Chapter 8: Bounty

-Splash, splash.

Hearing the splashing sound from below, I looked down at the ground.

Instead of water, there were pools of blood with chunks of flesh floating in them, impossible to identify.

There weren’t just one or two such pools; there were dozens. I had created them, and it was a truly hellish scene.

“Sorry for getting blood on the wagon.”

Boris, who was loading the bandits’ loot onto the wagon with me, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and said,

“It’s okay! We can just repaint it!”

Many of the bandits had tried to escape on the wagons, so blood had splattered all over them.

There was quite a lot of stuff piled up in the hideout, not just weapons and food, but also money and precious metals.

“But I’m not sure… are we allowed to take this stuff?”

“Yes! We have to pay some tax, but these usually go to the adventurers who defeat the bandits!”

Boris said that even though I wasn’t an adventurer, since I had defeated the bandits, I had the right to take this loot.

“By the way, what did you do with the neck of that escaped leader?”

“That coward? I cut off his head but didn’t bring it.”

“With the bandit group this size, there might be a bounty on his head.”

“Oh, I’ll go get it then.”

Hori said this and went outside to fetch the bandit leader’s head.

Watching Hori’s back as she left, I asked Boris beside me,

“I haven’t had much interaction with women, but are they usually so tolerant of corpses and blood?”

Earlier, she had smashed a bandit’s head with a rock and now was going to fetch a severed head. She didn’t seem normal.

“Hori… she’s a bit unusual.”

Boris’s reluctant expression made it clear that he also thought Hori wasn’t quite normal.

After a while, Hori returned with the leader’s head, and we left the hideout with the wagon.

“To claim the bounty, we need to go to a nearby city, right?”

“Yes, there’s a city with a lord about half a day’s journey from here.”

We would go to the adventurers’ guild or a guard post in the city to present the head and the loot to receive our reward.

“Then go ahead. I’ll follow with Silence in a bit.”

“Oh, I forgot about your horse. We’ll go on ahead then.”

Boris and Hori got on the wagon, bowed to me, and disappeared over the horizon, leaving the bandits’ corpses behind.

I retraced my steps through the bushes and returned to the campfire where Silence was waiting.

Silence, who had been sleeping comfortably next to the corpses of the dogs and bandits, perked up his ears and slowly opened his eyes as I approached.

“Silence, have you rested enough?”

“……”

Silence stood up without answering.

Before leaving, I packed up the tent we had set up the previous night and mounted Silence.

A gentle tap with my foot, and Silence started running vigorously through the dense trees.

As the wind blew refreshingly against me, we continued to run and soon emerged from the forest.

The sky, which had been dark, was now a light blue, and the sun was slowly rising beyond the horizon.

‘There might be a bounty on his head.’

That’s great; I had been thinking of buying a new sword.

After leaving the forest, I followed the map westward for about half a day, when a small wall came into view about 6 meters away.

Seeing the wall spread widely around, I could tell how developed this territory was compared to our humble domain.

‘We didn’t arrange a meeting place…’

Well, if I went inside and checked the adventurer’s guild or the guard post, I would probably find them.

As I walked toward the gate to enter the city, I saw familiar faces surrounded by guards with spears.

“Suspicious characters! Step back!!”

“We’re not suspicious people!”

“Y-Yeah! This blood is….”

Boris and Hori, who were on the wagon, were raising their hands as the guards pointed their spears at them.

“Hey, over there!!”

Worried that they might be captured or stabbed, I hurried over and positioned myself between the guards and the two.

“Those two are not suspicious!”

As I intervened, the guard, his face turning pale, thrust his spear at me.

“Who are you?!”

“Who am I? Why are you pointing spears at them?”

“Why, you ask… Can’t you see that wagon?!”

“Wagon? Ah….”

Boris’s wagon was covered in bandits’ blood, giving it a very ominous look.

Not to mention it was filled with bandits’ swords and other weapons, so it wasn’t unreasonable for the guards to be suspicious.

“And you! What’s with that look?! You look like you’ve bathed in blood…!”

I also looked suspicious, covered in the blood from slicing through bandits, looking like a killer from a horror movie.

“We can’t just let suspicious people like you go! We need to inspect you at the guard post…!”

“You should choose your words more carefully, considering who you’re talking to.”

