Rei and his companions continued their journey along the highway. After several days on the road, Elena had finally mastered the art of brewing tea, thanks to consistent advice from Tsufal.
As was becoming their routine, Elena prepared a cup for Rei inside the carriage. Rei was currently lounging on the sofa, and she leaned over to offer it to him.
"Rei, I put a great deal of effort into this today. Please, give it a try."
As she spoke, her face—framed by cascading golden hair—flushed a soft shade of crimson. For a fleeting moment during their exchange, the word "husband" had flickered through her mind rather than "lover."
Of course, Elena never truly forgot her station. She was the only daughter of the House of Kerebel, the pillar of the Noble's Faction. She knew that, eventually, she would have to confront the reality of her relationship with Rei more formally. For now, however, she chose to push those bitter complications deep into her heart.
In truth, Duke Kerebel was far from opposed to his beloved daughter’s attachment to Rei. In fact, he supported it wholeheartedly. Given Rei's overwhelming capabilities, the Duke considered it only natural to want to secure such a man for the Noble's Faction.
Had Rei been a mere commoner with no special talents, the Duke might never have supported his daughter’s love. But this was a world where quality could overcome quantity in battle. To Duke Kerebel, Rei was an invaluable asset—an individual of such caliber that he could overlook social standing to support his daughter's happiness.
Elena, however, remained unaware of her father's true feelings. Consequently, she spent her days fretting over how she would ever convince him to acknowledge their bond.
"Tea, huh? Well then, maybe some cookies to go with it..."
Rei closed the Monster Encyclopedia he had been reading and reached toward the Misty Ring to pull out some snacks, but he stopped mid-motion.
"Young Lady, Rei-sama! There is a caravan up ahead being pursued by bandits!"
Tsufal’s voice rang out from the coach box, reaching the two inside the carriage.
Elena’s reaction was instantaneous.
Though they had technically crossed the border of the Duke Kerebel's territory, they were still in a neighboring region ruled by another noble of the Noble's Faction. Regardless of the politics, Elena’s nature would never permit her to abandon people under a bandit attack.
"Tsufal, which way are they fleeing?"
"They are heading directly toward us!"
"How many bandits?"
"Less than twenty, I believe. But all of them are mounted."
"Understood. Move to intercept immediately. A group of that size shouldn't pose a problem. Rei, what about you?"
"I’m coming, obviously," Rei replied, a faint, predatory smile playing on his lips. "Bandits are always good customers for me, after all."
To Rei, bandits were essentially walking windfalls.
Customarily, the loot hoarded by bandits became the property of the adventurers who eliminated them. Furthermore, clearing them out improved his reputation with the locals.
While Rei found the process too tedious to bother with, ordinary adventurers often made a killing by capturing bandits alive and selling them into slavery.
Of course, such a feat was only possible for those with the strength to handle a gang by themselves. Some bandits were truly formidable—like the Prairie Wolves, whom Rei had fought before they were eventually recruited by Daskar. There were even rare instances of bandit gangs numbering over a hundred men.
"Sigh... Honestly. Well, as long as you're taking care of them, I suppose I shouldn't complain."
Elena seemed to grasp at least half of Rei’s pragmatic reasoning. She let out a sigh and offered a wry smile, as if to say he was a hopeless case, while checking her whip-sword to ensure she could draw it at a moment's notice.
She supposed this was simply the weakness of a woman in love.
Rei found himself momentarily captivated by her gallant expression, but he quickly shook himself out of it and called out to the companion following behind them.
"Seto, stay behind the carriage for now. If they see you, they might turn tail and run before we can close the distance. Once we engage them, circle around to their rear. We'll pincer them."
"Guruuu!"
Seto trilled a confident response, essentially saying, Leave it to me!
With their brief tactical plan established, the carriage pulled over.
"Elena-sama, Rei-sama, we are about to pass them. Prepare for combat!"
Tsufal brought the carriage to a halt at the edge of the highway just as a group of fleeing carriages began to rapidly close the distance.
There were guards on the rearmost carriage of the caravan. They were desperately firing arrows at their pursuers, but the bandits were undeterred. They held up crude wooden shields to deflect the shafts while closing the gap with the carriages.
Naturally, the wooden shields only protected the riders, not the mounts. Several horses had already been struck by arrows, tumbling to the ground and throwing their riders into the dirt.
Despite the losses, more than ten mounted bandits were still bearing down on the caravan.
"It’s a larger group than I expected," Rei murmured, watching the scene unfold from the carriage window. Elena nodded in agreement.
"Given the number of horses they have, these likely aren't the only ones. They’ve probably used their cavalry to pin the caravan down while the infantry catches up from the rear. That's why the caravan is so desperate to escape."
While Elena and Rei conversed with relative calm, the lead carriage of the caravan reached them.
"Run! Bandits are coming! You'll be caught in the crossfire if you stay there!" the caravan driver shouted at the top of his lungs.
Hearing the warning, Rei and Elena—who had already opened the carriage door—exchanged looks of minor surprise and respect.
Most people would only care about their own survival in such a situation. Some might have even used a stationary carriage as a convenient decoy to buy themselves more time. Yet, this driver had gone out of his way to warn total strangers.
"Rei."
"Yeah, I know."
Rei nodded, sharing Elena's favorable impression of the man.
