Ch.172Inept Assailant

After spending a night in the Great Sage’s brick house, we finished breakfast, packed our belongings, and thoroughly cleaned up all traces of food broth, dalgona powder, and slime residue before setting out.

Our next destination was the Westpoint Trading Post, the final outpost on the southern bypass route, about 70km north of here. From there, another 40km westward would finally bring us to Moon Lake, the 6th Western City.

Of course, there was a direct route to Moon Lake that bypassed the Westpoint Trading Post. That was the path taken by the adventurer who had informed us about the orcs when he came to Hopmill Farm. However, Jessica pointed out that the direct route was dangerous for wagon travel due to its steep slopes and dense forest growth. Since there was no reason to rush at the expense of safety, we unanimously chose the route through the Westpoint Trading Post.

After leaving the hilly terrain and entering the flat grasslands, we encountered green snakes called “Venom Biters” several times. They were typical wild vipers that hide in the grass and inject paralyzing venom by biting the legs of passing creatures. However, they posed no threat to us since we were all traveling by wagon, and their fangs couldn’t even penetrate the hide of the Ancestor pulling our wagon.

That’s not to say our journey was entirely safe. If there are dangers that can be avoided thanks to the wagon, there are also dangers that come because of it. The roadside bandits we encountered as we were wrapping up our first day of travel and looking for a campsite were a prime example.

“Will, masked riders are following us from behind. Three on the left, two on the right.”

“They might be outlaws targeting our wagon. They probably think we’re transporters or merchants.”

“They picked the wrong targets. Should we stop the wagon immediately and engage?”

“Let’s pretend to flee first to confirm. If they’re outlaws, they’ll speed up to chase us; if not, they’ll slow down or change course.”

“OK, just in case, Seti, get into the cargo hold. Hyah!”

“Neeeigh~”

As I cracked the reins and shouted commands, the Ancestor immediately increased its speed.

Mina, who was watching the pursuers’ movements from the tarp-covered cargo hold, called out urgently.

“They’ve started chasing us in earnest!”

“Confirmed outlaws then. We have no choice but to take them down.”

“Got it. I’ll cast Fireball at the group of three…”

“Wait. If we do that and they escape, other wagons will end up being attacked. Let’s draw them in close and subdue them in one go. But if they shoot first, they’re desperadoes, so we’ll return fire immediately.”

“Understood.”

It didn’t take long for the outlaws to catch up to our wagon. Even though the Ancestor had the strength of eight horses, it wasn’t running eight times faster than a normal horse, and we couldn’t push it to full speed without risking the wagon overturning.

The sound of galloping hooves drew closer, and one of the five outlaws surrounding our wagon from both sides—a man running on the right—pointed a revolver at me.

“Hey! Stop the wagon right now! Unless you want a bullet hole in your forehead!”

“Oh? What a statement! I was just going to take the valuable cargo, but now I’ll have to take the whole wagon! Hahaha!”

As soon as I heard the outlaws’ demands, I pulled the hand brake and the Ancestor’s reins to bring the wagon to a sudden stop.

Momentarily confused, the outlaws had to use both hands to control their horses, and the three women who quickly jumped out from the cargo hold launched a preemptive attack against them.

“Diamond Dust!”

“Bang-!!”

The two outlaws gathered on the right were thrown from their horses, their bodies frozen by Jessica’s ice magic, while the man at the rear of the three on the left had his shoulder pierced by Phyllis’s rifle and fell backward.

“Bang! Bang!”

“Yaah!”

“Thud!”

The two bullets fired from my titanium single-action revolver knocked away the pistols of the two men who were trying to calm their horses and adjust their grip on their weapons.

Another outlaw fell from his horse after being struck in the head by Seti’s spear shaft as she charged in.

Unfortunately, as that man was falling, he reflexively grabbed the horse’s tail and hung on, causing the startled gray horse to rear up on its hind legs and start bucking wildly.

“Neeeigh~!!”

“Thwack!”

“Gack…”

The outlaw hanging from the horse’s tail was kicked by its hind legs and died instantly with a short death rattle, his neck broken.

Witnessing this sequence of events, the last remaining outlaw gave up resistance, raising both hands in surrender while still on his horse.

Having won the battle, we made the four surviving outlaws lie face down on the ground and searched their bodies, confiscating weapons and blades.

The outlaws complied with our search but grumbled as if they felt wronged.

“Damn, I thought it was a transport wagon, but it turned out to be an adventurer party.”

