PDCOO Chapter 15

He grabbed a nearby statue and dropped it onto the stairs Anna had just climbed. The stairs that hadn't even resembled stairs immediately shattered.

Lara cried out.

"What do we do, the stairs...!"

Did others' despair become his hope? The man sneered and said.

"Give up. You don't have anyone coming to find you anyway, right? I've seen plenty of girls like you. Uncle will tell you about a good job—"

Anna didn't give him a chance to say more.

While he leered at Lara, she crouched low, then sprang up and kicked him square in the groin.

He couldn't even scream before collapsing.

"Lara! Let's just slide down. In life, there comes a day when your butt gets split!"

"Anna, there, there's another staircase!"

"What? Then let's go down that—"

"That's not the problem!"

Where Lara was pointing.

A thick cloth draped in the corner of the room fluttered. Beyond it, stone stairs were visible. Footsteps came from that direction.

The guy who'd gotten kicked in the groin and crumpled chuckled.

"You girls... if you make uncles angrier... we can really send you somewhere bad, you know...?"

"Mister, be reborn as a potato in your next life. I'll arrange it."

"What...? Urk!"

Anna immediately kicked the man's face.

Luring naive country girls, destroying the makeshift stairs, having another group come up the hidden stairs to abduct them—it seemed like a very well-organized human trafficking ring.

Definitely needed to be made into fertilizer.

...Of course, if they could get out of here safely.

Then, the sound of someone climbing the stairs was heard.

It wasn't just one person.

Meanwhile, having heard about Anna's little brother, the pawnshop manager descended the wooden stairs with mixed feelings.

He hoped it was a bluff.

If family really was nearby, he had to send them outside quickly.

The manager reviewed the description in his head.

Black hair, blue eyes, tall, was it? Well, in adolescence younger brothers do shoot up taller than their older sisters. But calling her brother a bear...

The manager, who'd been thinking that far, lost his words when he saw beneath the tree in front of the pawnshop.

"A bear?"

There really was a bear-like man.

The "bear" who turned around at that word had black hair and blue eyes. He looked about ten years older than expected, but anyway, the description matched what the girl had said.

The pawnshop manager crept closer and asked.

"By any chance... are you looking for your older sister?"

Meanwhile, Bertram, hearing the absurd "older sister" comment, began pondering.

Why was this man suddenly talking about an older sister?

Had someone claimed Bertram was their younger brother?

...The village chief had definitely told Bertram to pretend to be Anna's older brother.

The conclusion Bertram soon reached was singular.

Something's wrong with Anna.

If a predetermined code came out strangely different, the possibility of a problem with the person who sent the code was higher than the possibility of the code being leaked. That's how it had been on the battlefields Bertram had experienced.

As if proving his judgment wasn't wrong, the sound of sturdy men's footsteps came from inside the pawnshop building.

The man Anna had kicked kept running his mouth. The sound of footsteps ascending seemed to give him fresh courage.

"Get ready to travel, you little shits. You came out here because you were bored of country life anyway, right? You'd fetch dog prices back in the sticks, but dress you up nice and in the city—urk!"

"You're fertilizer in the country. Not even worth shit."

Anna kicked the man once more, knocking him unconscious, then shouted urgently toward the collapsed staircase.

"Mister Lam, hurry and call the guards!"

Before she could confirm whether her voice had carried—

Behind her, the curtain over the stone staircase swept aside.

She turned to find two broad-shouldered men. One of them strode toward Anna and Lara.

"Well, well. Trying to bluff? We already checked—there's nobody outside. Even if there was, our guy would've dealt with them."

"That can't be... Mister Lam!"

"Scream all you want. Let's see if the guards can hear you from here. Why the hell is this bastard passed out on the floor? Did I send him up here to play jacks with little girls?"

He kicked the unconscious man—thump, thump—but didn't move aside. Their exit was completely blocked.

Lara's fingernails dug into Anna's shoulder as she began to sob. Anna was too tense to even notice. Then—

The curtain over the stone stairs fluttered again.

The man turned his head.

"Why are you so la—AHHH!"

What thrust into his face was the pawnshop manager's bloodied features. The manager spoke through swollen lips.

