Ariane and I stood atop a hill, overlooking a small building that stood out of the way of usual traffic, a few kilometers from town.
"From what I heard, Elves were being taken here about four months ago." Ariane said.
Four months. That's a long time for a recently bought slave. They could have already been moved, or the worst had already happened.
I decided to keep those opinions to myself and followed Ariane down the hill as we snuck our way forward.
"By the way, you never told me who gave you that info. You were interrupted by your jealousy of that woman hanging all over me."
"I told you I'm not jealous!" Ariane whispered (yelled), and stomped off again.
"So, who did you hear it from?" I asked again with my usual smile, as if nothing had happened.
"They said they'll meet with us a little later!"
"Fufufu~ you're so cute when you're jealous." I giggled.
We snuck into the building through the highest window yet there were no guards posted outside, nor was there anyone inside.
"It's too quiet… like no one's here…" I whispered.
As Ariane dragged her hand on the wall due to the darkness, something clicked. "'Stolfo, there's a hidden passageway here."
As we made our way down the hidden passage, the smell of blood hit my nose hard. Inari growled under her breath and covered her nose with her thick tail.
"It reeks of blood and beasts…" Ariane muttered.
As we hugged the wall, a figure appeared from a doorway and immediately spotted us. "Who are you guys? Intruders?"
The man seemed to be rather calm in this situation, he sighed in aggravation instead of shouting. "Ugh, not now… I just finished feeding everyone and I finally have the chance to kick back for a sec."
Suddenly, the lights turned on. The man looked like a sleezebag, with his jacket unbuttoned and no shirt underneath.
"Tonight's the night let him out to eat, so don't try to get in the—"
His eyes locked with Ariane's cleavage. "Hey, Sweetie! You got a prettt rockin' bod, don'tcha!"
"What?!" Ariane recoiled in disgust as she turned her body away and gripped her sword.
"Alright. You're my girl now. Go ahead and kill that flat-chest little girl over there."
"She's your girl? This fucking guy…!" I felt a vein nearly pop as I white-knuckled my sword.
This guy thinks my woman is his?! "Who do you think you are?! Aria, let's fuck up this punk—?!"
Suddenly, I spot Ariane swinging down her sword at me and I was forced to block it. "Ariane?! You're aiming for the wrong guy?!"
"She ain't doing nothing wrong, girlie! Just shut up and let her kill you."
"What did you do to her?" Fury swelled up in me as I stared daggers at the man.
"Hey, don't be looking over here! That girl looks like she's got tons of experience fighting!"
Suddenly, I felt my arm being grabbed and I was thrown back. I landed on my feet and unsheathed my sword.
"Whoa, you serious?! She's a Dark Elf! Damn, I hit the jackpot! Hurry up and kill her!" The man shouted in joy after seeing Ariane's face clearly after her hood fell away.
Ariane has clearly fallen for some sort of brainwashing. But, how did it happen so suddenly and without me even noticing?
"Whatever… Casseur de Logistille can easily dispel simple brainwashing magic." I said.
"Casser-what? What're you mumblin' about, girlie? I'm not interested in your wooden board of a chest so don't even think of surrenderin'!" The man laughed.
I ignored him and summoned my Noble Phantasm, the book appeared floating beside me. I aimed at Ariane and a beam of golden light hit her.
"Hey, what're you doing to my property?!" The man was shocked at my actions which looked like I just shot Ariane with a magical beam, but I wasn't worried.
Casseur de Logistille is strictly non-damaging. Ariane won't get hurt.
Proving my thoughts, Arian simply collapsed, I caught her in my arms before she could hit the ground and that's when I noticed something hidden just behind her neck.
"Grrr!" Inari growled and swiftly pounced on the small creature, revealing it to be some sort of imp. The spirit beast clamped its teeth onto its neck and killed it.
"So that's why there was no magical reaction. Nice job, Inari."
"Kyuu!" Inari happily yelped.
"Aw… that wasn't very nice. That was my pet you tore up, man." The man still seemed calm.
Ariane stayed unconscious, so I carefully set her on the floor behind me. "You had an imp cast an illusion spell on her from close proximity to avoid the obvious mana reaction that would happen if you were to cast it at range."
"You figured it out." The man said sarcastically. "I suppose I should reward you for your efforts? I'm a monster tamer from Rozombanya, my name's Fumba Soodu."
I unsheathed my sword. He's telling me his name and Job because he thinks he can kill me.
