When Rei and Set rejoined with Frizione’s army, along with the bandits in tow, they all stopped to rest.

The main reason was that it would be troublesome to continue the march while interrogating the bandits at the same time.

About an hour later……

「So, the reason for for the current situation remains a mystery.」

Rei couldn’t help but sigh at the information Widele presented.

The bandit leader said that an old acquaintance of his had told him that the road was thinly defended due to the ongoing civil war.

That old acquaintance had also come here along with his subordinates.

However, that acquaintance themselves had heard the information from someone they knew, who in turn had found out from someone else they knew, so it was unclear where the information had originated from.

The reason why they attacked Frizione’s army was because his old acquaintance had contacted him a few days ago, saying that if he interfered with the march of Frizione’s army, which would be passing by soon, he would receive a large reward from a certain noble.

Normally, the bandit leader wouldn’t have believed such a story, but they hadn’t been asked to defeat the army, just to mess with them. Frizione’s army had also appeared at the exact time they were told, so they ended up deciding to give it a shot.

The end result was the current situation. If he had known they would be caught, he wouldn’t have tried to do something so stupid.

Rei could only feel helpless after hearing the story.

Messing with an army would normally be a death sentence, no matter how you looked at it.

But, they had still gone through with it……just because they were only being a nuisance, attacking with bows before running away.

They never fought directly and would run back into the forest after shooting a few arrows.

Since Frizione’s army was marching, it was unlikely that they would chase them into the forest and they didn’t think the army could catch them in the forest either.

In fact, Frizione’s army had never stopped their march, although they did pause to repel the bandit attacks, and they never chased after them either, so their judgement wasn’t wrong.

「Regardless of what they were thinking, if we can capture that old acquaintance of his, we might be able to find out more information……」

「But if that old friend doesn’t know where the information came from either, then our hopes are slim.」

「I guess so.」

As Rei and Widele conversed, the same figure flashed through both of their minds.

Neither of them voiced who they were thinking of.

But they could definitely guess it was that person’s work.

(It could be the Second Prince, Shurus……but he’s more of a warrior, so it doesn’t really match the situation. I might be overestimating Kabajid……but that’s still fine.)

It was no fun for Rei to think that everything that was happening was within the other party’s plans.

「Anyway, there’s no doubt that their intention is to hold us back. Princess Frizione wants to join up with Prince Mercurio as soon as possible. To that end, it seems like we’ll need you to do more work again.」

「That’s likely.」

It was entirely possible that, like this time, more bandits would attack them from the forest……or even if there was no forest, they might still use the terrain available to harass them.

Even if all they did was shoot arrows at them before running away, it would inevitably slow their march.

No matter how little damage they took, they couldn’t let the other side attack them as they pleased.

And, if Frizione’s army didn’t fight back, the bandits might get cocky and launch more aggressive attacks.

「Besides, it’s not necessarily just bandits.」

「Her Highness Frizione, Commander Angela, and Marquis Lognos are all concerned about that. Since they’ve set up such an elaborate plan to hold us back, there’s no way they’ll just end it with this.」

「What kind of troops do you think will show up? Logically speaking, they should select the best from their forces and organise a small strike unit……or something like that?」

「That’s certainly a possibility, but the ones we need to be more wary of are adventurers and mercenary groups.」

「Mercenary groups, huh……I only saw a few of them during the war, but I never really learned much about them.」

Adventurers and mercenaries. The two were similar, but mercenaries specialised more in fighting.

Adventurers normally hunted monsters, fought bandits, or join wars if requested, but they also did a large variety of other requests, such as gathering food or delivering goods.

Mercenaries, by comparison, made their living on battlegrounds.

This included everything from wars between countries to disputes between lords or even towns and cities.

The Bestir Empire’s civil war was a great source of income for many mercenary groups.

「There are mercenaries in Princess Frizione’s army, aren’t there?」

「If they’ve joined us, doesn’t that mean they’ve left whatever mercenary group they were part of? Anywa, I believe we have to take action. Shall we get going?」

「Guru~?」

Can we go? Set seemed to ask as well with a cry and Widele nodded slightly in response.

「Please. To be honest, I’m ashamed at our incompetence in relying so heavily on Rei-dono, but……right now, we must get Princess Frizione to join up with Prince Mercurio.」

「Don’t worry about it. I’ve said this a few times already, but I was sent to protect this army. Set, please.」

「Gurururururu~!」

Set ran a few steps before taking off into the sky at Rei’s words.

All Widele could do was to bow her head slightly as Set and Rei disappeared into the sky in an instant.

 

 

「Flying Slash!」

The flying slash that was released shot out and struck some people who were hiding in the shade of a rock near the road, inflicting deep, but not fatal, wounds on one of them.

「W-What-!?」

「Above!」

「Huh!?」

The people were shocked at the presence above them as they looked up.

It was a figure riding a Griffon and wielding a scythe.

They knew who it was right away.

But……before they could even cry out their surrender, numerous flaming arrows rained down on them, burning most of the people to death and incapacitating the remaining survivors.

「it’s fine to eliminate those who are clearly waiting to attack up like these guys, but……it’s hard to tell who is just resting.」

Scattered around the dead where the remains of charred bows and arrows.

