Volume 4 Chapter 11: To Make an Entrance

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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Suddenly being called out to, Palma slowly looked upwards.

Standing there was Cain, smiling. And behind him was Liltana, who had been coming to the shop lately.

Palma made a disbelieving face at the fact that the two of them had appeared there.

“Palma! You did your best! I’m glad you’re safe. We came to pick you up.”

Spoke Liltana, smiling, but Palma was still really confused.

“Cain-sama… Your Highness Liltana… h-how are you here…”

“Tamanis-san came practically flying into the mansion, saying you had been kidnapped. Then, I just conducted a search for you with my full power. I’m glad you weren’t injured.”

At Cain’s smile, as if she had now relaxed, tears started overflowing from Palma’s eyes. Those tears trailed down her cheeks, falling onto the floor.

“*sob*… t-thank you… v-very much… I thought I’d never meet everyone again… The men who kidnapped me said they’d sell me as a slave… *sob*”

“It’s all right now. Anyway, let’s get you out of there, shall we…”

Cain gently grabbed the iron bars with both hands, and –– twisted them apart. They were now bent enough to allow a person to pass through safely.

Watching on from behind him, Liltana and Nigeet made faces as if they couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Without seeming to care about the other two, Cain passed through the gap in the iron bars, and, taking Palma’s hand, got her to stand up.

––Then, he gently stroked Palma’s head.

“It’s all right now.”

Smiled Cain at her, and Palma snuggled up to his chest.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! It was so scary!! I thought I’d never meet anyone again!! That I’d never meet dad or everyone at school ever again!!”

Staying silent, Cain slowly stroked the head of the bawling Palma while making a gentle face.

He continued stroking her head for several more minutes as she cried, after which she gradually seemed to calm down.

Then, realizing that she had been hugging and crying at Cain the whole time, Palma’s ears flattened themselves almost audibly, and her face became bright red from embarrassment.

“Are you alright now? Then let’s go back up. We have to take you back home or Tamanis-san will worry even more.”

Not saying anything more about it, Cain took out a blanket from his Item Box and wrapped it around Palma.

At Cain’s words, Palma wiped away her tears with her sleeve, and, turning to Cain, smiled.

“Yes!”

Nodding with a smile at Palma’s positive response, Cain, with the others in tow, headed towards the staircase.

◇◇◇

A little while earlier.

The other three had gone downstairs, leaving Darmeshia alone in the room.

“Good grief… this timing, of all things… it’s really the worst possible…”

Giving one last glance at the unconscious bodyguards lying on the ground, Darmeshia sighed. Then, he silently melted into the shadows.

At the same time, a carriage had arrived in front of the building.

Out of which stepped two men with huge, flabby bellies.

“Well, well, Your Excellency the Marquis, thank you very much for taking the trouble of coming here. Thanks to you this case went well. We’ve got the girl, now we just need to get her rights…”

“It does not matter how you do that! Got it? Because if it goes well…”

“Of course. I even hired a high-ranking adventurer to do some of the less scrupulous work for this. And when we’re done –– just the processing left.”

An evilly grinning Marquis Corgino and chairman of the Narnis Company, Mathias, had returned to the building.

Marquis Corgino was in a good mood, and Mathias was rubbing his hands together, trying to get on his good side.

Then, Mathias noticed that the doors of his company, which themselves could be called signs, weren’t there.

“!? …What happened!?”

Mathias rushed into the building, followed by Corgino.

What the two saw inside were defeated, unconscious adventurers lying on the ground. One of them had had his arms cut off, which had also fallen onto the ground and rolled off.

“Wh-!!”

Seeing that, the two’s eyes widened.

“You lot, protect His Excellency the Marquis!”

The soldiers who had been guarding the carriage stood around the marquis.

“What… is this? What happened… Mathias… what is this?”

“… I don’t know either… Hey! Wake Gelta up. We’ll ask him what happened!”

Mathias called out to one of the bodyguards, who tried to wake Gelta up.

“––Ugh…”

Having regained his consciousness, Gelta slowly picked himself up off the floor and looked around at his surroundings.

“Gelta! What happened??”

Gelta, still dazed and only half-awake, slowly opened his mouth.

“––Monster…”

Simultaneously with those words, Liltana and her butler, Nigeet, appeared from the back.

“So it was you! You caused this!”

Agitated by having the soldiers point their swords at her and Nigeet the moment they stepped out of the hallway, Liltana immediately made a counterargument.

“So you people are the ones behind Palma’s kidnapping! I’m calling the guards right now! You wait here!”

Liltana shouted, but Mathias didn’t seem to care.

“What a lively young girl. Seems like the amount of prey we have to transport has grown by one… You lot, we don’t need the man. Just the girl––”

“Just the girl what?”

Interrupted Cain from behind the two, just having finished climbing up the stairs.

“Boy… did you do this…?”

Cain tilted his head.

“Boy…? Mathias-san, you’re calling me that…? Right, Your Excellency Marquis Corgino?”

At Cain’s words, Mathias, the soldiers pointing their swords at Cain, and Corgino’s eyes all widened in surprise.

Corgino peeked out at the adventurer-outfit-wearing Cain from between the soldiers surrounding him, then his eyes widened in surprise.

“…Count… Silford… why… are you here…?”

As Corgino said ‘Count Silford’, the soldiers were all surprised, but the one most surprised was Mathias.

“C-C-Count S-Silford!?”

“Mathias-san, long time no see… last time we met was… my announcement party, I believe?”

Cain, as usual, had a suspicious-looking smile on his face.

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TN: wait what we’ve met Mathias before?

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