by Funa
Belle had insisted she wanted to guard me, but I used my special move, “I give you my divine order to protect Layette,” and she did as she was told. As for the current state of the battle...
“Agh!”
“Urgh, damn!”
“Ahhh!”
The bandits screamed in pain whenever they tried to slip in between the palisade sections and consequently got shredded by the spikes placed there. And, once their movement was impaired, they were quickly impaled with bamboo spears. The bandits who managed to get through tried to hurry away before the spear-wielding villagers came for them, but they were typically bleeding all over with pretty deep wounds.
“Huh...?”
And, of course, the spikes were coated in poison.
Just in case there had been any accidents, I decided not to use poison that could cause instant death or anything. I didn’t want the villagers to accidentally prick themselves and end up dying. As long as they were still alive, I could use a healing potion, or rather, the Tears of the Goddess, to cure them. I had gone with this approach for safety purposes, but if they ended up being attacked by bandits again when I wasn’t around, they would likely have to use a quicker-acting, deadlier poison. Obviously.
And so, a total of fourteen bandits made it past the palisade, half of them looking pale from the poison spikes and the other half having somehow managed to avoid getting stabbed, with nearly thirty villagers standing before them. Yup, five of them were down just from having passed through the palisade. Pretty good! Out of all the villagers, half of them were elderly. The ones who said they wouldn’t mind dying to be a shield for their younger kin.
Roland and Emile appeared from one of the nearby houses to prevent that from happening. Though, really, they were just there to help any villagers who were in danger. Everyone else was on their own.
It went without saying for Francette, but Roland was also quite skilled, having received martial training ever since he was a child, so he was strong enough to fight off a few ordinary soldiers and knights. Bandits were no match. Especially because he had that divine sword, Exhovud. I had finally caved under his incessant complaining...
Oh, but it didn’t come with any supersonic vibration functions. It was just durable, easy to maintain, and sharp. Roland was still really happy, though. How desperate to get a divine sword was he...?
I had told him the sword was top secret, and he wasn’t to tell anyone about it.
By this point, the initial skirmish had ended. It was time for the main battle.
...I think I’ll back up a bit.
“Mercenaries? But two or three more aren’t gonna change anything! ...Oh, I get it. You’re the ones who put them up to this, aren’t you? Screw this village, you’re all gonna die! Then the next village we target will know to do as they’re told! Watch your village burn, all due to your own stupid actions, and despair!”
The bandit leader was enraged from losing half of his men and seemed to abandon the idea of milking the villagers long-term. Now he had changed tactics to killing everyone here, then moving on to the next village to leech off of them. Not that these bandits could ever have leeched off of the very people who had killed nearly half of their men with indirect attacks. They would’ve had to worry about getting knifed in their sleep every night.
Once the villagers realized that the bandits could be easily killed, there was no way they’d ever put up with their unreasonable demands again. Especially considering that they had reduced their enemy numbers by half in the initial skirmish, all while taking zero casualties of their own...
And the sound of swords clashing rang in the air! Actually, one side didn’t have swords, so I guess not. The bandits had their swords raised with the fences at their backs, while the villagers stood before them, stances low, with their spears pointed at their foes. The bandits’ positioning was scattered and uncoordinated, while the villagers stayed close to each other, moving in on the bandits in a half circle. A phalanx, I think it’s called? Though they didn’t have any shields.
Though it had a weakness to sudden flanking maneuvers and rear attacks, the phalanx was an impenetrable formation when there was no chance of hidden enemy reinforcements. Even if the bandits did have any forces in reserve, they would appear on the other side of the palisade, and there was no way for those reinforcements to take the villagers by surprise. Moreover, considering that it’d be an influx of untrained men wielding cheap, dull, poorly-maintained swords, there was no way they could have cleanly cut through the bamboo spears, even the ones that weren’t secured firmly in the ground.
By the time the bandits realized that they were the hunted rather than the hunters, it was already too late. Trapped in this confined space, with the palisade at their backs, they couldn’t get through the concentrated wall of spears thrust toward them, and thus found themselves helpless.
“Bastaaards!”
One of the bandits knocked a bamboo spear upward with his sword and tried to attack, but was promptly impaled with additional spears from both sides. Another bandit tried to slip through the bamboo spears, but then another villager appeared from behind two of the other spearmen and swung a three-pronged hoe down, straight into the man’s skull.
There were plenty of men wielding farming tools right behind the spearmen, prepared to bring their tools down on any bandits who might approach. Those tools had more reach than the bandits’ swords, and swords had the disadvantage of being ineffective with the arm fully extended. They had to get closer to get a proper swing in. On the other hand, garden hoes could be brought down upon their target with the arms fully outstretched.
Several of the panicking bandits turned to go back out through the palisade, but more villagers had moved around them with their bamboo spears at the ready. Some of those spear-wielding villagers included women and children, but they only needed to point their weapons at the bandits to fend them off. As for the bandits, they were trying to get through the narrow space between two palisade sections, with no room to swing their swords.