"A ridiculous-sounding name for such a gross man. I guess you think I won't make it out of here alive, or something? That's why you're telling me your identity?"
"Heh! You're a smart little girl, huh? I'm just guessing that the book you have there is only good for dispelling, huh? What're you gonna do against this guy?"
The man stepped aside and a large door revealed a huge bear-looking monster. Its eyes were sunken in, making it seem dead behind the eyes.
I sighed in disappointment. It was just as ugly as that one monster from the forest near Marca's town. I guess that one is from this place, huh?
"Hey, since you're so willing to tell me info, can you tell me if there were any Elven slaves that passed through here around four months ago?"
Fumba casually rubbed the back of his head and thought for a second. "Elves…? Dunno. We've had plenty of races sent here, lately. Hold on…"
So, he remembers?
"Oh, yeah… Them!"
"Tell me where you're holding them, you—"
"Not here anymore, stupid! Most of them were used for experiments! They did some really messed-up stuff to 'em, I tell ya! The rest I made sure to take real good care of!" He laughed maniacally.
"The last one kept saying how'd she kill me, but she calmed down after I fed her arms and legs to this guy behind me!" He pointed his thumb to the beast-monster before continuing.
"Hilarious, right?! But Elves just don't die, man! She kept saying how much it hurt! And at the end, she just said, 'Hurry up and kill me!' That had me in stitches!"
I see.
As he continued laughing like the scum villain he is, I cut down the beast-monster in three before he even noticed.
"Huh?" He froze briefly as I appeared behind him.
"Maybe I should have expected this? I've seen glimpses of it in Diento, after all… Even back then, I kept my calm, but this? I cannot tolerate. You've made me really angry."
"What're you blabbing about?! Don't act so cocky just because you took down one monster!" Fumba cracked the whip he held and summoned more monsters.
The beasts surrounded me, six in total. Two of them were familiar. A huge sand worm and that ugly monster I killed back when I was helping Marca.
So he was the one who released that one into the forest.
"How small the world is, huh? Whatever… These guys are nothing."
"Hahaha! Yeah, keep talking! You're gonna end up just like those Elves! As these guys' crap!"
He whipped the floor once more and commanded his monsters, "Get him!"
"Hey, I have a whip of my own. It's much better than yours…" I flick my wrist and the once solid sword fragments into chained sections of sharp razors.
With one whip of my blade, I cut down all of the monsters surrounding me.
The easy defeat of his monsters seemed to finally intimidate him as he called for more monsters, but they were all too slow for me.
"It's…! It's not over, yet!" Fumba cracked his whip again, but this time one of the monsters aimed for Ariane, who was still on the floor, unconscious.
My eyes widened and I instinctively activated Monsterous Strength. The ability, combined with my superior speed, helped me intercept the monster's strike.
"Wh-what?!"
"I might not be that strong, at least compared to true Martial Arts masters like Aria's mom, but… I'm fast." I said in a calm anger.
Just then, another figure appeared behind Fumba. "It seems like you have this handled, Astolfo."
"Chiyome!" I called out, happy to see her.
"Tch! More of you guys?!" Fumba cracked his whip around but got no response.
"It's no use. I already took care of the rest of your beasts. The only one you have is the one beside you, but as you can see, Astolfo handled it just fine by himself." Chiyome warned.
Fumba still cracked his whip repeatedly. "What… what the hell are you doing, killing off everyone I worked so hard to raise? Damn it!… Damn it, damn it, damnit!! You idiots are as good as dead!"
With one final crack of his whip, the whole building began rumbling violently.
"Astolfo, get us out of here with your speed!"
"Grab on!" I agreed, not wanting a stray rock to fall on the unconscious Ariane. I took my elf lover in my arms as Chiyome held onto my neck.
I speedily retreated, avoiding falling rubble, escaping the building just as it crumpled to the ground.
Chiyome and I looked back, both of us shocked at the sight.
"I never thought he'd have something like this hidden away." Chiyome with dread lacing her voice.
"A Hydra." I muttered at the sight of the multi-headed monster.
"A monster that can bring down a country… we're not prepared to take this on. We should head back and—"
One of the heads turned its head to us, and I made eye contact with it. "It spotted us!"
The snake's head opened its mouth and a blue magic circle formed in its throat. "Shit…!"
Just as it shot out a powerful pressurized shot of water, I summoned another of my Noble Phantasms, given to me by Achilles.
Akhilleus Kosmos. A shield with a miniature world inside it.