"Keep riding! Right wing, cut off the Bandits' retreat while continuing to fire arrows! Left wing, the Bandits are few in number! Swing around and hit them from the flank!"
Following Sura's orders, several dozen carriages moved out in each direction.
Seeing this, the Bandits realized their escape routes were being sealed off by the carriages, and panic set in.
"Hey, they've gotten behind us!"
"Gyaaah, the arrows! The arrows!"
"Damn it! Who the hell said we should attack such a vicious group?! Go tell the Boss that!"
The shouts of Bandits echoed all around as they tried to shield themselves from the truly rain-like deluge of arrows pouring down from the carriages behind them, using their own comrades as cover.
...The Bandits being used as shields initially tried to complain, but with several arrows piercing their faces, staying alive was no longer an option.
"Like hell! The area near Sablusta is the best earning ground there is — tell that to the Boss, he's the one who said there weren't any Bandits around!"
With arrows raining down from every direction and their comrades dying one after another, one of the surviving Bandits screamed — and the next moment, his cheek twitched as he caught sight of a mass of carriages charging straight toward them.
"They're charging right at us! Everyone, scatter!"
Just as that Bandit shouted, the carriages — dozens of them — came barreling straight into the Bandit group.
The Bandit who had instinctively cried out was by no means wrong. He wasn't wrong, but... if every Bandit scattered and fled here, it would inevitably mean allowing what amounted to a rout under the guise of picking them off one by one.
Knowing this full well, the Bandits hesitated over what to do... and that hesitation cost them. The carriages crashed through their ranks, and they were trampled.
Even those who somehow managed to flee were cut down one after another by arrows fired from each carriage... and it did not take long before the Bandits — who had recklessly attacked on the sole basis that the group was almost entirely women — were completely annihilated.
"So, any casualties?"
"Of course not. Not a single one."
The Wolf Beastman woman replied to Sura, who led this group, in an exasperated tone, and the others nodded in agreement.
After the battle — or rather, the rout — with the Bandits was over, the key figures of this group gathered in one place.
All around them, Bandit corpses were being piled together and set alight to prevent them from turning into Undead, while others stripped away weapons, armor, and anything of value.
Normally, they would have interrogated the Bandits to find their hideout and raid it — imitating the methods of Rei, who had saved them. However, since they had learned from the surviving Bandits that this group had only just arrived in the area today and had not yet established a hideout, that step was skipped.
To the Bandits, the group — with over a hundred carriages, the horses pulling them, and composed almost entirely of attractive women — looked like drool-worthy prey. They had attacked Sura's group to boldly announce their arrival near Sablusta, their prime hunting ground... and the result was the total annihilation of their band.
The attacking Bandits had surely never anticipated it.
That nearly everyone riding in those hundred-plus carriages was a combatant.
Even so, few among them could wield weapons like longswords or spears in close combat.
Those would be the hired adventurers serving as escorts, and only a small number of the women.
Instead... nearly all of the women had training in the bow.
Since they had only begun practicing archery during this journey, their skill was by no means high.
There were more than a few who could barely manage to loose an arrow forward.
But... if they could fire arrows forward — and not just a handful, but dozens or more, several people, a dozen, several dozen, or even more all loosing at once... it was enough to be reasonably described as a rain of arrows.
As a result, the opening volley threw the Bandits into complete confusion... and they were ultimately subjected to a one-sided assault, barely able to fight back at all.
"Now then. According to the information we picked up at our last stop, this area was supposed to be safe, but... what do you all think?"
Sura said this, her gaze sweeping over the people present.
Sharia — the Wolf Beastman who had been abducted by Jaya, forced into prostitution at Mejougo, had her Slave Collar removed for reasons unknown, and later joined the Resistance through Rei's mediation, becoming one of their foremost combat assets.
Gimekara of the Zorgeh Merchant Guild, which supported this group financially and had supplied their greatest weapons — bows and arrows — along with carriages, escort adventurers, and various other necessities.
Rocks, an adventurer affiliated with Gilm, who commanded the escort adventurers hired during the journey and could safely be called the core of their combat power.
And Sura, who, having led the Resistance at Mejougo, had naturally fallen into the role of leader for this group as well.
There were a few other fairly important people, but those present here were, for the time being, the ones who could be called the central figures of this group.
"You're right. As far as I know, there were quite a few Bandits around Sablusta."
Being an adventurer affiliated with Gilm, Rocks was reasonably familiar with the situation in this area.
At his words, everyone wore expressions that said they had expected as much.
However, there was no despair or resignation in those faces.
...Naturally. After all, they had just annihilated the attacking Bandits without a single casualty.
"In that case, what should we do? Should we push on to Sablusta a bit faster?"
At Sharia's words, Sura's expression turned troubled.
"Given that there were Bandits near Sablusta, there's no guarantee there aren't others still out there. Rushing makes you let your guard down... so wouldn't it be better to keep going at our current pace?"
"I agree. There are no more Zorgeh Merchant Guild branches in this area. We do have connections with another merchant guild, so I don't think we'll be completely unable to obtain information, but..."
She closed with the caveat that it wasn't guaranteed to be reliable.
Having connections meant, by definition, that it was a different merchant guild from the Zorgeh Merchant Guild.
