「What was that about 20 bandits, that perverted balding old fogey...」
Around the time when the sun was beginning to set, I found the bandit hideout in an open, bowl-shaped rocky area.
In order to scout them from a high vantage point, we were sitting on a branch of a tall tree about 300 meters away from the hideout. We were in a position where they wouldn't see us back-lit against the sun.
Looking through a single telescope, I could see that the hideout hadn't been fortified with fences or turrets but it could get troublesome if archers used the surrounding rock formations as staging grounds.
Moreover, even though it was already a geographically troublesome place, far from 20, a rough count showed about 60 bandits, three times the number that he told us, hanging out there.
「Someone who can pull together this kind of numbers isn't just some normal drifter...」
I put the single telescope to my eye and searched through the hideout.
「There he is, that's the boss of this group of bandits」
I found a big man with a tribal tattoo on the right half of his face. The quality of his equipment was clearly better than others, and women, who looked like underlings, were serving him drinks.
He looked drunk, but his gaze was sharp and it was obvious that he was a fierce fighter. Based on his face, I searched through the criminal list that I had memorized.
「I remembered. The leader of those bandits is Razor Gordo」
Razor Gordo. His Job was Bandit, a B Rank Job ranked up from Scout. He was an infamous criminal who led the self-named Gordo Band and had been on a rampage around the western part of the Empire.
「I had heard that his band was destroyed by Seekers, but the leader, Gordo, must have escaped alive. He's as tenacious as a cockroach」
But if it was that Razor Gordo, then I could accept him being able to gather 60 underlings. His plan was probably to build his strength out here in the rural areas before going back to doing big things again.
「Alma, what do you think? Can you win against a B Rank Bandit opponent?」
「Easily」
Beside me, Alma didn't use the single telescope and simply looked through her fingers that she had formed into a tube.
「Even if he's a B Rank, I can beat someone of his level before finishing breakfast」
Between a C Rank and a B Rank, a B Rank would naturally be stronger. But that was only when talking purely about their specs. It would be a different story against an A Rank or above, but it was possible for a C Rank to beat a B Rank if that C Rank had better technique and more experience.
Moreover, Alma had already fulfilled the rank up requirements. It was likely a fact, and not an exaggeration, that Razor Gordo was an easy opponent for Alma.
「But he's only easy if we fight one-on-one. It's impossible if I have to fight him along with all those underlings」
「Understood. In that case, I'll take care of them」
「Noel is going to fight together with me? But if you get any closer, you'll be caught by the Bandit's enemy detection Skill. I have a Skill to conceal my presence but Noel doesn't, right?」
「Listen until the end. My plan goes like this――」
First, using Alma would use Scout Skill: Stealth and get as close to Gordo as possible without getting caught by his enemy detection skill.
And then, once she was in position, I would use Talk Skill: Stun Howl. Even if my targets and me were 300 meters apart, it was well within the range when it came the volume of a Talker’s voice. With this, it would be possible to immobilize all the underlings.
The higher ranked Gordo should be able to resist it, but my aim from the start was the underlings. In any case, Gordo would also stop moving when he was trying to figure out what was going on. All Alma had to do was to exploit that opening and take him out from behind.
When the underlings recovered from the stun, Alma would eliminate the enemies while causing disorder. At this point, rather than trying to forcibly reduce their number, I wanted her to concentrate on throwing them into disarray.
The bandits would be a disorganized mob after the death of their leader. Without anyone to command them, their advantage in numbers would instead hinder their own movements. If they were kept in a state of disarray, let alone put up a fight, they would probably not be able to even flee.
I would then join up from behind during the confusion and further reduce their escape routes using Silver-chan's area-of-effect attacks. Once we had wiped out the bandits without letting any of them escape, then it would be mission complete.
「――is my plan, but do you have any objections or questions?」
「None. Perfect. Let's go with that」
「Okay. From this point onward, we'll talk through Link」
Talk Skill: Link
It was a Skill that let me share thoughts and communicate telepathically with party members. As long as we had this, we could coordinate closely even if we were a distance apart.
