3 – Mountain Village

As I returned to Keila, the villagers stared as if they were in a dream.

“What’s with you all? Like you’ve been possessed by a ghost.”

I said it on purpose.

Carnil also stared with eyes that seemed to ask what he had just witnessed, so I looked back at him with eyes that said, ‘This is the kind of person you underestimated.’

“Keila.”

“Y-yes?”

“This guy.”

I kicked the bandit leader.

“He’s still alive, so tell them to tie him up properly. We need to ask where the bandit hideout is and offer a tribute.”

“H… huh? A tribute?”

“Wasn’t that the plan? Offer a tribute to maintain the village’s peace, so hurry up and wake him up and tell him to take me to their hideout.”

“….”

Keila glanced at the villagers and took the bandit leader away.

“Call me when you’re ready.”

“I will.”

Amel decided to return to Keila’s house and practice with her sword.

After she left.

The people whispered.

“Were the bandits… weak?”

“If they were, would our people have been hurt?”

“Could we have incurred the hatred of someone scarier than the bandits?”

“No…”

Keila said.

“If we can defeat the bandits, anything is fine. He’s alive! Let’s just focus on rescuing them now!”

“Y-yes! That’s right!”

“If there are still people alive, we have to save them!!”

“Please be alive…!”

Keila gathered the people and began to devise a new plan.

“W-wait a minute!”

“What is it?”

“Don’t decide things on your own! I’m the Village Chief!”

Village Chief’s Son shouted, but none of the villagers recognized him as the Village Chief.

Ignoring the Village Chief’s Son’s outburst, they gathered and put their heads together.

“Damn it!”

“Young master, for now…”

“Enough! Let go!”

Village Chief’s Son, Theron, shook off the hands of the guard his father had assigned to him.

“I’m the Village Chief. Do you know who has kept this village safe until now? It’s all thanks to my father.”

He huffed and returned home.

Keila no longer paid attention to him.

Meanwhile, Amel,

“Hoo…”

Focused on her sword.

She swung her sword in the backyard of Keila’s house.

But distracting thoughts arose.

‘The bandit group, huh.’

It made her think too much.

There happened to be [Magical Power] in that forest, and its direction coincided exactly with the direction the bandits had come from.

It was easy to guess that the [Magical Power] had fallen into the hands of the bandits.

If one couldn’t sense [Magical Power], it would have looked like an ordinary metal bead.

The fact that they bothered to take it meant they had enough skill to sense [Magical Power].

The bandits who came to the village were all novices who didn’t know the first thing about [Magical Power] and seemed to be fighting for the first time.

They had a lot of muscle and bluster, but if I had fought, I might have been able to defeat the dozen or so bandits I had faced earlier.

‘Well, that’s not what I was worried about.’

What I was worried about was the retaliation that would come after defeating the bandits in front of me.

The village, having lost its Self-defense force, had lost 80% of its original strength, so they had no choice but to be wary of retaliation.

I swung my sword with mixed thoughts.

Swinging it didn’t yield much.

There was nothing more to gain from simply swinging the sword.

It was a waste of time.

So, I made a change.

The sword was light.

My [Strength] was high.

Amel, who had 100 points in [Strength], felt the sword was as light as a reed, so she added weight to the [Sword Aura] generated while swinging the sword.

It was good for a weapon to be light, but it also needed weight.

If it was too light, delicate swordsmanship became difficult.

The stronger and faster I swung the sword, the more the tip of the sword became scattered, drawing a crooked line, but a moderate weight created a straight line.

Amel didn’t have [Magical Power], but she had the power to manipulate it.

She manipulated the [Magical Power] of the [Sword Aura] that naturally arose from her swordsmanship.

She made the sword heavy.

The [Sword Aura] became the mass of the sword.

Amel pointed the sword beyond the sky.

“That’s about right.”

Now Amel really had nothing to do.

She returned the sword to its scabbard.

She walked towards the place where the bandit leader had been taken, and as she approached, she heard the bandit leader’s screams.

“Kkyaaaaaa!!!”

“Tell me!”

“Where is your hideout!!”

It was quite violent.

“I-I’ll tell you, so stop tickling me!!”

…Or not.

I don’t know if I should say they’re cute because it’s a mountain village.

And the bandit leader who’s falling for it too.

Is he acting because he doesn’t want to die?

It was a stable, and when I looked inside, the bandit leader was stripped and tied to a rope, being tickled by the women.

For reference, most of the men left in the village were unsuitable for combat, so among the men and women left in the village, the women had higher combat power. Carnil was there, but he seemed similar to Keila.

“Ah, Amel-nim!”

I became Amel ‘nim’.

“You’ve arrived!”

“We’ve found out the location of the bandit group!”

“We will follow you too!!”

“You don’t have to come.”

They’d be more of a burden.

“No! We can’t let Amel-nim go through this difficult task alone, and we also have family and friends to save!”

“Please let us follow you!”

“…If that’s the case, I can’t help it.”

I can’t stop them if they’re going to save their family and friends.

“More importantly, where is the location?”

