Byune Flaut. A girl around ten years old who carried the blood of the Flaut family, once considered a noble house in the Labyrinth City Exil. The Flaut family itself, however, had fallen into decline roughly three hundred years ago and held little influence within Exil now.
Even so, she had been involved in various ways during the disturbance when Rei and Elena visited Exil the previous year, and things ultimately settled with her coming under the protection of Bosk Silwa, head of the Silwa family—another famous noble house in Exil.
Yet for some reason, right now, Byune was under attack by bandits alongside Vihera.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Byune."
The fist swung along with those words, clad in a gauntlet, easily shattered a bandit's jaw.
There was no doubt he would be limited to nothing but liquid food for a while. However, Vihera had no intention of allowing even that.
The follow-up strike unleashed just before he collapsed to the ground easily snapped the bandit's neck.
"Mm."
Byune deflected a bandit's longsword strike with her short dagger while giving a brief response to Vihera.
"Don't get cocky, you little shit!"
Byune's attitude must have rubbed him the wrong way. Or perhaps the fact that so many of his comrades had already lost their lives at Vihera's hands played a part.
The bandit shouted in anger as he swung his longsword high...
"Mm."
With that single short word, Byune leapt backward while quickly flicking her hand.
"Gyah!"
In that instant, the bandit's scream echoed through the surroundings as sharp, intense pain ran through his body.
When several of the bandits surrounding Vihera turned their gaze toward the screaming man, what they saw was a long, slender needle piercing straight through the palm that gripped his longsword.
"N-Needles!?"
At the unexpected sight, the bandit blurted out without thinking—but that proved to be a fatal opening. Before he realized it, the woman he had been surrounding was right in front of him.
Then came the impact.
The last thing the man saw was a shapely thigh.
Without even realizing that he had been kicked and his neck snapped, the man's life faded away in an instant.
"Oh my, were you trying to take me down with only this level of strength? I'd heard there were plenty of bandits near a town called Sablusta, so I was looking forward to a decent fight... Compared to this, the Holy Light Religion had more bite."
"Mm!"
At Vihera's words, Byune let out a short cry of protest.
Unlike Vihera, who had a disposition that found genuine enjoyment in battle, Byune did not see that much value in fighting.
Now that she no longer needed to desperately earn money the way she once had, her stronger inclination was simply to eliminate any enemies standing in her way and be done with it.
This was likely related to the fact that Byune was originally a bandit herself and not particularly skilled at combat.
For Byune, no matter how close she was to someone or how much she owed them, Vihera's obsession with combat was somewhat difficult to understand.
Having dived into dungeons purely for the sake of money, Byune had always felt that when it came to enemies, the easier they were to defeat, the better.
"Damn it! Why the hell are they so strong!? Who was the idiot who said we should attack them!"
"Shut up! This isn't the time to be pointing fingers! Figuring out how to deal with them comes first!"
One bandit shouted in frustration, and another surrounding Vihera shot back.
With spring arriving, the roads had grown busy with merchants, travelers, and others coming and going—which naturally meant prime earning season for bandit groups as well.
In particular, many bandits had spent the winter quietly holed up in their hideouts, since there was no prey to be found during the colder months.
Adventurers, even without money to survive the winter, could at least take requests at the Guild and find ways to earn an income.
Bandits, however, with few exceptions, could not earn money in towns.
Considering that, they endured a much harsher winter than adventurers ever would.
Having survived that harsh winter and finally reaching spring, this bandit group's first target was a merchant's carriage.
The woman guarding the carriage was a beauty unlike anything they had ever seen. Emboldened, they launched their attack with great enthusiasm... but the result now spread out before the bandits was a sight so unbelievable, so unthinkable, they could scarcely process it.
The number of bandits who had attacked the carriage was around twenty.
Those still standing had already dropped below ten, and among those standing, almost none were unscathed.
The bandits were in complete collapse.
In the first few minutes of the assault, they had understood that the woman clad in light clothing who looked like she was trying to seduce them—Vihera—was no ordinary person.
Even so, she was just a woman. If they attacked as a group, they could handle her—or so they had judged, blinded by Vihera's beauty. That miscalculation proved fatal.
After that, in a matter of mere moments, the number of bandits lying on the ground steadily climbed, leading to the current situation.
"Try a little harder. If you do, you might just be able to have me, you know?"
Provocative words occasionally slipped from Vihera's mouth.
Whenever the bandits tried to flee, she would press the attack, twisting her body in a way that seemed designed to stir the men's base desires.
Much like her attire, she moved as a dancer would.
Just a little more... just a little more effort, and they might be able to make that woman theirs.
The bandits convinced themselves of this, and as a result, their numbers had dwindled to this point.
"Mm!"
And it was not just Vihera guarding the carriage—Byune was there as well.
While a single strike from her would not kill them, long needles would come flying at them instead, and their hands and feet would be stabbed or slashed by her short dagger.
Even now, needles released by Byune pierced the men's hands, drawing screams of pain.
And above all...
"Damn it, at this rate we gotta run!"
The bandit who was about to voice the decision to flee was suddenly pierced through the torso by a spear that came flying in, pinning him to the ground.
He had been wearing leather armor, even if it was cheap, but the flying spear tore through his body and armor alike as if neither existed.
"Wha—!"
The surviving bandits cried out in shock at the sight of their comrade suddenly skewered right before their eyes.
But it was not only the bandits and those in the merchant carriage who cried out in astonishment.
Byune was never one to talk much, and she would never betray her emotions over something like this. As for Vihera, she immediately understood who had come from a spear thrown out of the sky.
"Rei!"
Vihera called out with a full smile.
