Starting A New Life For The Discarded All-Rounder Volume 2 Chapter 7 Part3

"If they're just asleep, they might wake up sooner or later. Let's tie them up before they do."

"Right."

Kristoff and Cornelia talked to each other, then started walking. Roa and the servant beasts looked at them, then started moving too. The change of topic had succeeded: both Kristoff and Cornelia breathed a sigh of relief internally.

"Yeah, I can tell now that they're sleeping. To think they were so close."

Before Grandpa Gry put the targets to sleep, Kristoff's detection did not pick up any human presences. But now he could detect four of them, so they were probably very skilled in concealing themselves. Being able to do so in a gra.s.sfield without any natural obstacles was a clear sign of their skills.

Grandpa Gry saw through them all the same, though.

After a while, the tied up intruders were rolled up to the camp. They were a group of four, three men and one woman. Next to them, for some reason, there was a large deer too.

It had fallen asleep because of Grandpa Gry's Sleep uncontrolled spell, so they picked it up too. They already gave it the coup de grace: its neck, bitten and crushed, hung downwards.

The sun rose higher in the morning sky. The sound of Roa and the others moving around woke up the coachmen and Nostalgia's other members too. They saw a group of unknown people tied up and gathered, wondering what happened.

"What's up with these people?"

Dietrich, still barely awake, asked on behalf of the others. He suppressed a yawn and was clearly still drowsy.

Grandpa Gry cast a cold stare towards Dietrich. The latter was about to react, but remembered the coachmen were there too, so he limited himself to stare back at the gryphon.

"I'll wake them up, then."

The coachmen didn't know about Grandpa Gry's magic, so they were told that the cause of their state was sleeping potions Roa made. Dietrich glanced at Grandpa Gry, then made an impromptu gesture and touched the intruders. At the same time, Grandpa Gry dissolved the spell.

"Hng…."

The mysterious group woke up immediately.

"Hey. Who are you?"

Dietrich's tone was low. He didn't mean to sound menacing to interrogate them: he was just irritated to be woken up so early. The group heard his voice, but their eyes were locked onto Grandpa Gry. They looked terrified.

"We, we are sir Coralde's private soldiers. We were patrolling the surroundings for your safety!"

The group they thought to be thieves had a surprising real ident.i.ty.

"Eh? Sir Coralde…?"

One of the coachmen, looking from a distance -out of fear of Grandpa Gry- reacted. The mood then turned quite awkward.

The mysterious intruders were Coralde's secret spies, actually.

They belonged to the Mercenaries' Guild and had signed a long-term contract with Coralde. The coachmen knew about their existence within the company, but they had never met them before. The coachmen looked at each other to see if someone knew about their presence, but all of them shook their heads.

Grandpa Gry's words turned the mood heavy on the shoulders of those who could hear them.

You could have said that earlier!!!

They all restrained themselves from shouting. Roa, Cornelia and Kristoff tied them because they thought they were bandits. The ropes were tied firmly, biting into their limbs, so they wouldn't be able to escape. It definitely hurt just to be tied, and even if they were freed they would definitely leave bruises.

If they knew that the mysterious "guests" did not bear any ill will, they wouldn't have gone so far.

"If so, then why…"

Roa slipped up and started replying to Grandpa Gry, but the tied spies thought the question was directed at them. After a little while, they decided to answer.

"The Adventurers' Guild showed suspicious movements, so we were tasked with protecting you without anyone finding out. Our role is always to move in the shadows, we are not supposed to meet you directly. Moreover, if you know about us the risk of any hostile forces to find us increases. Sir Coralde had no ill intentions, please understand." 

The leader of the group answered, with a heavy tone. As he said, they lived in the shadows. They were confident in hiding their presence, even their own existence, as they carried out stealth missions. Despite this, they had been easily found and even tied up, which they surely found shameful.

On top of that, they were found out not by their enemies, but by whom they were supposed to protect, so it was natural for them to lose confidence.

"No, you often hear about people being protected by escorts they are not aware of, we know of the existence of such groups. We should thank Mr. Coralde for a.s.signing you to us instead. Rather than that…"

Dietrich knew than Roa's question was directed to Grandpa Gry, so he didn't know how to react. He glanced at Grandpa Gry and saw that the gryphon wasn't sorry in the slightest. It found the situation slightly irritating, instead.

Roa tackled the gryphon's neck and choked it with both of his hands. Grandpa Gry emitted a shrill cry. For those who couldn't hear the magic beast's voice, it was a sudden, bizarre action. They did not understand why he would attack a high-rank magic beast like that, without provocation. The coachmen and spies were fearful that the gryphon might fight back.

"….what are you thinking?"

Roa pushed his head close to Grandpa Gry's ears…or where they were supposed to be, and whispered.

"There's no need to capture the people watching over us, is there?"

"Grandpa Gry! Just now, you were talking about an experiment! Weren't you!?"