Kobolds Love Jewels (1)
The bandits had matched their outfits well enough to look reasonably formidable.
Neither the adventurers nor the merchants looked especially shaken, though. And why would they? Two Silver Plate adventurers stood among them. Lose to mere bandits? Please.
Bandits only ever got so strong. Anyone truly dangerous shot straight to the top of the subjugation list, so the ones still walking around in the open could hardly be called powerful. If we lost here, Eline and I might as well turn in our Silver Plates and go farm a mountainside.
The merchant muttered as he eyed the bandit halted in front of us.
"The Red Axe Band."
"Oh, you know them?"
He'd run plenty of trade routes; they might even be old acquaintances. Merchants and bandits were impossible to pry apart, after all. But he shook his head.
"I've only heard the name. Don't know them. They don't even work this region."
So the band had marched out on an expedition. That was genuinely absurd.
Bandits were territorial animals to the bone. Another crew stepping onto their turf? They'd hiss like cats and start slamming heads together. Someone else's face in your rice bowl—of course they would.
Eline turned toward the merchant.
"So. Are those ones strong, are they?"
"Among bandit groups, they're said to be on the stronger side. It's rare to see ones who match their weapons and clothes like that."
Just as he said, axes with red hafts hung at their waists. While we were muttering among ourselves, a bandit yelled.
"What's with all the whispering~? Isn't the one in charge coming out~?"
At that, the merchant stepped forward.
"Aigoo, greetings. It's an honor to meet the renowned Red Axe Band. I'm in charge of this caravan."
"Oh, yeah? Your neck's a little stiff, though~? Got something you're counting on~?"
The leader, drawling in that disgusting way, shot a glance our way. His eyes mostly stuck on me, and it felt like complete shit.
"But what's a man to do~? We're a bit hard up lately, so we'll be taking a fat toll~"
"How much do you want?"
"From here~ to there~"
What he indicated was every last thing loaded on the wagons.
This ethics-free son of a bitch. What were the merchants supposed to live on, then? Even when you haul in blue crabs, the unwritten rule is you throw the young ones back. These bastards were announcing they'd net the whole lot and wreck the ecosystem, no questions asked.
The merchant must have felt the same; he shook his head.
"That'll be difficult."
"Yeah~? Then you know how this goes, right~?"
He winked at me as he said it. I am not exaggerating—I nearly vomited from how revolting it was.
"Cutie~ just wait a little~"
Not worth answering filth like that. Steel whispered as I drew my shield.
The fight kicked off with a shout from the bandit wearing an armband.
"Boys, take 'em!!"
At that, the adventurers naturally moved up and the merchants fell back. There were so many of them they trusted raw numbers over any formation and simply charged—and that was their mistake.
To me, a mana user of only the newest vintage, their strength was far too weak.
Tekkai
"The— fuck, why won't you even budge..."
I casually caught the axe he'd brought down with everything he had, then punted him so he flew straight into his own comrades. A crunch suggested a few ribs had snapped. The bandits he collided with toppled in a heap.
"Strike!!"
It had been easy even for me. For Eline, then?
"Aaaagh—!!"
She must have been bored out of her mind; she was yawning while she stabbed them. She wasn't even fighting hard enough for her hair to whip. Wounding only what it took to keep them from fighting—you could call it downright vicious.
"Oh no~!! What is this~~!!!"
Even the leader, whose tastes seemed a little off, looked thrown. He'd probably figured Bronze Plate adventurers would be easy prey, and nothing was going to plan. With Eline and me there, the other adventurers held steady without their morale cracking, and only the bandits' losses kept piling up.
The chief wavered, reading the room, then suddenly turned his back and ran.
"Just you wait~~!!!!"
"Hey— hey, he's running!!! His bounty's high!!!"
What? A bounty?
The instant I heard it, I hurled the buckler. Captain Medieval-Land: ON.
The shield tore through the air with a vicious whine and slammed square into the bandit's thigh.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!!!!"
He pitched forward in the very direction he'd been sprinting, rolled across the ground like a madman, and showed no sign of getting up.
"Boss, nice shot!!!"
"How much is the bounty?"
"Haul him to Gent and you'll get ten silver at the very least."
Jackpot.
Seeing their chief pinned, the rest of the bandits set down their weapons and quit resisting. We lashed the whole crew up in a row like fish on a drying line and went on our way.
"We're here!!"
The merchant shouted, delighted. True to his word, a massive wall showed in the distance. Unlike Baikal, which had been a little embarrassing to call a castle town, Gent's walls were tremendously high. A great city, sure enough.
