"Rebecca is awake too. It looks like we need to calm these townspeople down first!" Asta said, grabbing the caught-off-guard Noelle and jumping out of the second-floor window.
"Ahhh! What are you doing, Asta!" Noelle hugged Asta tightly in a panic, her heart still racing even after they landed safely.
"You surely weren't thinking of walking down the stairs from the second floor, were you? That would be so slow!" Asta laughed.
"Even so, you should have told me beforehand! You scared me to death!" Noelle glared at Asta, huffing with anger.
"Asta, Luca and Marco are gone!" Upon seeing Asta, Rebecca felt as if she had found her backbone, and she rushed to his side.
"Mm, I know. Don't worry, Rebecca. I will bring Luca and Marco back safe and sound. I give you my word. If I can't find them, you can do whatever you want with me!" Asta patted Rebecca's shoulder, and at the same time, Chakra turned into a warm current that flowed through his palm into her body, which couldn't help but calm her tense emotions.
"Do whatever I want with you?" When Rebecca heard this, her beautiful eyes widened. What kind of bold, suggestive words were these? It sounded too tempting!
"Anyway, rest assured, Rebecca. From now on, as long as I am here, your family will be safe!" Asta smiled.
"Stop! Stop! What are you two doing? Is this the time for flirting? Look at how anxious the other townspeople are!" Noelle rushed between the two, gesturing wildly.
"Look! There are members of the Magic Knight Squad here!"
"Lord Magic Knight, our children are missing! Please, do something!" The townspeople, seeing Asta, swarmed toward him.
"I understand. I will resolve this. Everyone, please calm down!" Asta's voice was steady yet loud, reaching the ears of every resident.
"Great! With the Magic Knight Squad stepping in, our children will surely be saved!" Many townspeople breathed a sigh of relief, though a few remained hesitant.
"Look at their uniforms—they're from the Black Bulls. They're just the bottom-ranked Magic Knight Squad. Is it really okay to leave this to them?" A man couldn't help but question.
"You brat, don't be ungrateful! It's already good enough that they showed up to help us immediately!" An old man immediately bristled.
"Exactly! Even if they are the lowest-ranked squad, they are still a Magic Knight Squad. If you're so capable, you go do it!" A woman retorted angrily, and for a moment, the man became the target of public outrage.
"I was just saying, everyone don't get angry." The man quickly backed down.
"I didn't expect the Black Bulls to arrive so promptly!" Theresa approached with a few nuns from the church.
"Nun Granny! Nun Granny from the church has come too!" The townspeople felt even more at ease seeing Theresa approach; clearly, Theresa held a certain level of prestige in the town.
"You can rest assured and leave this matter to the Magic Knight Squad. For now, please follow the nuns to the church to pray!" After Theresa arrived, she immediately began to calm the townspeople whose children were missing. Since these parents would cause quite a bit of trouble if they lost their composure, it was better to bring them to the church before they lost their minds.
"Right, let's all go to the church and pray for the children!"
"Let's go, let's go! So many children missing in the town—this is no small matter. I believe the Magic Knights Headquarters will send people over soon!"
"Yes, gathering here will only cause trouble for the Magic Knights. We should all go sit in the church; it's warm in there!" Some of the more rational townspeople began to urge others, and soon everyone followed the young nuns' guidance toward the church.
"Thank you, Nun Granny. If it weren't for you, it probably would have taken quite a bit of effort to calm these people down!" Asta said gratefully.
"This is what I should do. Several children from the church also went missing, one of whom is Marie, the sister of your Black Bulls member, Gauche!" Theresa said.
"I didn't expect Gauche's sister to be here. But regardless of who it is, we will rescue them!" Asta was surprised. He hadn't expected the sister Gauche was always talking about to be in this very town!
"It is truly impressive that you have such conviction at such a young age... I can sense a magic power in this snow that can control people. The disappearance of these children must be related to the caster of this snow. Do you have any clues you can share?" Theresa looked at Asta, her expression turning serious. The pleasantries were clearly over; now it was time to get down to business.
"Changing topics so fast? Although I am a Princess, I still get a bit nervous in situations like this!" Noelle gripped her small hands nervously, thinking that it was fortunate Asta was in front of her. Otherwise, if someone suddenly asked her that, her little head would surely go blank.
"I saw the children following a white-haired young mage toward the mountain." Asta, being a man of action rather than words, directly stated the most useful information.
"Uh?" Theresa was stunned for a moment. Her first thought was why Asta had just watched the enemy take the children away. Was it out of cowardice?
Then she realized, "Playing the long game to catch a big fish, are you? For these dark rats, this is indeed the best way to solve the problem once and for all, but don't you think this is very dangerous?"
"They went to great lengths to take the children from their homes, so they must have a motive. I am confident I can stop them before they can carry out any evil plans!" Asta said.
"Young people are so arrogant." Theresa said.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Asta didn't explain further; instead, he manifested a clone. "This is my magic clone. I can create a total of nine such clones. Two have already gone to follow the group. Once they dissipate, what they have seen and heard will be quickly fed back to me, which means I can find them immediately!"
"It seems I was rude. Then, without further ado, let's set off now!" Theresa looked at Asta, eager to get started.
"Is Nun Granny coming along too?" Noelle asked in surprise.
"Don't underestimate me, girl from the Silva family!" Theresa looked at Noelle with a smile.
"Huh? How did you know..." Noelle was initially shocked, but then she laughed at herself. The features of the Silva royalty on her were already obvious enough; it was understandable that others could tell at a glance.
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