“Eclair, you’re a straight arrow, so you probably can’t condone this, but these scumbags need to be punished appropriately. And I’m going to use the money that I make from selling them to get the Lurolona villagers back.”

“Ugh . . .”

Eclair groaned ruefully but showed no signs of taking any further action. After all, she knew that if we turned them over to the authorities they might end up getting off easy.

“Another thing, Eclair. This will set an example. Slave hunters will know what to expect if they try to attack the village again.”

The attacks would never stop if there was no real punishment worth speaking of. There were likely those that would come even with the risk of execution. But what if it meant getting caught, enslaved, and being abused? If we showed them that there were punishments worse than death in this world, then any slave hunter still considering coming to the village were sure to give up. Not to mention, the village was being protected by the Shield Hero.

“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia began.

“I’m doing this no matter how absurd you think it is, Raphtalia. I’m going to do whatever it takes to rescue your friends.”

Maybe she wouldn’t like living in a place that was built using dirty money. Sure, I wanted to save the day with honest money like the gallant hero of some novel, if possible, but I didn’t have the leeway to choose my means. The lives of the Lurolona slaves might very well have been in danger while we were here wasting time with this mess. Raphtalia believed in me and this was for her, too. Standing around waiting wasn’t an option, even if Raphtalia didn’t like the alternative.

“Bubba . . .”

Keel called out to me with uncertainty in her voice.

“Do you think less of me now? Either way, I’m the boss here. I appreciate your willingness to come forward and volunteer to fight in the coliseum, but right now you need to forget about that and focus on becoming stronger. Leave the dirty work to me.”

I turned my back to the slaves and took a step forward. That’s right. They didn’t need to get their hands dirty. They could leave that to me.

“This isn’t the time for you to be taking risks. You’re going to protect the village, right?”

“Yeah . . .”

In any case, I could probably make a good amount of money if I sold off this many slave hunters. It had been an unexpected hassle, but it worked out in our favor in the end.

I stood there, staring silently at the portal cool down time hovering in my field of vision.

Chapter Twelve: The Department Store

Chapter Twelve: The Department Store