A Good Connection and Lawless Ground (1)
Raul slowly pushed himself up from the makeshift bed woven from reeds.
When he looked around, he found that more than thirty bandits had already surrounded him in a rough circle.
“Are you deaf, or do you just have more nerve than brains?”
The ugliest man among them took a heavy step forward.
“Get down, now!”
The shout burst from him with a savage glare.
But it was not just an ordinary voice. Raul’s green robe shivered at the sound.
That was not all.
The reeds around the man swayed lightly in the air.
His voice carried a faint but unmistakable aur.
“A howling ability. Interesting. Are you beastkin?”
Raul, however, looked at him with clear interest instead.
At once, confusion spread through the bandits.
But only for a moment. The man who seemed to be their leader spat to the side.
“Tch. So you’re an aur user.”
“Something like that.”
“Damn it, what is wrong with my luck lately? Last time it was a mage, and today it’s some drifter aur user?”
“Bad luck’s supposed to come all at once, right?”
Raul casually chimed in with the bandit’s complaint, and the man stared at him as if he found him bizarre.
“But you. What’s with you? Why are you so damn calm?”
“Not much, really.”
“Then what is this? A nobody aur user talking back to us, to the Red Band?”
“That name’s childish as hell. What’s the Red Band supposed to mean?”
“What did you just say? You son of a whore, you wanna die?”
“You’re the ones who started by shooting at my forehead. What’s the point of talking about dying now?”
What was this?
The bandits stared at Raul with faces that seemed to ask exactly that.
In truth, Raul would not have bothered with this leisurely conversation if not for the World Tree’s advice.
Still, no matter how he looked at them, they were only a common band of thieves.
Raul’s interest faded. He crooked a finger and said, “Aren’t you going to attack?”
The leader’s face twisted like a beast’s as he shouted, “Damn it. Just kill him!”
At that instant, a dull metallic sound rose from beneath the robes of dozens of bandits.
Twang-!
Arrows.
He must have had an automatic crossbow hidden under there and ready to go.
“Idiot.”
Arrows came pouring in from every direction like a sudden rainstorm.
The leader’s mouth curled as he sneered at Raul, but Raul merely drew his dagger with cool composure.
At that moment,
Chajajajajak-!
With a grotesque screech, sparks burst in all directions.
When the bandit, dazzled by the flash, forced his narrowed eyes open again, Raul was still standing there exactly as he had been, dagger in hand.
Only more than twenty arrows lay scattered at his feet.
“Wh-...!”
The leader, stunned into silence, rubbed at his eyes in disbelief.
What followed was even more shocking.
The unknown man, Raul, glanced at the hand gripping his dagger and laughed.
He said, “That’s interesting. Got any more? Go on, then.”
Only then did the bandit leader’s beastlike instinct make his body shake.
The man in front of him was a monster.
“R-run...!”
Just as he tried to force something out through his chattering jaw, Raul cut him off and raised his voice.
“No. Maybe this suits you better.”
In the next instant, Raul vanished, and when he reappeared, he was behind the leader.
“If you don’t want to die, hand over everything you have.”
He repeated the words he had been given, smiling faintly.
The bandit leader turned pale and shouted again, “Ki-kill him! If we can’t kill that bastard, we’re dead anyway!”
At that, the other bandits’ eyes went wild too.
For Raul, it made no difference either way.
He held his breath once more, and in that slowed world, he knocked away six arrows as they came flying in.
Tudududuk!
At the same time, a kukri and a spear crossed paths as they shot toward where Raul had been standing.
Fwish-!
But Raul’s dagger was already buried in the bandit’s head, the one who had been holding the spear.
He snatched the drooping spear away, then swung it hard without even looking back.
Twang-!
With a heavy metallic ring, the leader’s kukri was knocked spinning into the air.
“Ghk!”
The man’s wrist bent in an impossible direction, and as he screamed, Raul caught the kukri as it flew upward and dropped from the air like a falling blade of grass.
Slash!
With a clean tearing sound, the leader’s head split diagonally.
More than a dozen arrows flew toward Raul again, but he caught every one of them without hesitation.
