Join the Evil G.o.d Army: continuing into the vents for a while, traces of light began leaking in from below.
When she looked into the cracks there, she could see a hallway in the manor. A number of rough looking men were walking about with weapons at the ready.
Clearly not what you would expect from the villa of some rich man.
(It was just like Crow said. This really is a hideout for the kidnappers. I have to find the captives.)
Fii continued to quietly move about the ventilation system.
Because it wasn’t designed for humans to move about it, it took quite some flexibility.
Fii had naturally been quite flexible.
And because of the training menu designed to further hone that, it became possible for her now to move so quickly and quietly.
Normally it would be frightening to enter a small cramped s.p.a.ce, but perhaps because she grew up in the shadows, Fii didn’t mind it. It made her a little sad to consider that perhaps she was suited to these places, so she decided to stop thinking about it.
More than anything, her desire to be helpful to the Captain spurred her on.
After stealthily traversing the ceilings of the manor, Fii came to a conclusion.
(It isn’t on the first floor…)
She had gone through every suspicious room to check, but there weren’t any signs of people being held inside.
Fii skilfully turned her body a half revolution, so that she was now facing up, and used the light from below to read the map.
There was no cellar.
(The 2nd floor it is.)
She checked the map for the location where the ceiling s.p.a.ce led to the second floor.
Once she knew where to go, she set off.
However, there was a small miscalculation here.
The truth was that Fii’s partic.i.p.ation today was just to test things out.
If she couldn’t fit into the vents well, then she couldn’t fit. If they weren’t on the first floor, then they weren’t on the first floor. That was all well and good, they thought.
That’s why Crow had made sure to tell her not to leave the ceiling.
Neither Roy nor Crow could have expected that she was capable of invading the second floor.
But Fii really did it.
Making use of her light body, she scaled the walls to each side of her with climbing skills that n.o.body taught her.
But what drove her the most was her determination.
(For the Captain!)
When her fingers touched the rim of the shaft, and she made her appearance on the second floor vents, Fii snorted proudly.
After searching for a while…
(Found them…)
It took a while, but she had finally located it. The room where all the trafficking victims were being held.
From what Fii could see, there were about 10 women and children in there with their limbs tied up.
All of them hung their heads with dark expressions. Some of them were swollen and red around the eyes, as though they had been crying.
(I’ll save you all.)
Fii decided to mark the area on her map, and return.
But before she could do so, the room to the door opened with a sound, and two men walked in from the hallway.
One seemed to be a merchant. The other seemed to be an armed guard.
Perhaps the former was even Khanzar.
With a smirk, he looked over the women and children for a while before nodding.
“Not bad. We have more than ten of them here. I’ll probably make quite a bit.”
Suddenly, a small figure appeared behind the satisfied merchant.
Fii didn’t know if the restraints had come loose naturally, or if they had been made loose, but one of the children tried to escape.
He had likely been waiting for the door to open.
(You can’t…!)
The child was still visible to the armed man.
It took no effort at all to catch the child, and the guard hoisted him into the air by the arm.
“UWAHHHHHHHHH!” screamed the child.
“Is this kid r.e.t.a.r.ded?” scoffed the man, “Khanzar-sama, what should I do with ’em?”
After staring at the child for a few seconds, Khanzar replied without much interest,
“Make an example out of it. I don’t care if it dies. It’s a boy, so it wouldn’t make much anyway.”
“Understood. Hehe, don’t blame me if you die, brat. It’s your own fault.”
The guard raised a fist.
(Don’t mess with me…!)
Fii felt her body flushing with heat.
And then found her body moving by itself. She moved right to the entrance to the room and jumped down without hesitation.
“Wha-, who-!?”
“Mn…?”
Khanzar raised a scream of surprise at the sudden intruder, but because Fii had appeared in the guard’s blindspot, he was slow to react.
Without drawing the sword that Galluzzi armed her with, she struck it against the guard with all her might.
He swayed, but didn’t collapse.
(It’s okay, I expected this!)
Fii held up the sword again.
In the match with Gorms, she realised her lack of strength. So she practised so that she could strike twice in quick succession.
“Ei!”
Although he withstood the first blow, the second knocked him out.
“W-, Who the h.e.l.l are… hebuh-!?”
Khanzar seemed to be saying something, but Fii simply swung the blunt weapon once again.
This time it only took one strike.
Although she managed to defeat the pair, there were now loud shouts from outside.
“I heard some weird noises!”
“That’s the room with the captives!”
The loud sounds of footsteps drew closer.
(Oh c.r.a.p…)
Fii quickly cut through the bindings on the captives.
“I’ve come to save you! Please help!”
She got everybody to move the drawers in front of the door to form a barricade.
“Oi, what the!?”
“f.u.c.k, it isn’t opening. Khanzar-sama!?”
The men banged on the door from outside.
“There’s something in front of the door!”
“Break the f.u.c.k through it!”
(Kuh, this isn’t good…)
Because the room was unused, the drawers were empty and not very heavy.
Everybody was now pushing the door shut, but Fii was light, and the women and children were no better. Not only that, but because of their time in captivity, they were all feeling weak.
On the other hand, the force pushing it open was getting stronger and stronger.
More and more people were pushing from the outside.
At that time, Fii noticed a flute in her vision. It was the one that Crow had given her.
(Sorry, Captain! Crow-san! Please save me!)
Placing it into her mouth, she blew with all her might.