Chapter 9 (1/2)

9 Encounter

The wind blew fiercely

The nighttirassy plains

The new moon’s sky

A world painted with darkness

Slowly, a single ure appeared

His face hidden with a cloth, and a vermillion bow in hand

Rocking atop his horse, he simply looked forward

His eyes held a bizarre glow

And yet, like a phantom, his presence was almost entirely undetectable

Pulling on the reins he brought the horse to a stop and muttered, “…Found you”

At the end of the field, in the shadow of an egg-shaped rock, an orange light flickered and waved

Firelight

So out there

Right where they were attacked not too long ago

He didn’t even need to think of who it could be

It was them

The band of thieves that shot Aileen

Silently, he pulled an arrow from his quiver

Reading the wind, he determined they were doind

He lightly kicked the horse’s sides and it began to silently walk forward once again

Slowly, under the cover of night

Catching his breath, he advanced into the grassy plain with an arrow nocked on his bow

† † †

The fire spit as a twig popped inside it

In the shadow of the egg-shaped rock, near the canaz carelessly rested in their black leather armor

One basking in the warround; one ainst the rock and keeping watch—

Except for the one keeping watch, they were all completely relaxed In the cool breeze under the new moon’s sky, the thieves wore expressions without a hint of enthusiasm—they appeared sleepy and absentminded

To put it shortly, they looked devoid of spirit

“Haaah,” the skinnyon top of the rock in front of the fire let out a big sigh

A glooroup he appeared to be theproper nourishment, or maybe he was just always like that His sunken cheeks and eyes gave his face the appearance of a skull His long, unkempt hair, coupled with the shadow cast by the dim fire created an at

A grave keeper would suit him much better than a thief His name was Morissette, and he was the leader of the nine others in Ignaz’s co some skewered meat over the campfire

The i over the calazed eyes Once it was cooked decently, he flipped it over and thoroughly cooked the other side

“…Hey, Morissette,” drawled the plued on the other side of the fire

“What?” asked Morissette, only glancing at him

“Notit would be a waste if you cooked all the fat away…”

“This is fine, it’s a luxury,” replied Morissette while staring at theits fat “I like meat with the least amount of fat best”

“…The way you’re doing it, the meat will dry up you know?”

“For ht”

“Such a waaaste! That’s exactly why you’re always just skin and bones,” whined the plu as he threw his hands up

“I don’t care It doesn’t matter to me,” Morissette bluntly retorted

During their chat, thethe e bite

“…Ahh, I’ive me a piece too”

“Sorry, this is the last of it”

“Aah…then, just one bite—“

Before the underling could finish talking, Morissette opened his mouth wide and shoved the rest of the meat in

“Aaaahhh!”

“Even if you look atback,” he said while chewing

“damn That’s not fair”

“…Hey, Rat We divided up the food evenly Where’s your food?” Morissette glared at the underling, Rat

Looking around enviously, Rat called out to the other thieves, “Hey, anyone have some meat, any meat?”

“Sorry, already ate it”

“I’m all out too”

“I have some biscuits if you want”

Hearing his coh “Everyone is so mean…”

“There’s no helping it, our prey got away…”

Morissette and Rat looked at each other again; dejected, they sighed

It was only a few hours ago

Morissette and his group were laying low and setting up carassy plains However, one of his subordinates spotted travelers carelessly lighting a fire at the foot of the mountain With just that, they launched an attack

Purposely lighting a fire in plain sight on the night of a new et me!”

Morissette’s group’s food stock was just getting low too As bandits, they couldn’t possibly overlook this

Their prey o people They were a strange pair A blonde—and good looking at that—girl, fully clad in foreign style black clothing, and a boy who appeared to be a person of the grassy plains Neither of the two stood watch; they just war themselves up on a silver platter

Morissette’s group had tenan arrow their prey would have nowhere to escape—should have had nowhere to escape

“…To think that Morissette would fail”

“Fail…huh” Hearing Rat’s frank words Morissette made an unpleasant face

The first one who attacked, the person who first shot at the boy, was none other than Morissette Being a person of the grassy plains hiroup Even trained in suppressing his bloodlust, he was proud of never letting his ability with a bow fall behind any of his subordinates

