Is there some kind of unwritten rule among bandits to always use a cave as their hideout? Still, at least the one Sano and his men chose is pretty unique. It’s pretty much a complex of interconnected caves, with the bandits all gathered in one of the larger rooms.
“Fuhihi, I’m already looking forward to it. In a little while, we’ll get to see a lot of starved corpses.”
Sano applauded himself with a disgusting smile.
While I call them bandits, Sano’s men look more like reasonably well-equipped adventurers, same with Sano, whose items are a lot better than the rest of them.
“Hey, Boss~, won’t you let us~ have s~ome fun with the girls~ in the village? It’s a sh~ame to just let them all s~tarve to death like that.”
“That’s right, at least let us bring a couple of them here.”
“Denied! The whole point is to have the entire village die of the same cause! I’ve already put so much effort into making them all starve to death, and now you’re trying to ruin my whole plan!”
The underlings advised Sano, but he rebuked them. It seems that the reason why they didn’t harm the villagers too much was out of some kind of twisted sense of beauty that Sano has.
“I’ve been summoned to another world and given the freedom to act as I please! It would be a shame not to enjoy as many different ways of killing people as humanly possible!”
“S~orry…”
“Yeah. Sorry, Boss…”
Frightened by Sano’s domineering attitude, the underlings quickly withdrew, however, Sano wasn’t done monologuing just yet.
“I’m a Hero! I can go wherever I please and enjoy various benefits in the Hero-supporting countries! Even if I kill someone, I can get away scot free if I just come up with a proper excuse!”
“Heh, heh. If it wasn’t for Boss~, we all would have been caught and executed by now.”
“That’s right. We can even get good equipment by posing as Hero’s aids.”
“Fuhihi, now we’re talking! Compliment me more!”
Apparently Sano is trying to wear two different hats of ‘Hero’ and ‘Bandit Leader’ at the same time. They don’t match very well though…
A: Basically, he’s just killing whoever he pleases, and even if someone tries to oppose him, he uses his status as a Hero to condemn them instead.
…
“Now then, once we’re done having fun starving this village, let’s head for the next one. In what way should we kill people there? Crushing is always pretty fun. I’ve already had my fill of poisoning, stabbing and bludgeoning, so I’m good for the time being… I know! ‘A village where everyone mysteriously drowned to death’! Fuhihi, now that’s an interesting concept!”
“…”
As expected, even his underlings were taken aback.
Hmm, looks like this Sano guy is already beyond saving. Or was he always this kind of guy? …Well, it doesn’t matter, I’m not really interested in his true nature.
“But, is that really okay? This country is not a part of the Hero-supporting faction, so in an off chance that we get caught…”
“Oh, it’s fine. This country doesn’t care about its towns and villages as long as the royal capital is safe. Even the villages close to the capital are ripe for the taking!”
“As expected, Boss~ knows~ his s~tuff!”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Sano nodded to his underlings’ encouragement, seemingly pleased.
“…With Boss~ on our s~ide, there’s~ no one but the other Heroes~ to worry about.”
“Precisely! Even when we crossed the border the other day, the guards there only made me laugh. So sluggish and lazy!”
Now, let me explain about Sano’s Blessing.
<Closed Circle +3>
Reduces the abilities of all non-allies within a 13 (10+3) metre radius.
(ED: I think it was supposed to be a pun on ‘close circle’, as in, a close circle of friends, but he has no friends, so it’s ‘closed’ instead)
Simply put, it’s a de-buff skill, with an effect to weaken the enemies within range. It doesn’t decrease their skill levels though, just their general stats.
Naturally, there’s also a reason as to why the range is increased to 13m, so almost by half, and that’s to do with the ‘+3’ part.
But Blessings don’t have levels, so how do you get one to ‘+3’? …Well, by collecting the remnants of other Blessings, obviously.
When a Hero dies, a remnant of their Blessing appears, which is a mechanism for strengthening the Blessings of other summoned Heroes. In other words, Sano must have witnessed the deaths of three other Heroes, though it’s still unknown if he himself had anything to do with said deaths, or if they were simply accidents. As a proof of that, his status is much higher than Kusakabe’s. (ED: The Hero they met in Estia)
“Wait, what did you say just now?”
“Wha~!?
“Ah, Boss, what’s wrong? Why did you suddenly…?”
Sano grabbed one of the underlings he was just talking to by the neck. His mood seems to change really fast now, compared to how he used to be in the past.
“I can’t lose to anyone but other Heroes!? Are you shitting me!? I’m already way stronger than those wastes!
“I’m s~orry…”
“I’ve already killed three of them! Tababe, who kept pestering me for no reason, Morimoto, a bitch who had the gall to start dating someone else without my permission, even though I already had my eye on her, and Kawasaki, who ignored me when I was in trouble, even though he was a teacher! They have all died by my hand!”
Wow… I guess that explains where the ‘+3’ came from.
Sano and I were in the same class, so I also knew the three people whom he killed.
Tanabe was the disciplinary committee member for our class. He wore glasses in a shape that only made him look even more serious, and often found faults with Sano, who had a pretty bad attitude. Obviously, Sano didn’t forget to pay him back, and kept badmouthing him behind his back every chance he got.
Morimoto was a girl who was said to be the most beautiful in our class, so there were a number of boys who secretly had feelings for her, Sano included. Actually, her personality wasn’t that good either, but she kept acting the part, so not many people knew about it. I haven’t heard any rumours about her dating anyone back in our home world, so it must have happened after we got summoned.
