I slowly, and warily, approached the small cage. A horrendous and repulsive dark arm slowly extended towards me. Narrowing my eyes, I took a closer look at the creature inside. It was a dark-colored creature, like obsidian or a raven black. The fingers were thin and feeble, sharp short nails.

The face, it was utterly disgusting, it made me wanna look away. I had never seen something so ugly in my life. The face was wrinkly, wide bulging eyes. It had hair, but that wouldn’t save its appearance at all. And those teeth reminded me of shark’s teeth with their number. Just a bunch of teeth stuffed into the little mouth. I noticed its dark skin squirm and pulsed, and the creature flinched as though in pain.

I stopped, the cage blocked its hand from going further. As though in desperation, it turned into a fog, but the fog trembled at making contact with the black metal. The fog turned into a monster again. It crawled away and hugged its knees, and it started sobbing…?

A monster… crying? I never imagined seeing such a thing. The voice was so small, and the physique so little and feeble. It was like a small child. It seemed intelligent, at least. What even was it? I was not sure. But it certainly did look familiar.

Like the Cursed Children.

Turning into black fog, the form of a humanoid. And the way they cover their body during the night, I could imagine they become ugly after sunset. This thing here was likely like them.

I didn’t expect to encounter one of them here.

I thought the Cursed Children belonged on the continent. Did this thing get lost or something? It knew me, called me Goddess… How? Was it just some instinct or something? Or did this one see me once before — but I doubted it.

Interesting.

I slowly approached it further. “You know me?” I asked in a low, gentle voice.

It slowly lifted its head towards me. “Bright presence. Even more thirsty, hungry…”

Bright presence…?

“Must… Must not harm… Goddess… Must stay away.”

Oh wow… I’m impressed.

“You’re far away from home, aren’t you?”

It froze and lowered its head. It seemed young… Maybe it really was a child. I looked around, and I saw a metal pole stained with blood. I could imagine what had happened here. Cursed Children could never die, that might have provided a good amount of entertainment for a sadistic person.

Still, how did this cursed child even end up here? No matter, I should bring this along, the others might know what to do with it. It had a connection to me, I couldn’t pretty well leave it be. But I should keep it in the cage for the time being. Pretty dangerous to let them out at night.

I stepped back and checked up on the women. I scratched the back of my head, I didn’t really expect these women to be here. But they were pretty messed up. They looked up at me, desperate, and with pitiful eyes. They all looked pretty meek.

I lightly kicked the bandit leader’s corpse. “He’s dead. You’ve nothing to be scared about anymore. Meaning you’re free to go.”

They all looked at each other. Then one finally spoke out in a strained voice.

“... W-Where would we go…?”

I guess they were not really in a situation to do much. And they didn’t know where to start. Well, they were already here, guess I’d bring them along back to the city. It wouldn’t cost me much, really.

“Then follow me back to the city. I’ll have the authorities take care of you. But for now… find some clothes.”

From the looks of it, and the size of this man here, there wouldn’t be any clothes for them here.

“But wait, I have something to do first.”

I approached the corpse and pulled out my medium dagger. I grabbed the bandit leader’s head by the hair. Coating the blade with fire, I began slicing through the corpse’s neck. Blood and flesh sizzled in the heat. It took a moment, but I managed to sever the head cleanly. I grabbed a nearby rope and tied the head to my belt, leaving it hanging on my waist.

What I did freaked out the women, judging from the little squeals. Maybe I added another traumatizing experience to them, in addition to the utterly traumatizing and terrible things they had already experienced.

“By the way, what do you know about the thing over there?” I pointed at the cage.

“... I-I d-don’t know… H-He… He just abuses her whenever he wants…”

Her? So it’s a girl.

“I see.”

I walked to the cage, used a little amount of Physical Enhancement and picked up the cage on the loop above it. Must be used to tie it up or something. Man, that bandit was wicked. Even I was never that evil, you know. I mean, not like I was ever evil…

Eh. Morality is a tricky thing…

The monster girl was startled as I picked up her cage.

“I’m bringing you along.”

She remained silent. That was fine.

I headed for the building doors and kicked it open. I turned towards the women with a small smile. At least to calm them a bit and show my friendliness. See? I’m not evil.

“Follow me. We’ll find you some clothes.” They seemed hesitant about moving, fear evident in their eyes. “There’s nothing to fear. I’ve killed all the bandits in the base. Come.”

