Personally, I didn’t see how these so-called slave hunters were any different from plain old thieves.
“Elena, you’re saying that even Melromarc soldiers and knights are mixed in with the slave hunters? This really is a rotten country,” Father said.
Then he cast a gaze in the filolials’ and my direction and gave us a signal to go.
Lazy Pig sighed and grumbled a few meager oinks.
“You’re saying even if we rescue the slaves then they’ll be after us instead? Well, yes, but we need to help them anyway, right? We’re deep in the mountain, so we just need to make sure that no one else sees us here.”
Then Father looked at me again.
Aha—I understood what he wanted me to do.
“Liberation Fireflash!”
I chanted a spell to reveal any enemies that were hidden with concealment magic.
We couldn’t see that well because of the dense woods, so we had no choice but to get closer to see any more details about what was going on.
“There don’t appear to be any hidden enemies,” I informed Father.
“That’s perfect for us,” he said.
“Stop your futile resistance!” bellowed a slave hunter. “If you want to die, then so be it!”
The moment the slave hunter was about to strike his sword through a mole, Father called, “Air Strike Shield!”
The swords helplessly bounced off of his shield, right before the moles’ eyes.
“Huh! What the hell?”
“First let’s prioritize stopping the attack,” Father said. “Capture the slave hunters without killing them!”
“Anything for Motoyasu!” chirped Sakura.
“So many moles!” cried Kou in delight.
“Let’s do it!” said Yuki.
At Father’s orders, the filolials charged.
“Don’t leave me out of the fray!” I declared.
“M-Motoyasu, make sure you go easy on them!” Father called.
Well, if Father commanded me to do so, I suppose I had no choice.
“Who the hell are these guys?” shouted a slave hunter, caught off guard by our attack from behind.
“Take that!”
With her sheath still on the sword, Sakura sent one flying with a powerful blow.
Kou went around kicking the hunters while keeping one longing eye on the moles. And Yuki chanted wind magic spells to send attackers flying away from the moles.
“Paralyze Lance! Sleep Lance! Illusion Lance!” I groaned. “Man, this is so tedious. Aiming Lancer IV!”
The bloodcurdling, agonized screams of slave hunters rose into the air.
After paralyzing and putting to sleep countless slave hunters, I targeted those attempting to escape and stopped them in their tracks with Aiming Lancer. In an instant, all of the slave hunters were knocked out or frozen.
The moles stared at us blankly.
“Wow, it really only takes you and the filolials a second to finish everyone off,” Father commented.
With that, we took care of the whole group of slave hunters so fast even we could hardly believe it.
“I’ve captured the ones that were trying to run away,” Yuki announced.
“I’ll tie them up and keep a close eye on them!” Sakura said.
It was almost like the filolials were playing a game of cops and robbers with each other. Of course, in that scenario, Yuki would always play the role of the cop.
The moles were staring at us with frightened eyes. Father finally took his hand off of the first mole that we encountered and gave him a signal to go ahead.
The mole glanced back at Father several times and, with axe in hand, hurried back to his companions.
“Is everyone okay?” he cried.
The moles chattered amongst themselves. There didn’t appear to be any fatal wounds.
There weren’t any captured slaves yet either, so it appeared that the slave hunters had just started their outing.
“Anyone injured, please come over here right away!” Father called. “Motoyasu, you come help too!”
“At once, Father!”
Right at that moment, Lazy Pig came out with medicine, oinking away.
Father turned to her with an exhausted expression.
“Elena, what are you saying? We didn’t do this to sell medicine!”
The moles were still eyeing us suspiciously as we healed them, but since we had rescued them from the slave hunters, after all, they seemed to let their guard down somewhat. We finished treating all of the injured.
“So then,” Father said in a tone as sharp as a dagger, turning to the captured slave hunters. “Are you really going to keep hunting demi-humans for slaves?”
“Just who the hell do you think you are?!” the hunter screamed. “You think we’ll just let you get away with this?! No chance! You’ve underestimated us!”
“Answer the question,” Father demanded.
Then Lazy Pig finally climbed out of the carriage and walked over to the hunters. She oinked a few times.
“Yeah, that’s right!” a hunter snarled in response. “House Seaetto is done with! We’re in a new era, a better one! What’s wrong with hunting demi-humans? What’s wrong with that?”
Father explained to me later that Lazy Pig recognized that the slave hunters were knights of Melromarc. After some of the Melromarc nobles who had fervently supported demi-human rights died, slave hunting in the country seemed to have increased.
“So that’s it,” Father said. “You really think that slave hunting is okay, then.”
“Of course it is! We won’t forget this! Hey, aren’t you the filthy Shield Hero? So the Shield Hero attacked us—our friends in Melromarc won’t let you get away with it!”
As if they had somehow won the battle, the captured slave hunters started grinning at us.
What unbelievable idiocy. They thought that they had found the Shield Hero, who had a bounty on his head, but had forgotten that they were the ones who had been captured.
Keel oinked angrily at them.
“Your day will come,” the slave hunter snarled. “Aren’t you one of the demi-humans who used to be in Seaetto territory?” he spat at Keel. “Typical demi-human. The Shield Hero and his demi-human companions . . . the whole country is after you!”