As for Kawasaki, he was our homeroom teacher. A typical uninvolved teacher who never cared about his students, and only pretended to listen to their problems while giving out template answers, so we never really cared for him that much either.
“I had my doubts when I first heard it, but it seems to be true that the more Heroes you kill, the stronger you become! And if I can have some fun killing those shitholes from my school at the same time, why wouldn’t I enjoy it!?”
“I’m s~orry …….”
He kept choking the underling as he spoke. The man tried to apologise, but he didn’t pay him any notice.
“Ah, Boss, if you keep going…”
“I only let you become my underlings because I had a use for you, so don’t you dare say and do things that make me feel uncomfortable! Die!”
-Crack!
With the sound of a broken neck, the underling collapsed. Once his designation under “Closed Circle” changed from friend to foe, he died easily with all of his strength stripped away.
“Ah, Boss…”
Except for the one who just spoke, all the other underlings lost their will to say anything after witnessing that sudden assault.
“Shit, I felt so good, and now it’s all ruined! …What’s with that look? You’ve got something to say!?”
“N-no, I don’t, sir…
“Oi, you, clean up that body. It’s an eyesore.
“Yes, sir!
“Shit, I can’t believe I wasted my first strangulation on that guy… Such a shame…”
Then, the image blacked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the way, we’re now on the outskirts of the village that Sano attacked. We set up a tent next to our carriage, and used it to place a ‘Room’ and go inside.
“This is the true character of Sano, the ‘Bandit Hero’. Wanna be friends with him?”
“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t want to be considered a friend of someone like that.”
“That’s right. I don’t want to be seen as his friend either.”
Sera and Mio both gave negative answers to my question.
“But, did such a person really go to the same school as us…? If anything, that’s what surprised me more…”
“Unfortunately, he did. I don’t think he used to act as bad as this back in our home world, but the general direction didn’t change much.”
Sakura seemed pretty shocked by this new revelation. …Well, obviously. However, given what I know about Sano, I wouldn’t be that surprised if things played out the same way back home, if given enough time.
“What did you think, Maria?
“Yes. I can’t believe that any bandit would kill his own men.”
“That’s true. Master sometimes does some mean things, but he would never do anything to hurt us in any way…”
“I’m glad I’m Master’s slave. I really am.”
Maria, Sera and Mio, the three slaves in our group, all muttered. Well, I do enjoy teasing my subordinates, but I would never go as far as tormenting them. Then again, repetitive teasing can easily become a torment…
Actually, there’s one more slave with us now, Aisha, who’s currently acting as out coachman, but she wanted to go tame some monsters, so she’s acting separately for the moment. And as for Dora, she is already asleep. It’s around 9 in the evening, so it’s already past time for the good girls to go to bed.
“zzz…”
By the way, she’s on my lap in her little girl form.
“Jin-kun is always kind to his subordinates… I’m glad I became a subordinate early on…”
“(mumble) Dora was first…”
“Yes yes… Dora first, then me…”
Dora’s sleep talking was surprisingly on time, so Sakura just stroked her head with a wry smile.
“And yet, it remained undetected through all that…”
“Well, it’s Tamo-san we’re talking about. He’s Master’s strongest monster follower for a reason.”
“Tamo-san’s gender is still uncertain though.”
Sera corrected her immediately.
“It’s Master’s strongest monster follower of an undefined gender for a reason.”
“Still, I don’t really understand how it works.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
In short, I was able to see the previous scene by sharing senses with Tamo-san, who went ahead and infiltrated the bandits’ cave. …Well, it’s weird to say I shared senses with a slime to begin with (since it’s got no eyes or ears).
While Mio and co were busy cooking for the villagers, I sent the always-ready-for-business Tamo-san to infiltrate Sano’s hideout. And by that, I mean I threw it with all my strength, after which it mimicked a bird to fly the rest of the way. When it reached the cave, it mimicked the cave wall and stuck itself to the ceiling, letting us watch what was going on inside. …Tamo-san is super useful.
“By the way, Master…”
“What is it, Mio?”
“If you order Tamo-san to assassinate then, their story will end here, right?
“Well, I guess…”
After all, Tamo-san is now right above Sano and his group, and they still haven’t noticed it. Of course, being in range of Sano’s ‘Closed Circle’, its stats have decreased somewhat, but there’s a big enough difference in their stats to begin with, that it shouldn’t be much of a problem. If I felt like it, I could just eliminate them all right now.
“Yeah, I already thought about it too…”
“As expected, Master and I think alike…”
“Thinking the same as Master, I envy Mio so much.”
“Please stop, Maria, you’re beginning to scare me a bit…”
Of course, I’m not above using such underhanded tactics, but as for whether I’ll do it this time around…
“I already considered it, but I want to intercept them on their way to the village instead.”
“Are we going to wait for the Hero to come to us? We don’t have to go with Mio’s idea, but wouldn’t it be faster to go and attack them ourselves?”
Sera raised a very reasonable argument.
“Oh, it would be faster, no doubt about it, but there are three reasons why I want to wait in the village instead.”
“Oh, like what?”
“First of all, I have a couple of questions for Sano, so I’m gonna have to deal with him directly.”
“What do you want to know?”
“That’s a secret. There are some things in this world that you are better off not knowing.”
“…What the heck!? That’s seriously scary!”
