Bandit Chief

「Just when I wondered what was the noice I heard……you brat, was it you who killed that guy?」

The man found his comrade’s corpse inside the darkness and pulled out his sword. He glared at me who was lifting up my knife into a stance.

Perhaps the sound when I killed the man was heard. Either way, it looked like it was impossible for me to once more act as a child to make him let his guard down, so I also pointed my black knife toward the man.

If I didn’t count the goblins that I killed as my training with Viro, this would be my first real battle. Even so I had experienced Feld and Viro’s killing intent, so although the killing intent the man radiated was making me nervous, it didn’t scare me that much that I needed to curl into myself.

Hard leather armor and long sword. The equipments themselves were old, but they were the general equipments of a 『warrior』. The man seemed to be at the middle of his thirty. There was a bandit that was stronger than the other bandits with combat strength that reached nearly 100, but if it was this man, then I guessed he wasn’t a bandit or a villager but a deserter or adventurer has been. Even at the great monster outbreak that killed my parents, I heard there were several soldiers who had ever faced human before ran away from the fight against monsters.

「…………」

If he was a deserter, then Otou-san might still be alive if only this man didn’t run away. I knew that in the end it was just an opinion based in hindsight, but my gaze toward the man unconsciously turned cold. The man blatantly scowled in respond.

「……You’re an eerie brat. As I thought, you are the one who killed that guy.」

Even I thought that a child who appeared deep inside the forest like this and didn’t look scared even when a sword was pointed at her would be eerie, but I too had no intention to withdraw from here. I wouldn’t hate this man even if he was a deserter. But, chilling killing intent dripped out in place of anger. The man held his breath when he felt my Pressure.

It was still easier to handle a wary opponent rather than an opponent that charged forward in anger. If he had around 100 combat strength then he must be a rank 2 warrior. With his combat strength, most likely he had sword skill level 2 and defense and martial art skill around level 1. If I remembered right his magic power was around 50. If his magic power was only around that much in his age, I judged that he hadn’t learned any sorcery.

For projectile weapon, if he was a former soldier then I guessed he could use bow at most, but bow skill was a skill that could be used independently even without throwing skill, so I kept in mind to keep my wariness toward projectile weapon like knife and the like together with sorcery from this man to minimum.

I analyzed the situation with calmness that surprised even myself while both of us radiated killing intent to each other and readied our weapon. We moved our position in clockwise rotation slowly.

This man……for now I’d temporarily call him bandit chief. I probed his fighting method.

If the bandit chief’s combat skill was really short sword level 2, the small me would be blown away just from exchanging blow with him. I wouldn’t fight him head on. I also didn’t let my guard down. My sense of judgment was getting strange because of Feld and Viro, but even this man’s combat strength was a great threat against me.

*Shun!*

「Kuh!」

The bandit chief dodged the skewer that I threw suddenly at him in an exaggerated way. Most likely he had been drinking alcohol. He must be thinking that even in his drunken state he would be alright if the opponent was just a child, but that was because his ability to make judgment had been lowered thanks to the alcohol. Even though the skewer that was thrown by me who didn’t have throwing skill would get deflected by his armor, I was able to break his balance thanks to him being overly cautious toward me.

Using that opening to attack……I didn’t do anything stupid like that and leaped backward to open up the distance.

「Don’t think you can get away!」

After the distance was opened, I turned around and started running normally. The bandit chief also chased after me.

I considered what was going through the bandit chief’s mind right now. He was wary toward a kid who could kill his comrade and radiate killing intent and pressure. However, I was just a kid, so he couldn’t do something shameful like calling his comrades for help, and he convinced himself that I ran away because I was a kid who got scared seeing him holding a sword. He intended to be careful even when his opponent was just a kid, but his pride as the bandit leader was holding him back from that.

That was why the bandit chief chased after me without hesitation toward a place where the bonfire’s light didn’t reach.

There was no need for me to win against this man. It would be my victory if I could buy time until Viro arrived. For me, the biggest problem would be if he caused a commotion at that place and dragged the other bandits into a chaotic melee.

There was a difference of speed between adult and kid, but surely there was no difference now between me who had put down all my baggage and him who was wearing armor with his weapon unsheathed. The bandit chief followed my expectation and chased after me, his speed was clearly dulling down as soon as we entered the forest where the moonlight didn’t reach. He got slightly tripped by a tree root and became unbalanced.

「Shit, ……Light-!」

The bandit chief chanted a daily life magic and lit a small light that was just slightly brighter than a candle at the tip of his sword.

「Dark.」

I fired magic particles from a distance to that light and easily neutralized it. The forest was enveloped in darkness once more.

「Shit-!」

Additional information of the enemy. The bandit chief didn’t have night vision skill.

「Light-!」

「Dark.」

The bandit chief tried chanting Light several more times after that. I extinguished it with Dark every time. The magic particle of darkness element would automatically neutralize the light within its range, so erasing the light itself wasn’t difficult.

The magic power capacity of the bandit chief was around 50. In contrast my magic power capacity was around 70. Not only that, the bandit chief had been using body strengthening all this time since he pointed his sword at me. Around ten-odd minutes had passed since the battle began. Body strengthening consumed around one magic point for every 100 seconds, more or less, so the bandit chief’s magic power kept decreasing even during this.

In the first place I didn’t even use body strengthening other than when in battle, so the bandit chief finally gave up using Light in this magic power consumption competition that showed no sign of ending.

「This damn brat! Fight me fair and square!!」

A mature adult was demanding such absurdity from a kid. And then one more additional enemy information. He couldn’t even detect my location since we entered the forest, so it seemed that the bandit chief didn’t even have search skill.

