Weiss And Leopin (13)

Around halfway up “Mother-Forgetting Mountain,” there was a single villa surrounded by forest.

The villa was shut tight, and there was no sign of people.

However, lively laughter could be heard leaking from the large barn at the edge of the garden.

“Gyahahahaha! We finally finished the shipment!”

“Now we can live it up and play around for a while again!”

The rugged men raised a toast.

At the seat of honor, a girl with a burlap sack over her head was tied up.

Her robe, which had been pure white until yesterday, was now soiled like trampled snow.

“Still, this princess sure is strange!”

“Yeah, yeah! Even though she’s from some seriously prestigious family, she went to a chapel in a slum like that!”

“But thanks to that, it made our job easier!”

“And whenever we kicked those poor Saints around, this one would always cover for them!”

“Thanks to that, her robe was the cleanest one, but after getting kicked all over, look at her now!”

“What an idiot! Even when they were being shipped out, she was screaming until the very end! ‘Please ship me instead,’ she said!”

“Too bad, princess! The ones you were desperately protecting aren’t here anymore!”

“Right about now, they’re probably being loaded nicely onto a ship at the harbor! Around midnight tonight, they’ll be leaving this country!”

The girl wriggled her immobile body like a caterpillar and shouted.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

“What, you want us to take you with them? Idiot, you’re going to a country much, much farther away than they are!”

“Yeah, yeah! There, you’ll be stripped naked and made to suffer horribly!”

“Are you scared? You are scared, aren’t you!? Gyahahahahaha!”

…Booom… Gaaaaaaaaanーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー!!

With a sound like an explosion, the barn’s double doors were knocked down.

Along with a cloud of smoke, a strange vehicle that looked as though only the cargo bed of a carriage were running came charging in.

“Wh-what, what, what is thatー!?”

While the men fell into panic, the vehicle circled around the men’s table.

When it pulled a drift that drew a circle, a thick cloud of dust rose up.

The men fled about through the smoke as though they had been caught in a sudden fire.

“Wh-what, what’s going on!?”

“Ah…!? The Saint is gone!?”

“Wh-where the hell did she go!?”

When the men looked around, the vehicle that had burst in was running toward the exit.

In its seat was the Saint, snatched away together with her chair…!

“D… damn it! What the hell is that!?”

“Never mind that, chase it!”

“Don’t let them escape from this mountain no matter what! Catch them and kill them!”

The men chased after the vehicle with bloodshot eyes.

However, perhaps because the mysterious vehicle was being pedaled by two people, it moved at unbelievable speed.

“F-f… fast!? We can’t catch up at all!”

“Th-this is bad!? At this rate, they’ll get away!”

“If they get away, it’s over! We’re finished!”

The men’s faces were dyed with despair.

The vehicle was running straight toward the light shining in.

There was no one left who could stop it…!

Or so it seemed,

“…I saaaaaaayーーーーーーーーーーーーーー!!”

From outside, a carriage leapt with a bounce and landed right in front of the barn like a messenger from heaven.

It showed off a drift no less impressive than the mysterious vehicle and blocked the barn’s exit.

A gentleman with bandages wrapped around his face was sitting in the coachman’s seat.

He was wearing a winter cloak, and his appearance was like that of a mysterious ally of justice.

He stood atop the coachman’s seat with his cloak fluttering and shouted as though striking a pose.

“Now, you can no longer escape, I say! Be good and have your bottoms spanked, I say!”

“Th-this is bad!?”

The two boys riding the vehicle braked sharply right before they were about to collide with the carriage.

“Wh… how did you know we were here!?”

Toward the astonished boys, the gentleman spoke triumphantly.

“The girl at the park told me you were heading to this mountain, I say! Not only did you play a prank on my carriage, but you even came to play a prank on the villa owned by my family, I say…!”

The gentleman suddenly noticed the men rushing noisily from the back of the barn.

“Oh? The villa is out of season, and there should be no servants here… So why are there people here, I say?”

After arriving at Mother-Forgetting Mountain, Weiss and Leopin reached the villa halfway up the mountain.

They found Kanoko imprisoned in the barn in its courtyard.

Apparently, this barn was the hideout of the bandits behind the “Saint Hunt.”

Weiss and Leopin, who had been peering in at the scene from the barn entrance, devised a plan.

They carried out a surprise attack, charging in with the foot-pedal cart and using the confusion to snatch Kanoko away in one move.

They were one step away from making the rescue a complete success, but…

Their escape route was cut off by the new teacher who had chased after them.

In the end, Weiss and Leopin were captured as well.

Weiss and Leopin were separated from Kanoko, tied up, and rolled onto the ground.

The moment the bandits saw Leopin’s face, they raised voices of surprise.

“Hey… looking closer, isn’t this the brat from the slum chapel who was acting like a hero…!?”

“Seriously!? But we made him eat the mushroom, so why…!?”

“And this was a secret place even the guards couldn’t find! How did brats like these…!?”

The bandits grew murderous. However, the man who seemed to be the leader calmed everyone down.

“Well, don’t panic. The shipment is already finished, so we’ve got plenty of time to question them. Drinking while beating these guys up doesn’t sound bad either.”

The new teacher, who had been standing alone a little distance away, suddenly spoke to the leader.

“Um… may I ask something, I say? Are you the gardener who works at our mansion, I say?”

The man whose public face was a gardener and whose hidden face was the leader of the “Saint Hunt” bowed politely.

“I never thought the young master would come to a place like this when it isn’t even the season for using the villa. Are the wounds from the bee stings all right?”

“Yes, the swelling has gone down quite a bit, and soon the bandages will… Wait, that does not matter, I say! Why are you in our villa, I say?”

Then the leader raised his face in surprise and said, “Huh?”

“Young Master, didn’t you hear anything from Lady Mothers?”

“Huh? Mother?”

The leader pointed to the girl still tied to the chair, wriggling in the corner of the barn.

“Lady Mothers asked us to kidnap that Saint.”

“What!? Mother did something like that…!?”

“Yes. Apparently, she is one of the Hero’s favorites, so I suppose she wanted to curry favor with the Hero.”

“Th-that must be some kind of mistake, I say! My mother is a fine person who serves as the vice principal of an elementary school, I say! She would protect children, not kidnap them, I say!”

“Oh my, you didn’t know? This time, we kidnapped a Saint from a prestigious family, but usually we kidnap Saints from the slums and sell them off, you see? And the one in charge of it all is Lady Mothers. That’s why we’re being allowed to use the villa’s barn like this.”

“Th… that can’t be…!”

The Kanoko kidnapping incident.

At first, it had been thought that she had been mistaken for a slum Saint and caught up in the “Saint Hunt.”

But, unexpectedly…!

It had been arranged from the very beginning, and the mastermind was none other than… Vice Principal Mothers…!?