Chapter 97: Punish

When I woke up next morning, Elena, who was right next to me, came into sight immediately with her cute sleeping face.

There seemed to be not much problems compared to when we are three, including Aya, slept together……(there were too many problems)

As one would expected, it smelled like a crime when it was only the two of us lying on the bed.

「Fa.~ Good mo~ning, Seiji-sama.」

「Good morning, Elena.」

Somehow, I feel like I can exert myself to do my very best today!

I waited for my rampaging tent to calm down and commence our operation.

***

First, I went to Rondo’s place to report the retrieval of the foodstuff.

When I talked to the soldier at the camp’s entrance, I was able to passed through smoothly.

「Yo! Rondo. I got it back.」

「I see, then, where’s the recovered food?」

「I’m carrying it using magic, where should I put it?」

「Magic!? I see, I’ll guide you to the food storage tent.」

Led by Rondo, we came over to a huge tent.

Inside the tent, there was a heap of orc’s meat.

「It’s only an orc’s meat.」

「For some reason, the orc’s meat was not stolen. I understood then when I heard yesterday’s story. If the orcs were the thieves, they won’t steal orcs’ the meat as one would expect.」

Oh, I see. Was that why inside the Slums’ warehouse, there wasn’t any orc’s meat? Well, if you think about it, it was only natural.

「I think the food of other troops were also mixed in the recovered food, should I put them all here?」

「I will handle the ones for the other troops. So, it’s fine to put all of them here.」

This man called Rondo didn’t speak too much in the fighting competition, he might be a pretty excellent guy.

Let’s leave all the necessary arrangements and contacting the other aristocrats to him.

When I took the recovered food out of the inventory and stored them all in the tent, Rondo was surprised.

「Did you get back so much food? But, it’s an amazing magic. If you have this kind of magic, the campaign will become much easier. How about you become my subordinate, Seiji?」

「I have my own work, please find someone else.」

「What work is that?」

「It’s to guard and assist Elena.」

「I can understand the guard part but help her to what?」

「Seiji-sama and I are going to stop the war.」

「Stop the war!?」

When I explained circumstances so far to Rondo―

「I see, the orcs are disguising themselves using【Magic stone of Human transformation】and sneak in, huh. But, if that is the case, the『Azos Family』who governs this town is completely guilty.」

「Oh, it’s highly likely.」

「But, there’s no evidence.」

While having such talk,【Vigilance】magic suddenly informed me of『Danger』.

「Wait a moment, it seemed something has happened.」

「What!?」

When I checked it, it was the beacon attached to the Slums’ food warehouse’s door.

I projected the video so that it can also be seen by Elena and Rondo―

The orcs realized something unusual inside the food warehouse and was trying to break the door open by ramming against it.

「This is?」

「I tinkered the door so it won’t get noticed immediately that I got the food back.」

「I see.」

The orcs managed to somehow break the door open. When they saw the empty warehouse, they began to panic.

A High orc came over and started giving order to the orcs. It seemed to be the boss.

After looking for a while, the high orc took out a【Magic stone of Human transformation】and disguised itself as a human.

When Rondo saw it, he suddenly exclaimed.

「Ah, I’ve seen this guy!」

「You’ve seen the high orc who disguised itself as a human?」

「Yes, that fellow was the one who testified that Scab village has been destroyed by the demon lord’s army, the『Merchant of the Slums』!」

Well, I think it was only natural for it to be an orc since the Slums was full of orcs. It was a high orc, huh.

When watching the situation for awhile―

Another person, a human appeared.

「A-, Azos!?」

When I turned on the sound―

『Azos-sama, it’s, as you see.』

『Moron! Didn’t I tell you to put someone and guard it properly!?』

『I, guarded, properly. But, it was stolen.』

「Does it mean, Azos-dono was the one who gave the order directly……」

Rondo looked at Azos, disgusted.

「Shall we go there?」

「Go there? But, wouldn’t he ran away by then?」

「Well, just leave it to me. Elena will go as well.」

「Yes, Seiji-sama.」

「What on earth are you going to do?」

I had Rondo wear his armor and hold his weapon.