As Gent drew near, we met more and more people.
"What's all this, then?"
To some passerby's question, the merchant answered in a bright voice.
"Ah, rest easy. Just bandits."
We were hauling a pack of rough-looking men trussed together, so of course the stares piled on. We lined up to be checked by the gate guard, and soon it was our turn. The words Red Axe Band sent a guard into a panic and he called his superior—a bit of a fuss—but we passed without trouble and entered the city.
Our job ended there. The merchant handed us a slip certifying the commission was complete.
"Mr. Goat, Miss Eline, thank you!! There've been so many stories about bandits lately, I was worried sick, but thanks to you we arrived safe!!"
"Don't mention it."
"If you ever need anything, find a person named Diara at the Chicken House Company and have them call a fellow named Hassan!!"
"Yeah. Work hard."
After exchanging farewells with the merchant, I asked a passing man where the Adventurer Guild was.
"On the plaza here, too."
Planting the guild building square on the plaza must have been the unwritten rule. Whoever the guild master was, he'd clearly played the real estate game. When we reached a square far larger than Baikal's, the five-story building the man had described came into view.
A bell chimed. Eline opened the door and stepped inside, and every gaze snapped to her. Plenty of people looked at me, too—in my case, mostly a why is a guy like that next to a beauty? sort of look. I rested an arm on Eline's shoulder as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"What."
"Just trying out a little arm around the shoulder."
The moment I did, glares followed like they meant to eat me alive. Superiority, fully savored. Great success.
Luckily, no one was lined up to see a receptionist.
"What brings you in?"
At the question, Eline answered, deadpan.
"We've come to request a change of branch."
'We,' now, was it.
I felt oddly pleased. The receptionist began the process with perfect courtesy. A shame there was none of that prickly bite Sonya had.
"You're both Silver Plate. A fixed party, by any chance?"
"Yeah."
When Eline nodded, sighs drifted up around us. Still, perhaps because they knew we were Silver Plate, no one picked a fight or threw a pass out in the open.
"Yes, understood. The procedure is complete! Welcome to Gent, adventurers!"
We left the guild with those jealous, envious looks at our backs.
"I'm going to drop my things at the guild inn. What about you?"
Eline answered at once.
"I shall just come along too, I suppose."
"What, you saving coin as well?"
"No. I'm rich."
When she'd fled the fairy village, she'd made off with a fair number of expensive things. A runaway fairy, through and through.
"Then why the guild inn, of all places? There are plenty of pricey, nice ones."
When I asked, she stared straight at me.
"You and I..."
"Me?"
"...are the same party, so."
"That so."
We decided to rest a little at the guild inn, then eat dinner together. Like any inn, this one served meals—sixty copper a night, food included. Only twenty copper more than the place I'd stayed before, and yet the service was almost embarrassing to compare. The bed was decently soft, the room clean. No wonder everyone strained so hard for a Silver Plate.
I lay down on that soft bed, fell asleep, and came downstairs around evening to find Eline already seated at a table. Other adventurers looked like they were working up the nerve to speak to her somehow.
"You been waiting?"
"How long were you meaning to keep me waiting?"
"Sorry, sorry. The bed was so comfortable I just knocked out."
Eline and I ordered meat and started in. The fairies around here didn't seem to live on greens alone. At this point, long ears aside, they acted like people through and through. The food, as expected, was far better than anything in Baikal, too.
"To mark a fresh start, want a drink?"
"A drink?"
Her hood gave a little tremble; her ears seemed to be perking. She'd been drifting through the human world for quite some time, and she still hadn't tried alcohol? A first drink, by rights, ought to be shared with an adult. I didn't know her age, but by the look of her she didn't seem all that old, so I decided I counted as the elder.
"Yeah. Let's have beer."
"...All right."
We started drinking without much talk. One cup, two, three. Eline's face went scarlet, and just as I was wondering whether I'd poured too much—
"Kh... about what I was going to say earlier."
That, then. The story the bandits had cut short.
"Ugh, where did I leave off. Don't know. Anyway, I lived in the village for about a hundred and seventy years after I was born?"
A hundred and seventy years!!
She was a fairy, so I'd vaguely figured she'd be old, but still...
"So you were a grandma."
"Shut up."
"Yes, ma'am."
Anyway. It had been an ordinary day of living without a care.
"My friend was found, having been murdered."
Eline said it with a hard face and gulped her beer down in great swallows.