"Umm... huh? How did things end up like this?"
With a sigh, even as the breath left his lips, Rei swung Death Scythe to sever the torso of a charging bandit, then used the Twilight Spear to knock away an arrow loosed from behind.
While en route to Egginis, he had spotted a carriage being pursued by what appeared to be bandits. The moment he saw it, Rei thought again? but immediately signaled Seto and dove toward the ground.
They had already moved far from Gilm, and this was an area Rei had never visited before. For that very reason, it was not strange for bandits to be lurking here. Moreover, it was not uncommon for those struggling to feed themselves or failed adventurers and mercenaries to turn to banditry. Among them were even those who normally worked as mercenaries or adventurers but resorted to banditry when work dried up.
Since they were mounted on horses and chasing the carriage, Rei judged that these bandits possessed at least some combat skills, and he ambushed them from behind.
Normally, a horse running at full speed is not so easily caught. But when it came to Seto, that was a different story. In flying speed, he naturally surpassed horses, and even in ground running speed, he outpaced them. Because of that, attacking the bandits was not particularly difficult. After dealing a heavy blow in the surprise attack, Rei moved into full-scale combat with the remaining bandits.
That said, while the opponents possessed a certain degree of combat skill, it was only a certain degree at best. Given that they were far from the frontier city of Gilm, their strength was nothing impressive. As a result, the battle could only be described as a rout.
The misfortune for the bandits was that not only Rei but also Seto was present. An A-Rank Adventurer, Dragon Slayer, and Bandit Eater Rei, alongside Seto, a monster equivalent to S-Rank. Being attacked by such an extraordinary pair—there was no worse scenario for the bandits.
"Damn it! What the hell, what the hell are you!"
Overwhelmed by the absurdity of it all, one of the bandits swung his club wildly at Rei. But Rei casually swung Death Scythe and cleaved the club in two at the midpoint.
"Huh..."
The bandit had probably never imagined that a club with a thickened tip designed to increase its striking power could be cut like that. He let out a cry of surprise, but in front of Rei, that hesitation was far too fatal. In the next instant, the Twilight Spear Rei swung struck the bandit's head.
Yes, struck—not slashed, not shattered, not gouged, but struck. He had stepped forward and struck the head with the shaft of the Twilight Spear below the blade.
This was not because Rei was afraid of killing. It was simply because if he did not find out where these bandits' Hideout was, he would not be able to obtain the treasure they had hoarded. Besides that, there was also the fact that capturing them alive and selling them as slaves would yield more money than killing them.
However, the latter was only feasible if there was a town or city nearby. A village would do as well, but villages with slave traders were not that common. If that proved impossible, he would kill them after extracting the information.
"Now then, the rest... are there any left?"
He surveyed the surroundings, but there were no bandits left standing. The bandit who had been firing arrows had also been blown away by one of Seto's strikes.
"Seto, can you tell if there are any conscious bandits nearby?"
"Gruu... Gururururu."
In response to Rei's question, Seto indicated that there were none—no problem at all.
Nodding at Seto's response, Rei turned his gaze in the direction the carriage had fled. Naturally, the carriage that had been attacked by bandits was already nowhere to be seen. It was fleeing at full speed, and since Rei and the others had attacked from behind the bandits, the carriage's occupants showed no sign of noticing their presence. They likely thought the bandits had simply stopped targeting them.
Rei did not particularly mind that either. If the people in the carriage had noticed Rei and the others, they would have been grateful for being saved from the bandits... which would have been fine, but it could lead to a situation where they would ask him to stop by their home to offer some kind of reward. Since he was in the middle of heading to Egginis, receiving words of gratitude here would be one thing, but he wanted to avoid anything that would take up his time if at all possible.
"Well, selling them to a slave trader... that'll be difficult then. But the ones who are alive chose to become bandits with full understanding of what that entails, so I don't care if they die."
Muttering to himself, he first gathered the corpses in one place and burned them with magic. He stored any weapons that looked usable in his Misty Ring and once again counted the surviving bandits.
The total was three.
The bandits Seto had taken down—whether he failed to hold back or they were simply far more fragile than initially expected—were all dead.
"Seto, you need to learn how to hold back a little more."
"Gruu..."
Seto let out an apologetic cry. Rei stroked him to offer comfort.
As they were having that exchange, a groan suddenly rose from the mouth of one of the unconscious bandits—the one who had been wielding the club earlier.
"Ugh... gah..."
"You're awake? Even though I held back, that was fast. I thought it would take a bit more time for you to come to."
Rei muttered as he looked at the groaning bandit, but there was no particular emotion in his words. Neither surprise that the man had woken up so soon after taking his hit, nor joy at the prospect of learning the location of the bandits' Hideout and obtaining their treasure.
"I... what on earth... ow! Gyah!"
The man who had woken up initially seemed not to understand why he was lying in a place like this, but when he moved his body, he writhed in agony from the pain of Rei's blow. And through that intense pain, he understood why he was here and what kind of situation he was in. He looked at Rei and screamed.
"Now then, if you've woken up in this situation, you're in luck. I'd like you to tell me... where your Hideout is."
