“I’m truly sorry, but I’m in a terrible hurry! I can’t stay to chat!”

  Fran wasted no time trying to make a break for it, but her right wrist was suddenly clamped in a vice-like grip by the bald thug.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa~. You think you can just bump into someone and scurry off like nothing happened? For a noble lady, you sure are lacking in manners~! How about we teach you some proper etiquette, huh~?”

  “Heh heh heh~! Yeah! The kind of etiquette you’ll remember for the rest of your life~!”

  The two thugs leered at Fran, their eyes raking over her like merchants appraising a prized commodity, greedy and malicious.

  “Wait! What do you think you’re doing?! Let go of me! Let me go right now!”

  Fran panicked completely, yanking desperately at her arm to free herself from the bald thug’s grasp.

  “Heh, hand her over!”

  The buzzcut thug—clearly the lackey—stepped forward, wrapped his arms around Fran’s waist, and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  “Wait a second! What on earth are you planning to do to me?! Put me down at once! Help! Somebody help me! Help——!”

  “Shut her up!”

  “Got it, boss!”

  The buzzcut thug dropped Fran back onto her feet, then grabbed her by the waist with one hand and clamped a hand over her mouth and nose with the other.

  “Hel——mmph! Mmmph......”

  Unable to breathe properly, Fran thrashed around in agony, her face turning red from suffocation.

  Seeing her struggle, the bald thug immediately snapped at his underling.

  “You idiot! Go easy on her! Don’t damage the goods! We’ll get a lower price if she’s hurt!”

  “Sorry, boss!”

  The buzzcut thug loosened his grip slightly—but that only gave Fran more room to struggle, her muffled cries growing louder.

  “Damn it, this brat’s got a lot of fight in her!”

  The buzzcut thug cursed under his breath, tightening his hold just enough to muffle her screams without cutting off her air completely.

  The bald thug scanned their surroundings, growing increasingly impatient. No one had dared to intervene so far, but she was a noble’s daughter—accidents could happen at any moment.

  “Enough of this nonsense! Let’s move! We’ll find a way to make her behave once we’re back at the hideout!”

  “Right away, boss!”

  The two thugs hauled Fran between them and vanished into the shadowy alleyway nearby in the blink of an eye......

  “......Did I just hear someone yelling for help?”

  At the far end of the street, Hulim came to a stop, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

  The neighborhood had always been a rough part of town—cries for help were hardly an uncommon occurrence. Normally, Hulim would have paid it no mind. Normally, that is—if the voice hadn’t sounded so familiar......

  Hulim turned around, gazing down the nearly empty street behind her.

  The cries for help had already faded away, and there was no sign of anyone in distress.

  It was almost as if it had been nothing more than an illusion.

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  But Hulim knew better than that. Months of grueling combat training with Semiris had honed her senses to razor sharpness—she didn’t make mistakes like that. She didn’t hallucinate.

  If she’d heard someone screaming, then someone had been in trouble. And that meant she had to go check it out.

  Hulim turned on her heel and began retracing her steps back down the street.

  It didn’t take her long to reach the corner where she’d first heard the cry.

  “Judging by how loud it was, it must have come from around here...... But where exactly?”

  Hulim scanned her surroundings carefully. There were no signs of a struggle—no broken glass, no scuff marks on the pavement, no clues whatsoever.

  No, wait. Even if there were no physical clues, there should be witnesses......

  Hulim’s gaze fell on a ragged-looking man huddled in the corner of the street, his posture making him look pitifully helpless.

  “Excuse me—”

  “Ahh! My leg! My leg! You broke my leg! You have to pay me! Pay me——!”

  The man, who had been slumping on the ground looking utterly miserable, suddenly sprang to life the moment Hulim opened her mouth. He wailed loudly, clutching a mangled object that looked suspiciously like a human leg to his chest, his performance so dramatic it would have convinced any unsuspecting passerby that Hulim had just run him over and crippled him.

  But then, for some inexplicable reason, the “victim” froze mid-wail the second his eyes met Hulim’s.

  “......”

  “......”

  Whoosh!

  In the blink of an eye, the man who had supposedly broken his leg was on his feet, completely unharmed. He didn’t even spare a glance for the fake “broken leg” he’d dropped on the ground—he just turned tail and ran for his life as fast as his legs could carry him!

  Hulim watched his retreating figure disappear around the corner, tilting her head in confusion once again.

  ......

  One minute later,

  the same “amputee” who had fled for his life was now kneeling on the ground in front of Hulim, sniveling and blubbering like a child.

  “......It wasn’t my fault! I swear! I was forced to do it! I’m a victim too!”

  “......I didn’t ask about that,” Hulim said flatly, cutting off his tearful rambling. “I just wanted to know—did you see a girl about my age hanging around here a minute ago?”

  “Huh? That’s what you’re asking about?! Why didn’t you say so earlier?! I thought you were here to get me in trouble!”

  The “victim” let out a huge sigh of relief the moment he realized Hulim wasn’t there to accuse him of anything. He pulled a crumpled wine skin out of his tattered sleeve and took a big swig to calm his nerves—the source of the “tears” streaking down his face.

  Hulim: “......”

  “Uhh...... Ahem. Yeah, I saw her. I definitely saw her.”

  Sensing the awkward silence, the man quickly stashed the wine skin back in his sleeve, his tone turning sheepish and respectful.

  “Right at the mouth of that alley over there!”

  The man pointed to the very alley where Fran had been dragged into.

  “Two guys—looked like out-of-towners—kidnapped her and hauled her inside.”

  “Out-of-towners?” Hulim glanced at the dark mouth of the alley. That one detail alone wouldn’t be enough to track them down. She pressed further, her voice steady. “Where did they go?”

  The man rubbed his hands together, a greedy glint flickering in his eyes.

  “That’ll cost you extra.”

  “Cost me extra?” Hulim raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  “Uhh...... No, I mean——” The man laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry, force of habit. Force of habit.”

  “I’ll tell you where they went, no charge! Promise!”

  Hulim wasted no time extracting the location of the hideout where her classmate was being held from the “friendly” local resident.

  Calling the man “friendly” might have been a bit of a stretch, all things considered—but in Hulim’s eyes, that was exactly what he was.

  It had all started a few weeks ago. Hulim had been running late for her training session with Semiris after being held up by some trivial errand. To save time, she’d opted to take the shortcut through this very neighborhood.

  To her surprise, the residents here had been extremely “unwelcoming” to outsiders. She’d almost decided to abandon the shortcut altogether after that first experience—but when Semiris heard about it, she’d insisted that Hulim keep using the route from then on.

  “This is part of your training too!” Semiris had declared, her tone unyielding. “The dangers you’ll face in the future won’t just come from monsters and golems. Sometimes, the most dangerous threats are the ones lurking among your own kind. Think of this as practice for dealing with them!”

  “......”

  And so, Hulim had continued taking the shortcut through the rough neighborhood. After several more “warm and cordial exchanges” with the “unwelcoming” residents, they’d suddenly become remarkably “friendly” toward her.

  Nowadays, whenever Hulim walked through the neighborhood, no one dared to give her any trouble. If anyone accidentally bumped into her or said something rude, they’d scramble to apologize profusely—just like the man in front of her had done, even though Hulim hadn’t thought he’d done anything wrong in the first place.

  Though now that she thought about it, it seemed like the residents here were a bit of a bunch of bullies. They were polite enough to her, but clearly not to other people—like her classmate, for example......

  Or maybe it was just because the thugs had been out-of-towners?