Chapter 19 – You Must Keep Your Promise

You Must Keep Your Promise

—–

After the duel, the bandits let us go without resistance as promised.
“Boss… Are we really retreating like this?! Can’t we just break that kind of promise?!”
“…Shut up.”

Although the other subordinates seemed quite dissatisfied, it was possible due to the leader’s strong will.
‘As expected, heart massage is indeed a special remedy.’
The leader immediately lowered his eyes when he met mine. He’s been satisfactorily well-educated. I like it.

Step step.
As the bandits retreated and Airi and I prepared to board the carriage again, Ian approached us.
“Thank you so much for your hard work. Thank you. Both of you.”

Ian bowed his head and offered us words of gratitude.
“Really, thank you so much, sisters. We survived thanks to you.”
“Huff… Thank you.”
“We were very worried. Thank you, adventurers.”

The other companions who approached beside him also offered us words of thanks.
If we hadn’t accompanied them, they would have been helplessly robbed. No, it would have been fortunate if they were only robbed of their goods; they probably would have lost their lives too.

They probably know this fact and that’s why they’re offering these words of thanks.
“Haha. I didn’t do much… Sister did it all.”
Airi responded to their thanks with an awkward smile.

Although she might not realize it herself, if Airi hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have accompanied this caravan in the first place, so it could be said that she contributed to some extent.
‘How long are they going to keep bowing….’

“Everyone, please raise your heads, shall we start moving? We’ve been delayed quite a bit.”
I felt a bit burdened seeing them keep their heads bowed, and thinking that too much time had been wasted, I suggested that we depart.

The time now was already past noon and into the afternoon.
If we keep going like this, I might not be able to eat the delicious dinner my cutie angel Puel is making!
‘I must prevent that at all costs….!’

To be honest, even if we leave now, the time is a bit tight. We’ll have to take a carriage again when we return to Lonzville from Rain Village.
It’s questionable whether there will be carriages or not. They said there were no carriages passing through Rain Village because of those bandits.

‘I should have never accepted this request in the first place…..’
It’s my fault for being lured by the quite generous reward.
In the worst case, I might have to secretly use teleportation magic to visit home from Rain Village without Airi knowing….

“Well then, let’s depart right away. I’ll sit in the driver’s seat.”
As if he sensed my urgency, Ian said that and climbed onto the driver’s seat to drive the carriage.
“Sister. Let’s go too.”
“Okay.”

The other members started to board the carriage after us.
Eventually, the carriage carrying me and Airi started moving towards our destination again.

.
.
.

Clatter clatter.
Not long after the carriage started running on the quiet road, Airi sitting next to me asked about the duel from earlier.

“Sister. I couldn’t see properly because of the dust… How did you win that made that boss guy so obedient?”
“I’m curious too, sister. That boss guy. He looked incredibly strong.”
“Huff… I’m… curious too..”
“Curious. Me too.”

It seems everyone was curious about how I defeated the bandit leader since they couldn’t see the duel scene properly.
I feel a bit sorry for betraying their expectations, but..

“Well… It wasn’t much actually. The boss guy seemed to underestimate me and charged without even holding a weapon. One magic spell to the guy who let his guard down. That’s it.”
“Oh come on.. That’s a lie. I saw with my own eyes that your barrier withstood that guy’s attacks without a scratch.”

Airi asked again as if she couldn’t believe my words. Well, I thought my explanation was a bit crude too.
I added an explanation to convince them.

“My specialty is barriers. He just kept hitting the barrier until he tired himself out, that’s all.”
Fortunately, they seemed to accept my excuse and nodded.
“Hmm… But it still seemed like he was scared of you somehow… But if you say so, I guess that’s what happened!”

Then Airi suddenly hugged my arm tightly like a cat showing affection.
‘It’s a bit, no, very close…’
The soft sensation felt through her thin leather armor.

Even though quite some time has passed since I started living in this body, my identity was still closer to that of a man.
In other words, I become a bit conscious when experiencing such skinship.
Especially when the subject is a beautiful girl like Airi.

As I sensed a fresh fragrance from beyond her hair, I felt my face heating up due to some inexplicable embarrassment.
“Sister… Are you okay? Your face is a bit red… Are you getting a fever?”
Airi spoke to me, seemingly worried about me.
Her obliviousness is a bit irritating. Was she a fox rather than a cat?

This fox-like child…!
“That’s right, sister! Your face is a bit red, isn’t it?”
“Huff.. That guy.. might have.. huff.. smeared poison…”
“Poison. Dangerous.”

…The voices of the useless three brothers were heard while I was slightly flustered by Airi.
They offered words of concern one by one, genuinely worried about me. I feel a bit sorry for judging them solely by their appearances.

I shouldn’t call them useless three brothers anymore. Let’s just call them three brothers. I’m not sure if they’re blood-related or not.
“…Thank you for worrying. You too, Airi.”
“Hehe. It’s nothing.”

Feeling a bit burdened by their concerned looks, I turned my eyes to the window where I could see the clear sky.
The rattling sound of the carriage. The cool breeze. The scent of trees and grass wafting in.
…It was the atmosphere of travel that I thought I’d never experience again after leaving the hero’s party.

