Rei caught the strike of the longsword aimed at him—not with the Death Scythe in his right hand, but with his empty left hand.
When the man saw this, a triumphant, satisfied grin flashed across his face for a split second. He was sure he had won.
Under normal circumstances, his reasoning would have been sound. Had Rei been wearing gauntlets, it might have been different, but he had turned a bare palm toward the blade. The thief intended to slice right through that left hand and split Rei's skull open on the backswing.
However, the man's expression froze as the blade of his longsword snapped cleanly at the hilt the moment it touched Rei's hand. For a moment, he couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
"...Huh?"
It was a bewildered mutter, the kind of sound one should never let slip in the heat of a life-or-death struggle.
But the scene before the man's eyes left him no choice but to let out such a dazed sound.
Who could have possibly imagined it? Catching the blade of a longsword with a bare palm—and then snapping it at the base, no less.
The moment his thoughts ground to a halt at the sight, the man's consciousness was swallowed by darkness, and he collapsed to the ground.
"Phew. For now, I've managed to figure out how to hold back. ...To a certain extent, anyway."
Rei muttered to himself as he looked down at the unconscious man.
This bandit gang had ambushed Rei while he was resting for lunch, but only two remained alive, including the man Rei had just knocked out.
"Guruuu?"
Is it over? Seto let out a cry as if asking that, and Rei reached out to stroke the gryphon's head.
"Still, there really are more bandits lately. I guess I should assume the news about the civil strife has completely leaked out."
It had been several hours since he had received directions to Count Obrisin's Territory. Feeling a bit hungry, Rei and Seto had descended to a grove they spotted from above to eat and take a post-meal break... and that was when these seven bandits had appeared.
If Rei had been napping with Seto as a pillow like usual, the bandits might have noticed the presence of a gryphon.
Unfortunately, Seto had been enjoying a nap in the shade deeper inside the grove, leaving only Rei in plain sight.
Furthermore, because he was resting, Rei had lowered the hood of his Dragon Robe, leaving his girlish face exposed—another stroke of misfortune. For the bandits, at least.
The bandits had demanded Rei hand over his valuables and threatened to sell him to a slave trader, but once Rei pulled the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring, they realized they had been deceived by his appearance and attacked... and the result was this scene of heaps of corpses.
"Two bandit gangs in just a few hours. ...Normally, I'd be happy about the loot."
Even as he said this, Rei scanned his surroundings once more.
Of the seven, only two seemed to be alive.
Two of the five dead had been slain by the Death Scythe, and one had tried to flee into the woods only to be sent flying by Seto's front leg, ending its life. However, as for the remaining two, Rei had failed to properly control the Overlord's Armor; their torsos had been pulverized into mincemeat or, like the thief_man with the battle axe from a few hours ago, their heads had been completely blown away.
From Rei's perspective, he had intended to hit them very lightly... in his mind, he felt as if he had barely brushed against them with the strength of a gentle touch. Yet the power was still too great, and the points of contact had been reduced to scraps of flesh.
"Even when I'm that careful, it ends up like that... How on earth does Noise control it that well?"
The fight between Noise and Ruzy during the fighting tournament flickered through Rei's mind.
Noise had caught a thrust from a custom-made claymore—larger than usual—using only the sword tip of his own magic sword.
And he had done so without harming Ruzy's body, without damaging the claymore, and, of course, without damaging his own magic sword.
Just how much advanced magic power control technique was required to pull that off? Rei only truly understood it now that he was attempting it himself.
Even for the two who had somehow survived, one had lost his right arm from the shoulder down, with blood, flesh, and bone splattered across the trees beyond him.
By pure chance, the spot Rei's attack hit was the right arm, so he hadn't died instantly, but at this rate, he would undoubtedly bleed to death.
And as for the final survivor, the man who had lost consciousness from Rei's attack...
"Ugh..."
I blew it. Rei looked up at the sky, feeling a sense of regret.
"Gurulululuuu."
Seto rubbed its face against Rei as if to comfort him.
Indeed, the man in front of Rei was not dead. ...He wasn't dead, technically. Although the qualifier "in his current state" was necessary.
The unconscious man was wearing half plate. It was rare equipment for a thief, who usually prioritized agility and stealth, so Rei imagined the man was likely a prominent fighter in the group.
...Yes. He was wearing half plate. His current state required the past tense.
The armor, which was supposed to be made of metal, had been shattered and cracked by the single strike Rei had dealt.
Since it was metal, it should have naturally dented upon receiving a heavy impact. However, this half plate was shattered and split.
Rei had intended to punch with as little power as possible, but it seemed the output was still too high.
If one took a hit powerful enough to shatter half plate, the contents... the internal organs, naturally wouldn't escape unscathed.
He was still breathing for now, but his life ending was only a matter of time.
Eventually, Rei stopped his self-reflection and lightly kicked the man who was unconscious from the previous blow to wake him.
The fact that he kicked the leg rather than the torso with the damaged organs was perhaps Rei's version of mercy.
Though the primary reason was that it would be a problem if the man died before he could extract information.
"Ugh... gah, hah... hah..."
Rei spoke to the man, who had regained consciousness while coughing up blood-stained phlegm.
"Well, now that you're awake, let's get straight to a fun interrogation."
"...Inter... rogation?"
"Yeah. There are a few things I want to know, but first, tell me this: where is your hideout?"
"...What do you... intend to do with that?"
