Chapter 19: Escort 2 (Part 1)
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Translator: SFBaka
「It’s now morning. Please wake up.」
“Alright, I’m gonna do my best today as well!”
Twenty days have passed since we left from Talas village. We haven’t encountered much trouble during the trip so far. We were, however, assaulted quite a number of times by monsters.
We were attacked by Gray Hounds twice. We also got assaulted by those green-skinned, midget humanoid creatures. It seems like they were called Goblins. Six of them appeared before us and attacked us while crying out *gukyaa, gukyaa as usual. They seemed to be much less of a threat than Gray Hounds. I used them as target practice for my homing Flame Arrow spell and finished them off all at once.
We also passed by two other villages along the way. Because Beck was acquainted with them, we were warmly welcomed. They seem to be of the same scale as Talas village.
We passed by many byroads and encountered many other travelers along the way. They were mostly merchants and adventurers.
According to Cleria and Beck, an adventurer is a profession that undertakes jobs like pest extermination, gathering raw materials and serving as mercenary troops. I don’t really think those things have much to do with having an adventure, but they’re called adventurers for some reason anyway.
Adventurers have a ranking system, and high ranking individuals were apparently highly respected people. It might be a good idea to become an adventurer if I ever had problems putting food on the table in the future.
Beck and the others have also woken up.
“Good morning. Master, Alan-san.”
Beck and Thor have come to address Cleria as ‘Master’. Looks like Cleria doesn’t dislike how the two of them are addressing her either.
“Good morning.”
Beck and Thor’s sword skills have been steadily improving day by day. However, even if they’ve been getting in at least two hours of sword practice every day, they still aren’t able to take on two goblins at the same time. Obviously, fighting a Gray Hound would be a tall order for the two.
I and Cleria have been teaching them how to properly fight a Big Boar if they managed to encounter one recently.
However, since the two of them didn’t have their own swords, I hope we’ll be able to purchase some once we arrive in the city. It seems we’ve managed to get along quite well with Beck and Thor these past few days of traveling together. But just how much does a sword cost, I wonder. Let me try asking Cleria later.
We went on the road once more after having breakfast. According to Beck, we should be able to reach Gotania this evening, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Five hours after our departure, just a bit more before lunch, I managed to detect a reaction from my scans. This signature was definitely that of a human. A fellow traveler, perhaps? The signature was stationary.
When we got until 200 meters from the target and would finally get it in visual range, that person suddenly made a move and headed away from our carriage.
I wonder what’s up? I changed the detection target from small animals to humans and tried to scan once more. The detection range would expand if I set the target to larger objects.
Finally, I managed to get twelve human signatures 1500 meters out. The person from before was apparently heading towards that group of twelve.
Umu, how suspicious. Looks like the person from earlier was coming back to the group in order to report about us. Looks like these guys were bandits that Zack warned me about.
“Ria, I detected at least thirteen people 1500 meters away from us. They’re probably bandits.”
“Eh!? You can actually detect them from that far out?”
Oh yeah. I haven’t told her much about my scanning magic, have I?
“Yeah, I can tell. What are we going to do about them?”
“Well, we certainly can’t turn back the way we came. Alan and I should be able to take on those thirteen people.”
Well, she’s right. Handling them wouldn’t be a problem if we used magic, and we’d definitely win once I used my rifle.
“Well, it’s not like I’ve fully confirmed them to be bandits. But is it okay for us to kill bandits just like that?”
It does feel kind of bad for some reason.
“Why not? They’re all villains anyway.”
Un, seems like it was a mistake to ask Cleria after all.
“Beck! Stop the carriage!”
We told Beck about the suspected bandits ahead. Beck and Thor fell into quite a panic afterward.
“Hey, is it okay for us to kill the bandits? It won’t cause us any trouble later?”
“No, no, Alan-san! There are thirteen of them, right!? I don’t know how exactly you managed to get their number, but you can’t possibly take on thirteen bandits all at once!”
“Nah, we’ll probably be okay y’know. More like, if those guys don’t have mages at least on par or greater than Ria and I, we’ll certainly win.”
“Huh!? Well, I’ve also seen mage adventurers before, but I haven’t met anyone stronger than Alan-san or Master. But there’s thirteen of them y’know? Can you really win?”
“Yup, we can. So there’s no problem if we kill all those bandits, right?”
“Un, that’s true. And as long as there are witnesses, we won’t be charged with any crime after killing bandits. But I also heard that we’ll get rewards if we manage to turn the bandits in alive.”
“I see. So it’ll earn us some money, huh?”
We truly need more money. Looks like we can’t kill them after all. I wonder how much we’ll get per person.
Beck started to panic again when I started to consider capturing the bandits.
“Hey, are you guys really going to fight them?”
“It’ll be fine. Trust in your Master. We’ll get the people back at the village some souvenirs with the reward money.”
“Let’s do this Beck! Master and Alan-san will surely be fine.”
Looks like we managed to persuade Thor by mentioning souvenirs huh.
“Un… I understand. Let’s do this!”
“It’ll be alright. I promised Zack after all. I’ll protect you guys at all costs.”
We’ve decided to go ahead with the bandit capturing plan.
We headed out on the carriage once more. First, we’ll have to make sure those guys really were bandits. If we attack them by mistake, we’ll be branded as bandits instead.
“200 meters to go.”
I announced our distance from the targets. I and Cleria were sitting on top of the luggage at the back of the carriage.
What we needed to watch out for were projectile weapons like arrows and throwing knives, as well as magic. I can shoot down arrows and throwing knives with my rifle. Magic, however, could prove to be a bit more troublesome.
I zoomed in on the targets. They were trying to conceal themselves, but I managed to spot two people up on the trees. The others were still in hiding and were not in visual range.
“100 meters left. There’s two people up in the tree.”
“50 meters. Don’t launch an attack before I do so first.”
“10 meters.”
Cleria raised her arm out front and got ready.
Suddenly, a group of men moved out to block the road. There’s seven out front. Four at the back. The two on top of the tree were getting ready to attack as well.
“Who are you, people!?”
I stood up from the luggage and addressed them. I knew what they actually were, but it’s just standard procedure.
“Whoah! Just get a load of that babe over there! She looks high-quality!”
I got somewhat annoyed when these guys didn’t properly respond to my question and talked among themselves instead.
“Yer right. That lass’ll fetch a pretty penny, I reckon.”
It seems no use talking to these guys. I’m tempted to just turn them into money already. Keep calm, me.
“I just asked you lot who you are!”
I’ve just about lost it.
“Can’t ya tell just by lookin, fool! We’re bandits!” nameless grunt A answered cockily.
In that instant, thirteen fire arrows appeared around me and flew towards the bandits all at once. I also aimed my rifle at the guys hanging out on the tree, who were preparing to fire arrows at us. One of them panicked and hastily fired an arrow at us.
An instant after the sound of the gunshot from my rifle rang out, the arrow the guy released was disintegrated. I aimed my rifle at the other guy, but he was already falling from the tree branch after taking a hit from a flame arrow. The guy who fired the arrow earlier followed suit.
I turned my rifle towards the other bandits, but they were already writhing in agony from being hit by my flame arrows on their right shoulders. With this, it’s over.
“Ria, disarm them!”
I jumped down from the carriage and instructed Cleria with a yell.
Cleria was momentarily stunned but jumped down the carriage as well after a few moments when she heard my voice.
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