"Lizbeth, Claire!"
Before charging forward, I called out to Lisbeth and Claire, and they immediately understood and sprang into action.
The females following me closely pursued.
The moment I saw Lisbeth pull the man's wrist away from the shop assistant and immobilize him, I kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying.
"Wh-what...!? Ugh!!!" The man flew like a kite with a broken string, tumbling across the ground in the distance.
The man, limp on the ground, could no longer get up.
"Uh, uh...?"
"Come on. It's alright. Let me see your face, okay?"
Claire sat down in front of the shop assistant, tending to her swollen cheek.
After handing the dazed shop assistant over to Lisbeth and Claire, I approached the collapsed man.
That bastard... he clearly had a snake fang emblem on the back of his hand...? "Hey, you bastard, get up... huh?"
...This guy's dead.
Oh my god.
Another death!
"It's not this madman... he died from just one kick..." ...No, he really deserved to die, right?
They say being kicked by a horse can be fatal on the spot, let alone a walking horse galloping over and kicking someone.
Tsk. But why do I feel so relieved? Because I feel no guilt, but rather a vague unease.
"...Sigh."
Oh well, whatever. It seems the Serpent's Fang emblem is indeed correct.
I heard that most of the guild members have been arrested and become criminals for various incidents, what could possibly happen from killing this guy?
...But why is this bastard in Ladia?
"Master. They say this guy is a loan shark who came here to collect debts."
"...A loan shark?" Lisbeth, who was listening to the shopkeeper's account when I brought in the man's body, told me the deceased's identity.
"Hmm. And this building and this adult store—looks like they're all owned by Viper's Fang."
"What? Aren't they the guys who operate in the capital? This is their territory?"
They couldn't just leave the body outside, so they went into the adult store, placed the body in a corner, and demanded a detailed explanation from the clerk.
They went into what seemed to be a staff break room and spent over ten minutes reassuring the trembling clerks that everything was alright.
The clerks were initially terrified, their faces turning pale and their bodies shaking. As time passed, the trembling subsided, and they began to stammer an explanation.
"Th-that person was one of the debt collectors here..." Listening quietly to their story, I learned that several members of the Viper's Fang organization were involved in loan sharking in Ladia.
Forced to borrow money at exorbitant interest rates for various reasons, they ended up borrowing from these people.
A wave of regret washed over me—'Oh God, I actually helped loan sharks?'—but after hearing their story, I realized they were incredibly pitiful women.
Some were raising money for their families' medical expenses, some were burdened with debts from deceased parents, some had been unjustly scammed… They weren't borrowing money for pleasure or luxury, but were driven to the point where they couldn't survive without taking out high-interest loans.
The corpse outside and its accomplices cleverly used these loan sharks as a starting point to exert pressure… ultimately forcing them to work in adult shops and the sex industry.
The loan interest rates were too high to repay, and under constant threat, they were forced to take on the assigned jobs.
The shop assistant who was grabbed by the hair today said it was because she hadn't met her monthly quota, so the now-corpse-turned-collection manager outside came looking for her.
She was supposedly dragged to the building next door and forced to perform sexual acts in the pub run by these guys.
Although they were already forced to sell their bodies… being forcibly dragged away like this would cause irreparable trauma—the shop assistants trembled and began to sob.
Oh, these bastards… not only do they evade taxes, but they've done all sorts of evil things.
"...But weren't these bastards supposed to be finished? Why are they still active?"
"Maybe they haven't received the notification yet?...Or are they in a location where they can't receive the notification?"
"...Illegal adventurers?" If these guys are illegal adventurers, sneaking into Radia to run a loan shark operation...then, they probably haven't received the notification that they're finished—I suddenly thought of that possibility.
These sons of bitches, criminals now doing this kind of loan sharking?
...No, isn't it precisely because they're criminals that they're running a loan shark operation?
"Um...what's the interest rate?"
"It varies from person to person...mine is 30% per month..." 30% per month!?
Not an annual interest rate, but a monthly interest rate!?
These bastards, they're truly a bunch of scum and degenerates!
"...Where are the others? In the building next door?"
"Ah? They should be there...but you'd better leave quickly...calling the police won't do any good..." That's impossible.
