So this was the same lot that had attacked Keel’s village, apparently.
They were a bunch of seriously bad guys, no doubt about it. That was proof enough that we couldn’t just leave all of the justice and righteousness to Itsuki, because he’d never solve any of the real problems. Typical of any villain who would stoop so low as to support Trash, I say!
“Father, why don’t we get rid of them?” I suggested. “There would be no witnesses or survivors.”
If we got rid of them now, no one would have to know what happened, I say.
“What!?” All of a sudden, the slave hunters turned pale. Those fools had assumed that they would live to see tomorrow. How pathetic.
“How about no, Motoyasu?” Father said, and the slave hunters breathed a sigh of relief and started smirking again. They really didn’t understand the position they were in.
“Motoyasu, can you go get that slave merchant and bring him here? I have an idea.”
“What do you intend to do?” I inquired.
Keel oinked a few times.
“I’m going to sell them as slaves,” Father announced.
“You imbecile!” sneered the slave hunter. “You can’t sell human slaves in this country. It’s against the law! You didn’t even know that?”
He was acting so arrogant toward Father. Know your place, I say!
Father turned to the slave hunters with an ice-cold gaze.
“Whoever said I was going to sell you in Melromarc?”
Lazy Pig appeared to have guessed what Father was thinking and started to oink and snort a bunch of times.
Immediately, the slave hunters went sheet white and started to beg Father for their lives.
“Exactly,” Father said. “You’re going to experience what it’s like to be one of the slaves that you’ve sold.”
It was that same sharp, frigid tone that Father always used in the first go-around, I say!
“You think that will make us apologize or something?” the slave hunter screamed in desperation. “Are you insane! Don’t do it! Please, don’t do it!”
“What do you mean?” Father asked. “So when you sell others, it’s fine, so long as you don’t get sold? Let me give you some advice here. People who attack others need to be prepared to be attacked themselves.”
“No, no, that’s not how it works! There’s no problem with lowly demi-humans suffering and dying! But we’re noble humans! We would never be beaten by a pathetic—”
Should I stop his annoying babbling? Just as I thought about it, Father glanced at me and gave me the signal to go ahead and shut them up.
So I struck him with a Sleep Lance and he slumped over, having fainted.
“I think Yuki is doing her best dealing with the rest of the deserters, but I’m sure a separate group of slave hunters will come searching for their friends after they’ve been out of action for long enough,” Father said.
Taking a deep sigh, Father turned to Lazy Pig to discuss something.
“So if the knights and soldiers in this country are caught up in the slave trade, we may have no choice but to hunt the slave hunters,” he said.
“Oink oink,” said Lazy Pig.
“I know it’ll be almost impossible to take them all out. We also have to worry about our own standing.” Father thought about it. “Well, let’s worry about that later.”
The moles seemed to have pretty much relaxed at this point. One of them, who appeared to be a leader of some sort, called out to us with an axe in hand and gave a deep bow.
“Thank you so much for saving us,” he said.
“Of course,” Father said. “I’m just glad that nobody was badly hurt.”
Having sensed that it was safe, more moles appeared to be peering out at us from inside the cave. There were also little baby moles.
I noticed one little mole in particular glancing our way from the shadow of a mother mole, pregnant belly swollen. I couldn’t help but feel like I had seen that little mole somewhere before.
I did remember from the first go-around that filolials thought they looked tasty and that they were skilled at making pretty accessories. I just got the vague sense that little mole was somehow important.
Father noticed that it was glancing at us repeatedly and waved at it with a smile.
The mole leader spoke back up. “When you were talking with the slave hunter, I heard that you are the Shield Hero.”
I figured that the moles trusted us if they were going to bring that up.
“Uh, well . . .” Father nodded, as if trying to be intentionally vague. “That’s me. My name is Naofumi Iwatani, the Shield Hero.”
The moles all expressed their immense thanks to Father with prayers of gratitude. Then they showed us into their den.
“Really, we cannot thank you enough for protecting us,” the leader mole said. “I wasn’t sure what would happen if we hadn’t encountered the party of one of the heroes.”
“Don’t worry,” Father said. “I heard from Keel that some really tragic things have happened. I’m sure things have been difficult for you.”
The mole leader frowned darkly. Maybe he was thinking about all the cruel things the slave hunters had said.
“Well, they might try to do something once they catch wind of what happened with those guys. But if Melromarc can change from behind the scenes, I think you’ll be safe in the end,” Father said.
We didn’t really have much choice but to wait until the queen came around here and fixed things up for good, I supposed. Which meant another two months of being patient.
“Excuse me, Shield Hero,” the leader said.