episode_0068

The opponents that the adventurer participating in the upward request would encounter could be broadly divided into three.

“Wolves! A pack of wolves from the snowy wilderness is approaching! Everyone, prepare for battle!”

First, there were beasts that had acquired a taste for human flesh.

These guys were mostly nothing special.

While encountering a snow bear might pose some problems, wolves were creatures that even an average adventurer could handle one-on-one, except for those who were unskilled in unarmed combat. They were willing to offer their own arms as a sacrifice to the wolves.

Anyway, with the forces on this side totaling five iron shields and five copper shields… including the top mercenaries, the number exceeded twenty, so there was no way a wolf pack could pose a threat.

“Kyang! Kkaegeng!”

The wolves, rushing fiercely, met their doom within seconds, screaming like a slaughtered pig for their fur products.

Pwah-eok!

Bardu, the copper shield adventurer, literally crushed the wolf’s skull with his spiked iron club.

As the snow wolf, whose upper jaw had been torn off, gnashed its tongue to the side and gurgled, another wolf that rushed forward had Jane’s arrow stuck squarely in its throat.

“Tonight, we’ll feast on wolf meat!”

Smashing the head of a writhing wolf with a large shield, Bardu regained his appetite.

No matter how much the opponent was a beast, it seemed he could still feel an appetite even when seeing brains flowing between shattered skulls.

This human didn’t seem quite normal for an adventurer.

“I’m not really into this. The smell is too strong.”

I pierced a wolf from head to tail with my longsword, shaking my head.

“Heh, that’s because you don’t know how to eat it!”

It was a response that reminded me of the boss at the part-time job who used to insist I try eating a cooked insect larva.

“…Is that so?”

I just shrugged and kicked the wolf carcass, drawing out my sword.

If you don’t force someone to do something, what’s the point of arguing? Compared to the larvae I didn’t want to put in my mouth, wolf meat was nothing special.

◆◆

The second threat was the wandering monsters that escaped from the dungeon and roamed outside, but this didn’t seem to be a concern.

While it might be different in the central or southern regions, the monsters in the north had reasons not to come out of the dungeon unless absolutely necessary.

Those creatures probably didn’t want to wander around in the cold.

Undead, immune to the cold, also rarely ventured beyond their strongholds, unless they were serving someone, unlike last time.

So, the only thing we really need to watch out for is one last scenario.

The most common and troublesome presence.

“Wait, could everyone stop for a moment?”

“…An ambush. Probably about seventy paces ahead, likely bandits.”

Jane and Lune, who were in charge of scouting due to their keen eyes and ears, halted the group, informing them of an ambush up ahead.

Bandits.

Thieves who realized that taking money from hardworking people was far more efficient than working hard themselves.

They were more of a headache for the upper echelons and their escorts than anything else.

Farmers who fled to the mountains because they couldn’t pay taxes were nothing special, but those specialized thieves who went as far as building their own mountain hideouts made active use of what hung over people’s heads.

Traps, ambushes, hostage-taking, night attacks, deception, and even poison.

They even used basic military tactics and magic if there were deserters or adventurers mixed in.

Frankly, they were incredibly troublesome individuals.

I was able to deal with them by myself thanks to my armor, swordsmanship, and the fact that I ambushed them first.

If they caught me off guard, I would have to fight tooth and nail just to barely protect myself.

Of course, now I could probably handle them without much difficulty.

“Seventy paces… Can we launch a preemptive attack from our side?”

Rug, the leader, asked the adventurers who were escorting the carriage, while gradually slowing down the carriage’s speed.

“Well, we only have one mage on our side… Hilde, your party’s mage, what’s the approximate range?”

Ami pointed at Amy with her eyes and asked.

The magician participating in this request was only Amy, so the meaning was to naturally approach within the range of her magic and start by taking one step.

“Amy?”

“I didn’t count… but it’s probably around forty steps.”