"Hey! Bandits, I said! Just get out of here!" the driver yelled again as he drew closer, but Rei shouted right back.
"Leave the bandits to us! Just keep driving!"
"There are too many of them! ...Dammit, it's too late! Listen, if things get bad, run for it!"
The caravan driver realized there wasn't enough time for Rei’s group to get moving before the bandits arrived. He shouted one last warning as he thundered past them, followed by the second and third carriages. Finally, the rearmost carriage swept by.
The bandits were hot on the caravan's heels, but as they reached the stationary carriage, they reflexively glanced toward it. Their eyes immediately locked onto Elena, who stood poised with her hand on the hilt of her whip-sword.
The reaction was visceral. Normally, a single carriage was a poor prize compared to a fully loaded merchant caravan. However, Elena’s radiant beauty instantly shattered the bandits' sense of pragmatism.
"Stop! Stop, everyone! Hold your horses!"
The man at the front of the pack barked the order, and his followers hauled on their reins. They couldn't stop on a dime, skidding another ten meters past Rei’s group before they managed to wheel their mounts around.
By that time, every bandit was staring at Elena. They gasped at her beauty, their minds suddenly devoid of anything else.
They didn't even notice Seto, who had already leaped into the air and was circling around to their rear.
"Well, well, well... I never expected to find a prize like this out here. You don't see a woman this fine even in the Royal Capital. And look at those horses—Warhorses, and top-tier ones at that. Losing the caravan is a small price to pay if we get our hands on this girl and these mounts."
The leader looked Elena up and down with eyes burning with raw lust. Elena had been subjected to the advances of men countless times, and she knew exactly what that look meant. Her brow furrowed in cold disgust.
"Regrettably, I am not so eccentric as to entertain the likes of common bandits. If you surrender now, I might be persuaded to let you live without injury."
"Hahaha! Don't be stupid! Do you see the numbers here? Besides, I've got more brothers coming than you can count. Now, if you come along quietly, sister, I won't have to hurt you."
"Hehe, Boss. A woman that gorgeous... make sure we get a turn too, eh?" another man chimed in.
Elena’s expression darkened with revulsion, but she now knew who the leader was.
"Rei. Do not let a single one of them escape."
"Consider it done... Hup!"
Elena's words were the signal. Rei reached into the Misty Ring, withdrew a spear, and hurled it in one fluid motion.
Launched with Rei’s inhuman physical strength, the spear tore through the air with a localized sonic boom. It struck the man called the "Boss" squarely in the head, causing his skull to vanish in a spray of gore.
"...Eh? What just...?"
The bandit who had just asked for a "turn" was spattered with bits of flesh, bone, blood, and brain matter.
He touched his face in a daze, looking at his hand as it came away stained a brilliant red. He opened his mouth to scream, but—
"Gah!"
In an instant, Elena’s whip-sword lashed out. The segmented blade snaked across the gap and tore through the man's throat.
The man didn't scream; he only sprayed a fountain of blood. As he reflexively clutched his neck, the sword tip of the whip-sword lunged forward, piercing his forehead and extinguishing his life in a heartbeat.
"U-Uwaaaah! Monsters! They're monsters!"
Neither Rei nor Elena had realized it, but the man they had just killed was the bandit deputy boss. With their top two leaders slaughtered in seconds, the remaining bandits fell into a state of total chaos.
Their leaders had been erased without effort. Did they even have a chance of winning?
The thought flickered through their minds and was immediately discarded.
Logic dictated they should flee, but the sheer speed of the deaths made them doubt they would be allowed to. Some even had the fleeting thought that with the leaders gone, there was a vacancy to be filled.
But the main reason they didn't run was, once again, Elena. Her beauty was unlike anything they had ever seen. They were captivated, unable to tear themselves away from the sight of her.
Their lust, combined with a total lack of ability to gauge the true strength of their opponents, was their undoing. Of course, even if they had tried to run...
"Guruuuu!"
Seto, having completed the pincer maneuver, would never have let them.
"Hie! Hieeee! A-A-A Gryphon!"
One of the bandits, a former adventurer who knew a thing or two about monsters, let out a high-pitched shriek as he turned to see Seto.
The A-Rank monster known as the Grim Reaper of the Skies. Even if he had never seen one in person, the silhouette was unmistakable.
The other bandits recognized the name immediately.
Rei and Elena's strength was beyond anything they understood, but they were still human. A Gryphon was something else entirely—a legendary, unknown terror made manifest.
The primal fear of the unknown finally broke the spell Elena’s beauty had cast over them.
"Ru-Ru-Run for your lives!"
The former adventurer’s scream acted as the starting pistol. Every bandit tried to spur their horse into a gallop, but—
"Gururururururuuu!"
Seto unleashed a skill: King's Intimidation. The bandits froze in place, and more importantly, their horses were paralyzed with terror.
Resistance was now entirely futile. The bandits were systematically cut down, falling victim to the segments of the whip-sword or the massive blade of the Death Scythe Rei had drawn from his Misty Ring.
By the time the bandits were annihilated, leaving only a few survivors for questioning, a single carriage approached from the direction the caravan had fled.
"Hey! Are you people all right?!"
The driver, calling out with a look of sheer disbelief and trepidation, was the same man who had warned them to run just a few minutes before.