“There are things that even Master wants to keep secret!?”
Mio and Sera both went ghastly pale. As for Maria, she wouldn’t ask about things I didn’t want to talk about, and Sakura wasn’t that curious to begin with.
“Do you wanna know?”
“I don’t want to hear it!!!”
“An immediate answer…”
Too bad. Well, it’s something personal to begin with, and it will probably be in vain anyway…
“The second reason is, that if we take care of the bandits now, we won’t be able to explain it to the villagers. Like, how did we even know where to look for them, since we can’t tell them about the map.”
“Right, the number of things we can’t talk about is seriously limiting the actions we can take…”
Mio nodded her head. However, we intentionally came up with these restrictions, in order not to stand out too much in this world… Looks like she’s already got too used to relying on my powers all the time.
“If we defeat the bandits, we should tell the people in this village about it, them being their victims and all, but if we go and attack them ourselves, there will be things we can’t explain, so, if we think about it, the most natural thing to do is to wait for them here.”
“But, won’t that put the villagers in harm’s way…?”
I also thought about Sakura’s concern. Of course, there are ways to deal with it…
“Right. Obviously, there’s a possibility of villagers being attacked, so we should do our utmost to protect them. First of all, we will set up portals in various parts of the village so that we can move around at any time if need be. In addition to that, several copies of Tamo-san will be deployed, one in each cardinal direction.”
“Understood. Let me take care of that, Jin-sama.”
As soon as I finished explaining my plan, Maria contacted Lucia via telepathy, to put it into action. As usual, she is quick to act.
“The third reason is that I want to pay a favour to this village.”
You can find a lot of rare skills in this place. Let’s call it the Rare Skill Village from now on.
(ED: It’s actually “Unique Village” in the raws, since rare skills are actually called “Unique Skills” in Japanese, but the previous translator already established “Unique Skills” as the name for Jin and Sakura’s cheat skills, so I’ll stick with “Rare Skill Village” not to needlessly confuse everyone)
“More people with rare skills may appear in this place in the future, so I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a connection with it ahead of time.”
“Oh, I see. If you defeat the bandits in front of them, they will certainly ‘own you one’.”
“Well, you don’t have to actually say it, Mio.”
“Right.”
I’m not going to play around with them, but I do plan to use these bandits to my advantage. And if we can make a good impression on the villagers at the same time, I see no reason not to.
“If they’re in my debt, even if I take their rare skill in the future, I won’t violate my rule.”
I’m adamant on sticking to my rule of taking skills only from enemies, and only borrowing them from others.
“As expected, the third reason has to do with Master’s favourite hobby!”
“Master certainly likes his rare skills.”
“But, you don’t even use them that often…”
“I think Jin-sama is more interested in collecting, rather than actually using them.”
“…”
I can’t really argue with that. That’s exactly what I was thinking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, we cooked another large meal, just like yesterday. This time we made a lot of rice balls and handed them out. Some of the people eating them were even shedding tears. …High-level ‘Cooking’ skill is seriously scary.
And just as yesterday, when I returned to the carriage after evading the advances of multiple village girls, there was a report from Alta.
A: The bandits have started to move towards the village.
What? That’s pretty early. It’s just past 9 in the morning, so even considering the travel time, they should arrive at the village around 10 o’clock.
A: He said he wanted to see the despairing faces of the villagers by coming ahead of time.
…I’m seriously beginning to lack words to just describe how evil this Sano guy is.
Well, it gives us a good reason to fight off the bandits… “We failed to leave the village in time, since the bandits arrived earlier than expected” or something like that.
“It looks like Sano is coming early, so we should probably set up a defence.”
“Oh~!”
“Understood. Please leave it to me.”
Dora and Maria replied cheerfully. I guess I haven’t explained our plan to Dora yet…
“He didn’t even keep his word. Looks like there are more of these so-called ‘Heroes’ among Master’s acquaintances…”
Mio muttered with a wry smile.
“That’s right. Kusakabe and Sano are both people I wouldn’t want to meet. Then again, even Jin-kun…”
“What’s wrong, you two?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Well, I can pretty much guess, even if they don’t actually say it. Then again, some things are better left unsaid. …Especially if they are close to the truth. (ED: Is what I think they meant with all those half-sentences…)
Now, let’s put an end to this conversation that would only serve to make everyone more miserable, and focus on the future.
“This time, I’m going to be Sano’s opponent. Anyone who wants to come to the front with me, raise your hand.”
“I think I will pass…”
“It’s a pass for me too. Don’t really want to get involved with such people…”
Looks like, given their Japanese sensibilities, both Sakura and Mio seem pretty disgusted by him. …Well, Kusakabe was already pretty bad, but this Sano guy goes way beyond that.
“If Jin-sama is going to fight on the frontline, I will obviously follow.”
“Me as well.”
Maria and Sera both announced their participation with their hands raised. They both took part in the fight with Kusakabe as well, so maybe they are aiming for the perfect attendance award.
“Can Dora come too~?”
“How about you stay here and help Sakura and Mio defend the village?”
“Okay~!”
I’d rather not let Dora see me kill people in cold blood. The rest of us will stay behind and defend the village. Well, I don’t think it’s really necessary, but they might do a sneak attack or something.
“Aisha will keep an eye on the carriage, just in case. It’s already being guarded by Tamo-san, so you don’t really have to do anything, but we still need to keep up appearances.”
