"Well then, the others will come around evening, so do your best until then—!"
An adventurer riding a carriage waved broadly at Rei and the others who remained behind as he departed.
The number of adventurers still present at the site had already decreased considerably. They had entrusted the inventories of their recovered treasures and the captured bandits to the transport team, then dispersed into the surrounding area to search for their next targets.
"Amazing, that carriage. ...The bandits have it rough, though."
An adventurer standing beside Rei muttered as he watched the departing carriage.
Rei had to honestly agree. The carriages were loaded with massive quantities of treasure obtained by the adventurers — including weapons and armor — and the captured bandits were walking as though being dragged along behind them.
The speed itself was not particularly fast, but since the carriages moved at a steady pace, if any of the bandits tripped or reached a point where they could no longer walk, they would be dragged along, placing a significant burden on the others as well. And this would continue all the way to Gilm.
Naturally, they remained bound even when sleeping at night, and since there were no bathroom breaks, they simply soiled themselves. Since they could not be killed, they were provided to some extent with preserved food such as dried meat and hard-baked bread, as well as water, which was essential under the intense summer sun — but even that was not given generously. At best, it was just enough to keep them alive until they reached Gilm.
...Weakened bandits would naturally fetch lower prices when sold as slaves, but the adventurers participating in the bandit hunt were fully aware of this when they handed them over. If they absolutely did not want their captured bandits to weaken, they could have arranged their own transport. Understanding this, they had entrusted them to the adventurers arranged by the Guild — or more precisely, at Daskar's request — so they had no grounds for complaint.
"Well, thinking about what the bandits have done up until now, I'd say it's a natural result. In that sense, Tarania got off rather easy."
Whether she had heard Rei's words or not, Elena, who had been watching Set and Ielo playing a short distance away, approached him.
"Even so. Right now, Tarania is strictly a suspect. The words of the bandits alone cannot serve as decisive evidence. Until solid evidence emerges, he cannot be treated the same as the bandits."
"...I think it's obvious he's completely guilty, though?"
"Even so, given his position as the Local Deputy's direct subordinate, a certain degree of consideration must be shown. Of course, there is no doubt that the deputy and the noble who appointed him will face a great deal of trouble from here on."
The reason she said this was, unsurprisingly, because Sablusta was territory held by Noble Faction nobles. Despite Duke Kerebel, the head of the Noble's Faction, having issued orders not to interfere with Gilm's Expansion Construction, this incident had occurred.
Disregarding her father's orders, causing trouble for Gilm — and for Rei — as a result, and inflicting great harm on innocent people to satisfy selfish desires... for various reasons, Elena harbored anger toward Tarania and his superior, the Local Deputy. So much so that, if possible, she wished to head straight to Sablusta and capture the deputy herself.
But right now, she could not reach that far. Understanding this, she chose to focus first on dealing with the bandits still active in the area. In fact, if asked which would have a more immediate effect — eliminating bandits here or capturing the deputy — it would naturally be eliminating the ones actively operating.
(Come to think of it, I wonder what the survivors of that bandit group I defeated before ended up doing. The fact that this many bandits have still been caught... does that mean it wasn't as effective as I thought? Well, considering that thanks to them we're able to capture this many, I suppose it worked out in the end.)
So Rei thought, but in reality, the information spread by the bandits he had released at that time had caused the cautious and capable ones to already vanish from the area around Sablusta. They understood that attacking merchant convoys under the current circumstances — with the Expansion Construction drawing so much traffic through Gilm — was a high-risk, high-reward gamble, and they had judged accordingly.
As bandit groups with enough skill to operate near the frontier outside Sablusta, they decided there was no reason to take on that level of risk when they could simply relocate. In fact, among those who had disappeared, some were skilled enough to hold their own against the average high-rank adventurer. For bandits of that caliber, there were countless places where they might earn less than around Sablusta but be far safer.
...Of course, that also meant when those same bandits resumed their activities elsewhere, the low-rank adventurers in rural areas would be completely helpless against them.
"Alright, we're off to find the next batch of bandits too."
"Yeah. Word that a lot of bandits have been hunted down has probably reached the others by now. Don't expect things to go as smoothly as they did at the start — stay alert to your surroundings while you move."
"I know. I may not look it, but I'm fairly confident in my skills, you know?"
"You'd better be. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been called for this request. ...Even so, better safe than sorry, right?"
"True. I'll keep that in mind. See you."
With that, the adventurer who had been talking with Rei headed back to his companions. Before long, the number of other adventurers still remaining had dwindled even further.
"Rei, what do we do now? Are we splitting into three groups after all?"
The first to voice her agreement with Elena's suggestion was Vihera. For her part, Vihera wanted to fight as many opponents as possible. Given that, splitting into three groups was exactly what she had been hoping for.
"I agree with Elena. If we can thin the bandits' numbers even a little here, it'll help Gilm's Expansion Construction progress that much faster, won't it?"
Rei and the others knew that Vihera's true motive differed from her stated reason — or more precisely, wasn't entirely what she claimed — but no one called her out on it. After all, it was undeniable that reducing the number of bandits here would make things safer for the merchants passing through the area around Sablusta.
