Skeleton Knight, in Another World (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

They Work from the Shadows

AFTER TYING the last bandit’s hands, I stood up. The sky was already losing its daytime luster and giving way to the encroaching darkness of night.

Just as I’d decided my work was complete, Ariane came to call for my assistance.

“Are you finished here?”

“Um, somewhat.”

There weren’t enough ropes for all of the bandits lying on the ground around me. But I’d managed to tie them all together to prevent them from moving, so I had achieved my original goal.

“None of the villagers are fatally wounded, but I’d still like you to tend to their injuries with your healing magic.”

I assented, and she quickly followed up with another question, her shoulders slumping and the words coming out with a heavy sigh.

“By the way, I heard some men screaming a little while back. What did you do? You were scaring the villagers, you know.”

“No, no, it was nothing violent. However, I had to tie them up pretty tightly so they wouldn’t escape, and they started crying out from the pain, so I had to shut a few of them up.”

It had been particularly difficult to tie up a bandit who’d had his joints broken by Chiyome. One of his arms was hanging loose, so I’d had to struggle to tighten his bonds until the limb turned purple. From an outside perspective, I supposed it could be viewed as torture.

When I explained that to Ariane, she looked stunned and shook her head.

“I can’t believe the whole village became their base of operations.”

I nodded.

“I guess the order was issued to subdue the bandits, but no one ever assumed a whole village would be hijacked. The bandit attacks won’t be stopping anytime soon at this rate.”

Putting aside the morality of the issue, it was certainly a good strategy. It was pretty difficult to establish a unique base of your own outside a village or town in this world. Forests could make good hideaways for bandits, but the same applied to the monsters that inhabited them. Bandits often preferred to use natural caves, since they were easy to defend, but such caves tended to be small. If the confines were too narrow, it limited the number of bandits who could use the base.

And if you did try to use a larger cave as a base, there was a high possibility powerful monsters already made it their home. If you were careless, you’d be dead before you even knew what happened to you.

Due to these circumstances, the majority of bandit groups were small. I’d heard from some mercenaries that large groups of bandits would set up bases in populous cities, with sub-bases out in the suburbs, which they operated out of. They could always try to establish a base in the forest, but all the tools, labor, and time involved in clearing and consolidating such a camp would leave them little time to actually engage in banditry. Meanwhile, those willing to spare no effort wouldn’t bother to become bandits in the first place.

In that respect, this takeover of an entire village was truly an act of banditry—essentially stealing a large number of things that were already prepared and ready for their use.

Even with people hot on their trail, it would be hard to track the bandits down when they were hidden in a village like this. Besides, most of the mercenaries dispatched to subdue the bandits were apparently operating in squads of ten or so men. If they stopped by the village and got too suspicious, the whole squad would likely be killed outright, leaving no witnesses behind.

That said, it would be difficult to keep the village running with half of its inhabitants—the men—dead. In terms of distance, this was one of Rontestatt’s satellite villages, meaning it was responsible for supplying the bigger cities with food. With all the laborers dead, food deliveries to the cities would stop, making it only be a matter of time until someone got suspicious.

Perhaps they hadn’t intended to make the village entirely their own, but only meant this as a temporary seizure? If so, the bandits might have been doomed from the start.

Upon arriving at the house, Ariane ushered me inside. 

“Pardon me.”

All eyes were on me the moment I stepped through the entrance, but I did my best to keep the mood as light as possible. 

Some people tried to hide behind their companions, fearing that I might be one of the bandits. Even so, I found the atmosphere quite different from earlier, probably because Ariane and Chiyome were here with me. Perhaps the presence of Ponta swaying its fluffy tail over my head also helped alleviate the heavy mood.

“Arc, over here.”

Urged on by Chiyome’s words, I found a seated woman with her eyes fixed on the ground. She looked to be in her mid-20s, and had heavy swelling on the right side of her face, perhaps from a beating. She also had a large bruise on her shoulder and multiple cuts along her legs that oozed blood.

The injured woman trembled with fear as my massive form drew close.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Please stay still.”

I gently reached for the right side of her face. She tensed up for a moment, but managed to find the strength to keep herself from pulling away.

“Heal!”

A soft light poured out from my outstretched hand and wrapped around the woman’s swollen cheek. This was one of the low-level spells learned from the Monk class line, though it should be more than enough for an injury like this.

The moment the light touched her swollen cheek, the swelling reduced and her face returned to normal. Moving my hand, I let the healing light shine on the bruise on her shoulder and then down to her legs, healing those wounds as well.

The people around us stared in awe as they watched the situation unfold. The adults looked at us as if they were witnessing something incredible, while the children called out with admiration, perhaps simply fascinated by the sight of something they had never seen before.

Another woman who was watching the healing intently spoke up. “Are you a priest?”

There was probably no shortage of Hilk priests who used healing magic up here in the empire. For some reason, it seemed most of the people who used healing magic in this world held ecclesiastical positions. I supposed your services would always be in demand if you could use rare healing magic, so fanatics who chose to risk their lives by becoming soldiers or mercenaries had to be pretty rare.

I shook my head and chuckled. “I’m a traveling mercenary. I can only use a few healing techniques.”

The woman whose wound I just healed choked back sobs and bowed her head down low. Were these tears of relief at her life being saved, or regret over the ones she lost? 

I couldn’t think of any suitable words to say to her. It seemed that Ariane and Chiyome felt the same. They had reasons to resent humans, but they also understood that the pain of losing a loved one had nothing to do with race. Both of them quietly averted their eyes as they listened to the woman’s sobs.

I cleared my throat and looked around the room in the hopes of easing the tension in the room.

“Well, is there anyone else who needs help?”

“Kyii.”

After exchanging glances with one another, other people started coming over to me.

The treatment went smoothly after that, thanks in part to Ponta making me look a little less intimidating.

No one was seriously injured enough to need me to use Over Heal, but unfortunately, the damage done to their hearts could not be healed with magic. All I could do was treat the damage done to their bodies.

The villagers seemed to be at a loss as for what to do once I’d healed the rest of them. Some still watched my every movement with frightened faces. Whenever our eyes met, they instantly tensed up and looked away. Fortunately, they didn’t seem worried that we would inflict the same violence upon them that the bandits had.

Things had settled down, so I pushed those thoughts out of my head for the time being. I gently stroked the heads of the children who crowded around me and murmured to myself, “Well, then, what’s next?”

We’d come here at the village mayor’s behest to repel any attacking bandits. However, we ended up destroying the bandits, sending our whole plan out the window.

Ariane looked at the hoodlums in the village square and sighed. “First of all, we need to deal with those bandits outside.”

The remaining villagers made no attempt to leave the building, as they were probably still terrified of the bandits. I wouldn’t want to get next to a mass murderer either, even if they were tied up with rope.

Since they were criminals, they needed to be transferred to Rontestatt. Which meant we needed a way to transport around thirty people. I could use my long-distance teleportation magic, Transport Gate, to teleport us all in an instant, but it would be madness to use teleportation magic so openly out here in the empire. Another option might be to knock each person out and then teleport them, but when the bandits were later interrogated about what happened to them prior to being imprisoned, that might give rise to some discrepancies in their stories.

