However, it was something impossible for it to happen. Hajime casually gripped the thrusted dagger with his left hand, put his strength into it, and crushed the blade. Hajime opened his palm and dropped the blade’s fragments. The guard could not register what happened, he was dumbfounded for a moment, and cast his gaze down to the dagger on his hand, but he could only see the handle. Finally understanding what happened, the man turned pale and backed away while uttering, “Wh-Wh-.”
Hajime immediately grabbed the man’s head and threw him into the ground.
SQUIIIISH!
The man immediately died, accompanied with a raw sound.
“A guard should first ring the alarm.”
Saying such a thing with an amazed expression, Hajime who instantly killed the guard made the children pop-eyed in surprise. Without minding their gazes, Hajime used transmutation to disassemble the iron bars. In the children’s eyes, they saw the iron bars disappeared in an instant which made them stiffened, and their mouths were wide open with surprise.
“Sorry, Yue, but can I entrust them to you? Looks like I can’t do anything but rampage now.”
“Nn… leave them to me.”
“The security officers should arrives soon, too, so it’s okay to leave the children to them. The branch head, Ilwa will help us, too… Let’s leave the details to him.”
Yue was watching from a distance with a somewhat sympathized look. It was directed to the Guild Branch’s Head. Actually, before they came here, they had caught a suitable Adventurer to deliver the telepathy stone to Ilwa, since they thought to explain the situation to him. Status plate with “Gold”-rank was useful in such a time. Because after seeing Hajime’s color, the Adventurer stiffened for a moment and his attitude turned into a formal one… It was similar to how the Japanese greeted a Hollywood Star who came to the town. He even saluted as he agreed to listen to his request.
Incidentally, because telepathy stone could not be activated from Ilwa’s side, he was made to hear the report one-sidedly; about how they got in a fight against a huge underground organization, and that Hajime left the post-treatment to him which made his face turned white in his office.
Hajime once again transmuted a passage from the oubliette to the surface, entrusted the children to Yue, and quickly went towards the auction hall. At the same time, the boy from before called Hajime to a stop.
“Nii-chan! Thank you for helping us! You can definitely save that girl too! She was truly frightened. Even I couldn’t do anything…”
Apparently, this boy didn’t care Myuu was a demi-human, and seemed to have tried to encourage her. He was quite the spirited boy, though he himself was caught. Hajime patted the head of the boy who felt bitter from his powerlessness.
“Wah, wh-what is it?”
“Well, if you feel it was mortifying, then you only have to become stronger. Rather, there’s nothing but to do that. This time is my turn, but next time it’s your turn if something comes up.”
After saying so, Hajime quickly turned his heels and went out of the oubliette. The boy held his patted head in blank surprise, had sparkling eyes in next moment, and clenched his fists with a slightly manly face. Yue gazed at the boy with pleased gaze and took the children to the surface.
* * *
The auction hall was wrapped in its own bizarre atmosphere.
The guests in the hall were around 100 people. All of them were wearing queer masks, and no one was making any noise. They only quietly raised placards with numbers when the merchandise they want was up for auction. They hesitated to speak because they didn’t want to be identified.
Even those guest who were carefully trying not to let any sound out, involuntarily raised their voices when “that” merchandise came out.
What appeared was a little girl from Sea-dweller tribe inside a square water tank with a distance of two meters in all directions. She was stripped off her clothes, naked, and she shrunk her body as she held onto her knees in the corner of the water tank. Sea-dweller tribe could breathe inside water. It was the reason why she was put inside the water tank, to prove she was a genuine Sea-dweller. And maybe because she had escaped once, metallic shackles were put on her limbs. It was such a cruel sight for such small limbs.
The numerous gazes that frightened Myuu narrowed and began to compete. Her price went up at a ferocious pace. It was a one time thing, so they probably thought they would be able to buy and hid the Sea-dweller. It was possibly because they had yet to know the commotions that occurred in the daytime.