Seirei Gensouki ~Konna Sekai de Deaeta Kimi ni~ (Volume 1)

Chapter 3: Kidnapping

Rio walked along the winding street before turning into a hidden path. The path led directly to the red light district.
Following the main road in the red light district, he saw many soldiers looking awfully busy.

The red light district's main street was located closer to the slums than the market and commoner district's main street.
When the day turned into night, the streets became overflowing with prostitutes and men trying to buy their bodies.
Sweet voices calling out and negotiations being made could be heard along the street.
Public order in the red light district was surprisingly good due to nobles being among the many customers soliciting the area's services.
Only upstanding brothels were permitted to operate in most of the Kingdom.
The few doing operating illegally situated their business near the slums.

Rio was heading to that part of town.
Upon arriving, the sounds of competition between legal brothels immediately ceased, replaced by an eerie silence. Not a single person could be seen.
It was in such a place that Rio was passing through.
There were no good feelings associated with that place.
It took him less than a minute to arrive in the slums.

"Get lost!"

Then, Rio bumped into trouble.
A little distance from him were four rough looking men wearing leather armour with cheap swords strapped to their waists.
The four men gave off the feeling of hoodlums.
An awful lot of noise was coming from the direction of the thugs. Two of the men were carrying large sacks on their shoulders.
One sack moved as if a large animal was inside.

"What're you doing!? Where're we going!? Who are you!? Let me out! Don't think things will end like this! Father won't forgive you! I'll send all of you flying!"

Glancing at the noisy bag and the appearance of the shady men, suspicion arose in Rio's mind.
The voice of a young girl could be heard from the noisy sack.

"Che— she regained consciousness. Shut up! Quit fussing around!"

Loud voices could be heard from the dubious quartet.
The bag instantly slightly shook and shriveled.

"Idiot! Watch your voice!"
"Ye-Yes. Sorry aniki."

The way the loud man was apologising suggested that aniki's position was quite high.
It seemed that aniki was also the group's leader.

"Che— for 10 gold coins this bag is awfully suspicious but this job is really profitable."

The one referred to as aniki frowned while clicking his tongue. Judging from his expression, the baggage was proving to be very troublesome.

"Hehe, but 10 gold coins is really an unbelievable reward. With just this, we can spend 10 months drinking and playing around with women."

All the underlings were smiling, their faces full of lust.
The leader was not disturbed at all.

In this country, one gold coin was enough to feed a common family for two months.
By the way, if he remembered correctly, the exchange rate for money was 100 copper coins for 1 silver coin, 50 silver coins for 1 gold coin, and 25 gold coins for 1 mystic coin.
"What kind of person's inside? Based on the size and weight, I'd say it's a girl."

Unable to contain his curiosity, one of the men carrying the sack asked the leader to check what was inside.

"Maybe it's a merchant or noble's daughter... Oi, open the sack!"

Curiosity getting the best of him, the leader displayed a vulgar grin and ordered the sack to be opened.

"Are you sure?"
"Hmph, that man never said we couldn't open the sack. And we need to find out if the contents are worth more than what we're paid for. We'll request another payment during the handover."