Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

I kick open the door of the bar violently with Rebecca clinging to my arm.

In a bar of a rural town, there should be laborers who have finished their shifts, retired workers, and maybe wives who have argued with their husbands if lucky.

However, when I entered, all I could see were boorish guys, with the only normal person being the bar master who was taking rude orders from his customers in a cold sweat.

「Hehehe……she looks good.」

「Her tits ain’t bouncy, but her body’s hot. I wanna bang her till she foams at the mouth.」

The men glare and curse at me for making noise, while whistling and hurling vulgar remarks at Rebecca.

「Just like I thought, nothing but scum. They’re clearly all involved.」

「More importantly, please protect me!? If you leave me alone, I’m definitely going to fucked silly!」

Rebecca walks briskly to a table.

All the thugs’ eyes are glued to Rebecca’s boobs and ass.

「Hey, that girl’s nice. Wanna go?」

「If it was a scrawny little boy beside her, I would beat him up and take her for myself……」

The thugs whisper to each other, hesitating to take action because of me.

That’s when it happened.

A door to what seems to be the bathroom flings open, and an especially large man appears.

His tattoo-covered arm is grabbing a limp woman by her hair.

「Dammit, she passed out after just three shots. Here shopkeep, as promised I’m returning the girl I borrowed.」

「P-Pauline……how cruel……」

The shopkeeper catches the partially thrown girl in his trembling arms.

Her handmade apron is torn at the chest area, multiple bruises can be seen on her legs from where the skirt is flipped up, and a mixture of blood and nasty liquid is dripping from her crotch.

「Papa……uuu……」

The girl collapses to the floor crying, then chokes and coughs up more nasty liquid that was pumped into her throat.

Seeing that, the thugs cackle.

「Heh heh heh. Bro, you did it again?」

「You killed a farmer girl last time, it’s like you haven’t regretted it at all.」

The big man who is being referred to as ‘bro’ snatches a tankard of alcohol as the shopkeeper nurses after the girl, gulps down a healthy portion and tosses it on the floor.

「Don’t go smearing my good name. I loved her gently, she was just too thin and broke. If you have to blame something, blame my cock for being too big.」

After a disgusting laugh, he walks up to my table……more accurately, he walks toward Rebecca with his tongue hanging out.

「We got a fine jewel over here. I was right to finish with that skin-and-bones girl.」

Confident in himself unlike the other men, he pays no attention to me and approaches Rebecca.

Looking from the side, he’s two sizes bigger than me and easily over two meters tall.

His body is more or less muscular.

「Hey baby. You’re fine as hell, come to the washroom and lemme fuck ya.」

I brush away the man’s hand before it can wrap around Rebecca’s shoulder.

「Sorry bud, she’s mine. Can you not touch her with your dirty hands?」

The man casts a sharp glance at me.

Please, don’t notice.

And don’t get scared.

「Oh is that so……I did something bad then――huh!?」

The man pulls his arm back and takes a swing at my nose.

Oh, I thought he had one more thing to say, I didn’t expect him to suddenly punch me.

The sound of his fist sinking into my face rings throughout the bar, stopping everyone’s conversations.

I took the full hit. Not good, spending my time stamping papers has really dulled my movements.

「Yeah, be careful next time.」

To be courteous, I respond back to him and punch the man back in the pit of his stomach.

「Guh……ggh……go……」

He lifts his dirty fist away from my face.

The man staggers, clutching his chest as he dribbles gastric juice, then eventually knocks over a table and falls down.

「What? Is that it?」

I thought he was more agile than he looks, but he was actually not that strong.

「Bastard, don’t think you can get away scot-free――」

A man loses his temper, climbing on top of the table and scattering the food and wine before anybody could have a taste.

Hey, don’t put your foot on the table. Even my kid doesn’t do that.

I slam the edge of the table with one hand.

That was enough for the cheap yet heavy table to flip, knocking the little man off balance and spinning him in midair.