"Some crazy bastard... says he has to find his sister-slash-younger-sister, won't take no for an answer..."

The explanation ended there. The aforementioned crazy bastard casually hurled the manager into the corner of the pawnshop.

A giant of a man with an expressionless face, wielding people like clubs.

His presence was terror to the human traffickers, but salvation to Anna.

"Bertram!"

"I confirmed the password before entering. Has the transaction fallen through?"

"Password...?"

Bertram looked at the raw gemstones scattered across the floor, then at the man clutching his groin.

The deal had clearly gone south.

How to proceed was decided by the man who suddenly swung a wooden plank at him.

Bertram caught the man's wrist.

"Wh—what? Let go, you bastard!"

"I will organize the situation to assess it properly."

"What? AHHH!"

The organizing proceeded somewhat violently.

After the noisy ones had shut their mouths—

While Lara went to fetch the guards, Bertram bound the four men with curtains. His technique suggested this wasn't his first time.

He gagged three of them, then granted one man the privilege of speech.

More precisely, the privilege of betrayal.

"Please explain what you were attempting to do."

"First untie this! Who the hell are you to treat us like this!"

"You don't seem to grasp the reality of your situation. Please rest for a moment."

"What?"

Bertram pushed the man's head down. His face struck the floor, his body trembled, and he passed out.

Moans leaked through the other men's gags.

"Hiiiiek...?"

"Gentlemen, we haven't even started yet. Are you experiencing phantom pain already?"

Bertram's face remained expressionless. The blood splattered across it merely explained what he was about to do. As the men swallowed even their moans, Bertram removed the pawnshop manager's gag and asked:

"It appears you were attempting to lure, kidnap, and sell my companions. Is that correct?"

"L-lure? No! We simply respect people's choices and introduce them to money-making opportunities! They could earn enough to return home with their heads held high."

"...I understand what you mean. I knew many young men who heard such stories."

"Hehe, I see. Were you perhaps in the same business?"

"No."

Bertram stood, then stepped on the manager's head.

Though his nose broke, the man couldn't pass out immediately. He thrashed on the floor, spraying bloody snot. Bertram spoke over his head.

"Conscription worked the same way, you see. 'This is your chance to seize the enemy's wealth, everyone will return home rich with their heads held high.'"

"Urgh...!"

There was no opportunity to make excuses or flatter him by saying ah, you were a soldier, that explains why you're so strong. Bertram no longer wanted to hear his voice.

Next, the third man screamed the moment he made eye contact with Bertram.

"Mmph, mmph!"

"I'm going to remove your gag now. Please speak honestly. If your information proves insufficient, I will repeat this process from the beginning."

From the beginning. Hearing those words, the first man—who'd been pretending to be unconscious—flinched. Returning to the beginning again and again meant there would be no end.

Just before the third man's gag came off—

Lara's voice echoed from below.

"Sis, I brought the guards! They'll be up any second!"

"You scoundrels, wait right there! Heave... ahhhh!"

He'd apparently slipped while trying to climb the collapsed wooden staircase.

The traffickers' faces flushed red, as if they were the ones embarrassed. But only briefly.

"I will continue."

The gag came off.

"AHHH!"

The third man screamed and threw himself between Bertram's legs, trying to crawl away.

Anna stepped forward.

She kicked the man—thump—rolling him toward the wooden staircase.

"Gahh!"

"What—oof!"

The sound of idiots piling atop one another echoed up.

After considerable commotion, custody of the human traffickers passed to the guards. Anna, Lara, and Bertram finally emerged from the guard station building after their statements were taken.

Evening had fallen. If the village chief hadn't come looking for them, they might have gone hungry.

Anna grumbled at the chief.

"What exactly do guards even do? They should be grateful we caught human traffickers for them, but instead they ask Bertram to conduct the interrogation too?"

"...Anna, Lara. I really didn't want to say this, but... try not to be too shocked."

"What is it?"

"The truth is, this city is also the countryside. Those guards don't really know how to handle serious crimes either!"

Lara's mouth fell open.

"N-n-no way... A city this big is the countryside?"