"I was looking for trouble, actually," While confirming this, he raised his hand and delivered a chop.
The chop was sharper than he imagined. In an instant, a line of blood appeared on the headscarf man's neck, and the man lost all movement.
Following that, Ash merely gave a gentle push, and the man's hand limpened and released, his body falling backward. When his head and torso hit the ground, they separated.
"Urgh... Y-You... You?"
Watching his companion's head roll to his feet, still spurting blood, the long-haired man fell into complete confusion, staring blankly at Ash who had walked up to him.
People working in a place like this should long be accustomed to violence, but a hand chop capable of this was far beyond his common sense.
He instinctively tried to draw his sword, only to realize that Ash hadn't seemed to move at all, yet his field of vision had suddenly undergone a earth-shaking change. He could even see his own headless body slowly collapsing.
However, Ash didn't even glance at him, silently continuing forward.
In the cells along the way, some had been dead for a long time, their corpses not yet disposed of. Just as he thought to look closer, a man's furious roar came from not far away:
"You little bastard! Shut your mouth or I'll kill you right now!"
Accompanied by the sound of fists and feet, and a girl's agonized screams.
When Ash stepped forward, a blonde girl with fox ears suddenly lunged at him, desperately reaching out both hands toward him.
Her eyes were tearful, her neat features twisted, clawing and screaming like a wild tiger, yet her gaze was clearly begging him for help. But her beautiful blonde hair was being viciously gripped by the man behind her, trying to pull her away from the bars.
"Get back here! Damn beast-race mongrel!"
The man roared, yanking the girl back by her hair with force, then without any mercy, prepared to punch her in the face.
But the sound of fist hitting flesh didn't come, Ash had grabbed his hand through the bars.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Hah? You brat, don't stick your nose in," The man, heedless of everything, was about to commit violence, even drawing his sword to slash the child when Ash let go, and in the process whipped his head around to glare viciously at the passing Ash.
But before he could even finish, he saw that although the other had released him, a single swing of the hand had shattered the iron bars completely, and in the next instant, he was right in front of him.
Before he could react, the man felt the world spinning, he had somehow fallen to the ground.
His hand gripping the blade felt as if it had been put into a hydraulic press, the pain so intense it could make anyone pass out instantly.
Only then did he realize in terror that he was being stepped on by this stranger. The hand that had been gripping the beast-girl's hair had somehow vanished, and his sword hand was still being heavily crushed underfoot, making him scream: "Urgh, Gah! S-Stop AAAAH!"
"...This kid probably told you to stop too, didn't she? Why didn't you listen?"
Ash, one foot on his chest and one still on his wrist, looked down at him expressionlessly and spoke slowly.
Though he asked, Ash didn't intend to get an answer.
After crushing his hand, amid the screams, he casually stomped a bloody hole through the man's chest.
"Humans... really are interesting," Glancing at the man whose chest had been stomped through but hadn't died immediately, still wide-eyed and coughing up blood, he turned his head with a sigh toward the blonde girl who had fallen to the ground after her hair was released.
When their eyes met, the child still seemed extremely uneasy, until Ash showed a gentle smile, reached out to stroke her hair, and said softly, "It's alright, I'm here to save you."
As he spoke, green light emanated from his hand.
The girl's neat features had been bruised, and if one looked closely, her body was covered in marks of bruising.
But as the light appeared, the girl's face returned to its original state, and the bruises and beating marks on her body also healed in an instant.
"Ah... th-thank you...", The sobbing girl stopped crying, staring at him blankly with a surprised expression.
But Ash only chuckled lightly, touched her ears, and turned to look at the other children huddled in the corner.
These children wore rather crude clothing, probably captured recently and not yet processed.
They had different beast ears. Besides the blonde girl behind him who looked eleven or twelve, there were four other girls and one boy.
Only one looked seven or eight; the others were all eleven or twelve.
The children's faces were filled with unease, and the bits of exposed skin showed more or less signs of having been beaten.
Some children were severely injured, with obvious knife wounds still bleeding; some had broken ribs, and one had a broken thigh.
Because of this, two children were still sobbing uneasily.
In this world, humans had no particular fondness for other races, even full of discrimination... Of course, this referred to most people, not all. Because those like Eris's family who liked beast-people were among the exceptions, and the sellers were those special groups.
Precisely because of this, these rather good-looking children hadn't suffered a more tragic fate. Not being violated was, in a sense, a stroke of luck amid misfortune.
If it had been human children, who aren't discriminated against by humans, they probably would have long ago.
After successfully rescuing these children and treating them.
Feeling it would be a bit improper to just leave, while collecting appropriate compensation... that is, petting these beast-ear girls, he also learned from the children.
These children had indeed been captured recently, precisely speaking, just yesterday while playing in the forest, they were unfortunately taken by slave traders.
As for how to get back, the children naturally didn't know, because everyone had been blindfolded when transported here.
This gave him a bit of a headache... Was he really going to have to be an orphanage director for a while?
"The smell of trouble, meow...", Among the children, there was a very feisty-looking cat-ear girl. When Ash stood up, she muttered quietly in Beast God tongue.
Seeing Ash about to walk out of the cell, the fox-ear girl hurriedly grabbed his hem, shaking her head pitifully at him, eyes reddening, on the verge of tears, "D-Don't leave us..."
"No... I wasn't thinking that."
"Big brother... smells like lies, meow...", The cat-ear girl wrinkled her small nose, sniffed at him, then grabbed his other hem.
"Alright, maybe I do find it a tiny bit troublesome... But what's this about smelling like lies?"
He turned his head with a pained expression, but no sooner had he told the truth than a group of children grabbed his hem.
The scene was like suddenly being in an intoxicating beast-ear girl kingdom... though there was also a shota among them, which somewhat restored his sanity.
"...Whatever. Anyway, you'll all come with me for now. Come outside with me, and be careful not to look around too much."
Like a parent forced to take a group of children on a spring outing, he sighed and silently walked ahead.
The children behind him needed no telling, they stuck close to him, afraid a slave trader might appear. However...
When they walked out of the cell, the scene outside was unexpectedly terrifying.
The slave traders had all been slaughtered. Corpses cut into pieces without any resistance lay scattered in every direction, it was practically an exposition of violence aesthetics.
And as they passed through the corridor, the sticky feeling on the ground was enough to make one's scalp tingle.
"...Sorry, I was too casual coming in and forgot to consider. You're still... after all..."
"N-No, it's fine!