“If Helix goes to investigate that, I’ll have to practice alone. I’d rather go together. I might learn something just by following along.”

She carefully added.

“Unless I’ll be in the way.”

She would be in the way.

When Leah was nearby, all his attention shifted to her, and he kept checking the ring on his finger to make sure she was safe and nothing was wrong.

“Not at all.”

However, Helix strongly denied it, shaking his head.

“Really? Can I come along?”

“Of course.”

Making another uncharacteristic lie, he watched her expression.

Seeing Leah’s bright smile of delight, his words started to feel true.

‘Though my heart rate and head seem to act strange when Leah is nearby…’

He could cover that much with his iron-clad rationality as a guardian.

‘Building up my contractor’s abilities is more important.’

***

Meanwhile, on a slope of the Hel Mountains.

Inside a roughly built shack, the slave trader Max was counting the children.

“What? Why don’t the numbers match?”

Max shouted. The bearded man beside him scratched his head.

“One, two, three… sixteen, that’s right.”

Max lost his temper.

“You dimwit. Why are you leaving out the one that came yesterday?”

Only then did Beard startle and count the children again. Sixteen. Even counting again, there were sixteen.

“We’re missing one!”

“Where did they go? Did they escape?”

“I’ve been guarding the door this whole time, how could a mere kid escape?”

Beard shook his head like it was absurd. His mountain-like bulk nearly covered the shack’s door.

“You idiot. Kids can be so cunning…”

Slave trader Max glared as he began inspecting the shack and the children. They couldn’t ruin things when they were almost done.

The man with a vicious scar next to Beard spat.

“Should we start the experiment with the remaining kids?”

“We need to find them. One missing kid is one thing, but if they go and bring adults, we’re in trouble.”

Max frowned.

‘If it wasn’t Count Trow’s job, I wouldn’t take work like this.’

Though he was a veteran slave trader, this was his first job that felt so unsettling.

‘Go to a remote countryside far from the capital and buy children. The north would be good. There’s no lord governing it.’

‘Yes, yes. With the bad harvest since last year, farming families will sell their children for cheap.’

Max had often bought children for a few coins from poor families trying to reduce mouths to feed.

But Count Trow’s next words made him doubt his ears.

‘Gather the children you bought and make them drink this medicine, then bring only those who survive after three days.’

In other words, gather children and feed them poison?

Since he said to bring only the survivors, it must surely kill most who drink it.

‘Not even buying them to use as slaves, but spending money to kill them – I can’t understand why they’d do such a thing.’

But when had he ever known the inner thoughts of nobles while working for them? He recalled Count Trow’s low, thin voice as he gave the request.

‘Do it secretly without getting caught.’

Max shuddered.

Even among nobles, Count Trow was infamous for his dirty methods.

If word got out about experimenting on children here, his head would be the first to roll under the count’s efforts to bury the rumors.

“We must find them quickly!”

“Boss! Over here!”

Scar, who was searching the shack with him, pointed to a corner.

There was a hole dug the size of a dog hole, and right in front of it were clear marks where a chamber pot had been placed.

“The clever brat dug a tunnel and covered it with the pot.”

The face of slave trader Max darkened with rage.

“Catch that little bastard right now!”

***

At that time, Leah and Helix were also searching the Hel Mountains.

They investigated around the contaminated Tigone tree but found nothing unusual.

“No matter how I look, I can’t tell if there’s anything strange about the mana flow?”

Helix nodded at Leah’s words.

“I feel the same.”

“Could the flower color have changed for some reason other than mana? Hydrangeas change color based on soil properties.”

“We should consider that angle too.”

As he answered, Helix stared down at Leah.

“What?”

“Leah, aren’t you a bit tired?”

She flinched.

“…I’m not.”

“Your breathing is a bit elevated. And seeing how you immediately sat on that rock, your legs seem to hurt too.”

“…I’m not that tired.”

He worriedly took her wrist and checked her pulse.

“With such low stamina…”

“I may have been weak before, but I’m average for a noble lady now, you know? You’re just too strong, Helix.”

“I can’t believe that.”

Leah heaved a sigh. It seemed Helix still thought of her as fragile as glass because of his memory of first healing her.

“It’s too much for you to walk around with me in this state. How about resting while I look around?”

“Ugh…”

Though she wanted to stay together, she was indeed a bit tired.

If she kept going like this, she’d just get in the way of Helix’s investigation. Leah gave up and nodded.

