The store owner, the store manager and his assistants, the staffs who had been knocked down by Mavis with her scabbard and were lying on the ground, and the employees and servants who came out later, were all captured by the guards.
Of course, later on, they would be thoroughly interrogated, and those who knew nothing and those who have mitigating circumstances will be treated accordingly. For now, they were only temporarily detaining everyone because they did not know who were guilty and who were innocent.
If they made a big mistake like this, it would be impossible to bury it or suppress it no matter how hard they try.
Among the large crowd were merchants from the royal capital and other territories, merchants from other countries, local spies, and many others. It was not something that could be easily hidden.
And to prevent the consequences from falling on them, the feudal lord, his subordinate lower-ranking nobles, and the government officials would have no choice but to cut off this merchant. The higher-ups of the security force who had accepted bribes, and the small and medium-sized merchants who had been on friendly terms with him, all of them...
After all, it was certain that the royal palace would find out about this, and then the higher-ups of other territories and countries as well...
An ancient agreement. An agreement made by many races to prevent a recurrence of the demi-human War.
An act that runs the risk of destroying all of this is a grave sin that one hesitates to even defend.
In order to protect themselves, they had no choice but to attack the violators with all their might. If they even uttered a single word of defense, they would be the one being attacked with all their might.
Any decent noble or merchant should understand that properly.
However, there had always been foolish aristocrats who had not studied history properly, people with little sense of danger, and people who had the simplistic and unfounded idea that things would never be found out, and that there was no problem if they were not found out.
"Ah, wait!"
As Mile and her party tried to quietly leave the scene with the little girl in their arms, the commander of the guards called out to them in a panic.
Tch… (All CV)
"Crimson Blood!" had intended to fade out and disappear without making a sound, but there was no way they would overlook something like that.
"You will have to explain the situation and give your testimony. I want you to come with me to the Guard Headquarters. Given the circumstances, we may have to have you report to the lord as well.
...No, there's no need to worry. Looking at the situation, it's clear that the merchant is the villain.
I just want an explanation of the situation. And..." (Commander)
Saying this, the commander glanced towards what used to be a shop.
Clearly, this was too much.
Admittedly, some explanation might be required on this point.
That's not good...
That’s not good…
That's a problem...
I have to avoid this somehow…
Yes, it was true that "Justice is on my side!", but it would be troublesome if they were to be interrogated too thoroughly.
First, a guild branch might be appeared, and it might be revealed that Mile and her group were not registered under the suspicious name of "Crimson Blood!" as they call themselves, but under the name Crimson Vow.
...No, the fact that they used that name itself is not a problem. If they had used the name of another real party, it would be a big deal, but there was nothing wrong with them using aliases and accepting jobs as freelancers without going through a guild. It was not uncommon for famous hunters to volunteer to take on lower-ranking requests and do so under a false name as a freelancer so as not to tarnish their own reputation.
Yes, it's like a famous manga artist secretly drawing R18+ manga under a different pen name.
However, Mile and the others wanted to avoid it being revealed that this incident was the work of Crimson Vow.
One thing would be a problem if it were revealed that Salisha's injuries were just cosmetic and were actually makeup.
This was clearly not good.
Why was a young girl imprisoned in a cell doing such a thing?
How did they get your hands on makeup tools?
Why did they have such makeup skills?
…If pressed, there’s no way to explain it.
First, this request was made voluntarily by Mile herself and was in fact something that Mile and her party were doing on their own without any client.
If it had only been the rescue of Salisha, then maybe it would have been dismissed as an act of chivalry and justice.
However, the state of the store was clearly beyond the limits of what could be tolerated. They would almost certainly be blamed for not reporting it to the security forces, or for taking such actions on their own.
No, that was because even if they had taken it to the security forces, there was a possibility that it would be crushed by those who had accepted the bribes, or conversely, Mile and her party would be arrested, but if they had said something like that, the security forces would surely have hardened their stance even more in order to protect themselves.
Furthermore, if they did do that, there was a possibility that the merchant's owner, having received information from the security force, would hire people to eliminate Mile and her party, or do something to Salisha in order to destroy the evidence, so that would be a bad move, and Mile and her party had no intention of doing such a thing.
...It's bad. Anyway, it's bad.
That was the common understanding shared by Mile and her compaion.
That's why…….
"Oh, come on, get off! You're so arrogant!" (Mile)
"Whaaaat?!" (Commander)
Yes, in an attempt to get through with momentum and bluffing, Mile began saying something to the commander in an arrogant manner...
"There's no need for us to ask the details; it's obvious that these guys obtained the beast girl through kidnappers and middlemen! Now all that's left is to interrogate them and make them confess!
All we have to do is fulfill Lord El's order!" (Mile)
The reason why order was used instead of oracle was because it was the more correct terminology if the God was revealing it directly rather than through a priest or some such, and also because Mile wanted to avoid telling lies as much as possible.
...Yes, because of the unnatural words "Lord El" that came just before, Mile said "I'll just wash my underwear later and then I, who can see, can do the laundry!", an absurd line that had already gone beyond the realm of far-fetched and was so presumptuous that it would be presumptuous to even say it was a lie, but of course the guards took it as "It makes sense to hear that."
"It's a message from the goddess..." (Mile)
"El? Is that the goddess's name?" (Commander)
"I, I have been granted divine command, an apostle of the Goddess..." (Mile)
When they learned of the existence of young girls imprisoned underground, they boldly rescued them head-on; half of them were still underage.
It was as if it had been destroyed by divine punishment, and yet for some reason the only path leading to the captured young girl was free of rubble, which was unnatural... the situation here could only be interpreted as the involvement of some kind of will.
This was enough to suggest to the devout believer that the goddess was involved.
And those in combat professions were generally devout people.
There weren't many disbelievers among people whose jobs depend on luck... except for criminals.
So naturally, these guards and commanders were also devout.
"Our only mission is to return this child safely to her parents. I have been ordered to leave the punishment of these villains to the pious servants who are in a position to do so… Are you people the pious servants of the goddess?" (Mile)
"...Of course!" (Commander)
The commander instinctively responded to the unfamiliar girl in polite language.
But in this situation, that wouldn't be possible.
"In that case, I'll leave the rest to you. Plan what works best for you. Farewell!" (Mile)
And then, without chanting, she deployed an invisible field and disappeared with Salisha, saying "Crimson Blood!"
Because the soundproofing field had not been deployed so that everyone could hear the voices around them, Mile placed her index finger over her mouth and instructed everyone to keep quiet. Salisha had also been briefed on the operation and the signal to keep quiet the night before.
"...they...disappeared..." (Everyone)
The guards and the spectators were frozen in shock.
Then Mile and her party quietly moved towards the rubble and sat down in its shade, where people were unlikely to approach.
Because the invisible field was not a physical barrier, if someone entered it, they could be seen. So, in this situation where the spectators were packed together and there were no gaps to slip through, it was impossible to escape.
Even if she put up a physical barrier, if something like "A mysterious phenomenon of bodies being pushed away without anything happening" were to occur, it would cause a fuss and they'd be surrounded. So, in the end, they had no choice but to wait patiently there until the crowd dispersed and there was a large enough gap.
...I think I may have made a mistake...I should research a more efficient way to escape...For safety's sake, I need to be aware of the outside situation, so I can't use the sound insulation field, and I can't talk to everyone...
No matter how excellent your magic is, if you don't have the talent to use it effectively, it's all a waste...