Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 5

by Funa

  Of course, whether or not the girls themselves would obey these rulings was another matter entirely…

  Chapter 40:

  Carriage Ride

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance. We’re the Crimson Vow, the C-rank party who accepted your escort request.”

  “Hello there! Pleased to meet you as well!”

  Mavis, the official party leader, greeted the merchant who was their newest client. He met them with a cordial reply, blessedly showing no signs of shock that he was being greeted by a group of young girls.

  On this particular day, they had taken on a job escorting a small-scale caravan, consisting of three merchants and five wagons, from a town near the national border to a town in the neighboring kingdom. Including the Crimson Vow, the three merchants, and the two extra drivers, their party totaled nine members. Naturally, three of the wagons would be driven by the merchants themselves.

  This was a fairly standard setup for merchants leaving from the countryside, in contrast to the larger caravans that departed from the capital and other big cities.

  The whole thing started when Reina said to the others, “Even if it’s just for the sake of appearances, I wonder if it would be better, when we first leave the kingdom, to say it’s because we ‘took on a job that took us across the border.’”

  Everyone readily assented, and since guard duty would bring them a bit of pay for little work, they decided to spend the next few days killing time and making money on daily extermination and harvesting requests until a suitable escort job appeared.

  So that they would not miss out on a job that perfectly fit their criteria, only three members of the party went out to work at a time during those few days, each taking a turn waiting back at the guildhall, just in case. It was Reina’s turn at the guild when the ideal job appeared. The moment it was posted to the job board, she snatched the posting with lightning speed, the likes of which might only be seen from a group of ladies when a department store marks a rack of designer clothes down to 90% off.

  As soon as she finished the job-acceptance paperwork, she headed straight to the merchants’ shops to confirm that they would be leaving the next morning, and pin down any other such details, before heading back to the inn to await her companions. Since her work was finished, there was no reason for her to stay put at the guildhall all day and nothing wrong with her lazing around the inn for a while.

  And now, the caravan was departing.

  Naturally, rumors about the Crimson Vow had yet to make it this far. Even if there was a bit of buzz about the party around the capital, they were still but a C-rank party. The only parties who would be talked about all the way to some little town in the middle of nowhere would be S-rank or A-rank parties at the very least. Stories of B-rank parties might make it out to the neighboring towns and villages now and then, but only every so often.

  Therefore, the girls chose to forget that they had a bit of renown around the capital. If a group of C-rank hunters were to introduce themselves with, “Folks know us around the capital as…” it would be laughable at best.

  For now, they were going back to their roots, living humble lives as a band of no-name rookie C-rank hunters. So they had unanimously decided.

  They were divided in two, with Mile and Pauline at the head wagon and Mavis and Reina at the rear. Through careful consideration, the group had decided that this arrangement yielded the optimal balance of front and back line, as well as a favorable distribution of offensive ability.

  In addition, it was only natural to put Mile, with her location magic, at the head of the train. While Mile strongly disliked using magical shortcuts like that for the party’s benefit, her companions were already well aware of the existence of her location magic. Plus, they were on a guard duty job, where people’s lives were on the line, so she couldn’t afford to be such a stickler about it.

  As they drove, Mile spoke only with Pauline and the driver. As always, she sat atop the canvas roof of the wagon, with Pauline sitting beside the driver on the bench. Given that they were at the head of the train, the driver of this wagon was not one of the merchants but a trained professional. Therefore, he would never do anything so insolent as to look up the skirt of a girl who was sitting behind him.

  As far as this kingdom was concerned, Mile had a working knowledge only of the capital and the town where she had first registered as a hunter. Outside of those two places, she had been to a number of other towns and villages, but only as part of her job, and never for very long. Therefore, she had no particular interest in either their route or their destination. Even if she were to inquire as to the name of the highway they were on, she wouldn’t know it, and if she were to be told the names of any of the towns, she would soon forget them. A guard’s duty was nothing more than to fend off and defeat any attacking bandits or monsters. It was not their place to go poking their noses into the affairs of the merchants who had hired them. All that mattered was that they stuck together. Beyond that, there was no need to sweat the details.

  Plus, this time, Reina had been the one to handle all of the paperwork and negotiations. She was a merchant’s daughter, after all, so she was no rookie when it came to travel or business. Therefore, Mile felt no reason to worry. Besides, it was more exciting to visit a new town for the first time without any prior knowledge of the place, wasn’t it?

  Incidentally, Mile was the only one who was in the dark as far as their destination—Reina had filled in Mavis, who was sitting with her during their journey, and Pauline, when Mile had been off hunting for supper the previous night.

  Mile’s memory was good, but it was not good enough to recall a route that she had only seen one time, over a year ago, when she was traveling the other way in quite a great hurry. And after all, the scenery, viewed from the opposite direction, was a completely different beast.

  They were very close to the border now.

  And so the procession marched on. Mile was riding high, blissfully unaware of what awaited her.

