The Madness That Opens Its Eyes (6)
I opened my eyes to madness (6). “Tirsi did her part well.”
Anticipating they might try to use hostages as leverage, we’d split into two teams beforehand and divided the roles. I’d cause a commotion inside with the Summon Cloud spell, and while they were distracted, Tirsi would rescue the hostages. Everything went according to plan.
“Whatever your reasons, you crossed the line.” I spoke while subtly manipulating the mist. “But I’m a merciful sort. I’ll spare you, the bandit leader.”
“R-Really?” At those words, the bandit chief flipped his stance instantly. The other bandits screamed at him.
“B-Boss!! What the hell are you saying?!”
“Shut up!! We’re dead if we resist anyway!! What’s wrong with at least saving myself?!”
“Weren’t you the one saying we should stab the bastard even if we die together?!”
“The situation changed!!”
These idiots were losing it. I waved my hand lazily.
“Come over here. If you’re scared of standing next to me, you can hide in the corner. I never planned to kill you from the start. I like competent people.”
“Thank you!!” The chief scurried to the corner with a bright expression. I ignored the frantic shouting of his former subordinates.
Idiots.
I had no intention of sparing that bastard either. Well, I’d keep him alive, but only long enough to hand him over to the guards. We needed someone to testify. Once he spilled everything he knew, the guards could execute him at their leisure. He was too vicious to leave breathing. I’d make sure they actually killed him later, of course.
I’ll break his arms and legs afterward, just to be safe.
While thinking that, I noticed one of the bandits making a suspicious move. He was quietly nocking an arrow.
“Die!!”
Why shout when you’re trying to ambush someone? The idiot yelled like a moron and loosed the arrow. I thought he was aiming for me, but the arrow flew straight at the bandit chief instead. Attacking the traitor first—truly a textbook example of a moron brigade.
Whoosh!
Thud!
“Guh!!” The chief collapsed with an arrow in his shoulder. How trashy must his armor be if one arrow punched through it? I hurled the axe in my hand at the sight.
Whirrrrr—!
Crunch!!
The spinning isekai tomahawk carved a mohawk straight into the archer’s skull. The handle buried itself deep; unless his father was a slime, that was instant death.
“Hiiiiii!!”
“Aaaaaaaaah!!”
The bandits screamed and pissed themselves at the sight of a man’s head exploding. Even the ones used to killing had never experienced being on the receiving end. Blood and brain matter from the mohawked archer seeped into a nearby crate.
This cave was stuffed with stolen goods and daily necessities. These fucking bastards lived better than me. The sight of their cozy little bandit suite made the Professor Slayer inside me rip his shirt open in outrage.
“—You bastards are professors too.”
People who steal others’ achievements and exploit them. That’s what professors were. These guys were no different. They created nothing themselves and only brought harm to society—parasites! And yet they were so greedy they even plundered the fruits of other people’s hard work! Every treasure piled up here was someone’s thesis!! They were lower and more vicious than cockroaches living in kitchen cabinets!!
Therefore!!!!
They deserved to die a hundred, a thousand times over!!!!!!
“—I will kill the professors.” I spat the words like venom. “Of course, I’ll kill you lot too!!! I’ll slaughter every professor who torments graduate students!!! I’ll kill every professor in this world!!!”
“Y-You crazy bastard!! Why are you looking for professors in a bandit hideout!!!”
“Dialogue is unnecessary!!!!”
I roared at the villain spouting excuses. Overwhelmed by my killing intent, they drew their weapons like lunatics whose reason had completely evaporated.
“Kill him!! If we take down just that one guy, we can escape!!!!”
“Kill him and the boss who switched sides too!!!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah——!!!!!”
Thud thud thud!!
Over ten bandits charged at once. I watched their assault with empty hands. These bastards were all vicious murderers. Criminals who kidnapped illegal slaves and sold them to who-knows-whom. Carbon-emitting wastes of space not worth keeping alive! Die here!
“Death Mist!!”
I chanted and swept my hand. The mist of justice thickened throughout the cave at my command. I couldn’t give it lethal power, but I could make it blow as fast as wind.
“Don’t be scared!! Go forward and surround him!!”
“Charge!! Box him in and beat him to death!!”
They rushed without hesitation. I raised my arms to protect my head and sprinted toward the sounds. Why else would I have wasted time talking with these idiots? To map out the cave’s layout, obviously. Even running forward, there were no obstacles to crash into.
—Tap tap tap!
My vision was obscured by mist, but I trusted Beast Regression’s defense. I dashed through the fog and rammed straight into one of them.
Crash!!
“Graaaah!!”
The bandit I hit flew away like he’d been struck by a car. Hearing the scream, the others stopped in confusion.
“Stop!! Stop!! That bastard got out!!”
“Where is he!! Stop hiding and come out!!”