‘It reminds me of old times.’
It was a moment when I felt that the job of an adventurer might not be so bad after all.

—–

After the carriage that had stopped midway started cutting through the wind again.
Not long after, the sight of Rain Village, the destination for me and Airi, started to appear gradually.
“Sister. I can see the village!”

Eventually, the carriage arrived at the village entrance.
“We’ve arrived, everyone. This is Rain Village.”
Ian, who had stopped the carriage, informed us of our arrival with his usual good-natured smile.

We only needed to get off, but it seemed they wanted to see us off as Ian and all his companions got off the carriage and bid us farewell.
“Sisters. This is goodbye. It’s a bit sad.”
“Huff. We made it here safely.. huff.. thanks to the adventurers..”
“May fortune accompany your path, everyone.”

Only we two had Rain Village as our destination, the rest were headed for Clepis city, so we were parting ways here.
Airi and I offered words of gratitude to them.

“…Thank you. I recommend taking a safer route next time.”
“That’s right. No matter how urgent it is, still. If it weren’t for sister, it could have been dangerous, right? Anyway, thank you for giving us a ride!”

Ian gave a bitter smile as if feeling ashamed at our advice mixed with reproach.
“Haha. I’ll take your advice to heart. Then, may fortune be with you on your journey.”

Ian left those words with us and headed towards Clepis with his companions.
The carriage with Ian’s group disappeared from our sight.
As we were watching that scene, Airi spoke as if puzzled.

“Still, those bandit guys let us go without resistance. I thought they would just overturn everything, promise or not.”
“Yeah…”

Although I responded in a tone agreeing with her words, in fact, the reason I left the leader alive was to prevent exactly that.

What would the bandits have done if I had killed the leader then?
…If they had run away in fear, things would have gone well, but there was a higher possibility that they would have attacked us with the intention of overturning everything.

That’s why I instilled more than necessary fear in the leader.
“Those guys will probably occupy the path to Rain Village again, right? We might meet them again on our way back…”
“…That would be troublesome.”
“But with you here, sister, there’s nothing to worry about! Hehe.”

Although I said that, we probably won’t encounter those bandits again.
Because I took measures before leaving.

.
.
.

“Boss… Shouldn’t we go after them now? The purity of those luminous stones was no joke!”
“…I told you to shut up!”
“Urk…”

Whack. After I hit one as an example, the subordinates finally quieted down a bit.
The subordinate who took my punch fell with his head cracked.
“Hii…hiik!!!”

It was good to gather the trash of Clepis city and form a bandit group—no, a brotherhood, but maybe because only stupid bastards gathered, they have no sense.

‘Fuck… You should have seen those eyes…’
Even for me, who has killed numerous people, it was the first time seeing such eyes.
Eyes that don’t see people as people… Yes. Eyes as if looking at insects.

Despite this, I was once a gold rank adventurer before being expelled from the Adventurer’s Guild.
I prided myself on having strength no less than elite knights, at least.
That barrier which even I couldn’t scratch. And that unidentifiable magic.

“Huff….huff….”
As I recalled the sensation from that time, my breathing naturally started to quicken.
The extreme pain as if my whole body was being torn apart, the feeling of despair where breathing didn’t feel like breathing.
Only those who have experienced it would understand the terror of not feeling the sensation of a heartbeat that should naturally be felt.

Moreover, since that monster-like woman whispered something to me before we left, strange thoughts keep floating in my head.
Along with the extreme headache I’m feeling simultaneously.
I feel like I want to split my head open and wash my brain right now.

This won’t do.
“Boys! Follow me! We’re moving our base!”
“Boss? Are you really going to move it?”
“Yes!”

To put the thoughts floating in my head into practice, I ordered my subordinates to gather ropes.
“Hey! You have ropes, right? Bring all you have!”
“Why ropes all of a sudden… Boss?”
“And each of you take one and line up. Quickly! Do you want to end up like this guy?!”

I pointed at the subordinate whose head was cracked by my fist.
“Ye…yes!! You bastards! Move quickly! It’s the boss’s order!”
Soon, the guys who had been hesitating for a moment started lining up in front of me, each holding a rope.

“Boss… Why are you tying us up?”
“Why? We’re going to turn ourselves in.”
Oof. It’s done.
I succeeded in tying up all the subordinates who were standing with ropes.

“Wh-what are you saying, Boss!!!!”
“What did we do wrong?! Boss!!!!”

Why? Because we agreed to turn ourselves in if we lost the duel.
‘Because promises must be kept.’
After fighting that monster woman, my mind was consumed by the obsession that promises must be kept.
See. Now that I’ve decided to keep the promise, my head doesn’t hurt.

“You… bastard!!!! Did you think we followed you because you’re the boss!!!!”
The subordinates resisted violently.
“…You’re making this troublesome.”

But since they were all tied up, I could subdue them all without much effort.
“Phew. We have a long way to go.”
My head no longer hurt.

Instead, an extreme sense of satisfaction welled up. I was born for this moment.
After loading all the guys sprawled out like trash onto the wagon, I started driving the carriage towards Clepis.
…Because promises must be kept.