I grab his hair as he screams, carrying his dangling body like a mother cat carries her kitten.

「I won’t go free? Then how much will you give me?」

「H-how about one gold coin?」

Blinking innocently, the man meekly offers a hand holding the said coin.

If you’re giving it to me, I’ll take it.

After I accept the money, I throw the man out of the store.

He bounces on the ground once, making a nasty groan, and rolls outside.

I dust my hands off and survey the area.

Of course, everyone is staring menacingly at me, excluding the shopkeeper.

「What? Are the rest of you going to give me something too?」

「Don’t get cocky, punk.」

He takes a knife out of his pocket with a blade measuring 15 cm long.

「I’ll slice you up!」

He waves his knife from right to left, then left to right, but because the course is not in line to hit me, I don’t particularly react.

「H-huh?」

「Oh, are you playing around?」

When he swings his knife at my cheek, I simply tilt my head to the side and dodge it by a hair’s breadth.

With such a short knife, aiming somewhere other than the neck won’t kill me, what a weird guy.

「Hm?」

Next he thrusts at my jaw, but I keep the lower half of my body planted firmly and simply lean my upper body back to dodge.

With such a short blade, you won’t get sufficient reach by thrusting only with your arm.

「W-why can’t I hit him?」

He was threatening me over and over so I thought he was going to do something, don’t tell me that was his attack.

「How does he dodge with that big body?」

「I-I can’t see his moves……」

The others are also on the same level, huh?

Well, I guess that’s expected of a bunch of thugs.

「N-no more mercy! I’ll seriously kill y――eh?」

While he’s busy talking, I reach out and grab the back of the knife where it isn’t sharp, and snap the blade.

Brittle. If you’re going to be a thug, use something that’s a little higher quality.

「H-how about I give you three gold coins?」

He drops the knife and smiles nervously as he rubs his hands together.

If he insists, I’ll take it. Afterward, I broke his nose as easily as I snapped his knife.

Rebecca tugs my sleeve and whispers.

Looking at her again, she really is dressed lewdly.

「Infiltrating. We’re infiltrating.」

「Oh, right.」

I was going to intimidate them a bit and then try to find out about the slave trade by asking things related to profit-making, except my calculations went awry. How should I fix it?

「I guess I’ll have to half-kill everyone, search for the hideout, then infiltrate.」

「The infiltration has already failed. Let’s go home.」

As Rebecca gives up, the entrance door opens with a bang.

「How long are you guys gonna fool around!!? I told you to gather out front when the sun rises!!」

Everyone but us flinch from the angry yell.

The bar master and the sobbing girl also hide behind the counter, trembling.

Just as Rebecca’s brows furrow, a bright light gleams from her eye.

「That’s the head or an executive at the very least.」

I nod internally at her hushed voice.

The man also observes me.

He is the same height as me or slightly shorter. Although he is smaller both vertically and horizontally than the earlier large man, this guy is evidently stronger.

The man whose nose I broke pinches his bleeding nose and bends at the waist.

「I-I’m terribly sorry. Aldo, sir……t-this guy picked a fight.」

It seems I got called out, so I raise my hand to make it easy to identify who he’s talking about.

His gaze instantly sweeps from the weapon at my hip, to my physique, then lastly to Rebecca.

Unlike that big guy whose eyes were only glued to Rebecca’s ass and tits, the presence this guy gives off tells me the number of fights he’s been in is on a different level.

The man called Aldo turns back to his subordinate and stomps on the face of the man giving an excuse.

His broken nose is completely crushed and blood squirts out along with his breathing.

「Gue, higyii! Forgive, forgive me sir!!」

Aldo mercilessly tramples on the man’s head.

「Listen, insect! When you guys are late, the cargo transport is late! And when the transport is late, we lose profit! My profit and the boss’s profit goes down, don’t you get it!!?」

Rebecca’s eye gleams again.

After Aldo has had enough of stepping on the man who is holding his head and leaking blood from his nose, he stares at the fallen large man.