  ***

  “Gee, thank you, girls…”

  The merchants and drivers grinned as they stuffed their faces with grilled meats. As always, the Crimson Vow were cooking up a meal of the meat they had hunted during the trip—their treat.

  “Wow! Storage magic, huh? I’ve seen mages use it before, but none of them could ever hold as much as you can. Man, must be nice…”

  For a merchant, such a talent was quite enviable. That said, being able to store and remove a tent, still fully erected, had to at least be slightly unusual. Just what were the upper limits of this girl’s storage capacity?

  “I mean, to be frank with you ladies, I was a little worried, seeing that you were just a group of young girls. But honestly, this is…” Another of the merchants spoke, gazing across the roaring bonfire, the mountain of logs stacked beside it, the healthy-looking workhorses, and the mounds of jackalope meat.

  Mavis had gathered the firewood. Knowing that green wood would not burn easily, she chose fallen trees, chopping them up in an instant with her sword.

  Reina had wordlessly raised a bonfire in the blink of an eye.

  Pauline had restored the horses’ energy with her healing magic.

  And Mile had produced the tent and the meat from nowhere.

  Naturally, the merchants had hired escorts many times before. They were well aware of the abilities of the average C-rank hunter. Thus, they didn’t even need to see the Crismon Vow on the battlefield to grasp that they were leagues beyond that level.

  They had already crossed the border hours ago, well before the sun set.

  The border was not the sort of thing that was marked off by walls or barbed-wire fences. There were neither soldiers nor lookouts patrolling it. There was neither the budget nor the numbers to deploy guards all along the length of an extended perimeter that ran largely through uninhabited, undeveloped lands—and such a thing would have been meaningless anyway.

  Most major cities were strongholds, with their own wall
s running around them. However, there was no need to waste such fortifications on towns that were not of strategic importance. The defense of such places fell to the fighting strength of the local soldiers, mercenaries, and hunters.

  Truthfully, even on modern day Earth, most national borders were just as open. Of course, there were still plenty that were strictly guarded.

  And obviously, the purpose of those more closely observed borders was twofold: both for the sake of turning away anyone who might dare enter and to prevent the flight of any citizens from within…

  ***

  The following afternoon, they passed through a crossroads. They had proceeded a short way past the junction when Mile suddenly sensed a suspicious presence up ahead. She halted the caravan and gathered everyone around.

  “There’s a strange formation assembled up ahead of us. There are two horses stopped on the road, with eight people beside them. There appear to be six others surrounding the group.”

  “Hm? That sounds like…” Reina began.

  Mile nodded.

  “Yes, exactly…”

  “Some bandits and a wagon they’re attacking, most likely!”

  “If there’s one wagon and eight people, I don’t think they’re carrying goods. It’s probably a passenger carriage…”

  Mavis and Pauline were of the same mind.

  “It doesn’t look as though there are any other ambushers lying in wait… Mind if we go look?” Mile asked the merchants.

  While under employ as a guard, it was against code for a hunter to leave a client waiting alone without their permission. After all, they were being paid by these merchants—not the riders of the carriage that was apparently under attack.

  Furthermore, there were six attackers ahead, and they were only four young girls, two of whom did not even appear to be of age.

  Should the tables turn on the girls, there was the possibility that the attackers would discover the existence of their band of travelers as well and that the merchants themselves could end up hurt. There was no way that wagons as laden with goods as theirs could possibly flee from a group of bandits.

  Only a fool would risk waiting around for who knew how long, braving any danger that was to come—and these merchants were not to be taken for fools.

  Their reply was immediate: “Go right ahead, please!”

  Hearing this, Pauline appeared somewhat shaken, while the other three shared toothy grins. For Pauline, who was raised as a merchant, this was a wholly unexpected reply, but then suddenly, she grinned as well, as though quite pleased with their response.

  “The reward for taking bandits is three gold a head. If we can bring them in alive to be sold off as slaves, that gets us a cut of at least seven gold. That’s ten coins altogether. And, there’s six of them, so… Gwehehe. Gwehehehehehe…”

  Her smile was a sinister one.

  The merchants grimaced, perhaps worried as to whether all of the Crimson Vow would make it back safely—or perhaps merely due to Pauline’s terrifying laugh. Still, the merchants had enough faith in their abilities to allow them to do battle, and Pauline sounded utterly certain that they would be bringing each and every one of those bandits back alive.

  ***

  “Give it up already! Get outta there!”

  The man who appeared to be the head of the bandit troop surrounding the carriage shouted his threat for the umpteenth time.

  Because of the way the carriage was surrounded, even if they were to try and urge the horses on to make their escape, they would be cut down before they could even begin picking up speed. Either the reigns, the driver’s arms, or his head would be quickly severed.

  Customarily, in order to avoid having an extermination force sent after them, most bandits assaulting a passenger carriage would avoid harming the driver, the horses, or the carriage itself, at least as much as possible. However, if the victims tried to run or resist, then all bets were off. Therefore, most drivers would not attempt to oppose the brigands, neither resisting nor making any move to escape.

