Chapter 121: Thief Group (1)

Jessica’s blue eyes blinked twice, visible through the small gap in her helmet.

She stared at me blankly, as if unable to understand what I’d just said. Then, treading carefully as if on thin ice, she opened her mouth.

“W-what did you just say…?”

“I said if you’ve never killed someone before, let’s try it here. We’ve got six people we can kill without consequence – opportunities like this don’t come often.”

Faced with the act of murder, something most humans instinctively recoil from, Jessica froze, unable to agree or disagree. Deep down, she knew this wasn’t some twisted joke, but a necessary evil.

“…Did you purposely not kill this man? Or did you unconsciously hold back?”

“…I unconsciously held back.”

“I thought so.”

Even without using energy manipulation, Jessica’s hammer could easily crush an ordinary person’s skull. The fact that this man only had a broken nose after being hit meant only one thing.

She couldn’t bring herself to kill the thief who’d tried to kill her, choosing instead to spare his life.

‘I guess it can’t be helped, being the descendant of that gay hammer possessed guy.’

If it had been my descendant, they would have cut down not just the thief, but Hori in the carriage too…

I could ignore this and mock Gintokang’s foolishness, but as Jessica’s mentor, I couldn’t just let it slide. Besides, we might have to fight barbarians soon, so I wanted to eliminate any potential risks.

“It’s lucky these were just thieves. If it had been that beheaded guy from earlier, you’d have been in danger. You know that, right?”

“…I know.”

Fortunately, Jessica seemed to understand this was necessary. She nodded silently.

However, her hand holding the hammer was still trembling, suggesting she wasn’t fully prepared for what was to come.

I shifted my gaze from Jessica’s shaking hand to the man whose nose she’d crushed, making eye contact with him.

“Since we’ve already drawn blood from this one, should we finish what we started?”

As I placed my hand on the man’s shoulder to position him for an easier hammer strike, he swatted my hand away and started thrashing about.

“N-no!! I don’t want to die!!”

“Did I ask for your opinion?”

I grabbed his shoulder again, gripping it hard enough to break bone. The man looked at Jessica, who had broken his nose, and cried out with forced tears:

“P-please spare me!! I have a family!! A family!!”

“Is there anyone born without parents in this world? If having a family was enough to be spared, why would murders and wars happen?”

The audacity of this man, who’d tried to kill us moments ago, now pleading for his life by using his family as a shield, was almost comical in its absurdity.

If I’d been killed by that guy lying over there, Jessica and Hori in the carriage would’ve been raped and left in an unspeakable state by these men.

Just imagining that impossible future made my insides twist and bile rise in my throat.

No, for me it was just imagination, but for someone else, it might already be reality.

Given how they’d set up here and their unsettling competence, they’d likely repeated these acts several times before.

“I’m sure there were people begging you to spare them or not to rape them. Did you grant all those requests?”

“Ugh… argh…!!”

Though he had no words to refute me, he hadn’t given up his will to live. His eyes darted around before pointing at one of the nearby men.

“Th-that guy…!!”

“Hm?”

“That bastard raped a pregnant woman last time…!! The baby was miscarried, and he killed the woman who went mad from the shock!!”

“…”

For a moment, a deathly silence fell over the forest, as if all life had vanished.

Neither I, Jessica, nor the other thieves could speak. We all stared blankly at the man with the broken nose.

The silence broke when our gazes shifted to the man he’d pointed out.

Coming to his senses a beat late, that man started waving his hands frantically, spewing excuses.

“It’s a lie!! I’ve never done such a thing!! Hector, you son of a bitch!! Even if you’re afraid to die, how dare you spout such bullshit…!!!”

“It’s not bullshit!! Have you already forgotten how you said pregnant women feel good on top because of their weight?!”

“Shut up!! It’s really not true!! Everything that comes out of that bastard’s mouth is a lie, except his exhales!! He mentioned having a family earlier, right?! What family does an orphan have?! It’s all lies!! He doesn’t have a family and never did!!”

