by Aneko Yusagi
So Atla was adept, too, huh? Even more than her lively big brother, Fohl? But I guess when I thought about it, she had been going about her daily life normally, despite being blind. So she must have had a good sense of life force and all that. She might have actually been a better purchase than her brother.
“Umm . . . I guess she should be fine if that’s the case. I’m counting on you, Atla. Alright, let’s head out.”
“Mr. Iwatani, where have the bandits been showing up?”
“Apparently they’ve banded together in a certain area of the mountains lately and are building a stronghold there.”
I unfolded a map and showed Eclair where the bandits had been active. It was a prime location for ambushes.
“Heh heh . . . Sure was nice of them to gather up all in one spot for us, right?”
“Why do you look so excited, Mr. Iwatani? I’ve never seen you smiling like that before.”
Eclair seemed a bit creeped out. Had my expression really been that odd? Bandits were good about stockpiling all kinds of valuables. They were perfect for robbing. Plus, this was an official request, so there would be a reward. It was killing two birds with one stone.
“Mr. Naofumi seems to enjoy hunting bandits,” said Raphtalia.
“It’s a lucrative venture, after all. And we get to make the territory a safer place at the same time.”
Eclair eyed me suspiciously. Whatever. Someone that prioritized training over running the territory had no room to speak.
“Apparently there’s a new bandit chief that’s risen to power lately, and we’ll be wasting our time unless we capture him.”
These new bandits were supposedly well organized, which was going to be a hassle. I’d captured some bandits yesterday while we were out selling some goods and I heard them whispering about it.
“Chief?”
“According to some of the bandits we captured, the guy recently became the boss of a nearby group of bandits. They say he’s really combative.”
The slaves had been ambushed while out vending but managed to turn the tables on their attackers. It was comforting knowing that they had gotten a lot stronger.
“And this guy is fleeing despite being combative?” asked Eclair.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know all the details, but apparently the boss is really distrustful and rarely makes appearances. But he’s also supposed to be strong enough to pick off even the toughest of adventurers one by one without a problem.”
“It doesn’t really make sense . . .”
I couldn’t argue with that. It sure didn’t sound very boss-like. You could make it sound good by calling him a strategist, but you could also say he was being petty. Either way, the type made for a really annoying enemy, and that’s exactly why it’d fallen on us to get serious and go take care of him.
“The bandits do exactly as the boss says. He targets a group and the bandits cause a disturbance. They force the members of the group to separate in the confusion, and then the boss picks them off himself, one by one. That’s their strategy.”
Still . . . why were they using such troublesome tactics? It was hard to tell what they were really after.
“That’s why even if they manage to round up his subordinates, they can’t capture the boss. Our job is to catch that chief.”
“Hmph. What a troublesome bunch of bandits.”
I couldn’t argue with that, either. They were definitely troublesome. As long as the boss was alive, he could always get more subordinates. And if they were using such elaborate tactics, they would probably have more than one hideout, too. But that meant more bandit hunting profits, too.
“Either way, the plan is to head out to where the bandits have been showing up and do our monster hunting there.”
“Okay.”
“Got it.”
“Understood.”
Just then, Raph-chan came waddling over.
“Rafu!”
“Oh? Hey, Raph-chan!”
It’d been too long since I’d last given Raph-chan a good petting. She was in charge of keeping stress levels low among the slaves, so she hadn’t been spending any time with me lately. Raph-chan kept her distance when Raphtalia was around, probably to try to keep Raphtalia happy. That polite restraint was one of the things that made Raph-chan so cute.
“Rafuu!”
“Yeah, you’re a good little girl, aren’t you?!”
“Mr. Naofumi? Why do you look like you’re enjoying yourself so much?”
“Because I am.”
Raph-chan was so cute. She really was the best. I hadn’t had much time to play with her lately, so if I had a chance to pet her, I wasn’t going to pass it up.
Raphtalia sighed.
“You want to come bandit hunting with us, Raph-chan?”
“Rafuuu!”
Oh? It looked like she wanted to come, too. I guess I would take her along. I was really starting to look forward to this.
“Mr. Iwatani . . .”
Eclair sighed.
“Don’t give up, Raphtalia.”
Eclair seemed to be trying to encourage Raphtalia for some reason. Did something happen?
“Rafu?”
“Alright! Filo is over in the next town with Melty, so somebody go fetch her. We’re gonna go clean up some monsters and hunt some bandits!”
I gave the order and everyone quickly began making preparations.
“You’re moving so much better. I hardly even recognize you.”
Rishia took the lead and went straight to stomping out monsters. It must have been a result of the old lady’s training. Anyone that knew the old Rishia would probably think they were seeing some kind of illusion. Actually, that’s exactly how I felt.
She was using a short sword—the Pekkul Rapier—as her primary weapon along with a whip and a throwing knife with a rope attached to it. She would throw the knife while using the whip to grab a monster at the same time. As soon as the knife hit the target, she’d pull the monster in and skewer it with the Pekkul Rapier. That final stab was a Hengen Muso attack known as Bound Thrust or something. The name of the skill was a bit simplistic. It sounded like something made up by a teenage otaku stuck in their own little fantasy world. Other than that, I was impressed.