Not merely batting them away, but seizing the arrows in his hands.
Then Raul returned them in one concise motion, almost like martial arts.
Whoosh-!
Fwoosh-!
“Khk!”
“Ugh!”
With each heavy impact, bandits fell one after another.
The rest of them stumbled backward on trembling legs before finally collapsing flat on their asses, overwhelmed by Raul’s acrobatics, which left them no room to breathe.
Raul watched them and muttered, sounding almost disappointed. “I haven’t even brought out divinity yet...”
The so-called Red Band had not even warmed him up.
Were they weak?
Wondering that, Raul chased after the last one, who was already running alone into the distance.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Aaah! Aaaahhh! AAAAAH!”
When Raul appeared behind him, the man screamed as if he had seen a ghost.
Then he stumbled over his own feet and even wet himself hotly between the legs...
Right.
These bastards really were pretty weak.
Raul came to that conclusion on his own and drew a horizontal line across the throat of the man who was trying to say something.
“P-plea—”
He was not a man who showed mercy with his hand.
Especially not to people who launched arrows without warning.
***
Koyad Plains was a kind of lawless ground situated between the Western Kingdom of Therion and the land of the frost-steel orcs, the Frozen Wastes.
The orcs and the kingdom made no real attempt to claim it.
The land was not fertile, so it had no value as farmland, and because it was surrounded by high ground on every side, it was always at risk of bombardment.
For that reason, people called it a forsaken land.
And yet people still lived there.
Ting-!
“Well, I made money, at least.”
Raul stuffed his pockets full of coins and precious metal taken from the bandits, then idly flicked a silver coin as he walked across the plain.
Soon, a large palisade came into view.
A small village called Koyad, named after the plain itself.
This was a village for mercenaries and adventurers who had gathered to hunt the many beasts driven out of the lands of the orcs and elves.
“State your identity and affiliation.”
As he approached the checkpoint before the palisade, guards in well-tanned black leather armor stepped in front of Raul.
Maybe because Raul’s build and bearing had changed so much by now, the guards looked tense even as they blocked him.
That was how this place was.
It claimed to be a “village of mercenaries and adventurers,” all romance and no restraint, but in truth it gathered plenty of criminals who had nowhere else to go.
Taking Koyad’s nature into account, Raul said nothing and simply held out his identification token.
Clink-
What he handed over was a necklace like a military dog tag, with a silver plate attached.
“Ah, so you’re an adventurer.”
The guards’ faces instantly relaxed.
Adventurers were at least easier to talk to in this town than most others.
They took Raul’s token with broad smiles.
“Huh?”
“Hm?”
Then their expressions suddenly stiffened.
One of them swallowed hard and asked Raul, “If I may ask... are you really SilverBullet, sir?”
Raul froze.
He had thought a place as far west as Koyad ought to be fine...
“You know me?”
At Raul’s question, the guards’ eyes widened.
“How could we not?”
“SilverBullet is the legendary duo that slew the dragon Drake in the east!”
“...That story made it all the way out here?”
When Raul asked that with some difficulty, the two guards answered in an almost childlike tone.
“Of course it did. It’s Drake!”
“Low rank or not, a dragon is still a dragon. More importantly... where is your partner, that silver-haired beauty? Ah. Sorry. I’ve been spending too much time in brothels lately, so my manners got a bit rough.”
In fact, SilverBullet had been the name of the adventuring team Raul and Celia formed a year ago.
Back then, Celia knew too little about the world, while Raul knew Exeria well but lacked the strength and power to do much about it.
The two of them had been the perfect partners, each covering the other’s weaknesses completely.
“So, where is your partner...?”
While Raul was lost in a wave of nostalgia, the guard asked again, now far more politely than before.
Expectation was written plainly on both their faces. Celia’s appearance stood out then, and it still stood out now.
Raul had no choice but to use the excuse he had occasionally given even back then.
“She died.”
“Ah.”
A deep sense of emptiness and pity flickered in the eyes of both guards as they let out soft sighs.
