Chapter 210: The Bear Explains Things to Ellelaura

Chapter 210:
The Bear Explains Things to Ellelaura

 

“YUNA, wait a minute!”

It wasn’t like I could instantly stop my arm when she shouted at me. Nope, too late—my bear punch made contact.

“Urgh!” My bear puppet sunk into the toad man’s stomach.

 

“I was too slow...” said Ellelaura.

Nah, she’d gotten here right in the nick of time. I’d halved the power in my bear punch specifically because she’d shouted at me. You could tell because the toad guy hadn’t been blown away, and his guts were still comfortably resting in his body. He was just unconscious and foaming at the mouth—that’s all.

“Ellelaura? Why are you here?” I asked her as she entered through the doorway I’d blown open.

“I spotted you riding your bears like a lunatic just as I was returning from the Merchant Guild, so I simply had to rushed over. I couldn’t help but follow you after seeing that look on your face.”

A lunatic? Had the look on my face really been that scary? I thought back to my departure. Okay, yeah—probably. Fina and the others had been attacked; it’d be weird if I hadn’t been angry.

“But please, don’t make your elders run like that,” Ellelaura added.

She didn’t seem all that out of breath. And who was she calling an elder? She barely looked like she was in her mid-twenties. While we were talking, three out-of-breath people appeared behind her. I recognized one of them—it looked like Ranzel. He’d helped me out at the king’s birthday festival with the whole bandit thing, and with that commotion when I’d tried buying cheese. The other two were new to me. They were with Ranzel, so maybe they were knights too?

Even though the three knights were out of breath, Ellelaura was calm and composed. What was she, even?

“So, Yuna…can you explain all of this?” Ellelaura asked as she looked around, taking in the, uh…current state of affairs.

The door had been blown off, part of the wall had collapsed, and two people were a bloody mess. Also, there was one unconscious toad, still foaming at the mouth. The servants were trembling. Looking at it again, it was kind of a terrible scene to behold. By all accounts, it looked like a bear had terrorized the place—not that I regretted it.

Nah, I hadn’t rampaged enough.

I explained that I’d come here to rescue Misa after she’d been kidnapped.

“Kidnapped?!” Ellelaura was shocked at that. She looked to Misa.

“We were all attacked when we were looking at the flowers,” she chimed in, “but Yuna came right away to rescue me!”

I summarized what had happened at Gran’s house. Of course, I also filled her in on Fina and Noa.

“Are they okay?!”

“They only lost consciousness. They’ll be all right.”

Ellelaura looked relieved at that, though she then scowled at the collapsed toad of a man. Yeah, she would be angry if she heard that her beloved daughter had been attacked. “And that was why you were so upset? That’s why you ransacked this place?”

Okay, harsh but true...but ultimately, it was all the kidnappers’ fault.

Ellelaura thought for a bit, then turned to speak to the servants and guards. “I am Ellelaura Fochrosé. In the name of His Majesty, the King, I shall take Gajurdo Salbard into custody. I will also be interviewing all of you, and I suggest you answer honestly. If you lie, the consequences will be as severe as the crime itself.”

The guards and servants exchanged looks among themselves.

“If we’re honest, would our crimes be reduced…?”

“If your crimes aren’t truly terrible, you have my word that your sentences will be lessened.”

Half of the guards looked at their feet, and the other half looked relieved. The servants basically reacted the same way.

“If you intend to cooperate, please take out your guild and citizen cards,” Ellelaura commanded them all.

If they didn’t have a card, they couldn’t leave the town. It was also a way to temporarily strip them of their status. If they’d only lost their card, it could be reissued, but that wasn’t the case for criminals. If they tried to run away, they’d never be able to get back into town again.

The soldiers and servants obediently submitted their ID cards, which Ranzel and the other two guys collected. Nothing good would come from disobeying the orders.

“Ranzel, Volz, start by arresting the three main offenders. After that, interview everyone in the estate, but don’t rough anyone up.”

“Yes, ma’am!” They rushed over to the man in the black mantle with the smashed-in face, and to the idiot son and his toad father.

“Mishel,” said Ellelaura, “go to the Fahrengram’s house and call on Cliff and Gran. Don’t forget to bring some guards, of course.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Mishel left the mansion.

“Now, then…what shall I do with the rest of this?” Ellelaura looked around. Ranzel was tying up the toad, his idiot offspring, and the man in the black mantle. Everyone else had obediently gathered together in one spot. “Ranzel, do you think you can get those three back into consciousness?”

“I doubt it. They’re out cold. I’d say two of them are in critical condition.”

I had given them a good old punch…and nearly become a murderer, now that I thought about it. Killing them would’ve left a bad taste in my mouth. I’d have felt better just punching them out.

“There’s a lot of things I need to ask those three, so we would be in dire straits if they died. Please administer first aid,” Ellelaura instructed Ranzel, then turned toward Misa, who was clinging to me. “Misana, I want to ask you something. Is that okay?”

