“That voice, that nasty attitude… Are you the crab noble!?”
“It’s Marcos Bolg! Geez, so you’re the ones patrolling on the other side? Just my luck, having to meet scum like you in a place like this.”
Yuugo looked on at Marcos with a weary expression, because he had not changed at all since their first encounter a few days before.
Marcos then ignored Yuugo, who was exasperated at how Marcus acted as though nothing happened and spoke to him with an air of superiority, despite suffering such humiliation during their duel. Instead, he used the flaming ball on the palm of his hand to illuminate Melt, creepily looked at her from top to bottom, and spoke.
“Hohou. Your body and face aren’t so bad. I like you. Hey, how about you ditch Yuugo and hang with me instead? I’m Marcos Bold, the eldest son of the Bolg family! I could take you as a concubine, depending on your attitude! How about you start buttering me up while you can?”
“Face and body…! There’s no girl out there that would be happy to be spoken to that way! But if you’re really the eldest son of a nice family, why did you accept a quest like this?
Are you actually in need of money like us?”
“Uguh…! S-shut up! It’s just that my parents found out I lost that duel, and took away my allowance. Normally I don’t have to work like this or face any hardship like… Enough of that! A vulgar woman like you has too low a status for me anyway!”
The ulterior motives of Marcos’ proposal were too blatant for it to carry any weight in the first place, but after being flatly rejected by Melt, Marcos yelled with his face bright red after being made to remember the humiliation from a few days ago.
The quick turnabout reminded Yuugo of the story about sour grapes, but he figured this was no time to get into that, and asked Marcos a question.
“Sorry to interrupt while you’re being rejected, but you came here from the other side, right? Did you see the passengers?”
“No, none. And judging by what you’re saying, I’m assuming the same goes for you. I guess even impudent foolish scum like you wouldn’t miss the passengers. That means…”
“They’ve all disappeared? All the people aboard this train?”
The tunnel had two entrances. Yuugo and Marcos entered the tunnel from opposite directions, but neither passed anyone on the way to where the train was abandoned.
Where did the passengers go? They seemed to have disappeared like smoke.
Yuugo and Melt were both baffled by this mystery, but Marcos snorted, and spoke.
“Well, it’s fine. My subordinates are investigating the front of the train as we speak. Don’t mess anything up, and just stand there silently and watch.”
“We can’t just stand and watch. We need to report this to the guard station and ask for instructions.”
“Exactly. But it’s hard to get in contact inside the tunnel, so we should head outside and…”
“Wait! Why are you reporting? We got here first! If you two report it, you’ll steal the credit!”
“Is this any time to care about that? A group of people is missing! This is an emergency! Are you really going to fight over credit… Hn?”
As Marcos tried to stop Yuugo and Melt from reporting, and Yuugo argued back with a serious face, his expression changed.
He began to look around as if looking for something, and Melt, feeling curious about the sudden change, asked him why.
“What’s wrong, Yuugo? Did something happen?”
“…I’m pretty sure I just heard a kid’s voice nearby.”
“I think you misheard it. I didn’t hear anything.”
“No, I definitely heard it. From this way.”
“Ah! Yuugo, wait!”
Yuugo followed his senses and jumped out of the carriage, before heading to the front of the train, with Marcos and Melt running after him.
Melt rushed after him, and saw him point the magic energy knife at a cavity in a ditch next to the track, as he looked for who made that sound with a serious expression on his face.
“…There!!”
“No way! R-really!?”
Eventually, Yuugo yelled when he reached a certain point, and crouched.
Melt rushed to go to him, and gulped as she saw Yuugo shaking a girl whose body was covered in mud.
“…Thank goodness, she’s breathing. She’s just unconscious.”
“There really was someone… Good job hearing that, Yuugo.”
“No matter how quiet, heroes always listen to voices crying out for help.”
Melt had no idea what Yuugo was talking about, but at least she understood that he did not just imagine the voice of the girl calling for help.
Melt watched and illuminated them with a knife of magic energy, and the girl woke up, responding to Yuugo’s voice.
“H-hm… Ah!? Aaah…! No! Noo!!”
“Calm down, we’re on your side. We’re here to help. It’s all right, you can relax… Okay?”
“Uu, ah… Are you here to save Mina?”
“That’s right? So you’re Mina? I’m Yuugo, Yuugo Clay. This is Melt Epee. We came here to help because we heard the train stopped inside the tunnel.”
“Train…! Y-yes…! Mom…!!”
The girl… Mina, panicked soon after waking up, but thanks to Yuugo assuring her that they were on her side, she saw them as friends.
But then she seemed to remember what happened in the train, and she became scared again, with tears in her eyes.
“Were you on that train, Mina? I know you’re scared, but can you tell me what happened?”
“…They were taken. Mom, and everyone else, were taken by monster armored beasts…”
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We are at the start of chapter 5 of the manga!
….
Hey.
.
I know amnesiac’s are appealing to take advantage of, but isn’t she too young?
Those guys have some screws loose.