They looked at each other in hesitation, but altogether, they started standing up and heading for the exit. But they still stuck close to each other. I guess that was supposed to be expected. They found strength in each other as fellow victims. Like comrades.

I sort of wanted to talk about how they got here and the kind of situation they went through. But I didn’t think I would get proper responses, and so I decided not to ask. Not because it was insensitive or anything, I wouldn’t care about that, it was just pointless. And quite unnecessary. Their life was not my business.

I led them to one of the houses. I put down the cage and gave it a little tap.

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“Stay here for the moment.”

I beckoned the women to enter the house. “Careful though, there are many gory deaths here.” I awkwardly laughed, trying to make light of the situation. But it didn’t have any good effect whatsoever. When they entered, they were pretty disturbed by the bloody scene. I showed them the cabinet where the clothes were. “Pick whatever fits you. And make it quick. We have to get out of here as soon as possible.”

It took some time for them to finish up, considering how slow and weak they were. Hey, if you were abused that long, and I doubt they were well fed, your body wouldn’t exactly be in a good state. Even worse when considering their psychological states. I just hope they wouldn’t be a bother much when traveling to the city. But I thought I could just leave them to Velar. He was a good man, he’d do fine.

Once they were done, as I carried the cage with the monster in it, I led the group to the spot where Velar was. By the way, I also put a sheet to cover the cage and hide the monster girl. You know, for when we reach the city. I would prefer not causing any more complications.

When we arrived, Velar was understandably shocked to see the several women I brought along like a parade. I introduced them briefly to each other, and said that Velar would be protecting them. That should settle their restless thoughts a bit. Disregarding the part where Velar was a towering man…

Velar glanced at the head hanging on my hip, and he nodded. “Looks like you have him.”

“Yeah.”

“How hard is it?”

“Challenging, but I persevered.”

“Doesn’t look like you fought head on.”

“We didn’t. I killed him stealthily.”

He looked surprised. “I thought he was strong. You managed to hide from him?”

I shrugged. “Guess so.”

“Is the training in your homeland that intense and high level?”

I actually didn’t know how to answer that. “... Let’s just say I’m pretty good with the sneaky stuff.”

“Sneaky stuff…?”

“Anyway, let’s get moving. We have a long way ahead of us.”

***

The walk there was not exactly easy. We had to briefly rest a couple of times. Reason being were the women. As mentioned earlier, they were not in a good state. I tried to cast my healing magic on them just to end this faster. It helped somewhat. But there was not really much to heal…

Well, it was not only them that was tired — me too. But I could still walk far ahead and do more. I imagined in the past I wouldn’t be this tired, but oh well… At least I wasn’t vomiting blood or something.

Anyway, we reached the city. We asked the guards by the gate for help. Thankfully, despite it being still dark out. The guards were pretty shocked to see the group. And then they were even more shocked to see the head hanging on my hip.

“Hey, is that…?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s the bandit leader Yachi.”

“How…?” They looked at me with wide eyes, as if they had realized I was actually someone powerful.

“Does it matter how?” I asked.

“... Um… No.”

“By the way, is the Bureau open at this time? I was hoping to drop this off immediately.” I was not particularly fond of carrying a head all around. It was disgusting, to be honest.

“Yes. The Bureau is open all day and night.”

“Oh wow, that’s convenient. Alright, can you please take care and help these women? They’re the victims of this guy here,” I casually said as I patted the decapitated head. “I’ll also report them to the Bureau.”

“Of course. We’ll look after them for the time being. They look starving.”

“Thank you.” I turned towards the women. “I’ll be leaving you to them. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

The guards brought them into their own building for shelter. But I grabbed one of the guards on the arm, and gripped it tightly. He was caught off guard, and he slowly turned towards me with an unnerved expression.

“I went on my way to save them. Make sure you treat them nicely. Otherwise, it would displease me.” I would not like to waste my efforts.

The guard nervously smiled. “O-Of course. We’ll treat them nicely, and find a way to help them return to their families.”

“Good. Be sure to do that.” I let go of the guard’s arm and watched them go.

Once that matter was done, we continued on into the city. And then I handed out the cage to Velar.

“Hm?”

“Velar, go ahead to the ship. Bring this with you. Show this to Taneva.”

“What about you?”

“I’m dropping the head off.”

“Alone?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine.”

“... I understand.” He received the cage. “Keep safe.”

