Volume 3, Chapter 21 – Another Milu?

Hearing Fia’s call, the “Milu” with her head down looked up. However, her terrifying crimson eyes showed no hope of being saved, but rather a look of confusion, as if she didn’t recognize Fia.

Perhaps she doesn’t recognize me because I’m wearing a mask with the Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea—or it could be something else, like this is Milu’s younger or older sister. In any case, I’ll deal with the witches and bandits in the room first.

Since the initial alloy iron door had taken care of one of the witches, only two witches and a bandit leader with an eyepatch over his left eye remained in the room. Although the room was still quite spacious, it was cluttered with so much treasure that there was actually not much room to maneuver.

I’ll finish them with [Mental Shock].

Quickly inserting herself between the bandits and the “Milu” who was tied to a chair, Fia used [Mental Shock] towards the direction of the door. However, the spell did not incapacitate the three of them. This was especially true for the two witches in red robes. The bandit leader’s legs were clearly unsteady, but the two witches were only momentarily dazed.

“It’s mental magic!”

“—[Soul Barrier].”

The two witches reacted quickly, and the bandit, after coming to his senses, immediately threw a magic crystal at his feet. With a “hissing” sound of escaping gas, a thick black smoke emerged from the crystal.

A smoke bomb?

A flurry of conversation was Fia’s answer.

“Let’s go! She got here without making a sound, the people outside must have been dealt with!”

“We haven’t taken that ominous thing yet!”

“Who cares about that thing, escaping is more important!”

Because the room was filled with black smoke, Fia could only judge from the receding footsteps that the witches and the bandit leader were escaping. As for why they had not been incapacitated by the initial [Mental Shock], it was probably because the intensity she had used was not enough. ¹ smhh

When dealing with the bandits along the way, she had only controlled [Mental Shock] to a level just enough to knock people unconscious. But these three were of a higher rank than ordinary people, and therefore their soul strength was also stronger. A normal [Mental Shock] was ineffective.

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Although [Mental Shock] was very useful against strong targets, it was troublesome against weak ones. It required extremely precise control, otherwise, a careless mistake could turn the other person into a vegetable, or like the Fire-striped Frogs, their heads would explode. She didn’t mind the gory scene, but it would definitely make a normal person scream. Milu was still here, and Fia wanted to avoid scaring a child as much as possible.

Hmm?

Fia, who was about to rescue Milu, tilted her head.

Just in case, Fia scanned the room with [Wind of Exploration]. It turned out that the bandit leader and the two witches had not left as they had said, but were using the smoke as cover to quietly approach her.

The receding footsteps from before were likely an illusion created by the witches with magic.

As expected of experienced veterans, much more cunning than ordinary people. Fia sighed inwardly. The opponents she had encountered in the past were either too strong or too weak. This was the first time she had faced an enemy who used strategy like this.

“They haven’t left.”

The short, white-haired girl tied to the chair reminded Fia. And as “Milu’s” voice fell, the bandit leader and the two witches, who had been hiding in the black smoke, attacked Fia all at once.

“[Black Lance Pierce]!”

“—[Mana Burst]!”

“—[Dragon Tooth Cage]!”

First came the bandit leader’s dagger, thrusting at Fia’s chest. Empowered by the martial skill called [Black Lance Pierce], the dagger had a black, sinister sheen. The [Mana Burst] and [Dragon Tooth Cage] used by the witches manifested as an explosion and a circular stone cage rising from the ground, respectively. The two witches’ coordination was quite good. Without preparation, an ordinary Third Rank individual would have been blown to bits in the cage.

In response, Fia first activated the demon sword Laevateinn, making it fly out of its sheath. By striking the bandit leader’s wrist, she forced him to drop his dagger. Then, she combined [Bee Shield] and [Ice Bullet] to block the explosion and subdue the two witches. Unfortunately, the [Ice Bullet] only sent the two witches flying; they did not lose consciousness as Fia had hoped. They struggled to get up and began to chant again, so Fia had no choice but to follow up with [Wind Blade].

“Gah!”

“G-good thing I have mithril soft armor! It seems this one isn’t good at attack magic! Stall her, we’ll win once her mana runs out!”

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The shouting witch regained her footing. Including the bandit leader, the three of them stood opposite Fia once again.

Although she had no problem slowly draining their mana, since this was a bandit extermination, it was better to be a little more serious.