“Being made to look after the carriage as an A-rank adventurer was already pretty bad, but being told it’s only for appearances is somehow even worse…”
“Oh, do you have a problem with it?”
“No, no problem at all! I was wrong to complain! Please stop doing that!”
Aisha’s legs gave out under Maria’s murderous gaze, causing her to sit down.
“Aisha, you can use ‘Clean’ yourself.”
“I didn’t leak this time!”
Alta?
A: She did.
“There there.”
“Why is Mio-chan comforting me!?”
Mio was patting Aisha, who was still sitting on the ground with her shoulders slumped, on the head. Oh, that’s probably because the two of you have that in common (leaking when scared).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time we finished preparing to intercept Sano and his men, it was already almost 10 o’clock.
It looks like they are travelling on several horses and a carriage, so when I checked the map, they were already close to the village. The carriage is probably also something they stole. By the way, Sano is in the carriage. You can expect a beginner to suddenly be able to ride a horse… (unless you’re Maria).
After another 10 minutes or so, the village became noisy. I guess the bandits got close enough already to be spotted by the villagers.
“What’s going on?”
I approached the noisy villagers and called out to them.
“The bandits are here!
“But why!? It’s not even midday yet!”
“Traveller, please escape quickly! And take our children with you if you can!”
The villagers gathered around us and began to explain the situation. Apparently, they had already planned to have us take the children along, when we left the village before the bandits arrived, but their early arrival threw a wrench into their plans.
“Are the bandits already here? All right. Maria, Sera, get ready for battle.”
“Yes, please leave it to me.”
“Same here.”
Seeing me call the two who are going to participate in the battle, the villagers got stunned for a moment.
“What!? Did you just tell them to prepare for battle!?”
“Are you serious!? You’re up against ten bandits, possibly more than that!”
“There’s only 7 of you, and that’s counting the 3 little girls! There’s no way you could possibly win!”
“Take the children and run!”
The villagers responded to my words in turn, but this was something I couldn’t miss out on.
“Sorry, I just don’t like to run away. Plus, I was already going to crush them from the very beginning.”
“We can easily deal with some bandits. We’ve actually getting pretty good at it to be honest.”
“That’s right. Please leave it to us and wait in the village.”
Sera and Maria followed me, as they drew their weapons. The villagers looked like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
You could tell at a glance that both of them wield high-quality weapons. Well, they’re all legendary-class items, so they should look the part.
“Ah, is it true? Are you going to protect this village?”
“Sure, just leave it to us.”
“But, you even gave us food before. Why would you do all that for us?”
“Well, let’s say it’s for personal reasons. Don’t worry, I won’t ask for any rewards for it.”
To begin with, we usually defeat monsters and bandits the moment we see them. Sano might be a Hero or whatever, but he’s still a bandit, so he’s a prime target for subjugation. And since he already chose to come and meet me on his own, it’s not like I can let him off any more.
And above all, I’m not just going to let them crush the Rare Skill Village like that. …I mean, I’m also motivated by Sano being totally evil and all. …At least to some extent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We exited the village, leaving the defence to Sakura, Dora and Mio.
Some of the villagers kept pleading for us to escape with the children, instead of confronting the bandits, so we told them to board the carriage, so that we could take them with us if need be. Good thing I made Aisha stay behind and act as a coachman. She did complain with “I thought it was finally my turn, but I’m a babysitter now? I’m an A-rank adventurer you know…”, but I chose to ignore her.
Once we left the village, it was all flat plains as far as the eye can see, so we easily spotted the incoming bandits in the distance. …Well, they are still just black dots at this point.
We made our way towards them. I don’t want Sano to recognize me, so I plan to keep some distance when we fight.
After a short walk, the distance between us and the bandits got down to about 100 metres. The bandits had already noticed us and were now pointing in our direction. By the way, I transformed ‘Wings of The Immortal – Nosferatu’ to also cover my face, since Sano already knows how I look.
“How should we handle this, Master?”
“First, let’s make it easier for us to talk.”
“Oh, and how do we do that?”
“Well, like this.”
Saying that, I activated the ‘Fear’ skill, while only targeting the bandits’ horses, making them all faint instantly. Still, they were running pretty fast, so some of the riders got thrown off when they collapsed.
Out of the 20 bandits in total, 13 of them were riding horses. 7 of those got thrown to the ground, killing 2 on impact, and leaving the other 5 with grave enough injuries to effectively remove them from the fight. For a pre-emptive punch, I’d say that was a pretty effective one.
…Then again, a single use of the ‘Fear’ skill already reduced their number by a third. Aren’t these bandits a little too fragile?
“Um, we were trying to make them talk, but they won’t be able to tell us anything now that they’re dead, right?”
“…Right. …I didn’t expect them to be so weak either.”
I knew that their statuses weren’t that high, but I didn’t think they were fragile enough to die from falling off a horse. Even if they fainted themselves, they shouldn’t have died from that.
“Perhaps they were relying solely on the Hero’s blessing to kill their enemies, so they never actually took time to train themselves. And as a result, once they were in actual danger, their bodies didn’t know to react. It would seem that Jin-sama’s policy to make us train with our status lowered was the correct choice after all.”
“That seems to be the case…”
Maria proceeded to analyse the bandits’ shortcomings, and flatter me at the same time. Please pick just one if possible.
A: She will likely choose to do the latter, 100% of the time.
…Right.
