Even though the road was well lit by the sunlight, the forest was dense enough that it was hard to see what was hidden beyond the trees. It wasn’t so much that the trees would block the view, but the treetops would block most of the sunlight. At this point I was really thinking that I should have gotten a caravan to take us to our destination. There wasn’t a lot to do, there weren’t any monsters in our path, so it was just a straight walk for us. In fact, there weren’t even any curves or diverging paths, it was literally a straight road, possibly to just make the shortest path to the city that runs through this forest. At some point, you’d block out your surroundings because everything would begin to look the same.
“Boss,” Rya said. “This sucks, can’t we have a short break here?”
“Sure, but didn’t you travel through this forest before?”
“Yeah, and it sucked back then as well.”
We took a rest at the side of the road. I decided to make some basic chairs for us to sit on. I wasn’t exactly able to use the wood that was lying there, for the chair I actually needed wooden planks, and to make planks I had to use logs, or at least, that’s how I imagined it to be. I wasn’t sure if it really was true, but before I could use 【Item Creation】, I had to have some pre-existing knowledge of the creation process, so I couldn’t use anything other than logs for that since that’s the only method I actually knew. Actually, something I noticed was that 【Analysis】 actually allows me to know the manufacturing process from beginning to end, even if I don't exactly know the precise material.
“So, what’s the plan once we get there?” Gilian said.
“I guess the first thing we need to do is find a place to sleep,” I said, “maybe have some rest for a few days before we head into the dungeon.”
“How long are we going to stay there?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it, though I guess we could stay for a while.”
“Maybe we could get an apartment,” Rya said. “I mean, living in Benita’s not too expensive, and getting an apartment for a few months is cheaper than renting a room at an inn.”
“I guess you have a point, it’s definitely cheaper than renting four rooms.”
“Wait, wait a minute boss, you’re seriously not considering getting four rooms, right? Aside from the fact that you’d be wasting a lot of money, a slave can’t have a room of their own. You know that, right?”
“Wait, why’s that?”
“Look, boss, Albega is a good place, everybody is treated as humane as possible. But slaves aren’t equal to other citizens. Slaves don’t have any rights beyond the basic human rights.”
“Well that’s messed up. I mean, I get it, that’s how it was in my previous world, but, it’s still messed up.”
“I mean, I know that you don’t consider them as your slaves, but the fact is, they still have a collar. They’re still your property. Doesn’t matter if you like it or not, that’s still a fact.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Rya was right. I always knew how messed up slavery in actuality was, but this just made it real for me. Even though slavery in this country isn’t as bad as it was in my previous world, it’s still owning a human being.
“Okay, so, we need to have two rooms then,” I said.
“Just one, boss,” Rya said.
“Why just one?”
“One room’s cheaper than two.”
“And?”
“I mean, it’s mostly your money, but Benita ain’t cheap, ya know. You need the money to get real estate, as that would save us even more money in the long run.”
“Can’t we just earn money by going through the dungeon several times?”
“Trust me, boss, the dungeon might be great for earning money, but only if you go deep enough. With your experience, you wouldn’t even survive the fifth floor.”
“Don’t we just need to raise our levels?” Gilian said.
“Levels mean nothing. You gotta have combat experience. A well-timed well-aimed hit can still instantly kill you, no matter how strong you supposedly are.”
After our short break, it was time to hit the road again. We still had to cover some distance, and if we wanted to get to the city before nightfall, we had to pick up the pace. I also wanted to get out of the woods as quickly as possible, as it was hard to see the time of day with all the trees covering the sky. Watches didn’t exist, so knowing the time of day was often purely done with the sun.
For a long time, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Rya was humming, while Gilian and Jeanne were talking to each other. I’d be lying if I’d say I wasn’t complaining internally, this truly was boring. There were no monsters in our path or anything. Nobody knows why this is, there aren’t any special enchantments done here, and the forest itself is full of all kinds of creatures. You’d think that once in a while a caravan would get attacked by some large animal or a ferocious beast, but as far as people know this has rarely if ever happened.
Though, there is always one threat that remains, and when you walk this path, you’d often forget about this threat.
I don’t know how long we’ve been walking, but Rya began to sniff the air. It’s something she’d always do, just in case, as sniffing in air would improve her sense of smell, or at least according to her. This time, though, she stopped us.
“Did you spot something?” I asked.
“Bandits,” she replied.
“Well, that’s troublesome. Where are they?”
“I don’t know, but it’s at least a kilometer up ahead.”
“Have they spotted us yet?”
“Don’t think they did.”
“Should we take a detour through the forest?”
“Nah, too dangerous, and also, I think we can just take them head on.”
I was a bit hesitant. I’ve never killed anyone, and neither had the sisters. I never really prepared for the possibility that one day we’d have to kill somebody.
“Are you sure there’s no other way?”