The heavy silence looked as though it might stretch on for a while, so Raul pasted an awkward smile onto his face and hurried on his way.
“Then, may I pass?”
“Ah. Y-yes, of course.”
“And... stay strong.”
Hearing the awkward encouragement of strangers, Raul entered Koyad at last, a full week after leaving the world of the World Tree.
Celia is probably still chasing me around with both legs intact, though...
It was the best excuse he had for keeping all those absurd rumors from spreading.
Unlike mercenaries, who were rough and brazen by nature, adventurers at least did not casually gossip about the dead.
“Well, anyway.”
Raul stopped in one corner of Koyad’s streets and took out the adventurer’s token bearing the name SilverBullet.
This is a problem.
He had naturally intended to take this badge and head to the adventurers’ guild.
If I do that, my whereabouts will get out through the guild in Koyad.
At this point, only she and Raul would still be carrying this token.
And there was no chance that she, wandering around with the Templars known as the Saint Pursuit Squad, would fail to catch wind of that information.
If she learns about it, she’ll come after me again.
People said the Templars never knew when to give up...
Still, Raul had been moving between the world of the World Tree and this one, making interdimensional jumps in the process, so he figured the Templars had likely lost his trail by now.
Even her golden eyes, which can see everything, won’t be able to track a dimensional jump.
In the end, Raul decided to hide his SilverBullet identity.
It took enough work to shake them off...
He could not hand over the trail again with his own two hands.
Standing there, Raul spent a moment recalling the silver-haired woman with her brilliant smile.
He was not worried about her safety.
She was strong.
And yet why did his chest ache in such a strange, dull way?
Raul suddenly had the thought that maybe, without realizing it, he had wanted to leave some trace behind after all.
***
The organized adventurers’ guild, and the mercenaries’ tavern no different from the wilderness itself.
By Raul’s standards, he should naturally have gone to the former, but with no other choice he turned his steps toward the latter.
Creak.
When Raul pushed open the heavy wooden door and stepped inside, the raucous voices in the room cut off all at once.
Every gaze in the place locked onto him.
“Long time since we’ve seen a traveler.”
“Traveling in this weather? Hey! You’ve got the wrong address.”
“Yeah. If you enjoy adventures with your life hanging by a thread, why don’t you go play with the adventurer gentlemen over there?”
The mercenaries sneered at Raul without restraint.
Every one of them had thick scars and bear-like builds.
They looked far too intimidating to argue against.
But Raul was different.
“Keep your interest to yourself.”
Knowing their nature, he deliberately used an even harsher tone.
That made them shut up instead.
One more word and blades might come out.
It was important here to project that kind of dangerous atmosphere.
Raul went straight to the desk.
A woman with scarlet hair was handling reception there.
Her hair somehow reminded him of Cinder.
“How can I help you?”
“I’ve come to sell some mana stones, hides, and an Eguard antler.”
The woman’s eyes went round.
“E-Eguard? You’d have to go pretty deep into the forest to hunt a deer beast like that... Ah! Let me see the goods first, please.”
“Sure.”
Raul opened the large leather bag slung over his back like luggage.
It was a magic item gifted by the World Tree, one that could hold far more than it looked like it should.
“...Huh?”
“Huh?”
As Raul pulled out a huge mana stone, dozens of hides, and an antler bigger than the upper body of some mercenary sitting over there drinking, the attention around him changed.
“Holy shit, if the antler’s that big, how huge was the Eguard itself?”
“Jesus...”
“What the hell is that guy, no, that brother, even doing?”
Originally, Raul had intended to use this to request an audience with the branch head of the adventurers’ guild without revealing his identity.
Dumping out goods like that, it was no wonder the mercenaries’ jaws nearly split vertically.
“That’ll come to... t-twenty silver coins and one, one gold coin.”
“Wow!”
“Hey, did you hear that?”
“A gold coin. A gold coin.”
“Been a while since one of those showed up.”
“Damn. Don’t even need side dishes tonight.”
The mercenaries had already started staring at Raul like they were watching a circus of clowns.
Koyad had more beasts and more hunters than it first appeared to, which meant a lot of money changed hands here.