“Yeah.”

And then he went on carrying the cage. Surprisingly, that monster kid was pretty well behaved. I quite expected the Cursed Children would come and check her out. But they didn’t. Perhaps they were being careful, especially that they were currently in monster forms and thirsting for blood. They might visit come day.

I headed straight to the Bureau. The streets were surprisingly peaceful, save for the people drinking in groups. But I didn’t give them any thought and looked straight ahead. I sensed someone following me. They just never give up. Even following me all the way to the bandit base. Whoever it was, they were pretty skilled.

I entered the Bureau, and there I saw the staff girl from before, Machi. And she was not the only one. There were also other people, the warriors. Drinking and sleeping. Guess that was one of the reasons why this place never closes.

As I walked in, she noticed me.

“It’s you. What are you doing here at this…? Huh?” She noticed the head dangling on my hip.

I pulled the head out and presented it to her face. “I’ve brought the head of the bandit leader, Yachi Miyagawa.”

“Eeeh?!” She recoiled backwards away from the head. “W-What?! Really? Uh, it does look like him. But really?!” She stared at me with a dumbfounded face.

“Really.”

The other warriors heard our conversation.

“Miyagawa?!”

“That’s him!”

“She killed him?”

“How is that possible?”

“Who is she?”

“No way. Is this a trick?”

“Impossible. Look at the neck, it’s real.”

More and more warriors came to gather to see the head and me. Machi quickly spread out her arms to control them.

“Everyone! Keep away! Return to your business. Leave the matter to us!” She pushed them away. But it was more difficult than she had expected, these warriors were naturally stubborn after all. She turned towards me. “L-Let’s get inside the reception room.”

She quickly dragged me to the reception room. Once we arrived and she closed the door, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Please sit down and let me see the… head.”

I placed the head on the table and sat down on the nearby seat. She grabbed the nearby bounty sketch and compared the head.

“I didn’t expect to see you at this time,” I said. “You don’t go home?”

“I had to take overtime. One of my colleagues got sick, and I had to cover her shift.”

“I see.” That must be hard.

“... That’s certainly him. This is amazing!”

Not really. I didn’t even feel pleased, not in the slightest. And that irritated me intensely. And also saddened me greatly.

“The chief should have been here to see what happened. But he’s not here…”

Lucky me then. Don’t have to meet with someone important.

“Anyway, I’ll give you your reward. But before that, can you please share the events leading up to this?”

“Well… I found their base by interrogating some bandits. After that, one of them led me to their base. And then the next night, I cleaned up the entire base, and then finally, killed the bandit leader. Didn’t need a direct confrontation. Just killed him through a surprise attack.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “There’s no way it was that easy! You’re even so casual about it!”

“That’s the summary of it. Do I really need to get into detail about how I killed everyone?”

“Mm… No…”

“Excellent. I should mention, the bandit leader had several women captives, or slaves. They’re in a terrible state, you can imagine what they’ve gone through.”

Machi pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes… It must have been terrible.”

“We gave them in the care of the gate guards. Please look after the women as soon as possible.”

“I’ll send some people immediately once we’re done.”

“Thank you. Anyway, are we done? It’s late. I’d like to take the reward and go.”

“O-Of course. Please wait a moment!”

She left, and a short while later, she returned with a bag of coins.

“Here’s the reward money.”

I received the money. “Thank you. Now then, I shall go.”

I stood up and headed for the exit.

“Please wait. What name should we credit this achievement to?”

I paused and thought for a bit. “... Just write Vogue.”

“Vogue?”

“Yeah.”

I quickly left the building, ignoring the barrage of questions the warriors were giving me. Thankfully, Machi and the other staff stopped them.

I walked down the street and let out a sigh. That was a boring mission. It was boring because I didn’t feel anything good afterwards. Every mission, there should be that feeling of satisfaction. But now, it was just too empty.

This is fucked…

I sensed the observer again. I paused, gripping my fists. This guy was starting to annoy me. I was not in a good mood, and they dared to watch over me? So fucking irritating. Why couldn’t people just leave me the fuck alone?!

How hard was it to just leave me be? It was always like this. Ever since I came to this world. No one would just leave me the fuck alone! After everything that happened today, I was standing at the edge of my patience.

I groaned angrily. Fuck this guy. Gotta end this bullshit.

After taking a deep breath, I quickly disappeared into the darkness.