Chapter 18:
Interrogation
The captured soldiers were bound and the mages gagged and blindfolded, then knocked out with Mile’s magic. While this greatly reduced the pool of candidates for interrogation, safety was of the foremost importance.
At the outset, the enemy soldiers continued pretending to be bandits, but that meant they wouldn’t be judged as prisoners of war. Their fates would then be torture and hanging, or else forced labor in the hellish prison of the mines. There would be no chance of negotiating a return to their home country, and if their identities were discovered, their families and friends would hear only that they were criminals, engaged in banditry in another land.
It wasn’t hard to guess who was behind the operation. There was coinage of the Albarn Empire in their purses, and their armor was stamped by a famous manufacturer from that country.
On Earth, no one planning this sort of infiltration would ever carry such things, but this was a primitive world. Either way, such evidence was circumstantial, and even on Earth a criminal could claim that such items had been planted to set them up.
Still, Bart concluded it was unlikely any other country had schemed to place blame upon the Empire.
“Now then,” Bart began. “Who should I negotiate with?”
After a long pause, one man volunteered.
“…Me.”
It was the platoon commander. He’d sustained serious wounds, but survived thanks to Mile’s magic. She had used her powers to stabilize him, and while his ribs and right arm were still broken and blood still leaked from a laceration that would take a while to heal, he had recovered enough to talk.
“All right. First, would you really like for us to treat you like bandits? You’ll be handled as the most treacherous criminals, forced to live out the rest of your days as a slave in the mines, with none of the glory or honor of a soldier.”
“H-how cruel!”
“Hmm? What’s that you say? ‘Yes sir, we are bandits’?”
“Gnh…”
The commander was lost for words, his face pained. Pauline tossed him a lifeline.
“I have an idea! If they won’t cooperate, we should tell their home country that the ‘bandits’ participating in the illegal trade blockage confessed everything and received fifty gold each as a reward from our government! That way, everyone will know how brave you were. I’m sure your families will be proud.”
“Wh-wha…?”
The commander was speechless.
If that sort of rumor got around, their own government would treat them as traitors. Who knew how their families, friends, and acquaintances would see them after that?
“But if you really do tell us everything, we’ll say, ‘They never told us anything, even under torture. They may have been our enemies, but they were honorable people.’ And then, we’ll send some personal items to be handed to your families. After that, perhaps you can become informants for our country about matters concerning the Albarn Empire, enlist in our military, or become hunters and go off to another land… you could even arrange to secretly reunite with your families elsewhere. The possibilities are endless!”
“What… are you…?”
Bart nodded. “That’s a good idea. Then we can say they were soldiers from the Empire. I mean, you and I know they’re just bandits and don’t have any families to face the harsh consequences. But this would give our country a good reason to pick a fight with the Albarnians. Yes, it really would be great if we say they squealed in exchange for their own safety and a hefty reward… man, it sure is a good thing you aren’t actually soldiers of the Empire with families who live there!”
“Wh-wha…?”
Pauline and Bart talked casually, Pauline speaking as though the men might actually be soldiers of the Empire while Bart feigned ignorance, arguing they were dealing with plain old bandits. While their proposals didn’t mesh, it was clear what they were actually saying. The commander was pale as a sheet, and the other captives murmured amongst themselves.
“Anyway, we don’t really need this many prisoners, right? We can just keep those who want to cooperate and dispose of the rest. Then when we get the information, we can pin it on all of them and say they spilled the beans before fleeing to another country…” At Pauline’s words, the silence returned among the enemies and her allies.
“Y-yes, that’s true. Perhaps if we just reduce the numbers a bit…” Naturally, there was a bit of hesitation to Bart’s words.
“W-wait, this isn’t how you treat prisoners of w—”
“Prisoners? But I thought you were bandits ! Besides, it wasn’t as though you actually surrendered. Even your last five men didn’t call for truce, but just begged for mercy. Well, at the very least, we won’t kill those five. Unlike you, we honor our promises.”
