2 – Mountain Village

“What are you talking about?!”

Keila was shocked.

The armed men were just as surprised.

“What did you say?!”

“Why are you surprised?”

The Village Chief’s Son also shouted in surprise.

“Anyway, you all want the village to be safe by giving the bandits something, right? And one of those options is to sell me off.”

“Keila! Did you tell an outsider about that?!”

“Yes! I was against selling off someone who has nothing to do with the village from the start! But Amel, to offer you?”

“That’s right.”

They were just bandits, anyway.

And she didn’t want to fight needlessly with the village Keila belonged to.

So, she would go to the bandit group, the root cause of the discord in the village, and eliminate it.

Getting rid of the bandits would solve everything, making it the easiest choice among the options Amel had.

“No, I didn’t exactly come here with the intention of offering you up, you know?”

The Village Chief’s Son said something strange.

“Then why did you come?”

“I’m telling you to come to my room so I can make you part of my family!”

“…If you say that one more time, I’ll kill you.”

She had no idea what kind of life the Village Chief’s Son had lived to become so senseless.

Selling off Amel to ensure the village’s safety.

From the villagers’ perspective, it was a reasonable choice.

There was no need to risk their lives for a complete stranger, and it was better to sell an outsider than a family member or friend.

It was uncertain whether the bandits would stop their pillaging because of it, but Amel had that much value. With Amel’s beauty, she might please the bandit leader, putting him in a good mood and making him stop the raids.

Considering that possibility, offering Amel was a rational choice… but it seemed the Village Chief’s Son had a different opinion.

She shook her head.

Her eyes met with one of the armed men.

“Why do you follow him?”

“Haha… There’s a reason.”

Judging by the armed man’s tone, it didn’t feel like he was loyal to the Village Chief’s Son.

“Wh-who are you going to kill! Hey, you lot! Stop whispering amongst yourselves and grab that woman!”

“…He says. Will you let me catch you?”

“No.”

Amel dodged the armed men’s half-hearted, clumsy gestures and slipped right past them.

“…Huh?”

The armed men, who had let their guard down, were startled when Amel appeared before the Village Chief’s Son in an instant.

When Amel unexpectedly appeared before his eyes, the Village Chief’s Son’s eyes widened, and he tensed up instinctively.

Realizing the situation was taking a strange turn, the Village Chief’s Son couldn’t say a word, his mouth gaping open and closed like a goldfish, unable to back up all the arrogant things he’d said to Amel.

She flicked the Village Chief’s Son on the forehead.

Flick.

“Kuaaaargh!!!!”

“So dramatic.”

The Village Chief’s Son clutched his forehead and rolled around on the ground.

He was making such a fuss that Amel stepped on his chest with her foot to stop him.

She looked back at the armed men.

“Do you grasp the situation now?”

“…It seems you’re no ordinary fighter.”

“Carnil! Do something about her!”

The armed man called Carnil.

Amel, whose eyes met Carnil’s, shrugged and removed her foot from the Village Chief’s Son’s chest.

The Village Chief’s Son retreated, complaining that his head and chest hurt from being stepped on.

Keila gathered the villagers and held a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

Amel decided to stay in the village, at least until the meeting was over.

‘But there’s nothing for me to do even if I stay.’

Without Magical Power, Win couldn’t speak to her, and calling Chocolat or Force was unsuitable for conversation.

‘Wait, am I looking for someone to talk to? Have I finally become an insider?’

Well, it wasn’t like she couldn’t find something to do if she tried.

Since she had no Magical Power.

She might as well use this opportunity to train with her sword.

Amel borrowed a sword from Carnil in the backyard of Keila’s house.

Carnil was assigned to watch over Amel.

“Is it okay for me to watch?”

“…? Watch what?”

“I heard that you shouldn’t show others your swordsmanship practice. With your skill, you must have learned it from somewhere, right?”

“I learned it, but…”

It was mostly self-taught.

Even things like the Plum Blossom Sword Technique were mostly just for reference.

Besides, not showing others your sword practice?

“This is the first I’ve heard that you shouldn’t show others.”

“I heard it from a knight who happened to stop by the village.”

A knight.

She wondered if they were doing well.

She recalled making a bet with Yuha, who had said they were useful, about granting a Wish.

How would they be useful?

What were they doing and where were they now?

Should she send a text?

‘…Never mind.’

Yuha would manage just fine on her own.

Thinking of the knights she’d left behind also reminded her of the kids at the orphanage. She didn’t care about the knights, but the kids…

‘Maybe I should go see them soon.’

Amel raised the sword.

She swung it down.

A very simple motion.

Downswing,

downswing,

downswing.

The key was the insight gained in the process, but she couldn’t quite get a feel for what Force had called her own Sword Aura.

It was ironic that she could easily steal and use others’ Sword Auras, but couldn’t use her own.

“By any chance, do you know how to use Sword Aura?”

“Are you talking about Sword Aura?”

“No, Sword Aura.”

“How would I know how to use something only a Sword Master can?”

