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On that day, during negotiations held at a mansion by the canal, a young lady named "Elise" appeared.

Perhaps because it was daytime, she arrived at the location without any guards, accompanied only by a maid. Then, during the negotiations, she was led to a small room for a dress fitting, where she suddenly disappeared.

However, the disappearance of the young lady did not cause a big commotion, and the city of Beztria welcomed the afternoon as usual.

After the presence of the slave traders faded away, Rishe, locked in the dimly lit cell, blinked her eyes open and sat up.

Her wrists were bound behind her back, and her ankles were similarly secured. With a cloth gag in her mouth, Rishe confirmed her condition.

(So far, everything is as expected.)

During the negotiations where she played the role of the young lady "Elise," after finishing the tea offered, Rishe was guided to the dressing room. There, after pretending to faint, she was successfully transported to this cell.

(Although I was prepared to be treated somewhat roughly, not a single bruise. Despite the crime, they adhered to the ironclad rule of handling their merchandise with care. Why would they commit such a crime...?)

Perhaps due to the condition that they only dealt with pure young ladies, her clothes were not disturbed. Rishe sighed and furrowed her brows.

(They didn't even check if I was hiding any weapons... Their vigilance against slaves is too lax.)

Despite feeling uneasy, the fact remained that she was using it to her advantage. Looking around from inside the cell, there was only one lamp beyond the iron bars as a light source. Rishe shuffled over to the corner of the cell and gently shook the person who had been brought in with her, dressed as a maid.

(Yoel...)

"Mmm..."

Wrapped in maid attire, Yoel seemed to stir sleepily.

With a blouse with puffy sleeves and an apron adorned with frills, he tried to conceal his masculine physique as much as possible. Though slender and petite for a man, with advice from Raul, he had made adjustments to not appear obviously male. Yoel's features were androgynous, and with a bit of makeup and dressed as a woman, he could easily pass for one.

"Mmm..."

The instigator of having Yoel dress as a woman, Rishe, gave up on waking him up initially. Instead, she managed to reach out to his ear.

(...I reached it!)

Gently removing the earring from his ear, she discovered it was a metal. In reality, this earring was a combination of a small blade and a lock-pick pin, capable of cutting ropes or tampering with locks. Rishe had simply combined what she happened to have brought to this town with her with the earrings she had on, but they seemed to be quite useful.

(I took care to cross and position my wrists in a certain way when being tied up. With this much range of motion, cutting the ropes will be...)

Pinching the blade disguised as an earring with her fingertips, she moved it back and forth like a saw, making incisions in the ropes binding her wrists.

Twisting and pulling her wrists in a certain way, there was a satisfying snap.

With her hands free, Rishe untied the gag and then proceeded to cut the rope around her ankles.

Then, she removed Yoel's gag and shook him more vigorously than before.

"Yoel... Yoel"

"......"

Yoel slowly opened his eyes. They still looked sleepy, as usual for him.

"Thank goodness. The antidote seems to have worked well for you."

"You..."

"Could you please put some force into your hands and tighten the ropes around your wrists? It'll cut faster that way."

Following Rishe's instructions, Yoel got up. First, she cut the ropes around his wrists, then his ankles, freeing him. Yoel then looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Who are you really? Even after drinking the tea they gave us, I didn't feel drowsy at all... And using that tiny blade with hands bound behind your back isn't exactly easy."

"Fortunately, they used ropes for restraint. If they were shackles, even with lock-picking pins, it would have taken some time." Rishe said.

"Well, I don't deny that the management of the captured individuals is lax. But the bare minimum should be done for prisoners――..." Before Yoel could finish his sentence, Rishe continued.

"――'Keep them under constant surveillance. Conduct body searches, strip them of their clothes, and tie their limbs to a pole to break their limbs.'" As Rishe and Yoel's voices aligned perfectly, Yoel's eyes widened.

Then, he gave Rishe an even stranger look. "Who are you really?"

"Hehe."

When this phrase was drilled into her by the captain during her knightly life, Yoel felt like he was still sleeping in the corner of the training ground. But in reality, she must have listened to the captain's words carefully. Knowing that now made her feel somewhat happy.

"...Well, as long as I can fight, I don't care. Can I take off this frilly outfit now?"

Yoel discarded the maid uniform and changed into a thin shirt and pants underneath. He seemed a little dissatisfied with the concealed dagger strapped to his leg, just like Rishe.

"If the body search was so sloppy, I feel like I could have smuggled in a longer sword..."

"If found, it would have been a big problem. ...But still, their lack of vigilance towards the captives is concerning."

Rishe kneeled in front of the iron bars, reaching out to search for the keyhole on the outside. Inserting two pins and listening carefully, she continued to confirm with Yoel.

"Raul was monitoring the point where we were abducted. If Raul pursues with preparations already made, they shouldn't lose sight of us."

"Huh... So, help might arrive before I even get to fight...?"

"Unfortunately, I doubt it."

Rishe looked around. The dimly lit place illuminated by only one lamp was not a cell upon closer inspection.

"After all, this is inside a ship."

The ones imprisoning Rishe and the others were iron cages.

And around Rishe and Yoel, there were several more cages, each with a sleeping woman inside.

"...Presumably, we've already left the canal and are at sea."

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