Rei didn't answer the man's suspicious gaze; instead, he pulled a potion from his Misty Ring.
"I thought about giving you this potion in exchange for information. What do you think?"
"That's... gh, gofuh!"
The man tried to say something, but he vomited blood again before he could.
"I'll tell you now, your internal organs are probably heavily damaged. It seems they were wrecked along with your half plate by my strike. At this rate, you'll be dead soon. Though it'd be a different story if you used this potion."
Dead. Having that declared so flatly, the man reflexively looked at his own torso.
Sure enough, his half plate was visible there, shattered around the chest area.
"I'm... going to die?"
"Yeah, definitely at this rate. If you want to be saved... you know what to do, right?"
Rei didn't finish the sentence, prompting the man to continue.
Looking at Rei... and then seeing Seto staring intently at him from nearby, the man's will broke completely.
"I understand. I'll tell you the hideout's location. So, give me that potion..."
"Information about the hideout comes first. You might be lying, after all."
"...It's a little ways into the depths of this grove. Gufuh... about... an hour's distance away, there's a cave. That's our hideout."
He coughed and spat blood even as he spoke, his body clearly informing him that he was heading toward death.
Beaten by the fear of death, the thief easily revealed the hideout's location and turned a pleading gaze toward Rei.
"I-I told you where the hideout is. H-Hurry, the potion..."
At those words, Rei looked at the potion in his hand... and then closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them, he simply stored the potion back into his Misty Ring.
"What!?"
The man looked like he couldn't comprehend what had just happened, but Rei spoke to him.
"After thinking about it, I've decided that giving you a potion would just let a thief survive, which would only lead to trouble later."
He declared.
...Indeed. What Rei had told the man was not that he would give him the potion if he talked, but that he would consider whether or not to give it.
And after considering it, he judged that saving a man who had lived as a bandit would only result in future calamity.
"W-Wait. Please wait! I told you the location properly, didn't I? I'll quit being a thief. So, please..."
The man's complexion had already gone past pale and turned white.
He was going to die very soon. Realizing this, the man desperately pleaded with Rei. However...
"Did you save your victims when they said the same thing to you?"
At those words from Rei, the man's cheek twitched.
In truth, he had enjoyed the act of killing those who begged for their lives as if he were toying with them.
Just by looking at the man's expression, Rei understood the nature of the man begging for his life.
"I... I saved them! W-We are thieves who know honor and compassion. We let those who quietly handed over their valuables go without killing them!"
He would certainly die if Rei left now. Understanding that, the man desperately made his claim.
The words he had used when he looked at Rei as foolish prey seemed to have already vanished from his head.
Even now, a burning pain was ravaging the inside of his body. If he didn't drink the potion and heal his organs soon, he would die. It was a desperate plea, but...
"Is that so? Then this is all I can give you."
Rei gripped the Death Scythe and, without another word, swung it in a flash. The man's head was severed and spun through the air; for a split second, he saw his own headless torso in his line of sight... and then his consciousness fell into darkness.
"Scum."
Rei swung the Death Scythe, but because that last flash had perfectly combined his physical ability and skill, not a single drop of blood clung to the blade.
Satisfied that the blood of the depraved hadn't touched the Death Scythe's blade, Rei nodded and stored the weapon in his Misty Ring.
"Guruuu?"
What are we doing now? Seto let out a rumble from its throat. Rei stroked its head with a smile.
"Naturally, we're going to raid their hideout, finish off any remaining bandits, and take whatever treasures they've hoarded. So, can I count on you?"
"Gurulululululu!"
Realizing what Rei was asking, Seto let out a loud cry and crouched down so Rei could easily climb onto its back.
Once Rei hopped onto its back with a light movement that made his weight seem non-existent, Seto took a few steps to build speed and then flapped its wings to soar into the sky.
Witnessing Seto's departure, the monsters and wild animals in the grove quietly hid themselves, waiting for the danger to pass.
The air was wonderfully autumnal, making one wonder what that midsummer-like heat during the fighting tournament had been about.
As night fell, the coolness increased, and some people would even start to feel cold. Amidst this, Rei was flying through the night sky astride Seto's back.
"Hmm? Ah, is that the place the Third Prince Faction is using as a base? ...Still, there really were a lot of bandits. I hope those aren't bandits over there too."
He muttered, recalling that he had defeated three groups of bandits before reaching this point.
Once because travelers were being attacked, once during his lunch break, and once this morning when he encountered them attacking a merchant—three times in total.
Considering it was only a two-day journey, the encounter rate for bandits was extremely high.
Though if he hadn't run into the merchant being attacked, Rei and Seto probably wouldn't have reached Count Obrisin's Territory yet.
He had gotten detailed directions from the merchant he saved today, and thanks to that, he had finally arrived.
...However, considering that a journey taking two days for a normal human from the Imperial Capital took two days for Rei while riding a flying Seto, it could be said that he had been quite lost.
But Rei had his excuses. Maps in this world were extremely rare and valuable, not something an adventurer like Rei could obtain easily. Moreover, even if he asked for directions, they were for those traveling on the ground.
For Rei, who was riding a flying Seto, there were many things he simply couldn't distinguish from above.
"Well, I made it in two days, so I'll call it good."
He muttered. By the way, I guess the award ceremony is over by now, Rei thought as he signaled Seto to descend toward the entrance of the ground-based encampment.
He understood that he was causing Daskar various troubles regarding the award ceremony incident, but he hoped there wouldn't be any major problems. Or so he hoped.