After seeing Fernand leave, Jin turned to everyone else.
“Okay then, we should go get as much information as we can ourselves as well. According to Fernand, lots of rumors about this have spread around the city.”
“Yeah. That way, if that guy comes back with sloppy information, we’ll know right away.”
Shion nodded several times as if her head was working swiftly.
(Reiko, just in case, get two of our Covert Units to attach themselves to Fernand and have them be on the lookout for anything strange.)
(Understood. I’ll send in Panse and Viola.)
Reiko chose the two smallest Covert Units and issued them their instructions. With this, there would be no need to worry about being tipped off to or getting themselves targeted by strange organizations.
First, Jin and his friends decided to look around the town while pretending to be simply sightseeing.
“…”
“…”
“…Yuck.”
A mountain of garbage was piled up right next to the alley. It wasn’t only food scraps, but also strange garbage of unknown nature that completely covered the sidewalk.
Jin and the others immediately turned around, and decided to stick to the main road for the time being.
There was almost no food to be found in grocery stores, and to say that the magic tool stores had a wide selection would have been an overstatement.
At accessory stores, there were only a handful of luxury items.
“The economy here is really weird, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, it looks that way.”
“This place is such a mess. Humans really are untidy creatures, huh?”
“…Just like there are differences between the clans of demons, there are all sorts of humans. That’s all.”
While having that conversation, they returned to the middle of the main street.
“Okay, let’s keep going straight ahead.”
As they started to walk, the surroundings suddenly became very noisy. Screams could be heard at a distance.
“What…?”
“Father!”
Reiko got herself in front of Jin. Edgar also jumped forward to cover Elsa.
“Uwaaaaahhhh!”
“I-It’s a runaway carriage!”
Looking in the direction of that voice, they could see that a small carriage was running at a tremendous speed. It had no coachman.
It was pulled by a single horse, but it seemed to be frothing profusely from the mouth as it rushed recklessly through the middle of the road.
People who noticed it hurriedly tried to dodge it, but the horse wasn’t running in a straight line but meandering, so even trying to avoid it was very dangerous since the horse could end up going towards someone who had thought that they had already avoided it.
“AAAIIIEEEE!”
A person had been sent flying. And the carriage was now headed towards Jin and the others.
Reiko was about to jump forward to try to restrain the horse, but reconsidered after realizing that it was probably better to stay by Jin’s side to protect him.
Instead, she prepared a spell.
(‘Paralyze’)
Since she had used her maximum output to cast that spell, the horse fainted instantly.
“Uwaah!”
Someone screamed. When the fainted horse fell to the ground, the carriage fell sideways and slammed itself onto the surface of the road.
Then, nothing but silence.
The horse and the carriage it was pulling both stopped a mere two meters away from Jin and the others.
The first one to return to her senses was Reiko.
“Father, are you hurt?”
“Ah, no. But it was close.”
“Someone’s injured.”
A middle-aged woman was lying down on the ground. It seemed that she had been the one who screamed earlier.
“…Are you okay?”
“A-Ah, m… m-my leg…”
The lower part of her right leg had been bent in an unnatural way from the shin below. It seemed that it had been trampled over by one of the carriage’s wheels.
“…Give me a moment. ‘Diagnose’ …This should be fine. ‘Schmerzmittel’.”
“Huh? Ah…”
“I’m sure it must still hurt quite a bit.”
After using a painkiller spell, Elsa twisted the woman’s leg back to its natural position. By doing this, her next spell would be most effective.
“A-Ahh!”
“‘Heilung’”
Elsa cast healing magic immediately after roughly repositioning the woman’s leg. A faint light emerged from Elsa’s palm and was absorbed by the affected area.
“…It’s healed… Oh, thank you very much!”
The wound was literally healed in the blink of an eye. The woman bowed her head as she rubbed her healed leg.
“Thank you very much! B-But… I don’t… I don’t have any money…”
“That’s fine. I didn’t heal you because I wanted money from you. Take care now.”
“Oh… Thank you! Thank you so much!”
The woman then began to leave while bowing gratefully over and over.
Elsa’s words soon caused a commotion in the surroundings.
“Hey… She did it for free…!”
“I can’t believe it… But wait, those clothes… Ah, they’re foreigners… Now I understand.”
“Those foreigners are so generous.”
It seemed that the act of tending to someone’s injuries for free was quite the rare sight in this town.
Meanwhile, Jin was investigating the carriage that had fallen on its side.
The surroundings were crowded with curious onlookers, but none offered to help move the carriage out of the way or to look for its occupants.
“Ah…!”
An elderly woman was still inside the carriage. Her appearance was hard proof that she was an aristocrat.
Jin carried the woman out of the carriage. Since she had a small build, Jin still managed to carry her by himself despite not being too physically strong. Reiko said she would help out, but Jin asked her to let him do it.
The cobblestone road would have been too rough to have the woman lay on, so Jin first took off his coat and was about to lay it there, but then…
“Here you go, Father.”
Reiko had found a blanket in the carriage and laid it on the road. After that, they had the old lady lie there.
“Reiko, Edgar, move the carriage to the side of the road.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Yes, Master Jin.”
He had asked the two of them to do it because he saw no need to display Reiko’s strength in a place like this.
Still, Edgar looked like a young lad, and Reiko looked like a petite young lady. The curious onlookers still stared in awe as the two of them moved the carriage away almost effortlessly.
Jin then asked Elsa to conduct a medical examination on the old lady.
“‘Diagnose’… She’s fine, only a few bruises and scratches. She should wake up soon. …’Behandern’.”
Elsa treated the old lady’s bruises and scratches.
“This should be enough.”
“Thank you, Elsa.”
Shion and Lucas approached Jin and Elsa.
(Oh, look at that! As expected from the Magi Craft Meister’s sister.)
Shion was noticeably impressed. She wondered if they had heard her whispering.
“Step aside!”
“You’re in the way! Move!”
Six soldiers wearing armor came running, making a clattering noise.
“I-Isn’t this…!”
The soldiers seemed to realize what house the old lady was from by looking at the carriage’s coat of arms.
“You! What happened here! Explain yourself!”
One of the soldiers, who seemed to be their captain, yelled at Jin.
“Huh? …This carriage went out of control, the horse fell, and the carriage fell with it. So I helped this person out of it. That’s about it.”
“Are you sure? You don’t want to be lying to me, you hear?”
The soldier glared at Jin. At that moment…
“You there, could you stop being so rude? This man is telling the truth.”
The old lady had regained consciousness and interceded in a dignified voice.
