Chapter 1: Black Wind

The feast at the Fairy’s Song had thankfully gone largely without mishap, lasting until well into the night, with me waking up the next morning with a terrible hangover. Adventurers, both those who had been in the industry longer than me and those who had joined only recently, had approached me one after another to pour drinks of celebration. As the star of the feast, I couldn’t refuse any of them, and it became an endless loop of me draining my cup only to have it refilled soon afterwards. Ugh, to think that I’d get a hangover even in another world...

As for how my merry band of comrades had fared...

In Efil’s case, although she was sixteen years old and thus legally of age to drink, she was quite weak to alcohol. From start to finish, she drank only juice, all while tending to me throughout the feast. The next morning, it was her devoted nursing that enabled me to make a speedy recovery.

Gerard, in contrast, had thrown back mugs and mugs of alcohol without a care in the world. He must have had a lot more than me, but apparently, he wasn’t capable of getting drunk. When I went down to the tavern the next morning, I found him drinking again. Life truly was unfair.

Having struck up a friendship with Uld-san, Gerard had a blast trading stories of heroism and other interesting episodes from their pasts. Considering the pair featured one of Parth’s strongest adventurers and a member of the party that had subjugated a demon the other day, all the young adventurers had flocked over to listen in, enraptured.

The biggest surprise had been Sera. She became extremely clingy when drunk, and was the kind of drinker who couldn’t stop despite having almost no tolerance at all. At the start of the feast, she had rushed to my side, loudly declaring, “I’ll pour for you!” Then she’d awkwardly and carefully poured me a cup. That was fine. However, having had almost no experience with alcohol, she grew curious about it after seeing me down it with such gusto. So I asked her, “Want to try some?” and poured her a bit. One sip and her face promptly turned red, her slanted ruby-red eyes glazed over, and...well, the rest is easily imagined.

To my surprise, Melfina turned out to be the most troublesome member of the party. Due to not having been able to join the feast, she turned a bit sulky. Come on, you’re a goddess, don’t be sulking about something like that...

::I am not sulking. I’ve been silent only because I’ve been very busy wondering when it is that you’ll finally be able to Summon me.::

Didn’t we go over this the other day? About how I still wouldn’t have enough even if I bumped Energy, the skill that boosts max MP, to Rank S, even though my current max MP is already over two thousand?

::Oh, oops...::

What?

::Em...I’d actually forgotten about this, but the MP needed to Summon those with a class related to the gods is several dozen times more expensive than Summoning anything else.::

So, hey, wanna hear this great idea I have? How about you quit your job? I’m starting to think I won’t ever have enough MP to actually Summon you.

::Honestly, I’m not entirely against the idea, but...hm, guess I don’t really have a choice.::

Uh, you really are going to quit your job?

::Oh, no, I’m going to use an artificial body.::

Am I imagining it or did she just say something completely off the wall again?

::It’s actually not that rare for gods and goddesses to descend to the mortal world for a bit of a breather. And when we do, we make an artificial body based on ourselves. Possessing that body allows us to go out and about while hiding who we really are. Naturally, our abilities are severely limited while in this state...but the appearance will be exactly the same, so you can feel free to fall in love with me at first sight once again.::

I’m not sure that ‘feel free’ is the right phrase to use there, but never mind. So, if you do that, then the amount of MP needed to Summon you would go down drastically?

::I can’t say for certain. There is no precedent for something like this. No one with the Summoning skill has tried to call down a deity before. Naturally, I’ll need to make adjustments with that in mind...and then the skills...::

Um, Melfina?

::Honey, I’m taking some time off.::

Wait, again?!

::I need to make some adjustments to the body that I’ll be using. If all goes well, you will soon be able to Summon me without a problem. There’s no time like the present! Ciao!::

And with that, Melfina once again left the Network. How long is she going to be gone for this time...? There was nothing I could do but pray for all those “adjustments” — whatever they were — to be done soon.

Melfina’s plans aside, a total of three days had passed since the feast, and the rest of us were currently gathered in my dedicated workshop within the guild. The agenda for the day’s assembly was of paramount importance. Indeed, it was none other than —

“How about we get this new equipment unveiling party underway?”