...They were done for.
But it seemed the bandit leader couldn’t stand the thought of the infamous Beasts of Disaster, nearly thirty men in all, being taken down by mere villagers without even killing a single one of their opponents. He screamed in rage and tried to rush through the bamboo spears surrounding him. The villagers recognized that this was the decisive moment and all thrust their bamboo spears into the leader at once, then brought down their farming tools upon his body. After letting out a resentful growl, he finally sank to the ground.
Several other bandits followed, then the remaining men threw down their weapons and surrendered. The death penalty was pretty common around these parts, and captured bandits tended to become slaves for life rather than being executed, unless they were the type to ruthlessly murder entire caravans that had already surrendered to them. Being put to work in the mines as a slave was a harsh life, and one that often didn’t last very long, but it was better than being killed on the spot. If they didn’t cause any problems, there was a chance they could get moved to an easier, safer work environment for a healthier, longer life.
These bandits were apparently a wicked bunch, but the leader, second, and advisor had already been killed. So, even if we captured the remaining small fry instead of killing them, it was unlikely that they’d survive by themselves.
We rounded up the bandits who had surrendered, and the villagers stood around dazedly for some time. But they eventually came back to reality again, and raised their voices, giving cheers of jubilation.
Amidst the tumult of laughter and tears, I had Francette and Emile help me with a certain task. We were going around administering healing potions to the fallen bandits. If they were physically unable to drink, or refused to because they suspected it was poison, we poured the potion onto their wounds. Now that we had won, there was no need to let anyone else die.
It wasn’t that I was being generous. I would turn them in to the city guards and have them
receive the appropriate punishment for their crimes. If they were wanted “dead or alive,” now that I had them captured, I would naturally just turn them in alive. There was no need to kill them first. Besides, if they died, it would be a pain to deal with all the rotting corpses and maggots.
But I was more concerned about the villagers killing their already-surrendered enemies once, and then doing so again in the future. With how things had unfolded until now, and the abuse they’d received from bandits in the past, it was possible that the villagers would have taken such action.
It would have been disturbing if the villagers ended up becoming a band of merciless killers, or went around murdering bandits in the name of justice. I didn’t hold back if it was for self-defense, but I also didn’t agree with deliberately going out to shed blood. We had to show them the importance of control and moderation.
There was also the most important reason of all...
If we turned the bandits in alive, we would not only get a monetary reward, but we would also get half of their worth when they’re sold off as slaves!
...What’s that? I just ruined everything I said?
...Anyway, we were tying up the living bandits, and pouring healing potions on the dying, when a young villager came running up in a hurry.
“If you’re finishing them off, please let me do it!”
See?!
＊ ＊
“...That’s why there’s no need to hold back in battle, but if you capture them alive, make sure to turn them in to the authorities! Otherwise, everyone will know that you’ll kill even those who surrender, and no one will ever have reason to yield. That will only lead to more people needlessly dying and getting injured. You’ll miss out on your cut of the criminals being sold as slaves, too...”
It seemed they understood where I was coming from, once I had given them an explanation. It wasn’t that they had turned into a bloodthirsty mob, but they were just on a temporary high from all the adrenaline. Whew...
There were very few bandits whom we had captured alive, at least besides the ones who had surrendered in the end. If they had been smacked hard through their armor with dull swords, they may have gotten away with just fatal wounds like ruptured organs and broken bones.
...As in, they may have eventually been fatal, but they wouldn’t have died instantly. But having been stabbed with multiple bamboo spears, most of them seemed to have died within a minute of sustaining their injuries. It wasn’t as if bandits would ever wear plate armor...
Well, I guess there’s not much you could do about that.
“Thank you so much! I will remember this for the rest of my life!”
Yeah, I don’t think the rest of that old mayor’s life is going to be very long...
Francette, Roland, and Emile had been watching the fight nervously, with their hands on their sword hilts, ready to help the villagers if they were in danger, but they ended up not having to step in.
We had planned on letting the villagers handle it themselves in the first place, so they had assumed they wouldn’t need to get involved, and if they had needed to step in, it would’ve been if the villagers were completely incapable of doing it without help. In that case, we would have had Francette deal with the bandits, then told the villagers that they were on their own next time. But the villagers and the elderly had done it themselves.
Next time... If there was a next time, could they fend for themselves without me, the emergency backup, or the convenient Tekkon? And did they really have the guts to do it without any outside help? If they failed, it would be on us for egging them on...
No, forget that!
They had asked for help this time, so we helped. Nothing more, nothing less.
I can’t take responsibility for everything that happens after. The rest is all up to them!
I’d just watch over them from afar. ...And not get involved. I couldn’t protect every farming village, mountain village, and fishing village in the world!