Naturally, they would prioritize their own guild's interests over the Zorgeh Merchant Guild's... and depending on the circumstances, they might even try to lure the Zorgeh Merchant Guild into some kind of trap.
That was precisely why they couldn't trust the information as completely as they would from a Zorgeh Merchant Guild branch.
"I've also heard that many people in Sablusta have ties to Bandits... Would it be worth probing the Guild for information?"
Gimekara gave a slightly hesitant nod at Rocks's suggestion.
"You're right. The fact that we're getting closer to the frontier means the Guild's influence is naturally growing stronger... Well, it's not impossible that there are people within the Guild who have ties to Bandits, either..."
Gimekara trailed off, but in his heart, he was certain that several people had connections to Bandits.
Still, when it came to information, the more sources, the greater the reliability.
In that sense, gathering information from multiple sources was by no means a mistake.
Given that, there was no reason for Gimekara to oppose Rocks's suggestion.
"In any case, once we arrive at Gilm, Rei should be there. Until then, we just have to keep at it."
At Sura's words, everyone present nodded.
Then, a single woman appeared.
She wasn't an enemy... and she was someone Sura recognized.
"Sura, we've finished stripping the bodies. Disposal is complete too, so we can depart at any time."
"I see. Then... let's move forward. Right now, we need to get closer to Gilm, even if only a little. Though once we pass this point, we shouldn't have to worry about Bandits anymore, right?"
Sura's gaze turned to Rocks, but the man himself opened his mouth with a somewhat difficult expression.
"I'm not so sure. Honestly, before the Expansion Construction began, I could have nodded with confidence. But now there are far more merchants passing through too, so there's no telling whether Bandits targeting them are lurking about. Especially at this time of year — there are merchants who rush here and rush back just as quickly. Those kinds of merchants sometimes don't bother hiring escorts, making them easy prey for Bandits."
To Rocks, traveling the frontier without an escort was nothing short of suicide.
He thought so, but... merchants who wanted to save even a little money, or those who had spent too much on purchasing goods and couldn't afford to hire escorts, were not uncommon at this time of year.
For that reason, it was impossible to say that no one seeking a quick fortune was operating even within the frontier.
Of course, through training up to this point, this group had become something less of horse archers and more of a Carriage Cavalry.
And with this many people, there were naturally former hunters, former adventurers, and even some who had never touched a bow before but turned out to have a talent for it.
Given all that, even if Bandits lay ahead beyond Sablusta, Rocks's prediction was that it would end up as another one-sided massacre like this one.
"Anyway, for now we should hurry and—"
Just as Sura was about to say they should move forward, Gimekara cut in.
"Wait a moment. Not departing immediately and resting here for a bit seems to be the best choice right now."
Gimekara said this abruptly, his gaze directed upward at the sky.
And for someone in this group to look up at the sky and say such a thing carried one very specific meaning.
Understanding this, Sura and the others reflexively turned their eyes upward.
And there, as expected... was the figure of Set, wings beating the air.
Since he had come today with just Rei and was not carrying the Set Basket, his form could be made out clearly even from the ground.
"It seems Gimekara made the right call."
At Sura's words, everyone nodded.
Naturally, if the people who could be called the leadership of this group all looked up at the sky like that, the others would follow suit.
Once that happened, it didn't take long for word of Rei and Set's arrival to spread among the rest.
And... within this group, there were those who adored Set, and cheers erupted at the sight of him for the first time in a while.
"Kyaa! It's Set-chan! Set-chan!"
"Set-chan, over here, over here! Come on, come here!"
"We've got delicious dried meat here! Homemade dried meat we made ourselves!"
They each called out to Set, appealing for him to come their way... but Set, naturally, descended near Sura's group.
That was because Rei had instructed him to do so, though the women could only feel disappointed at the outcome.
Still, they knew full well that Set adored Rei, so they weren't particularly dejected about it.
...If anything, the women racked their brains trying to come up with some excuse — any errand at all — that would give them a reason to go over to where Sura and the others were.
"Was there some kind of commotion?"
Rei, dismounting from Set, asked the question even though he could roughly guess what the uproar had been about.
"Yes. Bandits, actually. I'd heard that adventurers — including a certain someone — had mostly wiped out the Bandits in this area, but..."
Sura's gaze as she spoke carried a faint hint of reproach.
The fact that it remained only a faint hint was because she understood that a fair amount of time had passed since Rei and his group had carried out the Bandit subjugation here.
It would be one thing if it had been right after they defeated them, but a considerable amount of time had already gone by.
Under those circumstances, blaming the appearance of Bandits would be nothing but selfish — Sura understood that as well.
Besides, defeating Bandits brought its own benefits in many ways.
First, stripping items from the defeated Bandits... though since this group's primary method of attack was archery, the close-combat weapons they took could only really be sold for cash.
Searching for Bandit hideouts... some Bandits carried a fair amount of valuables, and there were sometimes captives to be found.
Selling captured Bandits as slaves... was, given that the majority of this group was women, fraught with danger, so they only did so when a town or village was nearby.
...As a result, the cost of the arrows they had used turned out to be higher than their gains... but it was an undeniable fact that a group following the teachings of Rei, the feared Bandit Eater, was gradually taking shape.