Chapter 32

Turning back time a little, two hours before Iron’s plan to rescue the Rabbit Tribe was put into motion.

At the livestock ranch run by the Level Merchant Group, inside the Rabbit Tribe’s quarters, a meeting was underway in preparation for their escape.

The Rabbit Tribe youths who had been hiding outside had returned to the ranch and informed them of Iron’s plan.

If the captured Rabbit Tribe children managed to escape safely, then there was no reason for the tribe to stay put.

“Escape had crossed our minds before, but I didn’t expect things to move this quickly.”

“But today is our only chance. Soon, the children will escape, and the moment word spreads that they are free, we will lose our chance to escape.”

“Since the human lord has started moving, we have no choice.”

“On top of that, they say they’ll sell us to another territory. If we’re taken further west from here, escape will become much more difficult.”

“Escaping during transport will be even harder. To the west of this castle, human territories are lined up one after another. At least here, in this eastern corner territory, we still have some chance of getting out.”

“That’s why the human lord must have hurried to act.”

The Rabbit Tribe had long since made up their minds to escape.

Because of the children, they had only been biding their time, but in truth, their hearts had already returned to the Forest of Illusions.

It had been tremendously encouraging when the mysterious benefactor who secretly provided them with weapons and generously shared food also introduced them to the human lord.

Especially since other Rabbit Tribe kin were already living in that territory, and hearing directly from them that they were being treated well had made the decision all the easier.

The problem was that things were moving so fast it was hard to keep up.

No sooner had they been introduced to the human lord and begun planning their escape than the situation erupted.

Even under normal circumstances, escape required risking their lives — and yet now, they were being forced to move hastily.

But no matter how they thought about it, if not now, there would be no chance for escape at all.

“Fine. We escape today.”

The oldest of the group, the Rabbit Tribe elder ‘Lashato,’ made the decision.

Since there was no alternative, there was no other choice.

The question was how to ensure the tribe’s escape with the least danger.

“He provided quite a number of weapons, but I wonder if this will be enough. A lot of sacrifice might be unavoidable.”

Once the ranch was put up for sale, the number of guards stationed here had increased.

Though their contempt for the Rabbit Tribe remained unchanged and their vigilance hadn’t particularly improved, the simple fact that more guards were present was already a heavy burden.

It was only thanks to the considerable support in weapons that they could even attempt to form an escape plan.

Still, even if the Rabbit Tribe picked up weapons and resisted the soldiers, it was questionable whether it would make much difference.

The Rabbit Tribe was clumsy when it came to handling weapons.

The contempt the guards of the merchant group held for them wasn’t entirely without basis.

“If only the children can be safe, then some things can be sacrificed.”

“I’ve lived long enough. If us old ones can hold out, at least the young ones must get away.”

“I’ll stay too. Whatever else happens, I must at least put one hole in that bastard’s skull before I die.”

But that was only true in ordinary situations — this time was different.

When the rise and fall of their tribe was at stake, a beastman could even throw away their life without hesitation.

The Rabbit Tribe was beastmen too, and they were prepared to fight with their lives on the line.

“There’s no need for us to even pick up weapons.”

And at that moment—

Lutos, who had received Iron’s special orders, carefully spoke up.

He was the Rabbit Tribe youth who had first met Iron.

At his words that they did not need to pick up weapons, all eyes of the gathered Rabbit Tribe turned toward him.

“He gave us this.”

“Isn’t that a mana crystal? The thing humans use as money.”

“That’s right.”

“And what are we supposed to do with that? Bribe the humans?”

“No. If we use this……”

Lutos relayed to the other Rabbit Tribe members what he had heard from Iron.

He said that if too much mana was infused into a mana crystal, the mana pattern became unstable and it could explode from even a small shock.

So he said they could use these mana crystals to create a disturbance and slip out in the confusion.

“‘He said, “Ah, this is a mana bomb.”’”

“Oh, indeed.”

“Mana bomb.”

“And he said this as well. Just as the Rabbit Tribe sets traps in the Forest of Illusions, this mana bomb can be used in a similar way.”

“I see what he means. Use it as a trap.”

“‘Ah, this is a booby trap.’”

“Booby trap. It rolls off the tongue nicely.”

With the Rabbit Tribe’s morale sharply rising, Lutos produced the mana crystals.

One, two, three, four. Mana crystals kept appearing from the pockets of Lutos and the Rabbit Tribe youths who had been hiding with him.

Iron had given all the mana crystals he had to Lutos because he had hoped the Rabbit Tribe children would be rescued safely.

Altogether, there were well over a hundred mana crystals.

They had secured plenty of troll blood from the monster defense operation, so they had a comfortable surplus of potions, and because Yuria had paid very generously, this had been possible.

If Peter—who was quietly extracting mana crystals in the territory—had known, he would have been astonished.

“This is a lot, isn’t it?”

“I think I understand how highly the human lord values us.”

The Rabbit Tribe members who saw far more mana crystals than they had expected exchanged strange looks.

It was far too many to be just for an escape.

“If you add two more bundles of firewood, the blaze grows stronger.”

“That’s only natural, isn’t it?”

“Then, if we detonate multiple mana crystals at once, wouldn’t the firepower be stronger?”

“Ooh, that means—”

Iron, who knew better than anyone that any operation starved for supplies would end in a mess, only wanted to prevent the Rabbit Tribe from failing their escape due to lack of resources.

It was common sense to him to return any unused supplies after an operation was over.

But the Rabbit Tribe workers, looking at the piled mana crystals, began to think differently.

“We could teach those filthy merchant bastards a harsh lesson.”

