In front of the abandoned mine, I looked over what was once a village.
No one lived there now — barely a trace remained that anyone ever had.
“So this is the bandits’ nest.”
Novem, staff in hand, stood at my side, watching the perimeter.
Because we vastly outnumbered the bandits, the group’s tension was loose.
“Lord Lyle, morale is too low.”
“Yeah. That’s a problem. …Though just this once, low works.”
Adventurers dressed up as soldiers, slack.
Yawning. Some laughing about how they’d spend the pay.
Watching them, I’d started to think two silvers was a bit much.
Real work paid less than ten large coppers.
A little unfair.
After grinding through plain odd jobs, I understood now just how outsized two silver was.
Lived knowledge differed from book knowledge.
“Leading a group like this and asked to fight, the answer would normally be no… still, this time the loose mood is the asset.”
How would the other side come at us?
That was covered.
It had taken a full day to reach the site. The plan was to attack the bandits at dawn.
I looked around me.
”…Novem, don’t move alone. Hmm — call Rockward, stick together. There are a few other women in the group too, mix in with them.”
She shook her head.
“No. I’ll be near Lord Lyle. As a healer, I think I can be useful.”
She wasn’t leaving my side.
The ancestors agreed.
“Lyle, keep her close. Taken hostage, she’d be a problem. The other side will have already worked out she’s important to you. Also — these people around us. Not trustworthy.”
Right, as the Fifth said.
I’d rushed the assembly and walked us up to the mine, but the enemy was inside.
The ancestors had collectively spotted that too.
“They aren’t idiots. They’ll have some kind of countermeasure. With a leader in charge, they’ll move accordingly… do you know how many times that has cost us.”
The Fifth’s voice dropped.
Successive heads had loathed bandits. To a lord, bandits were a constant headache.
If your own people turned bandit and crossed into a neighbor’s land, it wasn’t just your problem anymore.
“Lord Lyle, everyone’s ready.”
I nodded.
“On plan. Have everyone rest for tomorrow. Let’s tell Rockward, at least. She wouldn’t be satisfied finding out ‘oh it’s over’ after the fact.”
Novem nodded.
“Come with me.”
I took Novem and went to find Rockward.
Naturally, the ancestors had warned me not to leave her alone.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Inside the abandoned mine—.
“Boss! They’re here. Casually setting up camp.”
The big man grinned at the report.
He gripped the red Gem in his hand, then picked up the axe lying nearby.
A lord’s weapon, claimed as plunder.
He shouldered the great battleaxe and held the Gem strapped to his left hand by a cord — strapped to his arm so he wouldn’t drop it.
“Underestimating us. We’ve been at this through battle after battle. Time to teach them what a real fight looks like.”
Laughing as he said it, the gang members took up their weapons.
The men embedded as Darion adventurers had also returned for the report.
Twenty-seven gang members assembled.
“All right! Night raid!”
He declared.
But one of his men, looking down, called out in surprise.
“B-boss!”
“What?!”
— Smoke poured into the spot where everyone had gathered.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Oho — smokes nicely.”
Listening to the Fifth’s commentary, I’d carried wooden branches up to the mine entrance and lit them.
Leaves still attached — a species famous for thick smoke.
It made your eyes sting, too.
“Novem, mana okay?”
“Yes. Still good.”
Rockward, beside her, was staring around with wide eyes.
“Wh-what’s going on. Wasn’t the attack at dawn?!”
I shook my head.
“They knew everything. Doing it at dawn just means they attack us. Also, their embedded operators just returned.”
That bandits had been embedded in Darion was something the ancestors — the Third especially — had spotted.
There had been local collaborators too.
When the name had come up in the investigation, I’d been a little surprised, but—
“Embedded? How did you know? If you knew, you should’ve caught them, or—”
”…When you crush them, crush them together. No use earning weird grudges. We didn’t want to waste it, which is why Lyle played the idiot and the money was scattered. No time for the lecture, though. Lyle!”