Even so he must be able to detect presence. When I moved, he swung his sword toward the direction of my faint footstep.

「Slash!」

The Battle Skill of sword skill level 1, Slash cut through the darkness beside me. As I thought, sword skill level 2 wasn’t a level that I could afford to underestimate. Sweat damply covered my palm because this was the first time a Battle Skill was directed toward me.

Both sides didn’t have any decisive move. I wouldn’t be able to inflict damage without taking advantage of an opening. But there was a decisive difference between the bandit chief and me. The difference was that “I” was the one holding the initiative to attack.

The bandit chief who was in the defensive couldn’t afford to cut off his body strengthening. My objective was to buy time, so I could preserve my magic power without getting impatient. But before the time limit where it seemed that Viro would be finished with his fight had arrived, perhaps the bandit chief’s magic power had hit the limit for overusing Light, because his body strengthening vanished and his gait staggered slightly.

「Shit……」

The bandit chief finally noticed the disadvantage he was in. He grimaced while breaking into a run toward the village. Even though he was stronger than me without even using body strengthening, he was overly cautious toward me and used up all his magic power, and in the end he ran away even though he didn’t need to.

His judgment was bad. He had no “resolve” despite having pride.

But, there would be no meaning to my “training” if I just quietly let him go.

I leaped from behind a tree’s cover. The bandit chief reacted to the faint sound and swung his sword to behind him. But his sword’s movement was clearly dull. Not only he became unable to perform body strengthening, the bandit chief whose former occupation was a soldier was shriveling in hesitation because he was forced to fight in a state without body strengthening that should be the fundamental of combat. Even then the speed of sword slash from level 2 sword skill was still sharp, but even me who only had martial art level 1 could evade it if it was within the darkness like this.

「Guah!?」

My knife shallowly cut the man’s leg. Although my knife was sharp, my muscle strength was insufficient to deeply cut an adult’s muscle, but that wasn’t a big problem.

「This brat-!!」

The bandit chief yelled in fury to threaten me, but I wasn’t scared of you. On the contrary, the fear of getting cut within the darkness was rapidly making his swings too wide that even his sword skill couldn’t compensate for it anymore.

「Dammit!!」

.

After that I took my time to cut the bandit chief’s leg many times when I saw an opening. I aimed for his legs partly to not let him get away from the forest, but partly it was because with my height, I wouldn’t be able to reach an adult’s upper body without stepping in deeply to the opponent’s bosom. I myself had the impulse of wanting to test my battle skill, but battle skill was an attack with large movement. It would be wiser to act prudently at this stage.

The bandit chief was stronger than me. That was why I would immediately take distance from him after each time I dealt damage. That was why I absolutely wouldn’t let him escape from this darkness. None of the wounds I dealt on him was lethal. There were many spots on his legs that I had slashed and now his lower body was soaked in blood, but I still hadn’t nicked any of the important organ.

However the situation that I feared finally occurred at that moment.

「……Ha, hahah! I finally find you, you brat!!」

The morning arrived. The slightly shining in sunlight made my pink hair to twinkle because the ash covering it had been removed.

「It’s over for you now, you shitty brat!!」

「…………」

So I ran out of time. My “training” was also over already.

「HAAAA-! ……Ga, ……wha-?」

The bandit chief tried to slash at me after he finally found me, but he collapsed on his knees at that spot. The sword also slipped off from his hand. I turned my gaze toward the bewildered face of the bandit chief that was turning deathly pale.

「It’s morning already you know? How many hours do you think have passed since then?」

I was aiming for 『bleeding to death』. That was why I intentionally held back from getting in too deeply and only dealt wounds that cause bleeding. I applied Heal on myself to regain the stamina that I lost throughout the night, then I kicked away the long sword that the bandit chief dropped and carefully approached with my knife raised in position.

「Do you still have any way to fight?」

「…………」

「I see. Then, sayonara.」

I received his half scared and half glaring gaze head on while coldheartedly cut the bandit chief’s neck to the side with my knife. I continued watching blood gushing out from the wound with a fixed stare and my knife still held in defensive form until the end when the light of his life was dyed in despair and vanished.

I returned to the deserted village under the light of the morning that had become completely bright while dragging the long sword that was my spoil of war. There I found the unharmed Viro lightly raising his hand in greeting while drinking fruit wine from his flask beside the corpses of the bandits that were piled up at the center of the open space.

「Yoo, you are late. Was your opponent strong?」

「Perhaps, he was the bandit leader? This is his weapon.」

I thought it would be better if you were worried a bit more for me though? Viro accepted the long sword that I handed to him and narrowed his eyes as he inspected it.

「This is a low-priced good that nobles usually order. There is the insignia of Baron Horace on the handle……I’m amazed you won. Well, the background of the dead bandits doesn’t matter I guess.」

「I guess……」

「More importantly, lit the fire for me. I have poured oil on the corpses, but the fire of my tinderbox died out and I can’t even lit my cigarette.」

「Roger. ……How about you stop smoking?」

After making sure that the fire I lit wouldn’t spread, Viro who was enjoying his smoke and I who was nibbling on a dried bread immediately left the deserted village.

「Fuwaa……as expected staying awake all night is tiring. Let’s book a room in an inn when we arrive at the next town. The bandits have quite a lot of loot. I’ll give half to you, so pay for your own room.」

「Thank you……」

.

Like that we continued our journey and three days later, we arrived at the big city of this area that was the territory of Count Taurus.