◇

"I"ll be arriving there in 15 minutes."
『Ho~i, we"re waiting.』

I check the condition on Arisa"s side with [Telephone].

Looks like the lost thieves are besieging Arisa and the others, and it has become a stalemate. They run away when Liza and the others come out, and during that chance, they break into the small room by using the crevice-like small pa.s.sages and going along the dark labyrinth wall.
Moreover, an upper level 30 bearded man who seems to be the lost thieves boss and a unit of paralyzing blowgun users are troublesome, so they can"t quite go on attack. It should have been easy with the abilities of Arisa and the others, but they"re probably trying to make it non-lethal.
And then, the lost thieves boss who seems to have grown impatient with the stalemate uses his henchmen to lure monster "train" to attack the small room where Arisa and the others are.

Checking on the map, their stamina and magic power have only decreased for a bit, no one seems to be hurt.

◇

Lulu and me are running in the corridor while taking the viceroy"s guards along.

"M, master, in the front, another..."
"Lulu, don"t look at it."

There is a scattered remain of a lost thief, half-eaten by monsters, lying on the middle of the corridor. I wonder how many are there with this? Obviously, luring the monster train means risking your life for it. Looking at the Collar of Subordination on his neck, this man is probably a slave.

I cut down the bee-like monsters that are swarming on the corpse with my fairy sword. They"re soft like a paper despite their hard looking appearance.

While we"re advancing on the corridor, Lulu and I defeat the small fry monsters from the train. The soldiers behind us have been quiet since a while ago, looks like this pace is hard for them.

Some lost thieves are reflected on the edge of my radar.

I shoot [Remote Stun] the moment we turn on the corner. The targets are the ones encircling Arisa and the others. Unlike [Magic Hand], the Remote Stunn orbs can be seen, so I aimed with the angle where the soldiers behind couldn"t see it.
At the same time, I throw a bundle of wire from my storage and use [Magic Hand] to bind the thieves. It was harder than I thought.

We arrive at the place where the lost thieves are lying on the ground, tied.

"Chevalier-sama, these people are?"
"They"re probably the lost thieves that my va.s.sals have arrested. Sorry but it seems they"ve just been binded, but not tied on something. We"re bringing them to the surface later, so can you tie them to those pillars over there?"
"Yes!　Oy, gather those thieves in one place!"

I get the soldier to tie the lost thieves on the nearby pillar-like structures. While leaving bit-under-20 lost thieves to the soldiers, Lulu and I continue on the corridor. The captain and half of the soldiers are going to follow later. There doesn"t seem to be any monster from here to where Arisa and the others are.

I hear weapon clas.h.i.+ng sounds from ahead.
We run past the curved pa.s.sage. I can see two red light intersecting in the darkness ahead of the pa.s.sage.

One of them is Liza. I feel that the red light doesn"t only come out from her spear, but also extends to her armor, wonder if it"s just my imagination. Maybe it"s due to that that her remaining magic power is severe.

The other one is a bearded man who seems to be the lost thief boss. Even though he should be human, he looks like a dwarf. The thing on his arm must be a magic axe. He"s the second person I"ve seen using a battle axe after Elder Dohar.

"Master~?" "Nanodesu!"

Since Pochi and Tama are waving their hands greatly at me from behind Nana who"s protecting the small room entrance from the monsters, I wave back at them.

The boss whom Liza was fighting deliberately took some distance away from her, and threw a flash ball he had taken from his bosom to the ground.

It"s a manglike situation.

Just before the flash ball hits the ground, I move before Lulu and protect her eyes from the intense light. It was slightly dazzling, but thanks to Light-intensity Adjustment skill, I wasn"t blinded.

"Releasing your sword from your dominant hand, what an amateur!"

The boss who"s put his back behind the flash is quickly approaching with Physically Reinforced speed that equals Nana, trying to take me hostage. Maybe I should have some fun by letting him take me hostage and have Liza saves me.

His big arm that"s covered in bristle was reaching toward my neck before he caught me. At the same time, he pushed out his magic axe"s handle toward my solar plexus.

He intends to seize me after making me faint huh.

Stinks.

A strong stench pierces into my nasal cavity.

Nope, nope.

I don"t want this stinking hand catches me.

>[Stench Resistance Skill Acquired]

Before that thought even appears in my mind, I crush his arm and kick the magic axe with my knee. While my knee is still folded, I lightly kick his belly with my toes. A small sound of escaped air that"s not even a scream reaches my ears. I block the smelly saliva with >, and I use [Deodorant] on his body to erase the stench before he flies away.

After rotating once in the air, he landed just before Lulu behind me. Lulu holds down the boss on the floor like she"s flowing with the self-defense skill she"s learned in the elf hometown even while being surprised by the boss that has suddenly appeared in front of her.

I capture the remaining lost thieves in the nearby pa.s.sages with [Remote Stun] and wires before the flash disappears. The soldiers shouldn"t notice since it hasn"t entered into their views yet. While I"m at it, I use [Mana Drain] on the boss to prevent him from struggling.

Once the flash disappears, there"s the figure of Lulu who has easily apprehended the boss before everyone"s eyes.

Liza who"s quickly rushed here binds the boss with the wire I"ve given her. I was a bit worried with the boss" broken arm that was dangling, but I decided to leave it alone when I thought about the corpses he had sacrificed for the monster train.

