The Bandits' Collapse
But whether he could land a decisive blow with the weapons at his disposal remained uncertain. Still, he seized the fleeting opening and charged straight at Orleans.
“I knew you’d try something like this! Keh-heh-heh!”
Orleans had been feigning carelessness while keeping a wary eye on Hyunwoo all along. The moment Hyunwoo lunged forward, he let out a mad laugh and spun around, swinging his sword in a wide arc. Yet Hyunwoo had already steeled himself to accept some degree of sacrifice in order to overcome this formidable foe. Gritting his teeth, he parried Orleans’s blade with his dagger.
With a chilling metallic ring, the dagger’s blade shattered into countless fragments that scattered through the air. Orleans’s sword sliced horizontally across Hyunwoo’s collarbone.
“Ghhk!”
Hyunwoo clutched the torn flesh of his collarbone with both hands and dropped to his knees before Orleans. The blade had cut to the bone; the pain was nearly unbearable. He almost blacked out.
“I thought you must be something special since you killed Madin, but you’re just another filthy bandit after all.”
Orleans looked down coldly at the suffering Hyunwoo and slowly raised his sword. This was the exact moment Hyunwoo had been waiting for—the chance he had barely managed to create. He quickly bit down on the necklace hanging around his neck, looked up, and blew hard.
Whoosh! Thud!
“Hm?”
Feeling a prick at his neck, Orleans instinctively brought his palm to the spot. A small, sharp needle was embedded there. His eyes widened as he tried to speak, but the deadly poison was already spreading so violently that his mouth refused to move.
“Kuh! Krrk!”
The poisoned needle that struck Orleans was the hidden weapon concealed within the necklace that proved Marcus’s lineage.
“Hah, hah……”
Hyunwoo rose unsteadily, clutching his chest, and drew an arrow from his quiver. He drove it deep into the neck of the paralyzed Orleans. Watching the man twitch, Hyunwoo grinned.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he forced out the words.
“First time I’ve killed a knight!”
He poured strength into the arm holding the arrow and tore the flesh open. Orleans died in agony as though his throat were being slit. Only after confirming that Orleans’s breath had stopped did Hyunwoo finally relax. Strength drained from his legs and he collapsed to the ground.
He thought he might die. Yet he felt no regret. Simply fighting alongside his comrades as a member of the bandit group filled him with pride. A wave of nausea from blood loss washed over him. As his eyelids grew heavy, thoughts of his mother and father on Earth surfaced, followed by worry for Marcus’s fate. But the bleeding from his chest was severe, and in the end he succumbed to exhaustion and lost consciousness.
The Elk Bandit Leader approached and looked down at him.
“Starting as an ordinary bandit, he reached the point of slaying a capable knight in just five months. He received mana from that Royal Sorceress wench, but his growth is remarkably fast.”
She took a healing potion from her robes and slowly poured it into Hyunwoo’s mouth. The twenty-centimeter gash across his collarbone closed in an instant. After treating him, she stood and surveyed the surroundings.
Someone suddenly drew near. It was Dana, the Royal Sorceress who had been hiding somewhere, rushing over the moment she realized Hyunwoo had fallen. The Elk Bandit Leader smirked at the sight of Dana anxiously checking on the unconscious Hyunwoo, then left her be and continued her inspection.
Of the seventy-odd bandits, only about ten remained alive. Of the hundred-plus soldiers, roughly eighty percent still survived. The Elk Bandit Leader drew her sword. She had decided to end her life as a bandit today and return to her original existence. To erase all traces of her presence, her blade would swing mercilessly at friend and foe alike. No one would be allowed to escape.
Just then, her own troops could be seen marching toward them from afar.
***
Hyunwoo opened his eyes. Bright sunlight filled the interior of the tent. He had assumed it was the 15th squad’s barracks, but the absence of the usual erotic paintings on the ceiling told him he was in an unfamiliar place. While he lay blinking blankly at the ceiling, Unia’s voice suddenly reached his ears.
“You’re awake? How’s your body feeling?”
He sat up and looked beside the bed. Unia, still in armor, sat on a chair with a palm-sized book open in her hands. She must have been quietly reading while he slept. Only then did he notice Dana lying in the adjacent bed, her head turned toward him, breathing softly in sleep. Her long eyelashes and slightly parted lips stood out vividly. He brushed her fallen bangs aside and looked at Unia.
“Whose tent is this?”
“No idea. Everything was in chaos at dawn. Most of the tents collapsed, so we came into the only one still standing.”
