The short old man, the boss of the disgusting gang of men, began to tremble.
His hands were clenched into fists and his partially gold-plated teeth began to chatter.
He was annoyed to see his men standing still while receiving the pressure exerted by Jeanne.
"What are you guys doing? Don't be afraid! Just follow my orders and capture her! We'll gain a lot if we can capture her."
He gave the order loudly.
The ears of his men were even stretched wide because of the loudness of his voice. They covered their ears with their hands.
That was why his men regained consciousness.
One of the short old man's men who was holding the whip also came to his senses. He was the one whose whip had been cut by Jeanne's shield.
When he regained consciousness, he readied the whip in his hand.
He prepared to attack Jeanne.
Although the whip in his hand had already been cut off, when he randomly pulled and whipped at the ground, it suddenly returned to its original size.
'That must be a magic item.
[Name: Whip of Lizard
Grade: Low
Description: When the whip is cut off, you can grow it again by using your Mana. Due to the low grade of the magic item, durability and attack power are the same as regular whip].
Looking at those who used magic items, it was obvious they weren't ordinary people.
They must be very wealthy, so they can flaunt magic items as if they were commonplace.
It would be a different story if the adventurer was low-rank. If a low-rank adventurer or an ordinary person dared to walk around carrying magic items carelessly, they would be extorted by fools on the streets.
Although most adventurers had their magic items, no one dared to show them off.
After whipping carelessly into the air, he threw his whip with all his might toward Jeanne.
His whip, which came back to normal again, attacked Jeanne like a snake pegging a little frog.
Despite his vigorous efforts, his attacks aimed at Jeanne came to nothing. His attacks became useless.
Grab!
The end of the whip he threw was caught by Jeanne with her bare hands.
"Eh? How did you catch my attack?"
Even though he asked with a stupid expression on his face, he still did not get an answer to his question.
Instead, he had to respond to Jeanne's counterattack.
As soon as she caught the whip that intended to strike her, Jeanne immediately pulled the whip with all her might.
And the result was, as if the man's body was falling from a height of thousands of feet, his body simply floated forward. He launched like a rocket in a horizontal line.
On the other hand, Jeanne prepared her shield.
She prepared to greet the man's arrival with a rousing welcome.
Swoosh!
Crack!
Welcoming the man's arrival, Jeanne pushed the shield in her hand with all her might.
The shield hit the man in the face, turning the man's face into mush as it hit Jeanne's shield.
"Kkiiekk!"
A strange sound came from the man's mouth.
I'm sure it was very painful.
Was it the nose bone, cheekbone, or some other internal part of the face that caused him to make such a strange sound? What was clear was that whatever it was must have been crushed when it hit Jeanne's shield.
I was sure that even a cat would run away in fear at the sight of his mangled face.
Considering that there was no plastic surgery in this world, I was sure he would have days of torture because people would laugh at him.
After finishing off that one person, Jeanne immediately ran like crazy. She ran to attack the other enemies.
Like a raging bull, she charged at them one by one using her shield. All of them who were hit by her were instantly knocked off their feet and fell unconscious.
It wasn't like her enemies were just standing by. They also didn't remain silent when they were rammed. They also attacked using weapons in their hands. Even so, their attacks did not cause any impact on Jeanne's body.
Ching!
Cha-clank!
Their attacks could not even touch her body because they were blocked by the shield she was using.
Pathetic! That was the only appropriate description to reflect their struggle. Their abilities were miles away from Jeanne's.
The reason Jeanne could easily fight them was that Jeanne had activated her Berserk skill.
Berserk skill.
It wasn't just an ordinary skill like the Rage skill of the leader of the Black Box Organization in the city of Ryam that I had fought.
Although the two skills could both increase the user's power instantly, however, the level of increase was very different.
Moreover, even though Jeanne was overcome with anger, she did not lose consciousness. She could still distinguish between opponents and allies. Evidently, she only attacked the enemy without harming the children.
If left unchecked, of course, the children would have been hurt indirectly. That's where my role was. I had to secure the children. At least keep them away from Jeanne's battle arena.
One by one, the burly and disgusting men let go of their attention to the children they had tied up. They focused on defeating Jeanne.
There were approximately 30 of them.
The more enemies Jeanne faced, the more children I could save.
Amid the chaos caused by Jeanne, I focused on escorting the children away from Jeanne's fight.
At first, they were confused about my identity. However, they finally obeyed me after they were convinced by the little boy who had come with Jeanne and me. If I'm not mistaken, Jeanne called that little boy Colby.
"Your name is Colby, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Does the number of children here include all the children in the orphanage?"
"Emmm."
He began to watch the children's faces closely. At some point, he began to look very nervous. It was as if the person he was looking for was not in the line of children.
"Hey, have you seen Nina?"
Colby asked the children who had moved away and were in a safe place.
"A-Ano..."
One of the children tried to answer. But he hesitated as if he felt very guilty. However, with Colby's insistence, the kid finally told the story
The child named Nina, who was wanted by Colby, turned out to be the first and only child who dared to fight against a group of burly and disgusting men.
"I-I don't know how she is now, but she sacrificed herself so that the other children could escape."
After hearing what that kid had to say, I understood the reason why he was so hesitant when he was about to tell me.
I felt bad seeing Colby and the other kids' expressions. They looked at me as if they were kittens begging to be rescued.
"Hmm?"
'It's useless. I'm not someone who will be moved when you see me like that.'
Yes, I ignored the pleading gazes shown by the children.
Actually, I had my own plan to solve the problem here.
I turned my gaze towards Jeanne's fight with that group of burly and disgusting men.
'It looks like Jeanne can finish them off with her own hands.'
I'd better let Jeanne unleash her tantrum.
She had to let out the emotions in her heart when she activated the Berserk skill. Moreover, she could get stronger by facing them with the Berserk skill. So, there was no reason for me to interfere.
Amidst the chaos caused by Jeanne, I walked into the orphanage. I held my chin and ignored all the noise around me.
Even if there were some burly and disgusting men flying around with blood oozing from their faces, I still walked casually. Of course, every now and then, I dodged so as not to disturb the fight.
There was more and more dust in the air. There was also the smell of blood, but it was very faint.
While the chaos was still all around me, I kept walking like a person focused on the exam.
In that strange scene, I started to think about some things. I started to think about the cause of all this.
Vaguely, I could guess why these people dared to come and kidnap the children so openly.
They must have powerful people behind them. Or, they already had the power to back up what they were doing.
Looking at the outline, I was starting to feel nostalgic feeling about this incident.
Maybe this looked a bit different.
However, I was vaguely feeling as if I knew some things about this incident.
I scratched my hair a little, removing some twigs that were blocking my thoughts.
"Hmmm?"
Finally, what I was waiting for came too.
[Memorize Skill - Active.]
Suddenly, the Memorize skill activated after I felt that faint feeling earlier.
In fact, I was just roughly groping for my memories. However, it turned out that the events happening now were indeed connected to the events in the novel.
Well, let's just say that I was fishing for the Memorize skill to activate. Who would have thought that it would actually activate?
Slowly, the memories I had of the events around me became clear. I started to remember every detail of the events that might have a connection with the events around me. Where the events happened in the novel Demon Lord and the Hero of Light.
So that you can become more understand better, let me tell you how the story happened in the novel Demon Lord and the Hero of Light, in the proper chronological order.