The Guardian of Orbin
The bound man confessed everything only after his face had been beaten to a bloody pulp. They were a band of wandering bandits. Normally, operating anywhere near Lurie was suicide for their kind, but this time they had reliable intelligence: a massive cache of supplies was stored at the Orbin Monastery. Better yet, there wasn't a single soldier guarding it. The raid was scheduled for immediately after sunset—less than an hour from now.
"Can we not call the city guard?" Rika asked, her voice carrying its usual disciplined, formal tone.
The elderly abbot shook his head, his face etched with distress. "Their duty is to protect the inner walls. Since the bandits haven't actually shown themselves yet, it would be difficult to convince them based on mere hearsay. Especially not within an hour..."
In that case, hoping for the Princess's aid was out of the question. Even if they somehow managed to reach the royal palace in time, she was not someone easily granted an audience.
"How have you handled such situations in the past?"
"We were almost never targeted to begin with. Bandits dare not set foot around Lurie because of the Knight Order, and above all, we never had anything worth stealing before."
But now, the situation was different. The warehouse was bursting with food and supplies. For a perpetually starving band of wandering bandits, it was a target lucrative enough to warrant risking the proximity to Lurie.
"No matter how I look at it, we cannot hold. We have no choice but to take everyone and flee. If we have an hour, we might just..."
Rielia, who had been listening in silence, bit her lip. "Abbot... but we have bedridden patients and young children here. There simply isn't enough time to evacuate them all inside the city walls..."
"It cannot be helped... If we let them take the supplies, perhaps they will spare our lives. It pains me deeply as well, Rielia..."
"Then I shall remain here as well."
"Rielia..." Watching the abbot sink into deep despair, Rika let out a quiet sigh. She had a reason why she could not abandon this place—a solemn vow she could not break for a mere rabble of thieves. Besides, she owed these people a debt. They had treated her generously to beer and all sorts of food. For citizens of the Rustier Kingdom, they were surprisingly good folk.
Rika turned to the abbot and asked in a low, steady voice, "Abbot, what do we have in this monastery that can be wielded as a weapon?"
Darkness began to blanket the land. The bandits moved immediately. Now that their scout had been captured, speed was of the essence.
*Thud! Thud!* With a few men throwing their weight against it, the monastery's weathered wooden gates splintered and gave way with ease. Just as their source had promised, there was no guard in sight. Easy prey didn't get any better than this.
The monastery grounds were dead silent. Their scouts had kept watch from afar, and there had been no sign of anyone fleeing. Are they hiding in some cellar? It was a shame they wouldn't get to taste the women, but at least they could plunder the goods without a fight.
"Excellent. The warehouse should be right over—" The moment the vanguard leader raised his arm to point, his limb vanished into thin air.
"Aaaaargh! My—my arm! My arm is gone!"
"W-What is this?!"
"Boss Kuz!"
A single shadow slipped seamlessly from darkness to darkness. The bandits' torches swayed wildly as they tried to track the silhouette. In that brief window of confusion, a hand axe flew from the gloom, cleaving clean through a lackey's skull.
"It's an enemy! We've been ambushed!"
"D-Don't panic! Fight back! Form a perimeter!"
At their leader's command, the bandits huddled into a tight circle, thrusting their torches into the dark corners to flush out the hidden assailant.
"T-There! Over there!"
The flickering orange light illuminated Rika, who stood poised in the shadow of the building. The moment the bandits laid eyes on their mysterious assailant and realized she was a woman, their terror evaporated, replaced by sudden bravado.
"A woman? She's just a girl!"
"How dare you do that to Boss Kuz...!"
"An outlander wench... Is she a mercenary?"
"She's still just one person! Whoever brings her down gets first claim to her!"
Though a mask concealed the lower half of her face, one glance was enough to tell she was an exceptional beauty. Her physique was remarkably toned and alluring. Starved for female flesh, the bandits charged forward, whipped into a frenzy by their leader's promise.
"Graaaah!"
Fourteen, sixteen, eighteen... Eighteen in total. Poorly equipped, and their form is atrocious. I can handle this alone.
There was no need to call upon Rebecca and her crew, whom she had kept on standby just in case. Rika stepped out of the shadows. In one hand, she held a heavy wood-splitting axe; in the other, a sword stripped from the scout she had captured earlier.
Squelch! A sickening spray of blood erupted into the night air. The head of the foremost bandit was sheared clean off by the heavy axe blade. The men behind him faltered for a fraction of a second, but bolstered by their sheer numbers and raw lust, they surged forward again. They were nothing but moths throwing themselves into a raging fire.
"Argh!"
"Gah...!"
"M-My arm... Aaaagh!"
The bandits' agonizing screams echoed endlessly through the courtyard. Their numerical advantage dwindled to nothing in a matter of minutes. Rika showed no mercy, hunting down even those who lost their nerve and tried to flee, her weapons carving through flesh and bone. The leader, who had expected to watch with smug satisfaction as the woman who dared defy them was broken, now stood entirely alone, trembling in absolute terror.
