Luke burst forth and shouted, "What are you doing, misters?"

"Haha, it was Luke, wasn't it? You brought such good prey here."

"Don't do anything weird. These are honored guests at the top of the golden clock!"

"Guest at the top of the golden clock? Then they'll have a lot of valuables in their pockets to see. I love it."

When the bully in front of him burst into admiration, the people next to him giggled together.

Young Luke stamped his feet anxiously at the increasingly strange situation.

On the other hand, our side was calm even though the opponent was not very friendly.

"I'm really going to die. We're all going to die. Those cowardly guys started it all… Kroc, it's all your fault."

Locus suddenly got annoyed with Kroc. Of course, Kroc reacted with a puzzled look.

"…?"

"If you had only shown your face, those people would have been scared to talk to us."

Krock was wrapped up as he did when he first came to Elden village. It was a costume to hide the pressure unique to the dragon descendant race.

If he had revealed his true appearance, this situation would have been less likely to happen.

Thus, we seemed to be easy targets. Of course, I don't have to say about myself, and with Locus and Lia's elegant appearances, fighting seemed far from their abilities. Andras and Kroc were big, but they didn't seem threatening.

Both of them were dressed in luxurious clothes that aristocrats would wear, and there were no escorts around.

For those with bad intentions, we must have looked like good prey.

When our side did not respond much, the opponent thought we were scared, so their momentum rose to the limit, and they acted without hesitation.

"I don't know what brought you here, but this is our area. I don't think we can just let you go."

"If you want to get back safely, you'll have to put out the things in your pockets."

"Kuh-kuh! You must be very scared. Don't worry about it. If you just give us what you have, we'll send you back nicely."

The bullies pressed us with their flamboyant tone. Among them, there were those who cast a lecherous gaze toward Lia.

"Sihyeon, do you want me to take care of it?" Lia asked, furrowing her eyebrows and lifting her chin slightly.

There was a chill in her voice. She seemed to run out of patience and wanted to tear the opponents apart at once.

The bullies were still giggling and enjoying themselves, not knowing that a terrifying dragon demon was targeting them.

Although they were cheap troublemakers, there were more important matters at hand, and causing a commotion here would be pointless.

"For now, bear with it, Lia. We're not here to fight."

"Okay."

Dissatisfaction flashed in Lia's eyes for a moment. Still, out of respect for my wishes, she subdued her temper.

"Andras. I'd like to ask you a favor."

“I understand, Sihyeon.”

Andras stepped forward with a look of [Don't worry]. Luke, who was next to him, grabbed Andras by the hem of his clothes.

"No, sir. Those guys might really hurt you. I'll try to explain it to them.”

Luke said, his worried expression making his determination to do his duty even more impressive.

Andras gently calmed Luke down with his soft voice.

"It won't be a big deal. We’ll just talk quietly."

"But…"

"Stay here and watch."

After getting Luke out of the way, Andras stepped in front of the bullies.

"I think everyone lives here. Has anyone seen the woman in this painting?"

"What?"

"I will thank the person who tells me the information about this person without hiding."

At the words of a reward, the eyes of the bullies focused on the painting for a while.

"Have you ever seen a girl like this?"

"No, I don't think I have."

"If she looks as pretty as this, she'd catch attention right away. There's no way someone like her can hide here."

"Don't be fooled! I'm sure they're talking nonsense because they're nervous."

Despite Andras' very gentlemanly suggestion, the bullies were again in a ferocious mood.

"Hey, put the drawing away and take out all the money you have right now."

"If you do something stupid, you'll regret it. I warned you!"

They took out weapons from their waistbands and pockets and aimed them at us. They may have thought they were imposing, but the weapons were in such a poor condition that it even made me laugh.

"Ah, I wish we could have settled this peacefully with words…"

"Stop talking nonsense and take out the money from your pockets quickly!"

Andras flicked his finger at the demon, who looked like the leader of the gang.

-Zap! Crack!

Soon, lightning struck with a loud noise.

"Aaaahh!!"

The bully leader screamed and collapsed. The smell of smoke and burning came out of his body. From the slight flinching, it seemed like he simply fainted. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NʘvᴇlFirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The eyes of the thugs opened wide as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"Would you all look up, please?"

"…?!"

"What's that?!"