In other words, this was the kind of city where one good haul could set you up nicely.
Since he was going to stay for a few days anyway, Raul said the magic words that would guarantee the other mercenaries could never openly turn on him.
“Buy everyone sitting here a round. The drink stock’s okay, right?”
“Huh?! Ah, yes, of course!”
“Then put mine on that side too.”
“Yes! Understood!”
A smile bloomed across the receptionist’s face.
So, naturally, did the mercenaries’.
Raul slid into the largest table in the room.
“Mind if I join?”
Then the grinning bears around him offered one line after another.
“Whoa, brother! So you’re the kind of guy who knows how to have a good time?”
“You’ve got guts! No joke.”
“This won’t do. Brother, come with me tonight. I know the best place in Koyad.”
They were already treating Raul like a friend of ten years.
“Thanks, but no thanks. I didn’t buy this for free. Mind if I ask a few things?”
“Oh? So what you wanted was information? Sure. Ask whatever you want.”
“You came to the right place. I know everything except the things I don’t know.”
Raul asked the now completely unguarded mercenaries the things he had been curious about.
Witness accounts of the Templars, and what had become of the mountainside village afterward, among other things.
Of course, since these were the kind of mercenaries who staked out this village, there was nothing especially conclusive.
Still, with good food and drink going down after so long, his mood was far from bad.
“Excuse me for a second.”
Then, all at once, a long-haired man approached the table Raul had joined.
“For information of that level, our people know it better. Wouldn’t it be smarter to work with us? We’ve even got a good job on hand.”
“Hey, Pagel. Can’t you see the brother chose us?”
Of course the mercenaries sitting at the same table looked uncomfortable, but when the man called Pagel glared at them, they stopped protesting.
That alone made it obvious who was higher in the hierarchy.
“A job?”
When Raul asked, the blue-haired man with a mop of messy hair smiled and answered.
“A while ago, some dangerous bastards hit North Fatal Fortress and came back to these parts.”
“Dangerous bastards?”
“Yeah. A band of bandits with a hideout on Koyad Plains who grow a terrifying poisonous herb called Cocori and ambush travelers. They took over the place, and now both the village and the merchants are suffering for it.”
“So?”
When Raul asked the man, who was dragging things out, the fellow showed yellow teeth in a grin and said, “Fatal and this village. Plus the merchants. They’ve all pooled together and put a bounty on them. A total of two gold coins. So, does that interest you now?”
Raul nodded as he put a large piece of meat in his mouth.
More money was always better.
But a strangely irritating memory surfaced in his mind.
A band of bandits using poison?
Come to think of it, there had been some dark substance on the arrowheads of those Red Band bastards who used the automatic crossbows...
After swallowing the food in his mouth, Raul asked, “Did those bandits have automatic crossbows?”
“Huh? What? So you ran into them? Then you were lucky to get away. Yeah, those are the guys you met.”
He looked at Raul with eyes that clearly wanted to say, See? Weren’t they terrifying?
But to Raul, the whole thing was almost funny.
Some dangerous bastards? Them?
Maybe it was because of the poison they used.
Raul had been immune to poison from the start, and they had not landed a single shot on him, so what did it matter?
Raul asked one last thing.
“The Red Band?”
“Yeah, yeah. Guess heaven was looking out for you, brother. To run into them and still get away with all your limbs intact...”
“They all wore crude gold rings on their fingers, right?”
“Uh... yeah, that’s right too, but what the hell? How do you know all this?”
Even that blue-haired fool seemed to realize, as the questions went this far, that something was off.
Could it be?
He stared at Raul with that look, and Raul answered by reaching into his inner pocket and taking something out.
“Did the ring look like this?”
Chalrrruk-
What Raul spilled from his pocket were thirty-two gold rings.
At the sight of them, the man’s eyes went so wide they nearly split, and a dumb sound burst from his mouth.
“Huh...?”
Raul gave him a faint smile as he watched the man reel in shock.
“Sorry about that.”
Somehow, the pile of money he had been planning to gather in this village had appeared immediately.