Chapter 3

Abduction

Two days have passed since the visit to the orphanage. Tarafina had woken up earlier than usual and was thinking about what had happened.

A child who had not yet reached a year in age suddenly disappeared. Judivo, the owner of the orphanage was at a complete loss. The missing child was the daughter of Lissan’s bestfriend, Hernilta, who also grew up in the orphanage.

Hernilta died during childbirth, and with the father’s whereabouts unknown, Judivo decided to take care of the child in her stead.

Upon receiving the news that the child was missing, Judivo was at a complete loss. Tarafina, Erik, and Borfin helped search for the child but the results were nil. In the end, Judivo filed a formal request in the guild where Lissan found out. She fainted on the spot.

“Don’t think too much about it,” Erik suddenly said. They were sharing the same bed, so the voice came from right beside her, startling Tarafina.

“Oh… You’re already awake,” she said as she turned her head to look at him.

“I was awake before you. It’s not my fault that you didn’t notice. You should learn to be more aware of your surroundings.”

“A scolding first thing in the morning… geh!”

Erik did not comment on that and instead got off from bed and started doing exercises on the floor.

“I can’t believe you’re still keeping that up without getting tired of it,” she sighed as she also got off the bed and performed some stretches.

“It’s a habit.”

After breakfast, the two immediately went to the guild. So far, the requests they had taken were low-risk low-reward ones. It was not enough to cover their living costs, it did reduce their expenses.

“Ah! It’s Judivo,” Tarafina exclaimed as soon as they entered.

The man was at one of the counters, apparently in a livid discussion with the attendant.

“Lissan had not yet returned to work,” a voice came from behind the two.

“Grimna!” Tarafina recognized the owner of the voice as she turned around.

“Oh? I believe we haven’t introduced each other yet. Must be Borfin selling out my name.”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Tarafina apologized.

“No no. You don’t have to apologize. It’s Borfin’s fault so I’ll make sure to teach him a lesson when I see him. So, your name?”

“I’m Tarafina.”

“Erik. A pleasure to meet you.”

“As you have heard, the name’s Grimna.”

After the introductions, Grimna returned her attention to the commotion at the counters. Tarafina and Erik followed her gaze.

“This isn’t the first time something like this happened,” she explained. “A few weeks ago, a similar case of abduction appeared in the nearby town of Orindol. It was a strange case. The couple who reported their child was missing recounted that they had slept on the bed with the child between them. When morning came, the child was gone. There were no signs of forced intrusion in their home nor any evidence left behind by the perpetrator. It was a perfect crime.

“In another city, an entire family disappeared. Their corpses were found in a nearby forest, properly buried. All the family members were there, except for their newborn.”

“That’s too tragic,” Tarafina said downcast.

“All the targets were infants,” Erik immediately picked up on the clues.

“That’s right. Those were the only news I’ve heard so far, but I’m sure similar cases are occurring all over the continent,” the dwarf affirmed.

For a while, the only sound in the guild was the ensuing commotion by the counters and the whispering of the bystanders.

“Tara,” Erik said softly.

“Yes?”

“…Never mind. It’s nothing.”

For the first time, Tarafina saw indecision in Erik’s eyes. He had always been firm and decisive. She had never seen him so hesitant before. In the end, he didn’t voice out what he had been trying to say.

There was nothing Erik and Tarafina could do to help Judivo and the orphanage. In the end, they left the guild without taking a request.

“Let’s just rest for today,” Erik said as they left the guild.

“Mm.” Tarafina nodded her head.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know.”

“You can go wherever you want.”

“You’re not coming with me?”

“If you want some time alone, that’s fine with me.”

“Thanks… Thanks a lot, Erik.”

Tarafina decided to go back to the orphanage. Erik watched her back as she left.

“Are you sure about that? You know where she’s going, right?” Grimna asked. It seemed like she had a habit of suddenly appearing behind a person. Erik wasn’t surprised, though.