“……”
The enemy commander was silent when a voice rose from the soldiers.
“No! I refuse! I didn’t become a soldier just so that I could be killed as a bandit! This assignment is in opposition of our national policies! All of you know this! I don’t mind putting my life on the line to fight for my home and country. That’s why I became a soldier. But I haven’t toiled all this time just to break treaties, murder foreign civilians, and be executed as a bandit! If we go through with this, our wives and children will be ostracized as the families of traitors—perhaps even killed! Is this what our own country has sentenced us to?!”
“…………”
Surprisingly, the commander did not chastise the man. Instead, he and the rest of the soldiers all hung their heads, silent. Then…
“I refuse, too.”
“Me too.”
“The Empire betrayed us. We no longer have any duty to act on its behalf.”
The merchant party was stunned at how smoothly this was proceeding.
Please, don’t let Pauline ever turn against us… Mile thought, looking to one side and then the other. Judging from their faces, Reina and Mavis were thinking the same thing.
After several of the soldiers voiced their feelings, there was no reason for the rest of them to keep up the front. The truth was going to come out one way or another, and those who did not cooperate would take the brunt of the dishonor, risking hanging or a life in the mines.
“I’ll talk!”
“Me too!”
“Me as well!”
One after another the soldiers turned, until even the commander joined in.
In the end, everyone except the unconscious mages agreed to confess, and it was decided that only the six who’d perished would be reported as traitors. It might be hard for their families to hear, but they were in fact, “soldiers who would not turn on their country, who followed the Empire’s orders until the very end.”
The questioning continued until very late at night. The soldiers told of their current mission, the political and economic situation in Albarn, and even guessed at the reasons they’d been asked to take such a reckless action. Finally, they named merchants the Empire had sponsored to bring them food and other such items.
They would need to repeat all this when they got to the capital, but it was possible they might be silenced along the way, and it was worth getting a full confession immediately.
According to the commander, there were no more traitors in Amroth, but they didn’t know if he was telling the truth. Even if he was, there was always the possibility the commander hadn’t been informed of other units.
After some time, the mages returned to consciousness. Their earplugs were removed, and the commander told them everything that had been discussed up until that point. After that, they nodded in agreement.
Since the hunters couldn’t exactly take away the mages’ weapons, they would have to remain blindfolded and gagged for a time. Nothing could be done to prevent them from casting silently, but at least the power of any such spell would be drastically decreased, and with their eyes covered, it was unlikely they’d be able to choose an appropriate magic.
The prisoners were monitored to make sure that they didn’t attempt to cut their own ropes, and if any of them made a sudden move they’d be cut down in an instant. Their gags were only removed to allow them to drink water, and even then only for a few seconds under careful supervision.
After the interrogation, it was time for dinner.
The prisoners received none. Human beings could live without food for up to several days. And how could merchants, only a day away from their destination, be expected to offer food to a group of prisoners twice their number? Especially when they were at least a day behind schedule.
It did cross the minds of some in the party that there was probably more than enough food within Mile’s storage space. However, freeing the soldiers’ hands would give them the chance to launch a counterattack. On top of that, once the soldiers were handed over, they’d probably be questioned countless times, and the hunters weren’t keen to share too much about Mile’s abilities.
And so the merchants and their associates were the only ones to eat. The soldiers had had only a light lunch and no dinner, and all their stomachs were rumbling.
Mile pretended to carry supplies from the wagon, while in reality she pulled meats, fruits, and vegetables from her loot box to prepare for the meal. Reina lit the fire, Mavis did the slicing, and Pauline prepared hot drinks.
As always, the four of them were extremely handy.
***
Very late that night the hunters were napping, arranged to protect the six wagons still parked against the cliff.
The merchants slept in the second wagon, while the prisoners and bandits were bound hand and foot under the watchful eye of their guards. They weren’t given even a single blanket, mostly because there were none available. Sufficiently fatigued, human beings can sleep under any conditions. Just going a night or two without sleep wouldn’t kill them, either.
