Chapter 250 — Part 2
Off the crowded road filled with travelers, merchants, and roaming laborers, four figures dressed like lumberjacks and hunters weaved their way through the thick, overgrown trees.
The group was a mix of men and women, but all of them were in worn-out fur clothes and durable linens. Their faces and limbs were so darkly tanned, and the hatchets on their waists were so well used that anyone would believe they were real lumberjacks.
Of course, they were not harmless lumberjacks who were lost or wished to emigrate. The barony of Bern strongly encouraged the use of the road connecting Galois and Clauze Village. Moreover, those who were not residents of the territory were forbidden from traveling off the road.
Such regulations were in place to prevent unidentifiable and unpredictable individuals from hiding in the territory. In addition, the areas beyond the roads were still littered with wild beasts and poisonous insects. This was also an attempt to prevent people from accidentally wandering into Ente forest.
Despite the reasons just listed, this group of four was intentionally breaking the law set by the barony of Bern by traveling off the road and through the forest.
As the party trudged through the forest, they would check the traces left by beasts, as well as the types of trees, mushrooms, and vegetation; they were behaving as a person in disguise as a lumberjack would. Clearly, such actions were to prevent suspicion if they were caught.
In the path of these cautious folks, Lynette appeared from the shadows of the trees. Her slender body was clad in a simple indigo maid’s outfit and a clean white apron with frills and laces. This particular outfit had been chosen primarily for how adorable it looked.
A few among the party of four had been born into families serving as state spies for generations, while others were highly skilled mercenary agents. None of them had noticed the breathing or even the presence of someone else. The fact that Lynette was a living golem, a special existence, was probably a huge factor in this situation.
「Nice to meet you. My name is Lynette, a maid attached to Bern’s Raider Knights. I’m sorry for the sudden disruption, ladies and gentlemen, but the forest off the road is a restricted zone. I would like to know what business you have setting foot in here and the circumstances of this entry.」
A pendant with the crest of the barony of Bern hung from Lynette’s neck, an identification indicating that she was under Christina’s direct command.
The party had already been informed twice about the precautions needed in the barony of Bern, including information about the pendant. The first time was when they entered the barony, and the second when they were riding the public carriage to Bern from Galois.
A woman with frazzled bronze hair and dressed as a hunter seemed to be the leader of this group of wanderers. She had a breastplate and a waistcoat on her as well. After she lowered the bow in her left hand to show that she had no hostile intentions, she spoke in her own defense.
「What a lovely young lady you are, but that pendant at your neck clearly indicates that you’re a maid in the service of the lord. My sincere apologies. We were warned not to set food in this place, but we got greedy after seeing such a rich and untainted forest. That’s why I gathered these folks and got to work while we still could. This new place has gotten me a little too excited, but I’ll return everything I’ve taken so far and pay the necessary penalty. Can you please go easy on me this time?」
The hunter’s deeply sincere words were typical of an ignorant and inexperienced fellow. Lynette’s face, which usually lacked any emotional fluctuations, was thinly veiled in contemplation as she seemed to examine the situation.
Right now, the only crime this party had commited was to set foot in a forbidden area of Bern. There was still no evidence of them being spies.
「It’s good that you’re willing to admit to your mistakes and accept the punishment. Now, the man with the blue beard over there. Yes, you. You received a piece of paper when you helped an old man before he almost fell at one of the inns on the street, right? I’ll need you to present that piece of paper to me so that I may verify its contents. Next, you, the woman who looks like a peddler and carrying the medicine chest. Please take out the crystal shard hidden in the sole of your shoe. It’s a magical recording medium, isn’t it? What has it recorded, or what were you planning to record with it?」
Lynette swept her gaze across each of the hunters without hostility or any intent to kill. Her posture was immaculate, poised and straight, as she spoke with absolute control over the situation.
「You, the one with the bandana. Yes, the one with the liquid bottle at your hip and pretending to be an alcoholic or gambler. You were playing dice with some folks by the road when they called you over, but you traded goods instead of money rather frequently. Please explain that behavior. It might’ve just been a coincidence and some of those gamblers might be unrelated folks, but I’ll need you to verify this information.」
After that, Lynette fixed her eyes on a rather ferocious female hunter. Those who had been demanded for explanations were protesting and making excuses behind this woman, but they seemed to show no indication of adhering to Lynette’s requests.
The truth and the facts Lyneete sought from this group were very different things, and they understood this. All these tentative questions and answers were merely buying time as they grasped for a potential chance.
「Finally, you. Seems like you burned a parchment in a secluded place before boarding the carriage from Clauze Village. I gathered the ashes and restored it, but it didn’t seem like the note had anything worth concealing. Well, was something specially coded into the contents? I would very much like to know.」
The hunters moved the moment Lynette finished speaking. Blue Beard and the female peddler hurled the bags over their shoulders and pouches at their waist, while the gambler and the female hunter took off as fast as they could.
The four of them had clearly made a plan that did not involve killing Lynette to silence her. Rather, they had chosen to leave behind two members without any revealing information if caught, while the two most problematic ones would flee.
「Thank you. This is exactly what Lynette is looking for. Now that you have the added charge of obstructing the mission, we shall resort to brute force.」
For some reason, Lynette was pleased as her voice left her with a cheery lilt. Her words were followed by a series of painful cries as thuds of flesh being hit resounded. The female hunter and the peddler instantly understood those sounds to be their companions’ defeat at Lynette’s hands.
