Suddenly, a booming voice echoed from down the left side of the street.
"SOOOOONNNN!!! WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS!!!"
It was the baron—more precisely, his father. Charging toward them like a rabid dog on three cups of espresso and five energy drink.
Meanwhile, Saruto didn't even glance back as he ran. "Uhh, sorry, but I don't plan on receiving any punishment!—Huff! " His tone was rude, unapologetic, and somehow cheerfully defiant.
Elena sprinted alongside him, gliding effortlessly. "Like Y'master said~ as his personal maid, I can't follow your orders, M'lord~" (M'lord = My Lord)
Below them, Riot was being dragged by the foot, flailing like a ragdoll caught in a violent river current.
"OOF! ACK! STOP IT!! OKE! BWF! GYAH! YOU'RE KILLING ME!!" He thrashed violently as the cobblestones seemed to punch him repeatedly.
"I didn't sign up for this!!!" Riot shouted. But Saruto and Elena ignored him entirely. Even the baron's furious sprint seemed to register him as background noise.
Swoosh!
Ranning past buildings. Dust. Sweat. Chaos. And as if someone is currently being beaten by the ground itself.
"Sooo~ Y'master, where are we going~?" Elena asked, not even breathing hard, her tone teasing as if this were a casual stroll, still gripping Riot legs.
Saruto wheezed hard, chest rising and falling. "If—hah—you're gonna get—huff—homesick, then don't—haaah—come with me!"
"We're—huff—leaving this town—haah—temporarily!" He forced the words out between gasps, legs burning.
Then he remember something.
He's currently in Crowbar Guy body, back when his body hadn't developed yet.
Just a lazy noble brats.
'You've got to be fucking kidding me! No wonder I'm almost dead after a few minutes of running!' Saruto thought, each step exhausting, reminder of his current weaknesses.
His lungs burned. His pride burned more. And behind them, the baron's voice thundered again, promising hell on earth the moment he caught up.
Riot's screams echoed behind them like a chorus of pure, unfiltered suffering, but neither him and her spared this poor guy a glance.
The market street exploded with noise the moment they burst in.
Stalls rattled, baskets toppled, and every fruit in the kingdom seemed determined to roll directly under Saruto's feet.
A butcher waved his cleaver furiously. "HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE RUNNING, YOU MANIACS!"
A vegetable vendor nearly cried as his stand collapsed. "MY CABBAGES—! I mean, my turnips!"
Another merchant ducked as Riot's flailing leg smashed through his basket. "THIEF!—Wait, never mind, just that idiots again!"
The three tore through the chaos like a runaway parade of bad decisions.
Riot's body scraped across the cobblestones as Elena dragged him by the leg, while Saruto crashed shoulder-first into a crate of apples-pie that exploded like cannon fire.
"Move, peasants! Noble business!" he gasped between breaths, but the only thing noble about it was how pathetically he stumbled after each collision.
A baker threw a loaf at his head. "Noble business my ass! Pay for that pie you just stepped on!"
Another merchant hurled a broom. "Get outta the way! They're wreckin' everything! What are the guard doing?!"
The guards, of course, were already being flattened by the stampede of market-goers fleeing the chaos. Chickens flapped into the air. Someone screamed about a missing hat. A baby started crying.
The entire street turned into one long disaster of noise and motion.
Saruto was losing strength fast, panting so hard he sounded like a wheezing flute.
"Elena! Carry me—haah—and leap through the building!"
Elena let out a long, theatrical sigh, voice trembling with exaggerated misery. "Fooo~ fooo~ can't believe Y'master made his poooor maid do all the work…"
But her eyes sparkled mischievously as she reached for him.
The next second, Saruto was yanked upward so hard he thought his spine just filed for divorce.
His breath caught in his throat. "GAHH—!"
Elena hoisted him effortlessly, one arm under each of their bodies, Riot still dangling like a sack of potatoes. Her slim frame hid a strength that didn't made sense, making Saruto thought an gorilla did that.
"Hold tight, Y'master~ and you too, noisy baggage~" she sang sweetly.
Her feet slammed into the stone floor, heel finding perfect footholds readying to leap high.
From behind them came a furious roar, the baron's voice echoing through the street full of crowd blocking his way.
"ELENA! DON'T YOU DARE!!!"
Elena's lips curved into a grin. "Too late, M'lord~"
Manwhile Riot flailed helplessly over her shoulder, shouting, "WAIT—WAIT—WAIT, I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!"
Then...
BOOM!
His words stretched into a panicked howl the instant they left the ground, "AHHAAAA!!"
She launched upward in a blur, leaving a dust trail and a sound of terrified bystanders screaming:
"WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS?!"
"DID SHE JUST RUN UP THE WALL?!"
"SOMEONE CALL THE EXORCIST!"
In one leap, they vanished quietly over the rooftops, leaving the market behind in complete chaos. fruit rolling, people arguing, and one poor merchant still screaming about his turnips.
Finally, they escaped the baron's grasp.
Saruto collapsed face-first onto the dirt road, arms spread wide, gasping like a dying fish.
"Seriously… how is this body so weak…!" he muttered between ragged breaths. Each inhale sounded like a small crime against dignity.
His once-luxurious clothing — the kind that screamed money and arrogance — was now smeared with dust, mud, and a faint trace of fruit pulp from the market disaster.
Elena crouched beside him, her tone playful and far too cheerful for someone who had just outrun a noble. "Awww~ look at my cute Y'master breathing so heavily~"
Then her voice shifted slightly...
Soft, lilting, and just a bit unsettling. "I could teach you one of my family's breathing techniques~ but…"
she leaned closer, eyes half-lidded, "…it will require a teeny-tiny-bit of intimacy~"
Her breath was slow, deliberate, and absolutely not the kind of heavy breathing born from exhaustion.
Saruto stared up at her blankly, still too tired to lift his head. 'That doesn't even sound like a good thing at all?!'
He finally turned his head to the side...
And there lay Riot, sprawled out like a broken mannequin, completely unconscious. His entire body looked like it had just lost a fight with gravity, cobblestone, and emotional unstability all at once.
Saruto blinked. "…Oh geez, what even is that?"
His face form somewhere between disgust, pity, or total flat expression from pure absurdity of the whole situation. Like a man debating whether to help or just pretend he didn't see it.
Then he froze mid-breath...
Eyes widening as a sudden thought slammed into his brain like divine punishment.
Instantly sitting up on the knees. his hands shot up, gripping his head.
Opening his mouth, hes...
"SHIIITTT! I forgot the necessity!" he screamed toward the sky, voice echoing across the empty hillside like a man realizing he left the stove on after moving countries.
Elena, perfectly calm, brushed dust off her maid skirt and said in her usual melodic tone, "No worries~ I already packed both money and your clothing, Y'master~"
Saruto blinked once again, turning to her with visible confusion. "Huh??? SINCE WHEN?!"
She only smiled sweetly, tilting her head with that soft, teasing expression. 'Ara-ara~ He's so cute as always…'
Without saying a word, she lifted one finger to her lips, a silent, "Shh..." gesture that somehow answered nothing and everything at once.
Then from the side, Riot suddenly sat up, bruised and half-conscious, his voice cracking like broken glass. "Hey!! What about me?!"
*
To be continued...
____________________
Synchroni██: █████
(Location: They are currently at the outer gate, that have a engraved name on top of it; Firstdella. an wall entrance protecting from the wilderness filled with monster.)