Failing that, I’d have to go back to Rontestatt first, to tell the mercenary guild what had happened and secure a means of transporting the bandits there. But I felt like that would be even more conspicuous. After all, the village was a day’s journey from Rontestatt by horse-drawn carriage. If I returned less than half a day after I left, saying the village was destroyed by bandits, it would be hard to explain the timing without mentioning teleportation magic.

If I wanted to fill in any discrepancies in the timeline, I would need to explain the case to the city’s mercenary guild tomorrow at the earliest. With that in mind, even if I could secure the means of transportation quickly, it would take at least two days to return to the village and remove the bandits.

The most realistic option was for me to go back to the city, explain what happened to the mercenary guild, and secure a means for transporting the bandits. 

In the meantime, I’d leave Ariane and Chiyome here in the village. Even with the bandits detained, it would be a bad idea to leave the women and children alone in the village to watch over them while we returned to the city. Faced with returning to the city and going to prison, the bandits would almost certainly attempt to escape at all costs. If things went poorly, we might return to find every villager murdered by the time we returned.

Two of us would need to remain in the village as a deterrent to keep an eye on them. And it was better for the women in the village if those two were women as well, rather than me.

Both Ariane and Chiyome nodded in agreement with my proposal.

If I wasn’t going to use teleportation magic in public, I needed to leave the village by the end of the day. I put my hand to my chin in order to organize my thoughts. I would first leave the village and then use my teleportation magic to teleport to Lalatoya before heading to the Rontestatt mercenary guild the next day. In that case, neither of the parties would find the high speed of my movement unnatural.

I’d been getting a bit too used to the convenience of traveling using teleportation magic. This was annoying. Unfortunately, we had to act with discretion here in the empire.

As I thought this over, I suddenly became aware of the weight of Ponta sitting on my head.

“How about you stay here with Ariane and Chiyome?”

“Kyii?”

I could feel Ponta quirk its head to the side at this. Pulling Ponta down from atop my head, I held its gaze as I spoke.

“You’re good at sensing people’s presence. Can you do me a favor and keep an ear out for any of their comrades trying to sneak into the village or others trying to escape?”

Chiyome was more than good enough for the task, but it couldn’t hurt to have two people on the job. Despite its cute appearance, Ponta had an even stronger supernatural sense for these things. Or perhaps spirit animals were just more sensitive to the darkness in people’s hearts? There was no doubt in my mind that Ponta would help bring peace to the villagers’ weary souls.

Ponta lifted its paw as if to assure me it was on the case.

“Kyii! Kyiii!!”

I handed Ponta to Ariane and stroked the hair on its chin with my fingertips. Ponta’s ticklish response brought a smile to my lips as I turned back to Ariane.

“Sorry to ask this of you, but I’d like to leave the villagers in your hands.”

“Come back as soon as you can. I don’t know how the people up here in the Hilk area will react if our cover is blown.”

I nodded at the seriousness of her point.

The Hilk church advocated for the supremacy of the human race. If their identities were revealed out here in imperial territory, where the Hilk faith was so widespread, there was no knowing how such a small, insular village might react. Even if we’d saved these people from the bandits, we still had to be careful.

“I’ll do my best to secure some sort of means of transportation as soon as possible.”

Before leaving, I explained what would happen to the bandits to the villagers. Their reactions were generally positive, though that might just have been because they were thankful we were getting rid of the bandits (as opposed to letting them stay in the village forever).

First off, it was probably best if I returned to Lalatoya and report back to Glenys. I felt bad leaving Ariane and Chiyome back in the village while I relaxed back in Lalatoya, but I had no choice. Tomorrow, I would head to the Rontestatt mercenary guild in the morning, prepare for the bandit transfer, and return to the village.

In cases like this, it was best to strike while the iron was hot.

I activated my Transport Gate ability to return to Lalatoya, but just as the magic rune appeared beneath my feet, I suddenly let out a gasp and stopped the spell.

“Oh, no, I forgot to record a teleportation point for the village.”

Long-distance teleportation magic didn’t work well without a clear mental image of the destination, so I needed to draw the scene or a landmark for my reference. It was convenient, sure, but it also came with many restrictions.

I pulled my sketchbook of teleportation points from the bag slung around my waist and opened it to a blank page. Hmm. Maybe I could use the scene of the forest right outside the village?

After having made such an easy exit from the village, I knew it would be awkward and possibly invite some misunderstanding if someone saw me loitering outside its wall. I decided to draw as quickly as possible, setting to work copying the landscape outside the village onto the blank page.

***

Early the next morning, I left Lalatoya for Rontestatt using my Transport Gate. 

I took a quick look around the vacant mansion to ensure nothing was out of the ordinary before making my way outside. The air outside was chilly and the whole city was covered with a white haze, providing poor visibility. The cold air seemed to be coming down from the towering mountains nearby, bathing the city in what reminded me of the famous London fog.

The moment I stepped through the mansion’s gate and out into the street, I immediately felt as if someone’s eyes were on me. I looked around, but couldn’t spot anyone through the fog. Ariane, Chiyome, or Ponta might have been able to sense whoever it was, but that was beyond me.

Figuring it was just my overactive imagination, I decided to leave the mansion and think nothing of it.

Arriving at the mercenary guild, I found it bustling with activity due to the early morning hour. It seemed there were quite a few jobs up for grabs, considering all the people surrounding the job board and reception desk. 

I cut a conspicuous figure even in the mercenary world and people now greeted me whenever I showed up at the guild. Perhaps all the work we’d done in the past week paid off? I was grateful that I’d managed to—if the rumors were to be believed—get in the good graces of the Gold-Rank Silver Blades while simultaneously avoiding getting involved with troublesome characters.

Noticing an empty space at the reception desk, I walked over to speak to the receptionist.

“Give me the job request form you plan to take,” he said, probably thinking I was applying for a job like all the others.

I simply shook my head. 

“Sorry, I’d like to speak with you about a job I’m currently working, not a new one.” I handed him the security request issued by the village. “Actually, I went to the village that issued the request, but it’d already been occupied by bandits.”

The moment the words left my mouth, shouts of surprise rose up from the guild staff and other mercenaries around me. It made sense, considering the city itself was being impacted by bandits now, leading the nobles to hire mercenaries to subdue them. The subject of bandits was currently of great interest to everyone.

“The bandits occupied the village?! We need to form a team to subdue them at once!”

Seeing the guild staff launch to their feet, I instinctively rushed ahead with the rest of my story to try to control the situation.

“Wait, wait, all the bandits occupying the village have already been captured.”

The man looked surprised at this and sat back down. The other mercenaries standing around leaned in closer to listen in.

“Wait a minute—there should only have been three of you out there. How did you deal with a group of bandits big enough to occupy an entire village? How many bandits were there?”

Apparently, we were already known for being a small group of mercenaries. He’d known how many people we had before I even mentioned our name. It was only natural he’d find it hard to believe three mercenaries could handle a group of bandits large enough to take over a village. Since he’d asked for the number of bandits we’d captured, perhaps he was speculating that the bandits themselves may have had some issues.

“Some were fatally injured in combat, but there were about thirty in total.”

The guild erupted in shouts again.

Unlike last time, however, these weren’t cries of admiration. Rather, I was met with derisive laughter and suspicious gazes. People called the story outlandish, and some walked out of the guild, muttering that it was nothing but a lie, and a bad one at that. Although we’d built up a bit of a positive reputation, we were still a newly formed mercenary group with few achievements to our name, after all. Clearly, we weren’t quite that trustworthy yet.