Amy, who was being carried on Kikel’s back, replied uncertainly.

“Forty steps… that’s a bit vague. Ben, Hamil. Get your shields ready. If arrows come flying, protect Lernum first.”

Having heard Amy’s response, Ami swept her chin with her fingertips and ordered her party members to prepare for battle.

It was a warning to be ready to wield their shields at any time in case the attackers’ assault came before Amy could cast her magic from a distance of forty paces.

In other words, it meant to continue approaching as they were until they reached a distance of forty paces.

“Well, that sounds good.”

Bardu, who had been listening on the side, nodded in agreement, then casually loosened his left shoulder and moved towards Jane, who was standing at the front, while placing his hand on her shoulder and began chatting and laughing with her.

It was a natural act, a wise judgment.

Jane did have a shield, but it was small like a pot lid, seemingly to avoid hindering her archery.

With such a shield, she could barely block a sword, and it was obvious that she would be hit by all but one arrow. It was necessary for a large shield-equipped vanguard to be closely attached to protect her from such attacks.

They advanced another thirty steps. Yet, there was no preemptive strike from the bandits that Bardu and Ami had feared.

Perhaps they were waiting for us to approach at close range and then rush out together to wield their spears and swords.

But that’s unlikely now.

“Ignis Sagitta!”

As the distance between them and the bandits closed to within forty paces, Amy, who was holding a spellbook in her left hand, shot a fire arrow towards the thicket where the bandits might be hiding.

Three branches of flame blossomed in the air, leaving long tails as they shot out. At the same time, Jane and Lurnum swiftly pulled their bows and shot several arrows.

“Kwak…!”

“Aaargh! Fire, fireee!”

The woods echoed with shouts and screams.

A pitiful man, an arrow lodged in his head, stumbled backward with a groan, while a bandit hit by a fiery arrow writhed, becoming a torch in human form.

“Damn it, who’s the sorcerer?”

“Moouul! Bring some water!”

“Oh no, are we found out…! Run for it! It’s every man for himself!”

Their three comrades rapidly turning into charred figures, the bandits fell into a panic.

“Haha! They’re like sitting ducks!”

Bardue laughed, swinging his thorn-covered club above his head as he charged at them.

“Hamil, Ben. Just in case, guard the wagons and the horses. Lurnum, you too.”

“Yes!”

Amina drew her longsword and leaped towards the bandits, while Ben and Hamil wielded wooden round shields, staying close to the wagons, guarding against any potential rain of arrows.

And our party…

“We’ll get paid for this!”

“Clang! Temporary ceasefire! Vomiting!”

Keykel, having set down Amy, rushed forward, pounding his shield against a bandit, then swiftly thrusting his dagger through the fallen foe’s face.

Trembling, the dying bandit collapsed, the space between the legs of his dirty leather pants drenched in a deep color.

“What is this! A monster, a lizard monster!”

“Clang!”

Following that, Keykel, sneering at the bandit’s shock at seeing a lizardman for the first time, lashed the man’s waist with his tail.

Thud!

“Ugh…!”

“Don’t throw it here!”

With a scream as his side folded in half from the impact, the bandit’s body, falling limply, was mercilessly cleaved in half by Freida’s greatsword.

The upper body of the bandit, severed at the waist, spun around, scattering blood and entrails in all directions.

“They’re all crazy, absolutely crazy.”

Leaning against the wagon, I flicked aside a lump of flesh flying towards my helmet, chuckling softly as I watched the adventurers relieving their stress through slaughter during the march.

“…Aren’t you going to fight?”

The guard standing next to me looked at me as if he were puzzled and asked, “Why aren’t pure swordsmen stepping forward without holding a shield, shooting arrows or casting spells?”

“It seems unnecessary,” I replied with a wry smile, shrugging my shoulders.

There was no need for me to step forward. It had only been twenty seconds since the battle began, and the hidden enemy’s arms had turned into flesh-eating bandits.

