Leon stopped walking, the umbrella held steady above them both.
Jeanne, still clinging to his arm, tilted her face toward him. "What is it?"
He drew a long breath and smiled.
She's right, though. I keep overthinking things that don't need overthinking.
"What's wrong?" Jeanne glanced up at him.
"Nothing. Let's go." He shifted the umbrella toward her side. The softness pressing against his arm didn't escape his notice.
...
Thunder ripped across Orario's night sky, and the rain came down harder.
Puddles gathered in the seams of the cobblestones, glinting faintly in the dark. Boots hammered through them, splashing mud up past ankles and soaking through cloth and leather alike.
Two figures in black hooded cloaks stumbled through a labyrinth of back alleys, one after the other, until they ducked into a residential block half-buried behind overgrown hedges along a tree-lined avenue.
Their stamina was gone. Wet hair clung to their cheeks beneath the hoods.
"Laurier, I... can't..."
The white-haired elf girl's face, pale and exquisite even now, was carved with exhaustion and despair. Before she could finish the sentence, the last of her strength gave out. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed face-first into the bushes with a heavy thud.
"Ora!"
Her companion, who had escaped the dungeon prison alongside her, dropped to her knees. The golden-haired elf caught herself on her hands, palms sinking into the mud, chest heaving.
Then, from somewhere behind them, the broken rhythm of voices and the drumbeat of many footsteps.
The elf's body went rigid. Her pointed ears twitched, and the color drained from her face.
"Those damn slavers caught up again! Don't they ever quit?!"
Gritting her teeth, she hauled herself upright. Mud caked her from head to toe, but she didn't care. She grabbed her unconscious companion and tried to drag her further into the dark, desperate to keep running.
What she didn't notice, beneath a sprawling oak not far away, were two figures standing under an umbrella, watching the whole thing unfold. Through the curtain of rain, they were just visible: Leon and Jeanne, taking a shortcut home.
"Leon, those two girls..."
Jeanne's compassion ignited instantly. She moved to rush forward, but Leon's hand caught her arm and held her back.
Beneath his calm expression, his mind was already turning.
"Wait. Make sure it's not a setup. Could be a scam ring baiting marks. Orario's crawling with that kind of thing."
His caution made Jeanne anxious, practically vibrating in place.
Then the chaotic footsteps and coarse shouts drew closer:
"Search everywhere! They can't have gotten far! We haven't fed them in days. How much stamina could they possibly have? They're close!"
Leon and Jeanne exchanged a look. The picture was clear.
Slave traders. Not a setup. They're actually running for their lives.
A sickly flash of lightning tore the sky open, and in that instant of white light, the hoods fell away just enough to reveal their faces.
Elves?
Leon blinked.
Wait. I've seen them before. Those two beautiful elves from the Adventurer's Plaza a few days ago. How did they end up... He paused. Actually, if they're fresh off the boat, it all makes sense.
The whole story assembled itself in seconds. So they just arrived from some deep-forest elf settlement, walked straight into Orario's meat grinder with zero street smarts, got sweet-talked by slavers, captured, and now they've just barely managed to escape. And the slavers are right on their heels.
Two naive elf girls in the clutches of human traffickers, too weak to fight back?
In the space of a breath, Leon had reverse-engineered the entire plot of "Fugitive Elf Slave Girls" from beginning to end.
A sharp gleam lit his eyes. He glanced at Jeanne. "Jeanne. Save them."
"About time!" Before the words had fully left his mouth, she was already gone, launching into the rain like an arrow from a bowstring.
Elves, Leon thought, watching her vanish. And gorgeous ones at that. I need to recruit them into the Hart Familia, whatever it takes.
...
It's over. We're surrounded.
Laurier's keen hearing had already mapped out the enemy's approach from every direction.
Forget that she hadn't eaten in days and could barely stay conscious. Her companion had collapsed entirely and was dead weight on her back. Under these conditions, breaking through the search parties and escaping was a fantasy.