We teleported to where Azos is using【Teleportation】.

***

「Yo! Azos-san. What are you doing in a place such as this with nothing but orcs?」

「Fa!? Y-, You guys are!? Where on earth did you come from!?」

「Azos-dono, you still won’t be able to talk your way out of here.」

「Rondo, you!1 A mere greenhorn dare to oppose me! Oy, you guys, kill them!」

Just like an evil magistrate……

It’s like we are inside a scene of some retired crepe wholesaler.

The cast are, Rondo and me as Suke-san and Kaku-san, while Elena is Komon-sama.1

I would like to see Elena as Komon-sama.~ Hn? Why am I saying something strange? Well, whatever.

We were surrounded by Azos and lots of orcs.

「Oy, Seiji. What should we do in this situation!?」

「N? This much isn’t a big deal, right?」

「I’m talking about Elena-sama!」

「Elena can protect herself.」

「What kind of stupid thing…」

Bakon!

When we looked towards Elena, an orc drew near unnoticed. It was knocked off of its feet.

「!?」

「Hey, are you alright?」

「O, Ou…」

「What are you doing!? Aren’t they just 3 people!? Get rid of them quickly!!」

Azos clamored at the back.

When I looked at Azos this way, he seemed to resemble an orc. I couldn’t tell the difference when he was lined up with the orcs.

Rondo and I break into a run simultaneously and plunged into the orc horde.

Me on the right, Rondo the left and *flail flail* we chopped up the orcs.

The orc horde’s midsection, fortunately, projects towards Elena.

「【Hail】!」

But, the projecting orc horde fell one after another with Elena’s【Hail】attack.

The orcs and Rondo were surprised at the raging hail and were confused. I dealt with the orcs during that interval.

Finally, the midsection had become exhibition of frozen orcs.

Afterwards, Elena skillfully avoided Rondo and me, and dropped huge blocks of ice one after another aimed at the orcs.

Before anyone noticed it, the high orc merchant and Azos were surrounded by walls of ice, they have nowhere to escape.

So this is what Elena had been aiming for!

We cleaned up the survivors and approached the High orc merchant and Azos―

One human and one monster, both were flustered.

「Azos, obediently let me tie you with a rope.」

「Rondo, you!」

While Rondo seized Azos, the high orc merchant fainted.

With Azos and the High orc, who were tied up with a rope, we returned to Rondo’s military camp and confined them in a cage.

Then, we returned to Rondo’s tent.

「Seiji, you have my gratitude.」

「It’s Elena who played the most active role.」

「Indeed. Elena-sama, thank you very much for your cooperation.」

「No, it’s fine. More importantly, what should we do about those people?」

「I think we should discuss this with the leaders of the campaigning aristocrats gathered in this town.」

「Thank you very much for your help.」

「If possible, I want the two of you to participate in the meeting as well.」

「I don’t mind, how about you Seiji-sama?」

「I ask you to keep me inconspicuous as much as possible.」

「I understand, I’ll do something.」

While we are having such a talk―

The troops led by Lyle Gewalt had finally arrived in Shinju town.

Translator notes and reference:

1Onore(おのれ). Not sure if it’s like omae in meaning here, or some swear word I don’t know about.↩

2Reference to Mito Kōmon (水戸黄門?), a Japanese jidaigeki or period drama that has been on prime-time television since 1969. In the guise of Mitsuemon, a retired crêpe merchant from Echigo, he roams the realm with two samurai retainers, fun-loving Sasaki Sukesaburō (Suke-san) and studious Atsumi Kakunoshin (Kaku-san). An episode typically starts with some injustice perpetrated by a corrupt official, wealthy merchant or gangster; the travelers arrive incognito, discover the injustice and quietly investigate it; and the episode concludes with a brawl in which the unarmed, disguised protagonists better a crowd of samurai and gangsters, culminating with the presentation of the inrō that reveals the hero’s identity. – Wikipedia↩