“Alright. I’ll just sunbathe here.”

“How about doing some magic training while breathing exercises?”

“No, teacher, that’s not happening.”

When Leah got serious, Helix smiled.

“Only calling me teacher at times like this?”

“Of course.”

Helix lightly pinched the nose of Leah who was nodding matter-of-factly.

“Do your training.”

“Ow, I said I won’t!”

After Helix left to look around alone, Leah grumbled as she sat cross-legged and started breathing exercises to sense mana.

“Sigh. I think I’m too diligent a student. What if I become a great mage in one go from being this diligent?”

Muttering to herself wasn’t fun without Helix there to get annoyed.

Guess I should really focus on training. She shook her shoulders and straightened her posture.

“…Hoo.”

Her breathing grew slower as she inhaled and exhaled. Her head tilted forward.

The early autumn afternoon air was still warm and the sunlight was cozy, making her drowsy.

Rustle.

‘Hm?’

She straightened up at the sound she heard while dozing.

‘Did I hear wrong?’

Crunch.

It was definitely something moving. Now wide awake, Leah looked around while holding her breath.

That’s when it happened.

Crash!

Suddenly something black burst out of the bushes in front of her.

“Aah!”

“Eeeek!”

The person who jumped out also screamed in surprise at Leah’s scream and fell sitting down.

‘A, a person?’

She thought it was a deer or something from the terrifying speed, but it was a person. She put a hand to her chest.

‘A child?’

Maybe a bit over ten? The still small boy looked up at her while catching his breath.

His face and whole body were covered in scratches from tree branches. He must have been running fast continuously through the mountainside where there wasn’t even a path.

“P-please help!”

“What do you mean?”

The child shook his head at Leah’s question. There was no time to explain like this.

His urgent movements made her heart race as she watched.

“Tell me. What kind of help do you need? What’s wrong?”

“Please stop the men!”

“The men?”

The child nodded quickly.

“The men… they’re making kids drink medicine! They say we’ll die!”

“What?”

***

The story she heard while pressing and coaxing the child was shocking.

The young boy’s name was Phil, a shepherd from a nearby village who was sold to some men a few days ago. Men who suddenly appeared in the village and bought children.

“…Slave traders?”

Leah muttered.

Though slavery was officially banned in the Kingdom of Peiren, it still happened in secret. Usually they bought poor families’ children for pocket change and sold them to the Oken Empire where slavery was institutionalized.

But something was strange.

No matter how bad public opinion was, slave traders coming all the way to remote places like the north to buy children didn’t make financial sense.

“So what did those men do to you?”

Phil’s following story was even stranger.

Phil said he had many siblings and ran away to the mountains resisting being sold, but was eventually caught and taken later than the other children.

The village children who had been taken a day earlier had changed to be like sick chickens by then.

Phil had grown up getting pushed around by his siblings and worked as a shepherd since he was a snot-nosed kid, so he was quite sharp. The child hid the water and bread the slave traders gave without eating them and pretended to sleep like the other children.

The slave trader group let their guard down thinking all the children were asleep and talked.

‘We’ll proceed once we buy one more. Get the medicine ready.’

‘But you said they all die when they drink it?’

‘Most die, apparently. We’re to watch for three days and bring any that don’t die.’

‘Damn, we have to stay here three more days?’

‘What do we do with the bodies?’

‘Burn them.’

“What?”

Leah’s eyes widened as she listened.

“They’re going to feed medicine to the children, and burn them if they die?”

Phil nodded his small head earnestly.

“I heard it clearly!”

Leah pondered.

Slave traders trying to kill children they paid money for. It was a suspicious story, but the situation was too specific to be made up by an escaping child.

“So the other children are still there?”

“Yes.”

Phil nodded with a dejected face. Leah studied his expression while deep in thought. If there was even a small chance the child’s words were true, it was serious.

I need to check.

‘If children are in danger, it doesn’t cost anything to go look. Wouldn’t it be fine to just take a quick peek?’

She glanced toward the mountain where Helix had walked off.

‘I can use magic if needed. Since they’re talking about feeding strange medicine to children, I should at least go check quickly.’

Having decided, she asked.

“Phil, can you guide me to the slave traders’ shack?”

***

Rustle.

A man appeared parting the grass near the rock where Leah had left with Phil.

It was Karai, the spy who had been following Leah.

‘Buying children and feeding them medicine?’