I told the agitated Rockward there was no time for explanations and drew my sabre.
“Good. With my Skill’s effect, I can help too. With Pop’s — the Fifth’s — Skill, simultaneous, Lyle.”
The Sixth’s prompt. I activated.
Thanks to 【Full-Over】, the ten-to-twenty-percent ability boost, temporarily I could meet the conditions to use the other Skills.
The Fifth’s Skill was 【Map】.
The Sixth’s was 【Search】, designed for simultaneous use with Map.
Map: a Skill that registered the surroundings as a map.
Right now, the layout of the mine’s tunnels was visible to me like a chart in my head.
Search: a Skill that detected nearby enemies and traps.
Both were premium. Outsized utility.
But running them continuously burned mana hard. Even when used, only short windows for me.
I checked the surroundings.
No traps inside the mine. Just bandits moving through the tunnels.
“There is an escape route… excuse me, can you take a message to Zelphy?”
The adventurer I asked was a specialist — primarily a bounty hunter, the man-on-man specialist.
“Pinpoint accuracy. …You a Skill-holder?”
The man’s eyebrows lifted at the precision of my coordinates.
I covered with a smile.
“Hmm, who knows.”
“Sorry, my bad.” He took off running.
A black-robed adventurer. Vanished into the dark.
“Some presence on that one. So you hired serious talent too. A little reassuring.”
Rockward. I tilted my head.
“Didn’t hire him. He cooperated.”
“Eh?”
She didn’t follow — was thinking it through — when Novem readied her staff. She broke off the spell she’d been holding and started a new one.
The surrounding adventurers readied weapons too, preparing for the bandits’ approach.
“Quick. Six coming from the front.”
The group looked surprised for a beat, then snapped serious.
“Nicely done. Not continuous use — only when needed, conserving mana. Hard to believe you only just learned it.”
The Fifth, praising.
Thanks to Full-Over, I could now satisfy the conditions to use other Skills.
The Third’s and the Seventh’s Skills were still off-limits, but temporary access to the others was open.
“The First is great.”
I muttered. The First’s voice arrived.
“FINALLY you get it!”
“Oi — you were supposed to stay quiet. Lyle — they’re here.”
The Fifth shut the First up. I readied my sabre.
Rockward, half-carried by the moment, readied her weapon too. The weapon she carried, oddly for an ojou-sama — a spear.
“Wind Bullet!”
Novem cast; one of the bandits emerging from the smoke was blown back.
Power dialed down.
I went forward to meet the one charging me.
“Y-You bastaaaaard!”
The man came in with a short sword. Single-edged, slightly curved, broad.
If I’d parried with my thin sabre, the sabre might’ve snapped.
Yes, if I’d parried—.
“Slow.”
I knocked the short sword aside with the sabre, broke his stance, and kicked him in the gut. I wasn’t killing them today.
That was the deal.
Around me, the adventurers were similarly subduing bandits.
Among them, one of the bandits embedded in the adventurer ranks was being tied up. He stared at the man tying him.
“Wh-who are you?! I don’t know you!”
The man tied him in silence.
When done, he punched the bandit in the face to shut him up.
“Quick work. Different movement. Right to lean on him.”
“Yes, Lord Lyle.”
Novem agreed.
The first wave done, I used the Skill again. Continuous use was a luxury — short, targeted use suited me right now.
”…Full-Over.”
I checked.
A map of the surroundings rose in my head, and the bandits moving through it—.
There was a back way out of the mine. The bandits were pulling back inside and making for it.
But on the far side of the escape route, Zelphy and her people were already waiting.
I dropped the Skill, sensing the plan was working. From the Jewel, the Fifth.
“Don’t relax till it’s over. If the commander relaxes, everyone else relaxes too. You don’t get to relax until we’re back in Darion with everything closed out.”
I cleared my throat and refocused.
“Right. Lift the Skill periodically, but check often. Continuous would be best, but if you collapse it doesn’t matter.”