Is there some kind of unwritten rule among bandits to always use a cave as their hideout? Still, at least the one Sano and his men chose is pretty unique. It’s pretty much a complex of interconnected caves, with the bandits all gathered in one of the larger rooms.
“Fuhihi, I’m already looking forward to it. In a little while, we’ll get to see a lot of starved corpses.”
Sano applauded himself with a disgusting smile.
While I call them bandits, Sano’s men look more like reasonably well-equipped adventurers, same with Sano, whose items are a lot better than the rest of them.
“Hey, Boss~, won’t you let us~ have s~ome fun with the girls~ in the village? It’s a sh~ame to just let them all s~tarve to death like that.”
“That’s right, at least let us bring a couple of them here.”
“Denied! The whole point is to have the entire village die of the same cause! I’ve already put so much effort into making them all starve to death, and now you’re trying to ruin my whole plan!”
The underlings advised Sano, but he rebuked them. It seems that the reason why they didn’t harm the villagers too much was out of some kind of twisted sense of beauty that Sano has.
“I’ve been summoned to another world and given the freedom to act as I please! It would be a shame not to enjoy as many different ways of killing people as humanly possible!”
“S~orry…”
“Yeah. Sorry, Boss…”
Frightened by Sano’s domineering attitude, the underlings quickly withdrew, however, Sano wasn’t done monologuing just yet.
“I’m a Hero! I can go wherever I please and enjoy various benefits in the Hero-supporting countries! Even if I kill someone, I can get away scot free if I just come up with a proper excuse!”
“Heh, heh. If it wasn’t for Boss~, we all would have been caught and executed by now.”
“That’s right. We can even get good equipment by posing as Hero’s aids.”
“Fuhihi, now we’re talking! Compliment me more!”
Apparently Sano is trying to wear two different hats of ‘Hero’ and ‘Bandit Leader’ at the same time. They don’t match very well though…
A: Basically, he’s just killing whoever he pleases, and even if someone tries to oppose him, he uses his status as a Hero to condemn them instead.
…
“Now then, once we’re done having fun starving this village, let’s head for the next one. In what way should we kill people there? Crushing is always pretty fun. I’ve already had my fill of poisoning, stabbing and bludgeoning, so I’m good for the time being… I know! ‘A village where everyone mysteriously drowned to death’! Fuhihi, now that’s an interesting concept!”
“…”
As expected, even his underlings were taken aback.
Hmm, looks like this Sano guy is already beyond saving. Or was he always this kind of guy? …Well, it doesn’t matter, I’m not really interested in his true nature.
“But, is that really okay? This country is not a part of the Hero-supporting faction, so in an off chance that we get caught…”
“Oh, it’s fine. This country doesn’t care about its towns and villages as long as the royal capital is safe. Even the villages close to the capital are ripe for the taking!”
“As expected, Boss~ knows~ his s~tuff!”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Sano nodded to his underlings’ encouragement, seemingly pleased.
“…With Boss~ on our s~ide, there’s~ no one but the other Heroes~ to worry about.”
“Precisely! Even when we crossed the border the other day, the guards there only made me laugh. So sluggish and lazy!”
Now, let me explain about Sano’s Blessing.
<Closed Circle +3>
Reduces the abilities of all non-allies within a 13 (10+3) metre radius.
(ED: I think it was supposed to be a pun on ‘close circle’, as in, a close circle of friends, but he has no friends, so it’s ‘closed’ instead)
Simply put, it’s a de-buff skill, with an effect to weaken the enemies within range. It doesn’t decrease their skill levels though, just their general stats.
Naturally, there’s also a reason as to why the range is increased to 13m, so almost by half, and that’s to do with the ‘+3’ part.
But Blessings don’t have levels, so how do you get one to ‘+3’? …Well, by collecting the remnants of other Blessings, obviously.
When a Hero dies, a remnant of their Blessing appears, which is a mechanism for strengthening the Blessings of other summoned Heroes. In other words, Sano must have witnessed the deaths of three other Heroes, though it’s still unknown if he himself had anything to do with said deaths, or if they were simply accidents. As a proof of that, his status is much higher than Kusakabe’s. (ED: The Hero they met in Estia)
“Wait, what did you say just now?”
“Wha~!?
“Ah, Boss, what’s wrong? Why did you suddenly…?”
Sano grabbed one of the underlings he was just talking to by the neck. His mood seems to change really fast now, compared to how he used to be in the past.
“I can’t lose to anyone but other Heroes!? Are you shitting me!? I’m already way stronger than those wastes!
“I’m s~orry…”
“I’ve already killed three of them! Tababe, who kept pestering me for no reason, Morimoto, a bitch who had the gall to start dating someone else without my permission, even though I already had my eye on her, and Kawasaki, who ignored me when I was in trouble, even though he was a teacher! They have all died by my hand!”
Wow… I guess that explains where the ‘+3’ came from.
Sano and I were in the same class, so I also knew the three people whom he killed.
Tanabe was the disciplinary committee member for our class. He wore glasses in a shape that only made him look even more serious, and often found faults with Sano, who had a pretty bad attitude. Obviously, Sano didn’t forget to pay him back, and kept badmouthing him behind his back every chance he got.
Morimoto was a girl who was said to be the most beautiful in our class, so there were a number of boys who secretly had feelings for her, Sano included. Actually, her personality wasn’t that good either, but she kept acting the part, so not many people knew about it. I haven’t heard any rumours about her dating anyone back in our home world, so it must have happened after we got summoned.
