Part 3

As the village of Laran is quite close to Serabourg, Kamijou’s party did not waste any time to get there even a second earlier.

While they were moving, Sliven asked the group a question.

“Wouldn’t it be better for us to equip our weapons now? Even though we’re travelling on the road where no monsters usually attack, it would be better to be prepared.”

“Weapons? I have only used these though.”

Kamijou showed his hands to Sliven.

‘A monk, huh.’

“How about Index-san?”

“I use my voice to fight!”

‘A bard or a minstrel or a singer?’

“How about Misaka Imouto-san over there?”

“Misaka has these, says Misaka as she imagines countless volts of lightning around her.”

‘A magician specializing in thunder spells. How reassuring.’

“And Alice-san”

“My charms should be enough to defeat enemies!”

‘A charm type, maybe a dancer?’

Sliven thought of some tactics that their party could use. Surprisingly, the balance between them was nice.

‘We have Kamijou-san to tank for us, Index-san to chant us buffs and heal us, Misaka Imouto-san to fire lightning flash spells as I close in using my daggers. Alice-san could distract other enemies while we focus on one group. With this, we may have the chance of winning! Still, when would they change to their armors?’

“Ah, it would also be better to replenish ourselves first before we go to fight. Fighting on an empty stomach is a no-no for anyone.”

At Sliven’s suggestion, everyone called out a piece of rye bread and a canteen of water.

“Wouldn’t it be better to eat while moving?”

“That will just upset our stomachs, answers Misaka while gulping down a rye bread.”

Kamijou’s suggestion was instantly shot down so he had no choice but to just quietly finish his meal with haste.

After spending just three minutes to finish their meals, the party continued on towards Laran.

“Is that your village, Sliven-san?”

Before Sliven even had the time to answer, Alice immediately shouted and pointed her hand at somewhere.

“Look at that! I could see a tied girl being thrown on a wagon!”

“Could that perhaps be your daughter?!”

Anger and anxiousness appeared on Sliven’s face. Judging from his expression, that would most likely be correct.

Sliven immediately stood up and dashed. He was surprised that the youth with spiky hair acted before him but he decided to focus more on running and saving his daughter.

The others were a little surprised too by the sudden actions of those two so they could only chase after them after some seconds.

There were three people around the little girl. One looked like the one responsible for driving the wagon pulled by two horses, while the two are still on the ground. The little girl had already been put inside the wagon.

Kamijou clenched his fist strongly as he ran straightly towards the group of men.

At the time the group of men noticed it, Kamijou and the rest were almost near them. Their faces showed a look of shock that lasted for five seconds before they finally pulled themselves together.

“Hurry and get up or I’ll leave you behind!”

The one driving shouted. Frantically, the two men tried boarding the wagon.

“Like I would let you!”

But as there were some more meters between them, the two successfully got on board. Kamijou gritted his teeth upon realizing they wouldn't be able to catch up to it.

“Wait up!”

Kamijou and Sliven tried to catch up but obviously, a wagon pulled by two horses would be faster than them.

Seeing as it would no longer be possible to catch up to it, the two headed back to the others.

It was at this time that Kamijou and the rest saw people coming out of the village’s entrance. Kamijou looked towards the other direction and saw some people gathered.

Then a loud noise surprised him. Giving in to his anger, Sliven shouted with fierceness.

“Why did you just let them take her!?”

They could see Sliven grabbing the collar of someone.

“You’re the village leader so how could you just let them pass by!”

Anger was swelling from Sliven. His hands trembled greatly.

“Y-you should understand! If we oppose Grindat, he’ll raze this entire village!”

The village leader spoke hastily. It seemed that he truly was more afraid of that Grindat rather than Sliven who was already raging.

“Do you have the time to waste doing something like this?!”

Sliven’s hold on the village was thrown off by Kamijou’s unexpected punch.

“Instead of something pointless like this, shouldn’t saving your daughter be more important?!”

Kamijou lectured Sliven who was thrown off the ground by the force of the punch.

“…I know! You don’t have to tell me that!”

Sliven sluggishly stood up and walked away.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

No response came as they lost Sliven’s figure on their view.

Sliven has left your party

“What is he planning?”

“More importantly than that, Touma, we need to chase that wagon.”

“Do we even have any idea where they went?”

“Give me a map and I could try guessing where.”

The group discussed on their next course of actions. They knew that they did not have the luxury of time.

