Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai

Chapter 98

The Unexpected Mastermind

Translated by Mlzkzr
Edited by Mlzkzr

“Come to think of it, the number of young girls’ kidnapping has been increasing recently. Do you know anything about it, Hermes-chan?”

“Eh?”

One day, in the early afternoon, when I was relaxing at Orthia’s place, she suddenly asked me something like that.

I had been on the bed with her and was dozing off on her knees, but my eyes widened and I looked up at her on her lap pillow.

“What happened all of a sudden. It’s unusual for you to raise such a topic.”

I was more surprised by Orthia’s tone when I asked that back.

Orthia is a “professional” prostitute.

She always says she takes pride in being a prostitute, and in fact, she doesn’t take money for anything other than being a prostitute.

As a prostitute, a profession that dazzles men to a great extent, she is often given gold, silver, and treasure from the man she is with, outside of the usual.

There is nothing wrong with receiving it itself, in fact, it is a natural thing for a prostitute.

But Orthia doesn’t stubbornly do that.

It is not normal for her to ask such a question to me, who is here as a customer.

“Is it strange?”

“Ah, it’s strange. If you’re begging me for something like a lifetime request, it’s a matter of course.”

“You prefer a lifetime request? Hermes-chan, are you a masochist?”

“Why is that! All I’m saying is that as a man I don’t feel bad about being begged.”

It depends on the request, but I don’t usually feel bad when a cute girl asks me for a favor.

Rather, it feels good.

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry.”

Orthia put her hands together and apologized with a wink.

Immediately after, her expression changes.

It’s a different, more serious look than I’ve ever seen from her before.

Sensing “something” from it, I got up from her knees, did a half-turn around on the bed, and turned straight around to face her.

“I think Hermes-chan knows about it, but there are many prostitutes who have been kidnapped and sold.”

“Well, huh…… even now?”

“Not so much now.”

“I see”

I nodded silently.

Since I became a lord, I have noticed a few things while doing government affairs.

It’s about kidnapping and human trafficking.

We don’t prohibit parents from voluntarily selling their children.

In farming villages, there is a need to reduce the number of mouths to feed, and in many cases, both parties are happier if they sell and buy legitimately.

Human trafficking by kidnapping is strictly prohibited and supervised.

It was a bit of a relief to hear the results from Orthia’s mouth.

“But it’s still not zero.”

“That’s true. There is no such thing as 『zero』 in anything.”

“I knew they come around here and there. In this place, we buy them because it’s often better to buy them, and so they come again, but there’s been a lot of kidnappings again recently, but they don’t come to our house at all.”

“What about in other brothels?”

“It doesn’t seem to be like that. I asked my sister, too.”

Sister, is it…… is she talking about Hestia, the senior prostitute of Orthia.

“Is, that so……”

I pinched my chin and thought about it.

It’s not something I would tell Orthia, but it’s strange that it’s “not at all”.

If this means they don’t usually buy them, then they won’t come here, meaning there’s no point in coming here, but if they usually buy from the kidnappers, then it’s strange that they don’t come here at all.

If it has gone to zero, then I should assume that there is something happening here.

“That’s why, well. I wonder if Hermes-chan knows anything.”

“……Got it. I’ll look into it.”

☆

“I looked into it at the request of the head, and as you say, there have been many cases of people going missing in the territory.”

In the office of the mansion.

I frowned when I heard the report from Mimis, whom I made to investigate.

It has only been about half a day since I ordered Mimis, but even so, it seems to be happening so frequently that the results clearly indicate that it has “numerous occurrences”.

“Is it being resolved?”

“Most are unresolved. And”

“And?”

“Probably, all of them are done by the same culprit.”

“Your basis?”

“So far, all of the abductions that appear to have increased in number have been of young girls.”

“Young girls?”

“The ages range from 12 at the lowest to 25 at the top. In each case, it seems that only unmarried girls are being targeted.”

“From where?”

“Some were farmers’ daughters, some were merchants’ daughters. The teahouse girl who was even well known in town was among them.”

“I see……”

If all of them are that age, surely, it’s only natural that prostitutes/brothels like Orthia would be concerned if rumors spread.

The fact that they have nothing in common may also be a reason that the rumors are accelerating.

“And one more thing.”

“Nn?”

“Money has been delivered to the home of the kidnapped girls’ parents.”

“Money? How much?”

“About ten gold coins.”

“Ten gold coins!? A young girl would have to work hard for ten years to get that much money.”

“As long as there is money involved, isn’t that still human trafficking ――”

“Are you stupid?”

I was appalled.

Mimis was taken aback by what I said.

“Wha,what do you mean?”

“The amount is too large for a young girl’s trafficking, and besides, would the person who did that bother to deliver the money to the girls’ parents’ house?”

“Tha,that’s……”

Leaving a confused Mimis by himself, I thought.

I wondered whether I should be actively involved in this matter.

My gut is telling me this.

This case, is connected to a fairly large secret organization.

Despite the means of kidnapping, the main reason was that they delivered a large amount of money to the other person’s parents’ house.

When a case is connected to something big, conversely, the prestige of having solved the case is also big.

I feel bad for Orthia, but I didn’t hear about this――.

“――tu!”

I knocked over my chair and stood up.

“Head-sama?”

I look towards the window, despite Mimis’ surprise.

To be precise, I read the signal transmitted from that side.

Without a doubt, this signal is from my sister.

Nee-san is someone important to me.

For that reason, I casted a spell on my sister so that if something happens to her, I will know immediately.

Since my three older brothers had died suddenly in a meteorite, I had casted a spell to my sister to protect her.

That magic was activated.

It informed me of my nee-san’s crisis.

“――!”

I smashed the window and jumped out.

I jumped out, kicked the empty space, accelerated, and headed for the signal’s location in a straight line with my flight magic.

Immediately, I saw her from the sky.

A single horse drawn carriage is galloping down the main street, heading out of town.

I pulled out the sword at my waist and threw it at it.

The sword flew straight out, then drew an arc and soared once, then fell headlong, upside down, toward the ground, as if being sucked in.

And the tip of the carriage ―― it sticks into the ground on the tip of the horse’s front legs.

Hihihiii~n ――then the horse neighs and the carriage stops.

The flying sword―― the overwhelming presence of the sword of darkness that emits a black aura, stopped the horse with such momentum that it almost stood upright.

I landed next to the sword, glaring at the carriage, and——the driver.

“Leave the person in it.”

“――!”

The coachman, with his hood deeply drawn over his head, was visibly shaken.

Even without such a reaction, there is no doubt that nee-san is inside the carriage.

“What are you talking about――”

It was a woman’s voice; I ignored it.

I pull out the sword I had stabbed to the ground and slash it horizontally.

The vacuum blade, slashed off the top half of the carriage and blew it straight off.

There were two people in the carriage.

One, is my nee-san who has passed out.

She is unconscious, but it seems like nothing has been done to her yet.