As for Kawasaki, he was our homeroom teacher. A typical uninvolved teacher who never cared about his students, and only pretended to listen to their problems while giving out template answers, so we never really cared for him that much either.
“I had my doubts when I first heard it, but it seems to be true that the more Heroes you kill, the stronger you become! And if I can have some fun killing those shitholes from my school at the same time, why wouldn’t I enjoy it!?”
“I’m s~orry …….”
He kept choking the underling as he spoke. The man tried to apologise, but he didn’t pay him any notice.
“Ah, Boss, if you keep going…”
“I only let you become my underlings because I had a use for you, so don’t you dare say and do things that make me feel uncomfortable! Die!”
-Crack!
With the sound of a broken neck, the underling collapsed. Once his designation under “Closed Circle” changed from friend to foe, he died easily with all of his strength stripped away.
“Ah, Boss…”
Except for the one who just spoke, all the other underlings lost their will to say anything after witnessing that sudden assault.
“Shit, I felt so good, and now it’s all ruined! …What’s with that look? You’ve got something to say!?”
“N-no, I don’t, sir…
“Oi, you, clean up that body. It’s an eyesore.
“Yes, sir!
“Shit, I can’t believe I wasted my first strangulation on that guy… Such a shame…”
Then, the image blacked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the way, we’re now on the outskirts of the village that Sano attacked. We set up a tent next to our carriage, and used it to place a ‘Room’ and go inside.
“This is the true character of Sano, the ‘Bandit Hero’. Wanna be friends with him?”
“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t want to be considered a friend of someone like that.”
“That’s right. I don’t want to be seen as his friend either.”
Sera and Mio both gave negative answers to my question.
“But, did such a person really go to the same school as us…? If anything, that’s what surprised me more…”
“Unfortunately, he did. I don’t think he used to act as bad as this back in our home world, but the general direction didn’t change much.”
Sakura seemed pretty shocked by this new revelation. …Well, obviously. However, given what I know about Sano, I wouldn’t be that surprised if things played out the same way back home, if given enough time.
“What did you think, Maria?
“Yes. I can’t believe that any bandit would kill his own men.”
“That’s true. Master sometimes does some mean things, but he would never do anything to hurt us in any way…”
“I’m glad I’m Master’s slave. I really am.”
Maria, Sera and Mio, the three slaves in our group, all muttered. Well, I do enjoy teasing my subordinates, but I would never go as far as tormenting them. Then again, repetitive teasing can easily become a torment…
Actually, there’s one more slave with us now, Aisha, who’s currently acting as out coachman, but she wanted to go tame some monsters, so she’s acting separately for the moment. And as for Dora, she is already asleep. It’s around 9 in the evening, so it’s already past time for the good girls to go to bed.
“zzz…”
By the way, she’s on my lap in her little girl form.
“Jin-kun is always kind to his subordinates… I’m glad I became a subordinate early on…”
“(mumble) Dora was first…”
“Yes yes… Dora first, then me…”
Dora’s sleep talking was surprisingly on time, so Sakura just stroked her head with a wry smile.
“And yet, it remained undetected through all that…”
“Well, it’s Tamo-san we’re talking about. He’s Master’s strongest monster follower for a reason.”
“Tamo-san’s gender is still uncertain though.”
Sera corrected her immediately.
“It’s Master’s strongest monster follower of an undefined gender for a reason.”
“Still, I don’t really understand how it works.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
In short, I was able to see the previous scene by sharing senses with Tamo-san, who went ahead and infiltrated the bandits’ cave. …Well, it’s weird to say I shared senses with a slime to begin with (since it’s got no eyes or ears).
While Mio and co were busy cooking for the villagers, I sent the always-ready-for-business Tamo-san to infiltrate Sano’s hideout. And by that, I mean I threw it with all my strength, after which it mimicked a bird to fly the rest of the way. When it reached the cave, it mimicked the cave wall and stuck itself to the ceiling, letting us watch what was going on inside. …Tamo-san is super useful.
“By the way, Master…”
“What is it, Mio?”
“If you order Tamo-san to assassinate then, their story will end here, right?
“Well, I guess…”
After all, Tamo-san is now right above Sano and his group, and they still haven’t noticed it. Of course, being in range of Sano’s ‘Closed Circle’, its stats have decreased somewhat, but there’s a big enough difference in their stats to begin with, that it shouldn’t be much of a problem. If I felt like it, I could just eliminate them all right now.
“Yeah, I already thought about it too…”
“As expected, Master and I think alike…”
“Thinking the same as Master, I envy Mio so much.”
“Please stop, Maria, you’re beginning to scare me a bit…”
Of course, I’m not above using such underhanded tactics, but as for whether I’ll do it this time around…
“I already considered it, but I want to intercept them on their way to the village instead.”
“Are we going to wait for the Hero to come to us? We don’t have to go with Mio’s idea, but wouldn’t it be faster to go and attack them ourselves?”
Sera raised a very reasonable argument.
“Oh, it would be faster, no doubt about it, but there are three reasons why I want to wait in the village instead.”
“Oh, like what?”
“First of all, I have a couple of questions for Sano, so I’m gonna have to deal with him directly.”
“What do you want to know?”
“That’s a secret. There are some things in this world that you are better off not knowing.”
“…What the heck!? That’s seriously scary!”