"I-if I tell you, will you spare me?"
"Let me think about it, I suppose."
What Rei promised was merely that he would consider sparing the man—he did not explicitly say he would let him live. Even so, the bandit had no choice but to cling to Rei's words. He understood that if he did not reveal the location of the Hideout, he would be killed without question.
"O-okay. I'll guide you to the Hideout. So... um, please spare me."
"Guide me first. We'll talk after that. ...Actually, before that, I should tie up the rest so they can't move."
Including the man trembling in fear before him, three bandits had survived. To guide him to the Hideout, naturally one person was enough. What's more, the other two were still unconscious, and there was no time to wait for them to wake up. That said, leaving the two unconscious ones as they were would only result in them running away. Given that, tying them up here was the obvious course of action.
If I tie them up so they can't move, escaping will be impossible. But then again, there's a chance they could be attacked by monsters, wild animals, or other bandits... well, if that happens, it happens.
If they were not bandits, Rei would have given more consideration to their fate. But in the end, they were bandits. If they died, so be it. If they survived and there was a town or city nearby, he could hand them over to the guards or sell them to a slave trader, but that was just a it would be nice if possible kind of thought.
Leaving the trembling bandit under Seto's watch, Rei swiftly tied the two unconscious bandits to nearby trees. He believed he had tied them securely enough that they could not escape, but since they were bandits, there was a possibility they could pull off something like Rope Escape. Even so, deciding to cross that bridge if it came to it, Rei addressed the frightened bandit.
"Alright, guide me to the Hideout. ...No, let me ask just in case—was everyone in your bandit group here, or are there more?"
"Y-yeah. That's right. We haven't been in this area for that long yet, so we needed to earn as much money as we could right now."
Ugh. Rei grimaced at the bandit's words. He judged that since they had only just arrived here, the treasure at their Hideout was probably not much to get excited about.
Of course, it was conceivable that they had brought the treasure from their previous Hideout when relocating. But even so, there was inevitably a limit to how much cargo they could carry. They would certainly have brought along valuable gemstones and similar treasures, but for items judged to be of little value, there was a real possibility they had simply left them behind at the old Hideout. Also, among the weapons the bandits used, any that were rarely used would naturally have been left behind as well.
From Rei's perspective, even such weapons could serve as disposable throwing spears, and for any other type of weapon, tossing it into Fire Whirlwind would amplify its vicious destructive power even further. What would normally be considered garbage became quite useful disposable weapons for Rei.
"So, why did you move to this area?"
That was not a question asked with any particular intention in mind. He figured that talking while moving would relieve some of the bandit's tension, which might shorten the time it took to reach the Hideout. There was also the thought that he might glean some information about other bandits along the way.
"Um, the place we were before was actually quite profitable, but recently the bandits around Egginis started disappearing one after another, and our boss decided it was dangerous, so..."
"Huh."
Not expecting to hear the name Egginis come up here, Rei turned a slightly interested gaze toward the bandit.
"Wait a minute. Tell me more about that in detail."
"...Huh?"
As a bandit, he probably never expected Rei to take such interest in his words. He turned a surprised expression toward Rei. He thought perhaps Rei was messing with him by saying such things, but there was a serious look in Rei's eyes as he watched him. Judging by that, it was clear Rei genuinely wanted to hear about Egginis.
Why Rei cared about Egginis was something the bandit could not understand. He couldn't understand it, but given his current situation, he absolutely could not do anything to displease Rei. There was also the fact that what happened to him from here on out depended largely on Rei's mood. Considering that, there was no option to withhold information about Egginis here.
"Um, you see. As I mentioned earlier, we were originally operating as bandits around Egginis."
Perhaps to curry favor with Rei, the bandit's tone of speech noticeably changed. Rei was not particularly fond of such cunning behavior, but if it meant the bandit would honestly share information, he simply prompted him to continue with his gaze alone, without saying a word.
"Since you seem to already know, I'll keep the explanation brief, but Egginis is a somewhat unusual city, and because of that uniqueness, it's treated as an Autonomous City just like the Labyrinth Cities. Strictly speaking it's a town, but in terms of scale it's close to a city."
This was the first time Rei had heard about it being an Autonomous City. That said, considering the information he had gathered so far, Egginis was indeed a truly unique city as the bandit said. Given that uniqueness, it would not be strange for it to be classified as a town like Gilm but be practically no different from a city in substance.
As Rei nodded in understanding, the bandit—perhaps judging the response favorable—continued speaking.
"It's that kind of place, and since it sells expensive golems, naturally many of those who come there are wealthy."
"I'd imagine so."
Since they were coming to buy golems, they naturally needed to carry that much money with them. For the bandits, it could be called the perfect prey. That said, those with money would naturally hire escorts. They would need either the strength to defeat those escorts, or the willingness to push through with numbers while accepting casualties.
"We were operating as bandits like that... but at some point, the many bandits who were there started disappearing one after another. Our boss decided it was too dangerous and chose to leave Egginis... and a little while ago, we started using this place as our base of operations."
That was what the bandit revealed.