“Don’t panic!! Gather here!! If we stick together, he can’t attack!!”
Idiots growing confident because of their numbers. I picked up a prepared rock and sighed. Sticking together saves you and scattering gets you killed—that only applies to brave soldiers. When idiots gather, they’re just a clump of idiot rice balls.
—Whoosh!!
I threw one of the rocks toward the sound. I also controlled the surrounding mist to secure visibility. The targets were large, so the hit rate was 100%.
Crack—!!
—Thud!
The flying rock sent another idiot to meet the King of Hell. They screamed in terror.
“W-We got hit again!!”
“Who was it!!! Who died!!!”
“What does knowing that change?! Don’t panic and protect your heads!!”
They sure were noisy. Finding it somewhat amusing, I looked around for more things to throw. Then I sensed something creeping outside the mist. Thinking it might be Tirsi, I focused for a moment, but it wasn’t. I’d already told Tirsi not to come near the mist. We’d agreed she’d say the prearranged password if she approached. She wouldn’t be crawling on the floor either.
The chief, huh.
The bastard was trying to run while the mist covered everything.
—Creep creep.
He was moving incredibly quietly, but he couldn’t escape my mana-enhanced senses.
Now I understand how Nefertiti noticed me and Franc hiding back then.
I recalled the ruin guard request. Nefertiti had found us instantly despite our hiding. Against a warrior with superhuman senses and the sixth sense to read mana, hiding without mana control was worse than children’s hide-and-seek. Even I, who hadn’t reached Mythril-class yet, could manage this much.
I grabbed a heavy nearby crate and hurled it at him.
“Guh!!”
The chief passed out after taking it to the head. I’d thrown it lightly, so he probably wasn’t dead. I knocked out the escapee and looked at the remaining bandits. Even with the commotion, they stayed huddled together in fear. Since I hadn’t attacked for several minutes, they were probably out of their minds with terror and tension.
Heh heh.
A pretty good idea suddenly came to me. I raised both hands, then swept them down like an orchestra conductor.
—From now on, kill each other.
The mist obeyed my command faithfully. The accelerated mist wind scraped against pebbles near the bandits like a weak fan, producing a whistling sound.
—Rustle.
“Over there!!!”
One of the already-unhinged bandits swung his weapon wildly. The sudden noise in his tension-strained mind made him attack on reflex. Maybe in his head, he was replaying some heroic scene where he detected the enemy’s stealthy approach and struck first.
But what’s over there is your own ally, you moron.
“Graaaah!!”
“Guh?!”
The companion struck by the blind slash screamed. The attacker realized his mistake, but it was too late.
“Over there!!”
“Kill!!”
“W-Wait! That’s not— Guh?!”
—Clang clang clang!!
—Slash!! Thud thud!!
People are so fragile before fear. The longer the tension dragged on, the more their minds were consumed by the single thought of wanting it to end quickly, no matter what. That’s why the idiots believed the illusion that I had attacked. If they’d had any camaraderie, they would’ve hesitated to attack for fear of hurting their allies, but you couldn’t expect that from bandits. They only cared about surviving themselves, so they’d want to kill me and escape as fast as possible.
—And this was the result.
“Graaaah!! Die!! Die already!!”
“Kiaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
“You bastard!! Son of a bitch!! Fucking bastard!!!”
—Thud thud slash slash stab stab!!
The foolish bandits were devoured by the terror of the mist. They abandoned reason, surrendered to fear, and turned on each other in a frenzy of fratricide. Or perhaps this was an inevitable outcome. After all, the true monster wasn’t in the mist—it had always existed in their hearts.
—Mr. Watt, can you hear me?
I conducted the performance in honor of the steam engine’s creator.
This is a requiem dedicated to you.
The wind of mist blew, mingling with screams and the sounds of battle.
—When the curtain finally fell on that historically unprecedented performance of madness, only two living beings remained in the space where the mist had cleared: me and the bandit chief.
***
After annihilating the bandits and basking in the afterglow of the performance, I sensed someone approaching. When I glared sharply with heightened vigilance, the hooded woman recited the prearranged password.
“Font size 10, line spacing 160, five pages double-sided.”
“T… Ahem, Ash. So it was you.”
I almost said her real name by mistake. Using aliases really wasn’t easy. Tirsi, now closer, spoke while wiping blood from her clothes.
“You worked hard. Thanks to you, there weren’t many bandits left to interfere with rescuing the hostages.”
“Did you subdue them completely? Are you hurt?”
“They’re all dead, and I’m fine. What about you, Arthur?”
“Same here. Ah, except for the chief.”
I pointed at the still-unconscious leader. Tirsi checked and nodded.
“Impressive. I guess I wasn’t even needed.”