As I watched their departing backs, I realized my mistake. I’d been so distracted by arranging for the quick transfer of all of the bandits that I’d forgotten how much attention it would attract to come here during the busy morning hours and tell such fantastic tales. For now, though, I needed to solve the problem at hand. I could reflect upon my mistake later. 

One way or another, I had to convince them of my story to get the transfer of the bandits sorted.

“My comrades are currently watching the detainees back in the village. Can I request a transfer back to the city?”

The guild staff looked back at me, seemingly questioning the authenticity of my claims.

“Unfortunately, the guild doesn’t provide such services.”

Subduing bandits was generally a job assigned to larger mercenary groups. Even if they did capture a large group of bandits, the mercenaries would have comparable numbers, and would thus handle the transportation themselves. Three mercenaries capturing such a large group of bandits was entirely unprecedented. 

If the guild didn’t normally handle transfers of this sort, it may have been a mistake for me to even ask in the first place. It really was starting to look like we’d have trouble boosting our rank unless we managed to get more people in our group. Like the army, mercenary groups were required to have a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

“Hmm, then I guess I’ll have to ask the nobles about transferring the bandits.”

If I couldn’t rely on the mercenary guild, I’d have to ask the local lord, as they were in charge of both the authorities who enforced their laws and detaining those who committed crimes on their lands.

The guild staff member frowned at this.

“Unfortunately, there have been troubling developments at the border over the past few days. Many of the lord’s soldiers have been assigned to deal with that situation, so I don’t think you can expect much from them.”

His response caused me to groan involuntarily. The other mercenaries might have been more interested in the movement at the border, as a fresh commotion arose, demanding more information about the topic.

“I guess in that case, I’ll just bring back the leader and kill the rest?”

The staff member gulped and his eyes went wide at this.

A person suddenly addressed me from behind. They sounded interested in what I had to say.

“That’s a pretty terrifying idea. Though I guess it is the most realistic way of handling all the bandits you’ve got, really.”

Looking back at the familiar voice, I spied Brad, leader of the Silver Blades, standing there with a gentle smile on his face. Next to him was Meel, his chief, who followed him everywhere. Now that the best mercenary group in the city had joined the conversation, the other mercenaries in the guild began to pay attention.

“If you can’t rely on the guild or soldiers, I suppose we can take care of transferring the bandits for you.”

The guild officials responded to Brad’s proposal before I even had a chance to. “Out of the question! There’s no need for Brad and his mercenaries to perform such transport duties! What’s more, this whole story about capturing the bandits is questionable as it is. There’s no sense in sending a Gold-Rank mercenary out there when we still don’t know anything.”

The man felt the pressure of my gaze on him and suddenly realized the weight of his words. But I waved off his concerns, knowing the guild didn’t entirely trust us yet.

Brad just laughed to himself and tapped me on the shoulder before turning back to the staff member. “You seem to suspect he’s lying. I appreciate your intolerance for falsehoods, as a guild employee, but at the same time, I know that Arc here is telling the truth. My beliefs are backed up by the fact that our chief recognizes the talent of their members.”

His tone was playful, but his words elicited gasps of surprise from the surrounding mercenaries.

It was unusual for such a highly praised group of Gold-Rank mercenaries, known for their multitude of achievements and skills, to publicly affirm the abilities of the newly established group. Those who had been eyeing me with suspicion and contempt mere moments ago were now looking at me with jealousy and envy. For better or for worse, we certainly stood out.

“Judging by the Turbulent Ponta Patrol’s skills, I doubt any number of bandits could have stood up to them. The same goes for us, too.”

It almost sounded like he was suggesting that the Turbulent Ponta Patrol was on the same level as the Silver Blades. Or possibly suggesting we were even better? Either way, he was saying this was something we were certainly capable of doing, and not just some tall tale.

With the guild staff taken aback, Brad turned back to me.

“Our group has some clout with the lord here. With all the problems the bandits have been causing of late, this will certainly be of interest to him. Maybe we can let him handle all the tricky parts. What do you think?”

He was a lifesaver. At first glance, it might seem like he was trying to steal the credit for subduing the bandits and pass it off to the lord as his own achievement—but it was unlikely that was his intent, given that this exchange was taking place in front of so many mercenaries and guild staff members. 

Personally, I didn’t want the credit for capturing the bandits this time, or to be remembered by any of the empire’s nobility. In fact, I would prefer to give the credit to the Silver Blades. However, since they were already famous as Gold-Rank mercenaries, it seemed unlikely they would take me up on that. They had no real need to accumulate achievements, like the Black-Fanged Dogs did. If anything, I had the impression he didn’t want to try to steal someone else’s credit, as doing so would only harm his own reputation. I figured it was likely he’d refuse me if I were to even offer.

Well, if we could get this handled with the bare minimum of interaction with any imperial nobility, I was all for it. I decided to accept his offer, but there was one matter I needed to clear up.

“We are incredibly grateful for your offer…but how should we handle payment for the transfer?”

Of course, just because a Gold-Rank mercenary group was taking over transporting our captives didn’t mean they’d be doing it for free. It would be no exaggeration to say that nothing was free in this world. They wouldn’t bother reaching out to me unless they were getting something out of it, or there were other strings attached.

It reminded me of when I’d healed the villagers’ wounds with my magic back in the village. A short time later, some of the villagers I had healed looked at me like I was a strange spectacle, perhaps scared of the fact that I demanded no payment in return.

“No need to trouble yourself about the payment. We’ll receive payment for the transfer from the guild directly. That’s easier for the both of us, no?”

Brad’s proposal was fine by me, but the guild staff was quick to butt in.

“W-wait a minute! Even if we want to go forward with your little plan, I don’t have the authority to approve a job request on behalf of the guild! And even if the guild did authorize payment for the transfer, there’s no way the job would be given to the Silver Blades!”

Everything he said was entirely reasonable. He didn’t have the authority to issue payments at his own discretion—the only person who could do that was the head of the mercenary guild. And even if the head of the guild approved payment for transporting the bandits, it was unlikely that the Silver Blades would be given the job. As a Gold-Rank group, they were likely much pricier than more run-of-the-mill mercenaries. Any reasonable guild leader would hesitate to use such a talented mercenary group merely to transport bandits.

However, it seemed Brad already knew that.

“Of course, there’s no need to trouble the guild with this. We’ll talk to the lord about having him pay the reward in the guild’s place. We haven’t seen much in the way of results where subduing the bandits is concerned, and considering both the guild and the lord certainly want them captured quickly, negotiations should go smoothly. Even if they fail, I promise to take the absolutely lowest payment I can to minimize the impact on the guild.”

Brad confidently pressed his point home with the guild staff. Apparently, he had relatively frequent contact with the local lord and could bypass the mercenary guild to negotiate a reward directly with said lord. Under normal circumstances, this could be perceived as an overreach—trespassing onto the guild’s territory—but the guild seemed fine with it, which suggested that Brad was closer to the lord than I originally thought. My policy of keeping my distance from the aristocrats of the empire might already be a moot point.

The guild staff finally seemed convinced. He stood up from his chair.

“All right, fine. I’m going to explain the situation to the head of the guild, then.”

After seeing the man off, Brad turned back to me.

