As Frizione’s army continued to move forward to join the rebel army, despite some people’s doubts, the fears of many of them, including Rei, were realised.
「They’re coming again! From the forest besides the road! There are about fifteen of them!」
Frizione’s army immediately prepared to intercept the enemy as voices echoed aroudn them.
「Woohoo! Treasure!」
「Give us money and women-!」
The bandits came out of the trees shouting like that as they attacked Frizione’s army.
Of course, Frizione’s army was made up of elite soldiers, so it wasn’t much trouble to deal with the bandits.
But even so, they had to suddenly counterattack and there would always be a slight delay before they could responded. As that happened repeated, their response time would slow down, slowing their progress even further.
If they had been able to defeat the bandits, their morale would have been boosted, but……
「Hey, let’s run!」
「Damn it, they prepared themselves too quickly!」
「We’re not running, we’re retreating! We’re retreating!」
As soon as they saw that Frizione’s forces had prepared themselves before they came into contact, the bandits would quickly flee.
In addition, they would even shoot some arrows at them.
Slowing any potential pursuit for a moment, the bandits quickly left the area.
The soldiers asked their superiors for permission to pursue, but the repeated skillful attacks and retreats meant that there was a high possibility that there would be people lying in wait if they weren’t careful. If their formation became disorganised in the process of a pursuit, they could even be attacked from other directions. Considering that this was all likely happening under the orders of Kabajid or Shurus, they couldn’t afford to be careless.
However, the successive losses to the bandits was also sure to affect morale.
Fortunately, their morale had yet to drop, but it was clear that things wouldn’t go well if they continued like this.
「Well, it’s our turn, Set!」
「Gururururu~!」
Hearing Rei’s voice, Set gave a high pitched cry before running up into the sky.
It was unclear how the bandits were trying to ambush them, but with Rei and Set, who had the strength of armies as individuals, it would be easy to eliminate the bandits.
With that in mind, Rei and Set went after the fleeing bandits.
Of course, there had been opinions that Rei and Set should have been sent after the bandits earlier.
However, considering that this was a plan by Kabajid and Shurus, there was a good chance that they might try something against Frizione’s army while Rei was away, so they hadn’t been sent out……but, with the bandits attacking so many times, there were concerns that morale would drop, so in the end, they decided to send Rei and Set after them.
「Fleeing into the forest is not a bad idea. But it’s pointless if we are their enemies. Right, Set?」
「Gururu~!」
Rei muttered from above as Set flapped his wings, watching the bandits weave their way through the forest.
Frizione’s army did have cavalry in the form of the White Rose Knights due to their plan to join up with the rebel army, but even among them, few could enter the forest easily.
In that sense, the bandits were using their heads……but they probably never imagined that they would be chased from the sky.
Or perhaps it would have been different if they had known that Rei and Set were in Frizione’s army, but the person who came up with the plan wouldn’t have revealed such important information to them……information that would have caused the bandits to flee as soon as they heard it, so the current situation ended up as such.
All that said, chasing the bandits through the forest was only possible due to Set.
Even if they were Dragon Knights, there weren’t any with eyesight as sharp as Set’s……or very few at least.
(Is this why they used Dragon Knights as pawns to attack us? No, if we had Dragon Knights, it would be a different story, but Dragon Knights are an exclusive force they control. Even if they waste their energy like that, it will only hurt themselves……what are they really aiming for?)
As for the bandits, Rei understood that their role was just to slow the advance of Frizione’s army, even if only by a little.
However, he still hadn’t found the reason as to why the Dragon Knights had been thrown at him.
The lack of understanding, coupled with with the abilities of Kabajid and Shurus, left Rei with an unresolved unease.
「Guru~?」
Set must have noticed that Rei seemed worried about something. What’s wrong? He seemed to ask with at cry, without turning his head as he was still tracking the bandits below. Rei stroked Set’s neck to tell him it was nothing.
Like that, they pursued the fleeing bandits for about 30 minutes……before finally arriving at their gathering point.
It was next to a river, and since there were no trees, it was a open location.
Over 50 bandits were gathered there, relaxing.
「Now then, what should we do……we can’t kill everyone immediately if we want to get information out of them.」
Killing them all wasn’t a difficult task for Rei, who could use fire magic.
Even if the bandits were gathered in a clearing, it was still a forest.
If he wasn’t careful with his magic, there was a risk that a fire would spread quickly, with the dry autumn air.
Because of that, the magic he could use was restricted in various ways. Of course, if he adjusted the range well, there was still enough space for him to take out all the bandits without any risk of fire spreading.
「Even if we want to get information from them, we need someone who knows a fair bit……I guess we have no choice but to eliminated them one by one. Set, please.」
「Guru~!」
Crying out at Rei’s words, Set went down to the ground……to where the bandits had gathered.
It seemed that one of the bandits had sharp intuition and immediately fled when they saw Set approaching.
「……Tch. Set, I’ll leave them to you. Unless there’s no other way, please bring them back alive. They might know something.」
「Gururu~」
Giving a cry, Set ran straight into the depths of the forest after landing.
The bandits let Set pass in silence, not understanding what was happening.