However

“That bastard, dodging it”

The very moment Morissette released the arrow, the boy instinctively twisted his body and avoided the arrow’s trajectory He didn’t sense the arrow flying toward him, rather, he felt the miniscule bloodlust that leaked when Morissette attacked

“Sensing Morissette’s arrow at that distance…wasn’t a fluke, huh…”

“He probably kneas coirl she didn’t move…”

Morissette wore a sullen expression while rubbing his chin Even for a seasoned warrior, reflexively dodging while unprepared was difficult “Even so, if that bastard could sense my arroould have been better if he just covered for the girl Then ouldn’t have killed her and ould’ve finished him off It would’ve been an honorable death…”

Deee his arrow, Morissette changed targets to the girl for his second arrow

The boy was of no use, so originally, the plan was to kill hiht away and then everyone would take their ti their supplies over leaving her alive for their entertainment

However, their plan fell short Even while burdened by the wounded girl, the boy not only penetrated their encirclement, but also repelled the pursuit of three hound wolves; he succeeded in a remarkable escape

Morissette pressed his hands to his te, they killed two of our precious Hound Wolves and the last one is useless… Exactly what am I supposed to tell the leader…” He sprawled out in the shadow of the rock with a displeased expression and looked at the sole surviving Hound Wolf “damn it, next time I see that bastard I’ll make sure I kill him”

Morissette once again started to produce a ave a suilty A~ah, but it was a waste killing that girl, you know”

One of the subordinates laying down had a vexed atmosphere around hiem”

“That looong blonde hair… She looked like an aristocrat”

“Surprisingly, she was probably a ninja”

Some of the other subordinates cut in

“Well, not like she’s alive anyh…”

“She did get poisoned”

“I’d have fun with her even if she is dead If we search the area we ht find her body”

“Her body, huh…”

“I wouldn’t be able to keep it up for a dead body”

“Normally, I wouldn’t do it, but she’s such a beauty that I probably could She’s like a doll”

“Whether she’s a beauty or ugly, if there’s a hole it’s all the same”

“But after a day it’s a bit dicey, isn’t it? She’d get all hard…”

The ging each other on

I suppose it’s alht to himself as he watched his subordinates

Thinking back, over the past several weeks they crossed through the Ri’leir area, avoiding all possible contact with those outside of their group Everyone, including himself, was thirsty for a woman They weren’t bad men; that’s just the kind of people they were He didn’t think that they would run wild fro it built up wasn’t favorable

I thought that we could have resolved that this tih Their lust was left unsatiated, they didn’t get even a single copper, let alone food, and instead they lost two Hound Wolves

The leader is gonna wring me out on this one…

The Ingaz leader’s slogan is ‘If you’re in the bandit business get results, not losses’

In all honesty, Morissette didn’t even consider the pain and sacrifices they could end up with froirl and boy

…We failed because I attacked alone, didn’t we? He was reflecting on why they failed I should’ve just had all those with bows ai to cause the leather armor clad boy any unnecessary pain, he attacked by himself and failed

Counting hiroup that had bows If the four of the and shot, even that boy wouldn’t have been able to dodge therazed him, the poison smeared onto the arrowheads would have rendered him helpless

If it had been a stupid man, then he believed—no, he was certain that he alone would have been enough to take him down

Overconfidence sure is painful… A small s breath of air

It was no longer a sigh He finished his reflection with a resolution to behe had to kill, next time

Morissette’s ed and he clapped his hands a couple times He was about to stop his subordinates’ indecent conversation, “Alright You guys, it’s ti—“

A dry twang rang out

Morissette and his group wore puzzled expressions, and there was a thick sounding, “Ooely wet sounding voice

Looking at the panicked man, Morissette’s jaw dropped in shock and he asked him, “Hey, what—“

The e rock, noith a black-feathered arrow through his head and in spasms like a broken mechanical doll No, it didn’t sih his skull and even pierced into the rock behind him He was, quite literally, attached to the stone

“Hey…”