“It may take a little time, but this matter should be settled soon. If you have any other requests, now’s your chance.”

I shook my head.

“No, as I said earlier, all I wanted to do was offload this problem of transporting the bandits onto someone else. Personally, I just want to head back to the village and report on the developments as soon as I can.”

It was pretty audacious for a bunch of new mercenaries to try and foist this task off onto a veteran group, but Brad showed no signs of disappointment. Instead, he simply nodded.

“No matter how talented they may be, it’s no wonder you’d worry about only two people watching over thirty bandits. I hope you can leave this task to me and return to the village shortly.”

This was an immensely convenient development, but I figured it was best to not dig too deeply into it. They might have their own reasons for what they were doing, and besides, none of it would negatively impact us.

“I appreciate you saying that. Do you think there’s anything the lord can do to help out the remaining women in the village? Also, how long will it take to prepare to transport the bandits?”

The village, now stripped of its laboring force, was under the lord’s control. If the Silver Blades really did have a close relationship with them, then it couldn’t possibly hurt to ask. Once the schedule was set, we could start thinking about where we’d go from here.

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll take direct command of transporting the bandits and also draw attention to the plight of the villagers. However, while we have horses to call upon at a moment’s notice, the carriages need to be prepared by the guild. Taking that in mind, I figure we should be able to leave the city around evening to arrive at the village around noon tomorrow.”

I was surprised. They’d be at the village much faster than I’d expected. Of course, it was just an estimate, not a guarantee, but there was nothing we could do about that.

“You’ve been a great help to me. Thank you.”

I extended my hand, which Brad firmly shook with a smile.

“There’s no such thing as charity. But you needn’t worry yourself about that.”

“All right then, I’ll head to the village and await your arrival.”

After thanking him, I quickly left the guild. My work in the city was finished for the day.

I’d return to the village later to explain the situation to Ariane and Chiyome, but it was still too early for me to head back, as the timeline wouldn’t match up. For now, I’d just go check on the village from the outside. If there everything looked normal, I would pop in tomorrow morning in order to secure my alibi.

And yet, we still had so much left to do. There was a lot on my mind as I absent-mindedly walked back to the abandoned mansion—then suddenly stopped in my tracks.

Oops. I’d almost gone back to the mansion completely out of habit. I’d be courting suspicion if I didn’t secure my alibi by leaving through the city gate to head to the village.

I turned around on the spot and quickly headed to the city gate.

***

The atmosphere in the mercenary guild suddenly grew more hectic as the staff member’s footsteps clacked loudly on the floor on his return from the back office. In his hand was something that looked like a job request.

The man spoke directly to Brad. “The guild head has granted permission to request the transfer of the men. Here’s the job request.”

Suddenly, he raised his head as if he’d just remembered something.

“Oh, where’s the other man?” 

He was referring to Arc of the Turbulent Ponta Patrol. Brad smiled cheerfully and waved his hand to dispel the staff’s concerns.

“He went back to the village to see his friends.”

The guild staff frowned slightly at this.

“That’s going to be a problem. I wanted to talk about payment for them capturing the bandits.”

“It’s fine—they will return to the guild once the bandits have been transported. Anyway, since it will be up to us to handle their transport, I was wondering if the guild could prepare some carts for us to use?”

This seemed to reassure the staff member, who immediately got to work. “Very well. Since this is an official guild request, we can certainly arrange some carts for you.”

He handed the request over to Brad and rushed back into the guild. After seeing the man off, Brad turned to Meel, at his side, as the two of them left the building.

“Are the bandits they captured the ones I’m thinking of?”

Brad moved through the bustling morning streets, his gaze fixed straight ahead, as he spoke to Meel.

Meel raked attentive blue eyes across their surroundings as she replied in a low, muffled voice, “I suspect as much. The messenger mentioned their hideout was near that village. The number of members sounds about right, too. I would never have thought they’d be the first to be captured.”

“This complicates our plans. There’s a silver lining in the fact that the men were captured and not killed outright—which means we can move on to the next step without needing to capture them ourselves. Now that the plan is in motion, we just need to perform our roles as well. Call the messenger to meet me at my home.”

Meel bowed to acknowledge Brad’s instructions and slipped away silently into the crowd.

After seeing her off, Brad looked up at the sky—the same rich blue as his own eyes. He thought back to the armored knight he had spoken to a short time ago.

“Will there ever come a day where we no longer need to draw our swords?”

His lips curled up into an embarrassed smile, even as the words left his mouth.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he moved forth and squeezed his way through the bustling crowd.

***

Early the next morning, I left Lalatoya for the village where Ariane and Chiyome were standing watch. 

Since I had created my teleportation point at the forest located on the outskirts of the village, I now found myself looking at the village from afar. From this distance, it didn’t look as if anything had changed.

After entering through the gate and heading toward the square, I noted that the bandits were still bound. They all wore dark and sullen expressions, probably due to having been left out in the elements overnight.

The bandits tensed up at the sound of my approaching footsteps, but they seemed to relax slightly upon seeing that it was me. Their reaction struck me as odd—and it seemed like there were fewer of them than when I’d left—but it may have been my mind playing tricks on me.

Ariane and Chiyome appeared from somewhere deeper within the village while I was inspecting the bandits.

“Did you manage to make arrangements to transport them into the city, Arc?”

However, the bandits were probably even more interested in my response to Ariane’s question than she was. There were some who were paying keen attention to our conversation, though that was only natural. Everyone had a stake in how they would be treated from here.

“Well, it was eventually decided that the Silver Blades would transport them.”

Ariane nodded at the mention of the familiar name we’d worked with in the past. She also seemed to consider them a highly skilled group. I hadn’t had a chance to see Brad, their leader, or Meel, the group’s chief, fight during the last job we’d done together, but I could still tell they were more than capable. 

“In that case, there’s nothing for us to worry about. I can’t help but notice they’re not here right now, though. Will they be meeting up with us later?”

I recalled the conversation I’d had earlier at the guild with Brad about the arrival of the transportation team. “Apparently, they’ll be here around noon today at the earliest. It may be closer to evening, depending on how the preparations in the city go.”

Ariane stretched out her arms and rolled her shoulders to release some of the stiffness.

“Great. Hopefully we won’t have any more issues.”

Between her remarks, tired appearance, and the odd way the bandits were reacting, I got the impression that something had happened while I was away. I leaned in close to whisper in her ear.

“Ariane, what happened to the bandits?”

She let her shoulders slump, looking exhausted.

“Several of the villagers attacked the restrained bandits last night. Two of them died of their wounds.”

Surprised, I looked at the bandits tied up in the square. Apparently, my instincts had been right. The strange tension I sensed from the bandits may have been their frayed nerves from being attacked the night before.

The villagers had seemed too afraid to even go near the bandits right after they were rescued, but with time, they’d probably understood the hoodlums were incapacitated and seen it as a great opportunity to extract revenge. Given what the bandits had done to these villagers, I didn’t feel much sympathy.

Ariane fought back a yawn and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “It was difficult just getting them to calm down.”

“That must have been rough. I can watch over the bandits until the transportation group gets here, so why don’t you go get some rest? Oh, I almost forgot. Glenys made you a quick breakfast.”

