The Helix Project

Traveling merchant

Noir Novo had started his day exactly as he had planned. The usual way he lived, as a traveler. In order to earn money for himself as he travelled, he became a merchant. He was, however, first and foremost, a traveler, and so he decided to combine both.

He became a traveling merchant, specializing in delivering goods from one location to the other, and being payed for it. He usually sold goods given to him, however, once in a while he would sell his own goods. His goods consisted of special body parts of any Magic beast he killed, as well as their magic cores. These fetched a decent price on the market, and he had been able to live sufficiently for the past 15 years.

On this fateful day, he had set out for the Academic City of the Empire, where he would deliver certain scrolls and he had some Magic beast cores with him as well. He surmised that he would get there before nightfall, and be out of the city by dawn on the following day... However, what he saw was a wrecked road, a passed out mage, a battered carriage, and a r***d maid.

"Looks like stress..." He told himself, as he got down from his cart, which contained his goods.

He looked around and was deciding whether or not to pass the route or to pass a longer route. That was when he heard her voice.

"Y-Young man, please help me..."

Noir heard the voice of the maid... She asked for his help, he had forgotten the last time he had heard those words... And so to remind himself of how he felt in the past, he had to help her.

"I'll help you..." He replied calmly "But after I do, tell me what happened here."

The maid nodded, though she seemed a bit fearful of him, but she was out of options.

"I'll be healing you first." Noir said, as he raised his hands and a green light shone.

The light faded, and the weak made looked surprised, as her entire body felt light, and she was entirely healed, even from her fatigue.

"S-So this is the power of a tier 4 spell." She remarked. "Thank you so much young man... Thank you..." She said with all the energy she could muster.

"It's fine... Now tell me what happened here. Tell me everything." Noir stated.

Suddenly the horrid memory of the incident that occurred came flashing back into the maid's mind as she started crying, and the tears uncontrollably flowed from her eyes. She tried wiping them off, but they kept flowing. She kept apologizing to Noir as she tried regaining her composure. Noir waited patiently, as he crouched in front of her.

She finally stopped crying, and then she told him everything!

"Thank you for the Information... Now what will you do about this?" Noir asked her.

"I-I will have to find a way to communicate with my employer... He is a man of many means. I'm sure the attackers haven't gone too far. He should be able to send capable men to deal with them." The maid said hesitantly.

"That won't work." Noir stated bluntly to the maid, who was shocked by his answer.

"Firstly, you said it yourself, the supply of the rune stones and scrolls for teleportation were delayed, and so you had to travel by carriage. This means even if you use a communication scroll or spell to speak to him, he won't be able to send anyone who will arrive immediately. Even if he is able to procure a scroll, since he doesn't know your exact location, he can't transport the appropriate people to your location, and that is assuming you're able to communicate with him." Noir analyzed the situation calmly.

The maid's face fell as she heard Noir's reasonable words. What was she going to do?

"If we wait any longer, the attackers might also get away. I predict they will be resting somewhere close by and recovering and building up their strength. After they are done, they will most likely journey for days without stopping, and it'll be impossible to catch them anymore." Noir stated again.

"So what do we do? They took down the captain and our tier 5 mage... as well as all the guards. There's nothing we can do... Is that what you're telling me? The young lady's fate has been sealed and she is already out of reach. I refuse to give up!" The maid said with a broken tone.

"I never said the entire situation was hopeless." Noir said, attracting the maid's attention. "If you hire me... I'll be able to recover your young miss."

"H-Hire you? But you're a merchant aren't you? What could you...?" The maid said as she looked Noir's expressionless face.

She knew he was no ordinary merchant. An ordinary merchant would not have been able to cast such a healing spell on her, and he was also able to calmly analyze the situation. This man must have experienced battle before.

"Can you do it?" The maid said finally.

"I can!" Noir responded. "So what is your answer?" Noir asked her.

"Please young man... Save my young lady..." The maid said finally, putting all her hopes in the stranger.

"Good, just wait in the carriage. I'll also heal the Mage, so he can at least protect you and try reaching your employer." Noir responded.

"T-Thank you..." The maid said as tears rolled down her eyes.

Noir's expressionless face lit up a bit... This feeling wasn't so bad after all.

[Meanwhile]

"C'mon boss... Can't we have a little bit of fun with her before heading out?" One of the assaulters asked the leader of the g**g.

"Didn't you already have a round with the girl's maid? Your libido sure is something... Besides, HE said we must make sure she is in perfect condition." The Boss said.

"The maid was nowhere near satisfying enough... Besides, I'm sure boss is curious as well... How 'doing' a noble feels like" The goon answered.

The leader let out a smile. He looked at their mage, who was also observing the situation and eyeing the scared girl with a lustful look in his eyes.

"Yo Magna, can you fix her up if we end up having a little fun with her?" The Boss asked.

The eyes of the mage lit as he licked his lips and said "Definitely!"

"Then we should have a little bit of fun before heading out, since we'll be moving for a few days straight... It's time for some exercise." The Boss remarked.

He looked around the room and there were seven of them inside. The remaining 20 men were outside the cave resting and keeping watch. They would have to miss out on the fun that was about to go down. Even with healing magic, he didn't want all 27 of them to share the same girl. The merchandise had to be protected after all.

"Okay then, we'll take turns!" The boss declared, claiming first place.

As he approached Ciara, her eyes widened as her expression pleaded for mercy. Her muffled voice couldn't be properly heard since her mouth had been tied with an enchanted cloth.

"Let's hear what the young lady has to say." The boss gestured to the mage who undid the cloth.

"P-Please... I'll give you anything. M-My father, he has lots of money... He has countless women... Please. He can even give you a noble title. Please... I'm begging you." Ciara begged and pleaded, with tears in her eyes she pleaded desperately.

The men burst out in laughter, as they seemed to enjoy Ciara's pitiful display.

"How satisfying. This makes violating you even sweeter." The Boss grinned wildly.

"P-Please..." Ciara begged even more.

"Let me tell you something, as a reward for your tears..." The Boss said. "The truth is that we purposely let your maid and mage live. That way they can prepare some ransom money for us, in exchange for your life, of course."

Ciara looked a bit relieved "T-Then..."

"But we're not returning you of course... A man with even bigger means has given us a more tempting offer than anything your father can procure. So we're going to take your ransom money, as well as sell you off to our employer! Talk about a gold mine!" The Boss, as well as all his goons burst out in laughter.

"Y-You bastards!" Ciara let out an enraged cry.

Immediately the Boss slapped her with his rough hand, causing her head to take a sharp turn.

"Tsk Tsk, bad girl." The Boss said

Ciara felt her head spin. The pain rang in her head as she felt a sharp sensation burn throughout her head. This had not been the first time she experienced pain... But this was the first time, the first time she had suffered a pain this severe.

"Good, that's much better, better be a good girl and keep quiet, though it won't do you much good if you shout." The Boss said smiling.

"You see, our employer gifted us with 3 rune scrolls. We used one to break that pesky barrier your mage put up, and we used one to cover this entire area with external magic distortion and interference. In short, [Search] magic or any other locator magic won't work. It also blocks our presence and any of our activities from the outside. We are not going to be found... And no one is coming to your rescue." The Boss told Ciara sadistically.

"Now... Shall we get started." The Boss said as he licked his lips and widened his eyes.