“Ah, yes!”

I heard the location, and it matched the location of the [Magical Power].

…Could it be that the village is in danger because the [Magical Power] fell into the hands of the bandits?

A [Doll] sealed with [Magical Power].

A metal bead imbued with [Magical Power].

There was a high possibility that they would use it as a magic tool, a [Magical Power] amplification tool.

‘If I had left without helping, I would have been left with regrets.’

Amel admitted her mistake and decided to annihilate the bandit group.

And the people gathered together.

The village square.

Amel also gathered there, and Keila explained the situation to the villagers and declared the plan.

“Let’s save our husbands!”

“Let’s save our lovers!!”

“Give me back my man!!!”

“If they’re dead, I’ll never forgive the bandits!!!!”

“Amel, it would be reassuring if you lent us your strength. I’ll return the money you gave me the other day, so consider this repaying your kindness.”

Keila said, handing back the money, leaving the excited people behind.

I declined.

To Amel, it was just a handful of money.

“You don’t have to return it.”

Dealing with the bandits was more than enough as a reward for protecting me while I was unconscious, I’d even have change left over.

That’s what it should be,

───Waaaaaaaah!!!!!!

“Everyone is so full of energy, I’m also feeling… motivated. I’ll help as much as I can.”

“Thank you.”

Red Blade Bandit Group.

The subordinates laughed.

“You were pretty good earlier, huh?”

“You too. Haha!”

The subordinates, who had benefited from the new power that the boss had shown, boasted about the power they had just unleashed.

The boss watched his subordinates happily chattering and downed a glass of alcohol.

“Are you that happy?”

“””Yes!!!!”””

“Boss, you’re the best!”

“How did you get such power?!”

“Now even the knights won’t be able to touch us! Haha!”

“You’re too confident. We’re not knights yet, you bastards.”

But the subordinates shouted that it was only a matter of time, and the boss chuckled without refuting them.

He held a blue bead in his hand.

The bandit boss rolled the bead between his fingers.

He had one outstanding talent.

It was the ability to see [Magical Power].

The boss’s eyes could see [Magical Power], and he safely navigated through dangerous forests by following the flow of [Magical Power].

Those with large groups and hideouts in the forest, like the Red Blade Bandit Group, always had something special.

If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have survived in the first place.

The boss looked at the bead with his eyes that could see [Magical Power].

He saw [Magical Power] in the bead.

The size of the [Magical Power] was enormous.

He had once seen someone called a great Magician from afar, and the [Magical Power] in the bead was comparable to that of the great Magician.

When he first saw this bead, he was surprised and tried to run away, but the guys holding the bead were Self-defense force guys who didn’t even know the value of the bead. As soon as he realized that, he immediately attacked the Self-defense force and obtained the bead.

The boss used his ‘eyes’ to see the [Magical Power] of the bead and learned the trick of extracting the [Magical Power] and using it as his own.

He cast Enhancement Magic on his subordinates.

His subordinates alone caught a Demon beast.

A Monster called a ‘Demon beast’ that was known to require an Expert upper level to catch alone.

They had caught it.

The boss looked at the bead and imagined a bright future in his mind.

Then suddenly.

“Come to think of it, have those guys said anything yet?”

“They’re tight-lipped.”

“We must find out where they got this bead. And haven’t the guys we sent to the village come back yet?”

“There are only women and children left in the village. Even if there’s a warrior, those guys should be enough. They’re probably playing around with the women there.”

“Keke. They’re doing as they please.”

Still, he was the best at flattering and volunteered to go, so I sent him.

They should be back by tomorrow.

As long as they do their job well.

The boss raised the hand holding the bead high.

“Look!”

Light emanated from his hand.

The subordinates’ attention was focused on it.

Immediately after their attention was focused.

The boss struck a nearby rock.

The rock easily shattered.

“This is the power I have newly obtained! You’ve all experienced it, so you know! If you follow me, you will usher in a new Territory with me! Under the name of the Red Blade, a new land will be created!!!”

“””Uooooooooh!!!!!!!”””

It was a power far short of establishing a Territory, but the subordinates’ morale was higher than ever.

It was then.

Someone came running.

“Boss!”

“What is it! Haha!”

The subordinate shouted.

“We’re under attack!!”

“Really?! That’s perfect! I wanted to test the power that even defeated a Demon beast again!! How about it, you guys!!”

“””Great!!!!!”””

Hahaha!!!

The boss added his [Magical Power] to the bead in his hand and amplified the [Magical Power] to manifest Magic.

The manifested Magic appeared several times more powerful than the boss’s [Magical Power] and was bestowed upon all the subordinates.

[Strength Enhancement], [Vitality Enhancement], [Agility Enhancement], [Vision Enhancement], [Tactile Enhancement], and so on. They were plastered with all sorts of Enhancements. The overflowing [Magical Power] had [Magical Power] to spare even after casting all sorts of Enhancements on the subordinates.

The boss shouted.

“Let’s go!!!”

To punish the foolish attackers!!

We’ll wipe out all the surrounding villages!!!!