I took an object wrapped in a large plant leaf out of the leather pouch hanging from my waist and gave it to Ariane. The item was something like a cross between a hot dog and a sandwich, filled with steamed vegetables, baked sausages, and cheese.

“Thanks. Sorry to leave, but I think I’ll take you up on your offer.”

Ariane wandered off into a nearby house with Glenys’ breakfast in hand.

Though Chiyome must have endured a similar evening of standing guard in the village, she didn’t seem particularly tired as we saw Ariane off. I asked my young companion about her physical condition while handing over her share of Glenys’ breakfast.

“This is for you. Do you want to rest for a bit?”

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. I can stay up for several days on end.”

I chuckled at her response. While Ariane was already an adult woman, Chiyome was still growing. It didn’t seem good for her physical development for her to miss out on sleep.

“I think you should both get some rest. I can handle everything here.”

She glanced down at her bread. I heard her stomach gurgle the moment she caught a whiff of what was inside. 

“Well, if you insist.”

Though she still looked reluctant, Chiyome followed after Ariane to sate her hunger.

“Kyii! Kyiii!!”

As I was watching Chiyome leave, Ponta suddenly appeared and sat down at my feet. One look at his glimmering eyes revealed that it was staring right at the leather bag hanging from my waist. Apparently, it was lured in by the scent of the hot dog sandwiches.

“Don’t worry, she made breakfast for you too.”

I took out a smaller version of the leaf-wrapped item I had handed earlier to Ariane and Chiyome. Just as I was about to unwrap it, Ponta rushed forward and yanked away the item, leaf and all. Judging by the way it was wagging its tail and stuffing its cheeks, it must have been pretty hungry. The leaf wrapping should be fine for it to eat—it might even be something like a salad for Ponta.

It would still be some time before the Silver Blades arrived, so I decided to kill some time watching Ponta eat while keeping an eye on the bandits.

The sun had risen high up into the sky by the time Ponta finally woke, having taken a quick nap on my crossed legs after enjoying its morning meal. It stretched out its front and then hind legs as it yawned.

“Kyii!”

It looked straight ahead, right out the village’s front gate. Apparently, our long-awaited visitors had arrived.

From outside the village came the sound of horse-drawn cart wheels falling in and out of well-worn ruts. The ruckus brought Ariane and Chiyome out to the square as well.

“Haaah, that was a good rest.”

The way Ariane stretched her body seemed to perfectly emphasize the shape of her chest, attracting the eyes of some of the bandits laying in the square. They sure seemed to be enjoying themselves, for men about to be carted off to prison. Maybe this was just the true nature of these pathetic men.

While my mind was wandering to such trivial matters, I finally saw someone ride into the square. Brad hopped off his horse.

“I was hoping to catch up to you, but I guess you were too fast for us, Arc!”

Considering he’d had to secure enough personnel to transport the bandits, line up payment, and make other arrangements, I had to say he’d made it here from Rontestatt in record time. He seemed a bit surprised that I’d been able to arrive at the village first, despite the heavy armor weighing me down. Of course, it was impossible for horses to outpace teleportation magic.

“Let’s just say my legs are pretty strong too.”

I glossed over the subject as I glanced over his shoulder, spotting Meel on horseback, two carts for transporting the bandits, and about fifteen mercenaries. Two carts for thirty mercenaries would be a little cramped, but comfort wasn’t much of a consideration when transporting criminals.

One man, dressed differently from all the others, hopped down from the cart. Though he wore a set of light armor like the mercenaries, he was unarmed, looking around the village with a sheaf of documents in hand. Judging by the fine make of his clothes, he wasn’t a commoner.

A commotion broke out throughout the village the moment the transportation team arrived in the village square. The villagers hesitantly peeked out of the buildings they were hiding in to observe the strange scene.

Brad looked out over the restrained bandits held up in a crouching position in the square.

“This is a pretty impressive sight.”

Meel immediately went about instructing the other mercenaries to load the bandits into the carts. While the Silver Blades generally specialized in slaying monsters, they were quite skilled at this too, judging by how smoothly they loaded the resisting bandits into the carts.

“It looks like you’ve got this down pat.”

“Well, I guess we’ve worked a lot of different types of jobs.”

I sensed that Brad’s response held a much deeper meaning than he was letting on. Even if they specialized in slaying monsters, considering all the jobs they must have done to reach Gold Rank in the first place, this probably wasn’t the first time they’d had to transport bandits. 

The members of the Silver Blades worked in unison to stuff the bandits into the carts like prisoners. With only two carts available for transport, each needing to hold over a dozen men, it seemed like the return trip would be quite slow. Alas, there wasn’t much we could do about that.

“Transport preparations are complete.”

Brad acknowledged Meel’s report.

“As planned, five guards will remain with the village while the rest will return to the city with the transport team.”

The mercenaries immediately set about their tasks according to Brad’s instructions, though they left me somewhat confused.

“You’re leaving some men here in the village?”

“When I discussed this matter with the lord, he decided to dispatch a clerk to inspect the damage. Around five people will stay behind to serve as his escort.”

Brad turned his gaze toward the official-looking man who was listening intently to the villagers. Apparently, he was a government official, and the lord really was taking this situation seriously.

“I see. And so the rest of the group will transport the bandits?”

That might seem like a mere fraction of the men needed to transport around thirty bandits, but given their high mercenary rank, they should be fine. Frankly, all I wanted to do was leave the whole transport situation to the Silver Blades and step back, but that would probably seem unnatural. We should at least leave the village first, and as long as we were all taking the same road back to Rontestatt, we’d have to travel together.

“Ariane, it looks like we’re going to return to the city with them,” I whispered.

Ariane whispered back in agreement. “There’s nothing we can do about that. You can’t use your teleportation magic in public, anyway.”

“Will we be departing soon, Brad?”

“This kind of job doesn’t take much time at all. The gates will already be closed by the time we arrive if we leave for the city now, but there’s no need to worry. We have special permission to pass through.”

Brad called over his chief and gestured for the group to begin moving.

“Depart!”

Once the command was issued, the two carts and their mercenary escorts began to move. Ariane, Chiyome, and I collected our bags and followed them out of the village.

Ultimately, I’d had precious little contact with the villagers before leaving. However, considering I was busy carrying out a secret investigation here in the empire, I couldn’t do much more to help them.

Glancing back over the shoulder, I watched the village shrink into the distance.

***

The two carts rattled noisily down the poorly maintained road.

The bandits packed into the carts seemed to be in a bad mood, thanks to the unpleasant conditions and the uncomfortable way the cart swayed back and forth, but a nearby mercenary would silence them with a sharp glare any time they complained too loud, keeping their grousing from getting out of hand.

Just because it was a day’s journey back to Rontestatt didn’t mean it actually involved a full day of travel. That was just a rough measure of the distance a horse-drawn vehicle could cover during the day. The actual duration of the journey depended on factors like the number of horses pulling the carriage, and how often the party stopped to take breaks. If cars existed in this world, we could have made the trip in under an hour.

When you had teleportation magic at your disposal, however, even the act of walking was incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, the transportation group moved at a fast clip—much faster than most merchants and their carriages. Looking closely, I could see that the horses pulling the carts were of a different breed from those usually seen in the city—quite possibly war horses. 

I’d heard that horses used in military service were worth multiple times what a normal horse cost. Seeing that Brad was also riding a similar horse, I figured properly equipped mercenary groups like them must have their own horses.

