Chapter 84

Chapter 84. The Old Woman in the Tower (9)

I pulled my lips away in surprise and raised my head to look up at Rene.

But she shook her head with a face that said it was not her, then lifted her head, raised her ears slightly toward the foot of the mountain, and opened her mouth.

“I hear fighting. I hear screams too. It seems travelers have run into a band of bandits. If we hurry, we can help them.”

Rene said that, then got down from my lap and hurriedly picked up her weapons.

I looked at her with a somewhat regretful expression, then shook my head and rose from my seat.

I took off the blanket draped over my shoulders and covered Luna, who was sleeping quietly on the other side of the campfire.

Then I took the new gauntlets out of my backpack and put them on.

When I turned my head at a strange sound, Rene was already running down the mountain first with her two longswords.

I was about to run after her, but I looked back once at Luna, who was sleeping peacefully by the campfire, gave a bitter smile, and said,

“I will be back soon.”

After saying that, I ran down after her.

Fortunately, I had not taken off my clothes, so there was no disaster of my skin being caught and torn by the branches brushing past me.

It was a journey close to an adventure, so Rene had chosen my clothes carefully.

But if there was one thing I desperately needed right now, it was light.

Unlike Rene, my eyes were not that good, so I could not see well at night like this.

Thanks to that, I crashed into trees I failed to avoid as I ran forward, and because of that, my shoulder began to ache a little.

CRAAASH!!

After running downhill for quite some time, brushing against branches, I slammed into what must have been the seventh or eighth tree and was flung forward, rolling into some sort of clearing.

Ugh! What is this place?

When I raised my head and looked ahead, bright light shone toward me, so I could recognize things to some extent.

The surroundings were an utter mess.

Of the three campfires, two seemed to have been kicked apart by someone, and burning pieces of wood were rolling here and there.

Beside them stood two wagons. The ropes that had tied down the luggage on the wagon that looked like a freight wagon had been cut.

The luggage was scattered roughly across the ground, and some boxes had been broken open, spilling their contents outside.

And nearby, several people were looking at me with startled faces.

The people looking at me with tearful faces, frightened faces, and all sorts of expressions somehow seemed familiar.

But there were people who did not turn their gazes toward me. They were all dressed alike, and it seemed they could not look my way because they were busy fighting someone holding swords in both hands.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG—! SCRAAAPE?! THUD!

The masked man who had tried to enter a contest of strength the moment their swords met was kicked in the stomach and rolled across the ground.

Beside him, one of the men who had been watching his companion roll on the ground while clutching his stomach narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth.

“Elf, why are you interfering? I did not do business against your kind.”

Damn it! So they were bandits after all?

I dusted off my palms and stood up, only to make eye contact with several men who had been pulling luggage down from the wagons, and trouble found me.

“What are you?”

“I am the husband of that woman over there holding swords in both hands.”

“Are you one of them? Hey, Zack, you handle him.”

At that, one man who had been on top of the wagon, holding luggage in one hand and a crying woman in the other, set down the baggage(?) in both arms and jumped down.

But what was strange was that the man who had jumped down empty-handed now had a fine longsword in his hand before I knew it.

For some reason, I liked that sword.

The man held his sword and quietly looked at me, then raised his hand, pointed at me, and opened his mouth.

“Just leave. I will not chase you.”

It was an absurd thing to say.

I raised my hand and pointed toward Rene, who was fighting with about ten men over there.

“I said it earlier, but that woman is my wife. Would you abandon your beloved wife and run away?”

The masked man turned his head, glanced at Rene, then raised his sword and rushed toward me at high speed.

“I am still a bachelor!”

For a moment, my legs nearly gave way, but as a fellow man, I felt a little sympathy at his words and raised my arm.

CLANG?!

When his sword was blocked by my arm, the black-masked man widened his eyes.

“Gauntlets?”

I glanced at his eyes, then let the arm blocking his sword flow sideways and drove my fist into his stomach.

“What have you been doing all this time at your age?!”

CRUNCH?!

Crunch? Armor!

I opened my eyes wide and looked at the man.

The man smiled with his eyes, lifted his foot, and forcefully shoved my chest. I was pushed far backward as I tried to keep my balance and avoid falling.

When I raised my head, the man leaped into the air with all his strength and brought his sword down again. Seeing him, I smiled in bewilderment.

Was he trying to break the iron plates of my gauntlets with force?!

“What woman would marry a man who makes a living through banditry?!”

“Argh! Then find another job!”

I shouted that as I rolled to the side, and the man’s sword lost its target and stabbed into the ground.

Seeing that, I hurriedly rose to my feet and thrust my fist forward. The man abandoned the sword stuck in the ground and raised both hands to his chest, blocking the incoming punch.

