◇

Seems that the thieves toppled the knights with ropes and casting net, and attacked them. When the knights come into our view, they"re desperately struggling to fight back from inside the net. The net looks easy to cut with sword, are they amateurs?

The thieves are also frantically attacking them, but since the knights are wearing full body armor, the attacks aren"t quite getting through.

Since there are only three archers of the thieves, Pochi and me split up to take them down from the trees. I wonder why they"re always on the tree. It"s a mystery.

The thieves who have noticed us are coming toward us, but they"ve already been reduced by half when they"re around 200 meters before us. Mia attacked with Mustard Mist, and the thieves who were coughing in fit got quickly incapacitated by the beastkin girls. n.o.body seems to have died for the time being.
I leave the wagon to Lulu, and ask Nana whom I"ve casted with s.h.i.+eld to protect her.

I also use s.h.i.+eld on myself and head toward the battlefield along with the beastkin girls.
I cut the net restraining the knights with a dagger while the beastkin girls are keeping the thieves company.

"You did well, merchant! You d.a.m.nable thieves, became prey for the great senior knight Eral-sama"s strong sword!"
After the other knight silently nods, he follows the knight Eral, and they raise bloodbath with the thieves. Even though the two are only level 9, their equipments and battle skills are far apart, so it becomes one-sided slaughter. They make sure to kill the thieves who are lying on the ground after they"ve been neutralized by Liza and the others . They"re really merciless.

"Oops, sir knight, stop right there."

A bearded daruma who seemed to be the thieves" leader came out of the forest. The minion on his side is holding a woman in traveling clothes hostage. The woman is tied with a rope.

"Hum, a hostage huh."

What"s this, my crisis perception is terribly warning me. Is there an ambush somewhere?　I keep my attention on the surrounding.

No.

It"s coming from the knight Eral.

The knight Eral is going to stab the hostage woman together with the man behind her, I throw the dagger on my hand to repel his sword.

Fuh, I made it.

While confirming the safety of the woman, I avoid the blade of a thief who attacks from behind. It seems the knight Eral can"t determine if he should attack me or the thieves.

Jeers are coming from the bearded daruma.

"Ceh, you don"t care with hostages huh, are you really a knight?"

The bearded daruma, a thief, is more of a humanism than the knight...
The bearded daruma ward off the knight Eral"s sword with his axe.

The other knight cuts the man who hold the hostage from behind. What"s with the knight in this world?

"Toruma!"

That scream comes from the woman who was made hostage. What"s this?　Is the neutralized man not a thief. The knight who hears the man"s name uttered seems to have judged that the woman is also a thief, the taciturn knight raises his sword toward her. I place myself between them, relying on s.h.i.+eld.

"Knight-sama, you"re attacking the wrong opponent. This person is not a thief."

I don"t know if the taciturn knight believes my word, but he leaves the woman alone.

The knight Eral"s battle with the bearded Daruma ended in a flash after the taciturn knight went to help him. The other thieves are going to run when they see that the bearded daruma is going to lose, but Pochi and Tama throw stones at their feet, arresting them.

"You coward."
"Fuhn, fool. It"s unthinkable for the honorable knight to fight mere thieves in equal footing. Good grief, they always spring up no matter how many of them we rid of."

After they"re finished dealing with the thieves, the knights finish off the ones who are tied with ropes behind the wagon. I can only see this as excessive slaughter. I was going to protest at the knights, but I was stopped by Arisa who had came beside me before I knew it.

"Fuhn, it"s a waste of food to let thieves alive. I thank you for your a.s.sistance. You can feel honored. I"ll leave you with the thieves equipment, it"ll be usable for your trade."

The knights went off after leaving words that didn"t really feel like grat.i.tude.

By the way Torums.h.i.+ is alive. Since he didn"t die instantly, I made him drank a health potion, and his complexion returned in a blink. This immediate effect is unpleasant even after seeing it so many times. His breath is steady even though he"s still unconscious.

Hayunsan--the name of the woman hostage--tells us that the baby of her and him is being kept in the hiding place of the thieves inside the forest. They couldn"t go against the thieves since their baby was made hostage.

I make Hayunsan who wants to go together to the hideout sleep with Arisa"s magic.

◇

Mia, Arisa and me are going to attack the thieves hideout.

I wanted to go to the hideout alone, but Arisa insisted on going together no matter what, and Mia who was feeling sick with the smell of blood took the opportunity, so it was decided that we"re going together.