Of course, it was also possible that the lord had provided the horses, but it seemed hard to believe they’d loan out military steeds just to transport bandits, given the current border issues. That would be a bit excessive for a mercenary group. Or maybe this was just the kind of treatment Gold-Rank groups could expect when hired?

As I walked behind the group, I started to wish that I could have just used my teleportation magic to teleport back first.

We made it back to the city after dark without any trouble, only taking a few breaks to rest the horses along the way. As soon as the city lights came into view, the mood of the whole transportation team seemed to relax slightly.

The city gates were closed, just as Brad had said, but it seemed they’d prepared for this upon their initial departure, and we just needed to follow a few procedures to reenter.

“I believe this is where we part ways so we can go hand over the bandits.”

With that, Brad led his group toward the lord’s castle.

There were still a fair amount of people in the streets, many curiously watching the group of mercenaries escorting carts full of men. The rumors had already begun to fly.

After watching the impressive group disappear off into the distance, I stretched my arms and glanced over toward Ariane. We were finally free of the whole situation.

“Well, we finally made it back.”

“Having to be on guard the whole time was tiring,” Ariane muttered under her breath. “That group is far too perceptive for our own good.”

Chiyome seemed to agree, letting out a sigh of her own. “You’re right. It’s nice to have them around when they’re on our side, but they could be worthy opponents if they ever become our enemy.”

I had to squint just to see the mercenary group now. Even though we’d only been together for a short period of time, Ariane and Chiyome seemed to have a good grasp of who we were dealing with. The Silver Blades were not a lawless sort, and were unlikely to become hostile in that respect, but taking into consideration how humans lived up here in the empire, inter-species conflict was a very real possibility. It would be foolhardy to get too close to them when we still didn’t know anything about their principles or values.

“Well, I hope we can continue to have a mutually beneficial relationship with the Silver Blades,” I said to no one in particular.

Ariane and Chiyome merely continued to stare after the now distant group. Ponta, who had been sitting quietly atop my head up until now, suddenly began to urgently wag its tail back and forth and cry out.

“Kyii!”

On our way back to the city, we’d only stopped once to eat a simple lunch, and we’d walked the whole way to boot. Clearly, Ponta was hungry. Ariane’s stomach also began to growl, though she quickly covered it with her hands and glared at me in embarrassment.

“Let’s head on back to Lalatoya and have some dinner.”

I turned and began to head in the direction of the abandoned mansion.

Now that I thought about it, there was something about the city that was different than usual tonight. As we continued to walk, I glanced over at Chiyome, noticing she also wore a peculiar expression on her face. Something told me that she wasn’t simply worrying about what we were eating for dinner tonight.

I lowered my voice and called out to her. “What’s wrong, Chiyome?”

She glanced up and returned my gaze.

“It’s nothing. It’s just… I can sense the presence of something lurking just at the very limit of my senses. It’s been there for a while.”

“What? Really?”

Ariane did a double take at Chiyome’s response. However, even focusing in the direction Chiyome indicated, she didn’t seem to find anything, but only cocked her head to the side in confusion.

“It’s really faint, and I don’t feel like I’ve been sensing it for a long time…”

Even Chiyome only had the vaguest impression of the presence, unable to grasp its true nature. Perhaps it was similar to the gaze I’d felt earlier through the fog?

“How about you, Ponta?”

“Kyiiiii?”

Seeing as Ponta had proved to be even more capable at detecting undead than Chiyome, I decided to ask if it had felt anything, but Ponta only tilted its head to the side and stared ahead blankly.

If there really was a person out there watching us, they must be skilled enough to stay just at the edge of Chiyome’s perception. Or perhaps they’d known from the start what the limits to Chiyome’s senses were, and were toeing that line. I didn’t know who the other party was, but considering this had only started once we made a name for ourselves as mercenaries here in the city, it was possible that it was a scout from another group.

“Hmm, I’ve lost them. Maybe they realized I picked up on their presence.”

Chiyome turned around and looked back the way we came, almost as if she were looking for the presence she just lost. After a few moments, she shook her head and sighed in defeat.

Ariane looked back at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, Chiyome. My odd reaction probably spooked them off.”

Chiyome shook her head, seemingly unworried. “No, I couldn’t have chased down such a faint trail, anyway.”

Almost as if it sensed the awkward mood forming between the two, Ponta managed to break the tension with a mew. “Kyiiiii.”

Puffing out its stomach from atop my head while slowly sliding down my helmet and wailing was probably Ponta’s way of telling me it was hungry.

I looked back and forth between the two while trying to comfort Ponta.

“For better or for worse, it’s undeniable that we stand out here. Going forward, we should be even more careful in the city. However, Ponta seems to be at its limit right now, so I suggest we head back to Lalatoya.”

“You’re right.” 

“Agreed.”

It would do us no good to stand around and think about things we didn’t understand. 

With our tentative marching orders decided, it was time for us to finish up for the day and head back for dinner and a bath. We hurried back to the vacant mansion, where I used my Transport Gate to return to Lalatoya.

***

The next day, I woke up later than usual, probably due to the late evening the night before. It was still morning, of course, but just not as bright and early as I was used to.

As per usual, Ponta licking my face served as a substitute for my alarm clock—though to be more precise, it was licking my skull, not my face.

“I guess I spent a little too long in the bath yesterday, huh.”

“Kyii.”

I stretched out as I yawned, leading to a cacophony of popping sounds as my stiff joints realigned. It made for a pretty nice sound, all considered, since I didn’t have any muscles to interfere with the bones.

I continued my stretches as I made my way into the kitchen where I found Glenys cooking.

“Morning, Arc. Breakfast is ready, so come on and eat.”

I looked down at the prepared meal and thanked Glenys before noting that there was no one else at the table here with me.

“It looks great! By the way, where’s Ariane off to?”

“They said they were going to train a bit outside until you woke up.”

I continued to listen as I chewed on a piece of bread. We’d been heading to Rontestatt early every morning of late, doing our work at the mercenary guild, and returning to Lalatoya at night, leaving them without any time for training. I felt like I was being treated like the odd duck out for oversleeping, but that was my fault.

“Sounds like I’ve kept them waiting, then.”

“Kyii.”

I picked up the pace and gobbled down my food before reaching for the cup. The white liquid inside had a distinct calcium flavor to it, almost like milk, but somehow even richer. I was sure people would fall in love if it could be made into some kind of ice cream.

“Kyii!”

“You want to try some too?”

At Ponta’s behest, I poured some into its bowl and watched as it happily lapped the liquid up.

Listening closely, I could faintly hear Ariane’s fierce cries as she practiced outside. Just like every other morning…though more relaxed than usual, now that I thought about it.

With breakfast finished, I put on my gear and made sure I had everything with me.

“Shall we get going?”

“Kyii!”

Upon stepping outside, I found Ariane and Chiyome holding their weapons at the ready. Once I entered their field of view, they lowered their weapons and picked up some hand towels to wipe away their sweat.

“So I see you’re finally up, huh Arc?”

“Good morning, Arc.”

I figured it was around 8 o’clock in the morning, but people out in this world tended to wake with the sun.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. Shall we get going to the city now?” 

Ariane slid her sword back into its sheath and tied back her messy hair as she spoke. “We were just waiting for you to wake up. I’m ready to go anytime.” 

