The day after the dinner party.

It was still pretty dark outside, but Rei’s group were already preparing to depart Goto.

A few of them were still hungover, seemingly still drowning in drink from the previous night.

Some looked at them with sympathy, but most just held expressions of disappointment from self inflicted suffering.

It was only natural. They had been told before the dinner party that they would be leaving early the next morning and warned to not leave anything behind, yet they were still in this state.

「Here, drink this. It should help you feel a little better.」

「Sorry, auntie……I’ll be glad to accept it.」

An elderly woman, the resident of the house the man had stayed at, handed him a wooden cup filled with some sort of liquid.

The man tried to gulp it down, but grimaced the next moment at the foul tasting liquid that spread through his mouth.

「Hahaha. There’s no way for medicine to taste good. Come on, drink it all in one go. You’re a man!」

「Ugh……I get it. Oh man, be brave!」

Giving a shout to encourage himself, he chugged the cup in one gulp.

As the man moved the cup away from his mouth, the expression on his face seemed like he had just seen all the despair in the world.

「……Can this really soothe my hangover headache……」

「I don’t know. But we’ll be traveling in a carriage soon, right? Better than suffering from a hangover headache then.」

The man couldn’t help but agree.

Riding in a carriage with a hangover while it rocked around would be pure torture.

Compared to that, it would be better to just suffer the taste of the hangover medicine.

Similar exchanges were taking place elsewhere before everyone was ready to depart.

「Well, thanks for taking care of me for the night.」

「No, last night’s party was fun. You are very welcome. If you’re ever in the area again, please stop by.」

「……If I’m ever in the area, that probably means I have business in the Selemus Plains or Bestir Empire, but I’ll stop by again if I do come by.」

After his brief exchange with Ruchard, Rei turned to look at his feet, or more precisely, to Apika, who was stroking Set as Rei sat on top.

「Thanks for taking good care of Set, Apika.」

「……Yes.」

Apika’s words made it clear he was trying very hard to not show his loneliness.

Apika really didn’t want to be separated from Set.

But he also knew he couldn’t be selfish here, so he had no choice but to nod as he held back his tears.

「Guru~……」

Set rubbed his face against Apika, telling him to cheer up.

But, that seemed to be the final straw for Apika.

The next moment, tears started to spill from his eyes.

「Sniff, sniff…..h-hey. You’ll come again, right? This won’t be the last time, right?」

Apika spoke to Set as he rubbed the tears from his eyes.

However, Set didn’t understand why Apika had suddenly burst into tears and just continued to rub his head against Apika to cheer him up.

This only made Apika more determined to not be separated from Set as he cried even harder.

Seeing Apika’s state, several of the former guerrilla unit members nodded in understanding.

「I know……I know. It would be sad if I had to leave Set as well.」

「That’s right. It would be painful to be separated from Set.」

「Ugh, what a tale……」

Seeing everyone murmuring, Rei sighed softly before placing his hand on Apika’s head.

「Look, if I ever come around again I’ll come and see you at Goto. You’d better get over your crybaby ways by then. Otherwise Set will be laughing at you.」

「Uh, yeah……I know……」

Apika frantically wiped his eyes at Rei’s words before getting those words out.

「Gururu~……」

Set rubbed his face against Apika again.

But this time, Apika didn’t burst into tears as he gently stroked Set’s head.

Seeing that, Rei spoke up.

「We’ll probably be camping out tonight, but unlike the Selemus Plains, there shouldn’t be that many monsters. However, we might run into bandits instead, so make sure to stay alert. Also, from here on, we’ll be traveling in the Mireana Kingdom. If you cause any trouble, it could be perceived as sabotage by the Bestir Empire, so be extremely careful of what you do.」

Everyone nodded with a serious look on their face.

They were well aware that a group like them could easily arouse suspicion.

(Come to think of it, it’s a good thing we’re headed for Gilm. If we had gone somewhere else, we might have found ourselves in some kind of trouble.)

Rei thought to himself as he recalled the many nobles he had encountered up to this point before giving a shout.

「Then, we’re heading off!」

Rei lightly patted Set on the back, who started walking without any other signal.

Following behind him were Vihera, on horseback, and the rest of the carriages.

Behind them all, the villagers of Goto waved vigorously as they saw them off.

 

 

「How peaceful……」

A few hours had passed since they had left Goto. They had been traveling along the road without any particular incidents when Rei heard a voice say that.

Indeed, they had run into any trouble since leaving Goto, so those words weren’t wrong.

This was especially so because Rei had warned them greatly before they had set off, so they were probably all feeling both tense and bored.

「You know, you might be bored, but you should still keep an eye out on the surroundings.」

「Even if you say that, with Set here, there’s no point in us doing any of that.」

「……That’s……」

The woman driving a neighbouring carriage gave a warning, but the man retorted immediately.

What he said wasn’t wrong either, so the woman just kept quite and didn’t respond.

Any former guerrilla unit member who had fought alongside Rei knew just how sharp Set’s senses were from the civil war.

That was why the woman didn’t try to make any excuses.

「Rei, are you going to do anything about it?」

She must have heard the conversation as well, Vihera pulled her horse alongside Rei as she asked him.

However, Rei shook his head.

「They might be like that right now, but when the time comes, they’ll do what they need to do. They’re still feeling the effects from last night’s dinner party. They were so well welcomed in the first village they arrived at after entering the Mireana Kingdom, so maybe that’s to be expected.」

「……But honestly, the reason they were so welcoming is mostly because you provided all the food, right?」

「I won’t deny that.」

Rei immediately replied to Vihera’s question.

