Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Bandit Extermination (2)

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Author’s Note: The combat scene continues.

There are viewpoint changes this time.

It will be Alec → Yuuri → Yuuri → Alec.

Translator’s Note: The author mentions Yuuri twice because there’s no explicit indication of viewpoint change in the original, so there are two “scenes” of Yuuri in a row.

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(Alec’s viewpoint)

“What is this place?!”

Mister Elric shouted out.

While marching along with the carriage, the view in front of us suddenly changed… that’s the only way I can express it.

We should have been walking on a highway outside the woods, but all of a sudden we’re in the middle of a dense forest.

—Something must have happened? But I have no idea what that something is.

Several armed men jump out at us from the forest. There are six of them… bandits?

“Marle, come this—ugha!”

Thinking first about the girl who I should be protecting the most, while I was getting her to run away… I was attacked from behind.

I roll away from the second follow-up slash and dodge it!

“Alec!”

“I’m fine! Hurry, this way!”

—The wound isn’t deep, but it is wide.

If I leave it alone, then I’ll probably lose too much blood to keep going.

“Mister Elric is…”

When I spot our employer I see him being rushed into the forest by Arim.

“Quickly, over here!”

“But the cargo… and the children!”

“You’re not grasping the situation. Forget the cargo and focus on surviving, please!”

“But…!”

They abandoned us? Anyway, I have to at least protect her, or else…

Besides, I was attacked from behind. The only one behind me was Prokel… wait, I was slashed at twice?

And the one behind me was the [dual sword] wielding Prokel… hey, you’re kidding right?!

“Shit, you betrayed us?!”

“Tch, dodged, huh? You’ve got good instincts, brat.”

I don’t have time to quarrel with him. Ivan and Baram are coming around from the other side of the carriage.

I kick the dirt at my feet up into Prokel’s eyes to blind him. Following that, I jump up to the carriage, and scoop Marle up from inside the carriage and onto my right shoulder.

“Uwooh! You cowardly bastard!”

“Hya?!”

“Sorry, I’ll give you a good apology later!”

—They betray us and then he calls me cowardly?!

While Prokel is blinded, I move from inside the carriage over to the driver’s seat and jump off the other side.

While carrying Marle I land and roll to absorb the impact.

Without stopping, we rushed into the forest.

“U-umm, what about mister Elric?”

“I can’t protect him too. Besides, since they didn’t attack him while he was over there, I’m sure they intend to let him live.”

“Eh?”

She makes an uncomprehending expression. It looks like she hasn’t gotten her head around the fact that they betrayed us.

He’s the one they’re escorting. If he dies, then the adventurer’s guild is going to investigate it.

It would probably take a lot of skill to weasel their way out of a harsh interrogation. If the guild concludes that they’re up to no good, then they’ll be targeted by adventurers around the world.

Most likely, once the trap was sprung, they took him away so he could later testify, “We ran for our lives when we were attacked.”

Their trust as adventurers will fall, but since they’ll have the mountain of gold coins intended for buying ore as their spoils, naturally they’ll take it.

“I see, so if they let us live… then their plot will be revealed.”

“Eh? Eh?”

“I’m saying I’ll definitely protect you, Marle.”

If I can’t reassure her… it’ll be like these two years since then hadn’t happened.

“Ah, umm… ehhh…?”

For some reason her face is going completely red and she’s mumbling.

Maybe she’s scared?

“Wait, you damned brat!”

“The hell are you doing, Prokel? Pull yourself together and take them down, you nincompoop!”

I have no idea where we are, but if I can just buy some time, then Master or Yuuri should come rushing over!

All I can do until then is keep running.

“There’ll be a lot of shaking for a while, but… try to hang on!”

I run with everything I have.

I expect we won’t be able to get very far from Prokel, but we should be able to pull away from the metal armor wearing Ivan along with the rear guard of Baram and Mac.

If it’s Prokel on his own, then I should be able to manage even without a great sword.

~*~

(Yuuri’s point of view)

When we teleported over, there were about 6 men unloading the cargo from the carriage.

“There’s no fighting…? Don’t tell me it’s already over?!”

Even though it hasn’t even been… 10 minutes since the Vultures went here? What about Alec? What about Marle?!

“Shit, we were too late…?”

“We don’t know that yet, let’s kick these guys around!”

Mister Jack’s spoke in despair, followed by my Master’s command.