Chiyome was set to move, as well. “I’m ready too. We’ll be receiving payment for our work the other day, right?”

“Well, Brad mentioned that our capture of the bandits would likely be highly praised by the guild. I’m hoping that we might be promoted to Silver today.”

Once promoted to Silver Rank, we would be able to come and go from the city as we pleased. This would greatly extend the range of our search for the cardinals. With that, we could finally hang our hats up on playing mercenaries out in the empire.

“Let’s get going.”

Upon activating Transport Gate, a magic rune appeared at our feet, and we were temporarily plunged into complete darkness. After a moment of weightlessness, the world suddenly reappeared around us.

We were back in our usual room in the vacant mansion in the imperial city of Rontestatt. However, something was different. The ceiling…no, the roof was gone. Looking up, I could see the blue sky spreading out above us.

The charred beams—apparently all that remained of the roof—looked like the protruding spikes of a sea urchin, forming dark shadows that blotted out the blue sky. The walls were also charred black, and some of them had even burnt away completely, revealing the rooms beyond. Everything around us smelled of soot and charcoal.

“What happened?” My voice was a croak, surprised at the sudden change in our surroundings.

“Th-this…”

Ariane and Chiyome, much like myself, were also taken by surprise.

The moment I stepped forward to get a better look at my surroundings, I heard an unpleasant sound beneath my feet before the fragile floor gave way, and I fell down to the floor below.

“Gwa!!”

“Whaaa?!”

“Hyaau!!”

“Kyii!”

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—the weight of my armor had been too much for the floor. Ariane and Chiyome plummeted after me, landing atop of me on the first floor. Chiyome was light and nimble like a cat, so she easily landed on her feet. Ariane, however, landed right on her rear in the middle of my back, while Ponta spread out its limbs to catch the wind on the membrane running between them and float gracefully down.

“Ow! What in the…!”

While she cursed at the pain of having landed full force on her rear, I glanced up at the ceiling. Ignoring the heavy weight pressing down on my lower back through my armor, I inspected the ceiling above us. It looked like the burnt and brittle floor had been unable to support our weight.

“Kyii.”

Landing on the soot-covered floor, Ponta sniffed at its pitch-black paws with great interest.

Chiyome ran her finger through the black soot on a nearby wall. “The whole mansion was burnt down.”

“A house fire, maybe? But no one was living here, I’m sure of that.”

Ariane got off my back and rubbed her sore bottom.

A normal house fire wouldn’t be all that surprising if people had been living here. It could have happened while cooking. But since the house was abandoned, it seemed much more likely that the fire was from an outside source.

“I suppose it could have been arson.”

Was it just a coincidence that this mansion was burned down? Chiyome had sensed someone keeping an eye on us before we returned to Lalatoya just the day before.

If these events were connected, it was possible that someone found out that we were using this mansion to teleport into the city, and burned it down. But did anyone out here have enough of a motive to want to get rid of us?

The Black-Fanged Dogs came to mind, but even though they didn’t care for us, I doubted that they’d go so far as to burn down an entire mansion. We hadn’t had much interaction with any other mercenary groups, nor had we even been in the city for very long. But it didn’t seem like a mere coincidence.

Suddenly I heard Chiyome speak up as she inspected our surroundings. “I can feel the presence of multiple people outside the mansion.”

There was a certain tension in her words, but Ariane looked out through a hole in the wall and shook her head.

“I can sense some people outside too, but I think they’re just rubberneckers.”

Chiyome focused her senses outward once again.

“That’s probably right. It doesn’t feel like they’re looking for us, anyway.”

The outer wall surrounding the mansion kept us from seeing out into the street, but that didn’t seem to be a problem for her.

Considering there’d been nothing wrong with this mansion when we were here yesterday, that meant that it had both caught fire and extinguished by itself overnight. It was only natural that passersby would be drawn to such a scene. However, that also meant that we couldn’t leave out the front entrance with so many people standing around gawking outside.

“We can’t exactly walk out the front door with this many spectators.”

“Kyii.”

I crossed my arms as I thought, trying to come up with a way to get out of this mansion without drawing the attention of those standing around outside.

While I mulled over the issue, Ponta jumped up onto my arm and climbed up to my shoulder, where it began to clean its soot-stained coat. Glancing over, I saw little black paw marks running up and down my armor, like little stamps. I’d need to clean them up when I get home.

I could feel Ponta continuing to move about my shoulders as I turned my attention back to the mansion. Loud noises began to resonate through the burnt building, probably structural issues resulting from our earlier fall.

“This is no good. The building lost a lot of its integrity with our fall—it’s going to collapse any minute.”

The moment I heard Chiyome’s words, I immediately reached out for the two women. “Ariane! Chiyome!”

They seemed to immediately guess what I was planning and reached out to take my hands.

“Dimensional Step!!”

I used my short-distance teleportation spell to first send us into the mansion’s courtyard before teleporting onto the roof of a nearby mansion.

No sooner had we teleported away than the burnt building collapsed with a loud crash, sending a huge plume of ash and dirt up into the sky and eliciting screams from the surrounding observers. 

“We barely made it.”

“Kyii! Kyiii!!”

From our perch atop the neighboring mansion, we took a short rest while we contemplated the weight of the situation. Ariane sat down on the roof with a heavy sigh, slapping at her trousers to work out the soot.

“We were almost buried under all that rubble.” Chiyome looked out at our surroundings, her keen gaze taking everything in.

“Do you think the fire was a coincidence?” I decided to ask her what I was thinking earlier. After a moment of silence, Chiyome shook her head.

“I can’t say for sure, but I doubt it.”

Apparently, she also thought there was a connection with the presence she felt yesterday. If so, who was it and why? Even though I knew it would do us no good to think about this now, I couldn’t get it off my mind.

Finally, Ariane suggested our next plan of action.

“It might be a good idea to ask the rubberneckers over there about the fire in the mansion.”

Chiyome and I exchanged glances before nodding.

“That’s a great idea Ariane! Let’s get going!”

“Whoa, hey, Arc?!”

I immediately grabbed Ariane’s shoulder and Chiyome’s hand and teleported again, this time to a side road right off the main street running in front of the burnt-out mansion. This put us right behind the people watching the scene.

“Hey, give me a heads-up the next time you plan on teleporting, huh??”

Ariane was annoyed that she had been sitting on the roof mere moments ago and was now sitting in the dirt. She stood up, brushing the dirt off the seat of her pants.

I offered up a quick apology as I stepped out into the main street and approached the crowd of people. Looking closely, I spied a guard standing in front of the front gate, probably to keep people out. It wasn’t hard to imagine how much attention we would have drawn if we’d walked out the door.

I called to one of the rubberneckers who was looking at the mansion from a distance. He let out a yelp of surprise and turned around, looking even more stunned when he saw me.

“What’s this crowd about?”

“Huh?? Oh, uh, a vacant mansion caught fire last night.”

He must be a local resident. I felt a little sorry to have snuck up on him like this—it had to be intimidating to have a knight fully decked out in armor show up behind you.

“Arson?” I doubted he had much information, but I figured I might as well ask about the cause of the fire.

Much to my surprise, he shared some information about the circumstances surrounding the fire.

“I-it seems that way. The fire was quick and fierce and went through the whole building in a flash. The guards were saying some sort of accelerant must’ve been used.”