Fia protected herself and Milu with [Bee Shield], then summoned one hundred and twenty fireballs at once. As the room’s temperature suddenly rose, the black smoke was also dispersed by the fireballs. Fia saw the two witches’ bodies tremble with fear.

“W-what is this?”

“Weren’t you only able to use low-rank magic…”

Without wasting time, Fia waved her arm, and the fireballs instantly shot towards the three of them.

The earth erupted with a violent roar.

◇

By the time Fia appeared on the surface, carrying the three witches and the bandit leader with her Spatial Hand, half an hour had passed.

Tossing the four of them to the ground like garbage, Fia regrouped with Renee, who was in the courtyard surrounded by a group of women. Renee was truly worthy of her position as a vice-captain in the Royal Guard. All the bandits on the surface had been defeated by her, and the villagers locked in the iron cages had been released. Some of the able-bodied men had even taken the initiative to tie the bandits together with ropes. From their skilled movements, it was clear that these men were not villagers, but probably adventurers or soldiers.

“Lord Thanatos, all the bandits on the surface have been dealt with.”

Kneeling on one knee before Fia, Renee said in the posture of a servant knight.

“Yes, the ones below have also been dealt with. There were no Darkborn inside.”

“No Darkborn… Was I mistaken?”

Renee had fallen into the bandits’ hands while tracking the ‘Dominators’ among the Darkborn, and had then been found by Fia in that village. Now, even after going deep into the bandits’ lair, she had not found any Darkborn. It was natural for her to think that she had been mistaken.

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“It’s too early to draw conclusions. We’ll ask this leader after he wakes up. Also, although I don’t know if he was colluding with the Darkborn, I’m certain he has a connection with the witches.”

“Witches? Do you mean Friede?”

“I don’t know,” Fia shrugged, pointing her chin at the three witches on the ground. “They might also be members of the other faction. In any case, I plan to hand them over to Friede and let her deal with them. More importantly, I’m more concerned about this Milu here.”

Fia moved aside, revealing the short-haired Milu who had been following behind her. Seeing those signature, bewitching cat’s eyes, Renee’s pupils couldn’t help but shrink.

“Milu? Shouldn’t she be at the inn? Why is she here?!”

“I don’t know either. She doesn’t seem to recognize me and is unwilling to talk to me much. I guess she might be Milu’s sister.”

Fia sighed softly. After dealing with the witches and the bandit leader, Fia had tried to talk to the short-haired Milu, asking her why she was here. But in response to her questions, the short-haired Milu had only nodded and shaken her head, barely speaking, which was quite different from the Milu Fia knew. So, for now, Fia had mentally distinguished between the short-haired Milu and the long-haired Milu.

In addition, the matter of Milu’s immortality also surprised Fia, but this was not the place to talk. Fia decided to return to the inn first and let the short-haired Milu and the long-haired Milu meet.

The subsequent developments were simple.

First, the bandits. Since most of them had either been knocked out by Fia’s [Mental Shock] or by Renee’s physical attacks, it didn’t take much effort to tie them up in the courtyard.

Then, the survivors. Besides the dozen or so women Fia had rescued, there were also innocent villagers and, to Fia’s surprise, soldiers from the Barony of Khesa. When Fia asked the soldiers why they had fallen into the bandits’ hands, most of them lowered their heads in shame.

What had happened was that Baron Khesa had ordered a patrol team to eliminate this stronghold. But because there was a traitor in the patrol team, and the stronghold was extremely fortified, the operation had ended in failure, and they had been captured by the bandits. Although some of the soldiers had committed suicide after being tortured, most of them had survived. And as for the means of torture, although the soldiers didn’t say, Fia could guess from their hesitant words that it was because there were men among the bandits who had a preference for other men.

This world is too chaotic.

After that, the kidnapped villagers planned to return to their village to try and find their family members who had been sold by the bandits. The soldiers would return to the patrol team, find the traitor, and execute him. Finally, the women who had been kidnapped and brutalized by the bandits, apart from a very few who had just been captured and said they wanted to go home, the rest all lowered their heads with gloomy expressions when Fia asked them where they would go next.

Even if they returned home after being violated by bandits, they would only be met with contemptuous looks from others, and even their own families. In addition, some of them had been in the bandits’ hands for too long and had become mentally unstable. Even after being rescued, they would just giggle foolishly or remain silent. Fia was a little worried that if she just let them go, they might take their own lives. Therefore, this group of women had to be properly arranged for. ² uh… that’s sad..