The villagers had begun preparing for a feast. I decided to eat my fill, then take my leave. The food in this village, like that simmered stuff that looked like the tips of thick-stemmed bamboo, and that cloud ear mushroom-looking thing, was actually pretty good...
Francette didn’t get to do much this time, but she wasn’t in a bad mood or anything. She understood that it wouldn’t have been a good thing if she had actually needed to step in. Emile, too, of course. As for Roland... it went without saying.
Now, time to go retrieve Layette and Belle...
＊ ＊
“First, please send a messenger to the city. Have them take the bandits into custody, and get your reward payment and half of the proceeds for the sale of the criminals as slaves.
“...Don’t do anything reckless like taking them into the city yourselves. Those bandits are crafty, so they’ll complain about their bound hands hurting, or that they need to go relieve themselves, or they’ll have sprained their ankles, and then try to kill their escorts to get away.
“Even if they’re unarmed, they can easily kill someone who’s not a trained fighter by snapping their neck, shoving a finger in their eye, or crushing their throat.”
“...”
The villagers were looking a bit pale.
Ah...
Yeah, they were taking this too lightly.
“Make sure you have a specialist handle the escorting. Instead of hiring a hunter, you can ask the police to take in the bandits for free. And make sure you send three or four reliable people with them, so no one gets any funny ideas about the reward money and the commission. Even police officers might be tempted to make a little extra cash.”
“...”
Are they shocked because I suspect the police?
Half of the commission for the sale of criminals as slaves went to the city, and the police officer who took them in got a cut... I mean, a bonus... so I was sure they’d be happy to bring in the captured bandits, but they were the kind of people who had ignored the village while it was in danger, so I didn’t consider the police all that trustworthy.
Though, I suppose it’s possible that it’s a policy set by their superiors and it’s not necessarily the fault of the individual officers...
Anyway, the food was being brought out, so it was time to eat and hightail it out of here! We were just outsiders, after all. We didn’t belong in this village. To these people, we weren’t all that different from the bandits: temporary irregularities. The village had been protected by the villagers themselves, not by some god that happened to pass by or a Deus Ex Machina that had wiped out the bandits for them.
I decided the meal and usage of their hot springs was payment enough to cover my consulting fee. It’s like they say, “I’ll let you off easy this time!”
...Well, I guess it’s not really like that.
“Thank you, Miss Francette!”
It was the boy who had first brought us to the village. I looked over to find the hoe he was still gripping in his hand had some black-red blood caked onto it. ...Already battle-tested, eh?
This boy seemed to think Francette exercised the most authority in our group. Well, Roland and Francette were obviously the most important-looking just based on their equipment, and Roland tended to hold women in high esteem, particularly me and Francette, so it couldn’t be helped if Francette looked to be at the top of the food chain... I mean, the hierarchy. And above all, Francette was the one who had put effort into training the boy in the use of the sword, and she was obviously more skilled than Roland, so the boy thought of Francette as the biggest authority figure among us.
“I’ll train hard and buy a real sword instead of using farming tools! Then I’m gonna kill every bandit out there!”
He seemed to think Francette would praise and encourage him for killing the bandits, and for steeling his resolve to protect the village.
But Francette shook her head.
“Then you would no longer be a farmer.”
“Huh...?”
He didn’t understand what she was saying. The boy looked at Francette with a blank expression, and she continued:
“You mustn’t learn martial arts just for the sake of killing other people. It must be to better yourself, and to protect those you care about. ...You may end up killing others, at times, as a result. But if you learn the martial arts because you wish to kill, that would make you more like a bandit than a knight or a farmer. Sir Roland and I did not teach you how to wield a sword for something like that.
“The people here fought bravely and drove off the bandits this time around, despite having no combat training. This victory wasn’t achieved from a desire to kill the bandits, but everyone’s genuine, desperate will and desire to protect their fellow villagers. Protecting the village is not about an eager drive to murder...
“It’s about everyone in the village cooperating together, and having a strong will. You certainly don’t need a bloodthirsty killer among you to accomplish that.”
He clearly didn’t understand everything Francette had said, but the boy did seem to get the gist of it. His right hand holding the hoe loosened its grip, and he nodded. The adults around Francette who had been listening would likely repeat what she had said to the children later.
The young adults, who had been getting overly excited and rowdy, quieted down, and the mood grew heavy. But the old men used the wisdom of their years and raised their voices to liven up the feast once more. They produced what seemed to be their secret stash of mead and alcohol, made from local fruits and grains, but since the captured bandits were still around, my group and a portion of the villagers held back on any alcohol intake.
We chose to eat the best dishes offered, said our farewells to the mayor and a few of the older villagers, then slipped out of the feast, which would likely go on for some time. The elderly villagers sensed that we didn’t want to stay long, so they gave us their thanks and saw us off. Being rich with experience, it seemed they were rather perceptive about this sort of thing.