**Chapter 23 - A tough guy with a golden heart**

"Why are you trying to save him? He tried to have his way with her! Don't you feel sorry for her? Just look at her!"

"She's still crying because of that horrible experience," a man from the angry crowd said.

I looked toward the girl. Her expression was clearly one of annoyance, not sadness—like she didn't like my existence. Something felt off. If she had really gone through such a traumatic experience, wouldn't her emotions be different?

No one from the crowd started attacking me. I don't know if it's because they feel threatened by me or if they're hesitating for some other reason.

One man stepped out from among them and threw a punch at my face, but I blocked it easily. Murmurs spread through the crowd as they realized I wasn't going to be an easy target.

The situation was quickly escalating out of my control. I glanced at the girl again, and now, a clear look of happiness was on her face—like she was enjoying this.

"Stay out of this, kid!" another man yelled at me while coming toward me to attack, which I barely dodged. Then another two came from the side. This is not going to be easy.

"Teach him a good lesson for protecting that guy!" she said, fueling the crowd even more.

This time, eight of them tried to attack me at the same time, but then someone yelled from behind them—a female voice. And I knew that voice. She spoke with a firm voice.

"Enough of this nonsense! Don't you have any dignity? Eight of you are attacking one man while he is backed up to a corner?"

"Shame on you all!"

It was Viola. In the middle of the commotion, she came out from the guild, and when she saw what happened, she decided to help me.

The crowd looked toward her, clearly angry but not doing anything.

The girl's face raged with annoyance, and she said,

"Hah! You are a girl too! What if it had happened to you?"

She was definitely pissed. That much was clear from her expression.

Viola came closer to the girl and said, "Oh really? He tried to have his way with you? This guy?"

Oh no, Viola got it all wrong. She thinks I did something wrong. That's why she is defending me.

"Look, if you said this about anyone else in the world, I would have sympathized with you. But not him. It's impossible. He is not like that."

The crowd stared at her confusingly. They didn't know what to make of all this, so they started murmuring among themselves.

I looked toward Viola, my heart filled with joy as she was trying to defend me. I thought to myself, So this is what it feels like to have a friend defend you.

But the bliss didn't last long because the girl spoke once again. "Oh, so you are saying I tore my own clothes and all this is a hoax or something?"

"Yes, it is."

"How could you say that?" she said as she started to cry. Tears started to appear in her eyes.

"She is trying to protect her friend by blaming this poor girl!" a woman said from the crowd. "I have seen this many times."

The crowd cheered once again, this time against Viola too.

"She is trying to defend her friend! She is guilty too!" someone said from the crowd.

"Oops," Viola said as she backed up toward me.

"What did you do?" she asked me in a low voice.

I didn't say anything, just looked toward the guy behind me.

She understood in an instant that I was trying to protect that guy, risking myself.

"You know what? You look scary, but your heart is golden."

That made me happy, but I couldn't start celebrating now.

"What's our plan?" she asked me, but I stood there without replying.

"Well, that's not a very good plan—to just stand here defending him. Let's run for it. You pick him up while I try to make a space for us to escape."

"That's not going to work," I said with a firm voice.

"Yeah, you are correct."

Once again, that smirk appeared on the girl's face. I don't know why, but I don't think this guy has done anything. She is hiding something.

"What are you waiting for? Teach them a lesson!" the girl said.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Wait, wait, wait!"

Someone said, trying to squeeze out of the crowd.

It was Eddy. He was finally here, holding two plates of fried shrimp. He came toward me and gave one plate to Viola and one to me, and then he just walked toward the girl and said,

"How have you been, my sweet little Monica?"

The girl was about to say something, but Eddy interrupted her.

"Oh, wait, that's not your name, right? Why do I always forget? You just change your name after every victim. And where is your mother and sister? Oh, are they watching this from the crowd? I thought so."

We all looked toward Eddy, confused.

Eddy came back toward me, took one shrimp from my plate, and then looked toward the guy behind me.

"Oh my, you guys really did a number on this poor innocent guy.

Barren, can you use your healing magic on this poor guy? I don't think he could recover otherwise."

It didn't even cross my mind, so I hurriedly turned back and started chanting.

My healing magic can only heal his external wounds, but I don't think it's going to be enough.

"You guys are barbarians! If only I had come here earlier," Eddy said and looked toward the crowd.

"Who are you? Why are you defending them?" a man asked, clear annoyance on his face.

"Me? I'm an old acquaintance of hers. she did this exact same thing to me too, don't you remember that?" eddy asked looking toward the girl.

They looked toward Eddy in shock, and we were no exception. Viola and I stared at him intently.

"He did this to you? What do you mean?" someone asked from the crowd.

"You know, when we met once, we hit it off, drank to our hearts' content, then I woke up the next day not remembering anything from last night. And she asked me to pay 20,000 mora or she would destroy my reputation.

I got really scared and did what she told me, otherwise, I think this would have happened to me too, back then."