Going along with those words, mister Kale and mister Bhav leap forward.

My Master joins in, beating them back with his own sword. I’m in the middle of [Enchanting], so I can’t participate.

Plus I don’t know where Alec and Marle are, so I don’t know where it would be safe to aim any large spells.

“HII, what the hell is with these guys?!”

“UWAA, STOP, help… Guaah!”

When mister Oreas’ spell stops them, mister Bhav and mister Kale shoot forward with their swords.

There’s probably no way they expected us to chase after them.

Since they expected that their task was already finished and were relaxed, the bandits couldn’t make use of their numerical advantage and were exterminated in an instant.

~*~

“Well? Were the there?”

“Nope, I don’t see ’em. Should we see this as a blessing in disguise? They most likely ran away.”

“Yeah, that’s great… that guy, Elric, he’s fine then?”

While I’m in the middle of [Enchanting], mister Bhav checks the area for enemies, remaining people, and corpses.

Miss Leche seems relieved, but we can’t find Alec, Marle, or mister Elric anywhere. Actually—

“How strange. I don’t see anyone from the Vultures.”

“Weren’t they watching the others’ backs while they were running away?”

“Look, if the 6 people here were their opponents, they wouldn’t have needed to escape, and should have been able to come back to where we were.”

With their bodies not here as proof that they ran away, I can feel a bit of relief, but…

“Haa, with things how they are, if we could just find Alec…”

“Hey, there’s footprints here, two sets. They’re running into the forest. By the looks of the footprints, it’s 2 adults.”

“There’s traces of blood over this way. The footprints… I can’t really tell much.”

Just as I had finished [Enchanting], and let out a deep breath, it looks like mister Bhav found footprints, and mister Kale found bloodstains.

At the mention of bloodstains, miss Leche turns pale.

“There’s 1 smaller set of feet here, and 4 adults? 1 of ’em looks particularly heavy. Like they’re wearing metal armor.”

“Which would mean that’s Ivan.”

“Good thing it was raining 2 days ago. Thanks to the ground still being wet, it’ll be easy to go after them.”

“So would the smaller feet be Alec’s? What do you mean there’s only 1 set of children’s feet? What about Marle?”

“That little lady has especially small feet. I would be able to pick them out immediately, but… I don’t see ’em.”

“There’s no body, and no footprints… was one person sent somewhere separate from here?”

“No, it’s more likely that Alec is carrying her while running away. A child’s legs won’t be able to get away from an adults after all.”

Ah, that makes sense… wait, huh?

Wait a minute, please. We found 7 sets of footprints. Mister Elric, Alec, and the Vultures’ sets.

Isn’t something strange here…?

“Master, we found 7 people’s footprints?”

“Yes, and?”

“The 5 Vultures members who aren’t here, Alec, and mister Elric makes 7 people… what is it they’re running from?”

“That’d be the band—ah.”

Yeah, there are no footprints from the bandits that should be chasing after the ones running away.

“In any case, we should hurry and chase after them. Yuuri and Bhav, I’ll ask you two to go after the 2 adult footprints over there. Kale and I will go after the ones with the bloodstains.”

“I should be the one headed in Alec’s…”

“You wouldn’t be able to carry the great sword there.”

Even though the great sword has [Weight reduction] placed on it, the enchantment was a rush job, so it still has about the weight of a fairly heavy long sword.

If it was me, I’d be staggering around quite a bit.

We could probably catch up to them quickly if we fly through the air, but we don’t have any scouting or mountain-dweller skills.

If we want to chase after them with any accuracy, then we’ll need mister Kale’s and mister Bhav’s expertise.

“I understand. Miss Bella, please go along with Master. Since it looks like someone is hurt. Mister Oreas, please watch over mister Jack here.”

“Alright, got it.”

“Understood. Be careful out there.”

“Well then, let’s hurry, mister Bhav!”

The two of us followed after the footprints deep into the forest.

~*~

(Alec’s point of view)

Heeh… heeh… haa…

Quietly, quickly… even thinking that, my heavy breathing leaks from my throat.

A small child though she may be, there’s only so far I can run from an adult while carrying her on my back.

—I wonder how far we’ve pulled away from Ivan?

We’ve been running in a huge circle, so we shouldn’t be too far away from where the carriage is.

It would be safest to run in a straight line, but if we do that, then we’d be getting further away from Master and the others who should be coming for us.