They had captured every member of both groups—the targeted bandits and the “bonus” bandits—so the chances of being attacked during the night seemed low. But, with all that had occurred, the hunters weren’t stupid enough to sleep without leaving someone on watch. Anyone foolish enough to do so would most certainly die, and the gene pool would be the better for it. All the same, capturing the bandits had given them a sense of relief and the mood was light.
To improve their night vision and protect themselves from being spotted, the watchmen could not light a bonfire. Unfortunately this made fatigue more likely—particularly for watchmen who’d just been in a life-threatening battle.
The highway was to one side of the wagons and, beyond that, a rocky plain.
Anyone coming off of the highway would be easy to spot. However, there was still the possibility of enemies hiding in the shadows, approaching without their notice.
And now, exactly six such figures crept close.
Among the group was an individual who appeared to be their leader. At his signal, they stopped and readied their bows. So as not to stand out against the night, each arrow was painted pitch black. Was this a dye? Or were they coated with some sort of poison?
The leader raised his hand. The moment it dropped, half a dozen arrows flew at the watchmen in front of the carts.
Cling! Cling! Cling cling cling!
“Wha?!”
Thoroughly stunned, the leader raised his voice. This was a big mistake. But it was understandable. All the arrows they’d fired at the watchmen had bounced back in mid-air.
That was not the only surprising thing.
Flaaaaash!
“Waaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
An unthinkably bright flash of light outlined their forms, nearly blinding them. It disappeared again in an instant, but afterward the men could see only darkness. Their night vision was gone.
It was a sign of their good training that, after the unexpected scream, they tried wordlessly to regain their stances. But it was clear there was no point in lowering their voices at this point. Their existence had already been made known, and they wouldn’t be sure-footed again until their eyes re-adjusted to the darkness. Under the absolute dark of a clouded sky—without city lights or even stars—eyes exposed to such a bright light would take several minutes to recover.
The panicked men heard a voice. The voice of a very young girl.
“Aha! It looks like the barrier troops have arrived!”
Barrier troops.
Army units that watched over the other units from behind, charged with entering the fray if any of their men attempted to retreat, flee, or surrender without permission. Normally, their job was to compel their men to continue to fight. However, these barrier troops had had a slightly different purpose.
Their duty was to track down survivors from the merchant parties that the blockade troops had attacked and quietly annihilate them. With the merchants’ guards wounded and with no means to fight back, they would kill each and every survivor.
Even more than those enacting the blockade, these troops were charged with slaughtering innocent people—something any normal soldier would likely be unable to do. In the end, the deeds were recorded as an action of the blockade units.
The existence of the barrier troops was a shadowy one. They were nowhere, and they did nothing. That was the sort of fighters they were.
If any of the blockade platoon was taken captive or turned traitor, they would be terminated right along with the enemy. This was the role that they took on today.
They were a specially-trained, elite group, and swore an oath of absolute fealty to the Empire—doing any dirty job without batting an eye. This was the nature of the so-called barrier troops.
This time however, they didn’t quite live up to their reputation.
Judging that their opponents were no more than a small-scale caravan with a few guards, the barrier troops had planned to attack the survivors of the blockade on their way to Amroth. Each one of them could take on several guards, so they’d simply move alongside the party to confirm the outcome of the battle and save themselves the trouble of doubling back.
That would have been a sound plan under any normal circumstances.
But this time, the party they were mixed up with was anything but normal—something the barrier troops couldn’t have known.
No matter how long they waited, no merchant survivors appeared, and thinking this suspicious, they’d turned back and stumbled upon an unbelievable sight.
Had their troops been vanquished in battle? Or had they betrayed the Empire, hoping to be granted asylum?
Either way, the barrier troops’ sworn duty didn’t change.
To keep them from talking, they would murder everyone. That was all there was to it.
