I raised my hand in greeting, "Hello there, we're--"

I didn't get to finish my words before three of the women rushed at me while screaming.

That honestly surprised me since I wasn't expecting a reaction like that but I suppose they must have thought we were one of their kidnappers.

I wanted to calm them down but I doubt I would be able to with how they were rushing at me like that so I got ready to at least defend myself.

That seemed to be unnecessary since Amber immediately stepped in front of me to protect me.

She grabbed the first woman by her wrist and twisted her arm behind her, forcing her to turn around to face the other two women before she kicked her behind to send her stumbling forward.

She crashed into one of the women while the other one managed to sidestep her, continuing her reckless charge towards us.

Amber ducked under her wild swing and delivered a punch into her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and letting her collapse on her knees while clutching her stomach.

The two women from earlier managed to untangle themselves to get back up on their feet and rushed towards us once more, both of them screaming hysterically probably in an attempt to mask their fear.

Amber caught one of their fists with her palm before bending forward at the waist to dodge the other one, only to kick her foot up from behind and smash it into the second girl's face and knocking her down.

The girl with her hand still caught in Amber's grip paled as she finally realised how screwed she was.

Amber straightened herself, gave the girl a look, then delivered an open palmed slap across her face.

Ouch…

I took the chance to show them I meant no harm by raising my hands, "Everyone, please calm down! We're Mercs and are not affiliated with your kidnappers!"

Instead of being assured, they seem to be even more frightened for some reason, all of them huddling even closer to the corner and away from us.

Eh? But why?

Lea came up beside me, "If you show them such a sight, of course they would be afraid."

At first I thought she was referring to me until Amber rolled her eyes at her, "Well, then maybe they shouldn't have tried to attack us."

"They're being held here against their will and to their knowledge, they are still being held by their kidnappers. Do understand how it might look to them when three armed people came walking in here so casually like that."

"Hmph, they didn't even wait for us to finish talking before they attacked us. Did you expect me to just stand there and let them attack Tera?"

Lea nodded at the three girls who were still rolling around on the floor in pain, "Really? You don't think that's excessive at all?"

"Hey, if this was anyone else, I would have just shot them."

"You're a really violent woman, you know that?"

"Oh, I'm glad you noticed that I literally do that for a living. Seeing as you're one of our crew now, better get used to it."

I stepped in between them, "Alright, alright… Ahem… Sorry about that… Err… We really meant you girls no harm. We were hired to get rid of this gang and we found out they also kidnapped you girls so we decided to rescue as well. You're all free now!"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The women looked at one another before looking back at me.

One of them shuddered, "This is… Not a joke, right? We're… We're not going to be drugged into slavery?"

Amber gestured at the door, "Yeah, yeah, you're free. Get going now. We aren't paid to rescue you so you're going to have to find your way out on your own. Now get gone."

Oh geez, you could be less upfront about it, Amber…

Lea sighed, "Please excuse our companion over there. We have already taken care of your kidnappers and you are all free to leave. Please be careful on your way out."

A few of the girls stood up and slowly made their way to the door, though they kept their eyes on us as though expecting us to jump on them the moment they got close to us.

Obviously we did not do that and they managed to make it to the door without issue.

That was when they saw the dead thugs outside and one of them let out a gasp of surprise.

"You… You three really killed all of them?" She asked.

Amber raised an eyebrow at her, "Yeah. Why? You wanted to take revenge yourself? Tough luck, girl."

"N… No… It's just… You beat them… With three of you?"

"Yeah, you have a problem with that?"

Another girl muttered under her breath, "Mercs are even scarier than them…"

I pretended not to hear that and gestured at the door, "Not to rush all of you but… While we took care of all the thugs inside this building, we can't guarantee that there aren't more of them who would come later and try to capture you again. So if you want to escape, I would really recommend leaving now lest you get caught up in a firefight between us and these guys later."

That seemed to have woken them up from their stupor and they quickly rushed outside the room.

Instead of going up the stairs and leaving through the door we came from, they went a different route and left through what I assume to be the front door of the nightclub instead.

I watched them leave and the door opened to show a rather crowded street outside.

I'm guessing this place was part of an entertainment district with all the noise I heard outside.

When all the girls were gone, Amber turned to give me a smile, "Looting time?"

Of course it is~

Now let's see what we've got.

*

Ughhhh… They only have one small box of the drugs…

There's only six small packs of it… Each of them barely even even fifty grams each…

There's no way we could sell these to that Rattler woman who already told us she only buys in bulk.

That means we'll probably need to sell these ourselves…

Hmm… Maybe we can go back to that market below that Rattler base to look for buyers? But would they even buy this?

I suppose it's worth a shot if we're planning to sell this… But I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

On the other hand, we did get quite a number of weapons at least, so that's something.

One interesting thing that happened while we were looting the dead thugs though…

"Are you just… Taking stuff from them?" Lea asked, watching Amber and I rummage through the corpses for loot.

I looked down at the pistol I was prying from the dead thug's hand, "Errr… Yes? What else does it look like we're doing?"

"You're… Taking stuff… From corpses…"

…

Oh…

Honestly, now that I think about it… I actually got used to this pretty quickly didn't I?

I remember the first encounter with the pirates I was retching over their corpses when I first realised that this was not a game.

Amber answered her in my stead, "What? Bullets cost money, you know? If we don't loot the people we kill, we would be making a loss, you know? In case you've forgotten, we're Mercenaries."

The Alv frowned, "Bullets aren't that expensive. Selling those drugs would have been more than enough to pay for resupplying your guns."

"Uh-huh, and where would the money to buy the stuff you need for your plants?"

"Don't act like I'm the only one benefitting from that. Besides, I'm not condemning this, I'm just… Surprised."

"You said disgusted wrong."

Lea frowned, "Fine. Yes, I feel quite irked and I wouldn't steal from a dead person."

Amber wagged her finger at her, "Ah ah, it's only stealing if it belongs to someone and the dead don't own stuff. Besides, it's not like we're asking you to loot the bodies with us either. You can just keep watch while we do it."

The Alv scrunched up her face but said nothing more, leaving us to continue our looting.

Not gonna lie… I didn't really think about it until Lea pointed it out but I'm quite surprised with how fast I acclimated myself to this life.

Even if I were to think of myself as someone who is able to adapt to situations quickly, I don't think just anyone would be able to do what I've done within this short amount of time.

Hmm… I wonder…

"Tera~ Look what I found~"

My thoughts were interrupted by Amber who pulled out what looked like a safety deposit box from behind one of the counters.

She then pulled out a keycard which I assumed she had pilfered from one of the dead thugs and tapped on the door, unlocking the safe to reveal a pile of Credit Chips inside.

Oh~ Not bad, not bad at all~