Lynette did not reveal any zeal nor bloodlust usually associated with such a predicament, which made the two intruders highly aware of the grave danger Lynette posed. Without any hesitation, they focused wholeheartedly on escaping from this young girl who appeared to be in her early teens.
Now that their decoys had been defeated, the reasonable course of action would be to split up with this peddler and have one of them escape. For the hunter, this fellow was just someone she had met for the first time several days ago. The female hunter still chose to take a shot before leaping to this step.
Despite the false disguise as a hunter, the bow remained this woman’s beloved weapon for years. As she sprinted at full speed, she gripped the bow in her left hand and clutched an arrow in her right without faltering once. She whipped her head back at her pursuer who made no sound of any footsteps or breathing.
「Darn brat!」
The female hunter was determined to take down whatever came at her with her arrow, even if it was a predator leaping at her. However, her vision was swiftly filled with a shiny black mass of iron—it was a mace.
Wham!
Twice in quick succession, an unwelcome sound rang out in the forest.
*
Schwip, schwip, schwip. Schwip, schwip, schwip.
Golden rays shone through the maze of branches overhead, illuminating the marks carved on the ground from something being dragged.
The scraping sound was from the four people being dragged along after Lynette had captured them. They were bound with straw ropes inscribed with the magic words “Restraint” and “Slumber”. Naturally, Lynette was the one tugging them along, and she did not reveal the slightest bit of exhaustion from the weight of these four grown humans. Rather, she seemed to be searching for someone in the forest.
「Gundeus, mission complete over here.」
Lynette caught sight of Gundeus in the midst of returning a long, thin throwing knife to the leather belt on her left thigh. Three unconscious people, men and women, were at her feet by a tree on her left.
Gundeus was in the same maid uniform as Lynette, but her skirt was boldly turned up to expose her fair legs. She looked extraordinarily glamorous with her existing figure, despite this being a rather incongruous situation with her appearance.
「Big Sis Lynette, I’ve done my part. Any infidels trying to harm Master and the Baron will be dealt with as such.」
Gundeus glanced at Lynette gently, a gaze reserved for her comrades. However, her eyes were laced with bloodlust and ice when she turned them toward the captives at her feet. As if that were inadequate, she even stomped harshly on each of them with her sharp stilettos.
The trampled victims did not regain consciousness due to the rope binding them, but they let out moans of agony. An exasperated sigh escaped Lynette when she noticed how Gundeus’s cheeks were tinted vermillion and a pleased smile spread on Gundeus’s face upon hearing these groans.
「Gundeus, even if you deem them to be trifling fools, inflicting excessive injury reflects poor character.」
「I’m sorry. I didn’t realize before Big Sis Lynette and the professors found me, but I seem to enjoy hurting people. Of course, I wouldn’t harm an innocent person or a resident of Bern unless they commit vile crimes, but it’s fine with these guys, isn’t it? Strangely enough, I have no desire to treat the Baron or Master, Lynette, and my sisters in this manner. On the contrary, I would love to be manhandled, roughed about, and mauled in this manner. Hehehe.」
That being said, Gundeus’s master was Dran.
「…」
Lynette exclaimed a silent apology to Dran in her heart for the state of Gundeus, someone whom she had been responsible for educating and disciplining.
It was strange.
Gundeus and Kyrlinne were so robotic and emotionless that Lynette was trying her very best to ensure that they could experience human emotions and the joys of possessing a human body. Of course, this was done with the guarantee that it would be possible.
Neither Gundeus nor Kyrlinne has any need for emotions, but they were programmed with the function of feeling emotions. Lynette had made these two her subordinates in Bern’s Raider Knights in a bid to assist the others and create a place for the girls.
In addition to their duties as Raider Knights, they learned basic skills as a maid like clearing and cooking. They were even taught to read, embroider, play musical instruments, sing, and dance for leisure. Even Lynette, who was still learning the ways of humans, sometimes joined them in learning such skills.
Thanks to these efforts, Gundeus and Kyrlinne had become more self-aware, revealing their feelings and preferences from time to time. However, such sexual fetishes were a real shock to hear.
Fortunately, Lynette and Kyrlinne were the only ones to know this about Gundeus, but Lynette was constantly plagued with trepidation about Dran’s eventual realization and how she should apologize for this matter.
「Oh, Big Sis Lynette, Gun-chan, are you done? Am I last?」
Kyrlinne was the last to arrive at the appointed place to gather. She scrambled through the bushes to make her appearance, with a large sword as tall as her hanging from her shoulder with a belt. On both of her shoulders, four humans were piled haphazardly on top of each other.
These spies were bound in the same straw ropes as Kyrlinne lowered them to the ground. Then, she glanced at Lynette curiously, though she said nothing about Gundeus’s flushed face. Perhaps she simply decided to ignore it or thought it was nothing unusual.
「Big Sis Lynette, why are you making that expression?」
Lynette seemed to see something in Kyrlinne who had popped the question in a chipper tone. Relief washed over her face as she replied cheerfully.
「Kyrlinne, please continue maturing as you are.」
「Huh?」
Of course, Kyrlinne had no idea what Lynette was talking about.
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