Chapter 17 – Cleaning up Scum

"Alright." I tied up the soldier who was the ringleader to these group of rats that I just finished off. 

"...S-so you wouldn't kill me now?" He stutters to speak anymore as I made him breathless. 

"Yup." I just said. 

After the fight I found this guy grinding his ass on the back of this alley and after... Interrogating him a bit I managed to squeeze out the information about this whole situation.

I turn back with a rope pulling him with me, as I look back to what he just said. "So slave traders and the church in cahoots huh..." I mutter, as I glance at him a bit and saw him sweating when I look. 

From the information he told me; "We work for a slave trader by the name of Pucki, the one you met before. We were supposed to capture you and give him to you by his request." Is what he said. [...That's the whole reason for capturing me huh...] This whole thing makes me wanna puke, and the fact how he told me that the guy wanted me to become his personal sex slave is even more so. [Thinking of that wrinkly face being on top of me is...] I unconsciously put my hands in my mouth. 

I then ask him why he gets the right to do that and this is what he said. "Although I'm only in name but that Pucki converted to the Church of Kurumi not too long ago and we as his goons follow suit. The reason is definitely the right to discriminate against the Demis like you..." He mentioned the reason he knew this is because he was the one doing his orders. Which he look scared about so I didn't bother further.

So from what he said, it seems that the slave traders have all been converting to Kurumism recently when a church for Kurumi was erected a year ago. As the slave traders most definitely and opportunistically used it to begin harassing the brothels and selling them outside the city. He didn't know where it was headed to but most likely not in a good place. 

[And the church's role is to...] If the church were righteous they would have excommunicated the slave traders but instead were helping them by covering for the goons like this one when they were harassing the first by telling that they were the ones to start the fight first and to help the traders with transporting them.

I ask him how they were getting away with that but he just said, "I dunno, all I ever heard is that they have some nobles that we're backing them." He said. 

After all that I made a deep sigh. [What the heck happened to this church?] Kidnapping, helping slave traders, harrasing, discrimination and getting involved with politics? [Oh how the mighty had fallen.] Back in the game although I spar with her a lot I still admire how she handles her religion. 

She doesn't forcefully convert the people and instead let them decide for themselves, does not attack non-believers and cooperates with them by saying that the demons are the one true threat in this world and that all humans, no matter what belief, should strive for that goal. 

Very idealistic but the people latch on to it and made the light faction which were on the brink of collapse reinvigorated and made dominant through her efforts. Especially after the Slave rebellion when she started helping out the humanoid races as well and joined her ranks. 

But after what I witnessed today. [Kurumi what happened?] She would definitely not take this mockery of her religion lightly, either something happened to her or she quit. One or another. 

I took a deep sigh again as I leave the alley and the light of Sunna and Sol reach in contact to my body. A very bloody stained one at that. 

[I wonder how I'll fix the faith...] Even if it's not in my script it's my friend's creation after all so I want to help it if I can. 

"Now where did that little bugger go..." I look around to see where that little Mary had gone to, I look around to finally see her.... 

...Along with a man wearing a robe next to a carriage. 

"Mary!" I shouted immediately, as I ran as fast as I could leaving to guy with the ropes a chance to escape. But I didn't care one bit. 

"M-Mori-san! See!? She's the one that I was—" Before she ended her sentence, the man with the robes forcefully grab her up. 

"Yes yes nice friend so let's meet her later!" The bastard grips onto Mary's arms and tries to pull her to the carriage door. "P-please don't! Don't be so rough! It's Mori-san!" But she struggles, with impatients he tries to pull her even harder, causing her to lose her position and have her knees scraped onto the ground. 

"No! Don't!" Hearing Mary's cries for help reminds me of my first encounter of her. But instead of being calculative and careful I ran with rage and anger. 

"Just come ins—" Before he could pull Mary in. "Like hell I'll let you do that!" I shouted as I reach the carriage and hit the horse of the carriage's ass with my Collita. 

Neeeiigghh~~! The horse, which in the driver's dismay, reacts violently to it's stab in the ass as it immediately starts galloping away, along with the carriage. leaving the robed guy behind. 

As I put my Collita back on the bag. [Now where the fuck are you!] I thought as I growl like a beast finding him 

He's laying down on the ground in a dumb position. "O-oh p-ple—!" The guy begs for me with mercy before receiving a blow in the face. 

The guy was sent sliding across the dirt pavement, as I see blood scraping from his skin as he lays down defeated. 

"...Ple—ough!" He begs at me multiple times.

He also drops a few of his items when I pound him, the most notable one is. "So I guess priests fiddling with children isn't an Earth thing after all." it's the Kurumi halo. 

