The Best Merchandise (3)

“We’ll hold them off and escape! You go ahead first!”

Based on their high loyalty, Herman’s subordinates offered to sacrifice themselves to buy time in the face of the sudden raid by the city guard. Herman, whose face had turned pale as the plan went awry, couldn’t refuse their words.

“Run quickly!”

Herman hurriedly left the place with a few men and the elf. If they could just enter the maze-like alleys of the slums, they could find some breathing room.

‘They’re a bit late.’

Isilia, who was watching this from the rooftop of a nearby building, frowned at the city guard who had arrived a step too late and stood up from her spot.

If left like this, the city guard wouldn’t be able to catch Herman. Of course, having lost many of his subordinates, he wouldn’t be able to do any activities for a while, but that alone wasn’t enough.

It would be stupid not to deliver the final blow after driving them this far.

“Let’s go. Track them.”

“—!”

In the end, Isilia instructed the wind spirits to chase after Herman’s group, and she herself leaped down and started pursuing them.

With the wind spirits attached and the area being dirt ground, the earth spirits could also track the enemies’ position.

Although she sometimes got lost in the alleys due to not knowing the local geography as well as the enemies, Isilia, who had a navigation system, finally succeeded in catching up to Herman’s fleeing group.

‘No choice.’

Seeing the blonde elf being dragged along painfully among them, Isilia clicked her tongue and used the earth spirits to instantly pull up a pillar from the ground.

Isilia, who leaped into the air using the pillar that had shot out as if propelling her light body, crossed an enormous distance as if flying, and with the fierce wind supporting her body, landed lightly right in front of them in one go.

“Waaagh!?”

As someone small suddenly came down from the sky with a gust of wind and blocked their path, Herman and his gang, who had been fleeing frantically, stopped in their tracks and recoiled in shock.

“Wh-who are you!”

Herman, who had fallen into panic, drew his sword and pointed it at Isilia. He and his entire gang were already in a state of confusion.

The one blocking their path now was just a single girl, but no one dared to step forward first.

‘Could that child be…?’

She, who was breathing heavily through the gag covering her mouth, looked at the girl with dazed eyes.

The girl, who had covered herself with a hooded cape, was wearing a maid’s outfit, but she and everyone else present knew that this girl was no ordinary maid.

At the same time, she thought that perhaps this girl might be the one who had sent her the voice.

“What are you standing there blankly for. Catch her!”

Eventually, Herman moved his subordinates first. The subordinates, who had been watching cautiously, drew their daggers, clubs, and other weapons, and at his command, all rushed towards the girl at once.

It didn’t seem like that tiny child could fend off these fierce men.

“Aaaargh!”

“M-my legs!”

But with a strong vibration, they all tumbled to the ground or fell on their backsides as they were rushing in.

The ground split and stone pillars jutted out, tripping their legs or striking their bodies hard.

Not expecting such attacks to spring from the ground, they were all wiped out at once.

“Th-this can’t be…”

Herman trembled as he saw his subordinates, who had been wiped out in one go, groaning on the ground. It had already gone beyond the realm of expectations.

Elf or whatever, the whole situation felt like a nightmare.

“Damn it!”

He pulled something out from his chest and pointed it at the girl. She, who had been trying to slink away, widened her eyes when she saw it.

Shorter than a dagger, but with a black muzzle protruding, it was an ancient weapon that could shoot and kill the opponent with a single finger pull.

Restored firearms are strategic assets strictly managed by the armies of each country, but as always, there were not a few that had spread to the underworld. Especially the smaller ones were easier to hide and divert.

‘No!’

She looked at the girl in shock. Mythical weapons that can deliver a mana-ignoring strike are fatal even if their level is high.

Herman, whose eyes had already rolled back, finally pulled the trigger as soon as he aimed the pistol, and the fired bullet flew quickly and lodged into the girl’s body.

“Huh…?”

However, the girl didn’t fall down spewing blood after being hit by the bullet.

