A drop of sweat rolled down Carole's temple. "What kind of job are we talking about here?"
"Maid," I replied, before glancing at Tizmilly, who was staring at us from the side. "Work as a maid in our restaurant. Right, Tizmilly?"
Tizmilly flinched before she nodded. "Y-yes."
Tizmilly clutched her upper arm and approached us hesitantly. What was the matter? I stared at her, feeling like something was strange about the way she looked at Carole and me.
Anyway, let's continue.
I shifted my attention back to the girl I'd pushed against the wall.
I smiled. "So? How about it? If you want it, I can even become your guarantor and help convince your victims that you'll repay what you've stolen from them slowly, to avoid a scenario where they escalate things by reporting it to the guards."
Carole parted her lips. Her eyes looked at Tizmilly and me like she was seeing a glimmer of hope in the dark, but then she closed her mouth again, frowned, and sighed.
_Hm? That's not the reaction I expected..._
While I was confused by how the situation had suddenly shifted from optimistic to uncertain, Carole looked up at me. Her eyes had dimmed considerably compared to before.
"I refuse. Just hand me over to the guards," Carole muttered before turning her face away.
I narrowed my eyes at her, scanning her appearance.
Untidy hair, disheveled clothes, dirty boots...
I moved to Tizmilly's side. Tizmilly flinched as I grabbed her shoulder, making me wonder why our Miss Villainess had become so sensitive lately, before I leaned in and put my mouth beside her ear.
"What do you think about this girl, Tizmilly?" I whispered to her.
With a faint blush on her cheeks, she whispered back, "I'm not really sure. But she looks like she's troubled by something."
_Troubled, huh?_
I looked back at Carole while rubbing my chin.
She was also looking at us, but from the way she fidgeted with her skirt and kept shifting her feet, it was clear she felt uneasy or restless about something.
It was at that moment we suddenly heard footsteps approaching. There were a lot of them, maybe ten to twenty people.
Carole's face turned as pale as a corpse. She looked around frantically. "T-they're here!" she stuttered.
Tizmilly and I just looked at her, confused.
"Run, quickly!" Carole yelled at us in a panic before she ran deeper into the alley.
_What happened?_
We still didn't understand the situation, but since the footsteps were getting closer by the second, we decided to follow Carole for now.
However, as we followed her, Carole suddenly halted and collapsed to the ground. Before us, a group of rough-looking men blocked the path. Then, from behind, more came. They blocked both our front and rear, leaving no way to escape.
"Who are those people?" Tizmilly's face returned to her usual sharp expression as she muttered the question.
I shook my head in response. "I don't know much."
"Maybe she knows something about them," I said, gesturing toward Carole.
More and more men who looked like typical ruffians showed up, blocking our paths. Then, after their number reached about forty, a small man who didn't even reach the height of Tizmilly's chest approached us with a crooked smile and a mouth pursed like a rat's.
With Tizmilly and me there, the man didn't dare get too close, but he still approached Carole and stopped about ten meters away from her.
"Long time no see, Carole," said the short man, his smile widening. "Finally tired of running around?"
Carole could only lower her head even further. She didn't even have the guts to utter a word.
Tizmilly frowned at the scene. For some reason, she glanced at me first, then at Carole, then back at me, before she finally made up her mind. She stepped forward and stood between Carole and the short man, her crimson eyes glaring at him like an eagle's. Even if she had lost her status, she was still Tizmilly, the Villainess of this world. Faced with her fierce glare, the short man, who seemed to be the group's leader or boss, suddenly looked like he had just swallowed a block of ice.
"Who are you all? What kind of relationship do you have with Miss Carole here?" she barked.
I could still feel her aura from behind her. If this were anywhere else, I would've given her a round of applause or two, but not here. From the way things were going, we would most likely end up fighting them. Hmm, what do I do? Should I use my Levitation?
The option to abandon Carole wasn't even an option for me. Not after Tizmilly took action, and not after I'd already seen her compatibility with our restaurant.
He was sweating while facing Tizmilly, clearly sensing danger from her, but he responded with a grin, showing the world his dirty, yellow teeth.
"Are you two Carole's friends?" The short man faked his calmness. "You two better leave her. Don't worry, we wouldn't do any harm. We just want to collect her debt. Timmy would also like to meet his big sister again, right, Carole?"
Despite what he said, from the way those people were looking at us — judging by their chuckles and the weapons in their hands — they clearly weren't as harmless as the short man claimed.
Carole's face turned even paler after she heard the name the man mentioned. She immediately pushed herself up, her expression full of desperation.
"Please, don't do anything to Timmy! He doesn't have anything to do with this!"
But the short man dismissed her plea without much reaction.
"What are you talking about? Isn't he your little brother? He's your family... isn't he? So it's perfectly normal that we also have him working to pay off what your father owed us, right?" The short man laughed, followed by the others' chuckles.
"No, b-because of me... Timmy was..."
As Carole broke down, Tizmilly's frown deepened.
"You! What have you done to Carole's little brother? This is Dungeon City! Do you think the guards won't do anything if I report this to them?"
In response, they only laughed even louder, which confused and agitated Tizmilly even more. If the Villainess we had here was the Villainess from the game, they would already be dead by now. Fortunately for them, our Villainess was the good kind of Villainess, so they wouldn't lose their lives so suddenly.
"The guards?"
"Bwahah! Would they even dare to touch us?"
"They'd piss their pants after receiving a dismissal letter the moment they tried to attack us!"
Tizmilly gritted her teeth in frustration. Why wouldn't they listen to her? Her expression said everything. However, if what they said was true, then we couldn't just fight them here, rescue Carole's little brother from wherever they were holding him, and call it a day. They might have a way to sue us later, and that would be too troublesome.
From the look of it, Carole and her little brother were the children of someone indebted to these people. I didn't know what happened to their father that resulted in them being forced to repay it in his place, but I at least knew that Carole and her little brother were innocent. Under Dungeon City's laws, this would normally be considered an illegal practice and child exploitation, and we could force these people into a trial.
Normally. And their situation was clearly not normal.
_Should we really abandon Carole?_
As I began considering that option, Tizmilly looked at me.
"Mister Roost!"
_I want to save her!_ her expression begged me.
I scratched my cheek.
And sighed.
_As expected of our Miss Villainess. She really is so soft-hearted._