002 – At Least a Name…

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[Why do all these villain and monster b*stards in this game only mess with other people’s precious daughters?]

Mess with my mom instead, you b*stards! Why do you keep going after our lovely daughters!

[Comments]

– My small guess is that your mother was angry and that is why they are messing with daughters instead.

ㄴ (OP): stfu

– You… it’s not you. Be happy there.

– Your mom is Chinese kimchi.

– Your daughter’s boyfriend is a tattooed gut-filler.

ㄴ (OP): You son of a b*tch, you think you can fight?

ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋ Why aren’t you reacting to the mother insult above ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– You’re definitely gonna get got by Mikhail ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ (OP): 🖕🖕

—

These days, kidnappers are abducting academy students a lot.

I suppose, the academy being a place where children from wealthy families gather…

Even if they only succeed in kidnapping one person, they can get a huge ransom.

That’s why kidnappers were trying so hard to abduct academy students.

‘Father is… surprisingly competent.’

So far, 9 out of 10 kidnappers who had abducted academy students were locked up in the Imperial dungeons.

Thus, the victims of these abductions were, in actuality, mostly commoners.

Or students from ordinary families, displaying exceptional talent and entering the Academy.

‘Riding the carriage every day is becoming a chore…’

However…

Father, unwilling to experience his daughter being kidnapped while still living, vehemently opposed my entering the dormitory.

He insisted the manor’s security was far superior to the Academy’s.

‘The dormitory… seems like it would be fun.’

Because of that, I felt a pang of regret at missing out on the simple happiness of gathering with friends late at night, sharing whispered confidences.

And so, today, without anything remarkable occurring, I was returning to the manor by carriage once more.

“…How tiresome.”

It’s always the same.

This time of day, it was invariably a period of profound boredom.

The distance between the manor and the Academy was roughly twenty minutes by carriage, which meant…

I was increasingly weary of having to spend those twenty minutes pointlessly, every single day.

“Isn’t there anything amusing?”

As usual, I was gazing out the window, observing the people when.

“Hmm?”

On a road I always passed, I spotted a man begging.

‘Someone I’ve never seen before.’

He was a stranger.

Emaciated and disheveled, he evoked a sense of pity.

Yet, even in his mendicant state, he didn’t feign misery, and there was something almost dignified about him.

‘Usually, they at least pretend to be missing a limb or something.’

Instead of arousing sentimental feelings, his straightforward begging amused me slightly.

“Butler.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Stop the carriage in front of that beggar.”

“Understood.”

For the sake of the beggar who had given some amusement to this boring time.

I tossed him the bread I received from a noble young man, who seemed to like me, and coins I had jingled about to fight my boredom.

“Thank you! I will repay this kindness… without fail!”

The voice came promptly after I threw the bread and coins.

Repay the kindness? How could someone who was merely begging possibly repay anything?

“There’s no need to repay. It was simply bread I didn’t want to eat and tossed away, and coins that were cumbersome to carry.”

“Amen…”

“?…You are an odd one. Let us be on our way.”

I almost laughed without realizing it.

What was with that inexplicable ‘Amen’?

There was a strange resonance in the air, giving the impression of deep faith.

“Today’s somewhat amusing.”

All thanks to the beggar who had, in his own way, made a tedious time a little more interesting.

A thought crossed my mind to give him an even larger sum, should he be there again on my way home tomorrow.

“..What is this?”

Above, I could sense a surge of ether gathering, a substantial concentration of energy.

“…”

A faint unease began to stir.

The location of this energy build-up… was directly over the path the carriage was about to take.

Driven by a growing anxiety, I prepared to leave the carriage immediately…

*Bang!*

Right on cue, a tremendous explosion ripped through the air, and I felt the debris of the clock tower tumbling down around us.

“As I suspected…!”

Whether I was the deliberate target of an attack or not, I couldn’t say.

My first priority was escaping this place, so I leaped from the carriage, ready to run at full speed when…

“..!! What in the world are you doing?”

The butler, who had been driving the carriage, stood blocking the door with his entire body.

“I’ve come to destroy what the Margrave holds most dear.”

The butler’s face twisted into a grin, unsettlingly grotesque.

*’Ah.’*

The coachman wasn’t a butler at all.

*’I’ve been had…’*

Completely outmaneuvered.

I’d taken him for a simple butler… but it was a doppelganger disguised as one.

“…”

As the moment of death loomed,

I felt my strength draining away instead.

Even if I somehow managed to escape this situation, the end result would be the same.