The bullet that collided with the girl’s body instantly turned blue and disappeared.

For that moment, both Herman and she just stared at it blankly.

“You can’t hurt me with those things from that era that were forcibly revived.”

“Gah.”

Isilia smirked at the sight of Herman aiming the trembling muzzle, and with a wave of her hand, an earth pillar suddenly jutted out from the ground and struck his chin hard.

Herman’s eyes rolled back at once, and he dropped the gun and fell to the ground unconscious. Thanks to this, now there were only two people left who were still in their right minds.

“What’s your name?”

Isilia walked over, picked up the pistol Herman had dropped, and asked the girl who was slumped on the spot.

As Isilia personally removed the gag, she, who had regained the freedom of her mouth after a long time, looked at the red eyes shining from under the hood with trembling eyes.

Hearing the voice up close, she could be certain that this was indeed the person who had sent her the voice. The moment she saw those eyes, it was as if she was enchanted by something.

“M-my name is Arisa.”

She stammered as she revealed her name. Her body was still tied up, and above all, she simply couldn’t resist.

‘Why on earth?’

She was just a girl she had never seen before. It didn’t make sense that she, an elf, would feel such pressure.

“What were you doing to get caught? I heard elves act very cautiously.”

“I can’t talk about that. I have an important task for my clan… mph.”

She started to answer the following question absentmindedly but managed to catch herself midway. No matter how much this person had saved her life, she couldn’t just spill everything to someone she was meeting for the first time.

“I mean, I was entrusted with an important task to save our clan who have fallen into crisis. I can’t tell just anyone.”

As the corners of the girl’s mouth lifted slightly, Arisa closed her eyes tightly with a trembling voice.

She didn’t know that the reason her body kept feeling oppressed by the other was a problem engraved in her genes, dating back to a very distant past.

“Clan. You mean the elves? They’ve fallen into danger?”

To her, the girl who had muttered as if interested started to slowly remove the cape she had been wearing.

Arisa watched it blankly. Her emerald eyes, which had been thinking ‘it couldn’t be’, were already widened to their limit.

‘It can’t be.’

However, the thought of ‘it couldn’t be’ finally overwhelmed her.

Because when the silver-haired girl who had revealed herself removed the hairband on her head, long pointed ears popped out from between her neatly tied hair.

“You can tell a fellow kin, right?”

Isilia, grinning and lowering her head, fiddled with Arisa’s ears, who had frozen like a statue. The intention was to show that they were the same.

* * *

“Captain! It seems true that they kidnapped an elf adventurer!”

“Damn it, then where is that elf now?!”

“I-it seems they’ve already spirited them away.”

At the scene that had been barely suppressed, the city guard had bound the battered gang members and herded them into one place, and were searching the surroundings.

But as the price for being a step late, they had missed all the most important things.

“It’s your fault, Adolf! If you hadn’t dawdled!”

“I-I didn’t know! Really!”

The guard captain with a mustache pointed at his subordinate and shouted, and the subordinate who had been watching carefully shook his head in shock.

It was because there had been a conflict of opinions when they received the report and were about to lead the troops out, which had caused some delay.

“It’s obvious they’ve been steadily taking bribes from those guys. I guess it’s fortunate that at least the captain doesn’t take bribes.”

Patrick, who was watching this scene, clicked his tongue as if it was pathetic. If the guard captain hadn’t been about to go off duty when they reported, they might have been blocked at the level of that knight called Adolf, who wouldn’t have accepted their report.

“But what should we do? That elf person has disappeared, and Isilia is gone too.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about her. She’s probably handling it well. Even though things went a bit awry, we’ve done as much as we could.”

When Lina muttered worriedly, Patrick coolly analyzed the situation and comforted her.

[The situation here is over, so go back to the lodging]

In fact, that analysis was correct. Just as they were wondering if they should start looking for Isilia, a wind that had flowed in from somewhere conveyed Isilia’s voice to them.