The Mother of Chaos, whom Hawk called Mom, looked round and sluggish, but her speed was actually quite impressive.
Soon, the group arrived near Baste Prison, in a town called Dalmally.
As usual, Hawk Mom stopped outside the town, and the group walked into the town.
However, as soon as Drake entered the town, he felt uncomfortable all over. After carefully examining his surroundings, he discovered the anomaly.
It was a bug crawling on the wall. Just looking at its strangely colored body covered in fluff, and its hideous mouthparts, one could tell that it was a dangerous poisonous insect.
Most importantly, Drake sensed a faint amount of magic power from that bug, and he had seen the same bugs outside the town.
If Drake wasn't mistaken, those bugs were being controlled by someone, and the person controlling them should be the Holy Knight stationed at Baste Prison.
Drake had learned a lot about things that the original story had overlooked from a few travelogues and notes left behind by unknown people at the Boar Hat.
Aside from the Great Holy Knights, who were responsible for commanding all the Holy Knights, and those like Gilthunder, who guarded the royal family, most of the other Holy Knights operated in the form of knight orders.
The Seven Deadly Sins were one of them, except that the knight order consisting of only seven formal Holy Knights was special.
A normal knight order consisted of three to ten formal Holy Knights, plus an unspecified number of squire Holy Knights.
And the knight order was the most basic combat unit of the kingdom. Right now, there was a knight order stationed at Baste Prison.
The Weird Fangs knight order, which had four Holy Knights, but their abilities were naturally not recorded in the notes.
There seemed to have been someone like that in the original story; what were their abilities again? Drake didn't really remember; they were just characters that could be dealt with easily.
As expected, not only him, but Stella and Meliodas had also noticed that they were being watched, and had secretly become vigilant.
In this state of outward relaxation and inner tension, the group arrived at a restaurant.
Regardless of the world, ordinary people were easily swayed by prejudice. So, the residents of the town had all been frightened away by Diane, the giant.
The owner of this restaurant didn't run away for some reason, and even greeted everyone with great enthusiasm.
Diane poked her head in through the window, looking at everyone inside, saying, "Now that we've arrived at Baste Prison, what should we do? Should we just barge in and rescue Ban?"
Meliodas waved his hand, saying, "We could, but someone might come looking for us first."
Drake nodded, knowing that those bugs had already revealed their whereabouts. For the Weird Fangs, the most logical response would be to prepare in advance, relying on Baste Prison's home-field advantage to fight the group.
Baste Prison had originally been built as a fortress to respond to war at any time, but it had been converted into a prison for important prisoners because the Kingdom of Liones under the current king's rule hadn't experienced any wars. For the Weird Fangs, it was definitely a solid fortress.
But Drake already understood the nature of the Holy Knights; they would come looking for them on their own initiative.
Power bred arrogance, and those guys who had always been revered by the entire kingdom couldn't possibly put anyone else in their eyes.
Just then, the owner of the restaurant walked over with a tray, placing the steaming food on the table.
Just as he was placing a plate of fried rice in front of Drake, Drake grabbed his wrist.
"Hey! Boss, let me teach you something. Next time you use poison, don't use a poison with such a pungent smell. Or put it in some strongly scented food. Otherwise, it'll be too easy for people to notice!"
The owner's expression changed drastically, and he struggled violently. But Drake's hand was like an iron clamp, and he couldn't break free.
Elizabeth put down the utensils she had just picked up, saying in surprise, "There's poison in the food?"
Meliodas also put down his wine glass, his expression darkening.
He had indeed been careless this time. Well, the enemies he had always faced, even the most low-ranking ones, wouldn't use such despicable methods as poisoning, so he really hadn't been prepared.
It was a good thing Drake was here; he himself didn't care, since he couldn't die anyway. But Elizabeth was different; he really didn't know what he would do if Elizabeth ate the poison.
Drake tightened his grip, causing the owner to cry out in pain, saying coldly, "Tell me, who told you to put the poison in?"
"It was me!"
Just then, a middle-aged man walked out from the kitchen, saying, "He only put the poison in to help me; I was the one who gave him the poison. If you want to investigate, look for me; please let him go!"
Meliodas quickly stopped Diane, who wanted to overturn the restaurant, looking at the middle-aged man, saying, "Who exactly are you, and why did you want to poison us?"
The middle-aged man said with a mournful face, "My name is Dana, and I'm a doctor in this town. The Holy Knight-sama from Baste Prison ordered me to poison you.
He kidnapped my daughter, and if I didn't do it, my daughter would…."
Saying this, Dana knelt powerlessly on the ground, saying, "You can take my life if you want, but please, I beg you, please save my daughter."
Elizabeth stood to the side, her expression filled with unspeakable sorrow. She was the princess of this country, but the Holy Knights, who were supposed to protect the country, had done something like this; she couldn't help but feel that it was her responsibility for not being able to stop them.
Drake also released the restaurant owner, looking at Meliodas, saying, "Captain, what should we do next?"
Meliodas was silent for a moment, before saying, "Alright, we were planning to go to Baste Prison anyway; if we run into her, we'll rescue your daughter."
Drake looked at Meliodas' eyes; he wasn't so kindhearted as to want to help the guy who had tried to poison him, and had made this decision entirely for Elizabeth's sake.
Because he didn't want to see Elizabeth blame herself and suffer, he was willing to take action.
Just then, an unpleasant, muffled voice rang out.
"Oh, it failed; that's no good. We can't let it get out that a Holy Knight threatened a citizen with his young daughter."
Drake snorted coldly, and moved, coming before Dana and kicking out.
At that moment, a person wearing silver-gray armor and a horned helmet that covered his face with a jester mask happened to appear, and was kicked by Drake, breaking through the wall and flying out.
Meliodas stroked his chin, saying, "That's the ability to become invisible, huh? I'm impressed that you could find him, Drake."
Drake waved his hand, saying, "It's nothing big; although he hid his form, his voice and scent can still be detected if you're sensitive enough.
Dr. Dana, this is the guy who threatened you to put the poison in, right!"
Meliodas clicked his tongue, saying, "So he's ruthlessly targeting civilians, huh? That really suits that sneaky magic power!"
Saying this, Meliodas drew the short rod from his waist and swung it to the side.
The Holy Knight, having suffered a heavy blow, was no longer able to maintain his invisibility magic power, and the trident in his hand was shattered, and he was sent flying.
Having learned about the other party's ability, and Drake having demonstrated how to counter it, Meliodas was naturally able to do it as well.
"Since they've come looking for us, then let's return the favor! Let's go, we're going to overturn Baste Prison."
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