“No need to do that.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Before Kamijou even start working on the plan, the village leader spoke.

“We know where they took her. But—”

The village leader spoke as if hesitating. It was true that they did not even tried to stop the misdeeds done to their village. But some form of hesitation to involve unrelated people appeared within him.

“Really?! Then tell us! No time to waste!”

Kamijou spoke happily that it even surprised the village leader. The village leader hesitated before speaking.

“I can’t involve outsiders. This is a matter that our village will solve on our own.”

“Do you have any plans? If so, then let us join you!”

“T-that is…”

The village timidly replied to Kamijou’s question. It was easily discernible from the village leader’s face that no such plan was available.

“We don’t have time to waste here! A child’s life is in danger! Please tell us immediately where it is!”

Kamijou desperately pleaded but no reply came back from the village leader who was only shutting his mouth with a grim face.

“Touma, let’s find another way.”

Perhaps sensing that there would be no use to continue talking to the village leader any further, Index tugged at Kamijou’s clothes. Kamijou only closed his eyes then gritted his teeth in response. He understood too that time would just be wasted.

“We can follow the traces of the horses’ hooves and the wagon’s wheel, suggests Misaka as she sees some trails left behind the road.”

The group nodded at each other in approval to Misaka Imouto’s suggestion.

“Wait…”

Once again, the village head stopped the group.

“I have someone here who can guide you the way.”

Kamijou and the rest were surprised by the village leader’s sudden change in mind.

“But are you really sure about this? Our village doesn’t have anything to reward you with. The only thing we can offer you all is our gratitude.”

“That child’s life is more important than any reward, right?”

The village leader look at Kamijou with disbelief. Even the other people present looked at him with that expression.

“I see… Then, Yulia!”

A girl of about fourteen approached them.

“This girl is named Yulia. She will be the one to guide you towards Grindat’s hideout where Sliven’s daughter is surely held.”

The girl, Yulia, just looked at Kamijou with silence. She made a small bow as if introducing herself.

After preparing a cart for the group to ride on, they bid farewell to the village people as they headed towards Grindat’s hideout.

“How long till we reach there?”

“Half an hour.”

Kamijou began talking to Yulia while the other three in his party were talking to each other.

“Really… I didn’t imagine we would be heading towards a dangerous place!”

Alice was expressing her uneasiness and nervousness with her words.

“I thought we’ll just be saving a girl and be done with it! We don’t even have any weapons!”

“Nothing will happen even if you complain like that, advises Misaka as she happily experiences riding on this for the first time.”

“That is right. Touma will just head towards danger no matter what someone tells him or stop him.”

Alice just felt the power in her body leave her as she sat down dejectedly. She thought she would be able to understand but she could not at this time.

“He really is weird…”

“That is correct, says Misaka as she nods.”

“I can’t disagree with that.”

The three in the back came into an agreement while the person being talked about was busy trying to converse to Yulia. Though the responses were just bits of words here and there.

Twenty-five minutes have passed when they suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

No response came from Yulia. Kamijou tried to look at Yulia’s face but she suddenly stood up.

”I…I really can’t bring you there!”

“Why?”

“My big brother really is not a bad person! There were times when he did some things but all of those were for the good of the village! There must be a reason for him to resort to this kind of thing!”

Kamijou and the rest could clearly hear sounds of crying from Yulia. They could also see her trembling body. They understood that the person she referred to as her big brother was the Grindat that was disturbing the small village.

“If what you say is true, then that’s more the reason why we need to stop your brother from doing this.”

“I can’t let you do that! I don’t want my brother to lose his life!”

“Do you want your brother to continue doing this? Do you want your brother to be labeled as a bad person? To continue making others sad?”

Kamijou looked eye to eye at the tear-filled Yulia.

“You don’t want to, right? There’s no reason to let him continue doing that! If there was a reason, I would gladly hear that. But we won’t find out about anything if we remain here. We must head there to do the things we need to do!”

“But…my brother!”

“Don’t worry. Your brother still needs to atone for his sins. There's no reason to kill him and he wouldn't also think of that while he still have this wonderful sister waiting and believing on him.”

“Yes, I understand! I’ll also believe in you as I believe in my brother!”

The party continued moving again.

“How could he say those lines every time?”

“Get used to it.”

“Get used to it, says Misaka as she gives an advice based on personal experience.”

Five minutes more before they all reach their destination.