THUD?!

Impressive skill.

The man smiled, but in an instant, he was sent flying away from me.

Ah! Control your strength, control your strength.

“Uwaaaah?!”

The man was pushed straight backward and rolled across the ground.

I did not forget to toss him a word with a small laugh.

“There are plenty of things you can do besides thieving like this.”

After saying that, I turned my head.

Then I looked at the six thieves who had thrown away the luggage or women they had been holding and drawn blue-edged swords from their waists or backs.

The man standing in the middle glanced at the man behind me, who had gone unconscious with a groan, then gripped his sword with both hands.

“He took down Zack. Do not fool around. Attack.”

The man calmly finished speaking, and then all of them charged at me.

Mm, I need to finish this quickly and go help Rene.

Since my desire to help her came first, I decided to stop worrying about controlling my strength.

If they had decided to do something like this, then they must have put their lives on the line.

I ran forward first and launched a preemptive attack.

The first one to fall to me was the man who had just given the order. When he came in with a mid-level slash, I blocked it with the iron plate of my gauntlet and struck him straight in the face.

BANG!

“Krrgh?!”

The man collapsed, scattering white teeth through the air.

Immediately after that, I faced a man holding a dagger.

Because I knew that the longer one dragged out a fight against an opponent with a dagger, the more disadvantageous it became, I stepped back and waited for him to thrust out his dagger.

When the right moment came, I gave him the kick Rene had been teaching Luna earlier right in the chest.

“My leg is longer than your arm.”

THUD!

“Hurk!”

He flew backward, hit the wagon, and fainted.

I ran forward again and began dealing with the two swordsmen blocking my path.

One man swung his sword down toward my neck, and the other thrust toward my stomach.

They were certainly skilled. Their ability had not been built in a day or two.

I raised my arm and blocked the sword flying toward my neck.

SCRAAAPE!

Then I reached out and grabbed the man’s neck while simultaneously catching the sword thrust toward my stomach with my bare hand.

The man whose sword I had caught looked at me with startled eyes, and I gave him a small smile.

“Uaaagh?!”

I hugged the man whose neck I was holding against him a little forcefully.

At that, the two men tangled together and tumbled to the ground.

I picked up the sword the man had dropped as he fell, swung it a few times, and nodded.

The center of gravity was just right. It was a good sword.

Then I raised it and swung it with all my strength at the man silently rushing toward me from the front with his sword.

CRAAAASH!! CLANG!

Was that really a sound a sword made?

In any case, the man whose blade had been broken by the sword I swung trembled in the legs, then sank down on the spot and looked up at me.

I looked down at him indifferently, then raised the sword high and aimed it at his forehead.

“S-Spare…?! Uwaaaah! Uuugh~”

I had only touched him lightly, yet he fainted. He was an unexpectedly timid thief.

I glanced at the man who had fainted while foaming at the mouth, then looked around once.

Now there were only two people blocking my way.

They stared at me while trembling, and when I stepped slightly forward, they turned around and ran away.

Even though their unconscious companion was right in front of them.

Good grief. No matter how much they were thieves and robbers, how could they abandon a comrade and run?

I set that thought aside and hurriedly ran toward where Rene was.

Rene and a man with a severe wound on his arm had taken down more than half of the men holding swords and were now in a brief standoff.

When I ran over, the men with hoods covering their faces twisted their expressions, seemed to slowly step back, then turned around and fled just like that.

Rene quietly watched them run, then let out a sigh and put her swords back into their sheaths.

“Thank you, Han.”

“No, it was nothing. But are you hurt anywhere?”

At my words, Rene smiled faintly, shook her head, and approached the man sitting on the ground while clutching his arm, kneeling beside him.

“You are badly hurt.”

As she said that, she removed the hood from the unconscious man beside him and wrapped it around the man’s arm.

I stood beside her and looked at the young man who was thanking Rene with a grimace.

He definitely looked like someone I had seen before.

“Ugh! Th-Thank you very much.”

“Is anyone else hurt besides you?”

“Yes, our boss—no, our Leader was hurt a little.”

Boss?

Ahh, they were the people I had seen at the pub during the day.

We were meeting them in an unexpected place.

Rene tied the hood tightly around his arm to stop the bleeding, then rose from her seat and moved toward the wagons.

Since it was obvious she was going to check on the injured, I followed after her to see if there was anything I could help with.

At that moment, several young ladies came running from behind, clung to me, and said,

“U-Um, th-those people are running away?”

When I raised my head, the men who had lost consciousness after being hit by me really were limping away into the forest.

I quietly watched them for a moment, peeled(?) off the young ladies clinging to my chest and arm, then picked up a stone lying on the ground and threw it at the fleeing man.

THUNK!

“Uagh!”