“I did think it was curious. According to the commander, their instructions were to incapacitate the guards, then steal the cargo and let the survivors go. However, up until now, the number of survivors has been zero. No bandit would bother attacking a merchant who’d already been robbed and was running away on foot…”
Mile’s voice was completely flat. It was a strange tone that Reina, Mavis, and Pauline had never heard before—monotonous, without inflection.
Still, it was unmistakable.
…She’s angry…
Yes. Angry .
Mile was very, very angry.
“Now then, what will you do? Will you surrender, confess everything, and become our prisoners? Or…”
“Kill us!”
It seemed they’d suddenly learned how to talk. Once they had been found and threatened, there was no point in avoiding the matter.
The men’s vision had slowly begun to return, a fact that Mile was already well aware of. At the same time, the guards had taken up their weapons and moved into position. Including Mile, there were twelve of them.
The leader of the barrier troops looked stunned.
They had battled forty soldiers. Even if by some miracle they’d managed to win, they should have been in a shambles, on the verge of total ruin. The barrier troops never expected to find all twelve hunters standing before them in good health.
Perhaps , thought the troop leader, the caravan was a trap from the start, and there are fifty other fighters hidden under the wagons’ tarps. Perhaps these twelve are the only ones to make it out unscathed.
For someone who hadn’t actually seen the battle, that would be a reasonable assumption.
Furthermore, for these troops, who were the elite of the elite, it was reasonable to assume that it would require little work to vanquish the hunters, even if the party were twice the size of their own.
For an average C-rank hunter, fighting against a monster was one thing, but against an elite soldier, the difference in power was absolutely overwhelming.
For an average C-rank hunter.
“No one lay a hand on them.”
“Huh…?”
Everyone was shocked at Mile’s sudden command. Everyone except for the other three girls of the Crimson Vow, who all took a step back quietly.
Dragonbreath and the Flaming Wolves hesitated for a moment, but seeing the complete calm of their fellow hunters, realized that there must be some plan. They joined the line behind Mile.
Once she was certain all of her allies were a safe distance away, Mile muttered magic without an incantation—that is to say, one that could be cast simply with the name of the spell.
“Sand Wall.”
Though the land was rocky, that didn’t mean there was no sand beneath them. Mile knew that even if there wasn’t, the nanomachines could break the rocks down into something suitable.
A strong wind circled Mile and the barrier troop leader, creating a sandstorm wall.
This was not a method of attack, but a way of obscuring her companion’s view of the battle. This had become the sort of situation where Mile intended that.
“Come,” said Mile, holding out her left hand.
Even the barrier troops, accustomed to hardening their hearts against anything and everything, looked suddenly angry.
“Don’t provoke us. You’ll regret this foolishness!” one of the men shouted, drawing his sword and swinging it down at her.
Mile whipped her sword out and back into its sheath in one smooth movement, cutting the man’s blade clean in two.
“Wha…?”
As he stared in disbelief at the remains of his weapon, Mile struck him in the side.
Snap, snap!
Something broke. Obviously, it was not Mile’s sword.
She had no interest in a man who would take his eyes off of his enemy in the middle of a battle. The man crumpled to the ground and passed out from pain, and Mile shifted her gaze to the enemy leader. She offered out her hand again.
“Y-you little…”
Whshh!
One of the others stepped in from the side and swung his sword down in a slashing attack. It came without warning. It was weak and cowardly. This was not a game or a practice match.
And yet…
Cling!
Though there should have been no time for her to defend herself, Mile’s sword rushed up to block the blade, knocking it from her attacker’s hands. He pushed back, but his blade couldn’t move hers by even a millimeter—like striking an iron bar at full strength.
“Gaahh!”
The man bent over and wrapped both arms around his body, unable to retrieve his sword. Perhaps he was not merely numbed. Maybe his muscles, ligaments, or bones had been damaged.
With a horrible cracking sound, Mile kicked the man in the shin. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, and flame came flying toward her.
It was a fireball. They had silently cast the most basic, easy-to-use combat spell of any power. Apparently the caster was wearing the same gear as the swordsman, to hide the fact that there was a magic user in their midst.