At those words, Hector continued to struggle, grinding his teeth. Sensing our unconvinced reactions, he shifted his aim.

“Th-that one sold out his comrades in his previous gang, and that one set fire to a village!! They all deserve to die!!”

“Stop spouting bullshit!!”

“It’s not true!! It’s really not!! He’s selling out a mother he doesn’t even have?! If you knew how many people that bastard has killed…!!”

A truly ugly fight had begun, but I felt no inclination to stop it. Partly because watching these lowlifes fight each other was somewhat entertaining, but also because Jessica’s hand, which had been trembling earlier, had now steadied.

It made sense. All the victims these men were gleefully discussing were subjects of the von Grund family.

Jessica, with her strong sense of noble responsibility, couldn’t help but feel angry hearing their callous words.

“Ian…”

“Yeah?”

As I watched, wondering how long this sordid fight would continue, Jessica, who had been silent until now, spoke to me.

“…I don’t want to hear any more.”

“…Alright.”

I moved behind Hector, stuck my hand in his mouth, and ripped out his jawbone.

“Aaaaargh!!!”

With his jaw torn out, Hector started screaming, clutching at the empty space where it had been.

I’d removed his jaw to shut him up, but maybe I should have just cut out his tongue?

Anyway, after ripping out his jaw and sitting him down, I looked at Jessica, who was gripping her hammer tightly.

She grimaced for a moment, then raised her hammer high and brought it down on Hector’s head in one swift motion.

With a sickening crunch, like a melon with a hard shell being smashed, blood and bone fragments sprayed in all directions.

Hector’s head, taking the full force of Jessica’s hammer strike, reminded me of a bowling ball crushed by a hydraulic press I’d seen on Earth.

If she’d been holding a katana instead of a hammer, she could have killed him in a more refined manner rather than this barbaric display.

Even in such a minor detail, the superiority of the katana was proven.

“How does it feel to kill someone for the first time?”

“…It’s awful.”

“Really? You could be happy about it, you know. You killed someone who deserved to die. In fact, murder is one of the most noble acts.”

“How can this be…”

Jessica shuddered, denying my words, but my view on murder remained unchanged.

What could be more noble than the ability to end someone’s life with a single word or gesture?

“So, what should we do now?”

“What do you mean…?”

“These can’t be all the bandits, right? Should we hunt down and kill the rest? Or just ignore them and move on?”

Seeing locals and barbarians working together, it was clear the barbarians had subjugated the original bandit group and were using them as subordinates.

The people here couldn’t be the entire group, so they must have a base somewhere. But we hadn’t come here to eliminate some mere bandit group.

“Our goal is to defeat Koraea. We could interrogate them to find out where their base is, but that might take quite some time. Is that okay?”

“…”

Jessica’s expression turned serious, perhaps thinking of her father. She couldn’t easily speak up.

The most important thing now was to defeat Koraea as quickly as possible, but we couldn’t ignore the suffering of her subjects either.

Also, given that Jessica’s father was seriously injured, her thoughts were likely drawn in that direction.

“If you can’t decide, should I just choose for you?”

“…No, this is something I have to decide.”

Jessica gazed at the sky as if looking at her father who might soon ascend to heaven, then spoke with a determined voice.

“I can’t just leave knowing the people are suffering. Before we go to my father, we’ll eradicate this bandit group.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m certain my father would make the same choice if he were here. Now, we need to find out where their base is…”

As she said this, looking at the remaining bandits, they flinched and stepped back.

“I’ll handle this, I’m used to it.”

As I stepped forward, pushing Jessica back, the bandits became even more terrified.

Before one of them could do something stupid out of fear, I spoke first:

“Torture is fine, but we’re short on time, so let’s be reasonable. I’m going to make a proposal. If you like it, accept it. If not, well…”

Just die here.