Deep inside the forest that lined the highway. Originally, this would be a habitat for monsters, but right now, there were about 30 warhorses hiding there along with their riders.

Normally, cavalry didn’t like to enter forests.

Considering a horse’s usual speed, trees would only be a hindrance.

However, common sense didn’t seem to apply here as the Bloody Blades mercenaries had setup their hideout in the forest.

Of course, since they had set up camp in such a location, they had proper measures in place to deal with monsters.

They used a magic item they had taken from a merchant they previously attacked that had the effect of preventing monsters below a certain level of strength from approaching.

It was because of this particular magic item that they were able to continue raiding merchants on the frontier.

That said, the frontier was still the frontier. There were times when monsters could not be kept away by the magic item as well as occasions where weak monsters, like Goblins, would stray into the area, ignoring the magic item.

Still, what set the Bloody Blades apart was the mobility of their cavalry and skill as mercenaries.

Most of the attacking monsters would be killed, with the meat of the higher ranking ones ending up in the bellies of the mercenaries, while the materials went to the mercenary groups funds.

Of course, the mercenaries didn’t come out of the attacks completely unscathed either. There had been several deaths and quite a number of injuries.

Despite all that, they were still able to earn a lot of money and goods through their banditry.

「Despite everything……damn it.」

Inside a tent that stood out from the rest, one man irritably cut some dried meat into pieces.

Everogi, the leader of the Bloody Blades, recalled the scene he had seen earlier as he washed down the dried meat with alcohol.

As he had been closing in to attack the merchant caravan a Griffon came flying down as if it had been waiting for that moment.

The moment Everogi had seen it, he had given the signal to retreat.

His decision was made based on a calm calculation of their own strength, not because of the losses they would take if they didn’t run……but pure fear.

When the war with the Bestir Empire had broken out in spring, the Bloody Blades had been heading for the Royalist camp, who had hired them.

Even though they had been quite far from the battlefield, they had seen the huge flame whirl.

At first, Everogi had no idea what he was looking at.

Was that something created by magic? That was what he had thought at first. But, he couldn’t believe that something like that could be created by human hands. He had been terrified after learning that it had been created by an adventurer.

……That was right, he was scared.

He led the Bloody Blades, a mercenary group well known for their strength.

But in the end, the war had ended without any opportunity for them to do anything and they were left with only the minimum reward.

Having built up a grudge against Rei, he had come to the frontier to earn money by attacking merchants in an attempt to hide his own fear, but……

「In the end, you still showed up.」

The figure of the Griffon passed through his mind.

He didn’t even need to think about who it was.

The adventurer who had instilled fear in him and was later called Crimson after the war.

With an irritated look on his face, and as if trying to suppress his own fear, he violently bit into his dried meat again……

「Boss, we got a message from Serabia-san.」

Hearing his subordinate’s voice from outside the tent, Everogi quickly washed down the dried meat in his mouth with more alcohol.

「So, what’s the situation?」

His throat felt dry. He wanted to drink water right now, not alcohol. Not just a cup or two either, but as much as he could.

As he thought that in his mind, Everogi’s question was immediately answered by his subordinate.

「Judging from the colours of the strings, the prey is still alive. There is no threat.」

「……Phew……」

At his subordinate’s words, Everogi gave a deep sigh of relief.

He had heard from his other scouts that the Griffon had left the caravan. But even so, he couldn’t feel relieved until he was sure Crimson wasn’t there.

But……as he though more about it.

(There are rumours that Crimson has a hobby of attacking bandits. Would such a guy really leave us alone? It’s true that it would be hard for him to find this place with his specialty, aerial reconnaissance, since our hideout is in the forest. But if that’s the case, he’s probably just be waiting for us, isn’t he?)

Although he feared Rei, Everogi was still able to accurate guess Rei’s intentions.

Even so, swaying between his greed and fear, he wasn’t able to quickly reach a decision.

(Since Crimson has shown up, it would be better not to push ourselves too hard here. In that case, it would be best to make this our last raid before disappearing from the frontier. Just in case……)

Thinking about the future in his head, he spoke after a few minutes.

「Okay, let’s attack the caravan. The carriage can’t move, right?」

「As far as we could see from a distance, it seems like it’s being repaired, so it probably can’t move.」

「……Alright. You guys are starting to miss the city, aren’t you? We’ll leave this area after this raid.」

「Understood ……No, actually, the woman we caught during one of our attacks is about to reach her limit, so this is good.」

Snorting at his subordinates words, Everogi threw the remaining dried meat into his mouth before swallowing it with more alcohol.

Grabbing his favourite weapon, a long sword, Everogi left his tent and saw a Goblin corpse in the corner of his eye.

Despite the magic item they had, they had suffered a lot more monster attacks since the day before.

No, it would be more accurate to say the monsters had slipped into their camp rather than directly attacking them.

As a mercenary group with a lot of experience, they hadn’t been particularly shocked when several Goblins had slipped in.

Rather, they made good targets and some of the mercenaries even picked up bows to kill them for fun.

(Perhaps the Goblins are also a sign of sorts? The effect of the magic item seems to be weakening, so I guess it’s another good reason to leave this place?)

One of the qualities he had as the leader of a mercenary group was that he had sharp intuition.

In fact, the Goblins that had fled here were hte ones who had escaped after their settlement had been attacked by adventurers the day before.

At the same time, the hunt for the escaped Goblins was also scheduled to begin the next day.

