"Uraaaaaagh! Stop messing around! Stop screwing with me! Don't you dare look down on me!"
With a roar born of pure desperation, the bandit leader brought his battle axe whistling down toward Rei.
Against any ordinary human, that single blow would have split their skull before they even realized they were under attack.
But the person standing before him was Rei. He made no move to ready his Death Scythe as he had in previous tests; instead, he simply reached up with his empty left hand.
A cruel grin flashed across the bandit's face for a fleeting moment.
The tournament had ended, and his gang had been lying in wait for the travelers returning from the Imperial Capital to their far-off homes. It was a lucrative trade. The gang had ambushed dozens of groups over the years and survived, and the leader had judged that this latest mark would be no different.
In truth, his tactical assessment hadn't been entirely wrong. His group of nearly 30 companions had already overwhelmed and slaughtered the three adventurers hired as escorts for this party of ten travelers through sheer weight of numbers.
But just as they were about to sink their fangs into their defenseless prey, that god of plagues—no, that Grim Reaper—had appeared.
It was the Grim Reaper in every sense of the word. A man who commanded the legendary Grim Reaper of the Skies, a high-rank Gryphon, as his tamed monster.
Though a deep hood hid his face, his small stature was plain to see.
The leader hadn't been careless; the sight of a person arriving on a Gryphon was enough to warrant caution. He had attempted to swarm the newcomer just as he had the previous adventurers, only to watch in horror as several of his men were instantly cleaved in two. A single sweep of a massive scythe had sent blood and viscera spraying across the road, and in that moment, the leader realized they were facing the very incarnation of death.
By then, it was already too late. The giant scythe moved in a beautiful, lethal dance, reaping the bandits one by one.
One man had tried to seize a traveler as a hostage, only to be swatted away by the Gryphon’s forepaw. Despite his leather armor, the impact had been so violent that he died instantly, his internal organs bursting just like the men killed by the scythe.
As his numbers dwindled to nothing, the leader overheard the terrified whispers of the travelers.
They spoke of the person before them being the runner-up of the fighting tournament, a B-rank adventurer of the highest caliber... and the one who bore the alias of Crimson.
The bandit leader had been struck with pure, cold terror. In the few seconds he spent paralyzed by the revelation, he had become the sole survivor of his gang. All the subordinates he had spent years with were now cooling corpses.
Realizing there was no way out alive, the man put every ounce of his being into one final, murderous strike. He swung his battle axe toward the small figure.
It was a blow backed by the full weight of his life.
If it landed, even a high-rank adventurer would surely be maimed. Perhaps he could find a gap to flee in the chaos, or by some miracle, even kill the boy.
That flicker of hope had been sparked when Rei raised his bare left hand rather than the great scythe he held in his right.
In the heat of the moment, the leader assumed it was a panicked reflex—that there was no way a human hand could stop his cold steel.
That conviction shattered in the very next instant as his world plunged into eternal darkness.
"...Damn it. I still haven't gotten the hang of this."
Frowning slightly, Rei deactivated his Overlord's Armor.
The magic power that had been compressed into a visible, high-density shroud vanished like morning mist.
He had only maintained the armor for a few seconds. He had triggered it the moment the battle axe began its descent, intending to catch the blade... but he had failed to modulate his strength. Rather than catching it, his hand had smashed through the axe's head as if it were sodden newspaper, and the unstoppable momentum had continued upward, effortlessly pulverizing the bandit's skull.
"My power adjustment is still non-existent, yet the mana consumption is staggering. I’ve still got a long road ahead of me."
If anyone present had possessed the ability to see or sense magic power, they would have been horrified by the scale of the expenditure. In those few seconds of using the Overlord's Armor, Rei had burned through a reservoir of mana equivalent to the combined output of dozens of mages casting at full strength.
Even Rei, well aware of his own mana capacity, felt the pinch.
"This much for a few seconds? I wonder how long it’ll take before I can use this as freely as Noise does."
Heaving a heavy sigh, he looked down at the remains of the thief. The man's head had been effectively erased—brains, bone, and flesh had been disintegrated and scattered across the earth. Rei shook his head in disappointment.
"Worse yet, there’s no way to interrogate this guy about where their hideout is now."
Every bandit he had struck with the Death Scythe was dead, and Seto had been equally thorough. He had planned to track down their hideout and claim whatever treasures they had looted over the years, but that plan had been blown apart along with the leader’s head.
"If I can't even hold back, it's going to be hard to use this in a real pinch."
During his conversation with Noise after the tournament, Rei had declared that he would master the Overlord's Armor in his own way, reaching the same heights from a different direction. Yet, that summit felt impossibly far away.
He wondered just what it would take to stand on the same level as Noise. Rei couldn't help but sigh again.