“I did my best with the sewing.”

— the unveiling and handing out of various pieces of equipment for our party members. Thanks to the levels that Efil and I had gained from the battle with Viktor, both of us had finally attained Rank S in our skills of Sewing and Smithing, respectively. Until then, no matter how hard we tried, we’d only been able to make items up to Rank A. Now, however, we finally had the ability to create the highest ranking equipment in this world.

“My king, I am beside myself with impatience!”

“So my battle gear is finished too?!”

Thanks to my skill increasing to Rank S, the amount of time required to make each and every piece of equipment had decreased dramatically, and within only three days, I had managed to make everything that each member of my party needed. In fact, I was now feeling like I could make absolutely anything I wanted to, as long as I had the necessary materials.

“Let’s start with our newest member, Sera, who’s experiencing one of our unveiling parties for the first time today. I was in charge of your weapons, while Efil handled the protective gear. Just as requested, I used Viktor’s carapace to make you a pair of gauntlets. Um, it might be a bit late to ask, but...you sure about this?”

“One hundred percent.”

It was my first time making equipment for Sera, so I had asked her if she had anything particular in mind. Honoring her request, I then used the piece of Viktor’s carapace that we had brought back as proof of subjugation to make “something that a pugilist would use.” But now that the time had come to actually hand it to her, I found myself hesitating slightly. Are demons okay with using parts of someone of the same race — someone they’d been close to, no less — in such a manner?

Sera repeated herself, elaborating slightly in a firm tone. “It will feel like Viktor is lending me his strength whenever I use it.”

This is her wish, so let’s respect it.

“All right then. The pair together is named Arondight. Try them out and let me know how they feel.”

As soon as I handed them to her, Sera looked entirely infatuated with the black coloring and gold trim that spanned from fist to elbow. This was a Rank S item that, thanks to the special properties of Viktor’s carapace, boasted incredible toughness paired with such high flexibility that it wouldn’t interfere at all with even the most detailed of finger movements.

“And this is from me. I hope that the design is to your liking.”

I had also asked Sera for her input regarding her outfit, but I ran into an unexpected wall there. It seemed Sera herself did not know what she liked. Having been locked up in a castle for her entire life, everything had been prepared for her — including her clothing — so she had never had to choose for herself. To help her out, I had uploaded the designs for every type of clothing I knew of to the Follower Network, and had her pick out one from among them.

“Hmm...”

That said, the quantity of clothing designs that I’d seen while living in Japan for twenty-three years was rather staggering. Sera going through all the options ended up taking more time than it took Efil to actually make it. It was only two days later that Sera had finally exclaimed, “This one! I like this one!”

“Oh, you’ve made your choice? Which one is it...oh, military, huh.”

“Make it black, please! I want to match with everyone!”

In the end, Sera had settled on a military uniform. There was no outfit more suitable to do battle in, and with Sera’s beauty and perfect curves, it was a choice that would suit her very well. The design aside...black again, is it? Should we just go ahead and make that our theme color?

My exchange with her was conveyed to Efil, who then came up with the outfit she was now handing to Sera.

“This outfit’s name is Queen’s Terror. Umm, I’m terribly sorry, but I’m unable to change the name...”

Oh, I get you so well, Efil. After all, the item’s name is determined all by itself right after you finish it, right? And now you’re worried about Sera being offended by the seemingly negative-sounding name? But you can rest easy on that front.

“What’s wrong with it? ‘Queen’s Terror’? I like it! Sounds really cool!”

“Eh? Really? Um, thank you...for liking it...?”

Sera was smack-dab in the middle of a chuuni phase.

“My king, what about me? What do I get?” Unable to hold himself back any longer, Gerard interrupted the conversation.

“Hold on, just...just hold on. It’s not like it’s going to run away.”

Thanks to his Evolution, Gerard had attained a new unique skill: Self Modification. This was an incredible skill that not only granted him the ability to assimilate new equipment, but would also boost any gear acquired in this manner up one rank. It was thanks to this skill that Dreadnought was buffed even further. However, equipment that had been assimilated could not be removed, and assimilating a new piece of equipment into an occupied slot would cause the previous item in that slot to disappear forever. In short, it was not possible to simply swap items around at will.