“Yeah, it’s safer.”
She looked at me. I guess she could see some concerns on my face.
“Boss, you’ve never killed a person, have you?”
“No, I haven’t, and neither have these two.”
“I can do it for you if you want.”
“Do we really need to kill them?”
“Boss, sometimes there ain’t no other choice but to kill.”
“Yes, but is it necessary to kill them right now? Can’t we subdue them?”
“Rivers, if I may interrupt,” Gilian said. “If we have no other choice, I’m ready to do it.”
“Gilian, you shouldn’t take it too lightly. Taking a person’s life is different from killing an animal, and as far as I know, you haven’t done either.”
“Then let Rya handle it.”
I had to think for a moment. They’re right, if I had to make a choice between sparing the lives of others and protecting my friends, I’d rather kill.
“Fine,” I said. “But only if we really have to.”
We moved on in our regular pace, doing the same things we’ve done before, so that we wouldn’t draw any suspicion. If we were to do anything differently, there’d be a higher chance that we’d just get attacked from a distance. This way, the bandits would probably lower their guards.
Sure enough, once we got there, we were surrounded, with nowhere to escape to.
“Look at what we’ve got here,” one of them said. He seemed to be their leader. “What do ya think, guys?”
“They don’t seem to have a lot of money,” another said.
“Well then, I guess the only thing left to do is kill the guy and sell off the rest.”
Just as he finished uttering these words, the ground began to shake, and every bandit disappeared into the ground. All that were left were holes. As a looked into one of the holes, I could see that there was not a lot of room to move in. The walls were rather smooth for walls made of dirt.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
“Well, that might have been us,” Gilian said. “We just used some earth-type magic spell called 【Dig】.”
“I didn’t know you knew this spell.”
I noticed that Jeanne was walking past each hole.
“Very funny, but don’t think we can’t get out,” the leader-like person said.
At this point Jeanne’s face turned from a serious look to a smile. It was the kind of smile I have never seen on her face. This wasn’t a beautiful smile, far from it. This was the smile of a killer. She began to chuckle, which turned into laughter, and all of a sudden, she stopped. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the bandits began to sound a bit restless.
I looked down a hole, to see what was going on. I could see that he was trying to climb up, though naturally, due to the limited space and the fact that the walls were made of dirt, it was pretty hard to do. In fact, this bandit was struggling. All bandits were struggling. It was only after a few seconds that I noticed the reason why they were all too eager to get out of the hole. The hole was filled with what appeared to be water.
It didn’t stay water though. It didn’t take long for the water to turn a bit more solid, and the bandits were unable to lift their feet. At this point, the holes slowly began to fill with dirt, and it didn’t take long for them to notice this. One by one, each hole was filled with screaming. At first they were angry screams, but after the dirt began to rise up to their waists, their anger turned into despair, and they all began to beg for their life.
I took another look at Jeanne. This time, her face was filled with a certain kind of hatred. It was scary. I could even see Rya being afraid of her.
“I think you’re taking it a bit too far, sis,” Gilian said. “This isn’t funny anymore.”
“Jeanne, you’re going to kill them.” I said.
Jeanne turned her head towards us. “And what if I did?”
“Jeanne, you can’t be serious. This isn’t the way to kill them. These people are incapacitated already.”
“And what difference does it make if I let Rya kill them?”
“They’d die in battle, they’d be killed out of necessity. This isn’t necessary, this is just killing just to kill.”
“If we let them go, they’ll just go out and rob somebody else, or kill again. They might even turn others into slaves.”
“Is that what it is? Is this some sort of revenge? Jeanne, is this because they planned to sell you? Is that it?”
“They deserve to be killed.”
“That’s not up to us, this is up to the authorities. Killing them off this way is not the way to do this.”
I took another glance at a hole, and the dirt almost began to reach their necks.
“Jeanne, don’t make me force you to stop, because I will if I have to.”
Just like that, the dirt stopped rising. I checked every hole if everybody was safe, and fortunately, they were all still alive.
I decided to look around a bit. Since the bandits came from both sides of the road they had to have some supplies near them. Since you’d never know when someone would pass by, you had to have at least some rations nearby on either side. You couldn’t just cross the road to pass something, otherwise you’d be spotted if you were unfortunate enough. As predicted, there were some bags lying around on both sides. I gathered them in one place.
“So, what’re we gonna do with them, boss?” Rya asked.
“Well, they did mention selling you off, so I assume they have a carriage or caravan somewhere, at least something that would make transportation easier. Can you spot anything? Like, maybe smell if there’s a horse or something?”
“I can try.”
“And also, what are we going to do with this stuff?”
“Well, normally, when you kill a bandit, this counts as loot. But, well, they’re not dead yet, so they’re still theirs. I mean, it’s not like anybody cares though.”
“Then I guess we should take it with us to the city, let the guards decide what to do with this stuff.”
