Before her eyes stood a woman.
She was a stunning beauty with long silver hair. Sofie immediately forgot her fear, instead sighing in marvel as if she was beholding a real goddess.
Then a small face peeked out from behind the woman, and jumped toward Sofie.
“Sofie-onee-sama, are you hurt?!”
“Gueh, H-Hina-chan?! Eh, why is......?” Withstanding the impact to her abdomen, Sofie sees a cute face looking up at her.
“Our family came to save you~!”
“Your... family......?” Lifting her gaze, her eyes met with those of a young girl riding on top of a blue dragon the size of a horse. It was Kana, who Sofie had met along with Hina in town previously. Within the arms of the mischievously smiling girl was another girl with spinning eyes who looked slightly older than Kana.
Sofie even recognized the blue dragon.
It had grown a lot bigger, but there was no doubt in her mind that this was the whelp that had lost its parent when she saw it last.
When Sofie turned back toward the silver-haired woman, the woman smiled warmly before opening her mouth.
“So you are Sofie-san. Nice to meet you. I am Silvia Onigawara.”
“Oni... gawara......?”
“That’s me. It seems my husband has been greatly in your care.” Even though her smile was filled with kindness, Sofie found herself overawed by an indescribable sense of pressure.
(Eh, no way...... Onigawara-san... is married......? Moreover, he even has this many children......) As her mind struggled to process this shocking discovery, the sound of Jirahal’s voice reached her ears.
“What is the meaning of this! Do you think you can get away with this?! Don’t you know who I am? I am Jirahal Goldas!” His half of the carriage finally having come to a stop, Jirahal half-rolled and half-stumbled out.
Blind with rage, he made to step forward, but immediately found himself blocked by—
“Oh, we know full well.” None other than the very person that Sofie had been waiting eagerly for, Shouzou himself—
Upon figuring out that Sofie was being held inside a moving carriage, Shouzou had then identified a suspicious-looking carriage thanks to Emalia’s tracking magic.
It just so happened that Silvia and the girls also appeared to be heading toward it, so it became all but confirmed that that was the carriage that Sofie was on.
Puru-chan had bisected the carriage before Shouzou could assault it, but their aim was fulfilled, so all’s well that ends well.
“I was mistaken, Jirahal.” Shouzou looked down with rage in his gaze, which caused Jirahal’s hips to give out as he squeaked with alarm.
“I should never have left you alone so long, not after all the underhanded methods that you had stained your hands with.”
“Y-You can’t do anything to me, I’m—my father is Marquis Goldas!” Shouzou merely took one step forward wordlessly. It was enough to prompt Jirahal to begin crawling backward, his butt dragging on the ground.
“Onigawara-san, please don’t be violent with him. He didn’t hurt me.” He turned around at Sofie’s voice.
Her clothes and hair were indeed unruffled. As she said, it was clear that she really had not been harmed.
But the smile on her face was also clearly a forced one.
It felt so fake that it almost seemed like she had received some incredible mental shock.
That was why Shouzou’s anger did not dissipate.
“I-If you lay hands on me, my father will not keep quiet about it! He will squish your measly guild in no time at all!” It seemed like Jirahal still could not put strength into his lower body, and his face was twitching furiously.
“Don’t worry, I’m not thinking of doing anything to you.” The color in Jirahal’s face got better for only a split second.
Shouzou grabbed him by his neck. “Conversation does not work with you. And thus, there’s no point talking to you. Therefore—”
“Eeep!” Then Shouzou easily lifted him up with one hand. “You might be already of age, but responsibility for a child’s faults lies with the parents.” Brooking no protest, Shouzou threw Jirahal onto his shoulder, then left the place at his full speed—
★
Marquis Goldas was the feudal lord who governed over the immediate area around the fortress city of Treia.
However, his high office within the military required him to stay in the royal capital.
Treia was not that far away from the capital.
Shouzou dashed at top speed and leaped over the city walls, arriving at the quiet residential neighborhood overlooked by the royal palace.
The front gate of the large mansion went down with a single unhesitant kick.
Guards rushed over en masse, but Shouzou did not move even an eyebrow, merely proceeding forward with Jirahal in tow.
Due to Jirahal, who was currently completely limp from exhaustion, the guards could not do anything. As they formed a circle and watched on from a distance away, Shouzou confidently strode through the grounds without sparing a side glance.
Eventually, the guards in his way stepped aside.
From the path that opened up, a giant of a man in the prime of his life appeared with composure.
He had a fearsome face fully decked out with a fearsome beard. His eyes were sharper than those of a hellhound’s, and his gaze was so powerful as to be capable of driving back magic beasts.
With a gigantic spear in hand, his rough voice echoed out.
“Speak. Why have you barged onto my property, by yourself, with my son as hostage?”
“Mm. So you are Marquis Goldas.” The man nodded imperceptibly.
This man was Jilk Goldas himself.
This man, who had emerged victorious from over a hundred battles and had enough ability to stand proudly beside Platinum class adventurers, was revered as the strongest warrior in the entire country.
“Judging by your appearance, you must be a staff member from that adventurer’s guild that I have heard rumors of. Onigawara, was it? You have kidnapped my son, and trespassed onto the property of a noble without prior consent. Don’t think that you can get off without repercussions.” Goldas brandished his spear once.
The wind roared, and the guards staggered.
In addition to his skill with a weapon, the sense of intimidation that Shouzou felt from him seemed akin to a blizzard in the middle of a severe winter. It was indeed on par with what he had felt from that Dragonslayer kid that he had met before.
“But that said, depending on how you plead, I might overlook this. Speak. What business do you have with me?”
“Plead?” Shouzou took Marquis Goldas’ intimidation as a passing spring wind. “I have come to speak about education.” As he spoke, he unceremoniously dumped Jirahal to the ground.
“Education, you say?”
“Are you aware of what this young man has done up till now?”
The marquis shot Jirahal a quick look, then smiled thinly.
“In a general sense, yes. Ahh, I see. You couldn’t stand him getting in the way of your business any longer, so you tied him up and came to complain to me as his parent.”
Shouzou could not reply.
“Now I am just disappointed. His foul play rubbed you the wrong way, so you resorted to violence? Guess you really are as much of a brute as you look. Business is fought with brains. It is a battlefield where you employ all your wits and wiles to subdue your enemy. To—”
“Silence.” Shouzou cut him off with a single quiet, yet heavy, word. “I disagree with a few things that you just said, but that’s neither here nor there. You have to understand, I did not come here to speak business. I said it just now. I have come to speak about education.” He sucked in deeply, opened his eyes wide, then—