“I’ve made you a new greatsword this time. I modeled it carefully based on the one you’re currently using, so you should get used to it in no time.”

“Interesting. Even the ornamental decoration looks the same. I can’t tell the difference between the two.”

“Just as I told Sera, try it out and let me know how it feels. I assure you, this is an honest to Goddess Rank S weapon.”

I had made the demonic sword, Dainsleif, by first selecting the most powerful cursed weapon from Clotho’s Storage, purifying it with the most powerful White Magic spell I was capable of, and then reforging it into a greatsword. Before the purification, there had been red lines crawling all over the surface of the blade, pulsing like blood vessels. Now, however, they were all gone, leaving behind a jet black surface so clear and pleasing to the eye that it almost seemed to be bathed in a dark light.

“So what did you two make for yourselves?”

“I got a new robe and a pair of gauntlets, and Efil got a new bow...you know what, just look forward to checking them out during our next fight.”

“Ehhh?!”

Sera voiced her displeasure loud and clear, but I was in no state to pay her any mind. Although the Smithing skill had indeed helped to significantly speed up the process, I’d still had to pull consecutive all-nighters to finish everything in such a short period of time. With the bare minimum of explanation over, I couldn’t wait to dive straight into bed.

“I shall accompany you...”

Clearly, Efil was in the same state as me.

“Umm, in that case, then m-me too...wait, don’t leave me behind!”

Sera dashed out of the workshop, leaving Gerard and Clotho alone.

“It appears that Princess has another rival, don’t you think, Clotho?”

The slime quivered slightly in response.

◇ ◇ ◇

Clack, clack, clack.

With the sound of our wagon’s wheels rattling in the background, I passed my eyes over the page of the open book that was being held out to me. Efil sat beside me, currently doing her best to get through it word by word.

“Boss, don’t you get sick trying to read a book while on the road?”

“We’re used to traveling. This amount of lurching isn’t enough to make us feel anything.”

“Whoa, guess adventurers really are a cut above the rest of us folks.”

It was considerate of our driver to make sure that we were okay, but neither Efil nor I were prone to motion sickness. During our battles, we moved even faster and much more erratically.

“Master, this part...”

“You apply the same pronunciation technique we just discussed.”

Currently, we were heading from Parth to Toraj, the Country of Water, by covered wagon. We had chosen Toraj mainly because of my voracious need for rice. It isn’t easy for someone in modern Japan who’s never left the country before to understand, but after eating only foreign cuisine for a prolonged period of time, a sudden and overwhelming craving for rice inevitably surfaces.

Having spent several months in this world, I was fast approaching my limit. So I had been wanting to visit Toraj — which was rumored to have something similar to rice — for quite a while. Strangely, Guildmaster Rio readily gave us permission to make the trip, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

Rather than simply staring at scenery along the way, I was using the time to teach Efil how to read. Although she’d experienced enormous growth in a wide variety of areas ranging from combat to chores, she still had quite a ways to go with reading, writing and other academic studies.

“Kelvin! There’s a river! A river is flowing over there!” Sera cried.

“What, you want to go fishing?”

“What’s ‘fishing’?”

“Ahhh...let’s find a day to go fishing together after we get to Toraj.”

Sera, who had her head sticking out of the back part of the wagon, was having a blast gazing at the passing landscape. For a while now, she had been making a big fuss about every little thing she spotted.

Aside from my desperate search for rice, there was one other reason we were heading to Toraj. In keeping with our promise to Viktor, we were giving Sera a chance to see more of the world. This girl had lived a life so sheltered that she didn’t even know what fishing was, but she was now traveling and thoroughly enjoying the sights. Surely she would learn and experience a lot on this trip.

::Sera, lass, you sure seem to be having fun.::

As it turned out, Gerard was bad with wagon travel. Soon after we set out from Parth, he had retreated into my magic pool. Supposedly, all the bouncing hurt his hips while he was materialized. There wouldn’t have been any problem if he had remained a spirit inside his armor, but as it had been a while since he’d had a body, he wanted to enjoy the feeling of it for as long as he was Summoned.

