Episode 73: Trap
Highway Patrol.
Chatting idly while patrolling outside the town.
It’s an enjoyable time, but it’s still work.
I can’t just have fun.
After walking for a while, we discovered something on the outskirts of the highway.
“Hrk… hold on. Footprints.”
Gari, Bucky, stopped everyone with a hand gesture.
“A-Footprints? So what?”
The newbie from ‘The Fang of the Wolf Gang’ said with a dumb look on his face, but…
“Idiot! Look closely! These footprints are straying from the highway, aren’t they?! Suspicious footprints!”
Bucky scolded and taught at the same time.
Indeed, footprints moving away from the highway and into the bushes are strange.
The outside of town is dangerous, with monsters and bandits lurking.
Once you stray from the highway, it’s “Unexplored Territory.”
This isn’t like Earth, where asphalt is laid everywhere and humans have intervened.
Here, taking one step outside the town is like being in a foreign country, straying from the path leads to unexplored territory, and it’s common for neighboring villages to be enemy territory…
“And the problem is the number! If it were just one or two sets of footprints, that’d be one thing, but there are about ten! It’s a group!”
“A-Are they bandits?!”
The newbie was surprised and frightened.
Even if they act tough, they’re still scared of people killing each other.
Well, unlike exterminating goblins, which are weaker than humans, there’s a high chance of getting killed when dealing with people. It’s normal to be scared.
“Nah, I don’t know. Recently, there’s been an increase in refugees due to the war in the south… and even if that weren’t the case, villages being destroyed by monsters is a common story. Maybe those guys are secretly living around here.”
“So, they’re not enemies? Can’t we just ignore them…”
“That won’t do either. This Highway Patrol request came from the Lord-sama after all. If our employer is the Lord-sama, we have to produce results that align with the Lord-sama’s wishes… In other words, we have to drive out anyone living there without permission from the Midford territory.”
Bucky explained, holding the shield on his back in his left hand and gripping his short spear.
…It sounds ruthless, but homeless people, or rather refugees, need to be driven out of the town.
If they were to become Striders or something, that’d be one thing, but having them live in abandoned ruins outside the town is a nuisance.
Even if the buildings are abandoned, the land rights belong to Count Missgancia, i.e., the Lord.
The Lord finds it unseemly for someone to occupy even unused buildings without permission.
In short, it means they’re being effectively controlled by someone else. If left unchecked, other nobles will see it as a sign that he “lacks the power to control his territory.”
Of course, that’s just the official reason.
There are plenty of nobles with bandit hideouts within their territories.
But we’re doing this as a job.
Since we found something like this, we need to deal with it.
“We’re going, huh. If they’re bandits, we kill them, if they’re refugees, we drive them out.”
With Bull’s command, we headed into the depths of the bushes…
There was…
“Hii! P-Please wait! Spare me!”
A shabby man.
A runaway peasant, perhaps? A skinny middle-aged man.
“I-If I’m driven out of here, I have nowhere else to go! Please spare me!”
Hmm…
Something’s strange.
Why is he here alone?
Monsters should appear around here, outside the town.
There’s no way an unarmed peasant could survive.
This is probably…
“It’s a trap!”
Instantly, a dozen arrows flew from the bushes.
“Fall back!!! UOOOOOOO!!!”
At the same moment, Bucky stepped forward.
Holding a wooden tower shield, he took the arrows.
That protected the newbie from ‘The Fang of the Wolf Gang’.
I deflected the arrows with my long staff, and Kaede-san nullified them with her sword’s sheath.
The two kids not affiliated with the Clan… were paralyzed with fear and sat on their butts. Thanks to that, they seemed to have escaped the arrows’ line of fire.
“Damn! They blocked it!”
“They’re skilled!”
“Go! You guys!”
“Uoooooo!”
“Get ’em!”
Oh, oh, bandits.
There are a lot of them, aren’t there? About twenty, maybe?
And they’re all reasonably skilled.
But… well, we can manage this much.
“Fatty, Gari, Old Lady! You guys protect the newbies while fighting! Kaede and I will go forward!”
“You can do it?!” “Are you sure?!” “Don’t die!”
“Well, we can handle this much!”
I held my short sword… and stepped in!
“Oraaa!”
I swung my long staff and struck a bandit holding a round shield and an axe.
“Guh…?!”
Naturally, the bandit blocked with his shield.
I then quickly thrust with my short sword.
“Ah… Gaa?!”
A round shield, a wooden circular shield.
Normally, even if pierced by a sword, the blade would stop midway.
However, the story was different when I used two Magic Skills: ‘Penetration’ by channeling Magical Power into the sword, and ‘Adamantine Strength’ by channeling Magical Power into my body.
The sword advanced with tremendous force, destroying the shield and creating a hole in the shoulder of the bandit behind it.
As he faltered…
“Die.”
“A, Gyaa!!!”
A swing of the long staff.
His neck broke; instant death.
Okay, one down!
As I readied my weapon…
“KIEEEEEII!!!”
“Gyaaaaa!!!”
Somehow… Kaede-san, with her Iaijutsu sword drawing, had cut through shields, armor, and weapons, killing three bandits in one fell swoop.
Ah… this girl is as strong as Katerina-san after all…
In other words, she’s stronger than me. Is it okay if I cry?