"T-This is impossible... Are you a monster...?"
"A reckless, uncoordinated charge. Once you confirmed there was only a single opponent, your best course of action was to gradually tighten the encirclement. Not that a rabble of your caliber could have ever bested me anyway."
The leader was not granted the time to digest Rika's tactical critique. Her blood-drenched blade rose high into the night sky. When it fell, he collapsed to the dirt in a heap, spraying a fountain of crimson without even a final whimper. With that, the bandits were utterly annihilated. Those who had survived the initial blows crawled through the dirt, groaning in agony. Beneath the cold light of the crescent moon, Rika pulled down her mask and wiped the sweat and blood from her face, thinking to herself that this had been only slightly more taxing than chopping firewood.
"The Lekis Bandit Group... They were notorious for being exceptionally brutal near the border. But how on earth did you manage to...?"
The knights dispatched to investigate were utterly dumbfounded by the scene. The sight of butchered corpses strewn across the courtyard was jarringly discordant with the sacred, serene atmosphere of the monastery. The surviving bandits trembled in absolute terror, looking as though they had stared directly into the abyss. They were the lucky ones, relatively speaking—though given the severity of their crimes, they would soon face the gallows anyway.
"It was a passing mercenary," the abbot explained. "They said they wished to repay the favor of a night's lodging... Their martial prowess was nothing short of divine. Once the deed was done, they vanished into the night."
There was certainly no punishment for slaying a notorious band of cutthroats, especially when they had desecrated a holy monastery. However, given her delicate circumstances, Rika had no desire to draw attention to herself.
"A passing mercenary... You are telling me a single warrior did all this? Granted, the clean cleave marks suggest they were indeed the work of a single master, but even so..."
The knight scratched his head, clearly struggling to swallow the abbot's tale. Just then, a clear, melodious voice rang out from behind him.
"The abbot is not a man who would utter a falsehood. I am certain it is the truth."
The speaker was none other than Sera Rustier, the beloved Princess of the kingdom. For reasons unknown, the moment she had caught wind of trouble at the Orbin Monastery, Princess Sera had insisted on accompanying the guard. Upon her arrival, she had let out a soft sigh of relief to find that every single resident of the monastery was unharmed.
"Ah, well... if Your Highness says so, then... I shall record it as such in the official report. A single passing mercenary... truly remarkable..."
"It is a report that Commander Filgret will sign off on anyway, is it not? I am sure there will be no issues."
The knight offered a sheepish bow and returned to the crime scene. The Princess swept her gaze over the gathered crowd before leaning in to whisper to the abbot.
"This was Rika's doing, wasn't it? Where is she?"
"Ah, yes. She is resting in the back room. She mentioned she wished to avoid crossing paths with the knights..."
"Would you mind guiding me there?"
"Of course, Your Highness. Right this way."
The abbot escorted the Princess to a secluded chamber at the very back of the monastery. The moment Rika saw Princess Sera step into the room, she sprang to her feet.
"P-Princess...!"
Not a single trace of the terrifying bloodlust she had exuded the previous night remained on her face. Her rigid expression had softened entirely. Compared to the fierce wolf of last night, she now looked like a thoroughly tamed, loyal hound. With a few polite words, the Princess dismissed the abbot. The moment they were left alone in the room, Rika's gaze turned intensely desperate.
"First, I must offer you my gratitude, Rika. Thank you for protecting the Orbin Monastery."
Words of gratitude from the Princess's own lips. Rika's heart hammered so violently she could barely contain it.
"P-Princess, I am unworthy of such praise... It was nothing. They were... merely a pathetic rabble..."
"It was my oversight. There was a gap in the Knight Order's patrol routes. I doubt those bandits were clever enough to exploit it intentionally, but... regardless, thanks to your swift action, I did not lose something very precious to me, Rika."
A wave of sheer, overwhelming ecstasy washed over Rika, so intense her heart felt ready to burst. It felt as though she had just been granted a reason to exist. The Princess was as dazzlingly beautiful as ever. Rika desperately wished to see her smile, but she knew that was far too greedy a desire.
"Leave the aftermath to me. From now on, you may rest easy here without a single worry on your mind, Rika. It was wonderful to see you again. Until next time..."
Princess Sera turned to leave. But before Rika's mind could even register the thought, her body moved on instinct, her hand darting out to grab the hem of the Princess's sleeve.
"...Rika?"
Rika herself was startled by her own audacity. Simply having the Princess visit her, simply hearing those words of gratitude, should have made her happier than she deserved. Yet, in a strained, trembling voice, she spoke—hardly understanding why she dared to ask such a question of her master.
"P-Princess... When you speak of... that which is precious to you... do you mean the Saintess?"