[So this is the scum...] It's the priest that was in the alley earlier, I realized after the fight he disappeared, so I was wondering where he gone to. [This! This fucking slug...!] I look at him with absolute disdain, worst than any rat, worst than any cockroach, I would rather lick a shit than for this person to exist, then again they're no different right now. 

"Mary, tell me what happened." I look at Mary, who's shaking from the events that transpired to her. [I'll definitely repay you for this..] She got involved in this mess, a child that should be playing and having fun right now, almost got kidnapped. A huge debt has been filed onto my mind. 

Seeing my calmer expression, Mary finally spoke. "Uhm... Y-you see..." And she explains. "He told me that you were hurt and is being cared by the church so...." She starts shaking again. "I-i was so worried t-that I b-believed—!" She clung onto my clothes as her sentences becomes muddled.

"There there, no need to experience that again." I pat and caress her head to calm her down. [Now then...] I look at the main issue, my smile fading. 

I look at this old man with blood on his clothes. "What the heck are you doing you scum?" I spoke so coldly and sharply Mary let out a squirm. 

I patted Mary's head again to calm her down, and look once again at the man laying down. "Answer." I kick his body for a response. 

".....W-why would I... Cough! Answer an elf like y—" The priest is spitting blood but I don't care, and since he's resisting, I kick him again. "If you don't answer...." I sat down and whisper. "You're dead." A simple, straightforward answer. But I'm scared that Mary might run away if she heard it.

I stood back up again. "...Fine then!" The priest suddenly got active. "I-I needed to take that child away from you! You fiend!" He coughs again. "I cannot let a child of Kurumi-sama be manipulated by the likes of you!" He coughs once again. "After all you're a demon and wielding a cursed weapon!" He shouts loudly. Making Mary scared so I kick him again to silence. [How dare you insult my Collita.] I thought cold, kicking him even harder for involving something again. 

But I read what the priest said. [What a newspeak way of kidnapping someone.] I don't believe it one bit. Not only my own bias but it's filled with righteous platitudes, which usually means they don't have a better reason. 

Plus, "No! Mori-nee is my friend and sister!" She finally stood up and answered the priest's accusations. [What a good girl.] I patted her yet again.

But, I look behind me. "Hey you, do you know the real reason why he did this?" It's the soldier guy that I tied up earlier. [I'm surprised he didn't escape.] I thought. 

But anyways. "I thought only the demi-humans would be taken." I said to him. [If making humans as slaves is acceptable then I have no choice but to...] I thought of the most drastic actions I have to do with the church in my mind.

But luckily he spoke quick. "Yes... That is usually the case." He pauses. [Good.] I don't have to burn the church to the ground. They're consistent in only enslaving humanoids.

He continues, "But if you were to ask me his reasons than it's probably..." He starts wondering. "Since this priest and Pucki are allies, he would probably take the kid and give her to Pucki as either his toy are to be used as a hostage, or both most likely." Is his explanation. 

"I see..." I could only nod in response but. "Mori-san I'm scared!" my anger is slowly filling up and although it doesn't show. "Don't worry Mary, I'll deal with this." I'm seriously pissed. 

"Tsk! You fucking rat! How there you fucking sold us! I'll make sure that you—!" He talks too much. 

"You're worst than a rat." I kick him in the face again. As he once again slides through the ground. 

"Alright, I got the information I need." I walk slowly towards him and grabs him by the neck. "...I don't wanna make Mary scared by seeing your ribs get pulled apart so I'll give you poison instead." I whisper. "Don't worry, you won't die a painless death, it'll slowly shut down every function of your body except the brain and will rot your body until you die from it's pain. It might take months so I hope you'll fully taste it." I whisper in his ear before looking at his sorry state.

He's sweating, his eyes shaking, gritting his teeth and strangely... Smiling. "Hahahahahahahaaahh....!?!!!" I might have accidentally flip his switch. 

[Yup, he's screwed.] Literally and figuratively. 

But I hope he only did laugh and not said anything else. He stood up even in his sorry state. "Hahaha.... I will... I will be killed by a demon!" He shouts. "A DEMON!" He shouts loudly, so loud and disturb that I let him go. 

"Demon! Demon! Monster! Hahaha.... I will die by the hands of a demon!" He scratches his head, laughs maniacally and making dramatic movements.

"Mori-san I'm scared!" Mary hides behind me now. 

"...I can't believe this is the guy I was being ordered by before..." Even the guy in ropes is in awe by this development as he backs off from him. 

But still. "Haha a demon will kill a priest!" He is bringing unwanted attention. 