Just as our wagon entered a narrow part of the road that was closely flanked by trees, Sera suddenly turned towards me.

“Oh right, Kelvin. Something’s been bothering me for a while.”

“What is it?”

“You do realize that we’re secretly being watched, right?”

“Mhm, we sure are.”

“O-Oh come on, boss. Please don’t frighten me...”

Our driver was trying hard to laugh it off as a joke, but my Presence Sensing was indeed picking up something. To be more specific, there were a total of twelve people surrounding our wagon, matching our pace so as to maintain a discreet distance from us. Some of them even possessed Concealment at a pretty high rank.

“We’re not just saying it to frighten you. Darn it, they’re so disturbing that I can’t focus on enjoying the scenery!”

Sera was in possession of even more detection skills than I was, likely having been urged to invest in them as one of her doting father’s ideas for helping her to protect herself.

“W-Wait, so are they bandits?!”

“Hard to say. And it is rumored that bandits do indeed show up on this route.”

“B-Boss, are you still reading even in this situation...? That maid of yours seems really calm about everything too...”

Our abilities had, of course, long passed the point where news of approaching bandits would cause us any concern. If I really had to name a problem, it would be that we had gotten a bit numb to our Danger Detection skill. And now that this matter had come up, Efil and I also found ourselves too distracted to resume studying.

“Hey, hey, Kelvin!”

“No need to say it, I know what you mean. Oh, hey, looks like they’re starting to make a move.”

Six people wearing black stepped out from the side of the road, stopping right in front of our wagon. The rest stayed at the back, continuing to remain Concealed. Clearly, they had no intention of letting us leave.

“You in the wagon, stop right where you are!”

To my surprise, the announcement was in a woman’s voice. All six of the highwaymen had weapons tightly gripped in their hands.

“Ohhh! Boss, we’ve hit the jackpot this time. There are two beauties in here!”

“Really? Let me see...oho, you’re right, they look like they’d fetch quite a pretty penny. Chief will be delighted.”

The woman and the men who seemed to be her subordinates looked at us — no, looked at Efil and Sera — as if they were evaluating a product. Is this going to be a repeat of the incident with Prince Tabura?

“Wh-Who are you guys?! Do you realize that you are inflicting this outrage upon a wagon with adventurers on board?!”

Our driver raised his voice as if to intimidate them. Contrary to what he expected, however, the bandits responded by laughing so hard that they were soon clutching their stomachs.

“Bwahaha! Adventurers, you say? Of course we knew that. You guys are coming from Parth, right? The town that’s famous for having the continent’s weakest guild — the guild that doesn’t have a single member ranked B or higher?”

“We are Black Wind, the gang whose very name causes grown men to piss themselves. Rank C adventurers are nothing but chaff to us.”

Hah, so they’re mistaking us for Rank C or lower. At the very least, they seem fully confident about beating three adventurers of that rank. But for them to know where we came from, they must have had an eye on our wagon since early in the journey.

“Black Wind?! Hasn’t that bandit ring been wiped out already?!”

Well, okay, he’s not quite pissing himself, but it looks like our driver has indeed heard of them.

“Boss, please handle this carefully. Black Wind is a bandit gang that became notorious about a year ago. From what I heard, they were so strong that even Rank C adventurers couldn’t do much against them. But if memory serves, they should have been destroyed by a Rank A party, so I’m not quite sure what’s going on here...”

“That...does sound suspicious.”

“Sorry, what did you just say, boss?”

“Oh, nothing, don’t worry about it. In any case, it seems like we won’t be going anywhere until we resolve this situation, right?”

All right, I’ve finished using Analyze Eye on all six of them. How should we handle this?

“Kekeke, look at them wordlessly trembling in fear after hearing our name!”

“Karna, please let us have a bit of fun before we sell the goods!”

“You guys, that’s enough useless chatter. If you want a reward, do something that merits one,” the woman admonished them, interrupting her subordinates’ vulgar conversation. “As for you adventurers, your luck ran out the moment we set our sights on you. That said, it’s no fun if you don’t put up a fight, so try your best with whatever measly abilities you’ve got, all right? Guys! Seize the cargo! Grab the women and kill the men!”

