151-136 Defeat the thief (2)

"Hmm?　This is ......

It's been about half a day since we left Kerg.

After finishing lunch, I started moving again, and I saw a curious reaction in my [Searching for enemies].

It's not a demon.

--I see. So this is the reaction of a hostile human.

We were all dressed in hooded robes so that no one would recognize us as adventurers, and only one of us was sitting on the leader's platform. The other four are hiding in a covered cart so that they cannot be seen.

Toya is currently in charge of the driver. Since this is only a half-day lecture, there is not much difference in skill, and we are taking turns every few hours.

I gathered everyone behind the leader's podium and called out to Toya so that he could hear.

We'll be waiting for you about 200 meters from here. Twelve of us.

Oh, you're here already? Thank God.

Toya responded in a slightly relieved voice and slowed the carriage a little.

Twelve people. ...... If it's just me, Nao, and Yuki, there's a good chance we can kill half of them. ......?

If we can catch them by surprise, that is. If we can catch them by surprise, we'll be able to avoid their fire arrows.

"...... if you're careful?

Toya thought for a moment and then answered.

In the event that you've got a lot of money, you'll be able to take advantage of the fact that you'll be able to get a lot more out of it. ....

I think there's a way for the three of us to fireball each other without aiming for a kill. ......

If you can keep them together, you can take away their fighting power.

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This is a little inconvenient when aiming at demon materials, but for humans, the burn condition is a very effective behavioral distraction.

The drawback is the psychological aspect of 'what is the humane thing to do? The difficulty is the psychological aspect of "What's the humane thing to do?

And it seems that Natsuki was the same way.

I'd rather have the Fire Arrow than the Fireball," he said. I'm not sure I'd be able to finish off a person suffering from burns, let alone an attacker.

"...... I see. That's true. Then let's go with the Fire Arrow.

Then Yuki will take two from the right, and Haruka will take two from the center. I'll aim for any hidden enemies, and if there are none, I'll take the left. If the surprise attack is successful, the rest can be done as usual?

Haruka thought for a moment, nodded, and called out to Natsuki and the others.

I'm not sure what to make of that.　I'm not sure what to make of that.

I'm sure we can handle it with our numbers.

If we're good, we can cut them in half with a surprise attack.

Depending on the distance between us when we face them, there's a good chance we can kill the remaining six with magic alone.

But Toya immediately dismissed our words with a shake of his head.

No, we'll kill them.　You can't just leave it to Haruka and Yuki and expect me to observe.

...... I'll do it too.

In the event that you've got a lot of time, you'll be able to take a look at a few of the best ways to make sure you're getting the most out of your time.

I'm sure you're right. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that works for you.

I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'm sure it'll help.

"Stop!　Hey!　If you want to save your life, leave your pack behind!

Looking at the response of [Searching for enemies], it seems that all of them have come out and blocked the way, defenselessly.

It's a good thing that the area between Kergu and Laffan has been safe so far, and unless they're carrying something expensive, they don't have adventurers to guard them, so they're probably letting their guard down.

According to the information from the Adventurer's Guild, these bandits also killed a merchant after stealing his goods.

The guild was informed by an adventurer who happened to be in the vicinity, but if not for that, it would have taken some time before a request was made to kill them.

Incidentally, the adventurer who reported the incident to the guild did not help the merchant who was being attacked, but ran away, which is not something to be blamed, since one would not normally go to the aid of a group of bandits without a contractual relationship.

It's only a few people who have heroic aspirations, people who overestimate their own abilities, or people who are really incredibly talented.

The guys who came here with Tommy seemed to have done it, but the results were so bad that I'd classify them as 'overestimating'. Not very smart.

"Thieves?

"Bandits, huh?　Bandits?

What else could they be but bandits in this situation?　You all right?　Yeah, yeah.

The bandits laughed and made fun of Toya's who-knows-what, but as long as they heard that, they were fine.

In our case, it's literally a "kill shot," so a misfire would be very bad. So I was sure there was no mistake, but I asked him to ask.

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"Fire Arrow!

The bandits were slow to react to the sudden change in situation.

Six bandits fell with their heads blown off, almost without reacting to the six Fire Arrows that were released.

"What?

"Magician?

While the bandits were surprised and confused, the situation was moving.

I'm not sure if you've heard of this, but I'm sure you've heard of it.

"Toya!　Bow, left!

At my words, Toya turns to face the remaining bandit with the bow on his left, and the three of us wizards fire arrows at the other three.

The bandits had recovered from the initial shock to some extent, but the speed of the Fire Arrows that each of them fired was faster than using two at the same time, and even though there was a slight discrepancy in where they landed, they definitely reaped their lives.

"Hold on!　Wait!

"What?

The last bandit was about to say something, but Toya just moved his eyebrows a little and drew his sword, separating its head from its body.

The last bandit was about to say something, but Toya just moved his eyebrows a little and swung his sword to separate the head from the body, and as soon as he retreated, the body fell to the ground, blood spurting from the neck.

He looked around, but when he saw that there was no one else moving, he let out a breath and lowered his sword.

It's a good job. It's a good strategy.

"Yes, it did. The presence of adventurers must have been unexpected.

This is a peaceful area, so I think they were planning to take the cargo from the less vigilant merchants in a short period of time and disappear before they could be defeated.

The presence of the bandits would be discovered sooner or later, but by killing the merchants instead of letting them go, they would be able to extend the time.