"What is he..." "Demon?" "Maybe it's her?" "But he's..."

The people around on the surroundings, from across the street and just from back on the corner of the road. Began noticing and murmuring about the situation around us. 

[Crap!] I completely forgotten about the people around me, although I did notice that this place is pretty lacking, there are still people. Plus with the priest's ramblings people are definitely gonna be curious about this. 

"Tsk." I snicker. [I should have shove my boot on his mouth instead.] I'll remember this lesson for the future. 

"Hahaha get exposed demon!" The priest gained a little bit of his sanity back as he took advantage of this situation. 

"The fuck are you talking about?" I said with cold but clueless demeanor. [Do not tilt. Do not act out or you'll be the loser.] From my time on Earth it is common sense that even if it's not your fault, if you act violent first you'll be seen by people as the aggressor. 

[Which is why pervy protagonist get away with what they do.] I thought as a supplement. 

"Haha you won't be getting away with this monster!" He shouts loudly, which causes the crowd to focus on me. 

[But this is a lot of eyes staring at me.] Back on Earth I'm never really good at talking to large crowds so I'll be moot for now. 

"She's trying to manipulate that child!" He points to Mary. 

To which she responds loudly, "No! You're the one that tried to get me! Not Mori-san!" She shouts hiding behind me as she holds onto my clothes. 

"See! She's—" I interrupt him to protect Mary's honor. "What—" But it seems that my interruption has been interrupted. "The child is right."

The people immediately notice the third party. "Hiie!" "It's him!" "The young merchant!"

"It's you Myidari!" I shouted in surprised. 

Not only him, but the other three as well, and even some more people with similar-styled dresses came forward from the crowd.

"Hmm... We all saw what happened Morus." He looks behind from confirmation. 

"Hoho! what an heinous deed done in daylight!" From Molsch. 

"I like my women young but not that young!" From Chelskivek. 

"...Scum." From Tremann. 

He also looks at the guys behind them and they similarly nodded and said the same type of response. Pure disgust. 

"I see..." I take a deep breath in relieve that I'm the one that they look at with innocence.

But there is one that is not happy about this. "W-who are you people?!" It's the mad priest. 

"Me and my family and several other fine gentlemen here are just a group of El Niño merchants that saw a particularly bad dealing going on." Myidari, representing the merchants said. "So we merchants decided to stop this farce father." He calmly explain to him. 

The mad priest reacted violently. "Huh?! How could you damn merchants listen to the words of a demon instead of a priest!" He shouted loudly. 

[Man, this is getting intense.] I thought as I look behind me and see that the guy I put in a rope is being grab by someone.

"That's because we trust that person rather than a Kurumi priest that has only been established a year ago acting like they own the city." He harshly said. 

On my side. "I'll be taking over here now. I apologize for your inconvenience." A particularly tall man wearing armor said to me as he walks into the scene. 

"What heresy! You must be—" Before he could continue ranting. "Hello priest." The man that I talk to a bit says with bluntness, as the loud priest suddenly turned pale. "...Ar-are you...." For the first time he said something that isn't him shouting.

"I'm glad you know of me, priest." He said with no sugarcoat at all. "I'll be taking care of you now along with this guy." He says as he pulls along the roped guy that he took from me. 

The priest frantically looks around and stares at Myidari with rage. To which Myidari chuckles at him. "Yes father, I rightfully informed the captain of the guards about this situation." He answered like he knew what was going on through the priest's head. "They are surrounding you right now." He added. 

[So that's why the priest froze...] He's the captain of the guard, he is in charge of enacting law and order in the whole city. For someone like the priest that does his kind of work, the tall armoured man holding him is his biggest enemy. 

But still. "You... Merchants...!" He acts out and dashes to Myidari. 

"No you don't." He immediately grab the priest's neck and pins him down. 

[There's reckless and there's you.] He is just plain stupid for attempting to assault Myidari. 

Myidari got an even bigger grin than before. "You see priest your organization has only existed for a year or so in El Niño. While we El Niño merchants have been residents and been serving it's people for generations and helped built this wonderful city of ours. So compared to our proud and rich history, what do you have?" He said as he bends down and looks at the priest with a coy smile and squinted eyes. 

He stood up, spread his arms out and looks not only his fellow merchants but the people as well. "Hoho that's right! I was birthed by this city and will die in it!" "My life and friends all belong here!" "...This is my home." The three said. 

"Of course!" "We love this city very much!" "We can't have foreigners loitering around!" 

The citizens unanimously sided with Myidari. 

