Ch.372[Episode 372] Kidnapping

“…Huh?”

“What on earth…”

When Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica arrived at the spot where Unryu Hime and Alice had been, only Hime was there, collapsed for some reason.

Hime’s trademark ears and tail were drooping, her body curled up in a circle like a sleeping fox.

“Where has our lord gone?”

Sir Dominic looked around, searching for Lady Alice.

However, there was no trace of Lady Alice to be found anywhere.

No, there were traces here and there, but Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica’s eyesight wasn’t particularly good, so they couldn’t detect those clues.

Unable to find Lady Alice, Sir Dominic approached Hime and woke her up.

“Lady Hime? Lady Hime?”

“Ugh… uugh…”

Sir Dominic placed his hand on Hime’s shoulder and shook her gently to wake her.

Hime made uncomfortable sounds as she struggled to open her eyes.

“Lady Hime, are you conscious?”

“Sir… Sir Dominic?”

Even in her half-asleep state, Hime accurately recognized Sir Dominic.

Then she began to wonder why her head was so dizzy, why Sir Dominic was so close to her, and why she was lying face down on the ground.

Her mind, which had been working slowly at first, began to race.

The information in Hime’s head quickly came together.

And finally, remembering everything, Hime jumped to her feet.

“A-Alice! Where is Alice?”

Hime remembered that she had lost consciousness from the attack by the Man in Black.

And in her fading consciousness, she vaguely remembered seeing the Man in Black approaching Alice.

Though it wasn’t a clear memory, Hime frantically looked around.

As expected, there was no sign of Alice.

“Calm down. What exactly happened?”

“Ah.”

At Sir Dominic’s words, Hime felt her confused mind settling down.

Until now, she had been panicking without giving a proper explanation.

Hime instantly calmed her mind through ninja techniques, then briefly explained the situation to Sir Dominic.

“There was an attack. At first, he approached showing interest in Alice, but when she kept refusing, he suddenly knocked me unconscious and-“

Hime paused after saying that much, taking a moment.

She needed to organize her still-complicated thoughts.

“So, after knocking me unconscious… I think he kidnapped Alice.”

“!”

“Are you sure?”

Sir Dominic’s eyes widened, seemingly shocked by Hime’s words.

Sir Dominica asked Hime again if it was true, unable to believe this fact, but Hime nodded, though somewhat confused.

“We were together until just now. If she’s gone, it’s one of two things. Either she was kidnapped by that person, or she’s hiding somewhere nearby watching us panic.”

After saying that, Hime looked around once more.

But there was no trace of Alice anywhere.

No, there were traces.

On the ground were what appeared to be a man’s footprints and marks where dirt had been pushed aside as if something had been dragged.

With those traces, Hime became completely convinced that Alice had been kidnapped.

Sir Dominic was the most confused in this chaotic situation.

Lady Alice was Sir Dominic’s… lord.

What knight wouldn’t be confused when told that such a person had been kidnapped?

But Sir Dominic wasn’t just confused.

He was thinking about who might have kidnapped Lady Alice and where they might have taken her.

While Gachaland had its fair share of criminals, there weren’t many who would cause incidents in broad daylight like this.

Those who committed crimes so openly fell into two categories.

One was the bands of thieves encountered in the thief event in Gachaland’s back alleys, and the other was…

“Mountain Bridge Marsh.”

It was Mountain Bridge Marsh.

Sir Dominic thought further.

Although Lady Alice had her powers sealed when coming to Gachaland, she was originally someone few could match even in her mortal days.

Such a person was kidnapped?

If so, the probability that it was Mountain Bridge Marsh’s doing was even higher than some back alley small fry.

Sir Dominic closed his eyes for a moment and carefully considered who might have the strength to kidnap Lady Alice.

And for some reason, Sir Dominic thought of one person’s face.

It was the Man in Black.

While narrowing down the suspects, Sir Dominic asked Hime one thing.

“Lady Hime.”

“Yes.”