Without getting too far from the carriage, we needed to shake our pursuers. I knew I would be pushing it from the start, but this is more tiring then I expected.

If I wear myself out any more than this, then I won’t have the energy to handle Prokel anymore.

“I guess—I’ll have to prepare myself.”

“Eh? Umm, are you all right, Alec?”

“Yeah, but at this rate we won’t be able to get away, so I think I’ll defeat just one of the people chasing us.”

“You can’t, it’s too dangerous!”

“It’s fine, it’s only one person. Anyway, it’ll be touch-and-go here, so I’m thinking you should run ahead on your own.”

“I will not!”

A very clear refusal… I’m sure it’s because she would be scared on her own.

But there’s no way I can just let her stand here with three swords flying around.

“Sorry, but it would be dangerous for you to be here with me Marle. When my long sword crosses blades with Prokel’s twin swords, whoever is nearby will be the one in danger.”

“… But…”

“Then could you at least hide somewhere a little separated from here?”

“… In that case, I understand.”

I had no intention of losing in the first place, but now I absolutely cannot lose.

I don’t think she has any chance of staying hidden from the scout, Prokel.

She hides in the shadows of a large tree a ways away. I draw my long sword, and stay vigilant of what’s behind me.

… And Prokel comes towards me.

“Yo, is our game of tag already over?”

“I’ve heard that line is a “death flag” you know?”

“The hell’s that?”

“It means whoever said it is gonna die.”

I show off something I learned from Yuuri a long time ago, and buy myself just a little more time.

Long swords really don’t come easily for me.

“So it’s something like a jinx? In that case, I just have to send it back to you!”

Prokel strikes at me with a fierce attack. Shit, rotten though he may be, he’s a professional. He’s not gonna sit and make idle chit chat with me.

“Daaaamn!”

“Yooou!”

I dodge his first attack with some good footwork, and use my sword to make a large parry of his follow-up attack.

While his balance is thrown off, I make a difficult to dodge thrust towards him. Doing this on a battlefield would be hard because it would risk having my sword taken from me, but since it’s 1-on-1, I can do this as I like.

Prokel jumped far away to avoid this.

“Tsk, your arm really ain’t bad.”

“Pretty sure that’s my line!”

Though he’s surprised by my skill, he circles to my left side and comes at me with a horizontal swipe towards that side.

—Coming in from my blind spot, huh? I can’t let my guard down.

However, I’ve had plenty of practice in dealing with this move. Attacking my one-armed self on the left side where I don’t have an arm is a by-the-book tactic.

While sinking to the ground, I rotate my body, sweep out with my leg and topple him to the ground. I attacked while practically crawling on the ground like that.

Prokel fell over, and without immediately getting up, rolled away to get some distance back.

Jyaa, went the sound of a sword gouging the ground.

Now it’s my turn to pursue. I scoop my sword in an upward slash towards Prokel who’s getting up.

He bends backwards to dodge, and his right hand swings out in a counterattack. His right hand, in other words, my left side.

—I knew he’d do that!

I turn my upwards swing back around, and drop the blade towards his right hand.

Anticipating his counterattack, I hadn’t made a full swing, and my blade reached its target first.

Shlick!

A dull sound, and the feeling of cutting flesh.

But it didn’t reach any bones.

“GUAAaaaa?!”

Even with his right arm split open, his left comes back at me. Before the blade could reach me, I kicked Prokel away.

The blade swings, and grazes my forehead.

Blood from the wound flows into my right eye, dyeing half of my vision red.

“Kuh!”

“You bastard… how dare you do that to me…”

This is a bad situation. My vision is obstructed, and I’m taking too much time.

If Ivan gets here, I won’t be able to cope with it.

“I’ll fucking kill you! You and that little bitch too!”

He makes a big swing with a reversed grip.

—Very generous of him. He just doesn’t get the risks of using one arm.

Putting my weight into it, I repel his sword. With no obstructions in the way any more, I deliver a body blow to Prokel.

Using the momentum from falling down, I stabbed my sword through his stomach.

“GYAAAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaa?!”

I shift my body over to his left arm to stop his sword from moving before scooping my blade out of him.

“Ah, aguh….”

“Sorry, one-handed swordplay is my arena.”

I bark those words towards the now convulsing and blood bubble blowing Prokel.

I strike into his throat to deliver the finishing blow before standing back up—

—When the other pursuers caught up to us.