[Damn... What a crowd pleaser.] I thought, Myidari is the exact opposite of me in terms of that. [But I'm a foreigner too...] In fact I'm not even in this world. 

"You...!" The priest tries one more shout. "Well that settles it, you can shout all you want when we give you your sentence." And with that the priest completely fell silent and obediently obeys the guard captain as he and the guy that I put in a rope was dragged out and put them in a carriage. 

As the two of them left. "Hoooo...!!!!" "For the guard captain!" "Myidari you're so handsome!" The crowd cheered Myidari and the guard captain. 

"You'll gonna be explaining some things now Morus." Said by Myidari as he scratches his head in an apology. 

"As much as I want to thank you I'll need to know your story first." The guard captain said. 

"Let's talk it in the carriage okay?" He shows me his carriage. 

•••

Right now me and Mary are in a carriage with Myidari and his family and the guard captain inside, with me explaining what transpired. As Mary falls asleep and the rest of Myidari's family in another part of the carriage.  

"Well my guards will take care of the bodies." The captain said. "I swear on my name of Lefer Garde to ignore the damage you caused to the bodies." He said as he bows down to me. 

"No no no I caused you so much—" But I was interrupted. "Don't be, you caused us great help in routing the hoodlums that were harassing the establishments around here and finally caught the main guy behind all of this. So I have our gratitude to you." Lefer said. 

"Hey don't forget about me!" Myidari jokingly said to him. "Oh yeah, I also thank Myidari for reporting to us the fighting going on." Lefer said. 

"Hmm?" I made with surprise. [I thought you only reported him recently.] I wondered, but Myidari seem to notice my confusion and answer for me. 

"Well to tell you the truth I saw you fighting with them much earlier. We actually went to the same direction as you have and notice you clashing blades. I was talking to some other merchants at the time so I didn't caught up to you immediately but I made sure to report it to Lefer." Myidari explains. "To think we actually caught the big fish!" He laughs afterwards. 

"Yes but I wonder how the church will react to this?" I ask the two of them. 

"Well you see..." Myidari stops laughing. "It will definitely damage their reputation but won't destroy them." He said with a sad expression. 

[Well that's obvious.] It's a religion, something people believe in. Even if it's bad it's hard to get rid of something that people believe in. 

But I was curious anyways so I ask. "Why?"

Myidari answers my question. "Well you see from what I heard the church has a practice of prematurely disassociating with clergymen that they order to do these dirty dealings. So if they are caught they would say that the priest is acting on his own." He explains. With Lefer encouraging him. "Well but this time is good, the priest acted disgracefully and violent in front of many witnesses. Unlike the ones I caught which were in the middle of the night, so this case would definitely hurt the Kurumist's reputation." Lefer said to me in a smile. 

[Well, at least I have allies now.] I really thought that I'd be fighting alone for a while but I'm glad that I got allies with me this early. 

[Well, just wait Kurumi... I'll definitely change the course of your legacy.] I happily thought. I dunno how long it'll take, but I'll do it. 

Then the motion of the carriage finally stops. "Oh we're here." Myidari said with surprise. 

"Yeah..." I said. [Damn, I was so late...] But I also expected to be here much later. What a weird contradiction in my head. 

"Well Morus, here." Lefer gave me a small emblem-like pin. "This is proof that I gave you my recommendation. I already called on them to join you in so I hope it'll helps." He kindly said to me. 

"Oh! Although I dunno how this will help you but I also made them nudge to join you in more easily." Myidari said to my with a wide grin. Scary.

"Well okay... Hey Mary we're here." I nudge the sleepy Mary up and she quickly got up to leave the carriage with a yawn. 

As we leave the carriage I wave goodbye to them one last time before looking at the building in front of me. 

"We're finally here Mary." I said to her, to which she smiles. "Yup!" Mary joyfully shouts. 

"...Yeah." I look forward to the rough but sturdy big building in front of me. 

The Adventurer's Guild.

•••

Back in the carriage. 

"You think she's right?" Myidari ask Lefer something dangerous. 

"Of course, I would burn them as promised but the damage caused was...." Lefer holds his mouth. He gulps down his throat before talking to Myidari again. "But you trust her right?" He asks this time.

"Well yes, she's very attractive but not only that..." Myidari goes onto his pocket and grabs a Kurumi halo. "We have similar ambitions after all." He grips it tightly. "But of course I need to keep distance from her. Don't want to get too close you know?" He says with a coy look.

"Hm, you need to be friends outside your family you know?" Lefer says with a chuckle. 

"Hah! Like you had any right or say that." Myidari laughs. 

Both of them laugh through the whole ride. 

Chaaruzu_Corne