「They were fully equipped to run away. If they had at least some spears or something, I might have made a small profit. Well, I guess it’s good we got our hands on some horses.」

Muttering to himself, Rei looked over at some horses tied up a short distance away.

Attack Frizione’s army from a distance and then run away.

It was easy to say, but escaping from Frizione’s elite army was no small matter.

It might have been a different story if they had been in a forest like the first bandits Rei had defeated, but this was a plain.

Summer might have provided plenty of green grass to hide, but it was now autumn and all the grass had withered.

In this situation, they needed to reduced their weight by as much as possible in order to escape the pursuit of the White Rose Knights. As a result, they had only brought bows and no other additional weapons.

「If we had closed in on them, they wouldn’t have been able to do anything……or maybe not.」

Noticing a charred dagger lying near an equally charred corpse, Rei realised that they had carried the bare minimum weapons with them.

「Well, it’s all burned up and useless now.」

「Guru~」

As Set nodded in agreement, Rei took out a piece of paper from the Misty Ring and wrote that the bandits he had killed were likely planning to attack Frizione’s army and that he would leave the horses to them before placing a small nearby stone on the paper to stop it from flying away.

Maybe someone else would pass by before Frizione’s army arrived, see the note, and take the horses, but that was fine with Rei.

He just thought that it might make things a little easier for Frizione’s army.

If someone from Frizione’s army had come with Rei, he might have let them deal with the horses, but Rei had no intention of bringing the horses back to the army himself.

In the first place, the horses were afraid of Set, so if he wanted to take the horses with him, he would have to move separately from Set.

「……Hmm? Maybe?」

With Set’s intelligence, it wouldn’t be that hard for Set to use his own judgment to find who was likely to attack Frizione’s army and attack them first.

In that case, wouldn’t be better for Rei to send the horses back himself? That was what he thought, but horses might still refuse to let Rei ride them considering he had Set’s smell on him, so he had to reject the idea based on his past experience.

「I would have to walk along side the horses and hold them by the reins? ……That would take too much time.」

「Guru~!」

Rei’s mutters made Set think that if things continued like this, he might end up separated from Rei again. Set gave a cry, feeling uneasy.

「Yeah, I don’t want to go off on my own either, so……I guess I’ll just leave a note.」

「Gurururu~!」

Set gave a happy cry as he rubbed his face against Rei.

In the end, they left after leaving that note behind.

In search of their next prey……

 

 

「Hmmm, what do you think we should do about them? I mean, they don’t really need horses to escape from there.」

「Gurururu~」

Set gave a cry in agreement. Below them was a cliff……or something that could be barely called one. It was a outcrop 3m above the road and there seemed to be a group of bow wielding bandits present.

With the height advantage, they could one sidedly attack with their bows. ……At least at first.

If Frizione’s army brought out their own bows and magic, they would still be within range, but they probably planned to run away by that point.

「Even so, I think it would have been better for them to have brought horses to run away.」

Rei was a little puzzled but eventually decided that there was no point in hesitating.

They didn’t have horses and only had bows as weapons.

Since they didn’t appear to be carrying anything important on them, Rei decided that there was no need to make them surrender to get any information from them or to obtain any treasure they had collected, so he just used magic from the sky to burn them to ashes in one go.

Using this tactic, surprising them from the sky, he eliminated many of the bandit like targets along the way.

「There are a lot more than I expected. Considering how thoroughly they’re trying to stall us, it must be quite the hassle for them.」

「Guru~!」

Set, who was listening to Rei’s murmurs, gave a cry as he looked down at the ground.

Hearing his cry, Rei looked down and saw about 20 figures in a forest.

Rei could easily spot them because, unlike the forces hiding in ambush, they were not dressed to blend in with their surroundings. Most of them were wearing metal armour, which reflected the sunlight brightly.

「Are they……bandits?」

Bandits typically wore leather armour to make it easier to move around it.

Some made do with padded clothing and many just prioritised the ability to move quickly.

However, the people in the forest below were all wearing metal armour.

That difference made it hard for Rei to draw any conclusions.

「After talking with Widele, could they be part of the punitive force? ……Or are they mercenaries or adventurers? My guess would be mercenaries.」

「Gururu~?」

What do you want to do? Set asked Rei with a cry.

All of Rei’s attacks so far had been against what were probably bandits, so they were rather one sided.

If it had been any other enemy, it might not have been so easy.

Set asked, but Rei responded without seeming to care.

「They might not be bandits, but from what I’ve seen, they’ve still let their guards down. They don’t seem to be prepared for a potential attack from above either. ……Well, being attacked from above is almost impossible normally, so it’s understandable.」

There were very few people who could make the sky their main battlefield, like Dragon Knights.

That was why Rei could seen that the mercenary group hadn’t considered attacks from above at all.

Especially as a mercenary group that was planning to attack from afar before retreating, it was no wonder they felt safe in their situation.

If they had know that Rei was taking out those lying in wait, it might have been a different story, but Rei hadn’t tried to capture anyone alive and had just killed them all instead.

With no one able to flee and the ambushes being quite far apart from each other distance wise……they never thought that they the hunters would end up being hunted instead.

「Mercenaries would probably know more about the situation than bandits……but they’re not that much different. Right, Set. Let’s go!」

「Gururu~!」

And so, not just bandits, but also mercenaries, were wiped out by Rei and Set’s surprise attack.

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