The thought drained the last light from her eyes. Her hands and feet went cold.
She'd given up. One last prayer to any god who might be listening, and then a figure burst from the hedgerow. Golden braids, steady stride, rain streaming off her shoulders.
"Are you all right? Give me your companion. Follow me."
"You..."
The rain and darkness blurred everything, but elven eyes were sharper than most. Laurier could make out the woman's face, and something happened she couldn't explain. The moment she saw her, she knew. This person wasn't a threat.
More than that. She felt like she was looking at someone she'd known a long time ago.
"You... who are..."
"Later. Let's lose them first."
"Th-thank you!"
Jeanne swung the unconscious white-haired elf onto her back in one smooth motion and took the lead, her footwork light and sure, guiding Laurier through the maze of alleys.
Would they leave a trail? In a downpour like this, any trace would be washed away in minutes.
And besides, Jeanne wasn't alone.
...
Not far off, still beneath the sheltering canopy of that great oak tree, Leon watched the three figures disappear from view.
The corner of his mouth curled upward.
Two elf beauties. One golden-haired, one silver. Good lord, did I actually get lucky for once?
He thought about Jeanne's hidden Luck stat and shook his head.
Who am I kidding? I'm riding her coattails.
Still, when he imagined the very real possibility of two stunning elves joining the Hart Familia, he couldn't help but grin.
Life is good.
He glanced toward the far end of the alley, where rain-soaked figures in cloaks were stumbling into view, lanterns swinging wildly, voices tangled with Orario's choicest profanity. He listened for a while, confirming that not a single one among them carried even a whiff of an Adventurer's aura, and let out a quiet scoff.
Then he turned and melted into the black, rain-soaked night.
...
...
Summer rain smothered Orario beneath a grey curtain. Water fell in sheets.
A cool breeze stirred the dense canopy of oaks, drawing out a long whisper of rustling leaves.
The tap of a boot on wet stone echoed softly along the quiet, tree-lined path. Leon walked alone under his broad black umbrella, and before long, the warm glow of lamplight filtered through the foliage ahead.
She's quick.
A small smile crossed his face, and he picked up the pace.
He stepped into the courtyard, turned back to bolt the gate, and only then did Jeanne appear in the doorway. The way she stood there, waiting, she looked like a wife greeting her husband home from the rain.
"The slavers?"
Leon ducked under the eaves, collapsed the umbrella, and shook the water off. He popped it open again and leaned it against the wall to dry.
"Relax. They didn't find a thing. Rain like this wipes out any evidence better than we ever could."
"You should have been more careful. What if they had some kind of special tracking magic or enchanted tools..."
Jeanne's caution ran deeper than his.
Seeing the worry in her eyes, Leon paused.
"I stuck around and watched. No Adventurers in the search party. No one using tracking tools or magic items."
He unbuttoned his black shirt, pulled it off, and tossed it into the wicker laundry basket.
"Grey-market outfit, and a sloppy one. Two elves without Falna broke out on their own. That tells you everything."
Jeanne's shoulders loosened. At least the pursuers weren't Adventurers. If they had been, the fallout would have been far messier. Especially since the escaped "merchandise" were elves, and rare ones at that. In front of the right nobleman, they'd fetch a fortune.
Leon peeled off his soaked trousers and boots, dropped onto the stone bench in nothing but his shorts, and swept his wet hair back.
"Two beautiful elf girls go missing, and they send a handful of grunts with no Adventurer backup? The boss doesn't know yet. These idiots are scrambling to fix it before anyone above them finds out."
Jeanne gathered his wet clothes into the basket. "Or they figured two starving girls couldn't get far."
"Could be. Doesn't matter now. This rain erases everything." He let out a dry laugh. "Either way, the whole operation screams newcomers. Anyone who's been in Orario long enough to make mistakes like this already got cleaned up by the Ganesha military police or Astraea Familia."
Jeanne snorted. "So by now the boss has probably gotten the news and is packing his bags."
"That's what I'd do."