“Become the first sacrifice for the Margrave, Ella Eloise.”

Yet, paradoxically, even as my body weakened,

The doppelganger’s voice, dripping with derision, sent a surge of anger coursing through me.

“You’re nothing but a monster.”

My final words, if they could even be called that, were unremarkable.

But there was no time for further words.

The immense pressure bearing down from above threatened to crush me.

“May my father’s wrath burn you to your very bones.”

I resigned myself to death, unburdened of any attempt to conceal my emotions, when…

“Kidnap!”

A male voice, unfamiliar to me, echoed from behind.

*BANG!!!!*

Simultaneously, a deafening explosion erupted in front of us, and I instinctively lifted my head to look ahead.

“…What is this?”

I should have been crushed to death in the carriage…

But I was outside of it.

I should have been buried beneath the remnants of that colossal clock tower…

Yet, I was lying on the street, perfectly alive.

“…Kidnapped?”

Unconsciously echoing the last word I heard, I turned my head.

There, in the direction I looked… stood a man expressing joy over a single loaf of bread and six shillings.

‘What is this…? What happened…?’

My mind wouldn’t work.

I couldn’t even begin to grasp the situation…

“The favor… has been repaid.”

With those words of repayment, the man started running somewhere.

“…Repaid a favor?…”

His words triggered a single memory.

“Thank you! I’ll definitely repay this favor!”

The man had clearly…

Said he would repay the favor.

Yes, that man currently running off was… for a mere loaf of bread and six shilling coins…

Saving my life.

“…! Stop!”

The moment I realized that, I shouted at the man to stop…

But he didn’t seem to hear me, and didn’t cease his hurried strides.

“Your name… at least your name…”

*

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump!

“Hwooahhh…! I almost died…!”

Almost died.

No kidding, I almost really died.

The cause of death, a noble’s offspring kidnapped by a villain who has no prior history of kidnapping, sentenced to death.

“…They didn’t follow, did they?”

Peeking cautiously out the window, I checked to see if anyone had been tailing me.

“…They didn’t come. Whew… what a relief.”

Fortunately, no one seemed to have followed me into this dilapidated alleyway.

Trying to calm my frantically beating heart, I dragged my exhausted body and collapsed onto the bed.

“Hwaaa…”

Lying on the bed, I replayed the events of just moments ago.

“…What did I do?”

Nothing much.

I had only echoed the word, Kidnapped.

When the Status Window displayed a woman named Ella Eloise, all I’d done was *say* “kidnap”…

And suddenly, the woman was standing before me.

“…So *that’s* why there wasn’t a trace.”

Only then did it dawn on me.

How Mikhail, the kidnapper, could spirit people away without a single clue left behind.

“…Just how far does it go, though?”

The thought struck me. Just how versatile was this ‘Kidnap’ magic?

I channeled the aether within me, swirling it around, to see if I could maybe kidnap something like… a chair.

“Kidnap.”

“Kidnap?”

“KIDNAP!”

“KID–NAP!”

“Halibut! I want to eat some halibut!”

Doing such strange tests only made me want some halibut.

“…I’m still hungry.”

That’s right.

I was still quite hungry.

Fumbling around…

I hastily pulled out the coins I’d stuffed in my pocket.

Only six shillings, but if I searched diligently, maybe I could get at least a slice of bread with that…

“…Huh?”

Fumble, fumble, fumble, fumble…

I patted myself down all over, double-checking…

Gone.

One of my precious little one-shilling coins…

“My money…!”

Tears welled up, so I tilted my head back…

Smiling slightly to keep them from falling…

Can’t cry… it’ll only make the hunger worse…

…

After several experiments.

None of them were successful.

“Does it only work on people with Status Windows?”

Chairs, desks, beds, blankets, even the stray cat down the street.

I tried to kidnap everything I could see, but absolutely nothing could be kidnapped.

This ‘Kidnap’ magic…

Living up to its name, seemed to only work on people.

“That said…”

Even putting that aside.

Kidnapping wasn’t the immediate issue.

“I need money…”

Money was needed.

“The cheapest bread… is twenty shillings…”

A mere five shillings wouldn’t even cover a single meal, so I had to find a way to earn something, somehow.

But…

“…How to earn money?”

Now that I actually had to earn it, no suitable method sprung to mind.

The only magic I knew how to use was ‘kidnapping’…

“…Should I really resort to kidnapping?”

The thought of actually kidnapping someone and demanding ransom crossed my mind.