The hideout is only about 100 meters away from the highway. After we make the thieves sleep with Arisa"s magic from the outside, we leisurely save Hayunsan"s baby.

"Al~right, baby rescue mission clear!"
"Nn."

I leave the baby to Mia since Arisa is calling me.

"That baby has a gift. It"s quite rare."

The baby has an unusual skill, [Oracle].

"What kind of skill is it."
"The skill has the same effect as getting oracle from the gathering of a lot of priests and miko from the temple praying for hours."
"That"s convenient."
"However, since you could die if you thoughtlessly use it too much, looks like it can"t be abused."

I guess it"s like some kind of G.o.d"s hot channel. I somehow imagine a working salesman holding a cellphone.

"Now then, putting aside the baby, what do we do to these thieves."
"It"s probably alright just taking the weapon and armor, and leaving them alone. They probably can"t continue thieving business after their friends have been eliminated right?."

There were 3 thieves inside the hideout. I had thought that they were prisoners at first since they all delicate looking men who seemed to have never been in a fight, but their affiliations are the same thieves gang as with the bearded daruma earlier, so it"s probably not wrong.

"You"re sweet as always eh. Well, it"s fine. Still, there are only delicate men huh. I wonder if they"re lovers of the bearded daruma earlier? Since it somehow feels like BL, I"ll forgive them."

I don"t care with the thieves" preferences or virtues, so I leave the gathering of their equipments to Arisa who"s letting her delusion comes out of her mouth.

"Found treasures."

I thought that it was some kind of erotic item since it was coming from Arisa, but it was just a normal necklace.
It has a small jewel that looks like lapis lazuli attached.

"It"s an amulet. It"s probably a stolen good, but it"s quite good of a magic item. I don"t know the type though."

The search is over soon, and we"ve collected not only normal sword, but also armors, daggers, arrows and bows among various things. As for the food stuff, we only take luxurious food like sake.

When I check the map, there"s a storehouse hidden within the wall in the boss room.  When I check inside it, there are a.s.sorted jewelries and money totaling at 5 gold coins, a lot of high-grade liquor, and several ill-matched books.

"Heroes" tales isn"t something that a thief should carry. And there"s even a love story between a knight and a n.o.ble girl..."

Even though he was a bearded daruma, he could read words? If anything, these would probably sell well in shady p.a.w.n shop huh.

"Ja ja~n, look at these."
"Good job, Arisa."

Arisa shows me two scrolls wrapped in first-cla.s.s looking cloth. They"re Shelter and Remote Arrow, but unfortunately Shelter has already been used.
It"s probably carried by a traveling merchant or a n.o.ble for self-protection.

"What, you"re only seeing the scrolls?　Notice this cloth too~."

I try to appraise it. Looks like it"s a kind of magic tool. From what I understand, it"s a material called Yuriha fiber which I haven"t heard before, it has high defense against physical and magical attacks. If it doesn"t have any strange effect, then I"d make something for Lulu from it, even though it was a man"s.

"Looks like it has magical properties huh. Since I don"t understand the explanation of the special effect, let"s put a hold on making equipment from it."
"Uu~n, I wouldn"t want if it"s cursed and can"t be taken off. Even though it"s a waste, it can"t be helped."

In addition, there are three horses tied in the back of the hideout. I look at the shed nearby, but I can only find one harness for the boss" share. I put the harness to one horse which has the only different breed.

"Ara, they were sure prosperous thieves."
"Looks like it, there"s only one harness you know."
"I"ll ride."

Mia rides on one of the horse without saddle. Seems that she"s used with playing with wild horses in her birthplace.
Learning from Mia, I also mount the horse. Of course it"s the horse with saddle. I put my foot on the stirrup and get on in one breath.

>[Horse-riding Skill Acquired]
>[Mount-riding Skill Acquired]

The latter seems to be skill for things besides horses. Since it"s pitiful to let only Arisa walks, I put her in front of me. It"s fine that you"re leaning your head on my chest, but I want you to stop pressing your b.u.t.t on me. Since Arisa is holding the baby, I"m only warning her, but it"ll be punishment time when we get on the wagon. Of course, not in s.e.xual way.

We get to the wagon while holding the baby in the arms, the thieves corpses are lined up on the roadside there. Looks like their equipments have been successfully retrieved.

"Master, I haven"t cut the head of the corpses, what should I do?"
"It"s fine to leave it alone, there"s still two days before the next town, they"d smell bad if we take them."

I definitely do not want to journey with 30 severed heads.