Chapter 35
"So, this is the place, huh?"
Having gotten Bandit A's willing cooperation, I arrived at the bandits' hideout.
The enemy's base was disguised as a cave near Hafen Village. It really did look like an ordinary cave at first glance; without being told where it was, I never would have found it.
I hid in a tree near the entrance and watched.
There were two people below, apparently keeping watch.
When I strained my ears, I could faintly hear voices.
"What about the main force?"
"Yeah, they've started attacking the villagers in Hafen."
"Still, we sure got lucky."
"You can say that again. Never thought there'd be a noble's daughter near the village."
"Yeah. A noble's daughter can be used for all kinds of things. Ransom, or whatever."
And every so often, I heard the words "noble's daughter."
I see.
Iris had apparently already been captured.
All that remained was for me to storm the place.
I was going in a little earlier than Rain did in the original, but there shouldn't be a problem with being early.
――But.
There was one thing bothering me.
I couldn't stop thinking about Bandit A's parting words.
After I managed to get the location of the enemy's base out of him, I asked, "You're being awfully forthcoming," and the bandit replied:
――Well, even if you make it to the hideout, you can't win.
'Can't win??'
'Yeah, dark guilds are treasure troves of talent, you know. There are loads of people who can't show their faces in public. Get it? You think we haven't prepared anything? In other words, we've got a monster ready for this plan, too!!!!'
A monster.
I figured there was probably someone in the hideout who stood head and shoulders above the rest. They were probably near Iris, and were the one who fought Rain in the original.
Could I do this? I asked myself.
By any measure, I was at least as strong as an F-rank adventurer.
Honestly, you could say charging into the hideout right now was a bad bet.
――But I had a reason to think I could win.
Or rather, along the way here, I'd started to realize something.
"Hup!"
I jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground.
"...Wha—!!!"
The bandits were visibly startled when I suddenly dropped in from above.
But before they could say another word,
"Gah!!"
I smoothly knocked both of them out with the hilt of my sword. Incidentally, I got this sword from Bandit A.
It seemed there weren't any other lookouts.
"Now then, the rest must be inside..."
Even as I said that, after incapacitating the two bandits, my conviction that I was right only grew stronger.
――That's right.
The issue was this: Were we actually stronger than we thought????
The guys I'd fought tonight had been far too easy. Even if the members of Bright Night were currently a gang of delinquents organized around a troupe of failed actors, they were still way too weak.
Thinking about it, Enrique had also dispatched those actors with absurd ease.
There was only one conclusion to draw from that.
In short, Enrique really is strong.
Much stronger than I'd thought.
That must be why I'd built up a decent amount of strength myself, training alongside Enrique.
"That guy..."
Probably.
I swallowed hard.
That overwhelming strength.
I felt a chill run down my spine at the thought of how strong Enrique was.
"――Upper E-rank, probably."
Or maybe bottom-tier D-rank.
There was no other explanation.
It seemed Enrique had been kicked out of the guild a few years ago as "an F-rank adventurer who worked hard at putting on a strong-guy act, but slacked off on the job."
If so, it made sense that Enrique had gotten reasonably strong.
Though I still felt like he wasn't quite strong enough to pull off all that tough-guy behavior...
Well, never mind that.
Which meant...
I should be able to handle this, too.
No matter what kind of enemy was in there, I had a decent chance of winning.
I looked up at the sky in front of the hideout's entrance.
By now, Enrique should have reached Hafen Village.
The bandit attack on Hafen Village, and the destruction of a place close to the protagonist, were pretty traumatic events for both the protagonist and Iris.
Well, more to the point, the Randall ducal house would take a serious hit to its reputation.
So...
"I'm counting on you," I urged Enrique, who was surely doing his best right now.
――Enrique.
The reputation of our Randall family rests on your shoulders.
Please, let this end with a nice, happy ending...!!!
A little earlier.
Enrique, a former S-rank adventurer and Genesis's first subordinate, was also looking up at the sky.
"Sorry, Genesis. This is, well..."
He scratched his head as he said that.
Enrique looked around. Trees to the right, trees to the left. In fact, there were trees in front and behind, too.
"...I'm lost, yeah."
Something was off.
Apparently, he'd completely lost his way.
"Come to think of it, I only ended up in Randall territory by chance because I got lost..."
To begin with, Enrique was terrible with directions.
The former S-rank monster, famed for destroying everything in his path, was utterly hopeless at finding his way.
Enrique thought of Genesis—or rather, the young master—who was surely already on the move beneath that same night sky.
Right, he thought.
"I-I might be a little late... b-but I'm doing my best over here too, young master."
――The two of them were actually kindred spirits.
――――――――――――――――――――――――
Protagonist → realizes Enrique's true strength. Enrique-san's rank has finally been upgraded from "former F-rank adventurer" to "bottom-tier D-rank adventurer."
Enrique → actually has a terrifyingly bad sense of direction. He's fine in town, but the moment he leaves town, he gets lost.
※Recently, more and more people have been saying, "Your protagonist's crazy."
But please let me make an excuse.
I initially planned to write an ordinary villainous noble story, too. I never intended to write a comedy about a lunatic who thinks he's a mob character rampaging through another world.
Believe me!!!!!!!!