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In the end, the man told everything to Fina.

They explained that all of them had someone precious that was ill, that they couldn’t receive treatment because they were half-demons, and that they ultimately threw themselves into Kufar’s radical organization.

For that reason, they couldn’t get Maria’s cooperation, but they also explained that they were in a situation where they couldn’t even ask for her help.

From Maria’s standpoint, it would be difficult to help them who were part of the radical movement. Even she had to consider her position.

And her position wasn’t something superficial, either.

But Fina was indignant about her mother’s standpoint.

“How cruel of mom to not help people in need!”
“Well, from the Saint’s standpoint, people like us can’t be helped. That’s why we decided to take you hostage to get her to heal them.”
“We know this is reckless. In the worst case… No, we’ll definitely be killed by Lyell, huh.”
“No helping it. My mother’s life is more important.”

Seeing that the three were resolved to throw their lives away, Fina made her decision.

That she would help them, regardless of her parents’ circumstances.

“Okay. I will cooperate!”
“Huh?”
“I mean, no matter how you cooperate, young lady…”
“First, this place is no good. Such an obviously erected hut will be found easily.”
“I-Is that so? Wait, that’s not it!”
“The white goddess said, if you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest.”

The three were completely overpowered by Fina who talked with spirit while bound.

“Also, she said when hunting in the mountains, after you let the siege pass, if you return back to the mountain you won’t be found.”
“Uh-huh?”
“In other words, in this case, it would be harder to find you if you hide closer to my house.”
“I see.”
“Hmm, maybe… Umm, can you untie me? I won’t run.”
“S-Sure.”

Being taken aback, the men united her as told. They also untied the Carbuncle as well.

Once it was freed, the Carbuncle leaped away from them and took a threatening stance.

“Kabby, no. We should help these misters!”
“Squeeeee!”
“It’s fine! At this rate, they would be too pitiful!”
“Squee…”

It shook its head as if asking if it was really okay, but Fina decisively ignored it.

“By the way, mister, where are we?”
“In a hunting hut outside the village. It’s probably used for butchering a game. You’re right, we have to move elsewhere or we’d be found instantly.”
“Can we go back inside?”

“Yeah, we found a place in the fence that has been repaired. But the repairs were quite crude so we could get in from there.”
“Then, let’s return there for the time being. And, umm, we have a storage room, so we can hide there!”
“A storage room?”

Indeed, if the kidnappers hid in the storage room of the very house of the hostage, even Lyell wouldn’t realize it. But that would be far too crude.

“Wait, I can use earth magic a bit. If I tear the floor there and make a hidden room underneath, we might actually not get found.”
“Hidden room? Can you make it so easily?”
“If I just use the Tunnel spell, it wouldn’t be that hard.”
“Troy, what about you?”
“Lyell’s mansion has water supply equipment. There’s a drainage channel there so we can just connect the basement to it.”
“There might be some problems with this plan… but hiding in the enemy’s footsteps sounds fun.”
“If that’s decided, let’s move.”

The men had almost no luggage, so they took their one bag and stood up.

Fina also had no luggage. Troy casually lifted her up.

“Kya?!”
“We wouldn’t make it in time if we walk at your pace.”
“Okay, thanks.”

Fina seemed unstable and wrapped her hands around his neck. That gesture made the man remember her ill daughter and he stopped for a moment.

“Troy, come.”
“R-Right. Sorry.”

He shook his head to rid himself of that delusion and left the hut.

They put a hood on Fina so she wouldn’t stand out, and the four and one animal once again returned to the village.

Not much time had passed, so the sun had only just started going down.

If they moved to avoid public gazes that would just make them stand out even more, so they were walking quite daringly through the village. This foolhardiness of theirs was an extraordinary skill in a way.

Moreover, there was a fair now, so it wasn’t a rare sight to see a man holding a child.

They boldly made their way to the thickets in the back of Lyell’s mansion, and surveyed the area.

Since there was a fair, most adult villagers were already gone there, so there was almost no one in the mansion’s vicinity.

Once they confirmed that, they crossed the thickets and entered the backyard.

“Come. The storage room is there.”
“Okay.”
“Keep quiet, okay? Tina is still here.”
“Tina?”
“Big sis Cortina.”
“The Six Hero?!”

Troy skillfully screamed with a lowered voice, so it wasn’t heard inside the mansion.

The three were getting cold feet since they were turning a Six Hero on them, but thinking about it, they had already turned Lyell and Maria against them the moment they kidnapped Fina.

They realized that they had nothing to lose and became more defiant again.

The earlier scream didn’t seem to have raised any suspicions, so the three headed to the storage room after Fina.

Lyell was teaching swordsmanship to the village children, so the storage room was quite big.

Inside were a lot of fake swords made from the Keratos whiskers, and it was quite untidy.

Even if they ripped one floorboard here and made a basement there, it didn’t look like it would get found right away.

“Okay, it shouldn’t get found if we dig a hole in this corner.”

Zell, who claimed he could use earth magic, found a suitable spot, and Jones ripped the tile off as asked.

The mansion had seen many years since it was built so the floorboards were quite damaged already.

Thanks to that, he managed to tear it off without raising much noise.

“Well then… Zell, the rest is on you.”
“Sure, leave it to me.”

Zell answered and started chanting in whispers. He invoked the spell without problems and created a pit one meter wide and five meters deep.

“Isn’t this a bit too narrow?”
“It won’t be like this. I’ll go down and expand the space below.”

He said that and jumped down. Then Jones moved the luggage a little to make it harder to see the hole from the entrance.

“Troy, move that clothing box. Once we’ve hidden, we’ll use this to cover the entrance.”
“Okay, got it.”
“I’ll help too!”
“Squee!”

Having reached the point of no return, the desperate Carbuncle used spells and helped them move the heavy clothing box.

Meanwhile, Zell had expanded the underground to ten square meters, creating quite a splendid basement.

“Troy will be in charge of this pit. Zell will get us water with magic.”
“We don’t have mattresses?”
“We don’t plan to stay that long.”
“We have sleeping bags, so make do with those.”
“Yaay.”

Fina raised her hands in happiness, finding this situation fun as if she was on a camping trip.

Seeing her who was cooperating with them in her own kidnapping, the man exchanged looks of exasperation.