Chapter 03-02 ~ Bandit Hideout
Flap flap
“…….Ha.”
Alysia flew to her destination with her unsealed wings. After confirming the target place, she descended to the ground.
Her target place was naturally, Mount Tilf, where a large number of bandits had gathered.
Mount Tilf was a beautiful mountain filled with greenery, with the height of 4000 thermes (1000 metres) above the sea level. Mount Tilf was also famous for its ore and mineral source, and was often used as an excavation point.
Alysia figured that the bandits around this area focused on robbing merchants who are transporting ores, and those who are transporting foods and raw materials. Although in the end it was only her conjecture.
“………Reverse Materialisation.”
As Alysia muttered that, reacting to her magic power, the wings on her back changed shape and disappeared onto the magic circle. Only two small holes were left on the back of her scarlet dress. The holes became hidden by her long black hair soon after.
Alysia stopped at a closeby tree to lean on and rested for a bit. Soon, she continued her search and started walking again.
She then took out the memo she had from the pocket-holder like thing on the right side of her belt. She went on to flip through one page to the other.
“Uh…..”
The number of bandits on the southern side of the mountain was but a few, while quite a lot of them seemed to have gathered at the peak of the mountain. Incidentally, the former place seemed to be closer to her current location. This mountain was actually located to the north of the academy, so when Alysia came flying here she ended up arriving at the southern side.
“……..?”
Suddenly, Alysia could perceive the presence of some people from a location not so far away. The presence numbered four. Her ability to accurately perceive the number of people from their presence came from none other than her divine power. With it, she was able to do something like this almost effortlessly. In the end, their number exactly matched with the one estimated on the report.
“………!”
———Water Sphere!!
Targeting them, Alysia launched a sneak attack.
Ssshhh!!
They seemed to have notice her. Coming out from the thickets were four people whose garments can only be said to be the embodiment of the most cliché bandit attire.
Bash!
“Uwaaa!?”
It was a direct it to his face. Propelled by the water sphere, the man let out a scream and was blown away to the ground.
Looking at Alysia, the remaining three bandits broke into grins and let out unpleasant smiles. In all honest, it was still more preferable than Welm’s smile when Alysia first met him.
“Hoooー……”
“This girl….. Not bad.”
Alysia understood when she heard their thoughts leaked out.
She immediately felt gooseb.u.mps on her whole body. It was a simple feeling of disgust on an instinctive level.
“Aa…..no way….definitely no…….”
Blast!
“Wha!! When did she!?…. Hot! Hot! Aaaah!”
“Hot!? Uaa…….help….save me……!!”
The clothes of those two suddenly burst into flames. The two writhed in pain as the struggled to escape from the flames. Nonetheless, it was only natural that it was impossible to do so. By the time the flames went out, or to be more precise, by the time Alysia put out the fire, the two bandits had already lost consciousness.
Alysia turned around to face the last remaining bandit. As if completely disregarding his comrades pleas for help, the man did nothing but spectate from the side and stood silent the whole time.
“…..The h.e.l.l. What a useless bunch…..”
Hearing the man say that, Alysia’s evaluation on him hit rock bottom. She could even feel her anger welling up inside.
“……….Who’s the boss around here?”
“It is none other than I. How dare you…..”
Swop!
“Wha……!?”
Alysia s.n.a.t.c.hed the rope of the collapsed man and instantly went around to his back. She then dragged him to a nearby tree and tied him up strongly on its trunk.
“………I’m glad that the boss decided to wait for the last.”
“b.i.t.c.h…….what the h.e.l.l do you want!?”
“Have you by any chance heard of someone named Solf?”
“…….Urgh…….never…I think.”
“……Hmm….you don’t seem to be lying.”
She could more or less tell when someone is lying through the flow of their mana.
She suspected the reason behind her failure in obtaining any clue was because of the fact that Solf might just be a small no-name bandit. However, that was just a single possibility.
“Aaa, what should I do now….”
“………………”
She pondered on whether leaving this guy tied up like this here while she goes on to the summit was a good idea. There were a considerable amount of magic beasts around this mountain. Leaving him tied up like this here was basically the same as feeding the magic beasts. That would leave a bad taste even to Alysia. If possible, she wanted to keep him alive and hand him over to the guild.
“Hnnー…..Aa, right.”
Starting from the tree as the centre, Alysia erected a barrier, enclosing the three unconscious extra men. The barrier was so strong that even if the three men were to wake up, they wouldn’t be able to put a scratch on it.
“I’ll come by again later.”
“You…wait!!”
Completely ignoring the ear-piercing scream calling for her, Alysia teleported from that place. After confirming that no one was present around her, Alysia spread her wings and took off to the sky.
She flew to the direction of the summit she found by intuition. After no more than three minutes, she could see the giant hole which was located on the surface of the area around the summit. That place was most likely the bandit’s hideout. Alysia descended near the entrance in one go. She landed with a speed that wouldn’t make one surprise if she actually made a crater on the ground.
Boom!!
Looking around, there were mountains of soil everywhere. It was probably because the place was originally a tunnel which was under construction for an excavation project.
Pushing her way through the trees, she set foot into the tunnel. She noticed the fire lamps around the vicinity which were clearly man-made. Maybe because both the ground and the ceiling of the tunnel were made of earth, the inside was very humid. As a result, Alysia was sweating heavily despite the temperature not being that high.
After walking for a short while, Alysia found wooden doors on both sides of the tunnel. There might be a bandit inside, or perhaps even a captive.
“…………..!!”
Alysia drew her katana without making any sound. While staying vigilant, she threw the door open at once.