Using her empty left hand, Mile plucked the ball of flame out of the air and tossed it away. It was an incredibly flippant gesture, performed without expression.
“I-Impossible!” the leader shouted in utter disbelief.
The mage who had sent the fireball stood stock-still, speechless. All the learning he had cultivated through his decades as a mage had just been thrown out the window.
At last the leader realized that tossing attacks at Mile was hopeless. The remaining soldiers attacked all at once. Mile flipped their swords back easily. At first, the men didn’t lose their blades, but their sides were left almost completely open and a blow from the side of Mile’s sword sent their weapons flying.
The flustered mage began another combat spell, but Mile was at his side in an instant, knocking him unconscious in a single blow.
The fact that he’d advanced with the melee fighters to hide his identity, instead of staying on the back line, had backfired. Then again, even if he had been on the back line, the results probably would have been the same…
As the sandstorm dissipated, Dragonbreath, the Flaming Wolves, and of course, the Crimson Vow, anxiously rushed over to Mile only to find six enemies writhing on the ground. Now it was their turn to stand stock-still, speechless.
“Come on! If we don’t hurry up and interrogate them, we won’t have any time to sleep!”
Though it was a very Mile-ish thing to say, her expression was harsh, and her voice still sour.
***
It was nearly morning when they finally got back to sleep. In the end, everyone except those assigned to watch slept until almost noon.
When they finally woke and began preparing a meal it was time for lunch, not breakfast. As they cooked, a man on horseback passed by. He appeared to be a hunter, and he was riding from Amroth in the direction of the capital.
“That must be one of Fargus’s messengers. We’ll probably see another one soon.”
Just as Bart predicted, soon enough another horse appeared and passed them by.
“One should be going to the guild, the other to the palace. The rest will be traveling by carriage or on foot so that they don’t stand out. We’ll have those who are fast, but noticeable, those who are slow, but more subtle, and those in the middle. I wonder which of the three will make it there.”
Sending out six messengers, including some on horseback, would be quite the expense, but now was not the time to mention that. The messages absolutely had to be sent, no matter what. That took priority. Besides, the hunters expected that their expenses would be covered in addition to their reward.
Later, twelve riders on horseback approached. The group was split roughly in half between hunters from the guild and soldiers from the local lord.
“Looks like you made it!”
As they arrived, a man in his forties climbed down from the first horse, smiling.
“I’m Connelly of the Amroth Regional Forces. We’ve been in a bind since the merchants stopped coming though. We’ve looked for them ourselves, but not been able to catch hide or hair of them. News of your victory comes as quite an embarrassment. Nevertheless, you’ve saved us! Our lord is normally rather thrifty, but he likes to open his purse for those who do great deeds. You should all expect a nice reward!”
Bart was relieved to hear the lack of resentment in the man’s tone. It was not unheard of for situations like this to result in bad blood.
Next, an elderly man approached. “I’m the master of the Amroth guildhall. You’ve all done excellent work. And although this job wasn’t specifically advertised as an extermination task, we’re going to treat it as a standard bandit-slaying job and pay you anyhow. Of course, you’ll also be getting seventy percent of any profits from forced labor deals.
“Now, the escorting wagons probably won’t get here till evening, so we’ll head out again tomorrow morning. They’ve got food and such in the wagons, so don’t you worry about going hungry. There’s plenty to drink, too. We’ll stay sober enough to keep watch. You all should relax a little.”
A cheer rose from the Flaming Wolves—over the reward or the promise of a drink, it wasn’t clear. At this point, they probably wouldn’t have cared if they were never paid a copper so long as they could get their hands on something to drink.
“We’re grateful. But there’s something I’d better explain…”
Bart filled the riders in on the details.
The rest of the day passed without much else of note, and the support wagons arrived before nightfall. The Flaming Wolves had their fill of food and drink, while Dragonbreath partook only of the food. No matter how many fellow hunters or friendly soldiers were present, they were not foolish enough to get drunk.
