Chapter 195
Chapter 195 – Bear-san Saves the Other Children
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When we asked the toad man where the other children were being held, he just told us to look for them ourselves .
Eleanorsan was mad that he refused to cooperate, but we had plenty of ways to look for them .
I could use detection magic or have Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear sniff them out . Just as I was about to tell that to Eleanorsan, a short-haired maid in her early twenties raised her hand .
「I know where the children are . 」
「Ruufa!」
The toad man scowled at the maid, but Eleanorsan just doused him with some more water to make him shut up .
「You know where they are being held?」
「Yes, because I prepare their meals for them . 」
「Ruufa, you know what will happen if you betray me, don’t you?」
「Please, stop making your crime worse . I will properly atone for mine . 」
「Don’t you dare . Who do you think is paying off your parents’ debt after they ran off and left you with it?」
「You, Gerardo-sama…」
「What do you think you are doing, then?!」
As the toad man cried out, Eleanorsan summoned a big tide of water and completely soaked the toad man with it .
「Ranzel, would you mind covering up his mouth with something? His breath stinks, and I can’t stand it anymore . 」
「Eleanora, you…!」
Ranzel-san covered up the toad man’s mouth with some cloth as instructed . The toad man groaned for a while but eventually went quiet .
「Emm, Ruufa, right? Just ignore what Gerardo said . You’re saying you can take us to where the children are?」
「Yes, I can . 」
Eleanorsan took a quick glance around her before turning to Ranzel-san .
「Ranzel, ask the servants how many of them are missing and their names . Then, once Cliff arrives, leave this place to him and go search the residence for those remaining servants . 」
Once Eleanorsan finished giving orders to Ranzel-san, she turned to me .
「Sorry, Yunchan, but could you come with me?」
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I didn’t mind, so I nodded .
「Also, it would be really helpful if you could leave one of your bears behind to act as a guard . 」
「Sure . Swaying Bear, please stay here and make sure they don’t try to escape . 」
Swaying Bear cried softly in reply .
「What about you, Misa?」
「I will go with you, Big Sis Yuna . 」
Misa said, grabbing onto me .
「That’s fine, I guess… but promise me that you won’t stray from Yunchan’s side, okay?」
Eleanorsan pushed Misa onto me, but it wasn’t like I really minded .
I lifted Misa up and put her onto Hugging Bear’s back .
「You’ll be safe here . 」
Misa nodded and grabbed onto Hugging Bear tightly .
「What a gentle bear . 」
Ruufsan was surprised to see Hugging Bear letting Misa ride on it, but there was clearly some fright in her expression .
「It won’t do anything as long as you don’t try to harm it . 」
「I wouldn’t do something scary like that . 」
Still, it was okay to be less nervous about it .
Ruufsan then started to lead us down a hallway .
Both Cliff’s and Gran-san’s mansions were quite big, and this one was no different . There was no way all of these rooms were being used .
「Eleanorsan, is the kidnapping of these children not going to be considered a crime?」
「The problem is that their parents have signed a contract that allowed Gerardo to keep their children . 」
「So, he’ll be considered innocent?」
「Hmm, not quite . It’s a difficult situation . Of course, from my point of view, he committed a crime . However, if he really does have a contract in place, he might legally be in the clear . Sometimes, merchants do hand over their children as collateral when they are loaned large sums of money . Still, in this case, it’s obvious that they were threatened to do it . 」
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「So, this should be considered as a crime, then . 」
That was all I needed to know .
「Yes, the possibility of it being considered a crime is quite high . We have yet to get a full statement from the parents . It’s still possible that they indeed made an agreement with Gerardo and did pass their children to him willingly . I don’t really mean this, but before you came along, it was better to side with the Salbert family rather than the Faren Gramm family . Even now, it all depends on the contents of that contract . 」
She was right . If they sided with the toad man rather than Gran-san, it was possible for them to earn a lot more money; more than enough to change their minds .
Still, what did she mean by ‘before I came along’?
The way she put it, it sounded like I was responsible for the downfall of the toad man’s noble family .
「Your expression is telling me that you don’t quite understand why . If you didn’t go to the capital and bring Zelef here, Gran-san’s party would have failed . Then, they wouldn’t have resorted to kidnapping Misa, and you wouldn’t have raided the mansion, meaning we wouldn’t be in this situation . Not to mention, if you didn’t drop by the capital, I wouldn’t be here right now . You’re the cause of all of this . 」
When she put it that way, it really did seem like everything had happened because of me .
「If so, then it’s all thanks to Misa for sending me an invitation to her party . 」
I praised Misa, who was comfortably riding on Hugging Bear .
If Misa hadn’t sent me an invitation, I would never have come here .
