"I can't believe I'm actually doing this...!"

Mika gritted her teeth and pulled the hoof of an old coat deeper onto her head to make sure that the signature ashen-hair of the Wraths' won't out her immediately.

"..."

The family of kidnappers stayed silent exchanging worried looks.

In their situation, they had no say in the matter.

"This is so embarrassing..."

Mika grumbled rubbing her bare feet together.

With the help of the three bodyguards - especially Ti who seemed to be the best at disguising herself and others - Mika was prepared for the role of an abducted child.

Her short for her age height was a great advantage and after being stripped from her normal clothes and given some hand-me-downs from the helpful villagers after a short explanation, she was ready.

She ended up looking quite convincing too.

But that was her biggest problem.

"...Corvus had seen me like this...!"

She cried, hiding her face in her knees as the wagon rode towards the fishermen's village.

Even though she agreed to the plan and all, it didn't mean that she had to like the role she had to play.

The worst part by far, was Corvus's smile when he had said that the disguise had suited Mika.

Suited her.

This ridiculous childish attire and strategically placed dirt that made the ashen-haired girl look five years younger - suited her.

Hearing something like that from a man she was trying so hard to appeal to was a crushing blow to her spirit.

And after all, she did to appear grown-up and mature too...!

Mika gritted her teeth as she was doing her best to hold back the tears of shame, and her body started glowing red when she accidentally activated her skills.

"!!!"

The terrified kidnappers almost fainted seeing that.

*thunk*

"OW!"

Suddenly a small pebble has come flying out of nowhere and smacked Mika in the back of her head, making her yelp in pain.

"...uuugh..."

The ashen-haired girl rubbed the painful spot where a bump was already growing and looked around in confusion.

...and then she saw Ti, few hundred feet away from the wagon, leaning from behind a tree waving at her in a silent scolding.

"...tsk... I know, I know...!"

Mika grumbled and, still teary-eyed, made sure to deactivate her skills so that their targets wouldn't notice that something was off.

Around ten minutes later they arrived at their destination.

The village was not that small but all the buildings huddled around the large lake were looking like they were about to collapse.

The few tiny boats were gathering dust, pulled on the shore, looking as if they weren't actually used for quite some time already, and the empty nets were bundled together and thrown by the wall of what seemed to be the ruined storehouse.

Even so, the people there didn't look nearly as malnourished or feeble as one would expect.

Far from it.

Every single one of them looked almost... prosperous...?

It was hard to describe, those people were wearing rags but had the liveliness of a prosperous merchant on their way to finalize a big transaction.

Of course, that might have been connected with the strong will and positive outlook on the world of the villagers, but even the inexperienced Mika felt that something was off.

After all, if this was really the fishermen's village, shouldn't there be more... fishes? Or at least, shouldn't the smell of the fish be much stronger?

Instead of that, the whole placed smelled like a dreamy lakeside resort.

Odd.

What were the people there eating if no fishes were being caught?

If the village was surrounded by fields or at least each shack-like house had a vegetable garden, then it would be somewhat possible to explain.

But it wasn't.

If there were domesticated animals in their pens or feeding at pastures, that would make sense.

But there weren't any.

The closest thing to any source of food getting any attention at all was a small orchard to the side of the village.

But was it possible for humans to live off only a few apples and nothing else?

Some of those oddly lively villagers would wave at the family on the wagon and greet them in warm voices, a clear confirmation that they were visiting a lot.

That made Mika flinch and clench her fist in anger.

What was going on in there?

What happened to all the children that...

"...?"

Mika gulped down her saliva as she realized something.

She slowly raised her head just enough so that she could have a quick look around, and felt a sudden chill.

There were no children in the village.

Although it was the prime time and weather for the children to play outside, there was not a single one in sight.

And it wasn't like the village was full of old people either, most of the villagers were considerably young or at most middle-aged.

So, to sum it up, the so-called fishermen's village wasn't doing any fishing, wasn't having any viable food source, was far away from other villages, and was composed of only adults that looked far too healthy to live in a place with such terrible conditions...

Even without knowing that this village was a drop-off spot for the kidnapped children, the place just screamed trouble.

Mika clenched her fists and bit her lips doing her best to not activate her skills out of the sheer survival instinct that was going into overdrive as the wagon stopped.

"Honey, it's time for you to go..."

Just as it was explained to Mika earlier, the woman stood up and gently pushed her forward to get off the wagon.

"Ah! My sweet niece! Thank you for bringing her here. Now, let's go dear."

Without any delay, one of the villagers just straight up approached Mika as soon as her feet touched the ground and started leading her away after putting his hand on her back.

As soon as the two of them disappeared in a seemingly random house, the family on the wagon drove away as if it was nothing and stopped by the western end of the village where a hooded person threw them a bag of coins.

*CRUSH*

At that moment, a blue emperor griffin fell from the sky destroying the building that the hooded person was about to go in.

"WHAT THE-ugh!"

The hooded fellow gasped but in the next second, a purple whip coiled around their neck and pulled him towards the monster.