Volume 2 - CH 10

"Wow! There are so many more people here than usual! What is this!?"

"Is this some kind of festival? ......?

Hazuki was surprised to see that the streets of Oasis were different from what she knew.

From the entrance of the town, it was already a mountain of people, people, and people.

This city, where the Oasis is located, is not like a so-called "Labyrinth City" even though there are dungeons.

It's just an existing town with stores that sell supplies useful for dungeon conquest.

It is one of the few places in the desert that has a rich water source, so it has always had a lot of people coming and going.

Since it was developed from the beginning as the key to trade in the surrounding area, it was not built to be specialized for dungeons like the 【Labyrinth City】.

Even Hazuki, who knew beforehand that there were many people, could not hide her surprise at the number of people currently in front of her.

It was like a completely different landscape from the one she had once seen.

"No, maybe this isn't a festival, it's a triumphal parade."

In the center of the town, there was an unusually large number of people gathered in a corridor, and a group of people formed a line at the back of the enclosure.

Lilia, who was uncomfortable with people, hugged Mars' arm, and Hazuki hugged her as well.

"Triumphant?"

"I heard that when the dungeon had been captured. The kids were making a lot of noise."

Given what the crowd was saying, it was natural to assume so.

"It's amazing, isn't it? Oh, we were conquerors too!"

"Master has conquered two of them. And one of them is alone. The fact that such a large group of people are so excited about one thing shows the extent of ...... the extent of their folly. I'm sure it's a stupid animal that lives in the sand."

Lilia was both proud and condescending to the triumphant parade.

Mars found this part of Lilia cute, but also a little troubling.

Mars waded through the crowd and walked with the two of them to the front of the parade. He wanted to see who would be in the lead.

It was not a complex act of wisdom, but simply the guts of an onlooker.

A man was standing on top of the carriage, which was pretentiously built without a bed.

He was a short golden-haired man with dark skin.

He was tall and stocky, with a body that seemed to develop muscles on its own, without any special training.

He was dressed in a long, loose-fitting outfit that was cream-colored rather than white, and wore a jumble of golden accessories.

His thick arms were covered with tattoos, and Mars, who had the same crest, knew immediately that they were slave crests.

――How many people do you have to sign a slave contract with to get something like that? It looks like an awesome yankee ... I would never approach it when I was in Japan.

The loose-fitting clothes, face, and accessories make the man look even worse.

There is nothing strange about crouching in front of a convenience store in the middle of the night, unnecessarily intimidating anyone who approaches.

The procession of horse-drawn carriages continued deep into the distance.

There were nearly a thousand people in the line.

In the middle of the line, they were replaced by a group of people on foot, not in carriages, and their appearance was different from the people on the carriages.

They were dressed in shabby clothes and carried a large amount of luggage on their backs.

Apparently, more than half of the glamorous triumphalists were slaves.

Directly behind the dark-skinned man were two men and a woman who looked like his entourage.

The man was dressed in silver armor that could be found anywhere, but his eyes were sharp and his physique was over two meters tall, making him a very strong man. Behind him, you can see a sword that is bigger than a child's.

He was the power type, and I was not surprised to hear that he was a dungeon hunter.

The woman was a sharp-eyed figure with red hair, and she wore a woman's white armor with some decoration.

I thought she was beautiful, but she also looked tense and uncomfortable.

The two men who seemed to be part of the entourage had a different air from the rest of the soldiers, and there was a sense of tension even during the parade.

They did not hide the fact that they were wary of their surroundings.

――Who is the dark-skinned man? If he's using that many slaves, is he a ...... nobleman?　

Mars was also a businessman in his previous life, so he has some experience with people who are called "big shots". So He can guess that the man with the tattoo has some background.

The man with the tattoo had the air of someone who was born to be a winner, or someone who had achieved great things on his own.

He had the air of a champion who has become so accustomed to the envy and respect of others that he no longer thinks anything of it.

"He's from the Kingdom of Levent, isn't he ......?"

Hazuki, clinging to Mars' arm, blurted out.

Mars looked at Lilia, but Lilia gave a small shake of her head.

It was a gesture to show that she did not know.

Mars had a habit of turning to Lilia whenever he didn't know something.

"You know him, Hazuki-chan?"

"Y-yes, It's a rather close country. Our area doesn't belong to any country, but the tribes around us belong to the Kingdom of Levent. Many of the people in that country are a little dark like that. I think the king was like that too."

