In the curtain of rain, Ronan stopped walking with the umbrella still in his hand.
Jeanne, who was holding his arm, turned to look at him in confusion.
He took a deep breath and smiled.
"I was thinking too narrowly... I really was missing the bigger picture. So that's what it means."
He had been trapped by his own assumptions. He had treated his own knowledge as something absolute.
Luckily, Jeanne had pointed it out. Otherwise, he might not have realized it until after making a mistake.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing him suddenly go quiet, Jeanne could not help asking.
Ronan laughed and shook his head. With Jeanne still holding his arm, he answered:
"It's nothing. Let's go."
Boom!
Thunder tore across Orario's night sky, and the rain grew even heavier.
Puddles spread across the flat stone road, reflecting faint light in the darkness.
Clack, clack!
Short boots stepped quickly through the puddles. Muddy water soaked through shoes, socks, and robes in an instant.
Two exhausted figures in black hooded cloaks staggered through the maze-like alleys. At last, they slipped into a residential area hidden by thick green plants beside a tree-lined path.
They were almost out of strength. Wet hair stuck to their cheeks beneath their hoods.
"Lorie, I... I can't keep going..."
Aura's pale face was full of exhaustion and despair. Before she could finish, the last of her strength gave out. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into the bushes with a dull thud.
"Aura!"
Seeing her companion fall, Lorie's legs also gave out. She dropped to the ground, bracing herself with both hands against the muddy road as she gasped for breath.
Just then, faint voices and hurried footsteps drifted over from the distance. Lorie instantly tensed up in fear. Her pointed ears twitched, and her face turned pale.
"Damn slave traders, they caught up again! They just won't give up!"
She gritted her teeth and forced herself back to her feet. Ignoring the mud all over her clothes, she struggled to pull up her unconscious companion Aura, trying to keep moving.
What Lorie did not notice was that beneath a nearby oak tree, two figures under an umbrella had seen everything.
It was Ronan and Jeanne, taking a shortcut home through the rain.
"Ronan, those two girls..."
Jeanne's sympathy rose at once. She was about to step forward, but the calm Ronan caught her arm and stopped her.
Even though something stirred in his heart, his face remained composed.
"Wait a second. Let's make sure this isn't an act. It could be a trap or some kind of setup. That's not unusual in Orario."
Ronan's caution only made Jeanne more anxious.
Then hurried footsteps and rough voices came even closer.
"Find them! They can't have gone far! They haven't eaten in days. How much strength could they still have? They must be nearby!"
Ronan and Jeanne exchanged a look. They both understood immediately.
"Slave traders? Then they really aren't acting. They're actually running for their lives," Ronan thought.
At that moment, a flash of lightning tore through the night sky.
For a split second, the rain lit up their faces beneath the hoods.
"Elves?"
Ronan was genuinely surprised.
"They are... right, I remember now. Aren't they the two elves I saw at the entrance plaza a few days ago? How did they end up like this... wait, if they're complete beginners, then it makes sense."
"If I had to guess, they left some elf village deep in the forest and came all the way to Orario to see the world. Then, because they had no experience, they were tricked by slave traders, managed to escape by luck, and now they're being hunted down."
"Two inexperienced elves falling into the hands of slave traders and barely managing to break free..."
In just a few moments, Ronan had already pieced together a rough guess.
"This really happened right in front of us."
A sharp light flashed in Ronan's eyes. He gave Jeanne a look.
"Jeanne, save them."
"I should have done that from the start!"
Before he even finished speaking, Jeanne had already rushed out.
"And if they need a place to stay afterward, the Veyr Familia can offer one."
"It's over... we're surrounded."
With her keen hearing, Lorie could already tell the pursuers were closing in.
She had not eaten in days and was dizzy from hunger. On top of that, Aura had already fainted. In that condition, there was no way they could break through and escape.
Thinking of that, the light in Lorie's eyes dimmed. Her hands and feet felt cold.
Just as despair was swallowing her and she began silently praying to the gods, a blonde figure suddenly rushed out of the bushes.
"Are you alright? Give your companion to me. Follow me."
