Previously:
"That's right…" Sinbad said, getting an idea. "Can I ask a favor of the amazing Aladdin?"
"What is it?" Aladdin asked.
"To tell you the truth, there is a certain battle going on right now, but… because of certain circumstances… Right now I do not have any metal vessels!" Sinbad confessed frankly, looking far too proud about it for Ja'far's taste.
"All seven of them were stolen from him." He chimed in bluntly, causing the twins to sweat-drop.
"Would you be willing to lend us your power, so we can capture the Fog Troupe?" Sinbad asked.
Chapter 37: Question
"Capture the Fog Troupe!?" Aladdin asked, surprised.
"Yes." Said Sinbad. "Join forces with us so that the Fog Troupe, which is causing a disturbance in this country, can be brought to justice."
"…!" Aladdin, Faith, and Morgiana said, taken aback when they saw how serious he was, while Hope furrowed her brow slightly.
"Sin, wait a second!" Ja'far said anxiously, grabbing his shoulder. "What nonsense are you saying!? He's still a young child, you know! How could you ask such a young child to undergo such dangers?" he asked sternly, placing himself protectively in front of Aladdin and the girls.
"… But age doesn't matter, does it? The most important point is whether they have the capability of facing the thieves or not." Sinbad replied calmly. "Aladdin is a magi. Just as you see here, he wields power beyond imagination." He said, gesturing to Ugo. "Although he is still a child, his capability far surpasses that of a fully grown adult. I was fourteen when I captured my first dungeon. It was said that thousands had died in there. Since then, my experiences during those repeated voyages, adventures, and life-threatening battles have become my weapons in those years where survival wasn't guaranteed. What is needed is power. To stay alive when challenging unknown worlds, you need an ability that surpasses everyone else's!" Sinbad said determinedly, clenching his fist. "He has that power. You should be able to see it too, right?"
"…" Ja'far still looked reluctant, but he didn't say another word against recruiting Aladdin.
"Ojii-san said to get rid of the thieves… What should we do?" Aladdin asked the girls.
"I say 'yes'!" Faith replied immediately, looking super pumped about the idea of taking out another band of thieves.
"I say 'let's give this a little more thought,' shall we?" Hope deadpanned, sweat-dropping. "What about you, Morg-chan?"
"…" Morgiana looked down, deep in thought. "… Let's join them." She said after thinking it over for a while. "The ship to the Dark Continent was halted because of the Fog Troupe. Once the Fog troupe is taken down, the harbor will probably resume its activities."
"Mm. I think so, too." Hope agreed.
"!?" Faith and Aladdin said, looking surprise.
"Then, we're gonna do it?" Faith asked excitedly. Hope nodded.
"Because, according to our previous conversation, it seems like 'Sin' here is familiar with Balbadd's king. We're looking for someone, so could you ask the king to help us. If we manage to solve this problem, then perhaps we can also borrow the country's resources to aid us in our search?" she suggested, looking pointedly at Sinbad.
"Yes." Morgiana agreed. "I was thinking something along those lines as well…"
"Also, any information you can give us on dungeons and Djinns would be greatly appreciated." Hope added with a brilliant shit-eating grin.
"Oh~" Sinbad said, impressed by the girls' shrewdness. "Such clever girls. Morgiana is completely different from you, who resolves everything through brute force!" he said with a big grin, laughing as he slapped Masrur on the back.
"…" Masrur said, managing to look bored and fed up at the same time without twitching a muscle.
"Of course." Sinbad said, turning back to face the girls and Aladdin. "I will ask the king of Balbadd to send people to search the entire nation. Furthermore, I'll arrange a boat to the Dark Continent. How does that sound?" he asked with a smile.
"!!" they said, exchanging some very excited nods.
"Yeah!!" Aladdin agreed enthusiastically, grabbing Sinbad's outstretched hands. "We'll help with 'taking care of those thieves'!!"
"Yes!!" Faith cheered, pumping her fist in the air.
"Then we have an agreement!" Sinbad said with a grin, glad the magi had decided to accept. "Let's draw up a strategy, Aladdin!"
"Yeah!!" Aladdin said excitedly.
"As for the girls…" said Sinbad. "Why don't you just stay at the hotel and wait for us?" Their smiles fell almost immediately.
"…!?" the twins said, furrowing their brows in confusion and annoyance.
"Um… I can fight too…" Morgiana said, also confused about his sudden shift in attitude towards them.
"No, even if you're a Fanalis, I can't let a girl fight." Sinbad said with a smile, as if he were doing them a favor.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard…" Faith muttered with a severe frown, fighting the urge to punch him.
"But we want to help too." Hope protested as he began to shepherd them away.
"Just leave this matter to us men; you girls just wait at the hotel! All right!" Sinbad said with that idiotic smile still plastered on his face.
"…" The girls said as angry veins popped on their foreheads.
CRRASH!!
"!?" Sinbad flinched in shock when Morgiana suddenly applied the brakes, slamming her foot so hard against the ground, that she shattered the stone beneath it; and then, the next thing he knew, there was a sharp pain in his legs and his chest as he was knocked flat on his back. The moment Morgiana acted, the twins had spun around to face Sinbad; and Faith delivered a low roundhouse kick to sweep his feet out from under him, while Hope delivered a high roundhouse kick to his chest with just enough force to prove their point without seriously injuring him.
"We want to fight too!" Morgiana said with an angry pout as the girls loomed over him. "We're already prepared, so no matter how big that band of thieves is, We can get rid of them just the same."
