CH 92

“How is it? Did you get the magical crystal?”

It was a voice that I had heard somewhere before. Uhhmm, where was it, though?

While I was unable to remember at all, a somewhat fluttering voice answered.

“It is not going so well.”

“What about the children?”

“It won’t be good if we don’t bring new ones soon. They are getting weaker.”

“Don’t just focus on this town and make it showy. Target the children from another town.”

“It’s alright. We will go after the children from the royal capital’s slums next, so we can kidnap as many children without any issue. More importantly, Mayor, I’m sure you’ve been getting quite a lot of rewards, right?”

“It will be distributed later.”

Mayor?!

Come to think of it, the voice from earlier was this town’s mayor’s… uhm, the one named Bowan, it was his voice!

Which means, the mayor was the mastermind behind this incident?!

I pressed my index finger against my mouth in order to stop Maa-kun from rushing out to the two people as we overheard their conversation.

Here, we should be gathering more information instead, Watson-kun… No, Maa-kun.

“Besides, I heard that the Izel fort’s knights came to this town just now. Isn’t it better for us to be quiet for a while?”

“But Count Rainier is coming for an inspection. We have to arrange the mass production system until then.”

Did they just mention Count Rainier’s name just now?

Could it be that the mastermind behind this case was that black-bellied raccoon geezer?!

“Then, how about asking that Count Rainier to help provide us with the children?”

“Idiot! If you were to say that, we won’t be able to keep our heads.”

I instantly understood that Count Rainier had nothing to do with this case from their words just before.

“Eh~. In other words, you’re crossing a dangerous bridge on your own, Mayor?”

“…It’s not like I am crossing such a dangerous bridge.”

“Well, as long as we can get good rewards, then it will be fine, right?”

The other person spoke as if he was a rogue or mercenary. For some reason, I felt like he had the presence of an outlaw.

I wanted to take a better look at him, but I got to endure. Endure it, me.

In mystery novels, someone who lost to their curiosity would show their face and be discovered by the culprit instead.

Fufun. The great detective Yuuri isn’t going to commit such a blunder~

The town mayor and the other seemed to have taken their leave,  so Maa-kun and I slowly turned up from behind the rock.

“The town mayor is the kidnapper, huh…?”

“What do we do, they talked something about the children’s condition weakening.”

“We have to hurry and save them!”

For the time being, I sensed that the town mayor had left, but the other man still remained in that place.

I wonder if he was guarding the dried well’s surrounding?

Which means, the possibility that the children were there was quite high.

If that was the case, I wonder if we could only force our way through from here, then?

As I readied myself to do so, a voice could be heard from inside the dry well.

Hearing that, the guarding man let down a rope ladder towards the dry well.

As I was observing the situation for a while, there were children coming out from inside the dry well.

“Everyone…!”

Maa-kun stifled his voice and whispered.

Hoo. As expected, the kidnapped children were indeed here. Thank goodness we were able to find them.

I continued to peek at the unfolding scene as I held my breath so that I wouldn’t be discovered.

After the man received something from the children, he chased the children away to go back inside the dry well in irritation. After making sure that all the children had descended, he pulled the rope ladder back up.

He then went somewhere else with the silver mass he had received from the children.

“Now’s our chance!”

I took Maa-kun’s hand and rushed up towards the dried well in a hurry.

But, what to do? If we were to drop the rope ladder and left it as it was, if the guard earlier were to come back, he’d find out that we had come here then.

As far as it goes, Frank-san and the others would come to the quarry in order to look for us who had gone missing, but if possible, I’d like to come together with those children before that.

For camouflage, it’d be better to raise the rope ladder again, but… Hmmm.

“Oh, yeah. Hey, Noir. Once we arrive at the bottom of the well, can you pull the rope ladder back up?”

“Speaking of which, that cat was actually bigger than that, right?”

“Yeah.”

It might be impossible for the small Noir to accomplish this task, but if Noir were to turn bigger, it should be fine.

When I asked whether Noir could do it or not, Noir cried, “Nyan,” and appeared from within my robe.

“Then, let’s hurry and go down to save everyone before the guard from earlier returns.”

“But what do we do to go back?”

“It will be alright. I will have Purun call Frank-san and the others. Right?”

Purun who had jumped out from my white cat robe after Noir then shook its body. It seemed to be totally willing to do that!

“Purun, please help us.”

After coming down to the ground, Purun returned to the path that we had originally taken with a speed that was unimaginable for a small slime.

“Be careful.”

“You too, you’re small, so don’t fall.”

At first, Maa-kun said that he’d go down first, but I firmly rejected that idea. After all, I was currently wearing a skirt. If Maa-kun were to look up, then my pants would be completely visible to him in that position.

After we carefully got down, I sent a signal to Noir. After Noir skilfully pulled the rope ladder back up, Noir turned back into its small kitten form and went down by pressing its feet against the wall of the dried well.

A small lantern that was lit by a magical crystal was set at the bottom of the dry well, so I could see the surroundings quite well.

There was a small hole at the bottom of the well, and apparently the children were sent to the bottom of that hole.

The hole was so small that children my age could barely go through it by crawling on all fours.

“I wonder if everyone is on the other side of this hole?”

“Let’s go!”

“Yeah.”

“Nyaa.”

Noir cried out, signalling us to follow after it. With Noir as the lead, we proceeded through the small hole.