However, even his sharp intuition seemed to have been clouded in the face of someone as extraordinary as Rei.

 

 

「Boss, the caravan ahead has stopped.」

Everogi gave a small nod at the words of his subordinate, who spoke as they were about to leave the forest, and stopped horsemen with him as he looked at the three stopped carriages by the side of the highway in the distance.

Normally, everyone would have already started rushing over and his subordinates had strange expressions on their faces as Everogi stopped them. Knowing that, Everogi spoke up.

「First of all, let’s see. From you……to you. Head for the merchant caravan first.」

He gave the order to about 10 horsemen, but the ones ordered complained with dissatisfied expressions as to why they should be the only ones to attack.

「Wait a moment boss. Why is it just us……」

「Shut up. You can’t even follow my orders?」

He snorted as he swung his long sword.

Seeing that, the mercenary decided it would be dangerous to talk back again. The nominated horsemen fell silent reluctantly.

「……Listen up, it’s a big achievement for you guys to attack first. When we divide the good in the carriages, I’ll give priority to your wants. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. There are plenty of others who would.」

They would receive a share of the goods on a priority basis. As soon as they heard that, the complainers immediately changed their minds.

「Okay boss. Don’t forget your promise, okay?」

「Yeah. I’ll watch you from here, so do your best.」

「Leave it to me. You bastards, let’s go!」

As soon as he shouted that, the man left the forest, followed by the other mercenaries turned bandits.

(Well, what will happen? It’s fine if my prediction is wrong, and if I’m right, we’ll just run away from here.)

While watching the bright sunlight pour down from the sky, Everogi watched his men as he waited to see what would happen.

 

 

Rei, who had his eyes closed as he sensed his surroundings, heard the merchants constant complains that it would have been better for them to have quickly moved on before he noticed the sounds of about 10 horsemen coming towards them.

「They’re here? No, but……the number seems quite small.」

The bandits who had previously attempted to attack that caravan consisted of about 30 horsemen.

However, only 10 horsemen were attacking now. Significantly fewer.

「Are they just the ones who ran ahead after seeing their prey before them? That would be fine, but it’s going to be troublesome if they are just pawns to see our reaction.」

Rei’s use of the caravan as a decoy was based entirely on the safety of the caravan. In other words, even if only 10 horsemen attacked them for some reason, he had no choice but to protect them.

And, in order to protect them, Rei had to show himself.

Everyone in the caravan were merchants. Since they had come to the frontier to do business, they might have some understanding of combat, but no matter how you looked at it, it was impossible for them to do anything against bandits, let alone horsemen.

「Tch, they’ve thought about it as well. Minimal sacrifice for maximum profit……or maybe not. 10 out of 30 horsemen. That’s enough to reduce the strength of the bandits.」

Muttering to convince himself, Rei headed for the carriage door.

Around the same time, the merchants seemed to have noticed the bandits approaching them. They hurriedly knocked on the door of the carriage Rei was hiding in.

「Hey, they’re here! The bandits! Do something about them!」

「I know, no problem.」

Replying with those words, Rei exited the carriage.

The distance between the bandits and the carriages had already shrunk to about 50m.

「Well, I’ll just have to live with this level of results.」

Saying that, Rei took out a spear from the Misty Ring.

It was a spear missing its tip, the kind Rei always used for throwing.

One of the merchants saw the spear and shouted out without thinking.

「Hey, you’re really going to fight with that!?」

However, Rei paid no attention to the merchant’s words as he swung the spear back……and threw it!

The spear shot out from Rei’s hands as it pierced through the air, hitting the head of the man leading the bandits, pulverising him.

His brain, blood, flesh, bones, and body fluid splattered into the surroundings.

The man who had been diagonally behind the leader wiped away something sticking to his face, only to find an eyeball in his hand.

「AH-AHHHHHH-!」

The man screamed as he waved his hand in an attempt to get rid of the eyeball, but was unable to do so due to his fluster.

The surrounding bandits seemed to be incapable of understanding what was happening as they all looked at the horse that was carrying the now headless man.

The next moment.

Whoosh, a sound of something tearing through the air was heard again as a spear pierced the body of a bandit wearing leather armour before carrying on and piercing the chest of the bandit behind him.

Luckily, the tip of the spear was already close to breaking and finally snapped after hitting the second person.

Hearing the sound of the spear falling to the ground, the bandits finally began to react.

That said, their response was nothing but confusion.

They were confused because the person who had been supposed to lead them was the first to be killed.

If it had been done in a cleaner manner, someone might have taken command. However, the entire situation was unexpected for the bandits.

While trying to understand what had happened, two more bandits were smashed or pierced by the spears thrown by Rei.

One of the bandits who saw that tried to shout out……but the next moment, his head was also smashed apart by a spear.

His headless corpse fell off his horse, causing the horse to lose its direction.

At that point, the bandits seemed to reach the conclusion that they would be wiped out if they stayed. They tried to flee in a panic……but the next moment, something flew down from the sky, blocking their escape path.

「GURURURURURURU-!」

Due to the intimidation from Set’s skill, King’s Awe, the horses were unable to take a single step.

At the same time, the bandits were also frozen.

From behind, they heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Their bodies were frozen and they couldn’t move, but they didn’t need to move to know who it was. It could only be the monster that had killed the others by just throwing spears.

Why did this happen? They had only attacked a merchant caravan that was unable to move.

One of bandits thought that in his head as he looked towards the forest they had come from, hoping for rescue……but, not a single ally remained there anymore.

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