I touched the Jewel — acknowledged.
The bandits, realizing the exit was sealed by the waiting adventurers, were running in circles.
But when one bandit’s signal vanished, the rest began to coordinate.
“An example, then. Going to get nasty from here. They’re desperate. Lyle, if capture’s not possible, kill. They’re bandits, but don’t underestimate them.”
The Fifth. I touched the Jewel.
The Fifth had the most experience with this kind of bandit fighting.
When the Walt house had been promoted to viscount and become a hub for nearby lords, he’d led men to neighboring lords’ aid.
He’d responded to surrounding calls for help, deploying troops often.
But his elevation had also been recent. Relations with neighboring sub-houses were touchy — or maybe they’d just been underestimated. That period had seen a flood of bandits into Walt territory.
By the Fifth’s accounting: the neighboring lords had been envious of the promotion, and pushed bandits onto Walt land deliberately.
The Fifth had been the one to crush them.
“Honestly, an abandoned mine — burning it down would be easier. Sealing the entrance, too…”
Setting aside the Fifth’s frightening comment, I felt the remaining bandits running toward me.
Not toward Zelphy’s side — losses there had been heavy enough to deter them.
The bandits’ signal count had dropped to five.
I released the Skill and waited. As I readied my sabre, the adventurers around me readied theirs.
They were trusting my judgment — trusting the Skill that read enemy approach.
“You’ve earned respect. Hmm — our father-son Skills, anyone serious would want them desperately. Use them well, Lyle.”
(Yes.)
I answered in my head.
From slightly thinned smoke, the bandits burst out, faces desperate.
Among them — a giant with an axe.
“That’s the boss. …Lyle.”
The Fifth. I went toward the big man without using the Skill. The adventurers around me were occupied with their own desperate bandits.
No spare hands to back me up.
“Lord Lyle!”
Novem raised her staff.
I stopped her with my voice.
“I’ll do it!”
The big man’s brow knit at the response. He swung the great axe one-handed.
A two-handed axe, swung in one hand.
Muscle aside, the swing was wrong — physically off.
“Don’t get cocky, BRAT!!”
I leapt back from a horizontal sweep. As he chased, I drew him into a dense stand of trees — bad ground for a big swinging weapon.
But—.
“NAIVE!! I have THIS!”
He thrust his left arm forward. Red light leaked between his fingers.
“The Gem?”
He answered, proud.
“That’s right. And mine carries multiple Skills. I’ll have you minced! After all—”
The one-handed swing of his battleaxe hit a tree. A normal axe would have stopped there. His chopped the tree right down.
A single stroke, a tree cut clean through.
“Skill that increases weapon strength! The Gem teaches me how to use it! Top tier!”
A strength buff on its own didn’t let you swing a great axe with one hand.
Sure enough, multiple Skills, multiple problems.
“Plus a body-strength Skill! And from the blade—”
“Oi! Jump sideways!”
The First’s voice. We weren’t in his striking range, but I jumped at once.
A slash flew from the descending axe. It cut several trees down — a clear display of its force.
“Tch — quick read. That was the slash-launching Skill. But — this next one’s something else.”
The big man grinned. Grinned, and for a moment vanished from my vision.
A voice from above, immediately. I leapt away. The shockwave alone broke my stance and I rolled along the ground.
The image that flashed past me in the roll: the ground gouged. Hardly possible from one man.
Riding the roll, I came back up. The big man was right in front of me.
“Slash — a monster of a Skill! Speed and destructive force, five times normal!!!”
I watched the great axe descending.
Coming in at terrible speed — the Skill, he’d said.
Voices from around me.
“Lord Lyle!!”
“Lyle!”
Novem and Rockward.
The next moment — the First’s face surfaced in my mind. Arms folded, seated in the council-room chair, barbarian style, perfectly at ease.
The corner of his mouth pulled into a grin and he said—
“There you go… LET IT RIP, Lyle!!!”