Pauline’s birthday had passed and she was now fifteen, so besides Mile, all of the Crimson Vow were officially adults—not that this country had any age restrictions for drinking in the first place. Still, the girls did not drink anything beyond a bit of wine with dinner.
The merchant party hadn’t slept at all the night before and went promptly to bed after their meal. Dragonbreath seemed to be rotating shifts to keep watch.
The Crimson Vow knew that they’d be fine as long as Mile put up her barrier and alarm magic, so they all climbed into their tent and went to sleep as usual. They were all exhausted, and there’d be no excerpts from the Altered Japanese Folktale series tonight.
The next morning they ate a breakfast prepared by the support forces and headed out, bringing the seven bandits, the corpses, and the soldiers.
No bandits would be stupid enough to challenge such an immense force, so they proceeded at a relaxed pace, reaching Amroth safely by nightfall.
One group headed to the barracks of the regional forces, where the prisoners would be restrained. This didn’t mean they’d continue to be bound hand and foot—their restraint would now be more like a house arrest. The commander and other officers would be confined to individual rooms. The rest were divided into groups, with interaction between them prohibited to stop them conspiring or aligning their stories ahead of time. They might be cooperative turncoats for now, but there was still a chance that they’d try to escape at the first available opportunity. There was no room for negligence.
After handing the prisoners over, delivering the bandits to the guild, and deciding to leave the final calculations until the next day, the hunters and merchants headed to their final destination.
“So sorry to keep you waiting! I’m so glad you arrived safely.”
It was the customer who had requested the merchants’ services in the first place.
“As promised, I’ll be selling these for the standard price. So, I hope that you’ll…”
“Of course. We won’t be raising the cost on you. We’ll exchange them for the standard price.”
The merchants clapped their right fists to the left side of their chests in some sort of oath.
“To tell you the truth, we brought along some items beyond the requested goods. Might we persuade you to purchase any of them?”
“Oh? Well, we’re short on most stock, so I’d be happy take them off your hands. But isn’t what’s in the wagons all that you have?” asked the purchasing merchant.
The clients called to Mile.
“Miss Mile, if you would!”
“Ah, of course!”
At the request, Mile produced the goods from her storage, AKA the loot box: about two tons (as per public report) of materials.
“Wh-wh-wh-wha…?”
The merchant took several steps back instinctively, gaping at the mountain of goods that had just appeared from thin air. A mountain of goods that the merchants knew were in dire shortage. The buyer leapt at them.
“Th-these are all at the standard price, yes? I’ll buy!!!”
This merchant knew all about the bandit-killing mission. However, even though he was aware there had been efforts to organize merchant parties, he didn’t expect them to succeed until well into the future. While he had no intention of raising prices for his own profit—even this amount of merchandise would allow him to make heaps. More than anything, it would make his customers ecstatic. They didn’t have any other venues to buy from.
“That’s storage magic, right? But, for such a large amount… you’ve found an incredible person here. I’m jealous!”
A magical storage chamber that held two tons of merchandise and lasted for at least another fifty years. For a merchant, even a thousand gold pieces would not be too dear a price to pay for someone like Mile. He was truly, deeply jealous.
“No, unfortunately, she’s not one of ours. She’s merely one of the escorting hunters, and she offered to take on the extra weight. So we’ll be splitting half of our profits from this portion with Miss Mile…”
Pauline’s eyes opened wide. She seized Mile around the chest.
“D-don’t listen to them, Miley!”
“D-don’t say that, Pauline! It’s bad enough already with just Reina…” Mile slapped at Pauline, whose arms were wrung around Mile’s neck.
“What about the money?”
“I-It’s the party’s! Of course!”
Satisfied with this response, Pauline finally released her.
“One more thing, Miley…”
“Yes, what is it?” asked Mile.
Pauline grinned. “Of course, you’ll have to transport some goods on the way home, too!”
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