3 – Helping those who help themselves (3)
Jungang Market was very crowded in the middle of the day.
It is the center of maritime trade in the southern part of the continent, where hundreds of ships come and go every day.
Daham’s Jungang Market is filled with countless shops, stalls, and various products from all over the world.
Fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, spices and medicines, and products collected from all over the world.
Among them, what stood out were the unique products created by artisans in traditional costumes.
Porcelain with delicate decorations, textiles with unique patterns, and wooden products made by skilled carpenters occupied one side of the market.
That alone made me dizzy, but the sound I heard in my ears was much busier than that.
Sailors, merchants, strangers and locals were busy trading in harmony.
Merchants shout eagerly to promote their products, and buyers competitively bargain for lower prices.
The laughter of people crossing their arms and talking, the melodies played by various musical instruments, and the footsteps of children playing lively in the streets, and so on.
Is that all?
The terrific smell of street food sold all over the street naturally makes your mouth water and your mind wanders.
In addition, there are illegal buildings that are geometrically intertwined by repeated extensions and expansions in a small space.
Under the sunny sky unique to the southern part, fascinating colors, scents, and sounds harmonize to create a beautiful picture of Jungang Market.
It is truly a lively place where you can discover and experience everything in the world.
Because it’s a place like this, Einer, a seasoned security guard, was absurdly pickpocketed.
Einer asked passers-by and shopkeepers if they had seen a demon woman.
As demons have goat-like horns on both sides of their heads, you can’t pass them by.
Especially, it was all the more so because people on the continent seemed quite hostile towards demons.
Because just a few years ago, demons who had gathered around the demon lord wandered around the entire continent and played games.
However, no one said that they had seen the demons.
As expected, the horns on the head are conspicuous, so they are hiding somewhere.
Then it’s really hard to find.
Dahham is not a planned city, but a place that has grown naturally, so the internal structure is extremely complex.
Isn’t this Jungang Market lined with old buildings and illegally expanded structures right now?
If you really make up your mind and hide in a place like this, you won’t be able to find it even if you beat it to death.
The security chief said it would be easy to find because it had horns, but that’s why it’s harder to find.
But, of all things, demon slaves?
It must be very difficult to use demons as slaves.
In the case of female demons, their appearance is similar to that of humans, so there is no great objection, but the problem is that that is not all.
If you use the crazy ability of liberation of the body, even a pretty girl can become a quadrupedal monster in the blink of an eye.
That’s why the Demon King’s army was able to quickly expand its power by destroying the corps of various kingdoms despite being outnumbered.
Because they commanded monsters and even cooperated with demons.
Einer, who was lost in his thoughts, suddenly noticed a suspicious movement on the other side.
A gaggle-like woman with messy black hair may be hanging out beside her in the fruit shop, glancing around her.
From the look on her face, it must be the pickpocket who stole my two sunfish the other day.
With the keen eye you’ve gained from working as a security guard for several years, you’d guess that the woman would steal some fruit and run away while the vendor looked away.
Again, the woman quickly stole a banana from her hand while the vendor was stretching her body to serve fruit to her customer, and started running.
Einer, who had been waiting for the distance to close enough, slipped out his foot.
A woman caught in your foot stumbled in front of her, missing her banana.
“You forgot to pay?”
The woman didn’t even think to get up, got down on her knees and bowed her head to apologize.
“I’m sorry…! I’m so hungry…”
“You weren’t satisfied with stealing my two meats yesterday?”
“Yes…?!”
At that, the woman raised her head and met her gaze with Einer.
The moment he made eye contact with the woman, he felt his heart sink down.
Those terrified eyes resembled the eyes Einer knew all too well.
The eyes of her mother, who was desperately holding five-year-old Ei in order not to be sold to another place in the slave market.
It was her mother’s eyes looking up from her arms at a young age when she knew nothing.
Ah, damn it….
The woman didn’t know anything and begged her forgiveness, begging her hands.
“I’m sorry, sir… I’m sorry… Please forgive me…”
Ah, you shut up his mouth in embarrassment at the unexpected situation.
Black eyes very similar to those of her mother who trembled in fear at the slave market.
Besides….
Two sunfish and a handful of bananas worth a few coins.
The only thing the woman stole was this.
