How do we find kidnappers? Ain't it obvious?!

“Alright, big man, tell us what you got.”

The old fogey with the white stache called me, Misty and Immanuel to his office to talk about the kidnappings. I could tell by the sneer and sarcasm that he didn’t at all take me seriously, and just saw this as an opportunity to send a fire mage to die, but I didn’t care. I could prove his ass wrong. Then he’d be forced to praise me as a hero. Just another addition to my growing legend.

He started going through the details of the case so far. Basically, the kidnappings had been going on for a good while. Some of the girls had been recovered in other towns before they could be sold off, but the majority hadn’t been seen since their disappearance. There was also some variation in the MO, since the majority of the time it was just a single girl disappearing, but on occasion there were multiple. Yesterday, it had been four girls who were playing together that got snatched all at once. So the watchmen were operating under the assumption that there were either a minimum of five regular people or four powerful mages doing the dirty work, since taking that many hostages would be risky or downright impossible with fewer people than that.

All the girls snatched seemed to be of vaguely the same profile, too. Thirteen to fifteen years old, all from vaguely the same area, physically frail, and all financially needy, some to the point of being homeless. They were probably targeted because richies would be tracked more thoroughly, and the poor are easier targets. Who's gonna pay out to save some girl who hasn't got a penny to her name, right?

And considering they were all young and weak, the bastard who wanted them was probably a real sicko. I mean, I don’t think you can be the sort of person to buy kidnapped girls and not be a sicko, but whoever it was clearly had a type.

“By the fact that you haven’t sent a legion of soldiers to put this creep in the forever box, I’m guessing you don’t know where they’re hiding out?” I asked.

“Unfortunately no. We’ve attempted to tail them before, but they head off into the mountains and become impossible to track from a distance. When we get too close, they start throwing magic at us. We’ve scouted the nearby mountains but have found nothing. We have no further leads on their location.”

Tch. Typical. Can’t rely on these stooges for anything, can you? If I actually paid them I’d be very upset about how my taxes were being wasted.

It did present a problem though. It’s all well and good offering to help, but we were adventurers, not detectives. Our speciality was killing bad things, not finding them.

“Have you managed to capture any of them?” asked Immanuel.

“One. We tried to torture information out of him, but what he gave us ended up being a lie. We wanted to force more information out of him, but some local lord ordered him executed before we had the chance. We haven’t had another opportunity like that since.” The old fogey sounded understandably bitter. I wasn't surprised though. Torture never works when you can just lie.

“A lord ordered the execution of someone with vital intelligence?” Immanuel asked incredulously. “Was he told that the man possessed important information?”

“Course he was, who do you think has the money to buy a dozen young girls?” I caught a real nasty backhand from Immanuel for that one. He didn’t argue with me though.

“I’m not sure if he knew or not, but his reasoning was that he wanted to make an example out of the man. That, of course, hasn’t exactly panned out, and his decision has… well…”

“Taken the only paddle we had left to drag ourselves out of shit creek?”

“Bakuchan, shut up.”

“I mean I’m not wrong, am I?”

“No but you are annoying. Let the adults have the discussion please.”

“Why? I mean, I’ve already figured out how we can find them.”

The other three people at the table, including the so-far-silent Misty, all turned to look at me with suspicion. I don’t really get how I was the only one to think of it. It was so obvious.

“You said their targets are all girls in their early teen years, all small and frail, and all vaguely poor-looking, right?”

“Yes?” The old fogey replied. After a few moments of even more confused looks, though, his mouth curled into a sly smile. “Ahh… I see.”

Now Misty and Immanuel were more confused than ever, looking between each other then at me and the old Fogey. They seemed to realise at exactly the same moment.

“Bakuchan, no!”

“Are you an idiot, girl?”

It was pretty much exactly how I expected them to react, but I was still a little miffed at how little faith they had. True, it was a risky approach, but so was literally everything I did. I knew my way around a crisis. I had caused more than enough of them to know what I was doing.

“Look, there’s no way to follow a carriage through a mountain range without being seen. The only way we’re getting to this hideout or whatever is onboard that cart. Unless you have any better ideas?”

Misty and Immanuel both looked at me uncomfortably. They obviously didn’t have any better suggestions but also weren’t entirely happy to sign off on mine. I guess Immanuel was technically responsible for my safety or whatever. But he also wanted to get in Mr Greedy Nobleman’s good graces, so he should really have been more cooperative.

“Even if you do this,” he said, after a long pause, “you can’t expect Mizuha to come with you.”

“Of course not. You and Misty will be following me, duh.” Honestly, did this man have no brain in his head?

“No, Bakuchan!" shouted Misty. "You can’t just get yourself kidnapped on your own!”

“I won’t be on my own, you and Immanuel will be right behind me.”

“But-“

“Listen, Mist. I can protect myself. And these guys have probably never even seen a fire mage before. They’ll have no idea how to fight me.” I decided to omit the detail that I’d have to leave my staff, so my defensive options would be limited to whatever I can do without burning my hands off.

She didn’t seem at all convinced, judging by that sullen look on her face, but she also didn’t bother to argue with me. Maybe she didn’t wanna step on my will or something. Or maybe she just knew I was too stubborn to talk out of something like this.

“I say let ‘er at it,” said the old fogey, stroking his beard and looking all smug-like. “If the little lady thinks she can do what the entire guard company can’t, what’s the harm in letting her try?”

“The harm is that she might get herself and other people killed, commander,” said Immanuel through very aggressively gritted teeth. Man was real mad at me for this one. As if he had anything better.

“Guys, look. The odds are, those girls won’t be kept at their camp long. They’ll probably be moved and sold off the second the heat dies down. If you’ve got any better ideas I’m down to hear them, but if not then this is our only chance to save them. So, you got anything better?”

Silence. I expected as much. The old fogey was smirking like a bastard. Immanuel’s mouth was twitching, but he made no argument. Misty looked conflicted, but also said nothing.

“No objections then? Alright,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Here’s what I’ve got in mind.”