Mastering the Overlord's Armor itself was the primary hurdle.
To use an analogy, it was like trying to fasten a microscopic screw with a screwdriver while sprinting past the target at full tilt. It was a feat that should have been impossible, yet "making the impossible possible" was the only way to truly control the technique.
And Noise, who had mastered it completely, was the kind of person who could accurately hold a conversation with several people at once while delicately cracking an egg with his left hand.
"Guruuu."
As Rei looked up at the autumn sky, feeling the weight of the task ahead, Seto let out a concerned trill and rubbed its head against him.
For Seto, who had been cooped up in the Imperial Capital stables for far too long, the chance to fly through the great blue yonder with Rei was the greatest gift. It didn't want to see its partner looking so somber.
Rei understood. He managed a small smile and stroked Seto's head.
The area was littered with the corpses—or rather, the visceral remains—of the bandits. To an outsider, it was a scene from the depths of hell, but the man and the beast shared a moment of affection, seemingly indifferent to the carnage.
They were used to such sights, but the travelers certainly were not.
The group of about ten travelers watched them, unable to relax despite being safe. However, they couldn't just leave their savior behind, especially when their own escort adventurers were dead. They harbored the hope that Rei might see them the rest of the way.
Steeling his nerves, the man in his 40s representing the travelers called out to Rei.
"Excuse me... I take it you are Lord Crimson Rei? Thank you for saving us. Our guards didn't make it, but thanks to you, we're alive. We truly can't thank you enough."
Rei finally looked over, his hand still resting on Seto's head.
"Ah. I'm glad you're all safe. Still, I'm surprised to see bandits this close to the capital."
The representative nodded grimly.
"Normally, the Imperial Army conducts bandit hunts during the fighting tournament to keep the roads safe for people like us. It’s usually the safest time of year... I don't know why there's a gang out here now. Maybe they're just newcomer bandits who didn't know any better."
Rei nodded outwardly while dismissing the idea in his mind.
(The news that a civil strife is brewing—or has already started—must have leaked through the bandit networks. We’ll probably see more and more of them swarming the area. There’s going to be a lot of blood spilled... I hope the army can handle it.)
Rei wouldn't hesitate to swing his Death Scythe if bandits crossed his path, but he had no intention of going out of his way to hunt them down. It was far too much trouble. Besides, the old saying went that if you saw one bandit, there were actually thirty more hiding somewhere.
"So, um... I know it’s forward of me to ask, but what are your plans now, Lord Rei? We’re still a fair distance from the capital."
"Hm? Oh, I have business elsewhere. I was just passing through."
"Business? Might I ask where?"
The man's gaze sharpened for a split second. With their guards dead, securing a new protector was their top priority, and the person standing before them was the best guard they could ever hope to find. He asked with the intensity of someone determined not to let a golden opportunity slip away.
Rei didn't seem to notice or care.
"I’m heading to Count Obrisin's Territory."
For the representative, those words were a miracle.
"Oh! Truly? Our village is actually right on the border of Count Obrisin’s lands! If you’re going that way, would you consider letting us travel with you? We won't ask for free, of course. We’ll compensate you well!"
"Wait, stop it!"
A woman from the group hurried over, cutting off the man mid-sentence. When he looked at her in confusion, the woman—who appeared to be around his age—stuttered in a panic.
She was clearly terrified of the meat and bone scattered across the road. She kept her eyes fixed firmly away from Rei and Seto as she spoke.
"Don't you remember? Lord Rei was the runner-up in the tournament! There's an award ceremony he has to attend! We’re just heading home, but he can't miss that..."
Despite her logic, her eyes betrayed her true feeling: pure terror. She knew he was strong from the tournament, but those had been matches with rules meant to prevent death. Even the rare fatalities there were accidents.
But the Rei standing before her had slaughtered these men as easily as a farmer mows hay. He had reaped their lives with that giant scythe without a second thought.
To her, he was a monster.
"...But..."
The representative wasn't entirely immune to that fear either. Yet, he was certain that having Rei’s protection was their only real chance of making it home.
"Well, you don't need to worry about me."
Rei’s quiet mumble drew their attention. When they looked at him, he was gazing back toward the Imperial Capital.
They followed his line of sight and saw a small group approaching in the distance. They weren't a ragged band of bandits; they were armored and mounted. Knights, without a doubt.
"With those guys coming, you won't need to worry about escorts. ...Now, could you tell me the best road to Count Obrisin's Territory? It would save me some time."
"E-Eh? Ah, yes. Of course."
Faced with the arrival of actual knights, even the representative decided he would rather rely on the military than the terrifying boy.
He quickly gave Rei the directions he needed. After listening, Rei climbed onto Seto's back and the two of them soared into the clear sky.