If I were to go forward now, I would probably end the battle after cutting down just two of them.

There was no reason for me to step forward to face the confused bandits who had failed their ambush.

So I just stood quietly by Amy’s side.

Even though I did this and that, I was hired as a guard, but could I show such a blatant disregard for my duty?

It couldn’t be done.

“And if other enemies attack this way, wouldn’t it be a little unsettling with just spearmen and wizards?”

That’s right, there’s a perfect excuse for this, isn’t there? I’m not not doing anything; I’m guarding the carriage. If there’s a problem with the carriage, I won’t get paid extra for dealing with the bandits.

This is all about division of labor. It’s more important to protect money than to kill enemies. That was common sense for an adventurer.

“Wow…”

“To pass over like that… truly ‘thick-skinned’…”

The inexperienced and unskilled spearmen adventurers, who didn’t understand the deeper meaning behind my actions, glanced at me with puzzled faces and let out a hollow laugh.

◆◆

The bandits, who had dreamed of making a fortune in one fell swoop, were wiped out along with a lesson learned.

Their bodies lay stripped of anything valuable. It was a fate worse than that of wolves reduced to hides and meat.

“I just can’t understand.”

“What?”

I murmured a question that came to mind as I looked at the adventurers selling the equipment of the bandits they had killed to merchants on the spot.

“Why are these guys doing banditry here? Hiding in this cold, desolate mountain.”

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand it at all.

“If you’re going to hide in the mountains and live anyway, wouldn’t it be better to go down south?”

At least it’s relatively warmer there. In the northern mountains, if you turn on the heating for just one day, it’s almost certain to freeze solid.

Unless you’re really good at banditry, the heating costs might outweigh the income from banditry.

“…Is that so?”

Amy nodded as if she had gained enlightenment under a bodhi tree.

“I doubt it would be easy to settle properly by going down south. The mountains of other kingdoms already have their own bandits firmly established there.”

“I see.”

The young man, Hamil, who was wiping blood off his axe next to us, provided the answer.

Since banditry is also an endless competition, the prime spots are likely already taken by someone else, right?

To set foot in such a place, one must either crawl in as a subordinate under the existing bandit gang or engage in a bloody battle with them to seize the entire mountain stronghold.

Whichever path one chooses, the result is likely to end in death for most.

“They seem to have their fair share of hardships too.”

“That’s true.”

It seemed like forming an alliance among the bandits, like gathering seventy or eighty gangs, could work, but such a notion was nothing more than a dream.

In this world, it’s only in wuxia novels that large-scale plundering organizations like bandit alliances are formed due to the peculiar constraint that the authorities cannot touch the thugs.

In a place like this, where bandit gangs form large alliances of thousands, which nation would just sit back and watch?

The fact that bandits can organize themselves up to the point of seizing strongholds is only possible when it doesn’t catch the eyes of the higher-ups.

Once they cross that line, there’s no doubt that a suppression order will be issued without hesitation. They’ll probably be wiped out within a week, even.

Being an organization that is nothing but a menace to the kingdom, they could mobilize the army, the knights, and even warrior parties to completely annihilate them if necessary.

In the end, the bandits born in the Herbor region have no choice but to endure the cold of the snowy mountains with unwavering determination.

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to just work diligently in construction?”

“Then you have to follow the law, right? Didn’t want to obey, pussy.”

“Well, I guess that’s true.”

If you prefer a life of taking, killing, and plundering, there might be no other path than that of a bandit.

The first two are possible for adventurers, but the last one is so difficult to attempt unless it’s an extraordinary desire for righteousness.

This world was filled with all sorts of monsters, but it was hard to find a madman crazy enough to plunder goblins or giant spiders.

Ironically, while the Earth seemed relatively intact, on the internet, there were even pictures of real goblins being beaten up.

Isn’t this evidence that hope exists even in such a world?