“I heard all the adventurers in this area had flocked to that dungeon discovered in Atelier…”

“My, your information is outdated? That dungeon was demolished over a week ago.”

“Urgh…”

The four outlaws groaned at Jessica’s nonchalant attitude.

Apparently, they thought they could easily attack passing wagons since adventurer traffic had decreased.

“So, what should we do with these guys?”

“Why not just strip them of everything and chase them away in their underwear? If they tried to steal from others, they should be prepared to be robbed themselves.”

“Mina’s right. They pursued someone else’s wagon without just cause, pointed guns, and attempted robbery. Even if they all died during our counterattack, they’d have no grounds for complaint.”

“So-called self-defense, eh? Is there any chance one of these guys is a legal citizen?”

“Doesn’t matter. The situation is different from when Seti was a native. Besides, I heard that after that incident, the relevant laws were amended to prevent such legal loopholes from being exploited.”

“Oh, that’s good news.”

The “incident” referred to here was the attempted framing near Oxville.

Jonathan Bess, whom we met in Oxville, was a gang member who maintained legal citizen status and used a loophole to provoke natives into attacking first, thereby framing them as criminals and reducing them to slaves.

It’s encouraging that such legal loopholes have been addressed following Seti’s case.

“So self-defense is established, and there’s no license issue. Does that mean we could cleanly kill them all here without any problems?”

“It wouldn’t be ideal from a humanitarian perspective, but legally there’d be no issue. There’s no way to distinguish whether they died during combat or were killed after surrendering.”

At Jessica’s words, which sounded like a death sentence, the outlaws lying on the ground turned pale and began begging for their lives.

“S-stop! Please, I beg you, spare our lives!”

“Oh? What happened to all that talk about bullet holes in foreheads? Now your own life seems precious, huh?”

“That was just… just to scare you! I promise we’ll never bother you again!”

“If we kill you all here, you won’t be bothering anyone anyway. Why should we leave loose ends?”

As I casually drew my revolver from my waist while saying this, one of the outlaws, who had been desperately rolling his eyes around, shouted urgently.

“B-bounty! There are bounties on our heads! For live capture only!”

“Oh, really? All five of you?”

“Yes! All five! 500 gold each!”

“Four survivors, so 2,000 gold total. Not a small amount, but it’s questionable whether it’s worth the risk of camping with criminals nearby…”

From a risk minimization standpoint, killing them here would be the cleanest solution.

There was no particular reason to insist on not killing them, and no guarantee that showing mercy wouldn’t lead to regret later.

But while I might not hesitate during active combat, I did feel uncomfortable with the idea of killing surrendered opponents.

As I was trying to convince myself to overcome this hesitation, Mina snuck up behind me and poked my side.

“Poke!”

“Ow!? What are you doing?”

“Hehe~ I thought I’d help ease Will’s dilemma. You’re worried it’s dangerous to keep them alive and take them to the sheriff, but you also don’t want to lose the bounty by killing them, right?”

“It’s not just about the bounty, but… do you have a good solution?”

“I have plenty of solutions~ Just wait a moment.”

After saying that, Mina went to the wagon and retrieved a familiar object from the cargo hold.

It was a small, elegant mansion model—the Stone House we had obtained from the dungeon.

“Ta-da~”

“Um… can we use that?”

“I’ve made it functional enough to imprison people. Of course, there are still many limitations, and they can only be confined for about 24 hours, but that’s enough to transport them to Westpoint Trading Post, right? When else would we get a chance to test it out?”

With a triumphant expression, Mina looked down at the outlaws who were watching us nervously and gave them a sly smile.

“Now then, gentlemen~ Which would you prefer: being tied with ropes and dragged behind our wagon all night, or spending a day miniaturized inside a toy house? Just so you know, if you say you don’t like either option, this big brother’s mercy will reach its limit~”

After exchanging glances briefly, the outlaws ultimately chose to participate in the Stone House activation experiment.

They apparently thought being trapped in an unknown artifact was better than being dragged by ropes behind a wagon for dozens of kilometers.

“Alright, I’m going to activate the artifact, so don’t struggle or resist, okay? Prisoners’ Stone House, four guests coming in~!”

“W-waaaah!?”

Blue light leaked from the wide-open front door of the Stone House, and the outlaws exposed to the light were sucked inside like dust before a vacuum cleaner.

Throughout the night, as we took turns standing watch, none of the outlaws managed to escape from the Stone House.