"Well, it's normal to get sunburned in this overly sunny environment. It's even stranger that you're still that white, Hazuki-chan."

Although not as white as Lilia, who could be described as pale, Hazuki itself is white.

"I'm an indoor person. More importantly, is there anything under the carriage ......? You know, the one with the light blue hair?"

"That's ......Hmm!? Cat ears!"

"Y-you can see well, can't you? All I can see is the color."

"Even without the 'Body Strengthening', my overall physical abilities are already extraordinary. For a normal person, it's like I'm constantly using 'Body Strengthening'. I knew it, It's had cat ears. And a tail. It's a different species."

Beneath the carriage, in a world dominated by horses' feet and wheels, there was a girl.　

She was a girl of a different race, with long, light blue hair that reached just below her shoulder blades and a tail that was as light blue as her hair sprouting from above her hips.

Looking at her from a distance, Mars noticed that the girl was small in stature. She was smaller than Lilia and Hazuki.

The girl is wearing a one-piece dress with a top and bottom that resembles a burlap sack the color of the soil, and is attached to a metal collar that is even more sturdy than Lilia's.

A leash extended from the collar, leading to the hand of the dark-skinned man above.

The lead seemed to be short by design, and the cat-eared girl on the leash managed to keep up with the convoy on tiptoe, her tail wagging.

Unlike the man on the carriage, she was not even allowed to wear shoes.

If she were to fall, she would inevitably get caught up in the horses' feet or wheels and be seriously injured.

Even if she didn't get run over, she would be hanged just from falling.

If the man was sitting down, there would still be room for him to lead, but if the taller man stood up, there would be less room for him to lead. This was the situation at the moment.

"It hurts! Don't pull it-nyaa!"

"You filthy beast, don't distract the crowd that's praising me. Who do you think is keeping you alive!?"

The eyes and voice of the dark-skinned man towards the cat-eared girl were cold, not something you would expect from the same person.

"My neck, it hurts-nya, I can't breathe-nya. ......!"

*pull*, and the man yanked up on the leash, and the girl with the cat ears floated completely in the air.

Twisting her fingers between the collar and her neck, the girl flailed her legs and tried desperately to resist, but her resistance was quickly stopped.

The man's cruel words completely took away the girl's physical freedom.

"『Weaken. Do not resist.』"

The back of the man's left hand shines with a dull light.

The activation of the slave crest, which even Mars, who has the same one, saw for the first time.

In spite of the life-threatening situation of hanging, the girl does nothing to resist but dangles her arms and legs slackly, her eyes wide open and her expression neutral and straight. The girl's weight was finally supported only by her thin neck.

All of her free will had been blocked by the slave crest.

*drip drip*, Mars felt the fire of life flicker faintly as tears flowed from the eyes of the girl who had lost the power to resist.

When Mars realized that the man didn't treat the girl as a living being, let alone a human being, his body moved forward of its own accord and stopped the parade in its tracks.

Almost as soon as the man cleaved his arm to the right, all the carriages stopped moving and monitored Mars' movements.

He knew he was obviously going to get into trouble, but his body moved.

Mars himself was surprised by his unconscious behavior, but after he became aware of it, he was convinced.

Even if he had thought about it with reason, he would have taken the same action in the end.

"Lilia!"

"Understood"

Mars didn't say anything about his business, but Lilia agreed and walked out of the group.

It was not difficult to imagine what Mars would order her to do in such a situation.

Mars also thought that Lilia would understand.

Her light ice-blue eyes sharpened with hostility, Lilia set the arrow in the middle of the movement of setting the bow on her back and shot out without pause.

The arrow flew in a straight line with a bashing sound, precisely piercing and cutting the lead connecting the girl and the man.

The girl, who fell to the ground with a thud, curled her body into a ball, coughed, and desperately sucked in air.

The red-haired woman in the entourage behind the tattooed man stood up bloodily at the obvious hostile behavior of Mars and Lilia, but the large man sitting next to her stopped the red-haired woman's movement by force.

Although he never said it in words, the large man was even grateful to Mars and Lilia for doing what he could not do himself.

Mars was not good enough to try to save everyone, but he would not overlook those who were in trouble in front of him, even those who were in an unreasonable situation.

He was confident that he could handle it.

The way to deal with this kind of people is the same no matter how the world changes.