Angels and Demons (Overlord x SAO Alicization Crossover)

PT1, ACT 8: EX, Whereabouts

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BAHARUTH EMPIRE, TOWN OF RODEAC

In the streets of a southern town in the Baharuth Empire named Rodeac, two children in ragged clothes were running barefooted through the alleyways.

A boy around 14, and a girl around 11. The skins on the back of their feet peeled and bled against the rough stone ground, yet they still continued running. Following the thin blood trail, two men holding spears were chasing the children.

The men were child slave traffickers——ever since the Golden Princess Renner prohibited slavery in the Kingdom, the slave trade had moved to the Empire where slavery was allowed by law and was very profitable.

They would kidnap and capture children in the slums or small villages, and sell them to the slave market or directly to labour camps, factories, or to perverted nobles. Almost none of these child slaves ever survived until adulthood.

These two children were taken from their home in the slums outside the walls of Rodeac during night, and just as they were being transferred into the slave warehouse inside the town, they managed to escape and run into a narrow alleyway.

"Haah....hahh...........!!"

The boy braked down on his feet, which shot a sharp pain up his leg. Staggering, he wrapped his arms around his younger sister's shoulders, breathing hard. They had hit a dead end.

Just behind them, the traffickers appeared in ragged breaths, holding their spears. Finding the slave siblings, their expression turned into one of anger, then to a mocking smirk.

As they came forward with the spear, the older boy brought himself in front of the girl, raising his arms and shielding her away from the traffickers.

"D-don't come closer! Go away! Go——"

"Shut the fuck, up!!" One of the man kicked the boy from the side, throwing him to the wall as he coughed up blood.

"Hey! Don't damage the merchandise, you god damn idiot!" The other man growled, then pointed his spear coldly at the girl standing in shock. "Tch. You wanna end up like that brat over there? Huh!?"

With anger in his eyes, the man reached forward to grab the girl's thin arm.

And in the next second, a black knife was producing from his outstretched arm. The man gave a horrible scream as he stumbled backward, blood splattering all over the ground. A shadow swooped down from the roofs and silently landed on top the fallen man.

The small cloaked figure pulled out the dagger from the man's arm, then grabbed his sleeve and threw him into the wall with an unbelievable strength for their size.

The other trafficker barely had time to get his spear pointed at the newcomer before there was a sound of something cutting through the air, and an arrow shot right through his shoulder and planted into the ground in front of him.

Another arrow ahot through the side of the man's waist accurately, removing his ability to stand without hurting his internal organs. The man screamed in pain as he fell forward.

The two children were frozen on spot, dumbfounded, as the small figure rose up and removed their hood—revealing a girl with dirty short blonde hair and blue eyes, with cat ears out of her head and whiskers from her cheeks. A yellow tail was peeking under the oversized cloak she wore.