“Okay...”

“Were there other kids besides you? It’s enough if you even just heard their voices.”

Misa shook her head. “I was blindfolded. I didn’t hear anyone else either.”

“Is that right? I suppose I will need to question Gajurdo directly, just as I thought.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“It seems that merchants’ children have also been kidnapped by Gajurdo. I went to the guild today and talked with the merchants about exactly that. Just as I was pondering what to do, I left the guild and spotted you.”

“So that means there are probably other kids here?”

“There’s certainly the possibility.”

That’d been close... I’d been this close to bringing down the house in my rage. If Ellelaura hadn’t arrived, I would’ve done it without a second thought…bringing down the whole place on the kids. It would’ve been a nightmare…one day I’d just find out that they’d unearthed a bunch of kids’ corpses.

“That’s why I wanted to ask Gajurdo about the kidnapped children,” said Ellelaura. “So, I suppose we have to wake him up.”

The toad man was still unconscious and foaming at the mouth. He really was in no state to be questioned. But, since he was a toad, maybe he would wake up if I threw some water on him? Still, even if he didn’t wake up, I had my detection skill—Kumayuru and Kumakyu were here. If the kidnapped kids were on the estate, we’d find them.

Ellelaura approached the unconscious toad and extended her arm. Water surged out of her hand straight onto the toad man’s face. I knew it—she was a mage. Her daughter Shia was, so that wasn’t all that surprising.

“Wh-what is going on…?” The toad man opened his eyes. Sure enough, the water had revived the toad. “Why am I tied up?!” He struggled against his restraints.

“Long time no see, Gajurdo,” Ellelaura greeted him.

“Ellelaura?! Why are you here?!”

“I came to inspect Sheelin at the direction of His Majesty. I’ve heard some dark rumors coming out this town, as of late. I never thought I’d hear that the granddaughter of a feudal lord had been abducted.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Gajurdo insisted. “My son did that on his own. I took no part in it. If you can catch him, you can have him. I’ll even disown him!” The toad man looked at the sleeping boy next to him.

“A child is the parent’s responsibility,” Ellelaura declared. “The granddaughter of a feudal lord was kidnapped, and my very own daughter was attacked. You think you can pass the buck that easily?” Rage welled up behind her words.

“Regardless, that has nothing to do with me! Release me from these bindings at once! I am a noble!”

What a chatterbox. Maybe I could give him another smack to silence him. But Ellelaura wanted to hit him more than me, and she was bearing through it. C’mon, bear with it...bear with it...

“Could you please stop claiming to be a noble? It’s rather embarrassing. If Yuna got it into her head that we were even in the same class of being, I could hardly keep on living. Even if your son was the one who kidnapped Misana, you are the one who abducted the merchants’ children, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about?” Gajurdo said. “I know nothing about that.”

“Oh, is that right? If you insist on your ignorance, then you’ll let us investigate your estate.”

“Outrageous!!! You think you can get away with that?! How can you justify that?!”

“Easily enough. You’ve already kidnapped the granddaughter of the Fahrengram family. Do you really think you can refuse to submit to an investigation in this state?”

He was clenching his teeth in frustration, but then a smirk came over his face right away. “Suppose that you do have the authority to do this, but I was just taking care of them. I even have written contracts, so I haven’t kidnapped anyone.”

Now that was an unbearably outrageous thing to say.

“I’m sure you forced their parents to sign those contracts by threatening their children,” countered Ellelaura.

“You have no proof of that. All you have are kids I’m legally looking after.” The toad man smiled, despite being tied up. I didn’t know what kind of written agreements they were, but he sure looked confident. When I saw Ellelaura’s glum face, I realized there was some weight to what he was saying. Even in my original world, I’d heard of corrupt salesmen tricking people into signing things, then forcing people to pay. A contract could go a long, long way.

“I see,” said Ellelaura. “Well, that’s fine. We’ll still search every corner of this estate. Of course…that includes your room. I’m looking forward to seeing what crops up, other than the children.” Ellelaura looked downright wicked.

“Preposterous! You can’t just conduct a search!” Gajurdo exclaimed.

“We don’t need permission from you. I already have permission from His Majesty.”

“His Majesty...”

Ellelaura took a single sheet of paper from her item bag and showed it to the toad man. “See here? If you commit a crime, I am entrusted with investigative powers. To be honest, I never thought I would actually use them.”

The toad man’s expression went cold at the sight of Ellelaura’s paper. “But my son was the one who...”

“It’s all the same. Your son kidnapped Misana Fahrengram. You admitted it yourself. Because of that, we can search every nook and cranny of this estate. If it is made known to His Majesty that you aren’t doing anything unsavory, then there won’t be a problem.” Ellelaura was super angry.

“Inconceivable! Someone save me!!! I’ll pay you! Kill this woman!!!”

All of the servants ignored the toad man and looked away. No one was going to listen to the toad’s orders in a situation like this.