…Come to think of it, they did say becoming a Master was difficult.

Ever since Amel had started learning the sword in earnest, she had been compared to a Master in an instant, which had warped her sense of things.

She was aware of it, but it was still a bit of a shock to be reminded that not just anyone could use Sword Aura.

She swung,

and swung,

and brought the sword down.

A clue to Sword Aura.

‘I can’t find it.’

She could already use Sword Aura. The Sword Aura she was already using kept coming to mind, preventing her from thinking too deeply.

“Excuse me.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll take a look at your sword. Try swinging it a bit.”

“Huh?”

Carnil, bewildered, began to swing his sword as Amel instructed and started receiving her guidance.

You learn something when you teach others.

Amel put those words into practice.

How much time passed like that?

Neigh~.

The sound of a horse echoed.

Someone had arrived on horseback.

She stopped swinging her sword alongside Carnil.

When she went to where the horse sound came from, a man dressed like a bandit was leading his subordinates, confronting Keila and the villagers.

The bandits were smiling confidently.

“Khahaha! If you surrender quietly, we’ll spare your lives! We want to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, too!”

“What happens if we surrender?”

“We’ll give the women special protection! As for the men… right, we happen to need laborers, so we’ll make you our slaves!”

“No!”

The Village Chief’s Son shouted from behind Keila.

“Who do you think would surrender to those terms! This village is our home, and we can’t abandon our home!”

“You talk big. The self-defense force guys fought well, but they were no match for us, you know?”

“…Did you kill them all?”

Keila asked.

“We kept the important-looking ones alive. Why? If you surrender quietly, we’ll keep them alive and send them back to you.”

The bandit didn’t drop his sneer.

A negotiation from a position of overwhelming power.

“You’re not lying, are you?”

“I don’t do things like lie.”

Keila and the villagers hesitated at the bandit’s proposal.

Having lived only in a mountain village, they were naive enough not to see through the obvious lie.

“N-no, are you guys going to fall for that?! They’ll only spare our lives! I’ll end up being dragged away as their slave!”

“Theron, stop it. If we fight them like this, the village is finished. We have to stay alive to rebuild it.”

“So you want me to become their slave?! I refuse!”

“I see.”

The bandit recognized the Village Chief’s Son.

“I thought you looked familiar. You’re the Village Chief’s Son, aren’t you?”

“Eek…!”

The bandit spoke as if teasing the villagers.

A form of transaction.

A disadvantageous position.

The excuse that it was better to listen.

“How naive.”

Amel stepped in front of Keila.

“Keila.”

“Ah, Amel? I told you to wait until I called you.”

“My hearing is so good, I heard everything.”

The bandit was impressed.

“Hoh.”

His eyes widened.

“In a backwater place like this.”

The bandit’s eyes fell to Amel’s chest, then looked at her face and let out another exclamation, “Hoh!”

“To think there’s a beauty like you here.”

“Your breath stinks, so shut your mouth.”

“I like your feisty attitude.”

The bandit looked Amel over as if appraising her.

A sticky gaze that made it obvious what he was imagining.

The bandit’s eyes scanned her chest, which pushed up her one-piece dress, and her hips and the curve of her buttocks, which highlighted her figure.

How disgusting.

“Good! What’s your name?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Hahaha! Right, we can get to know each other slowly. Yes, if you do as I say, I can make a special exception and overlook this village.”

“And who are you to do that?”

“Me?”

The bandit thumped his chest.

“If you’re asking about me, I’m an officer of the Red Blade Bandit Group! The boss will like you very much. He goes crazy for women! If you pour him drinks and act cute to match his mood, he’ll take special care of this village. How about it?”

“Not bad.”

“Right?! Haha! To be willing to sacrifice yourself for the village, you have a beautiful heart.”

How absurd.

“But before that.”

The bandit’s eyes returned to her chest.

No, they had been fixed on her chest from the very beginning.

“Let me have some fun, too.”

He reached his hand toward her chest.

───Thud.

It fell.

The bandit’s arm.

It was severed so cleanly that the bandit didn’t even have time to feel the pain, failing to realize his arm was gone.

He reacted a beat later.

“…Huh?”

He reacted a beat too late.

“Uh… Uwaaaaaaaargh!!!! My arm!!!!!!!!”

“Who gave you permission to touch me?”

Amel spun her sword.

After a light twirl,

she threw the scabbard toward the bandit’s subordinates.

And then she Leapt.

A simple charge, without Magical Power.

Just as the bandits, who had dodged the scabbard, grasped the situation and were about to raise their swords and axes, Amel reached them.

Once.

Twice.

Four times.

Eight times.

Sixteen times.

That was the number of times Amel swung her sword.

Exactly the same as the number of bandits.

“….”

She raised her sword high.

It was not stained with Blood.

Without Magical Power, she had worried she might make a mistake, but thankfully, she hadn’t grown so weak as to get blood on her blade from something like this.

She picked up the scabbard she had thrown on the ground,

and returned the sword to it.

All the bandits had fallen.

Only Amel was left standing.