“There are things that even Master wants to keep secret!?”
Mio and Sera both went ghastly pale. As for Maria, she wouldn’t ask about things I didn’t want to talk about, and Sakura wasn’t that curious to begin with.
“Do you wanna know?”
“I don’t want to hear it!!!”
“An immediate answer…”
Too bad. Well, it’s something personal to begin with, and it will probably be in vain anyway…
“The second reason is, that if we take care of the bandits now, we won’t be able to explain it to the villagers. Like, how did we even know where to look for them, since we can’t tell them about the map.”
“Right, the number of things we can’t talk about is seriously limiting the actions we can take…”
Mio nodded her head. However, we intentionally came up with these restrictions, in order not to stand out too much in this world… Looks like she’s already got too used to relying on my powers all the time.
“If we defeat the bandits, we should tell the people in this village about it, them being their victims and all, but if we go and attack them ourselves, there will be things we can’t explain, so, if we think about it, the most natural thing to do is to wait for them here.”
“But, won’t that put the villagers in harm’s way…?”
I also thought about Sakura’s concern. Of course, there are ways to deal with it…
“Right. Obviously, there’s a possibility of villagers being attacked, so we should do our utmost to protect them. First of all, we will set up portals in various parts of the village so that we can move around at any time if need be. In addition to that, several copies of Tamo-san will be deployed, one in each cardinal direction.”
“Understood. Let me take care of that, Jin-sama.”
As soon as I finished explaining my plan, Maria contacted Lucia via telepathy, to put it into action. As usual, she is quick to act.
“The third reason is that I want to pay a favour to this village.”
You can find a lot of rare skills in this place. Let’s call it the Rare Skill Village from now on.
(ED: It’s actually “Unique Village” in the raws, since rare skills are actually called “Unique Skills” in Japanese, but the previous translator already established “Unique Skills” as the name for Jin and Sakura’s cheat skills, so I’ll stick with “Rare Skill Village” not to needlessly confuse everyone)
“More people with rare skills may appear in this place in the future, so I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a connection with it ahead of time.”
“Oh, I see. If you defeat the bandits in front of them, they will certainly ‘own you one’.”
“Well, you don’t have to actually say it, Mio.”
“Right.”
I’m not going to play around with them, but I do plan to use these bandits to my advantage. And if we can make a good impression on the villagers at the same time, I see no reason not to.
“If they’re in my debt, even if I take their rare skill in the future, I won’t violate my rule.”
I’m adamant on sticking to my rule of taking skills only from enemies, and only borrowing them from others.
“As expected, the third reason has to do with Master’s favourite hobby!”
“Master certainly likes his rare skills.”
“But, you don’t even use them that often…”
“I think Jin-sama is more interested in collecting, rather than actually using them.”
“…”
I can’t really argue with that. That’s exactly what I was thinking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, we cooked another large meal, just like yesterday. This time we made a lot of rice balls and handed them out. Some of the people eating them were even shedding tears. …High-level ‘Cooking’ skill is seriously scary.
And just as yesterday, when I returned to the carriage after evading the advances of multiple village girls, there was a report from Alta.
A: The bandits have started to move towards the village.
What? That’s pretty early. It’s just past 9 in the morning, so even considering the travel time, they should arrive at the village around 10 o’clock.
A: He said he wanted to see the despairing faces of the villagers by coming ahead of time.
…I’m seriously beginning to lack words to just describe how evil this Sano guy is.
Well, it gives us a good reason to fight off the bandits… “We failed to leave the village in time, since the bandits arrived earlier than expected” or something like that.
“It looks like Sano is coming early, so we should probably set up a defence.”
“Oh~!”
“Understood. Please leave it to me.”
Dora and Maria replied cheerfully. I guess I haven’t explained our plan to Dora yet…
“He didn’t even keep his word. Looks like there are more of these so-called ‘Heroes’ among Master’s acquaintances…”
Mio muttered with a wry smile.
“That’s right. Kusakabe and Sano are both people I wouldn’t want to meet. Then again, even Jin-kun…”
“What’s wrong, you two?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Well, I can pretty much guess, even if they don’t actually say it. Then again, some things are better left unsaid. …Especially if they are close to the truth. (ED: Is what I think they meant with all those half-sentences…)
Now, let’s put an end to this conversation that would only serve to make everyone more miserable, and focus on the future.
“This time, I’m going to be Sano’s opponent. Anyone who wants to come to the front with me, raise your hand.”
“I think I will pass…”
“It’s a pass for me too. Don’t really want to get involved with such people…”
Looks like, given their Japanese sensibilities, both Sakura and Mio seem pretty disgusted by him. …Well, Kusakabe was already pretty bad, but this Sano guy goes way beyond that.
“If Jin-sama is going to fight on the frontline, I will obviously follow.”
“Me as well.”
Maria and Sera both announced their participation with their hands raised. They both took part in the fight with Kusakabe as well, so maybe they are aiming for the perfect attendance award.
“Can Dora come too~?”
“How about you stay here and help Sakura and Mio defend the village?”
“Okay~!”
I’d rather not let Dora see me kill people in cold blood. The rest of us will stay behind and defend the village. Well, I don’t think it’s really necessary, but they might do a sneak attack or something.
“Aisha will keep an eye on the carriage, just in case. It’s already being guarded by Tamo-san, so you don’t really have to do anything, but we still need to keep up appearances.”