“Perhaps the human lord wanted us to give those bastards a taste of heat.”

“That’s probably why he supported so many mana crystals.”

“Good. Let’s blow them to hell properly.”

The weakest among the beastmen.

The gentle laborers optimized for work gripped their spear shafts like it was today their last.

Thus, under Iron’s excellent leadership, the Rabbit Tribe workers were being reborn as dreadful terrorists.

---

They had gotten the Rabbit Tribe children out safely.

To be honest, I hardly had to do anything.

‘Leisha, that one. Damn strong.’

Leisha had slipped into the storeroom alone and knocked out the four knights and twelve soldiers guarding it in an instant, and she had rescued all the children.

Of course, the opponents weren’t particularly remarkable, and I probably could have produced a similar result if I’d gone in, but this one felt different.

Her very stride felt of another caliber.

‘Very refined and clean? A light tap and they just go down one after another.’

How many knights would it take to beat this one?

I had thought she was just a wild lion obsessed with flesh, but she seemed far more remarkable than I had expected.

“Safely rescued.”

“I silenced them all. No one was injured.”

“Good, well done.”

The situation was the same with the other squads.

They had all managed to quietly bring the children out.

I had asked them to refrain from slaughter since there was nothing to be gained by escalating things, and it seemed everyone had done their best to minimize casualties as I had requested.

“Quiet. You’ll see your parents soon.”

“Waaah!”

“Eek, please save me.”

In fact, moving fifty Rabbit Tribe children quietly proved to be the real task.

Children were like ticking bombs on the verge of going off — if one of them burst into crying in the street, it would have been a disaster.

It was especially true once we left this alley.

Though it was a relatively quiet area outside the castle, unlike the warehouse district it wasn’t a place with zero patrols by the territory’s troops.

Should I have taken one or two Rabbit Tribe children from this side instead?

We might still get unlucky.

- Hm, is it time for me to step forward!

‘Huh? What could you possibly do?’

- Heh heh. You’ll see if you look.

At that moment Black Rabbit stepped forward.

The invisible Black Rabbit slipped among the children and began dancing by himself, and the nearby Rabbit Tribe children noticeably calmed down.

Roused by that, the children slowly began to listen to my persuasion that they would soon meet their parents.

‘How on earth did you do that?’

- I emitted positive energy. Untainted children are much more sensitive to that kind of atmosphere.

‘Indeed.’

So this one wasn’t entirely useless after all.

He’d done it with the horned rabbit before, and now he’d even influenced the Rabbit Tribe children.

If the opponent were a rabbit, Black Rabbit might prove quite useful.

“Alright, here.”

After bringing the children to the planned spot, we hoisted them under our arms and climbed the wall.

It was a sweet spot Yuria had told us about — an area where the soldiers’ patrols were almost nonexistent.

Climbing the wall itself was easy enough for an upper-rank knight, so things progressed very quickly.

If each of us climbed the wall two or three times, we could send all the children outside the wall.

“Are you leaving now, Lord Iron?”

“There’s trouble in the territory.”

“Hm, yes. Well. Understood. Return safely.”

After sending the children outside the walls, we naturally returned to the inn and mounted the three-horned mountain goats with the knights and rode out the castle gate.

The guards at the gate, who had been drugged by Yuria in advance, let us pass without much resistance.

Going out of the castle at night was illegal, but as a bustling territory there was some flexibility.

People connected to the large merchant group in particular tended to be let out or in as needed.

“Here, my lord.”

“Good, well done.”

After passing the gate and entering a secluded area, two cargo wagons pulled by the three-horned mountain goats waited for us.

After dismounting, I entrusted the wagons to my personal mountain goat, Ultra, and he snorted as if to protest why I had given him such a task.

“Hey, just pull them for me. I’ll give you lots of tasty things when we return to the territory.”

“Grrr grrr.”

Still, it wasn’t like he hated it so much that he’d attack me with his horns.

“Thank you for guarding the wagons, Dr. Nickel.”

“I was on edge the whole time.”

“Is this the wagon Yuria prepared? It looks fine.”

“Miss Yuria said she’d owe me a favor.”

The reason I could leave the territory safely at night was because Yuria had drugged the gate guards ahead of time.

Yuria had also shown us the weak spots in the wall’s patrols and had arranged the wagons in advance.

At this point I had to admit I owed Yuria a debt.

How this woman would collect that debt was another matter, but I accepted that a debt had been incurred.

“Well, she’ll collect it how she sees fit.”

For now, it was something to think about once we were completely out of here.

---

Two three-horned mountain goats pulled two wagons full of children, and one knight was sent back immediately to the territory.

The wagons carrying the children would be escorted out by the remaining knight, Dr. Nickel, and four female warriors of the Black Lion.

I worried the force was too small, but it should be enough until we met up again at the rendezvous point with the Rabbit Tribe workers.

I instructed the knight returned to the territory to catch up to the route back and, once he had done so, to dispatch at least the knights toward the western area of the Forest of Illusions.

I had calculated the Level Merchant Group forces that would pursue the Rabbit Tribe workers.

The area near the Forest of Illusions had a lot of monsters, so it would be much safer if knights accompanied them.

“So now we’re rescuing the Rabbit Tribe workers?”

“They’ll start soon. Go meet them—”

- Bang!!!

Just as I thought things were wrapping up.

A massive explosion sounded from the direction of the livestock ranch where the Rabbit Tribe had been held.

- Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four successive blasts thundered, leaving me stunned.

“No, these humans. I told them to make a little noise and run off quietly — what on earth did they do! Leisha, run!”

If this happened, we couldn’t move at a leisurely pace.

Something—something major—was happening.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.