Looking at the woman ejaculating with her desperate light, you couldn’t bear to arrest her.
Ha, this is really….
“I’m sorry. I thought I was pickpocketing again.”
A woman stared at Einer, who picked up a banana that had fallen on the floor and held it out.
“What are you doing? Take it.”
“Ah, yes…”
The woman who stood up awkwardly took the banana and looked at Einer.
Hey, you gestured as if you were going to stop, and then the woman bent down so that her forehead touched the ground while holding the banana.
“Thank you, sir!”
Just as the woman straightened her back and her hair, which had been leaning in front of her, fell back, Eiyou narrowed her eyes.
Because I could see something through her hair.
It was not a horn.
But that’s definitely where the demons’ horns grow.
Judging from the experience of cutting off the heads of countless demons, that’s probably….
The woman who glanced at Einer hugged the banana and ran away.
Looking at the back of the woman who was walking away, Ainor thought.
What I just caught a glimpse of between the woman’s hair is clearly a cross-section of the horn.
I had to cut off the horns of the demons I killed in order to be recognized as a major, so I watched it a lot.
That woman must have been the demon slave who ran away from the cargo ship of the Paling Merchant.
Could it be that the horns were cut off….
Einer pondered whether to pursue it, but decided to quit.
It’s rubbish to pretend you didn’t see it and catch it again.
You must have already made up your mind when running away from the freighter.
In addition, Einer did not dare to catch the woman even after looking at those eyes from earlier.
After thinking that far, you slowly turned around and walked to the fruit shop.
“Welcome! Oh, Mr. Einer. Are you on duty?”
When the owner of the fruit shop, who often came to buy food ingredients, greeted him warmly, Einer presented three fairy tales.
“Hello Mister. This is the price of a banana.”
“Oh, yes. Would you like a handful of bananas?”
“No. It’s just bananas.”
“Yes?”
Einer, who put a fairy tale in the hands of the owner who does not know English, left the store feeling bitter.
But why doesn’t the girl run away and she hangs around?
What are you going to do if you get caught doing that?
A port security officer worried about runaway slaves.
It is remote.
Looking up at the sky, it seems that the bell tower in the harbor will sound as the sun goes down in the middle of the sky.
Ei-ner, who was walking towards the restaurant where he had promised to meet with his crew, lowered his stance at the sudden roar and quickly looked around.
“The building collapsed!”
Looking in the direction where the sound came from, I could see a half-collapsed wooden building through a thick layer of dust.
There are many dangerous buildings in Jungang Market that have been extended and expanded differently from the original design.
Looks like one of them collapsed unluckily?
If there are people inside, it’s a big deal!
As I ran towards it, a woman who seemed to be the owner of a collapsed store screamed and grabbed Einer.
“There’s my child inside!”
The woman pointed to what was on this floor of the building.
With obliquely fallen pillars supporting the collapsing roof, there was only a precarious space left for a person to crawl into.
A child’s cry came from the narrow gap.
Is it because they raised a new floor on top of the previous one-story building and used it as a family home?
A space that an adult male can barely enter alone.
The weight of the collapsed roof is considerable, so if people currently lift it up, it will only have the opposite effect.
If you touch it wrong there, you’ll collapse completely.
You shouldn’t go out for nothing, you need the help of the management wizards….
At that time, the pillar supporting the roof broke a little with a sudden crackling sound.
The child’s cry grew louder.
Damn it! It’ll be too late!
Hey, you moved her body without thinking twice.
Unhooking the sword from his waist and laying it down on the floor, taking off his shoulder and chest guards and throwing them away, you pointed out one of the people gathered.
“Go to security right away and report the situation. The building has collapsed, so the wizard must come too.”
“Oh, I see!”
After confirming that the designated man ran towards the port in his haste, Aner made the people back away and ran to the building alone.
Ainor, who climbed over the rubble and climbed up to this floor, spoke into the hole.
“Your uncle will save you, so stop crying! If you keep crying, the roof will collapse!”
It was so deep and dark inside that I couldn’t see it, but I could hear Einer’s words, and the child’s cry stopped.
“Yes. Nice. Stay there. The man will go in.”
Einer, lying flat on his stomach on the floor, slowly crawled into the hole.
Please don’t collapse, please.