Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 35.1

Price of Desire Part 1

“…Naa!?”

I killed one of the men who came out of the forest by throwing a knife at his throat the moment he had called out to me, and the other two men let out the stunned grunts.

From the circumstances and their equipment, they were probably bandits. Of course, it could be different, but when they hid themselves in ambush on a street this far from town and came at me with weapons drawn against women and children, I judged it to be a hostile act.

“You, you brat!”

“Wait!”

(…too late)

I felt the man’s movements were very slow when he ran towards me, overcoming the restraints of his companions.

Did he not have any combat skills? If I were to use body enhancement, I could extend the time I sense my surroundings by about 20%, but this man couldn’t even move his feet before that.

I focused my mind on the man who was approaching me and used my magic to aim at that small spot.

“–[Feel]–“

“Hiii!”

The man who should have been coming at me with an intense anger suddenly dropped the dagger and held one of his eyes as if surprised.

No pain. No damage. Just a sudden [touch on the eyeball] sensation startled him, making him stop moving. Seeing the opening, I jumped out and slashed horizontally, as if brushing through the man’s throat.

One more.

I slipped past him before the blood could gush from the wound, and I started to close in on the last man.

“Hey, what the hell, you little brat!”

The last man, who had just had two of his comrades killed in the blink of an eye, yelled in confusion, threw down his rusty hatchet, and ran forward, without any hesitation, in the direction where “some people” were fighting.

I stopped halfway to throw a knife at his back.

With my throwing skills, I could only hit the target at most at five meters, and beyond that, even if I hit the target by a fluke, the damage would be low.

I retrieved the knife from the first man I had killed, wiped the blood stain off the man’s clothes, and then fished through the men’s belongings. I had nothing in my possession to identify myself, so for now, I tucked a knife that looked like a demolition knife into a holder on my shin and went after the man who ran away.

Normally, I would not be chasing after a man here. Even if I had an advantage at first, the situation may be reversed depending on his companions at the destination.

I’d never be complacent enough to let my guard down. If I could kill, I would kill with no exception.

However, the man who ran away saw his comrades fighting with someone ahead of him. I had nothing to do with the opponents his comrades were fighting with, but those people might feel that I drove the people towards them to reinforce their enemy.

I thought I should at least assist them by helping them to escape, and with a small sigh, I walked towards them.

***

There were three boys. They were already 15 years old and had reached adulthood, so in this world they could be called young men.

They had known each other since childhood. Their families were the squires of the barons who ruled a certain town, and when the barons went to battle as knights, they had to fight as the barons’ soldiers.

Not everyone born into a squire’s family could become a squire. Squires were not hereditary, but in that noble family, the eldest son of the squire was appointed as the next squire from generation to generation.

The second son would then become a reserve, but subsequent children would be hopelessly disadvantaged in serving the nobility. Still, there was a chance for them to be seen if they had talent, but their fathers sent them out of the house as soon as the boys reached adulthood.

Although they were commoners, they grew up wealthier than most commoners and were not serious.

Although they had longed to take credit on the battlefield and had diligently continued their combat training, there was no way they could do any real work, as they had focused only on showy pursuits and neglected simple practical training.

The three, who were confident enough in their skills to choose to become adventurers, were naturally skilled in combat.

One had level 1 [archery] skill, another had level 1 [Spear Mastery] skill, and the boy who was their unifier, Rico, had taken his [swordsmanship] skill up to level 2.

This encouraged them to become adventurers in the capital city of Dandol, but the reality was not so easy.

Knights and soldiers patrolled the perimeter of the metropolis, and demons rarely appeared.

Most of the adventurers in such cities were high ranks who had connections with nobles and rich merchants, and got big jobs by being trusted.

Even if only one person in such a place was a Rank 2, there was little work for them to do, as they were mostly a Rank 1 party. Still, if they had diligently done their chores in town, they would have been able to gain a little trust. However, they disliked the humble jobs and set out for a noble territory near the border, searching for a battle with monsters.

It was not that they were particularly lazy.

The majority of low-rank adventurers were people like them, who could not even find a decent job.

Heading for places with demons was not a bad choice as an adventurer.

If you could fight demons and dangerous beasts and survive, you could earn the reputation and credibility of a high-rank adventurer in return.

But that was only if you survived.

To go north, one must pass through uncharted lands that do not belong to any territory.

There were only roads that had been trodden, encampments with few water holes, and dangers that threatened people.

Without the money to ride in a riding wagon with an escort, and without the track record to provide an escort for the merchants, they used all the money they had to buy portable food and set out on foot to the north.

“There’s something out there…”

Dan, who was a good hunter that had [archery] skills, spotted a figure deep in the woods.

“Maybe it’s a bandit? Perhaps they have at least some gold if we beat them?”

Tony, who had the frivolous [Spear Mastery] skill, held up his spear with a goofy grin.

“Hey…”

Seeing these two childhood friends, Rico, a relatively sensible person, frowned, but by then Dan was already drawing his bow and shooting arrows into the forest at the sound of Tony’s flailing voice.

“You guys have no idea how many people are out there!”

Rico was not the serious one, but he was not as thoughtless as the two of his reckless friends. If anything, he had only been involved with the two of them until now, and they had bothered him more often than not.

But Rico’s indecisiveness was probably the main reason why he couldn’t admonish them.

Bandits with arrows in their quiver attacked.

There were seven bandits; Rico’s group had three. The number of bandits was more than double that of Rico and his group of three, but most of the bandits were villagers who had no money to eat in the neighborhood. Rico and his men decided to attack the bandits with their weapons drawn, thinking that they could defeat them even with only three men.

However, a little while after the battle began, they noticed a man running from the direction of the road leading to the town, who seemed to be one of the bandits.

Rico and his men missed him, but they probably had a lookout from the town to make sure they would not be disturbed. Although only one man, he could be a deadly reinforcement for the three who were fighting on the edge.

But as the man approached his fellow bandit, he uttered a few unintelligible words.

“Heh, some weird kid is coming!”

The man’s words prompted Rico to involuntarily look behind him, and there he saw a young girl, dressed as if a maid in the service of an aristocrat, walking quietly toward him.

It was a beautiful girl, though still very young.

She looked to be around ten years old. Her composure in the face of the bandits was evident, and she might be one or two years older than she appeared.

Rico had only seen her from a distance, but there were more beautiful women in the aristocracy, and equally pretty girls who were divas or signers in famous entertainment districts.

However, the girl who appeared on the stage had a mysterious “charm” that, for some reason, caught his attention at first glance, and he could not take his eyes off her.

Her long skirt suddenly fluttered, and Rico’s gaze was caught by her white, stain-free legs, and at the same time, the bandit man who came before her suddenly collapsed as if dead.

“What are you doing?”

When such a comment was heard from the girl, not only Rico and the others, but even the bandits, resumed fighting as if they had just remembered.

The bandits were still more in number, but for some reason they suddenly became suspicious, as if someone was whispering in their ears, and after a few minutes, Rico and his men, who had the upper hand in the battle from start to finish, successfully defeated the bandits.

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Also check out my other novels: Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and A Girl Who Was Told “You Have No Talent” Turned Out To Be A Talented Monster