The brigands' den

Olive tried to get away from the man’s grip, but he was too strong. One of the other men hit Natsuo and he fainted.

"Natsuo!" Olive screamed again.

"Shut the fuck up, slut!" The man that was holding her covered her mouth. "We don’t need the guy" he said.

"What about this?" asked a man, pointing to Natsuo’s electric guitar.

"Tsk, I don’t know what that is. Leave it here, it just takes space. Take only valuable things."

The group of men threw everything that was useless out of the cart, then got on. The one that was holding Olive tied the girl up and threw her into the cart.

A man spurred the horse and rode away, leaving Natsuo behind.

Olive observed the surroundings to find a way out: there were four men, one was leading the cart, the other three were in the back with her, so she couldn’t escape.

"How much do you think this girl cost?" asked one.

"She seems healthy, I bet she will make us a lot of money" replied another one.

"Too bad she’s not a little girl, they usually buy them at a higher price" said the third.

All the four of them burst out laughing.

Olive gritted her teeth. They wanted to sell her as a slave.

"In the worst case, she can work for us" commented the one who was driving.

"Yeah, she has a pretty face, we might just keep her" another one agreed.

Olive’s mouth was shut by a piece of cloth and she was completely immobilized. Anger and fear were boiling in her veins. What would have happened to her now?

She would have been sold as a slave and she would never see her family again. Why now that she had the courage to change her life?

Tears started falling from her eyes.

“Natsuo… Please, save me.”

***

The blow the brigands had given Natsuo was strong, so he remained unconscious for quite a while. When he woke up, the first lights of dawn could be seen.

He immediately got up and checked what the brigands had left. Luckily, he still had his guitar with him.

He clenched his fists. It was his fault if Olive had been kidnapped, if only he had acted faster… He got hit and fainted like an idiot, instead. He was furious with himself. Now what could he do?

He kicked a bowl that was on the floor in anger. How dare they take Olive?

"Damn it!" he yelled, then paused.

He took a deep breath and tried to control himself: he wouldn’t have solved anything with anger. He had to think of a way to find Olive.

Maybe with the Rockstar System there was a way to see the band’s members' location.

Natsuo opened the menu and noticed that there was a new option: BAND.

He clicked there and an interface with the band’s info appeared.

NAME: Rockstar Isekai

MEMBERS: 2

FANS: 200

He clicked on MEMBERS to see more info and the system let him choose between him or Olive. He chose Olive and an interface with her image appeared.

Other than general info, such as gender, age etc, there was a function called LOCATION. He immediately clicked there and, just as he had imagined, a map of Roselond appeared in the air with a pin where Olive was supposed to be at the moment.

Natsuo let out a sigh of relief.

God bless the Rockstar System. He thought.

He picked up the guitar and started walking towards Olive’s location: it was time to teach those brigands a lesson.

***

Olive couldn’t understand how much time had passed, but finally the brigands stopped the cart and got out. The same man that tied her up took Olive out of the cart and forced her to walk towards an unknown destination.

They were in the middle of a forest, a difficult spot to reach and away from prying eyes. Olive guessed that they took her to the brigands’ den.

"Take her to the leader, he’ll decide what to do with her" said the man that kidnapped her.

The other one nodded and was about to take her arm, but someone jumped down from a tree.

"I’ll take care of it" the newcomer said.

He was tall and wide. He wore only a gilet without anything underneath, showing his sculpted muscles, and had a dragon tattoo all over his right arm. His grey hair was all pulled up and he had earrings on both ears.

Olive shuddered. That man was the definition of a thug.

The four brigands stiffened.

"Of course. As you wish, Gregory" one said.

He pushed Olive towards him and made her trip on her feet. The girl fell directly on the thug’s arms, her face on his chest.

"Hey, slow down, beauty. We should at least know each other first" Gregory said. He looked at the other four. "What are you still doing here? Don’t you have anything else to do?"

The four men immediately shove off. Gregory turned his attention to Olive and freed her from the cloth in her mouth.

"Hands off, disgusting thug!" she said.

Gregory let her go.

"It’s you who fell on me, though" he replied.

Olive glared at him. "Where are we?"

"At our den. My name is Gregory, what’s yours?"

Olive stared at the tall man, reluctant. Why did it feel like he was different from the other four? He didn’t seem to have bad intentions.

"Olive" she replied dryly.

"Okay. Now I’ll take you to our leader, but I’ll make sure you will be fine" he said.

Olive frowned. "Why would you do it?"

Gregory freed her from the ropes that immobilized her and glanced at her green eyes. He felt a pang in his heart.

They look so similar… He thought.

"Because you remind me of someone" he replied.

Olive shook her arms to get rid of the soreness. Gregory started walking and motioned for her to follow him. She was still skeptical, but she couldn’t escape from him even if she wanted to.

She could only trust him.