Chapter 163: Kidnapping case (1)

"The only way to not make mistakes is to do nothing."

Corvus shrugged his shoulders while patting the crestfallen Mika's head.

They were sitting in front of their carriage while Ti was tying up the couple and the child that had turned out to not be the poor victims but the actual ruffians, while Cal was helping the men from the rescue party stand up and go to Cri who would then heal them up.

Needless to say, all of them were rather displeased that they got mistaken for bandits.

Especially the one in the lead, who had turned out to be the kidnapped girl's father.

But since all of them were locals from a nearby village and have at least heard that their lord and his family all had ashen hair, they restrained themselves to just the scolding looks and didn't voice their true feelings.

"Once again, I am so terribly sorry!"

Mika bowed at the ninety-degree angle, making all the healed-up men flinch.

"N-no, young lady, you were just... doing what you thought was right!"

The man in the lead raised his hands in panic.

A noble bending their neck towards the commoner? That was unthinkable!

"..."

The little girl fidgeted nervously and hugged her father tighter.

Even though she was under the charm spell at the time, she still had witnessed how Mika had beaten up all the people who came to save her.

That wasn't something that a child could easily forget.

Seeing all of that, Corvus let out a light sigh and tapped Mika's shoulder.

"Yeah, so remember when that old woman was making you uncomfortable before? Now you are making those people feel uncomfortable. Having a distance to yourself is good, but remember about your status. And about theirs."

He whispered conspicuously and nudged her to the side.

"Ah...!"

The ashen-haired girl realized the awkwardness of the situation that she had caused and hurriedly straightened her back with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"A-anyway. You are very brave to come after the kidnappers by yourselves considering your strength... ah..."

What was supposed to be genuine praise that would lead to lightening the mood, came out as a mockery way before Mika could bite her tongue.

Everyone could see an angry vein popping out on the leader's forehead, but what was he supposed to do?

Deny it?

"We were not brave, but desperate."

In the end, the man said while breathing out.

"Desperate...?"

Corvus raised his brow with interest.

"Yes. When the first two children have gone missing from our neighbor village, and people from there went and try to put up a search quest for the adventurers, they got chased out of the adventurers guild. They were told that they should have kept a better eye on their kids with the monsters stronger than ever before and that they won't waste the adventurers' time searching for two kids who were eaten by some frenzy wolves or something."

The man started explaining, and all of his companions clenched their fists In anger.

"Did they really say that?! That's horrible!"

Mika also clenched her fists almost as agitated as the men in front of her.

"Serves us right. In other territories, people keep the adventurers in check, were always sparing with money, and downplayed the risks involved - but we in the Wrath's territory were always upfront and paid good money for even the easiest missions... look where it got us. Those fat pigs in the guild won't even look our way unless we show up with enough gold to afford to buy an artifct!"

The man was ready to spat to the side from anger, but he stopped himself, not wanting the nobles to think that he wanted to disrespect them.

"...and this year wasn't good for the harvest. Lord Pomegranate Wrath is a reasonable man and a good ruler. He lowered this year's tax so that no one would need to starve to afford to pay it. But those bastards at the guild...!"

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He trembled from anger.

"What happened? You've said the first two children, that means that more went missing too?"

Corvus interrupted the man's angry rant and pulled the conversation back on track.

"..."

The man looked down and gritted his teeth.

"That's right. Four more from the first village, then seven from another, then three from the next one, and nine from ours. My little Apple would have been the tenth one."

He said patting his daughter's head.

"...!"

The little girl sniffled and hid her face in her father's clothes.

"That's...!"

"With that many cases, what did the guild said?"

Mika took a step back, all shaking from the bottled anger, but she got stopped by Corvus before she went ahead spoke her mind.

"They've said that the potential risk of the mission far surpasses our budget and to come back with better reward."

The man's shoulders trembled from fury mixed with shame.

"..."

Corvus furrowed his brows while scratching his chin.

Was it a coincidence that they've stumbled upon this whole situation right then and there?

Corvus's quest mentioned something about a villainess and the appraisal report did state that Cranberry's role was the villainess.

...

Could it be that it was somehow connected?

Truth to be told Corvus's LUC was insanely high, way over what normal player character had considered normal.

It allowed him to accidentally stumble upon things he needed the most since he was an abandoned child.

So, was it helping him now too by guiding him towards the villainess by pushing him towards this serial kidnapping case?

After all, being the mastermind behind mass kidnappings was something that someone with a dubious role like villainess could try to pull off... Right...?

There were still too many pieces missing - like the reason for the kidnapping for example - but still, it was worth checking out.

Something was telling Corvus that he won't regret going out of his way to help those commoners.

He glanced at the three strongest bodyguards from the Wrath family.

Neither Ti, Cal, nor Cri, looked even remotely interested and were openly glancing at the carriage to show that they care only about finding and questioning the Dandelions as fast as possible.

But when Corvus looked at Mika, he smirked.

The teenage girl looked like she was going to offer help to the villagers at any moment even without him guiding her towards that decision.

The question was, whether or not the two of them will manage to convince the famous CriTiCal trio to stray from the plan.

And then the solution fell right into his lap, like always.

"Raor!"

"Arion! Wait for us!"

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