“Wait…!!”
It was a woman’s voice that stopped Mitsuki’s sword.
The attention of the crowd shifted to her.
Pushing through the onlookers, a woman in robes, Silvia, appeared.
She was one of the two women who had been in the Public Guild’s cafeteria.
“Why are you stopping me? Are you involved too?”
Mitsuki, with a menacing expression, stared at Silvia while pointing her sword at the trembling man, overwhelmed by the pressure.
“No, I am not. But isn’t further punishment going too far?”
“…Going too far, huh… Right, this is just right. Can you use True Sight?”
Silvia hesitated at the sudden question.
“Why the suddenness?”
The robe Silvia was wearing belonged to the Elisa Meal religious order, the religion of this world.
It wouldn’t be strange for a Sister with some power to have mastered True Sight.
True Sight is mainly used by clerics to discern truth from falsehood when dealing with criminals.
“Can you use it on this man? I could use it myself, but you wouldn’t be satisfied with that alone, would you?”
“That’s not true! But if you want me to use it, I will.”
“Hmph, I understand. There’s no point in wasting time on something like this, so use it after me.”
With that, Mitsuki quickly used True Sight on the man.
Silvia hurriedly applied True Sight to the man as well.
True Sight is essentially like a lie detector.
When used on a person, it glows red if they lie and blue if they tell the truth.
Silvia’s eyes widened for a moment at Mitsuki’s use of True Sight without any incantation, but she quickly used True Sight herself.
By the way, it is quite easy for the user of True Sight to cheat.
One can simply cover up the result of True Sight with a different light.
For those who can use light magic, it’s a basic spell.
Mitsuki invited Silvia to use it because she thought her own use might not be trusted.
“Now… will you answer my questions?”
Mitsuki faced the man, sword still raised.
“W-What do you want to ask?”
“First… hmm. You’ve been repeating similar things, haven’t you?”
“W-What are you talking about…?”
The area around the man turned red.
“You know, there’s no point in pretending. You’d better answer properly.”
“I-Impossible…”
“Yeah, yeah. No need for that.”
Mitsuki interrupted the man’s denial and increased the pressure slightly, causing him to tremble again.
“I-I’ll tell you. I’ll answer, so please stop that…!”
But sadly, the pressure Mitsuki was exerting was only on the man, so it wasn’t felt by those around him.
They assumed his fear was due to the previous fight.
“Then, let’s continue. You’ve been doing similar things and have assaulted more than ten women, haven’t you?”
“Wha-!?”
Silvia’s eyes widened at Mitsuki’s sudden question, and she looked towards the man.
The man remained silent. However, the area around him was enveloped in blue light.
“Just so you know, staying silent won’t help. Well, it’s fine as long as the Shrine Maiden understands, so what you think doesn’t matter.”
The man was breaking out in a cold sweat.
He feared that no matter what, Mitsuki would see right through him.
“Alright, next. How many of your victims’ Party Members have you killed?”
“……How should I know! W-Wait! I really don’t remember. …I don’t count every single one!”
“Yes. Thank you for your predictably scummy answer.”
Silvia and the onlookers could only stare in stunned silence at their exchange.
The man was known among adventurers for being rough and brutal, but no one had expected him to be like this.
The sight of such a person walking freely through town sent shivers down the spines of those around them.
However, they held their breath even further at Mitsuki’s continued pursuit.
“So, why can someone like you walk around town so carelessly?”
“…What do you mean…?”
“I said, there’s no time for that. …Or do you want me to ask more directly?”
“……”
The man, intending to remain silent this time, finally gave in when Mitsuki pressed the tip of her sword to his throat.
“Ah, that’s right. We have connections that allow us to be released even after being caught by the executioners…!”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
Mitsuki smiled and turned back to Silvia.
Silvia and the surrounding people were completely speechless at the man’s confession.
Not only the man’s crimes themselves, but the fact that the town’s executioners were connected to such criminals and overlooked them was astonishing.
It was unreasonable not to be surprised.
“Do you understand now? This is why I intended to punish him.”
“B-But… that’s…!?”
Silvia, told by Mitsuki, was about to say that vigilante justice was wrong, but couldn’t continue.
The very executioners who should have been judging were untrustworthy.
Strangely, she didn’t even wonder why Mitsuki had known this from the start.
Seeing their reactions, Mitsuki inexplicably sheathed her sword and continued.
“Well, there’s no point in doing that anymore.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Oh my. If you’re going to blab openly in the middle of the street like this, then the people you’ve been using won’t find any reason to keep you alive, will they? Rather, they’ll likely dispose of you before you say anything more.”
At Mitsuki’s words, the man’s eyes widened, as if only just realizing it.
Perhaps driven to desperation, he suddenly stood up, roared, and charged at Mitsuki.
However, Mitsuki easily fended him off, knocking him unconscious with a single blow to a vital point using her fist.
“There, it’s over. The executioners will clean up the rest, in more ways than one.”
Mitsuki said this and walked away from the man, heading towards Kousuke.
Silvia could only watch her go in silence.
At that moment, Kousuke, who had been silently watching Mitsuki’s actions, was approached by a woman.
It was Colette, who had been sharing a table with Silvia in the Guild’s cafeteria.
“…You’ve really outdone yourself, your partner.”
“Hmm… Actually, I think things would have ended with fewer loose ends if she hadn’t stopped him?”
“That’s true, isn’t it.”
Colette sighed.
She would have stopped him if she could, but she couldn’t at that moment.
Moreover, as she listened to the exchange between Mitsuki and the man, she knew it was a mistake, but it was already too late.
“She doesn’t seem to realize it, so I guess you’re the one who has to worry about it?”
“…Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to say you’ll protect me?”
“Are you really going to say that…?”
Colette was silenced by Kousuke’s retort.
Seeing that, Kousuke took something out of a bag that looked like a backpack and handed it to Colette.
“…What is this?”
“It’s a communicator and a memo with our hotel address. The communicator should reach within this city.”
“A communicator… What a rare item. Well, I appreciate it.”
The communicator Kousuke gave Colette was very expensive and disposable.
Few adventurers would bother buying and using such a thing.
“You’re welcome. Well, I couldn’t just abandon you.”
He added in his mind that they were both beautiful.
Kousuke, having rejoined Mitsuki, headed towards their lodgings, drawing the attention of the people around them.
It was only after entering the inn that he realized he hadn’t asked for their names.
The story of Silvia and Colette will continue a little longer.
2014/5/11 Changed the scene of taking items out of the Item Box to a normal backpack.
2014/6/9 Typo correction.