Memories of the events at dawn flashed through his mind. He remembered killing the commander of the Guillotine Unit before blacking out.
“What happened to everyone else? Did we win?”
Unia’s faintly smiling expression turned serious.
“We’re the only ones left. Me, the captain, Dana, Pasvachio, and the Elk Bandit Leader. That’s it. All the other bandit members are dead.”
“Where’s the Elk Bandit Leader?”
“She left.”
“Left……?”
What Unia said next was truly astonishing. After Hyunwoo killed the Guillotine commander and lost consciousness, ten unidentified knights had suddenly appeared on the battlefield. The Elk Bandit Leader had joined them in slaughtering both the remaining bandits and the Guillotine soldiers. Only Hyunwoo, Dana, Unia, and Pasvachio survived the massacre—thanks to the Elk Bandit Leader’s mercy, Unia explained.
“She said to tell you she’ll come see you again soon.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. She called you her property.”
“……”
Hyunwoo couldn’t make sense of the situation. The sudden attack by the Guillotine Unit. Then the Elk Bandit Leader abandoning the bandits and leaving with ten unknown knights.
“That woman… I don’t think she was ever a real bandit to begin with. The way those knights treated her when they showed up—they all called her Captain Olivia and showed her the utmost respect.”
“Captain Olivia……?”
He felt like he had heard something similar before. Ah, right—Nancy had said it not long ago.
“Don’t trust the leader too much. She’s from a completely different world than us. She’s only pretending to be a bandit.”
So the words she had spoken jokingly had actually been the truth…… How much had Nancy known about the Elk Bandit Leader’s true identity? And how had she found out? He wanted to find her immediately and ask, but first he needed to go outside and check if her body was among the dead. According to Unia, the bandits had been wiped out except for the four of them.
“What about Pasvachio?”
“He went to look for his family. We were planning to leave early because we figured more soldiers might come, but he threw a fit and refused. He said we have to find Marcus, Haida, Evynee, and his own family first.”
“Ah……”
After thinking for a moment, Hyunwoo asked,
“You still haven’t found Marcus or Jane or anyone else?”
“Not even their bodies. So Pasvachio went out of the camp alone to search the outskirts.”
Since Marcus was among the missing, there was one place that came to mind. Once Pasvachio returned, they would have to go there.
Unia closed her book and gazed at the soundly sleeping Dana with fond eyes.
“She stayed up all night taking care of the captain, then switched with me and finally fell asleep a little while ago. She was so devoted. She stripped off his blood-soaked clothes by herself, wiped every inch of his body with a damp cloth, and even changed him into fresh underwear. She ignored me when I offered to help.”
What was she talking about?
“Who? Whose body did she wipe down with a cloth?”
“Who else? The captain’s.”
Hyunwoo’s eyes widened.
“Me? She wiped my body? Dana did?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would she do that?”
“How should I know? You two have always been close. Maybe it was love?”
“She wiped down a grown man’s entire body out of love? Even while he was wearing underwear?”
“No. She took everything off. Even his underwear.”
“Dana saw my thing?”
“Of course she did.”
Unia raised an eyebrow and gave him a sly grin.
“Ooh~ It was pretty big, huh? Made me realize my late husband’s was just a kid’s candy. Yours looked all grown-up and impressive.”
How could she say something that would make her dead husband roll in his grave so casually? Still, Hyunwoo felt both embarrassed and grateful that Dana had given him such thorough care while he was unconscious. He gently stroked the sleeping girl’s forehead a couple of times.
Thank you for looking after me.
Smiling contentedly, he moved to get out of bed when someone suddenly tugged at his collar from behind. Turning around, he saw Dana looking at him with half-lidded eyes.
“Where are you going……?”
“You’re awake? I was going to look for the others.”
“I’ll go too.”
“Uh, yeah…… sure.”
Dana didn’t seem the least bit bothered even though she had seen his naked body. The thought of her holding and cleaning his manhood made him oddly self-conscious. It was strange that a princess would so easily perform a task usually left to maids. The more he learned about Dana, the more peculiar her personality seemed.
“Why does Dana only talk to the captain? It feels like I’m hearing her voice for the first time in a hundred years. Your voice is so pretty—talk more, Dana.”
Unia smiled brightly and tried to strike up a conversation, but it was no use. Dana ignored her, got out of bed, straightened her clothes, and prepared to leave.
“Hmph, so mean.”
Unia made an exaggerated pout that didn’t suit her age. Hyunwoo chuckled.
“She’s just still shy. Once you get closer, she’ll open up.”