Bandit?

Four days had passed since that incident, and nothing had happened so far. A few goblins, at most.

It takes a week to reach the capital, so I guess we’re more than halfway there now.

But according to the caravan master, bandits start showing up frequently from here on.

Well, no matter how strong the bandits are, they’re no match for me. At that point, it’s hard to even call them bandits.

Bandits on the level of Swordmasters. How terrifying.

As I lay in the carriage, lost in pointless thoughts, I sensed something outside.

There were about fifty of them. Since they seemed to have surrounded the entire caravan, including the carriage I was in, they must have been planning a full-on raid. They probably weren’t going to let us through just for a toll.

“…!”

“Get ready. Something’s up.”

The C-rank party’s archer must have picked up on the bandits’ positions, too. Well, they were a detection specialist; if they couldn’t manage that much, they wouldn’t even be C-rank.

The one who looked like the bandit leader seemed a little strong, though. Around high B-rank, maybe?

And with fifty underlings in tow, we’d have been wiped out here if I hadn’t been around.

Lucky you, Caravan Master.

“Move.”

“Huh? Who the— I’ll move!”

The red-haired man instantly turned polite as soon as he saw me. Had what happened last time traumatized him? Well, not my problem.

Ignoring the redhead, I went to the very front of the caravan, where the bandits had appeared. Their leader was there, too.

“Heh heh. This is my territory. You’re ready to face the consequences of trespassing, aren’t you?”

“Haha… Could we pay a toll and have you let us pass?”

The caravan master tried to negotiate with the bandits. It wouldn’t work, though.

“Boys! Kill the men and rape the women!”

Just as expected, the bandit leader ignored the caravan master and shouted.

Wow. I’m actually hearing that line in person. I’m moved.

But…

“That big-titted bitch is mine! Don’t touch her!”

“Aw, come on, Boss! You can’t have all the fun yourself! We should all get to enjoy her!”

I couldn’t forgive them for charging at me while sexually harassing me.

-Shhk

“…What?!”

The head of the bandit who’d been mouthing off beside the leader was cleanly severed.

The bandit leader froze.

My sword was already out of its sheath and pointed at the enemy.

It was cracked all over and looked like it might break after a few swings, but a few would be enough.

“You bastard!”

The bandit leader swung his massive sword at me in a rage.

At this rate, was that sword bigger than I was?

“Haha! You stupid bitch!”

I slid my sword into the path of his swing. The bandit leader’s mouth stretched all the way to his ears as he sneered at me.

He probably thought my nearly broken sword couldn’t possibly stop his greatsword.

I never planned to block it in the first place.

-Slash!

“…Huh?”

Instead of the clang of steel on steel, there was a slicing sound, and the bandit leader’s sword split in half.

Along with the bandit leader’s head.

No mere bandit leader could possibly be a match for me.

I swung my sword to flick off the blood and felt the startled gazes around me.

The bandits whose leader had just died, along with the adventurers who’d witnessed my skill, were staring at me in shock.

Hmm… Was that too much?

Well, I’d be surprised, too, if a B-rank adventurer cut through a greatsword with a nearly broken sword.

That aside, there was nothing stupider than looking away in the middle of a fight.

I cut the throat of the nearest bandit, then split the body of the one beside him in two.

“U… Uwaaaaaaaah!”

With two of their men dead in an instant, the bandits charged at me as if they’d lost their minds.

It seemed they weren’t thinking rationally so much as instinctively realizing that if they didn’t kill me, they’d be killed.

-KABOOM!

Of course, the result was that they all died at once.

Just as a few ants can’t threaten a human, no matter how many bandits gathered, they couldn’t inflict a single scratch on me.

“Run!”

“Monster! It’s a monster!”

Had they realized it? The remaining bandits all started fleeing.

I could catch them if I chased after them… but what a pain.

I tossed aside my broken sword and took another one from a bandit’s corpse.

Once I reach the capital, I’m replacing my sword first. Seriously.

“…What are you doing? Hurry up and clean up so we can get going.”

I told the adventurers, who were still staring blankly at me, to clear away the mess, then returned to the carriage.

…

‘What… the hell did I just get myself mixed up in?’

The red-haired man, leader of the C-rank party, watched Flia mow down the bandits in a daze.

It was something you shouldn’t do with an enemy right in front of you, but since that enemy was doing the same thing, maybe it didn’t matter.

He’d sensed she was no ordinary person when she’d sliced off his companion’s hair and the trees behind her in a single stroke, but he hadn’t imagined she was this strong.

He couldn’t believe she’d cleanly cut a greatsword with a cheap sword that was falling apart.