『Are your preparations complete?』
After sending that thought telepathically, Alma's voice rang out inside my head.
『Ready and raring to go』
『Then let's start the operation』
Talk Skill: Battle Voice
After getting buffed, Alma used Scout Skill: Stealth. It was a Skill that reduced her presence and made it very difficult to detect her, but Alma's presence practically disappeared. Her proficiency with the Skill was so high, that it felt like she had become transparent.
Alma jumped off the tree while in the Stealth state and ran through the forest.
A few seconds later, I received a communication back.
『In position. Distance is 10 meters. I'll take him out once you give the order』
『Understood. ――I'm using Stun Howl』
I breathed in as much as I could, then shouted at the top of my lungs.
「STOP!!!!!」
Looking through the single telescope, I was able to confirm that the group of bandits had been stunned. Gordo, who had resisted it, realized that something was wrong and stood up.
『Order! Kill Gordo!』
Talk Skill: Deploy Tactics
Alma, who had all of her abilities buffed by 25 percent, used Accel and closed in on Gordo at lightning speed.
Scout Skill: Silent Killing
And then, Scout Skill: Quick Attack
Through the single telescope, I saw Gordo collapse in a spray of blood.
A Skill that increased the damage by 3 times if a surprise attack was successful and a Skill that raised the damage in proportion to the user's speed combined to result in Alma's knife piercing through and creating a huge hole in Gordo's chest.
It was a sure-kill method and the damage caused went beyond critical and into overkill territory.
『Death confirmed! Next order! Until I arrive, continue to cause disorder among the enemies!』
The same time I gave her the order through Link, I jumped down from the branch. At full speed, it should take me 32 seconds to run the 300 meters through the obstacle-laden forest.
『――2nd kill. 3rd kill. 4th kill. 5th kill――』
As I was sprinting, I kept hearing Alma's reports on her kill count inside my head. Those reports kept on coming and the kill count had already entered double digits.
That woman, while it was fine to kill them, did she understand the meaning behind my order to cause disorder?
It would be one thing if they were wiped out like this, but if she caused intense fear instead of disorder, it would result in a large number of them fleeing. Just like how cornered beasts were violent, stray bandits were dangerous. They had no reason to repent and they had given up on themselves, so they would likely lash out at anyone in their reach.
If that happened, as the ones who let them escape, we would be taken to task for it. That was why the absolute rule when destroying a group of bandits, was to kill every single one of them.
I arrived at the bandit hideout――the open rocky area. What I witnessed there was the figure of Alma slaughtering the bandits without a shred of mercy.
「Fufufufu, ahahahahahahaha!!!」
In the light of the setting sun, a white reaper could be seen swinging a dull-colored blade with a crazed smile on her face. Limbs were sent flying in a blink of an eye, as pitiful sacks of meat spilled their blood and entrails all over the ground. Without being blemished by the blood splattering everywhere, she remained beautifully pristine white……
「W, what on earth is this monster!? S, stay away! Stay awayyy!」
A panicked bandit raised his voice into a shriek. The next instant, his head was rolling on the ground. Half of the bandits that witnessed that were gripped by fear and scrambled all around in an attempt to escape.
It had turned out like this after all…... On top of that, Alma was in a complete blood-frenzy, and was emitting a crazed air that didn't seem human, even to an ally like me.
Well, it wasn't a problem now that I had arrived.
「Don't think you lot can escape! I'll kill all of you!!!」
Everyone turned towards me, who had suddenly appeared and was shouting at them.
『Alma, return to your senses! I'm using a flash grenade!』
『Wha!? G, got it! Sorry!』
Along with that new order sent via Link, I also used Talk Skill: Peer Support, a Skill that normalized the target's mental state.
Confirming that Alma had covered her eyes with her arm, I closed my eyes, took a flash grenade out from my coat and threw it above my head.
「Gyaaaa!」
When I opened my eyes, all I saw were bandits holding their eyes. Even those that had been about to run away were unable to move with their eyesight blinded. Without hesitation, I drew Silver-chan and fired a Flame Bullet into the most crowded spot.