Five bandits ran out in front. The six in the back remained in hiding, showing no signs of movement.

“Sera, would you like to take care of them? They probably won’t be able to put up enough of a fight to make it interesting, though.”

“Sure, I don’t mind. But just confirming, by ‘take care of,’ you mean I can...?”

“It seems like their band was supposedly wiped out in the eyes of the world, so I can’t say for sure whether or not they have bounties on their heads, but...they totally look like villains, right? It’s probably fine to just kill them. But we do want information. So leave the woman alive.”

“Gotcha. It’s been a while since I last got to have some fun! I can’t wait!”

Sera slammed her Arondight-clad fists together, raising a loud clash of metal on metal to pump herself up. Unfortunately, I soon rained on her parade.

“Oh, right, here’s an idea: how about not using Arondight for this fight? Try it with your bare fists alone.”

“Ehhhh? But why?!”

“The difference in strength between you and those guys is already large enough as it is. Using Arondight on top of that against a bunch of average Joes who’ve only learned a trick or two would lead to extremely messy results.”

“Well, if you insist...”

Sera looked rather unhappy, having had the wind taken out of her sails right at the start. Her desire to try out her new gear in combat was almost palpable, but this really wasn’t the right time for it.

“Aaah, I’ve totally lost all motivation to do this, but there’s no helping it, so I guess I’ll keep you guys company for a bit,” she said, languidly jumping down from the wagon.

“What, you think you’ll be able to handle all five of us by yourself?!”

“Bwahaha, she said she’ll keep us company! Sure, let’s do something fun!”

The bandits shifted their sights to the beautiful woman who suddenly stood before them, squabbling amongst themselves for the credit of beating her. There wasn’t a shred of teamwork to be seen between them.

“How about no.”

In less than the time it took to blink, Sera had already closed in on the man who had been spouting those disgusting lines earlier and squarely planted a body blow on him. Her fist sank hard into his torso, causing painful-sounding cracks and snaps to ring out. It wasn’t hard to gauge from those sounds how much internal damage he had just taken. The momentum of the punch sent the bandit flying through the air for several meters.

Ooooh, he landed on his head. That can’t be good, right?

“Oh my, and I thought I had pulled my punch. Guess that was still too much?”

::He died instantly, lass.::

To think the difference in strength is that extreme! Looks like the bandits can’t keep up with Sera’s movements at all. I doubt whether they can even see her.

“Eh?”

Unable to process what had just happened, the gang stood frozen in shock. At this point, the previously sulky look on Sera’s face had completely cleared away.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t everyone look like they were having so much fun just now? You guys wanted to play with me, right? Umm...Soft Wind, was it?”

Oh, this girl is a total sadist.

“You six over there, how about it?”

Sera looked directly at the six bandits who were still in hiding. I didn’t even have to tell her their positions.

“Master, um, did you write this sentence wrong?”

“Oops, yeah, good catch...this is how it’s supposed to be.”

I turned back to focus on Efil’s studies.

◇ ◇ ◇

What kind of a joke is this?

The scene before my eyes could only be described as the unstoppable rampage of an absolute predator. This woman who we had thought to be nothing more than an easy target mere seconds before was massacring my people right before my eyes.

The first one who died was Ens. That woman, who had been standing in front of the wagon, suddenly appeared right in front of him and punched him once in the abdomen. How did that slim frame of hers manage to dish out so much power? By the time I heard the gruesome sound of his bones shattering and internal organs being crushed, he was already flying towards me, his dead, soulless eyes staring right into mine.

“Eh?”

My other subordinates were as shocked as I was. They all froze in their previously frenzied dash towards what they had thought to be easy prey.

“Oh my, and I thought I had pulled my punch. Guess that was still too much?”

That was her pulling her punch?!

My boys were by no means weak. In fact, they were stronger than the average adventurer. All of them were at least Level 25, and if they worked together properly, I knew they had the ability to subdue the party led by Uld, Parth’s strongest adventurer, easily enough. Someone who could talk about pulling their punches while dealing with my gang would have to be Rank A or, Goddess forbid, Rank S.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t everyone look like they were having so much fun just now? You guys wanted to play with me, right? Umm...Soft Wind, was it?” said the woman provokingly, with a smile so bewitchingly beautiful that even I almost fell for her. Not only was she completely looking down on us, she had even gone to the trouble of purposefully botching the gang’s name.