Going out in the world and meeting people had quite the impact on things . I would have never experienced something like this in my former world where I would surely still be a hikikomori .
「Ruufsan, why are you working here?」
Ruufsan seemed like an upright person, so I found it weird that she would work for someone like the toad man .
「My father left me with a big debt, and I’m trying to work it off . 」
「A big debt?」
「Yes . My father was a merchant and needed money to run his trade . Gerardo-sama lent him the money he needed, but the business ended up failing, making him lose all the money as a result . To prevent my father from running away, Gerardo-sama took away my citizenship card and made me his hostage . My father worked as hard as he could, but it was not an amount that could easily be repaid . Then, one day, my father went to buy some things from another town and never returned . So, I had to start working for Gerardo myself in order to pay off the debt my father had left me with . 」
What she just told us was inexcusable .
「Eleanorsan, couldn’t she just have the card reissued?」
「Well, if this was a normal case of where the card was lost or stolen, she would just have to pay a fee and get it reissued . However, her card was taken by a lord of the town, so things aren’t that simple . 」
Eleanorsan said with a slightly surprised expression .
「I think you should already know this, Yunchan, but you need a citizenship card or guild card to go in or out of a town . If you get your card taken away by the authorities, you will be unable to leave the town you’re in . 」
「So, getting the card reissued is not an option for her because of her debt?」
「Yes . Gerardo most likely made it so that she cannot get it reissued to make her unable to flee the town without repaying it . 」
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「It couldn’t be helped . My father borrowed money he couldn’t return and then ran away, so there’s no way Gerardo-sama would just let me go . 」
「Still, that’s not…」
「My father was just a terrible businessman . 」
Ruufsan answered bluntly, making everyone go quiet . All we could hear were the footsteps of Eleanorsan and Ruufsan .
My Bear Shoes made no sound, of course .
Hmm, I couldn’t hear Hugging Bear’s footsteps, either . Were its feet as soft as mine?
We headed into what appeared to be a secret garden area where Ruufsan took us to a building that looked like a small storage shed .
「From inside this shed, there are stairs that lead underground . The children are down there . 」
Ruufsan used a key to open the door and led us into a small room .
There were many tools inside the room, ranging from cleaning supplies to pots as well as random things I had never seen before .
Ruufsan proceeded to pull a rug off the floor and revealed a hatch .
She then opened the hatch, revealing stairs that led underground .
「The room is underground to prevent sounds from leaking out . 」
Since there was enough space for even Hugging Bear to pass through, we all went down together .
「Is this a dungeon?」
「Yes . I myself have been held down here when my father was still in town . 」
There was a hallway at the bottom of the stairs, with about five doors on each side .
Ruufsan finally stopped at one of the doors .
「This is the room . 」
She unlocked the door and opened it wide so we could see inside .
There were three children: two boys and one girl . They all looked like they were in the early years of elementary school .
「Ruufsan?」
The eldest of the group, the girl, spoke up .
「Everyone, someone is here to take you away, so you can come out now . 」
「We can leave?」
「Yes . 」
「Is nobody going to hit us when we try to leave?」
「Yes, you don’t have to worry about that anymore . 」
Eleanorsan and I both flinched at what the children said .
That toad man had told us that the children hadn’t been harmed in any way .
「My name is Eleanora . Your father asked me to bring all of you back home . You don’t have to worry about getting hurt anymore . 」
Eleanorsan kindly explained the situation to them .
However, the children weren’t looking at Eleanorsan but rather at me, who was standing behind her .
「Bear-san?」
The children approached me but noticed Hugging Bear behind me when they reached the door .
「…?!」
They fell on their butts in shock, but the girl didn’t waste any time and stood in front to protect the boys .
Only then did they notice Misa on top of Hugging Bear .
「There’s a girl on top of the bear…」
「It’s not scary . Hugging Bear is really nice . 」
Misa tried to reassure the children and hugged Hugging Bear .
「This bear will not harm you so you can feel at ease around it . 」
Thanks to Misa and Ruufsan, the three of them calmed down a bit .
「Okay, you three . Please join Misa on the Bear-san and we’ll get you out of here . 」
I gently spoke to the children to get them to ride the Hugging Bear .
However, four children turned out to be a bit too much for the size of its back, so we had the girl walk instead .
The children were afraid at first but calmed down with the help of Misa . In no time, smiles appeared on their faces, and we embarked with Hugging Bear leading the way .
Following behind everyone, I overheard Ruufsan whisper something to Eleanorsan .
「Please check the other rooms afterwards . I believe the keys should be in Gerardo-sama’s room, so please search there first . However, please, please, don’t bring the children with you as you search . 」