Chapter 50. The High Ground

 Gary wasn't exactly cannon fodder, as his class, Battlemage, had immense potential. Unfortunately, he didn't handle stressful situations well, which was the reason he ended his adventuring career and entered the service of Marquis Olsen.

 Anyway, with a skill that amplified his senses, Gary didn't have much trouble locating Lucy and the other two, but since he couldn't see through tree trunks and bushes, he had to get close enough to make visual contact with them to understand the situation.

 But despite covering the last hundred meters as discreetly as possible, the moment he poked his head out from the bushes to peer into the clearing where he had heard voices, he was met with the sight of three extraordinarily beautiful girls staring right at him.

 "Gasp!...", Gary was left with his mouth agape; since his vision was also enhanced, the combined visual impact of the three was far stronger than his brain could handle.

 Looking at the head suspended above the bush, resembling a malfunctioning Whac-A-Mole machine, Lucy realized that the pranks she had prepared for the marquis' subordinate had become unnecessary. How can you prank someone who seems to have entered brain-death?

 "Yara, can you use that skill that generates shadow chains to pull him over here? It would be a bit ridiculous if we had to go into the bush after him...", said Lucy, who no longer seemed very enthusiastic, much like a cat losing interest when it sees the mouse stop moving.

 "Right away...", Yara replied, and in the next moment, a black chain emerged from her shadow, advancing toward Gary with the force and speed of a sinking anchor chain, snatching him along with the surrounding branches and dragging him to within two meters of them.

 "As far as I know, this man has been working for the Marquis for some time, so he might know quite a bit about his plans. Should I put a slave collar on him to ensure he doesn't cause any trouble until we capture the others?" Yara proposed, as enslaving was the standard method in that world for handling prisoners.

 "No, I am against slavery in any form, especially through the use of such a collar, which I understand subjugates not only the body but also the mind... I wouldn't wish such a humiliating state on even my worst enemies. So, I suggest we cut off both his legs. Yes, without legs, he won't have any chance to escape...", Lucy responded, her words full of compassion for human dignity (or so she thought), then in her right hand appeared her black steel ninja sword, indicating that she wasn't joking and truly intended to carry out what she said.

 Rina and Yara didn't quite know what to make of Lucy's logic. Wasn't it worse for a prisoner to have their legs cut off than to be enslaved? Not only must having your legs cut off be excruciatingly painful, but for an ordinary person, it's nearly impossible to obtain a potion that can regrow limbs, as they are extremely rare and expensive. So, the prisoner would be far more desperate at the thought of losing their legs for life, even if rescued, than if they were enslaved, which could be just a temporary situation.

 However, since Lucy grew up in an era where slavery was considered extremely inhumane, but seeing people with a hand or leg cut off in movies was common, it was no wonder she concluded that it was more humane to leave someone without legs than to take away their free will. Moreover, if she had to choose between becoming a slave unable to refuse an order and losing her legs, she was convinced she would choose the latter without hesitation, the humiliation she would feel in the first scenario being harder to bear than having to crawl for the rest of her life.

 Neither Rina nor Yara stopped Lucy, as Gary's well-being wasn't something that concerned them. So, she approached him, determined to take about half a meter off his height. As the stubborn Ned would say, 'The one who passes the sentence should swing the sword.'

 However, by that moment, Gary was no longer dazed; the pain he felt being dragged over 50 meters through roots and stones, along with the suggestion he heard about cutting off his legs, was enough to chase away any amorous thoughts. Maybe some angels were standing before him, but they were angels of death.

 "You...you, who are you? What do you want from me?... Wait a minute... You're Yara, aren't you?", Gary finally recognized Yara as he looked frantically from one to the other, her amethyst-like eyes being hard to mistake.

 "So what if I am?", Yara didn't understand why Gary suddenly started looking at her with hope. Even if she hadn't switched sides, her job wasn't to save Gary, but just to ensure the marquis's son returned home safely. Well, maybe she would have saved him before making the deal with Lucy if he had treated her with respect and not bad-mouthed her behind her back, but since Gary, like the rest of the marquis's employees, hadn't done so, she didn't see any reason for him to have expectations from her.

 "We...we work for the same person. You can't just stand by and let her do whatever she wants with me...", Gary still didn't understand the situation. Or maybe he didn't want to, because if Yara had betrayed them, his situation was indeed dire.

 "Oh, it seems you're out of luck. My deal with the marquis fell through, so there's no longer any connection between us...", Yara delivered the bad news to Gary, who turned as pale as a ghost upon realizing his worst fear had come true.

 "No! No!", Gary began struggling with all his might to escape the black chain coiled around him. Losing his mind from fear, he activated all his temporary attribute-boosting skills, ignoring the fact that amplifying more than two attributes simultaneously would harm his health. As for the bracelet given to him by the marquis's son, which was supposed to protect him, he had completely forgotten about it, and even if he remembered, it probably wouldn't have reassured him, as it should have teleported him by then considering he was already covered in scratches, so it was clear it wasn't working properly.

 "Don't try it! I have the high ground...", Lucy warned Gary, seeing him preparing to leap to his feet.

 But like the famous hero who became a villain, Gary ignored Lucy's warning (or maybe he didn't even hear it) and, as soon as he got his feet under him, he propelled himself upward as he was planning to use a skill that would affect a wide area around him, including Lucy and the other two, and then take advantage of the chaos to try again to break the chain from a position where he could exert his maximum strength.

 Well, I think everyone can guess how this situation ended: Gary ended up back on the ground, while his legs were left behind, as Lucy appeared instantly behind him and cut them off with her ninja sword, which she had infused with wind magic to ensure that one swing would be enough.

 "Ahhhh!! Nooo...Nooo...", Gary began writhing in pain, painting all the grass around him with his own blood.

 'It's a bit bloodier than in the original...', Lucy thought to herself, seeing the state Gary was in. But was it her fault? Her sword, infused with wind magic, didn't have the ability to cauterize wounds; it actually amplified the bleeding. Regardless, she promised herself that she would recreate this scene again if she ever obtained a skill that would allow her to infuse her sword with light magic.