“Y-You bitch! Guys, how much longer do you plan on standing around like idiots! Forget about capturing her; kill her instead!”

I snapped my dumbfounded subordinates back to their senses and commanded them to attack. Thinking about it now, it was obviously the wrong call. I never backed down when someone picked a fight with me, and my short-tempered personality had prompted me to do what I always did without a second thought. I should have recognized our difference in strength based on what had happened to Ens, and ordered everyone to scatter and run away. If so, perhaps she might have let us leave with our lives. Perhaps we could have regrouped with the others who were hidden on standby close behind. However, it was too late now.

“Oh...I guess...” murmured the woman after shooting a quick look behind her.

Misinterpreting that as an opening, Doil and Pond resumed their sprint towards her. Both of them were equipped with daggers. These two, who were acknowledged even by the officers of Black Wind for their high Agility stats, pulled off the perfect surprise attack with flawless teamwork.

“Oh?”

When the woman noticed Doil and Pond’s approach, their daggers were already mere inches away from her neck and heart.

Got her!

Surely my two underlings had thought the same thing. It didn’t take long for us to change our minds, though.

◇ ◇ ◇

Thwack.

Pond thought it strange that he couldn’t feel any feedback from his dominant hand. Normally, this would be the moment when the heavenly feeling of slicing through flesh flooded his brain. This time, however, he wasn’t feeling anything. In fact, he couldn’t even feel the handle of the poisoned dagger that he was so used to wielding...

“Hey, this is a pretty well-maintained dagger that you’re using. Well, I mean, for a bandit, that is.”

Inadvertently looking up at the source of that voice, Pond found the woman that he had thought he’d killed nonchalantly holding his own dagger up and evaluating it. Why is she still alive? Her throat should be sliced open and my knife should be buried in her heart!

It was only then that the figure of his partner, Doil, arm snapped and head twisted around at an impossible angle, came into Pond’s view. He suddenly understood that in all likelihood, he himself was in the same state.

What the hell...just happened...?

With no one to answer his unvoiced question, Pond’s consciousness sank into eternal darkness.

◇ ◇ ◇

Both Doil and Pond had been killed. But how? I could not comprehend what had just happened. One moment I was convinced that they’d struck the woman down, but the next, they were the ones lying on the ground, arms and necks completely crushed. Did that mean she had attacked each of them twice within a split second?

Held in the woman’s hands were Doil’s and Pond’s daggers. Perhaps she had not even considered their approach to be an attempt on her life. When did she snatch the daggers? When did she break my two subordinates’ arms, and when did she snap their necks? I had not caught a single second of what had happened.

By then, my next subordinate was winding up an attack. It was the strongman, Guilder, who was so powerful that he needed only a single hand to swing his solid iron hammer around. In addition, despite being a strongman, he was also fast enough to keep up with Doil and Pond. All in all, he was an extremely capable member of our fighting force.

Taking advantage of the brief moment during which the woman was occupied with the daggers, Guilder lifted his hammer as high as he could before slamming it down with every ounce of strength he could muster. The blow had enough power to shatter armor and pulverize shields.

“Oh, are we doing a strength competition this time?”

The hammer, with all its supposed destructive power, was easily stopped by the woman. With nothing more than a single one of her thin, shapely arms, no less.

“Not that I mind, though. All right, I’ll play along.”

There wasn’t a single bead of sweat on her forehead.

“HAAAAAAHHHHH!”

Guilder roared at the top of his lungs while pressing the hammer down so hard that his veins were visible on his bulky arms. Even so, the hammer would not budge.

I couldn’t help but blurt out my surprise. “That’s impossible...Guilder’s Strength stat is over 200!!”

“Is that so? Hmm, so this is what a Strength of 200 can do, huh?” murmured the woman, who had apparently heard me, in a bored voice. “Well, it’s about time for me to make a move, I suppose.”

