Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

As he said that, he looked again at his cousin's appearance. She looked no different from when she was in bed connected to an IV. With some a.s.sistance she could barely move her mouth and eat things, which was possibly why she had a slight woman-like bulge in her chest area, but her hemiplegia confined her to the bed, so there was nearly no muscle on her body. She normally had a cute, orderly face, but when she was this thin, it was quite difficult to say she was appealing. Being bedridden, her hair wasn't taken care of properly, and it stretched down unkempt.

　Just based off of the register, judging by how she was at the age of transferring to middle school, if her body were to heal and she ate properly, there was still a chance that her stature or chest would have much potential for growth. But he knew that she had practically given up. Anyone would feel hopeless after being in both an accident and sustaining an incurable disease.

「I wonder what would've happened if I was healthy?」

「Don't think about it too much. Not like you'd reach a pretty conclusion」

「Mhm. But I'm hungry……」

「Yeah, since we haven't eaten anything for two days……」

　Their captors apparently had no inclination of giving them food. He questioned why they would starve their goods, but in their case it made sense. They probably felt like cleaning up after them would be a drag, or that it was a waste to buy food for them since they'd be sold soon. They might even be thinking that if someone died, they could just replenish their stock.

　They had only been there two days, but there were others who had been there longer. To put it bluntly, the other people were far from making boisterous noise- they didn't even seem to have enough energy to move their bodies. Thinking of how a normal human could at most endure 72 hours of abstaining from food and drink, it was a given that they would be that exhausted. The only ones who were still well were maybe the three girls who had been locked in here earlier.

「Seems you lot are still kickin', maggots」

　Feeling hunger and closing his mouth, he was contemplating stealing at least some food when a fierce-looking man called out to the jailhouse in a very s.a.d.i.s.tic voice. He must be the leader. Of course, no one dared respond. The people who had been in there a while were doing all they could to keep living, so there was no way they could give a proper response. The girls who had been freshly brought here were swallowed by the antagonistic atmosphere, shaking fearfully as they cowered.

「I'll be calling over your new masters now. However, they aren't gonna buy all of you, of course, so the leftovers will be disposed of. If ya don't wanna die, then you'd best make sure they choose you」

　The leader-like man said as he brought out some underlings. As they left the jailhouse, the remaining person went out of their way to leave a phrase that shattered their hopes.

「Oh yeah. Don't make the mistake of wanting to escape. This place is in the middle of the forest, so it's teeming with monsters. And we have some skilled people loitering around, so don't think that you maggots can do anything about that. Although you probably don't even have the strength in you」

　Hearing that, he realized the other reason why they hadn't given them food. Even if someone here had battle prowess, if left without food or drink for three days, they probably wouldn't even be able to fight.

「Wow, this sucks……」

「Mm……」

　The two of them whispered to each other powerlessly as they gazed at the men leaving. Honestly, though not necessarily right off the bat, it was highly likely that they would be disposed of. If they had at least eaten something, they'd have enough energy to repay their captors, but definitely not now. They hadn't even thought that humans could be this lacking in motivation just from being deprived of food and water.

「I really don't like dreams where I'm hungry, but at this point we kinda have to hope that this is just one of those dreams……」

「……Hm?」

「What is it?」

　Mio looked like she sensed something, and Tatsuya questioned her. But before Mio could answer, a familiar voice of disappointment and anger rang out.

「Seriously, why the heck did it have to pan out like this…」

　They had heard this voice numerous times. The owner of said voice had helped them on many an occasion. At least in Tatsuya's case, he and Hiros.h.i.+ had a give-and-take relations.h.i.+p. Thinking of the area where the voice was heard, he should have been visible, but there was no one in sight.

「……Is this, Hiro?」

「……Sensei?」

「Mm? If ya know that name, are ya guys players?」

　Along with those words, an incompetent-looking young adult appeared. His hair and eyes were different colors, and his height was a bit taller than they remembered, but that person was none other than the crafting maniac Hiro. Next to him was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with beauty and glamor. They had some distance between them.

（We might be in good hands）

　He knew Hiro well. He didn't have anything on him resembling armor, but his body wasn't so weak that he could get hurt by bandits. Of course, this bad situation only happened because Tatsuya and Mio were bound up from the beginning, and no one had felt them to be a threat. He was confident that with the knife he had from the outset and no hostages to hold him down, he could easily win against humans.

「Azumkun, let's leave that for later. Let's first think of how to help these people」

　Hiro nodded, looking around. The female seemed to have a quite higher level. Feeling the uncertainty slip away to certainty, Tatsuya and Mio decided to remain silent for the time being.