"You..."
The rainy night was dark, but Lorie's natural elf senses allowed her to clearly see Jeanne's face.
She froze for a moment.
For some reason, the instant she saw Jeanne, she felt that this person would not hurt her.
There was even a strange sense of reassurance.
"You... you are..."
"We can talk later. First, we need to get away from them."
"Th-thank you!"
Jeanne lifted the unconscious Aura onto her back and led Lorie away with quick, steady steps, disappearing from the area in moments.
Would they leave any clues behind?
Not in this rain.
A few minutes of this weather would wipe everything clean.
And besides, Jeanne was not acting alone.
A short distance away, Ronan stood hidden beneath a thick tree, still holding the umbrella.
After watching the three girls disappear completely, the corners of his mouth slowly lifted.
Two elves, one blonde and one silver-haired.
This encounter really was unexpected.
Then he thought of Jeanne's absurd good luck and shook his head.
"I'm overthinking it. I'm obviously just benefiting from Jeanne's luck again."
Still, the thought that those two elves might end up joining the Veyr Familia made him grin.
"Perfect."
He glanced toward the panicked figures appearing at the far end of the alley in raincoats and carrying magic stone lamps. Listening to their rough speech mixed with Orario slang, he quickly confirmed that none of them gave off the feeling of adventurers.
After that, he gave a quiet scoff and slipped back into the rainy darkness.
The midsummer night was covered by a gray curtain of rain.
The cool wind made the large oak tree rustle softly.
Step.
His boot stepped through a puddle and onto the wet stone road. The sound echoed faintly through the quiet path.
Ronan walked alone under the large black umbrella. From a distance, he could already see warm light glowing through the leaves.
Jeanne had moved quickly.
He smiled to himself and picked up his pace.
By the time he entered the small courtyard and locked the gate behind him, Jeanne had already heard him and come to the door.
She was standing there waiting for him.
"What about the slave traders?"
Ronan walked under the eaves, closed the umbrella, shook off the water, then opened it again and leaned it somewhere dry.
"Don't worry. They found nothing. In rain this heavy, any trace would have been washed away almost immediately."
"You still should have been more careful. What if they had some special method, or some magic item..."
Even after hearing that, Jeanne still sounded cautious.
Knowing she was worried, Ronan paused for a moment before answering.
"I watched them for a while. None of them were adventurers, and I didn't see any suspicious behavior or magic items either."
He quickly unbuttoned his soaked black shirt, took it off, and tossed it into the laundry basket nearby.
"My guess is that they're just the hired muscle of some underground merchant group. And the group itself probably isn't very capable. You can tell from the fact that they let two elves without Falna escape so easily."
Only then did Jeanne relax a little.
At least those scumbags were not adventurers. If they had been, the situation would have been far more troublesome.
Especially since what they saw as escaped merchandise was two elves.
If they had really been smuggled out of Orario and sold to the wrong kind of noble, the price would probably have been outrageous.
After taking off his wet pants and boots, Ronan sat down on a stone stool after stripping off his soaked outer clothes and let out a cold laugh.
"You know, these were two young elves. If it were me, I'd never give up on something that valuable once it went missing. But the truth is, that merchant group didn't even send adventurers after them. Just a bunch of ordinary men."
He brushed back his wet black hair, amusement flickering in his eyes.
"I bet the one in charge doesn't even know yet that his men made such a mess. Otherwise, why would he only send a group of nobodies like that?"
Jeanne picked up the basket of wet clothes, already thinking about laundry, and guessed:
"Or maybe they thought the girls couldn't run far, so they got careless and didn't take it seriously?"
"That's possible too. But either way, it's too late now. This rain buried everything."
"And judging by how sloppy they were, that merchant group is probably new to Orario. If they'd been around longer, they wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake."
At that, Ronan laughed.
"After all, the idiots who make those mistakes usually end up getting caught by the Ganesha Familia's military police or by the Astraea Familia."
Jeanne laughed too.
"So that's why you called them newcomers?"
"Exactly. By now, they've probably already heard the news, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting ready to run before things get worse."