and in the end, he looked up at us, leaning against that wall.

“W-Why are you guys here…”

Then he finally started to make a ridiculous excuse, and Ibi burst out laughing.

“You sold us out, you bastard.”

“Y-Yes? That can't be…”

Bang!

Ibi brought her foot next to Jude's face as if to kick him.

“I know everything, you bastard! You recognized me and tried to sell me out!”

“I-I'm sorry…!”

At Ibi's threat, Jude began to tremble with a face that looked like he was about to piss his pants.

“Pl-Please forgive me just once…!”

──Well, it's all an act though.

The apology, and the fear.

From the moment we first met him, he had been acting all along.

That his name was ‘Jude’ and he was a merchant.

“It's quite amusing to see you like this.”

It was now time to take off that mask.

“Luce.”