Luckily - or unluckily from the bandits' point of view - they were discovered early enough to be killed before they could escape.

"Hmm ......, let's clean up the mess for now.

That's right.

You can't leave a human corpse unattended, let alone a demon.

There are 12 headless corpses and 3 heads that have been separated from their bodies.

Both Toya and Natsuki had hunted down the heads with precision, so they were lying on the ground without much damage.

I gather them all up in one place.

By the way, Toya, that last guy said something about ......?

Did you hear that?　It's no big deal. It's just a guy I know. See, there's the head.

The head, which Toya grimly rolled away, was dead with its eyes wide open.

Yuki looked away when she saw the head, and Haruka and Natsuki also paled a little.

For a moment, I couldn't tell from the stubble and the hair that had grown out of it. .......

I'm not sure what to make of this.

"Looks like. I haven't seen him in a while, but I wonder what happened to him during the winter. ....... I've been away for a while, but I don't know what happened during the winter.

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I'm sure that even if he had become a bandit, he would still have had a hard time reconciling the fact that he had taken a classmate into his own hands.

"So the other two are one of these, huh?

The other two heads are different, so there is a good chance that I, Haruka, or Yuki took care of them.

When I looked into the pockets of the bodies I had collected, I found that all twelve of them had guild cards, and two of them had names that looked like Tokuoka and Maeda.

These guys also didn't have their last names registered, and I couldn't remember their first names, but Yoshiro and Noriyuki are almost certainly Japanese.

If they were Japanese with Iwanaka, it was most likely those two. It is more natural to think that he broke up with them after that and teamed up with another classmate.

I think I could have made a living if I worked hard. ......

You couldn't do that. You've got a tendency to say and do things like, 'In this world, we're the ones.

As we talked, Toya and I collected weapons from the bandits' corpses, and we also collected their wallets.

We could have sold the armor if we had stripped it, but it was all worn out leather armor, so we left it.

"Sorry, you two.

Well, I guess that's what men do.

I've been taking care of the cooking and other things in my daily life.

We are not paranoid about equal rights for men and women, so we naturally divide our roles to some extent.

In everyday life, the women tend to be in charge of things that require a lot of work, so it's almost an unspoken agreement that Toya and I will do our best in other things.

Especially now, Yuki is not looking well, so I have Natsuki resting at a distance.

As for me, perhaps because I was dealing with a bandit, I don't feel too bad about killing a former classmate, but the raw head is still a bit stimulating.

I don't want to touch them if I can help it, so I roll them around and collect them, though I feel sorry for the Buddha. --I don't care if he's a bandit who killed all the merchants. I'm sure he's not a Buddha.

But the quality of the weapons is bad. It's mostly scrap metal.

The bandits had some decent weapons, but they weren't special iron like our yellow iron, but swords made of ordinary, or rather poor quality iron that hadn't been cared for.

There are many of them that have rust on them, and even if you took them to Gantz, he would probably only give you a couple of bucks for them.

Well. If you melt them down, you can at least make a pot-kettle, but--

Stop. I don't want to cook in a pot made out of that.

I agree. If you're gonna take it home, you're gonna have to sell it.

That's impossible.

Oh, yeah. Yes, sir.

Toya nodded, confused by the stronger-than-expected refusal of Haruka and the others.

I'm not sure what to make of it.

In the event that you've got any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

It's not a normal place. But if you are in an area with a lot of magic, you won't be able to tell. I've seen skeletons in the north woods, so if you leave them there, they might turn into zombies.

"Ugh, zombies. That's even more disgusting than skeletons.

Skeletons don't smell bad, but zombies definitely do.

I don't want to fight them if I can help it. If there are fast zombies, it's even worse.

I think I'll just burn ...... these guys. They may have fallen into the hands of thieves, but they're my countrymen. I'll cremate them.

...... Well, if you bury them in the ground badly, they can become food for wild animals.

It's better than being dug up and dragged around.

Besides, I heard that cremation is used as much as possible in this country to protect the undead.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but I think it's a good idea.

...... It's pretty hard to burn, isn't it?

It's a lot of fire.

The fireball is quite difficult to burn.

Do you want me to throw in some firewood?　If you want, I can go find some.

It's also kind of useless. ....... I'm not sure what to do, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it.

It's a shame to use the firewood you've collected to incinerate criminals, and if you're going down this road, you won't have to worry about demons. Even if I can't use magic, it won't be a big problem.

"Haruka, Toya, get away from me.

I called out to the two of them, and got far enough away from the pile of burning corpses that I could work my magic into it.

If I were in battle, I wouldn't have time to do this, but now it's no problem.

I feel that I have about half of my total magic power.

The "fireball" that I put all of my magic power into was bigger than I expected, about a handful of pounds, and it slowly flew away and hit the pile of corpses.

Gosh!

At that moment, a huge pillar of fire rose up, and my bangs, which were standing quite a distance away, flew softly in the hot air.

...... Whoa!

A few seconds later, when the fire had died down, all that was left was the charred earth.

There was no trace of the dead body left behind.

...... Nao, that's a bit much, isn't it?

Mmm. ...... more powerful than I thought, huh?

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I'm not sure what to do.

It's hard for grass to grow if it's still burnt.

I'll use earth magic to lightly turn over the soil.

There's nothing wrong with that. No problem.

I think Toya and Haruka are giving me a subtle white stare as I clap my hands and say that, but I'm sure it's just my imagination.