Three men looked at the children. On their faces was a disgusting grin, as if they had obtained a treasure. The children, upon seeing their grins, instinctively felt fear. When Eugene looked at them, he could understand what was going on. (Child traffickers… But how did they get here? Even though there are bandits outside the town, for them to come this far inside… there must be someone in the city helping them.) While Eugene was thinking about how the traffickers had come here, the ugly-faced one among them began to speak.
"The information we were given is really true. So many children gathered here…" In the middle of his sentence, the man turned to Lily and licked his lips with his tongue. "For there to be such a beauty among them, haha, we must be in our lucky day."
When Lily saw the man looking at her and licking his lips, she was so scared that tears began to fall from her eyes.
Standing to the right of the ugly man, another trafficker with a deep voice spoke. "Hey, stop those stupid thoughts. Obviously, the one who will bring the highest price—"
"Come on, there's no harm in having a little fun. And as long as we don't wear her out too much, we can sell her for a high price anyway."
Hearing the conversation between the men, the children began to cry, and just as they were about to shout for help—
The man with a scarred face standing to the left of the ugly man spoke. "Brats, don't you dare even think about shouting. If you shout, we'll kill you." The children were so affected by what the man said that they covered their mouths to muffle the sounds of their crying. But Eugene could understand that these words were a bluff. The reason was simple. (The chance of them killing the children they were taking such a risk to abduct just because they shouted was impossible. But it was impossible for little children to think of this.)
With a frown on his face, Eugene looked at Loirenn. Loirenn's face was stricken with terror. Never in his life having witnessed such a scene, the child didn't know what to do out of fear. Eugene slowly approached Loirenn and whispered into his ear.
"Loirenn, listen to me carefully. You are a star, so focus all your mana into your legs and run straight to the town center. They won't be able to catch you. When you reach the town, report directly to the guards—they'll act immediately."
Lorienn was shocked by what Eugene had said.
"I can't do it. How can I escape alone? Besides, didn't he say they would kill us if we tried to escape?"
"There's no chance they'll kill us. They're taking this risk to abduct us; they can't just kill us too."
"Even so…"
Lorienn clenched his hands; the thought of escaping alone frightened him. Eugene could understand this fear of Lorienn's—after all, even if leaving everyone behind and running away wasn't something easily done, right now they had no choice.
"Lorienn, you're the only one who can do this here. I trust you, so trust yourself."
Lorienn looked at Eugene's face; his eyes were fixed on him. In his gaze there wasn't the slightest hesitation. There was trust in those eyes directed at Lorienn. After a short breath, Lorienn spoke.
"Alright, I'll do it. But how will I find an opportunity?"
"Leave that part to me. You just run with all your strength when you get the signal."
Before Lorienn could ask what the signal was, Eugene shouted—
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" While all the children and bandits looked at him in surprise, Lorienn understood that this was the signal. He directed all his mana to his legs. His feet glowed yellow as he ran with all his might, without looking back even once. While the men were in shock at this sudden turn of events, the first to come to his senses was the scarred man.
"DAMN IT!!!" The man cursed in a furious voice, approached Eugene, and began punching him in the face. "YOU LITTLE BASTARD, AREN'T YOU AFRAID OF DYING?!" Because of the punches, Eugene's lip began to bleed. The one who calmed the scarred man was the deep-voiced bandit.
"Hey, that's enough. If you hurt the kid too much, his value will drop. We need to hurry anyway. That runaway elf kid has probably gone to inform the guards. We need to get out of here before they arrive."
The scarred man scowled and spat to the side. The events had greatly angered him. He turned to Eugene with a disgusting grin. "You little bastard brat, I can't wait to sell you to the worst man I can find. I hope you get treated like shit." Eugene kept his face lowered, thinking about his next move.
The ugly-faced man turned to his friends. "Let's go, there's no point in wasting more time." After a pause, he turned back to the children with a vile smile and said, "If you dare to do something stupid again, we'll just kill you instead of wasting our time. Got it?" The children had no other choice but to nod in fear. The bandits lined up the children, with the scarred and deep-voiced ones in front, the ugly one in the back, placing the children in the middle, and set off on the road.
The scarred man began to speak. "The hideout isn't far away. Once we get there, they won't be able to find us anyway." The ugly one interrupted the scarred man's words.
"HAHAHA, our sponsor is really well-prepared, isn't he?" The deep-voiced one replied.
"Hey, remember we were told not to talk about that."
"What's going to happen if we do? By the time they find out, these stupid brats will have been sold, and we'll have our money."
While the bandits talked among themselves, Eugene discreetly approached Lily and whispered into her ear.
"Lily, when you get the signal, throw a water ball with all your strength at the scarred man." Lily answered Eugene's words trembling.
"I can't. I'm scared."
"Even if you're scared, you have to. This isn't a situation where we have a choice."
"What if I miss? What if I fail?"
"You won't. I trust you." After a short sigh, he continued, "Just trust me the way I trust you, and throw with all your strength when the signal comes, alright?"
Lily's hand was trembling, but since Eugene trusted her this much, how could she let him down? Lily nodded at Eugene. Eugene grinned at this expression of hers. (Now the only thing left is to execute the plan.) Eugene crouched down. The ugly man approached Eugene. "What do you think you're doing, you stupid brat?" Eugene frowned and, with a tearful expression, said, "My stomach… my stomach hurts, I have an illness, I need to relieve myself." The deep-voiced man, seeing this, said, "I can't stand the smell of shit just for one brat who's going straight to sale. Take him to relieve himself."
The ugly man sighed and muttered as he went to Eugene, "Damn brat." He grabbed his arm and took him to a tree. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"
"I can't do it while someone's watching."
"Damn you, you little bastard—" the ugly man turned his back. Everything happened at once. Eugene drew his sword and pierced the man's heart from behind—it only took five seconds. With this event, Eugene had killed someone for the first time since he was born into this world.