“She can manage on her own.”

“What an un-cute little brother.”

Tarafina was standing a short distance away from the orphanage. The yard that was once filled with the cheerful noise of the children was desolate and empty. It was a depressing sight.

“What are you doing here?”

A figure appeared beside her. It was Borfin.

“Nothing…”

Silence ensued between the two of them. For a long time, they just stood there, watching the orphanage.

In the end, Borfin couldn’t take it anymore and started making weird grumbling noises.

“If you have something to say, then say it,” Tarafina said, irritated by the noise he made.

“I think I have a lead,” he sighed.

Upon hearing those words, Tarafina’s eyes widened. She suddenly grabbed the collar of his shirt and pushed him on the wall of a nearby building.

“Tell me!” she exclaimed.

“Calm down!”

When she heard him, she loosened her grip but did not let go.

“The information is dubious so I’m not sure myself. I hadn’t yet checked if it’s true or not.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Geez, girl. You need to relax a bit more.”

“Tell me!”

“Damn it. Fine! Let go of me first.”

As she let him go, he fixed his crumpled shirt as he glared at her.

“So?”

“Haa… A couple of hours away from the north of the north gate, there’s an area of the forest that used to be a village. Its mostly overrun by nature by now, but apparently, a group of suspicious individuals managed to make use of the what remained of the village as a hideout. There were also children being kept there.”

When Tarafina heard the word children, she immediately sprinted for the north gate.

“Hey! Don’t act rashly!” Borfin chased after her as she went past the north gate. “Shouldn’t you tell your brother first?”

“The children’s life might be in danger right now. There’s no time!”

“Tch. This is troublesome.”

It was already noon when Borfin and Tarafina arrived at the village ruins. They were currently hidden in the shrubberies at a distance, observing the place.

“Seems empty,” Borfin whispered. He looked to the side and saw Tarafina’s serious expression. The gleam in her eyes seemed to let out blood thirst. He could already imagine the scene that once their suspicions were proven true, she would jump right in and spill their blood.

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“She seemed like a ditz when she’s with her brother, but I guess you can’t really judge a book by its cover,” he thought.

“There!” she said as she pointed at an inconspicuous place. It was an area on the ground covered with vines and greeneries.

The ground moved followed by the opening of a trapdoor.

“So they were hiding underground! There must be a house with a basement there before! The house was now gone, but the basement was still there!” Borfin concluded.

“Let’s make our move!” the girl beside him said impatiently.

“No! We’re lacking on information on our opponents. It’s too risky!”

“Then I’m going ahead!”

Without waiting for his reply, Tarafina stood up while whispering a spell. A green glow surrounded her body as she grabbed the crossbow on her back. With deft movements she loaded a bolt, aimed, and fired!

“Hmm?” A man wearing leather armor was climbing out of the trapdoor when he noticed something moving. With quick reactions driven by instinct, he managed to quickly jump out of the way and dodged the bolt. He then hid behind a tree.

More than a dozen figures appeared from the trapdoor, all dressed in shabby leather armors. They moved swiftly under cover, proof of their battle experience.

“Damn it!” Tarafina cursed as she sprinted to find an angle where she could shoot them.

“Too reckless!” was what Borfin screamed in his mind. So far, the only advantage they had was that the enemy did not know that there were only two of them present. He remained hidden, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

The spell Tarafina had casted earlier was a wind enhancement to increase her speed. Using that speed boost, she kept moving out of her opponents’ range and from that safe distance, fired her crossbow.

Despite her seemingly advantageous position, she couldn’t land a hit.

“They’re too good at dodging and hiding,” she thought as a sense of urgency and irritation welled within her. She was getting impatient. Earlier she had been keeping track of the locations of each enemy, but now she had completely disregarded their positions and numbers.

She kept on circling them, looking for a clear shot. Suddenly, a shadow jumped from behind her. One of the men had managed to flank her.

