Chapter 189 - Outlier
After some time, Lecia stopped crying and freed herself from Neia's embrace, "I-I'm sorry…"
"There is no need to apologise. This is just what family does for each other," Neia smiled.
"Family…" A bright smile appeared on Lecia's face. "Right."
Seems like the word 'family' hit her right in her heart.
"Let's go now. They are waiting for us."
Just as she said that, a question popped up in Neia's mind, 'Do those guys even know that Lecia is missing?'
It didn't seem like Samur had informed the members of the New Dawn Guild that Lecia had been kidnapped. If he had, they definitely would not have just handed over the task of saving her to Samur, a 12-year-old child.
Most likely, they did not know that Lecia had been abducted.
However, by now they should have realised that something aka Lecia was amiss.
Goddamnit, how would she even handle them- no, wait. Why should SHE handle them?
To begin with, this whole rescue plan was Samur's idea. Neia wasn't even aware that they were going to rescue Lecia until Samur brought her to the kidnapper's hideout.
If anything, Neia was a victim of his manipulations.
So he should be the one to explain everything to the members of the New Dawn Guild.
Good.
'Let's see you get out of this one, Samur,' she smiled to herself.
It seemed she was looking forward to his suffering.
"Um, Ms. Neia?" Lecia's call brought her back.
"Ah, yes, yes. Let's go back."
"Yeah, we should, but, um…" Lecia's head drooped and she started fidgeting.
"Go on."
'Don't tell me… is she still injured?!'
"Where's Mr. Azell?"
"…"
Lecia shyly averted her eyes under Neia's gaze, "I just wanted to thank him for saving me..."
"Ah, right, right," Neia slowly nodded.
'It was Samur who saved you, though.'
"So… where is he?"
"He is, uh, he has some more things to deal with, so he asked me to go ahead with you."
"Ah, I see," Lecia appeared dejected.
'Hmm?' Neia scowled in her heart.
Something seemed to be wrong here, but she wasn't sure what.
"He'll return later. You can thank him then."
"I understand," Lecia pouted a bit.
"Let's go."
And together, they made their way to the door of this hall.
However, as soon as they left it, Lecia tripped on something and almost fell down.
"Are you alright?!" Neia exclaimed as she caught her before she fell.
"Yeah, I'm okay-" Lecia froze the moment she looked down and saw what she had tripped on.
It was 'just' an arm.
For a split second, Neia was confused over Lecia's reaction.
But she quickly understood the reason behind it and hastily covered Lecia's eyes.
'Fuck!'
"W-what is that-"
"It's nothing," Neia stopped the sputtering Lecia. "It isn't anything you need to be concerned about, okay?"
"…" Despite her reassuring words, Lecia continued trembling.
"It's really nothing, so let's go," she pushed Lecia forward while still covering her eyes. "I will be guiding you."
Neia looked at the corpses strewn about in the hallway and grit her teeth.
"O-okay," Lecia weakly nodded.
Together, they slowly started walking towards the exit of this hideout. And during their entire journey, Neia made sure to cover Lecia's eyes and avoid all corpses.
She had made a huge blunder before.
She had let Lecia witness the scene of carnage that Neia and Samur had painted to save her.
Neia had forgotten because of Samur, but normally speaking, a pile of corpses was a pretty traumatising sight for a child.
That's why Lecia's reaction upon seeing a cleaved arm was perfectly normal.
It was Samur who was strange for not even batting an eye after creating that pile of corpses. In fact, he didn't seem the least bit bothered by it.
Samur was an outlier, and should not be used to judge how a child would behave.
Neia shuddered at that thought; just what happened for Samur to turn out like this?
At this point, she couldn't even imagine it.
??????
Well, there they go. Nice.
I got out of my hiding place and went back to the hall.
It's just me and Mr. Kidnapper now.
Whew, this sure has been a wild event. I can now only hope that Neia won't fuck up and let slip that I'm somehow involved in this whole kidnapping fiasco.
To Lecia, my only involvement should be how I failed negotiations and actually got her kidnapped.
Ah, wait, that reminds me.
"Neia," I contacted her through the channel. "No need to say anything. Just listen to me."
?…?
I'll take her silence as confirmation.
"I forgot to say this before, but you need to tell everyone else at the guild that it was Azell who saved Lecia. That's the only way to keep up the lie we've conjured."
?!!? The sound of a sharp exhale came from the other end.
She probably wants to say something like, 'You fucking dumbass! How the fuck am I supposed to do that!'
How rude of her to use abusive language. I'm hurt.
"No need to think too much about it. Just tell them that it was you and Azell; no one knows of my involvement anyway."
Unless they have implanted something like a transponder in my body and are keeping track of my every move, in which case we might have a bigger problem than our lie holding up.
Noelle would probably shove both of her fists up my ass if she learned that I got Lecia kidnapped just because I wanted to test my drone out.
?!!? Neia exhaled sharply again.
?…Are you alright?? Lecia asked (or so I heard over the comms).
"Yeah, Neia, are you alright? Anyway, like I said, don't think too much about it. After all, the only one who can prove that you are lying is Azell himself, but I'll handle him, so there's nothing for you to worry about."
I'll just contact him and say, 'Hey, as it turns out, you were the one who saved Leica from the kidnappers, thus becoming her saviour. As a result, Lecia has become really obsessed with you and will probably stab any woman who so much as breathes near you.'
Yup, sounds about right.
?…? There was no sharp exhale this time.
Is she agreeing with me, or has she simply run out of breath?
I'll assume it's the former.
"As for the others, you can just tell them that you are really tired so they should ask Azell for the details. Ez."
Just shove the responsibility onto someone else and relax.
?…?
"Now if you'll excuse me," with that, I cut the connection.
The rest is up to Neia now. If she succeeds, my epic prank will be complete and Azell will be completely bamboozled.
And if she fails, well, it wouldn't really matter because at this stage, Lecia wouldn't even believe her. So even if my epic prank fails, I'll have nothing to lose.
All in all, it's a win-win for me.
Now then.
I waved my hand and the Ice Spear Cage confining Tristan melted away.
The legless Tristan (well, technically speaking, he's calve-less because Neia's bullet only blew away his legs below his knees) was lying on the ground, the ice spear I had previously conjured still floating in front of him.
The only problem was that he was pale, and unconscious. A courtesy of all that blood loss, I assume.
He shouldn't be dead yet, but he soon will as long as I don't treat him.
Oh well, I guess it's time to have some fun.
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