“Did the kidnapper look like this?”

Sir Dominic took out a photo from his phone and showed it to Hime.

Hime looked at the photo for a moment, then looked at Sir Dominic with surprised eyes.

As if wondering how Sir Dominic had a photo of the kidnapper.

I see, it’s him. Sir Dominic thought, seeing Hime’s reaction.

In fact, Sir Dominic had the Man in Black’s photo because when the Man in Black had brought a script featuring Sir Dominic as the protagonist in the past, he had arbitrarily taken a selfie with Sir Dominic’s phone.

Sir Dominic wasn’t the type to keep his phone neatly organized, so the Man in Black’s photo remained saved in Sir Dominic’s album, and by chance, it could be used today to find the culprit.

It was truly an incredible coincidence.

As soon as the culprit was confirmed, Sir Dominic made a call somewhere.

To be precise, he took out a business card from his inventory and dialed the number on it.

Sir Dominic anxiously listened to the dial tone, praying for the other person to answer.

And…

Click.

[“Hello?”]

The voice Sir Dominic had been waiting for came from the other end of the receiver.

…

The Man in Black took the unconscious Alice to a very secret space.

It was a warehouse with shipping containers and boxes scattered randomly, a newly created area in Gachaland.

This place was optimal for hiding as it hadn’t been activated yet.

The Man in Black leaned the limp, eyes-closed Alice against a shipping container and walked to the empty space right next to it.

He put firewood into a cut drum barrel standing alone in the open space and lit a fire.

The drum barrel became a bonfire, crackling as it burned in the open space.

The Man in Black glanced at the sky.

The sun was still in the sky but was beginning to hide itself beyond the horizon.

The Man in Black looked at the clouds floating in the sky.

The clouds were repeatedly dispersing and gathering as they drifted lightly.

Looking at those clouds, the Man in Black sighed.

A very heavy sigh, contrary to the light clouds.

“…Why did I do that then?”

The Man in Black messed up his hair in frustration.

It was frustration about the incident of kidnapping Lady Alice just now.

The Man in Black fell in love with Alice at first sight.

And to catch Alice’s eye, he approached her when Sir Dominic wasn’t around.

And… for some reason, the Man in Black knocked Alice unconscious and kidnapped her.

Though he had lost his reason, the Man in Black had committed a crime.

“…What’s done is done. Now I need to find a solution.”

The Man in Black regretted the past, but the past was already spilled water.

Instead, the Man in Black needed to make plans for the future.

From the Man in Black’s perspective, Lady Alice was Sir Dominic’s person.

That meant he would inevitably clash with Sir Dominic.

The Man in Black got goosebumps just thinking about confronting Sir Dominic.

Even when he was tier 3 in the past, Sir Dominic was equal to or greater than the Man in Black.

And now he was tier 4.

It was just a difference of one tier, but the Man in Black knew that one difference was like heaven and earth.

Having to confront the tier 4 Sir Dominic?

The Man in Black shook his head.

In the Man in Black’s opinion, a confrontation with Sir Dominic was the worst option.

So how could the Man in Black avoid a confrontation with Sir Dominic while somehow muddling through this situation?

“Yes! That’s it!”

Just then, a good idea came to the Man in Black’s mind.

Before the good idea could leave his mind, the Man in Black immediately began preparing his plan.

Sir Dominic was an experienced knight, quite familiar with these kinds of situations.

Surely if he stayed relaxed, he would be crushed before he could do anything.

To avoid being crushed, he needed to quickly establish and execute a plan from now on.

To others, it might seem like excessive worry, but what happened next showed that the Man in Black’s actions were not excessive at all.

The Man in Black’s phone rang.

He looked at the caller ID.

It was Sir Dominic.

As expected.

I knew Sir Dominic would find out right away. The Man in Black thought as he answered the phone.

“Hello?”

As the Man in Black answered Sir Dominic’s call, his mind began to endlessly think about his plan.

His eyeballs began to roll wildly, reflecting what was happening in his mind.