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Of course, the mentally unstable were only a minority. Most of the women, especially the female warrior who had first attacked Fia, had a normal reaction upon seeing the starry sky outside—they shed tears of joy for their new lease on life. It was also worth mentioning that since most of the women were wearing clothes that did not cover their bodies, Fia gave them the cloth she had taken from the treasury at the bottom of the underground passage to drape over themselves.

As for how to deal with the bandits and the stronghold, it was according to the custom of the Alfrieg Kingdom. Since the bandits were annihilated by Fia, both they and their treasure became her private property. But while the treasure could be taken, the stronghold had to be burned down to prevent other bandits from moving in and continuing to do evil. Fia had no objection to this; she had no use for the stronghold anyway, so it was better to burn it down sooner rather than later.

In addition, considering that the subsequent lives of the victimized villagers would be very difficult—it was obvious that their village must have been burned down by the bandits, and with their families and neighbors sold into slavery and displaced, starting from scratch was harder than climbing to the sky—Fia planned to divide the money from selling the bandits among the villagers to help them build new homes or search for their sold wives and daughters. Although two or three gold coins per person on average was not too much, it could at least give them some hope to live on.

As for the messy pile of treasure in the treasury, it was nominally already Fia’s property. However, Fia did not want to just accept it. These were things that the bandits had robbed and plundered from innocent people. Using them directly would make her conscience uneasy. Fia planned to communicate with Baron Khesa first and have him search for the former owners of these treasures. If no one came forward with evidence to claim them, Fia would use them for something meaningful.

For example, she could use the money to establish an orphanage or an organization dedicated to helping victims of bandit attacks return to a normal life. This world was too harsh on the weak. Fia had only been on the World Tree Continent for less than a month, but she had already seen too many poor people who had suffered tragic fates. She hoped the world could be a little gentler.

Finally, the bandits would be escorted to the city by the soldiers, and the villagers would return with them. As for the women who had suffered tragically, apart from those who wanted to return to a normal life, Fia had the rest stay in the stronghold for the time being, guarded by the female warrior to prevent anyone from taking their own lives.

And for their future, Fia planned to find Friede of the Witch Hall and see if she could take these women in, letting them be responsible for daily chores like cleaning and washing clothes. Most of the women here were village girls, and some were the daughters of nobles and merchants. Doing chores like cleaning would be no problem for them.

If Friede could not take them in, she would communicate with Baron Khesa, use the bandits’ money to establish an organization to protect orphans or help victims of banditry, and then hire these women as helpers. They did not speak the elven language, so she could not take them back to the Elf Kingdom. With the name of Thanatos as a backer, Baron Khesa should provide them with a certain degree of protection.

When the women heard Fia’s arrangements, the once lifeless courtyard quickly became lively. They asked Fia for some needles and thread, hoping to make their own clothes to make themselves presentable in the future. In addition, some of the noble women desired simple cosmetics, while the female warrior wanted a sword and armor for protection. When Fia said they could go to the treasury and take what they wanted, a low cheer erupted from the crowd.

Although the female warrior had volunteered to guard the treasury to prevent anyone from having malicious thoughts, considering that the women here would not be leaving the stronghold, Fia just nodded simply and did not make any specific arrangements.

This way, I’ll have to occasionally take the time to fly back and check on them on the way back to the Elf Kingdom—if only I had teleportation magic, Fia couldn’t help but lament. ³ yisi is too op i guess.

After properly handling everything, Fia took the short-haired Milu, the three witches, and Renee and set off on the road back to the inn. The three witches had excellent physical constitutions, so Fia could fly while carrying them with ropes. As for Milu, Fia held her by the waist. Compared to the stubborn personality of the long-haired Milu, the short-haired Milu was much quieter and more well-behaved. She was very cooperative with Fia’s embrace and just frequently looked up to curiously observe Fia’s face along the way.

It was now ten o’clock at night. There were only a few people in the inn’s lobby. Fia, who had removed her mask, led the short-haired Milu through the inn’s entrance.

Seeing Fia bring back another “Milu,” the guards at the door’s eyes widened with an incredulous expression. However, Fia did not pay them any mind. She led the dirty, short-haired Milu straight to her room.