Chapter 5

The slave trader was reduced to a red stain on the ground without even leaving a will.

With this, I thought all the villains around me should be gone. Still, there was some cleanup left to do.

The covered wagon the slave trader had been riding in likely had people who had been captured to be made into slaves... no, they were probably loaded in.

I had to get them out and set them free as soon as possible.

Thinking this, I entered the wagon and looked around...

...Sure enough, she was there.

A girl was huddled in the corner, trembling.

Her hands and feet were shackled, preventing her from moving, and a gag was sealing her mouth.

Surprisingly, she was the only 'cargo' I could see.

I had expected her to be crammed in with many others...

"It's okay, you don't need to be afraid. I'm just a passerby, but I took care of all the bad guys outside."

The girl, pale with fear.

I spoke gently to calm her down.

"I'm going to release you now, but please don't panic or struggle. I really mean it...!"

After warning her, I removed the gag from her mouth and broke the shackles with force.

I thought afterward that I should have looked for a key to unlock them.

The girl was now completely free.

Though she looked haggard, the realization that she was no longer in danger of becoming a slave must have sunk in.

Her expression gradually showed emotion, tears streamed down her face, and her cheeks crumpled.

"Wah, waaaaah...!!"

The first thing she did with her newly freed hands and feet was to cling to me and cry.

"There, there. It must have been scary and lonely..."

She looked to be in her mid-teens.

Being kidnapped by strangers at such a young age must have been terrifying.

All I could do was stay still and let her calm down.

Though I couldn't stay for too long.

However, the girl, either being smart or strong-willed, soon stopped crying and pulled away from me.

"Um... thank you."

Despite her hoarse, tearful voice, she spoke clearly.

"Did you save me? You... took care of those kidnappers, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"They said... 'A young girl with such good skills would fetch a high price.' If they had sold me... I... I..."

Tears that she had stopped began to overflow again.

I couldn't blame her. Imagining her life if she had been sold by the slave traders...

"Can I ask why you were brought here?"

"Yes! ...A few days ago, I received the Blessing Ceremony..."

"So you're fourteen?"

It felt nostalgic.

I myself had gone through the Blessing Ceremony, which had plunged me into despair.

It was a ceremony to recognize one as an adult and to receive a skill from the gods.

But what did that have to do with being kidnapped by slave traders?

"So, I received a skill."

"That's great...!"

"More than just a skill, it was apparently an amazing one. When people found out, everyone in my small village started acting differently, their eyes bloodshot...!"

I could understand.

In this world, a person's value equals the value of the skills they possess.

Without skills, one is at the bottom of society, but with good skills, one is treated specially and has a promising future.

I had learned this firsthand when I received the Blessing Ceremony.

"Then, a few days later... While I was sleeping at home, someone suddenly pinned me down. I was carried off somewhere...!"

"Inside your house?"

It must have been the slave traders and their henchmen.

I could guess their plan.

If a person's value equals the value of their skills, then someone with a powerful rare skill is worth a fortune.

Selling her as a slave would bring in a lot of money, I'm sure.

To them, she must have looked like a diamond.

"I see. Then I'll take you back to your village."

If I was going to save her, I had to take responsibility for her.

I had no urgent reason to rush, so a detour wouldn't be a problem.

"..."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to go back... I don't want to go back to the village..."

The trembling, frightened girl.

I thought I wouldn't understand, but I quickly did.

She had been kidnapped from her home, the place where she should have felt the safest.

The village, where people had fought over her skill, and how the slave traders had found out about her was a mystery.

But it wasn't hard to guess.

If they had broken into her house and no one else in her family was harmed, it was because the slave traders had lured them in.

"My name is Noem."

"Huh? What?"

Oh, her name!?

I hadn't even introduced myself yet!

Hey! I'm Ryuuya!

"Where are you going, Ryuuya?"

"Huh?"

"Um... can you take me with you!? I'll do anything! I'll be as helpful as I can! Please, take me with you!"

Noem, the girl clinging to me.

She no longer trusted the people she had lived with for most of her life, her family.

Skills can drive people mad.

I had known this, but not in this way.

"...I'm thinking of going back to my hometown and becoming an adventurer."

"An adventurer...?"

"They take on quests from the guild and live off the rewards. It's a dangerous job, but if you have the skills, you can make a living without anything else."

I wouldn't normally recommend this to a small, vulnerable girl, but with a skill that caused such a commotion in her village, she might be able to make it.

Even if it's just a temporary solution, or at worst, I could support her with my earnings.

"I'll do it! I'll become an adventurer! Please let me go to the city with you, Ryuuya!"

Perhaps this was fate.

Either way, I couldn't just leave a girl here, so taking her to the city was the right thing to do.

"Alright, let's go together."

"Yes!"

The girl... Noem, said with genuine happiness.

It was the first bright expression I had seen on her face since we met.

"Then let's hurry. We wasted some time, so we need to get there before nightfall. I can't leave a girl to sleep outdoors."

"It's okay! When I lived in the village, I often went into the forest to collect nuts! I can sleep on the grass!"

"No, it's not just that..."

Spending the night alone with a girl I had just met...

"Really! I said I'd do anything, so I'll do anything!"

"Why are you so willing to go to such lengths?"

But I lacked the confidence to accept her resolve, so I decided to head for the city quickly.

In reality, with my enhanced leg strength from training, we arrived in no time.

I had to carry Noem, but I considered it a perk.

◆

And so, we arrived.

At the city.

It's been five years since I last came here, but I don't feel particularly emotional.

"Let's go to the Adventurer's Guild. If it hasn't moved, it should be this way."

"Yes."

Noem, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the sights of the big city, looked around curiously.

"Hey, Ryuuya...! That big building over there...!?"

"That's the castle. This is the capital, after all."

"The castle!? So the king is in there!?"

"Probably."

I've never been inside the castle, so I don't know.

For a commoner like me, with no skills, it's a place I'll never visit.

But let's focus on more practical matters.

Let's go to the guild, to the guild.