  No one could criticize them for this. Just as anyone would, the drivers valued their own lives over the lives of others.

  As long as the passengers kept quiet and obeyed, it was unlikely that they would be killed, anyway. It was only their belongings that would be stolen—though trying to run or having their carriage overturned might see them lose their lives, too.

  There is a chance that the thieves might try to kidnap the women, the driver thought to himself. Obviously, this would be an unfortunate turn of events. Though they wouldn’t be killed, they might still be taken to live with the bandits or sold off elsewhere. Still, even that fate was better than death.

  Talking himself out of his own feelings of guilt, the driver stayed put in his seat, not saying a word.

  However, the passengers were not going to stand for this.

  It was only natural that they would not sit idly by while their money, their luggage, and their other valuables were taken, especially when they also knew that having their loved ones stolen away would truly be the end of the world for the families of the women and girls on board.

  For their part, the bandits did not dare approach the carriage casually, remaining outside and merely ordering the passengers to disembark instead. After all, there was a possibility that a guard, soldier, or hunter might be riding among the passengers—not to mention any man willing to put his life on the line to protect his wife.

  Yet in truth, there was scarcely anyone among the seven passengers inside who could hope to truly stand up to the bandits. There was a single young hunter. There was one middle-aged merchant who carried a short sword for self-defense. There was a girl of around ten years old. The rest of the group consisted of a young married couple with zero combat ability to speak of and a little girl of five or six who appeared to be their daughter, as well as one slight old man wielding a cane.

  “Sorry, guys. There’s no way that I can take on six bandits on my own. We shouldn’t try to resist them,” said the young hunter.

  No one could blame him. He had not been hired on as a guard, and there was no way he would be coerced into leaping to his death in a battle he had no chance of winning.

  The most pressing matter for the passengers was concern over whether or not the bandits might try to take the youngest girl away.

  As for her mother and the ten-year-old girl? They would definitely be stolen—there was no question about that.

  Just then, however, the ten-year-old said something quite unexpected.

  “With my magic, I should be able to take out at least one of them, maybe two. That way, the others will be occupied with carrying their injured allies, and they might just give up on dragging you all along with them. The likelihood of it working isn’t incredibly high, but it’s better than doing nothing.”

  “Wha…?”

  The married couple stared at the girl, eyes wide with shock.

  “B-but if you do that, then you’ll be…”

  “Considering what would happen to me if they took me away, I would rather die now,” she said with a shrug.

  She spoke coolly, but her hands were trembling. She was still a little girl, after all.

  “If that’s where we’re goin’, then take me along with ya.”

  Everyone stared in surprise as the elder cut in.

  “What? I’ve already lived a full life. I don’t have much longer in this world, but if I can squeeze in one heroic act before I leave it, that’ll get me in good in the next! Bahaha!”

  “Then I’ll join, too,” added the middle-aged merchant with the short sword.

  “A-and of course we’ll fight, too!” said the young married couple, though no one truly expected much of either of them.

  “What the hell are you all talking about?! If you keep this up, then I’m gonna have to fight, too!” the young hunter shouted, sounding peeved, even as a grin spread across his face.

  “Now then,” he continued, “it’s just like the little miss said. We
don’t have to kill all of them. As long as we can wound two or three of them bad enough that they won’t be able to take the ladies away, then we’ll have won. Even if they kill us after that, nothing can take that victory away from us.

  “Once the battle’s decided, it’s unlikely that they’ll try and go after the survivors on this side. If word started getting out that these guys were bandits who massacred everyone they attacked, that’d be a big problem for them. We’re the ones who chose to fight, so I’m sure they’d like to keep their reputation for not pointlessly killing those who surrender.

  “Of course, if we manage to take them all down, and there’s some of us still standing, with enough juice left…”

  The young hunter gave a wicked sneer.

  “Then we snatch up any bandits who are still alive and drag ’em back to the capital as a trophy! And we can all split the reward!”

  And so, the tactical planning began.

  ***

  “Enough already! Get outta there! If you all don’t come down from that carriage…”

  As the passengers continued to ignore his threats, the leader of the bandits grew angrier and angrier, until finally, he signaled to his subordinates with his chin.

  At this, one of the underlings hoisted himself up onto the back of the carriage, pulling up the canvas in an attempt to crawl in and drag the passengers out by force. Just then…

  “Gyah!!”

  He tumbled to the ground.

  “Gyaaaahh!! My eyes! My eyeeeees!!”

  He struck the ground hard enough that his screams were not surprising, but then the man began to roll around on the ground, his hands pressed to both eyes.

  “What?! What the hell did you all do?!”

  There was no real point in the leader of the bandits asking this question. The answer was plain to see.

  The man had been stabbed in both eyes. That was all there was to it.

  He had thrust his head beneath the canopy, with both of his hands occupied. Even an infant could prevail if such a perfect target was offered up to them utterly undefended.