If we leave these brats alone, who knows what they'll do next.
Besides… even though we'd only met once, seeing the state of those women I knew, how could I just let it go?
While I still don't understand how things turned out this way, the shop assistants had indeed served my penis.
These women I'd had that kind of experience with, I can't just leave them alone.
"Don't worry. I'm a divine beast who's even met the king, and this Kleia beside me is a dignified saintess. Even if these brats have powerful backers, they're nothing to worry about."
The lord doesn't seem like that kind of person, but even if these brats have the lord as their backer, they pose no threat to Kleia, the saintess.
Then what's there to worry about? These brats are doomed.
"Liz. Kleia. Are you alright?"
"Aha. As long as Master wishes♡"
"As Master desires. Please don't worry♡"
And so, I led Lisbeth and Kleia into the building next door to the adult store.
"…Help me…Master Divine Beast…" one of the four I'd beaten cried, blood trickling from his swollen mouth.
As I kicked open the door to their office, the four who were drinking quickly assessed the situation and pounced on me… Though they attacked willingly, these guys were much weaker than I'd expected, easily subdued with
Claya's blessing and Lisbeth's assistance.
…No, a one-on-one fight would have been quite difficult. It seems my two females' support capabilities far exceed expectations.
Lisbeth, binding the opponent and launching fireballs to restrain them.
Claya, granting me a buff that made my body lighter than before.
With these two's help, I didn't even need to dodge or defend; I could just keep punching these guys.
Although they briefly resisted with their aura, they were quickly turned to mush by my powerful punches.
"You bunch of scum. Don't you know your guild is finished? Still so arrogant?"
"H-How could that be..." They really didn't know. Right, otherwise they would have hidden their crests long ago.
"Hey. You bunch of illegal adventurers, aren't you? Your guild in the royal capital is finished, and Bivora's dead too. You little brats."
At my words, the four of them turned deathly pale, shaking their heads like rattles.
"I-We're not illegal adventurers! No, compared to that guild, it really collapsed! Our guild's finances were so strong...!"
"That Bivora guy provoked us, and the entire guild disintegrated in mid-air. Don't you recognize our Claire's face?"
When I pointed to Claire standing behind them, the four of them shuddered as if suddenly realizing something.
"Ugh, could it be…"
"Nun…she said Big Brother should handle it himself if he can…"
"Big Brother…no, Guild Master, are you saying he's dead? Heh…well, if these guys had seen Claire wandering around Ladia alone, things could have been really bad."
"That's right. He's dead. And Claire has become a Saintess. You didn't know because Ladia hasn't officially announced it yet, right? Now you understand the situation? Upon hearing the news of her becoming a Saintess, the group's faces turned deathly pale.
"So, you illegal adventurers were able to run rampant in Ladia…someone gave you preferential treatment, right? Who was it?"
The four criminals exchanged glances, speechless.
"These bastards.
What are they plotting?" "Hey, hey. Haven't you guys figured out the situation yet? Only those who can spill some valuable information will survive, right? If we're handing you over to the lord's city now, you're basically going to be executed if you're just dragged away like this, aren't you?"
"Baron B. Brandy! The nobleman who controls the entertainment industry in Radia!" Sure enough. I had a feeling the lord was unlikely to be the one.
Although he was soaked in exhaustion, he looked like a kind-faced middle-aged man. He didn't seem like the type to back you up.
"Is that so? Since you've spilled one piece of information, I'll put in a good word for you when you hand him over to the lord. Don't you have anything else to say?"
After I scoffed and threw out those words to sway them, the group of guys who had been staring blankly at each other all raised their hands.
"I...I can reveal our infiltration route!"
"Our adult toy business was just a front; actually, we hid drugs in those adult toys...!"
"The secret funds we raised for the Royal Capital Guild were actually...!"
"The...the drinks sold in the tavern downstairs were all watered down...!" These little brats are really desperate to survive.
Whether you live or die is none of my business. Since the saintess personally arrested these criminals, the lord will naturally handle them properly.
But...why all this? It's quite a sweeping distribution of punishment.
I simply recorded their crimes, dragged them out, and handed them over to the lord's city.