“No. Thanks to you, Ash, I didn’t have to fight while protecting the hostages, so it was easier. If they’d started losing, they would’ve tried to use the hostages as threats.”
The bandits had mistaken me for some evil organization’s underling, but in terms of the goal of taking the hostages alive, I was no different from that underling. If those bastards had held a knife to a child’s throat and threatened me, it would’ve been a disaster. Tirsi had prevented that in advance, so she’d done her part more than adequately.
“So where are the hostages you rescued?”
“Their condition wasn’t great, so I gave them diluted stamina recovery potions and had them wait nearby. The transport guild leader’s son was alive too.”
“That’s a relief.”
So that bald guy was the transport guild leader. No wonder he could promise a large reward at his own discretion. Why was I the only one who didn’t know?
“Anyway, the job’s done, so let’s tie up the chief, take some of the stolen goods, and head back. We can sort out ownership issues later.”
I spoke while loosening my shoulders.
“What if someone comes here while we’re gone and takes all the stolen goods? That’d be so absurd I wouldn’t be able to sleep for days.”
“Heh heh. Let’s do that. I’ll go tell the hostages to wait.”
“Alright. I’ll tie up the chief first.”
While Tirsi went to deliver the good news to the hostages, I bound the chief tightly with rope—arms, legs, everything. I could untie him later.
—Snip snip snip.
While I was at it, I shaved his head too. There was a razor among the bandits’ living supplies. Shine—.
“Hmm. A magnificent bald head.”
I smacked the now-smooth bald head with my gauntleted hand and returned. Tirsi had also finished talking with the hostages and come back.
“Let’s just take the light and expensive stuff.”
Tirsi spoke with shining eyes. Since some of the stolen goods were ours, this was our rightful claim. If we couldn’t secure ownership later, we could always return them to the guards.
—Clatter clatter.
So Tirsi and I prioritized collecting our own theses first.
“Found it……!”
Tirsi’s tearful expression as she hugged her thesis was impressive. I also found and properly secured the thesis I’d written.
—Clink.
Besides that, we decided to take expensive potions and silver coins relative to their weight. Since I’d left my bag outside the cave, I put the thesis and other items into a crate and carried it. According to Tirsi the alchemist, these potions were worth a whole ten silvers. Ten silvers. Five times my sales revenue. Looking at it this way, I was selling myself way too cheap. With a master’s salary, you could buy one Nord per month. Anyway, banditry must be profitable. That’s why these idiots risked their lives doing it. The merchants’ wallets alone had at least three silvers each.
“Ash. Can I drink one of these mana potions? My mana’s running a bit low.”
I took out one of the potions and shook it while asking. I could still fight with Beast Regression active, but it felt like only about thirty percent of my maximum remained. I wanted to recover just in case.
“Wait a moment. Let me check the dosage.”
Tirsi took the mana potion, examined it, opened the lid, and smelled it.
“Mid-low grade. Do you know how to take it?”
“Sip slowly, one mouthful at a time, without overdosing. Right?”
“Yes. You know well.”
Isekai mana potions weren’t items you could just chug like in games. They weren’t made with narcotic ingredients, but if you recovered beyond your mana capacity, your body couldn’t handle it and you’d collapse. There was no convenient potion that would just fill you to exactly 100 if you had 100 MP and drank a 120 one. Overdose and it’d fill you to 220, leaving you foaming at the mouth with mana bubbles. Same as real-world drugs.
If it recovered you that sloppily, it wouldn’t have been distributed to the public.
Who in their right mind would put something that dangerous on the market? What if some crazy mage collected mana potions over years, hooked himself up to an IV, and spammed fireballs to burn down a city?
“Here, Arthur.”
After getting the mana potion back from Tirsi, I brought it to my mouth. It was a small bottle the size of a high-end drink you’d bring to a hospital visit. I drank slowly, gauging how much it would recover my mana capacity. Drinking more than your mana capacity or more than necessary wasn’t good with isekai potions either. Just like how caffeine doesn’t mean you don’t have to sleep.
—Gulp gulp.
Still, this one bottle was enough for me. I hadn’t even drunk a third, but my mana capacity felt more than half recovered.
Damn. I thought my mana capacity had grown a bit.
A tiny bit of mid-low grade potion and I was fully recovered. Clicking my tongue, I closed the lid and put it away. Watching me, Tirsi spoke while packing her things and shouldering the now-heavier bag.
“Let’s go now. We need to hand the bandit chief over to the guards and return the hostages home—”
Tirsi slowly closed her mouth mid-sentence. Because I’d quietly signaled her to be silent.
“Arthur?”
“……Wait.”
I placed a hand on Tirsi’s shoulder and moved her behind me.
—Fzzzt fzzzt.
I sensed a presence from the direction of the entrance I’d come through. An unidentifiable pressure.
—In the darkness of the cave, something was there.