The young man glanced over my shoulder. Looking back, I spotted Ariane, her cloak pulled low over her face, listening intently to his story.

“Did they catch the culprit?”

“Huh? Uh, I…I heard there were no witnesses.”

He seemed more than eager to answer Ariane’s questions, almost as if he could sense her beauty under the cloth. Ariane showed no interest in the man, but looked intently at her surroundings.

Chiyome also kept a close eye on the people out in front of the mansion, searching for any clues available in our surroundings. After a few moments, she turned around and spoke up.

“No one is watching us. If the arsonist were here, they would have already found us by now.”

She frowned slightly, deep in thought. Apparently, she thought we were actually the arsonists’ true target.

“Well, there’s nothing more for us to do here. Let’s get back to business.” After watching the herd of people coming and going, Ariane finally suggested we make our exit. She was right. Staying here would solve nothing.

However…

“Our first order of business is to find a new teleportation point.”

We’d almost certainly become the guards’ number one suspects for the arson if we kept going in and out of that mansion. We needed to find a new location and sketch it by the end of today to prepare for our future activities, and we’d get right on that as soon as we received our reward from the mercenary guild for capturing the bandits.

With that in mind, we made our way toward the mercenary guild as Ariane suggested. It almost felt as if we were walking upstream against the crowd, as all the people flooded toward the mansion to get a peek. 

Upon arriving at the mercenary guild, I had the distinct feeling that something felt out of the ordinary there. It only took me a moment to find the source of this feeling.

There was no mercenary standing guard at the entrance.

However, that wasn’t all that was different. Chiyome suddenly tensed up and put her hand on her weapon while Ariane focused her gaze up ahead.

“Kyii?” On the contrary, Ponta didn’t seem to find anything unusual at all. It just waved its tail back and forth across my head, as if everything were normal.

“What’s going on? Ariane, Chiyome?”

They both kept their eyes fixated on the guild, as if searching for the source of the problem.

“It smells like blood.”

Chiyome’s words caused me to refocus my attention on the guild. This was a profession where people were often exposed to blood when slaying monsters, playing escort, or subduing bandits. In that sense, the smell of blood coming from inside the guild was hardly out of the ordinary.

However, Ariane also looked cautious and uneasy. “I don’t sense any people.”

Her comment, combined with Chiyome’s earlier observation, made the mood feel tense. Though it wasn’t early in the morning, when the guild was busiest, there should still have been a lot of mercenaries and staff members around at this time of day. Instead, we had the scent of blood and no sign of people.

I walked quickly through the entrance, frowning involuntarily at the sight that awaited me. Ariane and Chiyome found themselves at a loss for words when they entered behind me.

“I can’t…!”

“But what…” 

“……”

All the guild staff who normally worked behind the reception counter were collapsed on the floor, bleeding. There were some mercenaries as well, also lying motionless on the floor. They had died with weapons still in their hands, suggesting they had been killed in combat.

Ariane inspected one of the bloody bodies before casting a cautious gaze across the room. “They were cut down with a single slash. Whoever did it was a gifted swordsman.”

“This looks like it could be some kind of magic.” Chiyome knelt beside a fallen mercenary and looked at the corpse. Many of the open wounds had gravel and rocks in them.

The fact that no one had noticed the devastation inside the guild, despite all the usual foot traffic passing by outside, indicated it had happened only moments ago. Moreover, judging from the various injuries the men had sustained, it seemed this was the work of multiple people.

“But who would have done this?”

“Kyii!”

As I walked through the guild to get a look at the situation, I suddenly heard Ponta let out a cry from atop my head, as if it had found something.

“What is it, Ponta?”

“Kyii.”

Ponta leaped off the top of my head and glided around the room for a moment before landing on the back of one of the fallen staff members behind the counter.

“Hnng…” The man shuddered slightly and moaned. I’d thought they were all dead, but this one appeared to still be breathing, if grievously injured.

“Whoa…!”

I hurriedly rushed over to see how bad the injury was.

A single vertical slash tore through the flesh along his back. The amount of blood he’d lost looked fatal, but as long as he was breathing, there was still a chance to heal him.

“Over Heal!!”

A dazzling ray of light welled from my hand and poured out over the man’s wound, which closed up in the blink of an eye. It looked like time was being rewound, though sadly, it did nothing for the lost blood.

The light subsided and the dying man calmed down a bit, though his face was still pale from blood loss.

“Arc! There’s a survivor?!”

Ariane rushed over to see what I was doing and was surprised to find the unconscious man at my feet. Chiyome hurried over in a panic as well, but for an entirely different reason.

“Fire…!”

Tongues of flame licking toward me before the building erupted into flames all around us, creating an impenetrable wall of fire. Looking around, I saw the whole guild was already engulfed in flames. It had all happened so suddenly that I was at a loss for words.

However, a highly experienced soldier like Ariane was able to quickly evaluate the situation and start issuing orders. “Chiyome, I want you to take point while Arc carries this man out!”

The same could also be said about Chiyome, who nodded in agreement and immediately began to draw a rune in the air.

“Body to water! Liquid wolf fang!”

Once her technique was activated, two wolves made completely of water were spawned into existence. They sprinted around her, instantly extinguishing the flames they ran through and slowing down the raging inferno.

“Let’s go!”

At Chiyome’s command, the water wolves began to lead the way, carving a path through the sea of flames toward the exit as Chiyome and Ariane followed close behind.

“Whoa, hey! Wait up!”

I ran out of there with Ponta under one arm and the guild employee under the other. The moment we exited the fire-wreathed building, it felt like we had just stepped out of a sauna. However, with the mercenary guild now going up in flames behind us, a noisy crowd began to form, drawn in by the fire.

Two people, probably guards, held their spears out at the ready.

“You there, stop!!”

“Did you set the guild ablaze?!”

I instinctively glanced over at my two companions. Ariane tugged the hood of her cloak down lower and averted her gaze, while Chiyome had already managed to make her water wolves disappear.

I stood at the front of the group, presenting the eye-catching picture of a knight with the guild employee and Ponta tucked under each arm.

“We did nothing of the sort! I was the one who rescued this fallen staff member!”

The two guards pointing their spears at me quickly apologized, though clearly still skeptical about the whole situation. But that would soon change. The flames burning through the mercenary guild swelled even further, rising high up into the sky and eliciting screams from those who had gathered to watch.

At the same time, similar fires began shooting up around the city, followed moments later by cries of confusion off in the distance. All of the rubberneckers who’d gathered to gawk at the sad fate of the mercenary guild immediately took off running. The guards were lost in the fleeing mass and bothered us no more.

“What is going on here?” Ariane stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding throughout the city around us.

“Uhnnngh…!”

The man under my arm began to moan as he regained consciousness. I hurriedly lowered him into a sitting position on the street corner.

“Are you okay? Who did this to you?”

He looked confused, probably from all the blood loss, but managed to raise his head and meet my gaze.

“The…masked…”

The strength left him and he collapsed on the spot. I brought my hand to his mouth, but he was no longer breathing. I’d been too late—he’d lost too much blood to survive. But with his wound now healed, his death would certainly raise suspicion.

Having come to terms with his death, I stood up and took a look at the chaos engulfing Rontestatt. Things were certainly moving now, but in what direction, I could not say.