03-05 Bandit Hideout 4
TL: Aria Red
Editor: TechTrad
Alysia fired her wind blade. The attack was impossible to dodge, assuming that the caster did not miss their target.
However, Alysia is slightly lacking in terms of aiming, since due to her ability, such things are simply unneeded.
"Huh!?"
Without even slightly grazing the boss, the wind blade carved itself into the wall behind him. Well, that was because Alysia didn't use her absolute accuracy magic.
"H-hey…The hell, I couldn't even see your-ack!!"
BLAST
"I'm not done yet."
Alysia turned towards the boss, who was in cold sweat and shot her wind blade once more. Then she held the wind blade in her hand right in front of him.
"To be honest, I don't really want to hurt any of you guys as long as you obey me and obediently tell me what you were going to do with the catkins, that is."
"Even if you say that, you'll probably kill us once you get what you want!!" said the Bandit Boss as he grabbed the sword on his waist and started running towards Alysia.
However, Alysia being Alysia, there was no way that she would do such a thing.
As soon as the boss was in front of Alysia, he immediately swung his sword horizontally at her.
Seeing that, Alysia quickly held her wind blade upwards to intercept his sword.
However, Alysia had forgotten one important fact regarding the wind blade. The blade was made purely out of wind, which did not have the property to stop physical attacks. The boss' sword clashed and passed through the wind blade.
Trying to counter the attack, Alysia conjured a divine barrier, which is a magic barrier made from divine power, right before the attack landed.
After successfully defending against the attack, Alysia used her wind blade to break the barrier and cause a mana explosion. Perhaps in this case it would be more appropriate to call it a divine power explosion.
Blast
"Argh!?"
The divine power explosion blew away the boss. Usually, an explosion produced by breaking the barrier would not be able to produce a powerful shockwave when made using mana, but due to using divine power instead, she was able cause one.
"Ouch!!"
"Now, now, do you still refuse to say anything?"
The boss finally stayed still after ending up on the ground twice. Alysia, who was standing in front of him, had already sealed his movements with magic, restraining his arms and legs. Holding the wind blade close to his neck, the man's face twisted in fear.
"Wh-What do you want to know!?"
"Let's see….First would be the reason why you were gathering all those catkins. Secondly, the location of my weapon. Lastly, whether you've heard the name 'Solf' or not."
Having heard what she said, the man's eyes widened for a split second, as if surprised. Alysia obviously didn't miss that, and proceeded to interrogate him further.
"How about it? Does it ring a bell?"
"No..not at all."
The moment he said that, she could feel a tremor in the mana which was emanating from his body. There had never been a time where her sixth sense, or rather her magic perception, had been so useful before, she thought,as she faced the boss.
"Please stop lying. You were clearly thinking of something else when you said that."
"Urgh…. Fine, I'll talk for fuck's sake!!"
"Good."
Alysia was a bit surprised by his reply. The boss made eye contact and began talking in resignation.
"Solf.. I don't know how you even knew about him, but he's kinda like our master, in a way."
"Master….? What do you mean?"
"We all started as slaves, from a neighboring country called Quarsi."
Alysia was honestly surprised at what the irritated boss said. She had also judged that his statement was not a lie based on her intuition.
"So, one day a minister of Quarsi called Solf came to the slave shop we were at. He asked how much he needed to pay to buy everyone there."
"A minister of Quarsi? But shouldn't he be a minister of the Ircusu Kingdom?"
Alysia recalled the time she was talking with the King of Ircusu. At the time, Alysia was sure that he said, "Solf is an excellent minister". It shouldn't have been that the King had actually meant 'an excellent Quarsi Minister'.
Alysia then arrived upon a certain conclusion, that perhaps Solf was actually sent from either country as a spy. In this case, it was natural to think that he was dispatched from either country, Quarsi or Ircusu. Since it is more natural for the small countries to steal technology and magic from the major powers, and follow them instead. Furthermore, the fact that Solf was missing increased the credibility of this conjecture.
Although it could be said that it was too early to be jumping to conclusions based on this information alone.
"I see. It seems that you've been consistent till now, so please continue."
"Ah. After that, he left us deep in the mountains of Ircusu and told us to work as bandits and giving him a third of our earnings in exchange."
Based on what he said, Alysia was able to guess the general circumstances of the bandit group. Solf probably gave the former slaves freedom and in exchange, was earning profit from them.
"Then, the reason why you guys abducted the catkins was to sell them as slaves and get rich quickly?"
"Y-yeah…."
Having finally understood that lying was useless, the boss answered honestly. Alysia on the other hand honestly couldn't accept this situation at all. Considering that they were former slaves, they should have understood well how the catkin felt, how they suffered from being sold as slaves.
"Fine I get it, but what you guys were doing are wrong."
"Next is, your weapon, right?"
"Yep."
That was the only thing Alysia needed to know that was still remaining. If she were to lose that katana, she would not be able to fulfil her promise to Belk-sensei. Also, Alysia being Alysia, it was really important to her.
"There's a warehouse further inside. Everything that we stole should be there."
"You've become pretty obedient, haven't you?"
"It's far too late to lie now."
"Well, you're probably right."
Alysia began walking to where the boss was pointing at, the innermost part of the cave, all the while pondering on what to do with the bandit boss and the true identity of Solf.