Since that was the stated goal, there was no reason for Rei not to nod in agreement with Vihera and Elena.
"Understood. Then let's do exactly that. We'll each head off separately."
True to his words, Rei and the others set off in different directions from that spot. Rei went with Set; Marina with Vihera and Byune; and Elena with Ara and Ielo. Once those three groups departed, the last remaining adventurers also filed into the forest.
...Several of them headed in the direction Rei's group had gone. Whether they were hoping to scavenge leftovers from the bandits Rei and Set had killed, or thinking there might be other bandits lurking where Rei's group was headed, was a matter of each adventurer's own judgment.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it."
In one of the carriages rolling toward Gilm, Tarania was frantically wracking his brain for some way out of his current predicament.
He muttered incessantly, biting the thumbnail of his right hand — whether out of habit or not — while the adventurer guards sharing the carriage fixed him with exasperated stares.
At first, one of the adventurers had tried to strike up a conversation to help him relax, but after being told by Tarania not to speak so casually to him — a filthy adventurer, in Tarania's words — it was only natural that the adventurer no longer felt inclined to try. Yet if the adventurers conversed among themselves, they would only draw Tarania's displaced frustration.
The group forming the caravan, including the adventurers riding in this carriage, were among those who had once been detained by Tarania in Sablusta. That said, "detained" did not mean they had been thrown into cells or subjected to interrogation — they had simply been forced to accompany the bandit handover — so they did not harbor that much resentment. Moreover, thanks to Elena's intervention, Tarania had gone from heaven to hell, from the Local Deputy's direct subordinate to a criminal — still technically a suspect, but a criminal nonetheless — so their feelings of pity outweighed any lingering anger.
Because of that, even watching Tarania's behavior, they had enough patience to let it slide.
"Why am I suffering like this... that's right, it's all because of the bandits. It's those bandits' fault. Why couldn't they understand what my eye signals meant?"
He muttered with undisguised irritation, but to begin with, expecting someone to grasp his intentions from a glance when they had never coordinated beforehand was utterly unreasonable.
All Tarania could do now was think of a way to fix his situation — or more accurately, go through the motions of thinking while escaping from reality.
He himself believed he was earnestly searching for a way out, but given that Elena already knew his name and face, even if he somehow managed to escape this carriage, he would have nowhere to go afterward.
Perhaps unable to bear the oppressive atmosphere inside the carriage any longer, one of the adventurers suddenly spoke up. Even knowing it might draw Tarania's ire, he could no longer stand the gloom.
"The bandits are idiots, really. Getting themselves caught for the sake of a little temporary pleasure, dragged along behind a carriage and forced to walk... and in the end, they'll just be sold off as slaves."
Why did it have to be that topic, of all things!
That was the heartfelt sentiment of every other adventurer in the carriage. They could have talked about autumn approaching, or anything else — why this...?
"Heh, hehe... I see. So you're saying that I, too, am no different from the bandits, is that it? You filthy adventurer. I can easily imagine what sort of person your parent must be. A poor upbringing means a poor mind. Everything about you is inferior, which is exactly why you'll spend your entire life serving others."
For Tarania, it was a textbook case of displaced anger. He was already agonizing over his hopeless situation when someone had to go and mock the very bandits he had been associated with. It was hardly surprising that he felt as though he, too, was being called a fool.
And so, channeling every ounce of his unbearable frustration into the moment, Tarania lashed out at the adventurer who had made the flippant remark... but it was clearly a step too far.
The adventurer on the receiving end might not have been so angry if Tarania had only insulted him. But dragging his parent into it — that was something he could not let slide.
"Filthy adventurer, huh. Never thought I'd be called that by a filthy criminal. Well, you — connected to bandits as you are — could end up executed outright if things go poorly. And even in the best case, you'll be sold as a slave. ...Hah, a fitting end for a filthy criminal. Or should I say, a filthy slave?"
"Wh—!?"
He had never imagined a mere adventurer would talk back to him. Tarania was dumbfounded for a moment, but the realization that he had been insulted hit him immediately, and his face flushed crimson with rage.
He could insult others, but no one insulted him. That was Tarania's understanding of how the world worked.
And it wasn't necessarily wrong. In fact, up until now, it had been correct.
But that was only true up until now. Yes — it had been possible precisely because he held the position of the Local Deputy's direct subordinate in Sablusta.
Born and raised as the second son of a relatively large merchant guild in a certain town, he had worked without any notable failures even after coming of age. But since the eldest son was equally capable, succession had naturally fallen to him. Of course, if Tarania had been willing, he could have worked under the eldest son or been entrusted with a branch in another town.
But the sting of losing to his brother had been more than he could bear, and so Tarania had walked away. Afterward, through his cunning, his shrewdness, and his capable abilities — by general standards, at least — he had forged a connection with the Local Deputy and made his way to Sablusta.
And now, someone like himself was being mocked by a mere adventurer.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, something inside his head snapped, and in the next instant, Tarania's consciousness plunged into darkness.