「Hot, it burns~!!! Uwaaaaa!!!」
The flames released by the magic bullet lit the bandits on fire. As the blinded bandits stumbled around and into each other, unable to understand what was happening, the fire even spread to those that had been outside the area-of-effect of the Flame Bullet.
In front of that pandemonic scene from hell, I gave Alma new orders.
『Alma, I'll kill the ones in the center. You go kill the ones furthest away!』
『Understood!』
Alma took out needles from a case secured to her thigh, and threw them all at once with a big swing. It looked like a haphazard throw, but every needle shot a bandit dead.
Scout Skill: Perfect Throw
A Skill that made throwing attacks auto-homing and definitely hit their target.
Those that were trying to escape while blinded would have no way to defend against that. This rocky area had already become a bird cage, albeit without bars. All that was left was to earnestly deal with them in a patient and thorough manner.
My knife glinting with the light from the setting sun, I walked towards the bandits, one step at a time.
†
†
In the end, there were 64 of them in total.
38 for Alma and 26 for me, none of them had been allowed to escape and all of them had become silent corpses scattered across the ground.
About 20 percent of them were probably people like Gordo, misfits who were unable to conform to society, but most of them were just novice criminals trying to escape from a life of poverty.
These were the people who had debts pile up and were no longer able to stay in the city, or the second sons and third sons who had been exiled from villages to reduce the number of mouths to feed, and were people that hadn’t become criminals because they had wanted to.
They were all young and about the same age as me. Their fighting skill was also clearly low. As if they were protesting against the irrationality of the world they lived in, I could see deep resentment and sorrow on their dead faces.
However, it was also the truth that they had already done their share of banditry.
It was one thing if they had only robbed, but they had harmed, killed and raped, and were villains who trampled on the dignity of those who led an honest and straight life, just like commonplace bandits.
Especially the Gordo Band, who were infamous for their cruelty.
The story of how he would make the children in the villages that he had assaulted hold small razors and force them to push it deeper and deeper into their parents' bodies until they died was so infamous that it had spread even to the imperial capital. This was where his moniker of 『Razor』 came from.
And to that Gordo, refusing to do something because it was cowardly or dirty was a major crime. At the very least, every single one of those who were lying dead on the ground right now were people who had adapted to Gordo's slaughter-shows. Because those who couldn't would have been killed already.
In other words, no matter what their circumstances were, these guys were all garbage that deserved to be killed.
With the suffocating smell of blood and guts around me, I cut off Razor Gordo's head and put it in a sack that I had found in the hideout.
If I handed this head to the city’s military police, I would receive his bounty. If I wasn't mistaken, the bounty for Razor Gordo was 2 million Fil. Carrying a decapitated head was the worst feeling, but it was something that I could probably put up with for 2 million Fil.
「I found it. Just as Noel said, there was a lot. It’s about a million Fil」
Alma walked over to me, holding up a leather bag. While I was dealing with Gordo's head, I had Alma look for the Gordo Band's money.
It was only natural that there would be a lot of money because it was only a few days after they had raided a village, and I was right to assume that for a big bounty like Gordo, his money management would also be perfect.
If this was a normal group of bandits, the majority of the spoils would have been distributed among the bandits long ago, and would undoubtedly have disappeared to fulfill their individual cravings. That was because the ability to manage the distribution of the spoils strictly without affecting loyalty was something that an average leader of a group of bandits didn’t have.
Razor Gordo, his abilities as a big-name bounty were the real deal.
「Keep it, Alma. That's your share from this job. I'll give you a bigger share since it's your first time. Is letting me take charge of the reward from the village as well as Gordo's bounty okay with you?」
「Okay. Hehehe, one million Fil! I'll be able to eat lots of fried buns!」
I had promised to give all of the belongings of the bandits to the village chief, but that was when I thought that the village chief was being truthful. It had turned out that the number of bandits had been three times what he had said, and on top of that, the leader had even been the infamous criminal, Razor Gordo. We would take Gordo's money to cover the difference. It was what we were due.
