“Mmm. While I didn’t want to get involved in any fights here… If that’s what good Leo wants, then we must go.”
“Yes. …I will go first, so you can follow after me. …Leo, you go around from the other side. It’s happening on the street on the other side, right?”
“Very well. But be careful, Mr. Takumi.”
“Wuff.”
“Yes.”
After lightly planning a course of action, Mr. Ekenhart and Leo agreed, and so I went into the gap.
Mr. Ekenhart unsheathed his sword and followed me cautiously.
As for Leo, after nodding to me, she ran off in order to go around the building.
So, what was happening up ahead then…
“Hey, get out of here! Hey!”
“You man-eater! This is no place for the likes of you!”
“Get out! Get out!”
“…! …!”
Once I came out on the other side, I saw that it was a square of empty land. Perhaps there had once been a building there.
And I could hear the voices clearly now… It wasn’t so much a fight, as one side shouting angrily.
And in the center of the ground, a single child was kneeling, while three other children…perhaps they were about the age of junior highschool students…were kicking and punching.
As for the child in the center, it was trying its best not to make any noise.
“Hey, what are you kids doing!”
“Huh? Be quiet, old man.”
“Shut up and go away.”
“We’re defeating the evil man eating beast.”
“Man eating beast…?”
I couldn’t help but shout as I stepped forward.
But regardless of what their reasoning was, there was no excuse to surround a child and hurt them like this.
As for the children who were doing it, they immediately turned to me angrily.
…It did not feel good to be called an old man…but that was not important right now.
I wondered why they called the child a man eater. After all, the child just seemed like a little girl.
Though, I could not see her face… But she was probably younger than Tilura.
“I don’t care what your reason is. You should not be bullying such a small child like this!”
“What are you talking about, old man?”
“This thing eats people! And so we have to defeat it while we can!”
“It doesn’t matter if it is small! It is a monster!”
“Even if that was true, it is not your job. If it really does eat people, then you should leave it to the town guards.”
But to me, the child looked like an ordinary human.
Perhaps there were monsters who looked like humans… But I didn’t know enough about monsters.
As for humanoid monsters… Orcs did walk on two legs, but their faces were closer to pigs. And this child did not look like them.
Regardless, even if this child was a monster, they did not need to deal with it. They should just ask the guards.
Even if this was the slums, surely they would do something about a monster that had entered.
“Hmph! You’re just trying to steal our prey, aren’t you, old man?”