1098: Rescuing Illegal Slaves

「Kyaaaah!」

The servant girl’s screams could probably be heard all throughout the mansion. Everyone has learned of our intrusion by now, but that doesn’t matter. Esmeralda had told us to be messy in the first place.

Due to the current national crisis, the Ashtner faction nobles were confident that they would not be punished no matter what they did. One reason for this operation is to show how the government is losing patience with them. We are to make an example of any who think this status quo will continue.

That’s why we made no attempt to muffle our sounds with wards, and why we walked straight up to their front gate.

「W-What are――Urgh!」

『Y-You really aren’t holding back.』

「?」

Fran zapped the servant, knocking her unconscious. Well, I guess she already views everyone in the mansion as enemies, so I should be glad she isn’t flat out killing them.

Blue seems to be headed for the Viscount’s office. In that case, we should look for the strongest-looking presence in the mansion.

Rather than Viscount’s office, this was coming from the basement.

We ran through the villa, knocking out various servants and soldiers, before finally finding a stairway to the basement deep within the mansion. Yet after descending the stairs, we found the basement devoid of people.

Well, not like anyone could hide from us.

「Ha!」

Fran kicked the wall on the right, revealing a large hole to a hidden room. Four people were hiding inside.

『That’s the viscount.』

It seems he was trying to hole up until we left. Did he really think he could get away with the “I’m not home” excuse?

『Fran, this room has plenty of documents and stuff. We want those intact, so take them out as carefully as possible.』

「Nn.」

By the time Fran nodded her head, she had already taken out the strongest knight in the room with a single punch. Not even he could compare to Fran.

After that, I knocked over the Viscount with my telekinesis, then Fran threw out two neck chops to down his gaudy wife and orc-like son.

We found documents recording the sales and purchases of illegal goods, as well as the goods themselves. However, they had no slaves. It seems Marquis Ashtner simply bought the slaves using this noble’s name to maintain a low profile.

『And no Raydoss spy either.』

「Nn.」

I never sensed anyone leaving the mansion, so there must have been no spy here from the beginning.

After that, Fran and the others paid a visit to the mansions of other Ashtner faction nobles, capturing all of them in sequence.

We’re on the fifth one already.

Fran learned from her experience in the first mansion and made the basement her first stop. These nobles seem to really like hiding stuff in the basement for some reason.

Well, we never managed to hit the jackpot again. All we found were some hidden ledger books and illegal slaves, not the nobles themselves.

However, it seems Fran made rescuing the slaves her biggest priority. When she found some in the second mansion, she dropped everything and rushed over.

「You’ll be safe now.」

「T-Thank you.」

「Want some food?」

To my surprise, Fran gave them curry to eat. That’s probably the greatest consideration she can give.

Then Fran showed the exact opposite of consideration to the residents of the mansions hiding slaves, turning them into a bloodbath. She just barely managed to refrain from killing them, since we still needed to extract info.

This is probably exactly what Esmeralda wanted from us.

By the time we reached the sixth mansion, the residents were very obedient. It seems the other units around the capital had already taken out over ten mansions. Word of what happened spread around, so the nobles drifted toward accepting a painless arrest rather than resisting.

Then, when Fran and the others were on their way to the next mansion.

「Please hold on. I have received a message from Esmeralda-sama.」

「Message? When?」

「Just now.」

Blue notified us of a message, but she did not seem to be equipped with any communication tool. Fran tilted her head back.

Then, Blue held out her hand with a small lump of sand on it.

「What’s this?」

「Esmeralda-sama’s sand, which allows me to communicate with her. In fact, she can even see what is happening to us.」

It seems Esmeralda was called the Dusty Throne due to this sand-based communication network. Spreading sand over a wide area allowed her to monitor anything happening within.

She probably needs to stay still if she’s concentrating on something like that.

Blue handed us the sand, then Fran and I began hearing Esmeralda’s voice. Rather than telepathy, this seemed to be making use of vibrations in the sand to do something similar to bone conduction.

『We got some more info from that Derrick guy. He mentioned a noble not on the list, so can you head there next?』

「Derrick already talked?」

It’s only been a few hours since we handed him over. I thought Satia may have helped out, but apparently not.

『Hyah-hyah-hyah. I’ve been around a long time, so I know a few tricks. He may be trained to resist pain and drugs, but not pleasure. Hyah-hyah-hyah!』

She didn’t explain the details, but Derrick apparently underwent a very special kind of torture. As expected from the head of the intelligence division, she had some pretty nasty knowledge.

Esmeralda directed us to the mansion of a baron. Baron Noare was a humble, poor noble who Blue had not suspected at all.

Apparently no one ever looked into him because he never did anything. But according to Derrick, he was connected to Raydoss. I guess he purposely avoided joining Marquis Ashtner’s faction to avoid all suspicion.

His mansion stood quietly at the edge of the noble district, far from the commotion. The shadow of the royal castle cast a pall of gloom over the area.

「Here?」

「Yes, this should be Baron Noare’s residence…」

Blue was just as puzzled as Fran. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect from the house of an impoverished noble, and there wasn’t even a gatekeeper. The walls were crumbling apart and the garden was barely maintained. Very hard to believe there’s actually a spy hiding inside.

Still, Fran was very motivated. We sensed some sort of presence, albeit a faint one. No clue who they might be, but they were surely someone very skilled in stealth if we couldn’t determine their location after getting so close.

『Urushi, get ready to track them down if they try to run.』

（Woof woof!）

Urushi didn’t manage to do much the last time we were in the capital, so he was also very motivated. Since our opponent seemed to specialize in stealth, it’s best to take precautions in case they try to escape.

We pushed the gate open by ourselves and banged on the door of the house. A bit of a rough entry, but that’s fine since we wanted to intimidate them.

After a short wait, a maid appeared from inside the house. She looked rather plain and somewhat clueless-looking.

「W-What is going on?」

「There has been a report of an enemy spy fleeing into this area, so we’ll be searching the premises.」

「Eh? Ehh?」

We listened to the exchange between the still-disguised Count Bailleys and the maid, but she really seemed clueless. After getting this close though, I was convinced. There’s definitely something hidden here.

「Move.」

「P-Please wait just a minute!」

「No.」

Fran pushed aside the maid and stepped into the mansion. A man emerged from the back of the room with a puzzled look on his face, probably the baron himself. Fran asked him a question directly.

「Where’s the Raydoss spy?」

「I-I have no clue what you are talking about… What’s wrong with you? There’s no way there could be a Raydoss spy here.」

『That’s a lie.』

While the maid was kept in the dark, the baron definitely knew something.

Fran pointed my blade at the baron.

「I know the spy is here. If you lead the way without any more lies, you might get to live.」

「H-How insolent! I may be a poor baron, but I am still a nobl――GYAH!」

「We’re here on government orders. I don’t care if you’re an noble.」

Oh boy. She’s identified him as someone friendly to Raydoss, so she immediately started at top gear. Fran asked her question again, looking down at the baron who was moaning while holding his bleeding thigh.

「I’ll ask one more time. Where’s the Raydoss spy?」

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