Rei blocked the long sword aimed at him not with the Death Scythe in his right had but with his bare left hand.

Seeing that, the man had a look of satisfaction on his face, thinking, “I’ve won!”.

Normally, that would have been the right line of thought. If Rei had been wearing gauntlets, that would have been one thing, but he had used his bare palm to face the sword. He would slice off Rei’s left hand and smash his head with the sword.

The man’s expression changed to one that showed he had no idea what was going on as the blade of his long sword snapped at the base as soon as it touched Rei’s hand.

「……Huh?」

He let out a silly voice, something he would never do in a real fight.

However, what the man had seen forced him to let out such a silly voice.

Who could have imagined this? Blocking the blade of a long sword with his bare hands and snapping the blade from the base.

Right after seeing that, the man’s mind froze for a moment before he lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.

「Phew. I’ve managed to control it somehow for now……but only to a certain extent.」

Rei muttered as he looked at the unconscious man lying on the ground.

Bandits had attacked Rei as he was taking a lunch break, but only two of them were still alive now, including the man Rei had just defeated.

「Guru~?」

Is it over already? Set seemed to ask as Rei reached out to stroke his head.

「Even so, there really are a lot more bandits now. Can we consider that word of a potential civil war has leaked out?」

It was a few hours after they had been given directions to Count Obrisin’s territory. Rei and Set had been feeling a bit hungry, so they had come down to a forest to eat and rest when seven bandits appeared.

If Rei had been napping, using Set as a pillow, the bandits would have noticed there was a Griffon.

But, Set had been napping on his own under the shade of a tree and only Rei had been visible.

What’s more, Rei had taken his hood off to rest, leaving his feminine looking face exposed, which unfortunate……at least for the bandits in question.

The bandits had told Rei to leave his valuables behind and that they would sell him to a slave trader, but Rei had responded by taking the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring and attacking back……the result was the corpses now lying around.

「Two groups of bandits in just a few hours……normally I’d be happy about this.」

As he said that, he looked around again.

Only two of the seven appeared to still be alive.

Two had been killed by the Death Scythe, one had tried to run away into the trees and was killed by Set’s claws, two more were hit by Rei’s Overlord’s Armour, mincing their body or blasting their head apart, just like the bandit leader from a few hours ago.

Rei had thought it was only a light attack……it felt like he had only touched them gently, but the force was still too strong, obliterating wherever he touched.

「If that’s what happens after touching them so carefully……how does Noiz control himself to that extent?」

Rei muttered to himself as the memory of the fight between Noiz and Luzi in the arena crossed his mind.

Noiz had blocked the thrust from Luzi’s oversized claymore with the tip of his outstretched magic sword.

And, he had done so without causing any damage to Luzi’s body, his claymore, and of course, his own magic sword.

Just how advanced were the magic control skills required to do that. Rei only started to realise it when he started doing it himself.

Even though he had managed to avoid killing two of them, one had lost their right arm from the shoulder down, with blood, flesh, and bones stuck in trees behind him.

It was pure coincidence that Rei’s attack had hit his right arm, which didn’t kill him instantly, but at this rate, he would undoubtedly still die from excessive blood loss.

As for the last man, he had only lost consciousness from Rei’s attack……

「Whew……」

I’ve done it. Rei looked up to the sky with that feeling.

「Gururururu~!」

Set rubbed his face against Rei to encourage him.

The man Rei was looking at was certainly not dead. ……He definitely wasn’t dead. Though that was with the caveat of ‘not yet’.

The unconscious man had been wearing half-plate mail. It was rare for a bandit, who valued agility and stealth, but it was easy to guess that the man was probably a skill combatant.

……Yes. He had been wearing half-plate mail. In the past tense.

The armour, which was made from metal, had been shattered and cracked from the blow of Rei’s touch.

Since it was made from metal, it was only natural that a strong impact would dent it. But, the armour had been shattered and cracked.

Rei had intended to use as little force as possible when hitting him, but it seemed that the force was still too strong.

If half-plate was hit with enough force to be shattered, then of course what was inside……things like internal organs, wouldn’t escape unscathed either.

Although he was alive now, it was only a matter of time before he died.

Rei looked up into the sky as he reflected on his actions, but he quickly regained his composure as he kicked the unconscious man to wake him out.

That said, Rei gave some consideration to the man’s injuries, which was why he kicked him in the legs instead of the torso.

That and he didn’t want him to die before getting any information out of him.

「U-Ugh……ga, haah, haah.」

Rei began to speak as the man regained consciousness, coughing up blood.

「Well, since you’re awake, let’s get straight to the fun interrogation.」

「……Wh-What?」

「Yeah. There are a few things I want to ask you, but let’s start with this. Tell me, where is your hideout?」

「……What do you want to do with that information?」

Rei didn’t answer the man, who looked at him suspiciously, but instead took a potion out of the Misty Ring.

「I was thinking that if you tell me the information, I’d be willing to trade you this potion. What do you think?」

「That’s……gah, ugh.」

The man tried to say something, but before he could, he spat out more blood.

「I’ll say this first, your internal organs are pretty injured. My blow seems to have damaged your half-plate mail as well. If you keep this up, you’ll die before long. Of course, if you use this potion, it will be a different story.」

You’re going to die. Having been told that, the man reflexively looked at his chest.