The greatsword the bandit leader had used wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was still a pretty well-made sword.

At the very least, it wasn’t the kind of sword that should be cut so effortlessly!

To slice through something like that as easily as paper…

Watching her, the man felt awe and fear at the same time.

He’d looked down on a woman with that kind of skill, treating her like a newbie.

It was a miracle his companions hadn’t been killed. Someone that skilled could have wiped them out in an instant.

Vowing never to judge anyone by their first impression again, the man thanked his lucky stars he was still alive.

…

After dealing with the bandits, they continued on, and before long, night fell.

“All right, that’s enough for today. Let’s get ready to camp.”

At the caravan master’s words, the workers and adventurers set about preparing camp in an orderly fashion.

“Lady El, please rest! I’ll take care of everything!”

The only thing different from usual was that the C-rank party did all the work I was supposed to do.

They took care of everything, from preparing the campfire to setting up my tent.

Judging by the fear in their voices, they thought I might snap and kill them all.

Even I wouldn’t do something like that. If I were going to, I’d have killed them all on the first day.

“…Why am I suddenly getting chills?”

Ignoring the red-haired woman, who was shivering for some reason, I started eating.

The C-rank party had cooked it, but there was nothing strange in it, and it tasted decent, so I ate without complaint.

It couldn’t compare to the food I ate at the Grand Ducal estate, but it’d be hard to find anything better than what they served there.

“Let’s eat.”

Sigh. My dear home…

…

Meanwhile, as expected, the Whitewolf Grand Ducal House was thrown into an uproar when Flia disappeared.

Their precious youngest child had vanished the moment her coming-of-age ceremony was over?

Fortunately, the signs in her room made it clear she’d run away on her own rather than been kidnapped, but that didn’t make it okay.

No, in a way, it only made things worse.

An emergency family meeting was called at the Grand Ducal estate.

“…We’ll begin the family meeting now.”

Loren spoke in a solemn voice from the head of the dining table.

Her husband, Flien, sat beside her, along with their children, Flijen and Flon.

The subject of the meeting was why Flia had run away.

“Does anyone have any idea why Flia ran away?”

At Loren’s question, Flijen answered.

“…Honestly, I have no idea. Flia’s been so mature since she was little, so it’s hard to believe she’d suddenly run away. She’s not even fond of going out, so I don’t think she’d run away just to act out.”

“That’s true.”

Flia had been quite the shut-in even in her previous life. In other words, she didn’t particularly like going outside.

She didn’t mind going out for training, but whenever they talked about taking a trip, she’d make a strangely reluctant face. Though once they went, she’d end up having the most fun.

“Flon, do you know anything?”

“Hmm… Now that you mention it, right before Flia’s coming-of-age ceremony, she did have this look in her eyes like she was plotting something bad. But I didn’t think it would be this… If I had to guess, she looked determined to force something out of Father or Mother, no matter what.”

If Flia had seen Flon figure out what she was thinking just from her eyes, she would’ve been horrified. But in this close-knit family, they considered that perfectly normal.

“Hmm… Get something out of us, huh? Dear, can you think of anything?”

“I’m not sure, dear. But I can think of one possible reason she ran away.”

“Really?!”

“Flon.”

As Flon abruptly pushed back her chair and stood up, Flijen quietly tried to calm her down.

Flon sat back down slowly, looking sheepish, and Flien spoke in a serious voice.

“Dear. On the night the coming-of-age ceremony was ending, weren’t we talking about Flia’s engagement?”

“That’s right.”

“Wait. Flia’s engagement? What are you talking about?”

Flijen asked in shock at the sudden bombshell, but Flien knew he was a full-blown siscon, so he ignored him outright and continued.

“Anyway, Flia was outside the door then. It seems she’d ended up there without realizing it. I think she must have heard us talking and run away because she didn’t want to get married…”

“Come on. Surely not. No matter how immature she is, she wouldn’t run away for a reason like that, would she?”

“Exactly, Father. Flia’s a smart girl, so she wouldn’t leave home over something so trivial.”

“That’s what I’m saying! Flia wouldn’t do something like that for that reason!”

“Right? Hahaha!”

“““…”””

Silence.

“…Dear. When does Flia usually react most dramatically to anything…?”

“Whenever it’s about marriage or romance.”

“She’s even said she’d rather die than marry a man…”

“…”

For a short while, everyone fell silent. They’d realized that it was entirely possible for Flia, who despised the idea of romance with men, to do something like that.

Unfortunately, they were right.

…

“Achoo!”

What? Am I coming down with a cold?