Watching the bandits, Rei readied the Death Scythe, which he took out from the Misty Ring, before speaking.
「Now then, you have two options. One, surrender to me obediently and tell me everything you know. Two, refuse to surrender and resist. Naturally, I’d like you to chose the first option, what do you think?」
Rei waved the Death Scythe around to intimidate them, thinking that they would probably choose the second option.
Even with his hood on, his current physique was quite small and he would certainly seem like an easy opponent to the bandits, even if Set was here.
But……
「Okay, I surrender.」
「Me too.」
「Yeah, me too.」
To Rei’s complete surprise, many of the bandits dropped their weapons to the ground and chose to surrender.
(What’s going on?)
Though he was skeptical, if they surrendered quietly, it meant more potential sources of information, so Rei just quietly accepted their surrender.
But, of course, not all the bandits chose to surrender……
「What are you talking about, you guys! You’re too weak, surrendering to a kid like this!」
「T-That’s right! If we all go after the kid, it’s obvious that we can win!」
The remaining bandits blamed those who chose to surrender while pointing their weapons at Rei.
There were about 20 of them.
In other words, more than half of them had chosen to surrender.
「Idiots! What are you talking about? That’s what I should be saying! Don’t you know? You saw that Griffon just now, right? The only one who rides a Griffon and uses a scythe as a weapon is Crimson, the Bandit Eater! Do you think you can defeat someone like that?」
The bandits who had chosen to fight looked shocked at the words of the bandits who had chosen surrender.
……But, the bandits weren’t the only shocked ones, Rei himself was equally shocked.
(The title of Crimson is pretty widespread, so that’s fine. But what’s with this ‘Bandit Eater’? I mean, I haven’t really defeated any bandits since coming to the Bestir Empire, let alone in the Mireana Kingdom. So why……?
Thinking that far, he suddenly had a realisation.
(I see, are the bandits fleeing from the Mireana Kingdom? Well, it’s not like I’m entirely to blame for that……probably. But, if they’re calling me the Bandit Eater, doesn’t that mean I’m to blame for all this?)
Thinking to himself, Rei swung the Death Scythe again.
The whoosh it made as it tore through the air drew the attention of all the bandits, whether they wanted to or not.
「There are plenty of those who have surrendered, so there’s no need for you guys who want to fight. ……Come on.」
Rei raised a finger provocatively and his gesture seemed to anger the bandits. Three of them immediately attacked Rei.
「Don’t mess with me, you little brat!」
「You think you can beat us with this difference in numbers, damn you!」
「HAAAAAAH-!」
Club, long sword, and battle axe.
The three bandits attacked with those weapons respectively, but the next moment, Rei swung the Death Scythe, splitting them all in half horizontally, scattering blood, organs, and flesh all over the ground.
The strong smell of blood wafted into the surroundings.
To the other bandits, all they saw of Rei’s attack was a flash of light.
Even though they had been wearing leather armour to make it easier to move about, the sight of the three bandits being cut in half quickly caused the will to fight in the remaining bandits to fade away.
「Now then, is there anyone else who wants to resist me? If so, step forward. I won’t run or hide. But, I won’t let you get away either.」
Rei flicked the Death Scythe to brush the blood off the blade.
Although Rei said that, if the bandits really did flee in all directions at this point, some would definitely escape.
However, it was also clear that many of them would also die by Rei’s scythe if they tried, so no one was willing to take the gamble with such low odds of success.
Also, the only way it would work would be for all of them to flee at the exact same time, so it was unreasonable to expect such coordination from this group of bandits, which could be described as a ragtag crew.
If their leader had been present, it might have been a different story of course……
「Okay, so you’ve all surrendered. Who’s your leader?」
When Rei asked that, they all looked around somewhat confused.
「What? Where’s the leader?」
「He was there just a moment ago……」
「Hey, was he the only one who escaped!?」
Hearing the bandits talk, Rei realised.
The one who had fled earlier as Set was landing was the leader of the bandits.
(I see, his intuition was sharp.)
As soon as he saw Set come down, he had been the first to run away.
Considering that, his intuition was really sharp.
「But……too bad.」
Rei suddenly muttered as the bandits all looked at him, wondering what he was talking about.
The only reason no one asked was because they had just seen how strong Rei was.
The strong smell of blood in the air and the three corpses in front of them were too vivid for them to think they were dreaming.
「Well, you’ll find out soon. Anyway……」
They would know when Set returned. Rei spoke as he tossed out some rope he took from the Misty Ring in front of the bandits.
「Tie up your hands with this. One by one, tie each other up, and then I’ll tie up the last of you. ……I’ll say this now, if I find you intentionally tying loosely, you’ll regret it. Just like those three.」
Remembering Rei’s attack from earlier, the bandits tied up each other tightly, hoping not to die right here.
Just as all the bandits were tied up in a chain together and were no longer able to escape, Set appeared from the bushes.
The man he was holding in his beak was unconscious, but not dead, just as Rei had requested.
The bandit were in an uproar after seeing Set appear with their unconscious leader.
Rei paid them no attention as he woke up the bandit leader, tied him up with rope, collected all the treasure that they had collected up until this point into the Misty Ring, and them started on his way back to Frizione’s army.