　Hiros.h.i.+ was tempted to exchange information that wasn't currently necessary, so Haruna stopped him where he was. There would be a need to make various preparations to save these people from that scale of an organization. If they didn't prioritize the right sequence of steps, they would end up regretting it.

「But ya know it ain't feasible to just take everyone here at once. There's too many of 'em to carry with one transportation stone, and there's only three, so even if we treated some of 'em like luggage, we'd still be left with half the amount o'people」

「Seems like Jade-san called for relief, so I think we just need to buy time here until then」

「Then we'd best get to barricadin' this place」

　Hiros.h.i.+ said as he fished through his bag and looked around. He wanted to get to it, but they didn't have anything to set traps with. To add to it, Jade was a member of a different party of bandits. He was currently elsewhere, investigating things like other potential hostages and how strong the enemy was.

「Sensei, if you let us out of here, I'll set the traps」

「Yeah? Then I better open this up first」

　While grumbling things like "but I can't open locks…", he was checking the jail doors to see what could be done when Haruna called out to him.

「If you could hold up a soundproof and silencing barrier as a precaution, I'll knock off the keys」

「Alright. You got this」

　Nodding at Haruna's proposal, Hiros.h.i.+ launched a silencing barrier. Seeing from the flow of magic that the barrier was erected, Haruna put her all into a beam of light that precisely lopped off the key. Furthermore, the soundproof barrier made sure that no sound escaped from a set area, while the silencing barrier erased sound from a set area. Either one could be adjusted depending on the power exerted, so for precaution, he had put heavy emphasis on both.

「Hold still for a sec」

　Opening the cell, he shattered the hand and feet cuffs of the two Fairy Tale Chronicle players. If they were players, then it was highly likely that they had player character skills. Even without the typical adventurer skillset, they had to have the basic attack skills, and the parameters were certainly higher than the average person. If everything went well they would be a huge help, and even if not, they could still guard. He didn't remember either of them, but they seemed to know him. Then they would definitely have more of a skillset than the average adventurer and should be able to defend themselves.

　At least that was why he had saved them, but his expectations were delicately broken.

「Oof……、I can't get up……」

「Didn't think my empty stomach would affect my feet, d.a.m.n……」

　He looked around as they said that. Come to think of it, there wasn't really any scent of excreted matter in this jailhouse. They probably hadn't been given nearly any food or drink. To add further, there were some who looked as if they had been a.s.saulted. Not that it was strange for those tools to be lying around.

「We haven't been given anything to eat since we were captured……」

「Sorry, Sensei……my legs and loins just aren't working……」

　Sighing at the two of them with their anemia, he handed some water and bread to them out of his bag. Incidentally, the main reasons why they couldn't get up were certainly hunger and dehydration, but being in the same position for a long time also contributed to muscle atrophy and numbness of the feet in their case.

「Everyone else, please wait a bit longer for food. I can't feed all of ya with what we got here」

「So work for what you ate, okay?」

　The two of them took out all the water they had as they spoke. After all, from what they could see, mostly everyone was dealing with dehydration. The hostages' eyes widened as they saw the kegs and cups that came out of the bag. After all, most people don't go around walking with these things in their bags.

「Okay, what can you two do？」

「Well, if you're Hiro, then I think you'd understand if I said that I'm Obaba, right？」

「I'm Mick」

「……Obaba and Mick? For reals!?」

　Befuddled at their introductions, Hiros.h.i.+ practically groaned. The girl was constantly referring to him as "Sensei Sensei", so he figured that of his three pupils, she was playing the opposite s.e.x, but her character was the largest and the most handsome, so it was still surprising to see a girl behind such a masculine character. On the other hand, he thought from the beginning that Obaba was a different gender. But he certainly didn't see him being such a lady killer. He had after all played as a magic-wielding old woman, plus he was super into the roleplay.

「Ah whatever. Mick, ya said ya'd do somethin' 'bout the traps. Can ya move soon?」

　He decided to consider the situation and push away personal feelings.

「……Sorry, it's still a bit difficult」

「I think I have leftovers from request potions I made. Would that work？」

「Dunno. This is our first time experiencing a lot of things after all」

　Hiros.h.i.+ nodded at Tatsuya in agreement, going ahead and handing a leftover potion to them. They took it and downed it at once, and then the two of them checked their conditions.

「I think I can move now」

「No confidence, but may as well try……」

　Nodding at them, Hiros.h.i.+ proceeded with the preparations for traps and barricades. During the procedure, they heard footsteps from further back. That being said, Hiros.h.i.+ and Mio were the only ones able to hear them, as their sensory ability points were quite high.

「Someone's here. Mick, Obaba, ya guys just wait inside. From the amount of footsteps I hear, seems like there's a lot o'peeps at the entrance, so I'm countin' on ya for back there, Toudou-san」

「Roger that」