As she said that, fissures spidered across the surface of Guilder’s huge hammer. They spread quickly, cracking loudly as they went. An instant later, the entire weapon crumbled into pieces. The only thing left behind was the woman, who still had her right hand lifted up, and Guilder, who was still holding onto the handle, now reduced to nothing more than a mere stick. As I watched, it slowly slipped from Guilder’s grip, after which his huge bulk also crumpled to the ground. With him lying on his side, I could see that his chest had completely caved in.

Who could have foreseen such an insane outcome? Four of my people had died within mere seconds of each other. The only ones left were myself and Yuro, my last remaining subordinate.

“Wh-Who are you...?!”

“Um...an adventurer from Parth, I guess?”

“Why is your answer a question?! You’ve got to be fucking with us...!”

With the situation quickly spiraling out of control, there was only one last thing for me to do. Although this option would reduce the entire wagon to cinders, we were no longer in any position to worry about that. I signaled to the group behind us.

“That nonchalant look isn’t gonna stay on your face any longer!”

All six of the gang members I had ordered to hang back were mages. And they weren’t just any mages but specialists in Red Magic, the most destructive element of all. Within moments, the entire area before me would be bombarded with a squall of Rank C Red Magic spells. It was a pity that we would be losing such valuable spoils, but we had human losses on our side too. I couldn’t very well let my men’s deaths go unavenged.

“Commence bombardment!”

I threw my arm down, signaling for the descent of hell on earth.

“......”

“How much longer am I supposed to wait?”

“Uh...”

That’s strange. I repeated the signal several more times, but no spells came flying from behind. Don’t tell me they all left us here to die and ran away by themselves?!

“What’s wrong? Efil, do you know?”

The woman turned to look at her allies in the wagon. Standing gracefully atop the back was a maid with a bow in her hand.

“I wonder what indeed. I’m afraid I haven’t the faintest idea either,” returned the maid in a matter-of-fact tone as she put her bow away.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Hah, for some reason, I’m in better shape than I was before I was sealed away. So, this is the power-up from Summoning’s magic supply?”

Although she had first taken to the task rather reluctantly, she was now in a great mood after what had turned out to be a chance for her to rampage as she pleased.

::That was a rather nice show back there. If you are interested, I would like to spar with you one of these days.::

It appeared that she had impressed even Gerard. This was something that I wouldn’t ever say out loud, but I had been wondering if a princess who had lived such a sheltered life up until now could actually hold her own in a fight. However, my concerns had clearly been unfounded.

Perhaps this is a result of the highly specialized education that her father arranged for her. Seems like she really might be able to put up an even fight against Gerard.

“Come on, was there any need to cut it that close?”

“But I wasn’t cutting it close at all.”

Sera tilted her head in puzzlement as I got down from the wagon and approached her.

“I wasn’t talking about you, but the six people who had been hiding in the back. You sensed them too, didn’t you?” I sighed as I jerked a thumb towards the wagon behind me.

“It wasn’t a problem, though, was it? I figured that you and Efil would easily be able to handle it even if those lackeys shot their magic or bows or whatever.”

Has the poor driver completely slipped her mind...?

“G-Goodness gracious, to have handled members of Black Wind like they were mere children...!”

“Ah!”

The sight of our middle-aged driver gingerly clambering down from his seat and heading towards us caused Sera to start as she finally remembered he was there.

“Uh...well...the point is, Efil did take care of them all, so...so all’s well that ends well!”

“Please just be more careful next time...” While it was true that Efil did indeed shoot down all of the guys in the back, you’re just using that as an excuse, aren’t you?

The conversation wasn’t going to proceed if I kept prodding, though, so I decided to put the matter on the backburner for now. I turned from the increasingly flustered Sera to the bandits who had been tied up.

“So, why is the supposedly wiped-out bandit ring Black Wind back in action?”

“......”

“......”

Silence, really? The only two survivors — the female leader and one of her thugs — looked like they had no intention of opening their mouths.

“Boss, let’s hand these two over to the authorities in Toraj. Considering how boldly they attacked us, surely they must have gone after other people before, which means there’s a good possibility that there are bounties out for them.”

