Prejudice? When I just helped you?!

Immanuel peeled off part way through our trek to take the amputated guy to the local hospital. Poor guy woke up halfway and started kicking around and throwing a tantrum. I almost felt bad leaving Immanuel to deal with it, but I promptly remembered he was legally allowed and encouraged to kill me and I suddenly didn’t feel guilty anymore.

Anyway, as much as I had wanted to just sit down at an inn and rest my legs after walking for four god damn days straight, Misty convinced me that we should go with the guy with the messed up arm to give our account of what had happened. I didn’t really know what more I could say other than ‘we watched the bad guys get away then chopped off your guy’s messed up leg,’ but it really was hard to say no to her when she did gave you those puppy dog eyes. Cheap trick. I’d have to make her drinking water lukewarm as revenge.

It seemed like Misty’s bandaging skills were up to par, ‘cos the dude’s arm didn’t start haemorrhaging blood or anything on the way to the barracks. But he’d clearly already lost quite a bit before we got to him since he seemed to struggle to stay on his feet, and we ended up supporting him. Okay so maybe Misty had a point about it being better for us to go with him, but this wasn’t her reasoning so it doesn’t count!

Well, whatever. After far too much walking we arrived at the barracks, where an old guy saw us walk through the door and immediately threw down his newspaper at the sight of the watchman.

“By god, man, what happened to you?!” He yelled. White hair, big white moustache, wrinkly forehead, he was the quintessential image of an old man who had retired from service and now commanded the youngins. Excellent character showmanship, sir.

The watchmen guy filled in the old fogey on what had gone down, and the furrow in his brow got deeper and deeper as he listened. When the watchman finished speaking, the old boy let out a long, deep sigh.

“So they’ve gotten away, and Ashinai is out of commission for good? Is there any good news whatsoever?” He asked. His defeated tone told me these problems had probably been going on for a good while, and this wasn’t the first time his men had failed to stop it.

“We at least know which road they were taking,” replied the watchman. “If we send messenger pigeons to nearby towns now, we can intercept them along th-“

“You mean like we’ve already tried and failed to do twice already?” spat the old guy. “Surely you’ve realised by now that they’re not taking common routes. They must be hiding out somewhere off the road and doing their business out of the way of prying eyes. That’s why we needed to stop them before they got out of the damn city!”

He slammed his fist on the table, the ceramic mug on his desk spilling a little tea from the impact. The sheer frustration was telling. They had clearly been failing to stop this for a while. Just how incompetent were these guys? Or maybe the traffickers were just that good? If they’re that strong I don’t get why they’d waste their abilities on kidnappings when they could probably make a pretty penny as mercs. Then again, I also knew there plenty of rich scumbags with a taste for young girls. It was twisted, and it made me feel pretty sick, but such is the way of the world. The poor are just toys for the rich at the end of the day.

“Sir!” called Mizuha suddenly. “We’d like to help!”

I wish she had at least consulted me before throwing out a ‘we’ like that, but it’s not like I was gonna say no to saving young girls from traffickers. I’m not completely cold hearted. And protecting the city’s kids from kidnappers was a pretty surefire of spreading my legend too. I was happy to get involved if the circumstances arose. Though I wasn’t too sure about collaborating with these city watch types. I had a feeling they wouldn’t wholly approve of my approach.

“Young lady, I sincerely appreciate what you and your compatriots have done for my subordinates, but I must ask why in the world you believe two young girls could succeed where the city watch have failed,” replied the old man sternly. “This is not petty thief hunt. These are organised criminals. Dangerous men. You have already seen what they’ve done to my men, no?”

“We’re not pushovers! We’re strong mages, and the man we’re travelling with is an excellent wind mage! We want to help those girls, and I really think we could be useful to you.” This was the most adamant I had ever heard Misty be. It was nice seeing her take my advice about being decisive to heart, though she still had that naïveté that most adventurers eventually have kicked out of them. I found myself wondering just how long she’d be able to stay this hopeful.

“Look, kid, I appreciate your eagerness, but I can’t just bring on random civilians for something as serious as this. Especially when you girls are exactly the type that are being targeted. I could not possibly put you in that sort of danger.”

“Oh, we can defend ourselves, old man,” I interjected. “I mean, we could always give you a demonstration to prove it.” I put up my left index finger, and a small flame appeared at the tip. I really hoped it made me look cool, because man did it hurt.

Unfortunately, the look that the old guy gave me didn’t exactly scream ‘wow, this girl is awesome.’ It looked more like it was saying ‘did you just call me mother a feral sledhound? I’ll have you hanged.’

“A fire mage? I thought your kind had had the good sense to die out already. Some of you are still stubbornly refusing to keel over, eh?”

Ooh, this bastard. And after I complimented his character design, too. I gripped my staff with both hands, resisting the urge to set fire to that stupid handlebar moustache. I was thinking of the perfect string of words to imply that his whole family were the result of generations of interbreeding with swamp-swine when the watchmen with us interjected.

“Sir, this girl undoubtedly saved Ashinai’s life. If she and her friend hadn’t amputated and cauterised his leg, he would have certainly bled out long before reaching the hospital. I know your feelings about fire magic but I think it would be a mistake to not trust her.”

I looked up at him with wide eyes. Aww, generic watchman A! Do you know how rare it is for someone to actually stick up for us when someone starts ranting about how dangerous we are? He was a real stand up guy.

Maybe I should learn his name. Promote him from plot device to side character.

But I mean, the opportunity had already passed, right? Like it would be awkward to ask his name after we had walked all that way, and he had even stuck up for me and stuff, and like, it was embarrassing to not already know it even though he hadn’t told me, right? Like, should I have tried waiting for it to come up in conversation and then just pretended I already knew it? Or should I play it cool and come up with a nickname like I had for Misty? Ah, decisions, decisions!

“Tch. You really want to help stop these kidnappings?”

Oh, right, that was happening.

“Yes, sir. My conscience… it would never let me sleep if we left those girls to fight for themselves…” said Misty, embodying the true adventure hero she was born to be.

“If Mist is in, I’m in. ‘sides, considering how swimmingly your last attempt went, it kinda seems like you guys could use all the help you can get,” I added, putting my hands behind my head casually. Man, I am so cool.

“Alright, fire girl, you wanna prove you can be trusted? I’ll let you try your hand at helping. But one wrong move and I want you out of my city. Deal.”

Honestly I didn’t feel like proving shit to this guy. ‘Scuse my language. But I had put up with that sort of judgement for long enough to know that people like him never actually change their minds. Even if I was 100% successful he’d probably find some way to complain that my methods were ‘wreckless’ and ‘dangerous,’ as if that matters when the result works out totally in our favour.

But, I also had to agree with Misty. Leaving this whole thing alone when we might have a chance to help would leave bad taste in my mouth. So I’d just have to suck it up for now.

“Fine. Deal.”

“Good. Now, go fetch that wind mage friend of yours so we ca-”

With timing so convenient you’d think he waited outside for the chance, Immanuel burst through the barracks door. Though, considering how much he was panting, I was pretty sure he had been running not five seconds before, so I’m guessing he didn’t wait.

“Yo, Immanuel! What’s got you in a tizz?”

“Bakuchan, he’s here,” he panted. “My boss. Count Bellman.”