I frowned as I spoke, and the guard looked at me, dumbfounded and tense.

“What are you talking about….”

“Exactly what I said. I’m not someone you can just call suspicious. My name is Ian Barthow, a baronet. Though at the lowest rank, I am a noble.”

“B-Baronet?! Where did you come up with such a lie….”

Despite calling it a lie, the guard’s eyes, aimed at me with his spear, were filled with uncertainty.

This world had a strict class system. Even on duty, pointing a spear at a noble like me was unthinkable.

“Don’t believe me? Then look at this. I don’t know if you can read it.”

I showed the guard my academy admission certificate from my bag.

Even though he was just a guard, he seemed to recognize the royal seal, as his face turned pale.

“This is my admission certificate proving my status. This blood is from wiping out a bandit gang nearby. Boris, the head.”

“Yes…? Oh, yes, Baronet!!”

Boris, who had been sweating, now looked lively as he had when interrogating the bandit gang by the campfire.

Receiving the bandit leader’s head from Boris, I held it up high by the hair and spoke.

“Do you see this? This is his head. I don’t know if there’s a bounty on it, but those who know will recognize him.”

“K-Killer Brad!!”

“Brad? Is he famous?”

“Yes…. He’s a notorious criminal with a bounty of 200 gold coins….”

The guard’s voice grew quieter as he realized what he had done.

“Now, do you believe we are not suspicious?”

“Yes, yes!! We’ve committed a grave sin!”

The guards dropped their spears and hastily knelt.

I almost laughed, remembering a similar scene from a historical drama, but I held back and said,

“Alright. I’ll consider this a minor mistake made while you were doing your duty. Can you clear the way now?”

“Yes! Of course!”

The guards stepped aside, and Boris’s wagon and I proceeded through the gate without further hindrance.

On the way to the city gate, Boris, who was walking beside me, spoke excitedly.

“Wow…! Baronet, you were incredibly cool just now!”

“What was?”

“You made those guys kneel with just a word! It was really amazing!”

Hori, who was sitting in the back, seemed excited too, but Boris was even more thrilled.

Maybe he had a lot of pent-up frustration with the guards who manned the city gates as he traveled from city to city as a merchant?

I’d heard that in some cities, the guards or checkpoints extorted money from travelers, and it seemed Boris had been extorted quite a bit.

“It was nothing… I just used my status. I would have preferred to handle it differently.”

“Differently…? What do you mean?”

“Baldo.”

“Excuse me?”

If I had just a bit more courage, I would have resolved this situation with Baldo instead of relying on my status.

“I’m ashamed I didn’t have the courage.”

“That’s… not really about courage, though…”

After entering the city without any further issues, we collected the bounty and sold off the loot we had taken from the bandits.

The total money we earned amounted to 260 gold coins.

Considering that a single katana cost 3 gold coins, we had made enough to buy about 86 katanas.

It was a truly tremendous profit.

“I’ll keep 200 gold coins and divide the remaining 60 equally among the three of us.”

“What?! But we didn’t do anything to deserve this…”

Despite his words, Boris couldn’t hide his joy, his lips twitching slightly.

“Your wagon transported the loot.”

“Well, that’s true for me, but I did nothing…”

“What are you talking about? You were very enthusiastic with that rock during the interrogation.”

The image of Hori bashing the bandit’s head with a rock was still vivid in my mind.

Hori blushed and shook her head, embarrassed.

“Please forget about that. I was just so angry.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m sure. Think of it as payment for your efforts last night. I don’t need that much money anyway.”

Even half of the 220 gold coins would be more than enough to buy the sword I wanted.

“Well, then, we’ll gratefully accept. Thank you so much, Baronet!”

Boris stood up abruptly, bowing so deeply that it was almost embarrassing to watch.

“…I’ll gratefully accept too. Thank you. With this money, I can make the potion I’ve always wanted to.”

“Great. So, what’s everyone planning to do now? I’m going to stay here for the night, buy some new clothes, and then head back to the academy.”

“I plan to return to the city I originally came from.”

Boris explained that some of his prepared goods had been damaged and needed to be replaced.

“And me… if it’s okay with you, Baronet, may I accompany you to the academy?”

“Why not? We’ll leave tomorrow then. I’m going to find a place to stay.”

“Alright, I’ll go prepare as well. Thank you again, Baronet!!”

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