Andras' artifacts were floating on their heads.

"Once again, we're here to find the woman in the painting. Let's stop this pointless fight."

"Don't listen to that bastard! Let's attack together… Aaahhh!"

A bully tried to rush in, but he screamed just like the leader when lightning struck at the speed of light.

In an instant, the faces of the bullies turned pale with fear as the two rolled on the ground.

"Is this an artifact that we’ve heard of in stories?"

" ……."

"W… We have to run away……."

-Zap! Crack!

The loud noise echoed once again.

This time lightning struck the ground, not at a bully. A blackened pit appeared where it hit.

The legs of the thugs who were trying to escape were frozen.

"Hahaha. I'm not done talking yet. What will I do if you just go like this?"

“…….”

"As I said earlier, we are looking for the woman in this painting. We don't have much time, so we’re going to get some help from you guys. Is that all right?"

Andras politely sought help. Of course, he didn't forget to glance toward the pit at the end of the sentence.

The bullies desperately nodded at Andras' words, trying to turn a blind eye to the charred pit.

⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩

The bullies who once harassed us transformed into friendly residents and offered us their help, saving us the trouble of navigating the crowded slum.

However, our search for the traces of "terzan" proved difficult.

"Has she already left the slum?"

"There's a good chance of that. Ryan's information may have been wrong,"

Andras patted his chin as if he was in a difficult position. Locus looked at me and asked.

"What are we going to do? I wish we could go back like this. If we couldn't find her here, it'll be hard to find her for a while, no matter how much Ryan looks for her."

Kroc also agreed with Locus through sign language.

As someone who had to bring the fairies back as soon as possible, I couldn't just give up like this.

Just as I was about to say that we should look a little more.

Luke spoke up hesitantly. "Ah… there's a place we haven't checked yet."

"Really?" I asked urgently, sensing a glimmer of hope.

"Yes. There is a house a little away from the slum."

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"That's…”

Luke, who hesitated for a while, barely continued his talk.

"That house is cursed by a ghost, so everyone tries to avoid it. Even the homeless people don't go there."

"A ghost?"

"Yes. Someone died there after groaning for days with a creepy whisper."

Luke explained the cursed house very seriously. Looking at the reactions of the surrounding thugs, it seemed like there really was such a scary story.

The idea of something in the cursed house quickly crossed my mind. All of the party exchanged their eyes quickly with similar expressions.

"Luke, will you take us to the house?"

"What? Are you really going to go there…? All the guests might get cursed…" Luke asked back, drooping his ears and tail.

Looking at the moistened eyes that were constantly shaking, it seemed like he was terrified.

Hmm… I feel sorry for taking him there by force if he's so scared.

I turned my head to the thugs. But even the adult thugs were terrified and avoided my gaze.

Their reaction told me that they didn't want to go to that house even if they died.

Andras, who was watching them, took something out of his pocket. It was a very shiny gold coin.

"I'll give this gold coin to the person who leads us to the house."

"……!"

"…!"

"And if we return safely, I will give one more coin. Is there anyone willing to guide us?"

At the mention of giving gold coins, the gangsters and poor residents of the slum were stirred up. Even two coins were an enormous sum of money that they could hardly touch in their lifetime.

Between the fear of the curse and the gold coin, they all hesitated.

Someone quickly stepped forward to Andras.

"Me! Me!"

"Luke?"

It was Luke, who had been trembling in fear just a moment ago. His still-moist eyes were shining brightly, and his tail was wagging so fast it resembled a propeller.

"Will you be okay?"

"It's all right. You're precious guests entrusted to me by Sir. Ergin. So I have to take full responsibility until the end!"

Luke emphasized responsibility with his mouth, while his eyes were fixed on the gold coin in Andras' hand. Everyone burst out laughing at the clever appearance.

"Well… a promise is a promise."

As promised, Andras handed over the gold coin.

Luke carefully took the coin and quickly hid it in his pocket. The people in the slum looked at it with eyes full of regret and envy.

"Okay, this way. I'll guide you quickly."

Luke led us with a bright voice, like a child leaving for an exciting picnic. Looking at him, Locus laughed for the first time since coming here.

"Hahaha! He's going to be a big guy in the future".

All the rest of the party smiled and nodded.

(To be Continued)

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