“We could use these chains to restrain them, though,” Gilian said.
“Sounds like a good idea.”
One by one the bandits were lifted up from their hole and put in chains. This process was pretty slow, since we didn’t want any runners. First, we had to expose the neck, then the arms, followed by the torso, and finally the legs. The chains were built in such a way that it didn’t leave a lot of room to move. We also had to make sure they’d stay put, so Gilian dug a shallow hole that would be hard to climb with your arms chained to the back. Even with all these restrictions you could still move. Sure, it was slow, but we’d still have to chase them.
Meanwhile, Rya was looking for a transport cart. With this many chains, it would only be logical for them to have something lying around to transport people. It took about a half hour for Rya to come back with a cart, and by that point we had the last bandit all chained up. We finally put them all in the cart and rode off.
Gilian and I stayed at the back of the cart while Rya and Jeanne were at the front. Rya was the only person who knew how to ride a cart, so it was only natural for her to stay there, while Jeanne was one of two people with real offensive skills.
I still couldn’t get it out of my head. The way Jeanne looked was different than how I remembered her. I’ve seen her angry before, but this was on a whole other level. Gilian on the other hand was still her usual self.
“So, where did you learn that spell?” I asked Gilian.
“We happen to have this spell in our skill list,” she said.
“But how did you both know which spell to use? I mean, you both used the same spell at about the same time.”
“If you’re thinking about that, no, we don’t have a psychic link. We just discussed our strategy beforehand. Didn’t you hear us talk?”
“Wait, you actually said your strategy out loud? What if the bandits heard it?”
“Don’t worry, we didn’t mention using it against the bandits, we’re not that stupid. We were just discussing which spell would be appropriate to use.”
I looked at Jeanne. She seemed to be talking to Rya as if nothing happened.
“How are you guys holding up?” I asked.
“I guess we’re doing okay. I mean, I am.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you guys sooner.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like you could have done something about this.” She pointed at her collar. “What happened, happened. Even if you were there, there was nothing you could have done for us, and you’d only end up getting killed for your troubles. Just… be glad that you found us.”
It wasn’t long before we exited the forest. If it weren’t for the bandits, we would probably have been appreciating the sight of the city appearing a bit more. I mean, sure, the view was still breathtaking, but I guess having captives does put a damper on the mood.
Because we went the final stretch on a horse and cart, we were able to get to the city much quicker than planned, even with the unplanned break and the hold-up caused by the ambush. I was just glad we made it out that day instead of having to spend another night outside. I was already dreaming of a warm meal and a cozy bed.
Not long after, we approached the gate, and were greeted by the guards.
“State your business,” a guard said.
“We’re here for the dungeon,” I said. “Oh, and we also picked up some bandits along the way.”
It took a while before everything was verified and processed. This was mostly due to the fact that these bandits weren’t on any wanted list, or at least not on the ones the guards had, so they had to verify it with the adventurers guild. Sure enough, some of them did have a history of crime, and a few actually were known bandits, though their bounty wasn’t substantial. Nevertheless, we were given a small reward.
“So, what’s going to happen to them?” I asked.
“It’s the usual,” the guard said. “Some will be executed, while the rest will either be sold off to slavery or are put in prison. You shouldn’t really concern yourself with this though.”
“I was just curious, that’s all.”
“As a guard of this city, I can only say that these criminals will get what’s coming to them, but, I do get what you’re thinking. When I started this job, I didn’t feel comfortable sending people to their death, even if they did commit heinous crimes. Just be glad that some of them will get a second chance at setting things right.”
“That’s actually pretty refreshing to hear.”
“It’s how most people feel in this city. That’s why I can just freely discuss this with you. It’s not that we support crime, but nobody was born a criminal.”
He was right. Despite their looks, no, I guess because of their looks, it was obvious that they were afraid, they were scared. I guess they had it coming, but I couldn’t help but sympathize with them just a little bit. Sure, it may have been naïve, but I still wanted to believe that people could change.
“Like he said,” Jeanne said, “you shouldn’t concern yourself with it. Let’s go find an inn.”
“Wait, I need to ask him something. What happens with the ones who get executed? What happens to their body?”
“Our city buries the dead, even if they’re criminal. The final judgement shouldn’t come from us, but most of the time, they’re just put in an unmarked grave. If you want, though, you can donate to have their graves marked. It’s not common, but we do occasionally get a donation.”
“Like you said, nobody was born a criminal.”
As I finished the paperwork, I felt Gilian pulling my arm. I wasn’t sure what it was, but a certain kind of fear came over her. It wasn’t long after that I began to feel it as well, and eventually everybody began to feel this magical presence.
As the guards escorted the bandits to the holding cells, a small crowd of adventurers who happened to be near approached the gate. Soon, everybody could see trees moving in the distance, until out of the trees a giant monoceros appeared.