In fact, the main reason why the villagers were so friendly was that they knew Rei, Vihera, and the cute looking A rank Griffon, Set.

If that was all, they would only have been friendly to the three of them. They were friendly to everyone in Rei’s group because Rei had provided food for the dinner party.

Still, Rei felt that it was something he needed to do.

Receiving such a warm welcome in the first village they arrived at after entering the Mireana Kingdom.

It would have some effect on alleviating the anxiety that would come with those who had decided to go to Gilm with Rei.

He wouldn’t go as far as to say it would create a sense of affinity towards the Mireana Kingdom……but it should at least lower their psychological hurdle.

It wasn’t something he had planned for before getting to Goto and the dinner party was mostly a decision made at the moment, but simply providing food had proven to be effective enough.

「Well, it’s fine as long as they can get used to the Mireana Kingdom. They made the effort to move all the way here. If they were to want to go back soon after, it would be a lot of trouble.」

「Oh, you’re so caring. I’d be happy if you could be that caring towards me as well.」

「That’s a separate issue, isn’t it? Anyway……huh?」

Rei, who had been talking to Vihera, stopped mid conversation as he looked over towards a 3m tall boulder by the side of the road ahead of them.

He thought he saw something moving just now……

He sighed after realising what it had been before smiling.

「Autumn is almost over and they’re still working so hard. I wish they would channel their work ethic into helping adventurers instead of stealing.」

「Gurururu~」

Set seemed to realise the same thing as Rei as he gave a cry in agreement.

A few seconds later, Vihera also realised what Rei and Set had noticed.

「I see. They certainly have a strong work ethic. But, showing such a work ethic here is only going to cause trouble for the people around here.」

「Exactly. Besides, this isn’t too far from the Selemus Plains, right? Even if they waited here, hardly any prey would pass by. ……Well, whatever. They’ve come all the way out here. Let’s take them out and force them to tell us where their hideout is. It will be a decent pay out. Plus, it would be bad if they ended up attacking Goto.」

Rei spoke, as if trying to come up with an excuse, before turning to look behind him.

「Did they think we were a merchant caravan? That could be possible. Whatever, doesn’t matter. Listen up! There are probably some bandits waiting around the rocks ahead of us!」

Hearing Rei’s voice, the reactions of the passengers in the carriages were split in two.

One reaction was fear.

They had been attacked by bandits several times along their journey, although they had been repelled each time.

They had even saw Rei raid the bandits’ hideout, stealing the treasure they had hoarded.

But still, to the average person, bandits were still something to be feared.

As for the other reaction, it was all smiles.

The smile of a hunter, happy to have caught their prey.

The reactions of the latter belonged to Rei, Vihera, the former guerrill unit members, former adventurers, and former soldiers, who understood that their groups’ current combat strength was something that could be called excessive.

They had seen Rei’s combat strength during the civil war and throughout their journey and they were also confident in their own skills, so bandit attacks were just seen as an opportunity to make some money.

Despite the extreme difference in reactions, Rei’s group continued along the road seemingly unaware of their fate. ……Eventually, as they approached the large rock, figures appeared on top of and around it, drawing bows as they shot arrows towards Rei’s group.

(Wow, they even climbed the rock to shoot arrows at us. That’s some thought for bandits.)

Standing on Set’s back, Rei admired their planning as he took the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring and began to swing it around.

With just those swings, all the arrows heading Rei’s way were swept aside.

Glancing back, he saw the former guerrilla unit members, who were acting as carriage drivers, using their weapons to cut down the arrows raining down on them.

Vihera, the only one among them who specialised in hand to hand combat, didn’t use any weapons to fight back but grabbed the arrows out of mid air instead as she threw them to the ground.

「W-What’s with this group!?」

The bandits were surprised to see the response from Rei’s group.

They had found a group of carriages……and not just any carriagse, but enclosed carriages, which were eve more expensive than covered wagons, so they had assumed it was a merchant caravan and waited here to attack them. But, despite launching the most complete ambush they could, all their arrows had been blocked.

At this point, the bandit leader realised that this was no ordinary merchant caravan and, despite being annoyed by the fact, loosed another arrow.

Now that they had attacked, they could only push through and kill everyone or at least incapacitate enough people to steal their goods.

「Keep shooting! If we let them get any closer, we’re all doomed!」

At the bandit leader’s words, the other bandits shot their arrows desperately.

They knew that their target was stronger than them, but they were already too close to run away.

Even if they did run away, they wouldn’t make it out in time.

As they continued to loose arrows, hoping to inflict a wound on at least one enemy, one bandit suddenly noticed something.

「Boss! Isn’t that a Griffon leading the carriages!?」

「What!?」

Looking more closely at the bandit’s words, the bandit leader saw that there was indeed a Griffon leading the carriages with someone wearing a robe on their back.

They were a lot smaller than the carriages, so they hadn’t noticed it at first, but once they did, it wasn’t hard to figure out who it was.

「It’s the Bandit Eater! Tch, what a troublesome guy……back off everyone! Fighting that monster here is pointless!」

As soon as the bandit leader shouted that, he jumped off the rock as he tried to make his escape, however……he received a Flying Slash from a casual attack from Rei. The shocked bandits were frozen by Set’s Crystal Breath shortly after, preventing them from escaping……and so, the bandit group known as Arrow Storm ceased to exist that day.

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