First and foremost, the village chief must have known about this. Before he had sent the request to us, he should have witnessed the miserable state of the neighboring village that had been destroyed by the Gordo Band, and the peculiarity of the group of bandits that had done it would undoubtedly be obvious, even to an amateur.
However, he had told us no such information. That perverted balding old fogey had kept the information that he should have told us secret in order to get us to accept the request for a cheap reward.
Unlike the Abyss-related jobs managed by the country, personal requests were a treasure trove of troubles. We went all the way and finished it this time because I had wanted to test our party's strength, but by all rights, this was a case where we should have canceled the request and gone back the moment we found out things were different from what we had been told.
I had expected this to some extent, but it still made me angry when I was actually deceived.
「Haaa, I want to hurry up and go back to doing Abyss-related jobs……」
「But we earned quite a lot. Bandit hunting isn't so bad either」
「Yes, if you looked only at the result. However, continuing to do jobs like this isn't very stable and more than anything else, it's not enjoyable. Because, in the end, I hate killing people」
「Huh? Weren't you totally into it?」
「Don't make it sound like I'm a homicidal maniac. I only forcibly pumped myself up because it was a fight. There’s no way I'm totally fine with killing those of the same race, isn’t it? ……Haaa」
It’s said that good fortune escapes every time one sighed, but it felt too bothersome to suppress it.
At least, one more person…… Even though we would be able to go into Abysses again if a Tank joined as an ally……
Well, it wasn't all bad. Getting Alma as an ally was a stroke of good luck and the bandit subjugation had ended up earning pretty well.
It was only a little, but even though it was only a little, I had started moving forward again.
When I looked up, by chance, a large airship flew across the slowly darkening blue sky.
「Wow~, an airship!」
Alma, who had looked up at the sky like I did, shouted in high spirits.
The airship, the greatest invention of the Magical Tools civilization. Made from Beast materials, it was a large ship, which had a special flying engine, that flew in the sky. It was used for the transportation of goods and people, mainly by royalty and the nobility.
「From its shape and color, that airship belongs to a clan called Goat Dinner, a 3rd Star of Regalia(7 Stars)」
When I muttered that, Alma tilted her head.
「Regalia? What's a Regalia?」
「What, you don't know about the Regalia? Putting it plainly, Regalia are the clans whose strength have been acknowledged by the Emperor」
A clan was a higher tier organization compared to a party. Among them, clans that had accomplished overwhelmingly more great achievements than the others were awarded a medal directly from the Emperor.
Those were the Regalia. The radiant seven stars of the imperial capital.
The awarded medal was not just a decoration, but bestowed powerful authority similar to that of high nobility. The right to possess an airship, something that was forbidden to all except royalty and the nobility, was also one of its privileges.
「There are seven positions in Regalia. They aren't all the same rank. Ranked in ascending order, there are four 3rd Star clans, two 2nd Star clans and one 1st Star clan. That airship we saw earlier belonged to Goat Dinner, one of those 3rd Star clans. They were heading in the direction of the imperial capital, so I’m guessing that they're probably returning from an expedition」
「Hmm~, that's impressive. Then that airship is full of strong Seekers?」
「They're not just strong. Be it intelligence, experience, financial power, or courage, they’re the top-class among Seekers. There’s no comparison with the normal Seekers that you can find anywhere」
Goat Dinner's airship was growing smaller at the edge of the already scarlet sky. I unconsciously reached my hand out in that direction.
It’s still so far away. To those who have the wings to soar through the sky, the current me is only an insect crawling on the earth.
But someday――
No, that’s wrong. A vague goal like 『someday』 won't cut it.
「……One year」
「Eh, did you say something?」
「In one year, I’ll obtain that」
It’s unlike me to aim for such a foolhardy goal. But to reach the peak of all Seekers, I’ll need to have that level of resolve.
「In one year, Blue Beyond will become one of the Regalia」
A bandit with a Bandit Job… You could say, he was only following his calling…
They still have to head back to the village to collect the rest of the reward. Naw, things will go smoothly. For sure. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login