Indeed, his half-plate armour had been shattered at the chest.

「Am I……going to die?」

「Yeah, if you keep this up, that’s for sure. If you want to be saved……you understand, right?」

Rei didn’t finish his sentence as he urged the man to continue.

The moment he saw Rei’s response……and Set standing nearby, staring at him, the man’s resolve gave way completely.

「Okay. I’ll tell you where the hideout is. So, give me the potion……」

「Let’s talk about the hideout first. You might lie.」

「……We’ve gone a little further into this forest. Ugh, there……there’s a cave about an hour away. That’s where our hideout is.」

As he spoke, the man started coughing and spitting blood, which made it clear he was nearing death.

The bandit, succumbing to fear, easily gave away the location of their hideout as he turned to Rei with a pleading gaze.

「I-I’ve told you where our hideout is. H-Hurry up and give me the potion……」

At the man’s words, Rei looked at the potion he was holding……and then closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, he stored the potion into the Misty Ring.

「What-!?」

The man didn’t seem to understand what had just happened, but Rei spoke up in response.

「After thinking about it, I decided that if I gave you the potion, it would only be helping a bandit to survive, bringing disaster later.」

That was what Rei said.

That was right. Rei hadn’t told the man that he wouldn’t give him a potion after receiving the information, but that he would consider it after.

And, after thinking about it, Rei decided that letting a bandit live would only bring about disaster.

「W-Wait. I told you the location of our hideout, didn’t I? I’ll quit being a bandit. So, please……」

The man’s face had already gone past blue and turned white.

If things continued like this, he knew he would die soon. Knowing that, the man turned to Rei and begged him desperately. But……

「Did you ever help the people you attacked when they begged you?」

The man’s cheeks twitched at Rei’s words.

If anything, he had enjoyed tormenting and killing people who begged for their lives.

Just by looking at the man’s expression, Rei understood the character of the man who was begging for his life in front of him.

「I……I helped them! Yeah, we are bandits who know what it means to be righteous and humane. We let the ones who offered us money and other things go free without killing them.」

If Rei left him here, he would definitely die. The man spoke desperately, knowing that.

It seemed that he had forgotten the words he had said when he had saw Rei as foolish prey.

Even now, his body was assaulted by a burning pain. If he didn’t drink a potion to heal his injuries soon, he would be dead. That was why he had spoke up so desperately, but……

「I see. Then, this is all I can do for you.」

Rei raised the Death Scythe in his hand and, without giving it a second thought, slashed out. The man saw his own headless torso as his head was separated from his body……before his consciousness faded into darkness.

「That’s what happens to villains.」

As Rei swung the Death Scythe, the attack had been a perfect combination of his physical ability and skill, causing not a single drop of blood to stay on the blade.

Rei nodded in satisfaction that there was no blood on the Death Scythe’s blade as he stored it back into the Misty Ring.

「Guru~?」

What are we going to do now? As Set gave a cry, Rei spoke with a smile as he patted his head.

「Of course, we’ll raid their hideout. And, if there are any remaining bandits, we’ll eliminate them and take the treasures they’ve stored up. So, can you help me with that?」

「Gurururururu~!」

Set, realising what Rei was asking, crouched down for a moment so that Rei could get on his back with a high pitched cry.

Rei hopped onto Set’s back with movements that made his weight seem unoticable and, after a few steps, Set flapped his wings and soared into the air.

Seeing Set like that, the monsters and wild animals in the forest quietly hid themselves so they wouldn’t be found.

 

 

The autumn air made Rei wonder where all the midsummer heat during the tournament had gone.

It was cooler at night, cold even, but Rei continued to fly through the night sky on Set’s back.

「Hm? Oh, is that where the Third Prince’s faction is based? ……But there really are a lot of bandits around here. Maybe those are bandits too?」

He muttered, remembering that he had fought bandits three times before getting here.

The first time was when a group of travelers had been attacked, the second was during his lunch break, and once this morning when he ran into a merchant being attacked by bandits, a total of three times.

Considering that it was only a two day journey, the rate at which he had encountered bandits was extremely high.

However, if Rei and Set hadn’t encountered the merchant being attacked by bandits, they probably wouldn’t have reached Count Obrisin’s territory yet.

They had heard detailed directions from the merchant they had helped and reached Count Obrisin’s territory as a result.

……That said, it would have taken an ordinary person two days to get to Count Obrisin’s territory from the Imperial Capital anywhere. Having taken two days to get here while flying on Set, it could only be said that they had definitely gotten lost.

But, this still made sense. Maps were very rare and valuable in this world and it wasn’t easy for a mere adventurer like Rei to obtain one. What’s more, even if he were given directlys, those were only for routes along the ground.

For Rei, flying around on Set, there were many things that just didn’t make sense.

「Well, we got here in two days, so I guess it’s fine.」

Muttering to himself, Rei guessed that the award ceremony must have already ended. Thinking like that, Rei signaled to Set to head down towards the entrance of a camp built on the ground.

While he understood that he was causing a lot of trouble for Daska with the award ceremony, he hope at least that it wouldn’t be too bad.

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