「The head bodyguard got knocked out so easily! How long are you going to lay there!? Get up!!」

Those around the big man, who had fallen on his back while clutching his chest, splash water on him and slap his cheek.

But he doesn’t respond.

「Geh! H-he’s dead!」

「You’re kidding……that was a punch by a bare hand.」

What, he died from something so trivial?

Rebecca glances at me as if I did something unnecessary.

I really didn’t mean to kill him.

I didn’t think a man two sizes bigger than me would die from a shot to the gut.

There’s a limit to how weak someone can be compared to their appearance.

My punch might have been filled with anger from seeing a woman being treated so horribly.

Anyways, that was just the kind of guy he was.

「You took out Lugo whose redeeming feature was his toughness with your bare hands? With a single punch?」

Aldo turns to me again.

For some reason, there wasn’t much hostility in his eyes.

Let’s answer honestly.

It was a brawl after all.

「I don’t know.」

「Don’t lie!! This guy hit――」

I grab the arm of the guy who starts spitting at me and break it in half.

「I whacked him because he messed with my woman, he’s the one who died on his own.」

Aldo snickers.

「I like you.」

He finishes the liquid in a tankard left on the table, then tosses the empty container on Lugo’s dead body.

「You’re probably a thug who heard rumors about us from Nari and came to promote yourself. Fine, I’ll hire you. You can replace the bug who kicked the bucket.」

「Yeah.」

I instinctively responded, thinking to myself that this progressed in a strange direction.

However Rebecca shows me the ‘OK’ mark with her fingers, so I guess this is fine.

「Your job is to transport the ‘goods’ and act as bodyguard. You get paid double what the smallfry get, and you get a bonus if you’re useful. Also……there are employee benefits. I’m sure you’ll love what we have in store.」

「That’s great. I look forward to working with you.」

I fold my arms internally while replying.

Even though this is to expose his wongdoings, I never expected to go from a slave to a king and now to a henchman of a criminal organization.

Celia and Nonna will definitely cry if they found out, I better keep this a secret.

Aldo and I are finished, but the other men seem baffled.

「S-sir, are you sure? Who knows where this guy comes from.」

「You’re telling me that there is a person with an upstanding background among you shits?」

I laugh internally at how dumb the question was.

「Didn’t a spy from the kingdom try to sneak in earlier――」

The degree of tension instantly spikes for me and Rebecca.

An infiltrator definitely went missing, if I remember correctly.

「Oh yeah, if a single woman came I also would have ripped her fingernails and made her spill the beans.」

I gently rub Rebecca’s back as she got goosebumps all over her body, and I sneakily trace a finger over her ass crack.

When I poke her hole, she glares at me.

Aldo points at me and laughs in a muffled voice.

「Nobody would send a spy who is so big and stands out so much. It’s common to either send sexy women or lean, effeminate men. Anyway, time is money. We’re picking up the goods.」

It seems like he hasn’t seen through me.

That was close.

「Ufun, looks like you’ll make some big money. Do your best.」

Rebecca sticks out her tongue, seeking a kiss.

I rub her uncovered shapely breasts and hug her.

「The top priority is to confirm the boss’s face and location. Next, find out where the goods――where the slaves are being collected. And if you can……」

「As a similarly high priority, I’ll find the captured spy, regardless of whether she’s dead or alive. 」

Rebecca mutters a thank you and licks my chin.

「Hey you, don’t flirt right after getting the position! I’ll let you do it as much as you want on a big clean bed after you do your job! Get moving!!」

The thugs follow Aldo in succession.

It’s not that they don’t have complaints about me, that’s just how scared they are of Aldo.

「Yeah, I’ll be right there.」

After making sure they all left, I handed the gold I received to the bar girl.

「Close the shop and use this to go into hiding. I’ll take care of things.」

「Eh?」

As she lifts her face, I steal her lips.

「I won’t do anything bad, could you tell me your name? I’m actually a warrior of justice.」