“I’m on board with that, but first I’d like to extract as much information as possible.”

Hearing that, the leader laughed scornfully. Well, here’s hoping they talk before we have to resort to using force.

“Hah! Who the hell would talk to mere —”

“Your names are Karna and Yuro, and your levels are 31 and 26. Those are rather high levels for bandits. Why don’t you guys just work as normal adventurers? You could have earned a fair bit of money doing so.”

“You bastard, you have Analyze Eye?!”

Bingo. My plan was to slowly expose her personal information little by little. For what it was worth, she also possessed Concealment at a rather high rank, but it was meaningless before the superiority of Rank S. Exposing someone’s personal information without their express permission was considered an extremely insulting thing to do.

“What should I reveal next? Your age? Your skills?”

“Boss...”

“Hah! Do as you please!”

The woman turned her face away. What a stubborn person.

“Kelvin, if you find this too annoying, how about I cast a Black Magic spell on them?”

“Hm? You know a good one?” Sera’s suggestion had come out of the blue. There’s a spell for interrogation?

“I may not look like it, but I was even better than Viktor at magic!”

“Oh, is that so? Then yes, please.”

Sera’s expression was smug and she looked completely confident. Given how sure of herself she sounded, I figured she might as well have a go. For some reason, though, a small nugget of unease remained in my mind.

“Many spells in Black Magic can’t be used quickly, but my class is Cursed Pugilist. I wreathe my fist in magic and then punch my opponents. That way, the magic has a one hundred percent chance of hitting. Though admittedly, there’s no need to do that against people who’re bound up and unable to dodge.”

Smiling cheerfully, Sera placed a hand on the male bandit’s head. Likely having recalled the scene of his friends being killed in quick succession, he started quivering uncontrollably. The fist that had shattered bones and crushed organs was now grabbing his own head in a claw-like grip. He had every right to be scared.

“So what’s the spell that you’re planning on casting?”

“Hmm, how about one that makes him bleed from every pore in his skin?”

“Um...won’t he die before we get any info from him?”

Maybe I’d chosen the wrong person for this, after all...aw man, look at that, the guy’s started crying.

“I was joking, of course. Just a joke. Spells that cause bleeding need a while to take full effect. It seems his mouth is pretty tight, so I’m thinking Hypnosis will do the trick.”

Black Magic began to emanate from Sera’s hand. It looked exactly like what Viktor had done during our fight with him. Wait a moment. Does that mean...

“Hey, Sera. Could it be that Viktor used Black Magic in the same way as you?”

“What are you saying? Viktor was a Cursed Pugilist too. Of course he used it any opportunity he got. I’m sure you guys already know this, having fought him personally, but he also fought while wreathing his fist in some Black Magic spell or other.”

Uwah, which means we would have been finished if we had come into contact with his fists even once? Thank heaven none of us did! I didn’t even notice him having used such magic. If I possessed Magic Detection like Sera does, I might have been able to deal with it somehow, but there’s no point dwelling on all these ‘what ifs’ now.

“Why do you ask?” Once again, Sera looked at me with puzzlement.

“Never mind, don’t worry about it. So, this Hypnosis spell. I’ll take a wild guess and say that it hypnotizes the target?”

“Mhm, it makes the target’s consciousness go hazy. In the midst of battle, this spell can only cause a target to lose consciousness for a fraction of a second, but if I continue applying it for a prolonged period of time like this...”

Abruptly, all strength left the man’s body. So he’s hypnotized now?

“It transforms into the perfect spell for interrogations! Go on, ask him anything you like!”

Nice! At first, I was worried about how this would turn out, but it seems like Sera can really get things done when she puts her mind to it. Sorry for having doubted you.

“Wha — Yuro, wake up! A member of Black Wind must not succumb so easily!”

The woman started raising a ruckus in an attempt to wake up her underling. Despite that, Sera remained unfazed.

“Should I gag her?” offered Efil.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sera replied. “Loud noises aren’t enough to break the spell.”

“Goddammit...” The bandit leader ground her teeth, seemingly trying to glare us to death. Then again, her current circumstances hardly allowed her to do anything else.

“All right, let’s start the interrogation, shall we?”