There was no time to aim at the figure behind her, so she dodged instead. The assailant’s surprised attack had caught her off guard and managed to land a cut on her thigh.

“He’s aiming for my legs,” she realized. “They’re planning to reduce my mobility.”

Three more shadows leaped behind her. She was completely surrounded.

“I was too careless!”

It was too late for regrets.

While trying to dodge, she whispered a spell as fast as she could. Aiming the spell on one attacker and using the bow on another, she managed to slow them down. Still, it was not enough.

Their attacks landed. One managed to stab her other thigh, while the other made a deep cut on her right arm.

“Is this it?” she thought. “Is this the best I could do?”

Injured and down on the ground, her attackers cautiously approached her.

“What, it’s just a girl!”

“She’s a cutie isn’t she?”

“Half-elf?”

“Who cares?!”

“I haven’t had a taste of women for quite some time.”

“Do you think she’s a virgin?”

“With this pretty face? I doubt it.”

“Haha! She must have played around with a lot of guys already!”

“Hey! What’s with that look, girlie? You think you can fight back?”

They all had indecent smiles and lust-filled gazes. Two of them had held her down on the ground. She was completely unable to fight back. She could only grit her teeth in rage, shame, helplessness.

“I should have listened to Erik,” she thought as she remembered all the times that the young boy scolded her.

“I get first dibs, okay?!” One of them men said. A tearing sound filled the air as her clothes were ripped.

“Ohh! Her skin’s so smooth and tender! I just love young girls!”

“Hurry up, will you!”

“Hahaha!”

Borfin was at a loss. He didn’t expect that they would be able to quickly form a strategy to capture her. He could only stare dumbfounded at what was happening.

“Useless… and you call yourself a man?” he scolded himself, but he was unable to make his body move. He wanted to save her, but how? He was alone and there were more than a dozen of them. There were some things that a single person just couldn’t do.

Suddenly, the wind picked up. The trees began to groan as the wind increased in speed. It was as if a storm had suddenly appeared above them.

Then, Borfin saw the silhouette of a young boy walking from a distance. The air around him seemed to twist and warp as he walked to where the men had surrounded their prey.

Wherever he walked, the trees broke and the plants were uprooted. It was as if no living thing dared to be within his sight.

“Erik… save me,” Tarafina whispered as tears finally fell from her eyes.

Seeing her pitiful appearance, Erik’s eyes were filled with rage. He lifted a hand and pointed it forward.

Then the winds picked up some more as the sky darkened. Dark gray clouds blanketed the sky, twisted, and formed a vortex above the young boy.

“What the hell is happening?”

“Holy shit!”

“What’s going on?”

The men were shocked and dumbfounded. Was all this the doing of this boy?

Purple snakes of lightning danced around Erik’s raised arm. Then with an emotionless expression he said, “Die.”

Hundreds of bolts of lightning fell from the sky striking each men more than ten times. Despite the ferocity of this sight, not a single bolt of lightning touched Tarafina.

Soon, it ended and the sky cleared. The wind also finally died down. What was left was a ruined forest and a girl in tattered clothes. Not even a burnt corpse remained.

“Geez. I leave you alone for a while and this happens,” Erik said as he knelt in front of her and casted a spell to heal her wounds.

Borfin couldn’t move at all the entire time. He was afraid that if he made one wrong move, bolts of lightning would also rain on him.

As he slowly recovered, his gaze met with Erik’s. The young boy’s eyes had a disapproving look within them.

“Damn it,” Borfin cursed at himself. Those eyes were cold and dreadful. He felt like his very soul had been wrapped in ice.

“The children…” Tarafina said as she tried to lead Erik towards the trapdoor from where the men had come out from.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re safe,” Erik said as he forcefully made her lie down. “Just rest.”

Seeing the worried look in his eyes and his rare gentle smile, she nodded and layed her head on his lap.

Nobody noticed the injury that he had been hiding.