After Liza has tied him up, let"s s.n.a.t.c.h the ring that seems to be for invoking magic from the boss" finger, and the hidden weapons. I point out the things she needs to collect. Lastly, I take out a [Magic-sealing Chain] from the bag, pa.s.s it to Liza, and let her tie the boss more with it. I happened to notice this item when the arson n.o.ble was arrested, and then bought it in the duchy capital when I was getting the scrolls. It"s commonly sold in magic tool shops in the duchy capital. It"s 10 gold coins for one chain, quite a price.

"Master, I am very sorry for I cannot stop the thieves."

After apologizing me for not being able to stop the boss, Liza praises Lulu. I catch Pochi and Tama who"ve come running, and go toward Arisa and the others while joining hands. I leave the thieves lying on the floor of the corridor along the way to the soldiers besides the captain-san.

Since the magic axe is deeply stuck in the ceiling and doesn"t seem like it"ll come down, I use [Magic Hand] and retrieve it into the Storage.

>t.i.tle [Natural Enemy of Lost Thief] Acquired
>t.i.tle [Guardian of Order] Acquired

◇

There are countless bodies of monsters in front of the small room where Arisa and the others are holding on.

"Sorry for being late."
"Master, I was scared~"
"Mwu?"

Arisa who"s speaking in odd manner while clinging to me is off-putting. See, even Mia has a "goodness gracious" face on. After she hugged me, she whispered the situation to me. It sure helps, but I think the strange acting is unnecessary.

The room is 20 tatami-mat wide with uneven stone pavements. On the left side of the room--where it can"t be seen from the pa.s.sage, the princess and the plump-kun, and also five young n.o.bles are sitting. One of the young n.o.bles is a girl. There are 25 lost thieves tied up on the right side of the room. It has increased by five who are probably survivors from the monster train. The ones that have reasonable amount of HP despite having their clothes reddened with blood must have been healed by Mia"s healing magic, I think.

Strangely, even though the young n.o.bles should not have been injured, all of them look like they"re going to die. They were probably really scared after getting surrounded by the lost thieves, and then attacked by the monster swarm. The two people from [Beautiful Wings] look better, but it feels like they"re standing with willpower.

"Geritz-dono, I"ve come by the request of the Marchioness. The guards have also come too, let"s safely get back to the surface with all your friends."
"T, thank you."

I told that to the exhausted looking Plump-kun with a smile. I thought he was going to say something like, "You should"ve come sooner", but he only said a normal thank after nodding a bit. I take out a wet towel in the storage from the bag, and pa.s.s it to plump-kun. I"ve put a lot of these towels in the storage since Pochi and Tama often dirty their faces during meals.

He looked blank for a second, but after I told him that it was to clean his face with so he could feel refreshed, he began to wipe his face awkwardly.

The princess who"s sitting beside him also has some dirt sticking on her face that seems to be from blood spurt. I take another wet towel like the one for plump-kun but since her eyes look dead, I gently wipe her face with it.

"You have also done well your highness. Your cute face is dirty."
"...U, umu, thank you, for the rescue nanoja."

Looks like she"s been refreshed after I wiped her face, willpower surges back from the hazy expression of the princess. I had wiped her face without caring since it was a loli face, her lipstick and makeover had come off.

Let"s gloss over the failure with a smile. Although feeble, the princess faintly smiles back, so let"s consider it a good thing.

The other young n.o.bles have also recovered enough to complain, "I"m tired" or "I"m hungry" from the effect of wet towels even though their conditions are like empty sh.e.l.ls. It might be rude of me to say this, but unexpectedly, every one of these youths properly said their thanks.

Captain-san seemed to consider that taking 70 people of the lost thieves back to the surface was going to be difficult, he suggested to cut their necks here and now, but I rejected it.

I connect every 10 lost thieves with wires, and let each of our vanguards guard each group. That"s 40 people. Lulu and I are in charge of guarding 10 people who are especially high leveled, while the soldiers are to be in charge of a little over 20 young lost thieves. The princess and the young n.o.bles are to be guarded by the two from Beautiful Wings.

Now then, the lost thieves probably will try to escape along the way, so let"s threaten them. I"ve put gags on the mouths of the ten high-leveled ones beforehand so they won"t say unnecessary things.

"Hear me!　You lost thieves!　I will bring you to the surface now. Someone who try to escape--"

The remain of a Horn Hopper that has been skinned beforehand with Mia"s magic is burned with acid magic. The lost thieves are looking with a pale face toward the crumbling remain of the monster while a smoke with unpleasant smell is rising from it.

"--is going to be burned alive with acid magic like such, or become a transfigured figure from this decomposing wyvern poison that"s worse than death."

>[Threaten Skill Acquired]

I took out a bottle that"s been intentionally shaped sinisterly and showed it to the lost thieves. This bottle is the work of a young artist in the duchy capital that I"ve acquired, I make use of its appearance. It seems my deception skill"s kicked in, the lost thieves seems to have believed my words.

30 soldiers from the Labyrinth Army had come as a reinforcement before the lost thieves could try to escape, so we were able to get back to the surface without any problem. Fortunately, no monster tried to attack us, probably because it was a large group with more than 100 people.

Now then, after I hand over the young n.o.bles to their guardians, it would be mission complete.