Plus, she was fast. Even before, Rishia got really strong when she got overly emotional, but she had surpassed that and become even stronger now, as far as I could tell. She was really good at throwing objects and hitting her targets, too. Add in some defense penetration or something and she’d be hard to beat.
I really needed to start taking my training seriously. I’d put it on the backburner after establishing an amicable relationship with L’Arc and Glass, but . . . considering the kinds of enemies we were going to be facing from now on, it probably wouldn’t hurt to be able to pull off some similar moves.
Rishia was level 70 now, by the way. It looked like she would hit the next level quicker than she’d gone from 69 to 70, but she still had a long way to go. I thought she might experience some kind of awakening when she hit level 70, but there hadn’t been any big change when it happened. Even so, she was a lot stronger than her stats would have implied. I was really surprised, honestly. This was just a guess, but I bet if Itsuki saw Rishia now, he would ask her to come back. Although, he was an exceptionally proud person, so he probably wouldn’t actually say the words.
“Really? I don’t really feel much different . . .”
So she hadn’t noticed the difference. I guess even if she had gotten stronger, the fundamentals remained the same. As I mulled over the thought, I noticed Eclair cut down a monster. It was a pretty impressive attack, although not quite as impressive as Rishia’s. She’d definitely become stronger than before.
“That was amazing, Eclair.”
Raphtalia complimented Eclair, clearly impressed.
“I still can’t compare with you, Raphtalia, but I am one step ahead when it comes to the Hengen Muso style. You better catch up soon.”
“You can be certain I will.”
It seemed like Raphtalia and Eclair had become friends. Completely disregarding their exchange, Atla came over and called out to me.
“Watch this, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Okay.”
Now to find out what Atla could do. I wondered if she was stronger than her brother.
“Atla! This is my mon—”
“You’re in my way, Brother.”
“Oof!”
Atla jabbed Fohl. He fell forward onto the ground and she climbed up and stood on top of him. A huge wild boar monster called a razorback was barreling toward them, but Atla stopped its charge head-on with just one hand. All she had done is place a single finger on the tip of the razorback’s nose. The razorback appeared to be trying to charge forward with all its might, but it didn’t budge an inch. Huh? It was like she had superhuman strength or something.
“Forgive me.”
Jab !
Atla leapt toward the razorback and poked it in the forehead. That’s all she had done and yet . . . the razorback’s eyes rolled back into its head as it began foaming at the mouth and fell over. Huh? Was it dead?
Received 70 EXP
I’d gotten experience. It was like some kind of assassination technique or something. For some reason, it seemed like it would do more damage than defeating the monster normally. Had she gouged out its brain or something? It hadn’t looked like she’d done anything but poked the thing.
“I did it!”
“N . . . nice . . .”
Genius is a scary thing. Atla appeared light-years stronger than Rishia or the lady knight. And barehanded?! I’d just realized I hadn’t given Atla a weapon. No, wait. I was sure I must have given her one along with the rest of the slaves. I guess she just didn’t use it.
The monsters here were . . . around level 40, on average. That was child’s play with this group. I poked Fohl, who was still lying on the ground with Atla standing on top of him. I felt kind of bad for the pitiful brother.
“Yah!”
Filo was in her filolial queen form jumping around and kicking monsters left and right. Like usual, it was clear she knew how to handle herself in a fight.
Anyway, we were mowing through monsters without any need for me to use my shield. I probably should have been doing something, but I just felt redundant. Everyone had gotten so strong . . . I was starting to feel a bit alienated.
“Mr. Naofumi, is something wrong?” asked Raphtalia.
“Nah.”
“Raphtalia, bring us some more monsters so Mr. Iwatani has something to do. Otherwise, Sadeena is likely to steal him away from you!” Eclair quipped.
“Understood!”
“I wasn’t asking anyone to worry about me! And why are you nodding so vigorously, Raphtalia?!”
What the hell was Eclair talking about?! And why the hell do I have to end up with that drunkard?!
“Oh, whatever. If it’s going to be like that, I might as well use this. Hate Reaction!”
I’d just use Hate Reaction to draw nearby monsters to us as we made our way to a location with monsters that were a bit tougher. We made our way deeper into the mountains, and before long we started to see some monsters with dragon-like characteristics.
Ah, that reminded me . . . Dragons lived in really remote regions. I guess we had left the area the bandits had been active in. But that was fine since it was a chance to see just how far we could go. Besides, I could absorb the materials into my shield to get some nice little stat boosts. Or at least that’s what I figured, but for some reason I hadn’t been able to unlock any dragon-related shields. The Demon Dragon Shield had been really slow to appear, too.
“Mr. Iwatani!”
“Mr. Naofumi! You’re needed!”
“It’s finally my turn, huh?”