"Lies! All lies! He is with them! He is trying to protect his friends!"

The girl screamed desperately.

"Oh, I'm lying now? Then what is this?"

As he said that, he took out a guild commission from his pocket and showed it to the crowd, reading aloud its contents.

"Oh, a group of three girls—one middle-aged and the two young ones—are going around from town to town, drugging young adventurer' drinks, then asking for money. If they don't pay up, they threaten to go public with a false rape charge which destroy their reputation. They only target young adventurers who are new to town and don't have many friends. As of this commission, they've destroyed a total of six adventurers' lives who didn't have money to pay them. They are quite clever and change their location quite often, but as of writing this commission, they have been spotted in Boss Town, a small town next to the Mahi River. It is opposite to Luminous City. Posted by the Luminous City Guild, this is a bronze-ranked quest with a reward of 500 mora."

"This is the end of your scams."

The crowd started murmuring loudly because they don't knew what to believe now.

"Lies, it's all a lie!" the girl said desperately.

"Oh, it's a lie? Then that's not a problem. Barren, my friend, do you know the light magic analyze spell?"

"Yes, I do."

"Perfect, how convenient this is! Now we can analyze when he and you have eaten or drunk in the last 24 hours."

"Oh, that's genius!" I thought to myself. "If I use the analyze on them, whoever has the drug in their body is the victim because a spell doesn't lie."

"No, I'm telling you, he did that! Why don't you believe me?" the girl screamed.

"Oh, so sorry, but your game ends now," Eddy shrugged toward the girl as she started to look toward her behind, searching for someone in the crowd.

"What if you try to manipulate the spell?" a voice came from the crowd.

A woman's voice, a mature woman's voice, and she showed herself.

"That's a good question. Then what do you suggest?" Eddy asked.

"I can use the spell too. I will do it."

"Oh no, that's not possible because you're clearly going to protect your own daughter," Eddy said, and then he looked toward the woman, "Am I right, ma'am? Come here."

"Let's do it like this. We're in front of the guild, so you big guy, go to the guild and ask the receptionist pointing toward a man in the crowd. We'll bring the guild priest. I don't think anyone should have any problem with that." Eddy smiled toward the crowd.

"...."

The priest finally came, and at first, looking toward the guy, he said, "Oh holy mother, what happened to this poor child?" with clear sympathy toward the boy.

Eddy quickly explained everything to the priest, and hearing that, the priest's expression changed. "Okay, I understand," he said, and started chanting the analyze spell on the girl first.

"Lumen Veritas, unveil the past! Show me the meals that did not last!"

A warm light started to glow and then faded as quickly as it appeared.

"What happened?" Eddy asked the girl, who was clearly frustrated. And then she did something that no one in the crowd expected her to do.

She started to run toward the other side of the guild, but because we were surrounded by the crowd, she couldn't escape.

"Ohh, that should be enough proof for you guys. Shame on you all for hitting this innocent guy," Eddy said, looking toward the crowd, which was now looking at the ground, ashamed of their actions.

In this short span of time, the priest had already cast the spell on the boy and said, "The boy has a sleep-inducing drug in his body, which he likely ingested unknowingly last night with drinks. As for the girl, I didn't find anything resembling a drug."

We were shocked out of our minds by how beautifully Eddy had handled the situation.

Eddy came near me and said, "Good job, you guys. I'm really proud to say you guys are my friends."

"No, no, don't drag me into this. I've done nothing," Viola said, going toward Eddy. "It's him, all him, our golden-hearted tough guy."

I was just standing there, looking toward the guy on the floor, thinking about how he must've felt when they were all beating him without even giving him a chance to explain himself. That made me sad... very sad.

Viola hugged me from behind and said, "Thank you, Barren, for saving him. You are a hero."

"Are you guys gonna eat those shrimps?" Eddy asked, pointing toward my hand.

Then I noticed, in the midst of all this, my plate had double the shrimps from before.

"Oh, Viola just got tired of holding the shrimps, so she just put them on my plate," I said, taking one for myself.

"Don't mind if I do," Eddy took one as well, grabbing it from the plate.

"Let's take him inside the guild," the priest said to us. "Yeah, let's do that."

"...."

I looked toward Barren, which made him somewhat awkward. "Don't look at me like that," he said.

"I don't know where I would be if they didn't save me that day," Simon said. "I regained consciousness after a day when everything was over. I was no longer guilty," Simon added, looking toward Barren. "He saved me that day. He was the only one who stood up for me, without even knowing my side of the story. And also, I can't forget Eddy and Viola too. They helped me a lot."

The respect I felt toward Barren suddenly increased tenfold. He really has a golden heart. The room's mood started to grow stiff once again when Eddy said, "And now for that day when we lost Viola forever..."

"I will never forget the man who destroyed our lives and who has now kidnapped Kathleen," Barren said, clear anger in his voice.

To be continued...