“Being made to look after the carriage as an A-rank adventurer was already pretty bad, but being told it’s only for appearances is somehow even worse…”
“Oh, do you have a problem with it?”
“No, no problem at all! I was wrong to complain! Please stop doing that!”
Aisha’s legs gave out under Maria’s murderous gaze, causing her to sit down.
“Aisha, you can use ‘Clean’ yourself.”
“I didn’t leak this time!”
Alta?
A: She did.
“There there.”
“Why is Mio-chan comforting me!?”
Mio was patting Aisha, who was still sitting on the ground with her shoulders slumped, on the head. Oh, that’s probably because the two of you have that in common (leaking when scared).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time we finished preparing to intercept Sano and his men, it was already almost 10 o’clock.
It looks like they are travelling on several horses and a carriage, so when I checked the map, they were already close to the village. The carriage is probably also something they stole. By the way, Sano is in the carriage. You can expect a beginner to suddenly be able to ride a horse… (unless you’re Maria).
After another 10 minutes or so, the village became noisy. I guess the bandits got close enough already to be spotted by the villagers.
“What’s going on?”
I approached the noisy villagers and called out to them.
“The bandits are here!
“But why!? It’s not even midday yet!”
“Traveller, please escape quickly! And take our children with you if you can!”
The villagers gathered around us and began to explain the situation. Apparently, they had already planned to have us take the children along, when we left the village before the bandits arrived, but their early arrival threw a wrench into their plans.
“Are the bandits already here? All right. Maria, Sera, get ready for battle.”
“Yes, please leave it to me.”
“Same here.”
Seeing me call the two who are going to participate in the battle, the villagers got stunned for a moment.
“What!? Did you just tell them to prepare for battle!?”
“Are you serious!? You’re up against ten bandits, possibly more than that!”
“There’s only 7 of you, and that’s counting the 3 little girls! There’s no way you could possibly win!”
“Take the children and run!”
The villagers responded to my words in turn, but this was something I couldn’t miss out on.
“Sorry, I just don’t like to run away. Plus, I was already going to crush them from the very beginning.”
“We can easily deal with some bandits. We’ve actually getting pretty good at it to be honest.”
“That’s right. Please leave it to us and wait in the village.”
Sera and Maria followed me, as they drew their weapons. The villagers looked like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
You could tell at a glance that both of them wield high-quality weapons. Well, they’re all legendary-class items, so they should look the part.
“Ah, is it true? Are you going to protect this village?”
“Sure, just leave it to us.”
“But, you even gave us food before. Why would you do all that for us?”
“Well, let’s say it’s for personal reasons. Don’t worry, I won’t ask for any rewards for it.”
To begin with, we usually defeat monsters and bandits the moment we see them. Sano might be a Hero or whatever, but he’s still a bandit, so he’s a prime target for subjugation. And since he already chose to come and meet me on his own, it’s not like I can let him off any more.
And above all, I’m not just going to let them crush the Rare Skill Village like that. …I mean, I’m also motivated by Sano being totally evil and all. …At least to some extent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We exited the village, leaving the defence to Sakura, Dora and Mio.
Some of the villagers kept pleading for us to escape with the children, instead of confronting the bandits, so we told them to board the carriage, so that we could take them with us if need be. Good thing I made Aisha stay behind and act as a coachman. She did complain with “I thought it was finally my turn, but I’m a babysitter now? I’m an A-rank adventurer you know…”, but I chose to ignore her.
Once we left the village, it was all flat plains as far as the eye can see, so we easily spotted the incoming bandits in the distance. …Well, they are still just black dots at this point.
We made our way towards them. I don’t want Sano to recognize me, so I plan to keep some distance when we fight.
After a short walk, the distance between us and the bandits got down to about 100 metres. The bandits had already noticed us and were now pointing in our direction. By the way, I transformed ‘Wings of The Immortal – Nosferatu’ to also cover my face, since Sano already knows how I look.
“How should we handle this, Master?”
“First, let’s make it easier for us to talk.”
“Oh, and how do we do that?”
“Well, like this.”
Saying that, I activated the ‘Fear’ skill, while only targeting the bandits’ horses, making them all faint instantly. Still, they were running pretty fast, so some of the riders got thrown off when they collapsed.
Out of the 20 bandits in total, 13 of them were riding horses. 7 of those got thrown to the ground, killing 2 on impact, and leaving the other 5 with grave enough injuries to effectively remove them from the fight. For a pre-emptive punch, I’d say that was a pretty effective one.
…Then again, a single use of the ‘Fear’ skill already reduced their number by a third. Aren’t these bandits a little too fragile?
“Um, we were trying to make them talk, but they won’t be able to tell us anything now that they’re dead, right?”
“…Right. …I didn’t expect them to be so weak either.”
I knew that their statuses weren’t that high, but I didn’t think they were fragile enough to die from falling off a horse. Even if they fainted themselves, they shouldn’t have died from that.
“Perhaps they were relying solely on the Hero’s blessing to kill their enemies, so they never actually took time to train themselves. And as a result, once they were in actual danger, their bodies didn’t know to react. It would seem that Jin-sama’s policy to make us train with our status lowered was the correct choice after all.”
“That seems to be the case…”
Maria proceeded to analyse the bandits’ shortcomings, and flatter me at the same time. Please pick just one if possible.
A: She will likely choose to do the latter, 100% of the time.
…Right.