That expression was not the alluring one she had worn moments ago while provoking the bandits. It was one of pure, unfiltered joy—a smile that could even be called innocent.
Seeing Vihera's smile now, it would be hard to believe she was the same woman who had been wearing that seductive look just seconds before.
Though that was only true of her expression. Her body remained as provocative as ever, reminiscent of a dancer or a prostitute.
And it was the bandits who reacted with extreme sensitivity to Vihera's demeanor—or more precisely, to the name that had just left her lips.
"Rei!? Bandit Eater Rei!?"
When one of the surviving bandits shouted, the rest seemed to understand exactly what kind of person Rei was.
Turning their backs to Vihera at a speed that made it hard to believe they had been desperately trying to capture her just moments ago, they bolted from the scene in a dead sprint.
This was near Sablusta, not far from Gilm.
Naturally, they knew all too well about the man named Rei in Gilm.
In particular, the words "Bandit Eater" spoken by one of their own could only portend an unfortunate end for them.
The truly unfortunate thing for the bandits was not just that Rei had found them—it was that they had no horses.
When they had first launched their attack, horses had been part of the group, but the bandits riding them were the first to lose their lives thanks to Vihera and Byune's efforts.
The horses had fled the scene at that point, leaving the bandits with no means of escape but their own two feet.
Even with weapons in hand, carrying them would only slow them down, so they threw aside their weapons and tried to bolt all at once—in that moment...
Slash!
With that sound, a deep gash was carved into the ground ahead of where the bandits were trying to flee.
They had been fighting in a location slightly off the main road, so it was fortunate that the road itself suffered no damage. Though for the bandits, "fortunate" was hardly the word.
Seeing the ground ahead of their escape route slashed open for several meters, the bandits reflexively stopped in their tracks.
Their experience as bandits and the intuition honed through surviving countless dangers told them that ignoring this warning and pressing on would undoubtedly cost them their lives.
Having stopped and barely secured their lives for the moment, the bandits found that in the very next instant, the person responsible for that death-threatening strike appeared before their eyes.
"Gururururuuh!"
Riding that person was Gryphon Seto.
An A-Rank monster—not something mere bandits could ever hope to deal with.
Set had descended from the sky, blocking the bandits' escape route.
"Where do you think you're going? You don't... think you can get away from me, do you?"
Rei, riding on Set's back and holding a scythe taller than himself, presented a figure that could fittingly be called the very symbol of death to the bandits.
Bandit Eater... One of the bandits suddenly recalled the words his comrade had shouted moments ago.
Ordinarily, bandits were those who earned their daily bread by attacking merchants, travelers, and sometimes even adventurers or mercenaries.
But there existed one who preyed on bandits in turn.
Someone who raided bandit hideouts, claimed their hoarded treasures for themselves, and—if the bandits were still alive—sold them off as slaves.
And yet, because the targets were bandits, the residents of nearby towns and villages would express nothing but gratitude. An opponent that was nothing short of a nightmare for people like them.
Of course, having some skill with a blade did not mean just anyone could pull off such a thing.
It was only possible for someone who possessed overwhelming combat prowess as an individual.
That such an opponent stood right before them felt somehow unreal.
No—he vaguely understood that his own instincts were doing this, softening the terror toward the figure before him to keep him functional.
If they fought, they would lose. That much was certain. And even if they tried to flee, with the opponent riding a gryphon, escape was next to impossible.
"That's right. You were so desperately trying to get your hands on me just a moment ago. Isn't this a bit cold?"
What came from behind the bandits was Vihera's voice.
Sandwiched between opponents they absolutely could not defeat no matter which direction they turned, the bandits had only two options: quietly discard their weapons and surrender, or...
"U-Uwooooooooh!"
Believing in the slimmest chance of a miracle, they chose the only other option left—try to incapacitate Rei, the one who held the advantage of flight.
Following the first bandit who charged at Rei, the rest rushed forward, having judged that staying put meant either death or, at best, being sold into slavery.
"Idiots."
Rei muttered as he dismounted from Set's back and stood on the ground to meet their charge.
(Better to keep them alive than kill them.)
So Rei thought—but not out of any pious sentiment about the sanctity of life or a reluctance to kill.
Partly because dead men couldn't be interrogated about the location of their hideout, and partly because handing them over to the Guard Force as slaves was more profitable the greater their numbers.
Rei shifted his body just enough to dodge the longsword strike of the bandit who charged at him first, then drove the pommel of Death Scythe into the man's solar plexus.
The bandit was wearing leather armor, but while armor made from high-rank monster hide might have been another story, the cheap leather a bandit could afford could do nothing against the pommel's blow.
"Guboh!"
Even so, Rei's strike was sufficiently restrained. The bandit collapsed on the spot, vomiting not blood but stomach fluid.
Several more bandits followed, attacking one after another, but each and every one was rendered unable to fight by a single blow from Rei.
The last one remaining was a bandit wielding a curved sword.
Seeing his comrades fall in the blink of an eye, he froze, paralyzed by shock and fear.
(That's unusual.)
Longswords and spears were common enough sights, but a curved sword was something Rei had rarely seen since coming to this world.
It was not something he could use himself, but he judged that claiming it was better than destroying it. He swung Death Scythe horizontally, striking the man's torso with the handle.
The bandit was sent flying and lost consciousness instantly.
"That should be all of them."
Looking around, there were no bandits left standing.
Confirming that, Rei turned toward Vihera, who was walking toward him, and spoke.
"It's been a while."
"Yes, indeed. I'm glad to see you're well. ...I missed you..."
Vihera murmured with a smile, then pressed her lips against Rei's.