"Yeah, so no trying to leave us out, 'kay?" the twins said with matching shit-eating grins, which did very little to conceal their ire with the threatening aura they were giving off, and the vein marks throbbing on their foreheads.
"Yes, Ma'ams." Sinbad quipped immediately as a bead of cold sweat rolled down the side of his face, still pale with shock from their little show of strength. These girls could be pretty scary…
"Morg, Hope, and Faith are all very strong!" Aladdin said brightly. "Just the other day, the three of them took care of the band of thieves that was occupying the rock quarry. When I was captured, it was them who rescued me!"
"Wha—!?" Sinbad exclaimed, flinching in shock again. "They defeated the band of thieves that even captured a magi? You girls sure are strong…" To think these twins could keep up with a Fanalis… They had looked so normal.
"Plus, my sister has a Metal Vessel!" Faith added.
"Not that I know how to use it, but…" Hope said.
"That's more than we can say for you right now." Faith finished bluntly.
"What? You're also a dungeon capturer!?" Sinbad asked, surprised.
"Technically, everyone in our group has survived clearing a dungeon. So, I take it you have no objections to us joining you?" Hope asked, crossing her arms, while Faith smirked, and Morgiana watched him like a hawk.
"Absolutely none!" said Sinbad with a serious gleam in his eyes as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of his face. He had definitely learned his lesson. These kids were great!
"Since everyone is assembled, let's start the meeting… I'll leave it to you, Ja'far!" Sinbad said once Ugo returned to his flute, and they had moved to a more private room.
"Thank you…" Ja'far said, sweat-dropping. "Then, I'll now explain what the information I have gathered from the residents and the military tells us about when and where those robbers tend to attack. Firstly, they only act on foggy nights. Balbadd often suffers from fog. When the sea winds blows across the hills, fog usually forms. The thieves take advantage of this fog to hide their movements. Secondly, their aim is the country's treasury and the rich. They act in groups of at least ten, but no more than a hundred people. Having stolen the food, weapons, and goods, they disperse. Thirdly, a point which many people have noticed… they always manage to hit areas that are weakly guarded. As you can understand from this, the chances of an inside information leak are very high." Sinbad frowned. "But, the most troublesome part of the problem is, however, that a large majority of the residents support them. So, once they disperse into town, it becomes impossible to track them down."
"Even though they are thieves, the residents support them?" Aladdin asked.
"Yes, this is because they distribute the stolen items among the poor, so they are known as 'virtuous thieves'. This has won them the heart of the people." Ja'far explained. "And the one who is the most popular of them all… is the leader known as 'Wonder Man Alibaba'." A bead of sweat slid down the side of Aladdin's face as he considered everything he had just heard. He was starting to get a bad feeling…
'No, Alibaba-kun could never be the leader of these thieves.' Aladdin told himself.
"Um… as the citizens support them… is it really all right to capture them?" Morgiana asked.
"…" the twins said, looking like they were thinking along the same lines.
"… I agree with your reservations." Sinbad said. "The Fog Troupe is well-known as virtuous thieves. This means that they are thieves who act against perceived injustices. Furthermore, the fact that they distribute the stolen items to the poor has earned them the support from the people. But, this got me thinking… What if they performed those righteous actions just to gain popular support… or for other ulterior motives."
"I see… That's also a possibility…" Hope said thoughtfully. "Even though they seem to be doing this for the people, the truth is they're just causing more problems, like how they've disrupted the shipping traffic… If that goes on for too long, it could make the economy even worse, and that'll hurt everyone."
"You think so, too?" Faith asked.
"Yeah." hope said with a nod. "There's precedent for something like that happening in our homeland, after all."
"What! When?"
"Jesse James, remember?" Hope said, as if it should have been obvious. "Back in the day he was considered a folk hero because people also thought of him as a 'virtuous thief' because he gave away some of his loot, but the truth is he kept the majority of it for himself. Having the support of the people made it easier to evade the lawmen that were after him. While Jesse was many things, including being a sometimes kind man, a dapper dresser, and a prankish charmer, he was also a cold-blooded murderer, robber, horse thief, and terrorist. He and his gang were very dangerous men…"
"Where did you hear that from?" Faith asked dubiously.
"… From our history teacher." Hope reminded her. "You don't remember?"
"Ah, Dinkleberg…" Faith said grudgingly, narrowing her eyes. And, yes, that really was the man's name.
"Incidentally, where is your homeland?" Sinbad asked curiously. They were wearing the clothing of one the Northern tribes, but he had never heard of an outlaw by that strange name before.
"Oh, uh… Don't worry about that! I doubt you'll have heard of it." Hope said with bright smile to hide her nervousness for having slipped up. Morgiana and Aladdin were fine, but she didn't want any more people than necessary to know about their incredible origins.
"Yeah, it's not like you'll be able to find it on any map." Faith added, earning herself a swift elbow in the side from her sister.
"Anyway, you were saying?" Hope asked, prompting Sinbad to continue what he was saying before in an attempt to shift the subject away from them.
"… Well," Sinbad said, getting back to business despite being more curious than ever, "because of who and what I am, I'll think about all sides before arriving at a conclusion I feel is correct. Think about it before deciding for yourself. I hope you can give it the needed consideration, so you can differentiate between what is right and wrong… and that you can believe in whatever answer you have attained for yourself." He said, standing up. "This is how I've paved my way… How about you?" he asked Aladdin and the girls.
"I'll think about it." Aladdin said seriously after a moment.
"Yeah, us too." The twins agreed.
"… Me too." Said Morgiana.
"All right." Sinbad said with a smile.