CH 85

“You are quite shameless, peeping into a lady’s underwear.”

“It’s the height of indecency.” Claude said,

“Even I won’t go that far….” Toby muttered,

“Don’t worry. I’m on your side, Ed.”

“I didn’t see it because I wanted to see it. And Tia, can you seriously stop saying things like that with a sad face?”

As I walked over to Tia and Toby, a barrage of harsh words rained down on me. I don’t care if they were angry or disdainful, but I really don’t want them to say kind words to me, because it really hurts my heart.

“Well, It’s fine. More than that, you guys seem to be cornered quite a bit, right?”

Palm looked down at us from the top of the three-meter-high cliff. Incidentally, she had already taken two steps back, so even if we stand at the edge and look up, there should be nothing but sky beyond our field of vision.

“The way you put it, those black guys have nothing with you, Ojou-san?”

“Of course. They are Imperial Intelligence.”

“Imperial ….?”

At Palm’s words, I quickly searched my brain. We were now in a reasonably large country called the Kingdom of Osperanto, and we were aiming for the Holy Suroun State, located in the north. It was a small country, but it claimed to be permanently neutral, and our destination was the town of Ekurir in that country …, or more precisely, the Great Temple there.

And the Empire … The Lebrennian Empire was a major power in the east that bordered both of those countries. If Palm was to be believed, they were crossing the border to attack us.

“The Empire is quite big, but… do you think we will believe that?”

“Hmph, It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. It is an undeniable fact that you were attacked and are still being hunted.”

“Certainly. But what does that have to do with you? If you’re looking to profit, you wouldn’t bother approaching us, would you?”

(T/N: Here he means if she wanted to attack them while they were being chased she wouldn’t bother approaching)

“Yes, that’s right. So I have a suggestion. What do you think? How about you work with us until we cross the border, where the empire will no longer be able to touch you?”

“Uh……”

“W-Why!?”

Toby shouted behind me as I pondered the unexpected suggestion.

“Why are you suggesting that we join forces!? I’m not going to accept a proposal that I don’t understand!”

“Ara, Toby-sama. The reason is simple. It would be very inconvenient for me to lose what you have to the Empire. … That’s the reason”

“Inconvenient ……?”

“Yeah. I am aware that I’m smart, but I’m not so foolish as to think that I can easily break into the castle’s treasury and steal the treasure. And it’s the same with us. I thought that if we could quickly take the treasure from Toby-sama and bring it back to our hideout, We would be able to compete with the empire…. Now that that plan has fallen through, I have reluctantly decided that it would be more convenient for us to work with you to keep it out of the hands of the Empire.”

“Heh.”

I was inwardly impressed by Palm’s words. I see, I had never met the Imperial Intelligence Service during the first round, which meant that Palm was the one who dealt with them. And then we took advantage of the gap and got it back. … Well, since the robber and the robbed have switched sides, it’s only natural that the actions were reversed.

“That means you’ll take the treasure from Toby again when the empire backs off, right?”

“Yes, that’s right?”

Tia gave her a sharp look, but Palm responded simply and without a trace of apology.

“Now then, what are you going to do? Kick our outstretched hand and continue to fight with the empire? Of course we will take advantage of the opportunity.”

“That’s …….”

Toby, with a pained expression on his face, looked at me and Tia alternately. But I respond calmly to that without looking away from Palm.

“Tia and I are both Toby’s escorts. Basically, Toby can make the decision and whichever he chooses, you can rest assured that we will continue to escort him. But, yes,…, I would like to add as a matter of judgment that we don’t need to work with you and your Butler to break out of the situation for now. We can handle it just fine on our own.”

“Eh, is that so!?”

“……, are you serious? As far as I can tell, the number of Imperial troops coming here is over 20?”

“What!?”

“Toby, don’t be so surprised.”

“No, because twenty!? Wasn’t it six that came out of the wagon just now!?”

“Yes, they were. One of them we took down, so there should be five left. ……”

“If the plan is to keep all the witnesses quiet, then they must be hiding their forces in plain sight.”

Toby was surprised and Tia and I calmly told him so. Palm frowned doubtfully at our reaction.

“Ara, you noticed? And yet you don’t need our help?”

“Yes”

If we had stuck to staying where we were attacked and fighting off the enemy, we would be in a lot of trouble right now. Even if it was just me and Tia taking down the enemy, it would be considerably more difficult to take down more than 20 enemies while protecting Toby.

“…Then, I shall observe how you deal with them. Claude, We are withdrawing for now.”

“As you wish, Ojou-sama”

With that, Palm and Claude disappeared into the woods. Replacing them, a thick murderous intent drifts in from the direction from which we had fled.

“E-Ed-san!? Are you sure we’re going to be okay!?”

“It’s all right. We’re in the woods, after all. Come on, get over there by the wall.”

“Y-yes!”

Toby followed my words and stood against the steep rock. Tia was also standing next to him, but she was working hard.

“Well, well, gentlemen of the empire, I’m sorry, but you’re going home empty-handed, okay?”

As I said this as if provoking them, knives flew at me from the shadows of the trees. I lightly flicked away the knives with my sword as a greeting, and at that moment, nearly 10 knives flew at once from the fan-shaped area in front of me.

But I didn’t let them through. The escort target was behind me… In other words, the enemy’s attacks only came flying at me while I was standing still. I could shoot down all the knives with just a little flick of my arm, because they attacked only where they could reach.

Of course, as soon as they saw that the projectiles were ineffective, they would come out of the grass and challenge us to a close combat. I didn’t know how skilled they were, but if they were prepared to die, they might throw a poisoned knife, knowing it would be a misfire, or they might use a gadget like the ones Toby was using.

The only three people in the game, and the only one fighting properly, were surrounded, so there was no worry about them escaping. In that case, there was no need to go so far as to make sacrifices. Weaken them from a distance and finish close… Such a simple decision was the reason for their defeat.

“――Reveal [Struggle Bind]!”

“What!?”

Suddenly ivy grew up from all around me, quickly restraining the black-clad man. The same went for enemies located a short distance away or in blind spots that we couldn’t see.

“What the hell is this!? Damn, I can’t shake it off!?”

“Impossible! How could he single-handedly activate magic to restrain such a large number of people at once!?”

“Hahaha, I’m sorry. My partner is special.”

I laughed at the screaming Imperial soldier as I tapped him on the shoulder with my sword. Yes, it is usually No matter how skilled a spirit user Tia was, it was impossible for her to disable dozens of enemies in range in an instant, ignoring their blind spots.

So we set up the conditions to be able to do it. In the forest, a place infinitely favorable to the elves, she abandoned her defense and concentrated only on her magic, while also thrusting her silver spirit sword into the ground to amplify its effect. That was the result of this――

“Hey? Was it okay?”

I said, looking up after climbing the cliff and entering the forest for a bit.

“…. it would seem so.”

There hung Palm and her butler, who had been restrained by Tia as well as the imperial soldiers, with a very reluctant look on their faces.