There was finally a monster that they needed my help with. I held it down, and the others attacked it. The rest of the monsters were weaklings, and everyone went about clearing them out on their own. We’d all leveled up after a while, but one person’s growth had been particularly remarkable. The instant her level changed from 70 to 71, all her stats shot through the roof.
Her name: Rishia Ivyred.
Was it because of her training? No, I was pretty sure increasing physical fitness wouldn’t affect status magic, so that shouldn’t cause a sudden rise in stats. Since we hadn’t run into any bandits that day and just ended up fighting monsters the whole time, Rishia made it to level 72 and when she did her stats shot up another thirty percent or so. Her stats had already reached about half of what Raphtalia’s were before being chosen by the vassal weapon.
That may not have seemed like much since Rishia’s stats had been a measly one-third of that to start out with. But if Rishia kept improving at this pace, she should catch up to where Raphtalia was by the time she hit level 75. Apparently the awakening of Rishia’s abilities started when she hit level 71. I guess I could finally really look forward to her making a significant contribution on the combat front.
Chapter Fifteen: The Masked Man
“Alright then, we got some good leveling in, so let’s actually focus on finding those bandits now. We can do some more leveling after we steal their loot.”
I called everyone together after we had finished cleaning up plenty of the dangerous monsters.
“Hold on! Just what do you plan on doing with the stolen goods?!” Eclair snapped.
“What? Are you going to tell me to return them to their original owners when we have no way of knowing who they are?”
Eclair groaned at my reply. She had said something similar back when we were dealing with the Spirit Tortoise.
“If you can prove they belong to someone, I’ll be happy to return them to that person. But do you think you can do that?”
Eclair seemed to have given up and sighed deeply.
“And I guess you’ll say governing a territory requires such toughness, Mr. Iwatani?”
“Raphtalia, is stealing the bandits’ loot wrong?”
“Huh? Is it wrong? They’re the thieves, so aren’t they the bad ones?”
“R . . . Raphtalia?”
“Hmm . . . I have a feeling Eclair’s response is actually the proper one.”
Still, it wasn’t like I was going to change my mind now.
“Regardless, the bandit loot belongs to me. It will help cover the funds for reconstruction.”
It was always possible that I’d have a sudden need for money, like when I wanted to buy up the Lurolona slaves recently. There was no such thing as having too much money.
“So it’s a necessary evil, in other words? I . . . I don’t know what I should do . . .”
Eclair was at a loss. What happened? I’d actually expected her to show a little more resistance, but . . . Oh well. That just meant less trouble for me, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Eclair sighed.
“Rafu?”
Oh? Raphtalia and Raph-chan had both cocked their heads to the side in unison. It was beautiful! Now I was really getting excited.
“I can’t help but feel like the reconstruction is going better in your village than in the town,” mumbled Eclair.
“The grass is always greener on the other side. Don’t let it bother you.”
She had the cooperation of Melty and some of the nobility, so the reconstruction of the town that Eclair was overseeing had progressed a bit, too. There was still a shortage of hands in my village, after all. It was nothing but a few houses and some farm plots right now, so it was a long way from what you would call a town.
“Still . . . if things continue like this, it’s only a matter of time until . . .”
“If it bothers you that much then stop training all the time and give Melty a hand!”
Sheesh! She had no place envying me if she was going to be a training-obsessed musclebrain. She needed to decide whether she wanted to be a martial artist or a politician.
“Anyway, we’ve cleaned up enough monsters. Now it’s time f
or some bandit hunting.”
We started making preparations in the mountains near the road that the bandits had infested.
“I’m sure you all know this, but most of the bandits are going to be maybe level 40 at the highest. Just do your usual thing and we’ll be fine.”
People couldn’t class up if they weren’t trustworthy, so the levels of the bandits wouldn’t be that high. Of course, it was possible that there might be drifters who had classed up in Zeltoble or something. We’d come across one once while out peddling wares a long time ago. Someone would probably need to have a successful fighting record in the coliseums to do that. But it didn’t make much sense for someone to become a bandit if they could make money fighting in the coliseums. Whatever, it wasn’t like I actually cared.
“For now, we’ll split up into groups of two and go look for bandits or their hideouts. We need more intel before we can worry about their boss.”
The quickest way to find their hideouts would be to find some bandits and make them talk. We needed to round up several bandits to really get started. As for groups . . . I’d just split everyone into pairs based on who would get along or complement each other well.
“Let’s go with Fohl and Atla, Raphtalia and Eclair, and Filo and Rishia. If you’d prefer a different partner, then just split up however you like.”
I scooped Raph-chan up into my arms and started walking away.
“Raph-chan’s with me. Come on, Raph-chan, it’s petting time!”
“Rafu!”
“What is that?!”
Raphtalia started to complain.
“We should avoid moving around in big groups. Based on what we know about the boss, I’m going to pair with Raph-chan so that it looks like I’m on my own and see if our prey doesn’t take the bait. If anything happens, Raph-chan will let you know, Raphtalia. Right, Raph-chan?”