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Chapter 376

Rei, Elena and Tufal continued their way down the road. After traveling for a few days, Elena was finally able to brew tea herself, with the help of advice from Tufal.

Today, inside the carriage, Elena brewed some tea and offered a cup to Rei, who was relaxing on a sofa.

「Rei, I tried my best to make today’s tea, so please try it.」

Elena’s face was dyed slightly red because the words ‘married couple’ went through her mind for a moment as she said that.

Of course, Elena had not forgotten her position as the daughter of Duke Kerebel, the leader of the Aristocratic faction. In the end, she would have to carefuly consider her relationship with Rei……which left a bitter feeling in her heart.

That said, Duke Kerebel himself was not against Elena’s feelings for Rei. Given Rei’s abilities, it was natural for Duke Kerebel to want to draw Rei to his faction.

Had Rei been an incompetent commoner, even Duke Kerebel would have never supported his beloved daughter’s love. However, unlike his previous life, Rei was overwhelmingly strong in this world. For that reason, Rei was someone who Duke Kerebel could support a relationship with Elena.

However, Elena had no idea about this, so she had been spending her days worrying about how to get her father to recognise her relationship with Rei.

「If it’s tea, then we should have some biscuits to go with it……」

As Rei was about to close the monster encyclopedia he had been reading to take out some biscuits from the Misty Ring……

「Ojou-sama, Rei-sama, a merchant caravan ahead seems to be chased by bandits!」

Tufal, who was sitting outside, called out to the two people inside the carriage.

When Elena heard those words, she acted quickly.

Although they had already left the Kerebel Duchy, the area they were in was still governed by nobles from the Aristocratic faction. Even ignoring that, Elena’s personality prevented her from abandoning people attacked by bandits.

「Tufal, which direction are they running towards?」

「They are coming this way.」

「How many bandits?」

「No more than 20. However, they’re all on horseback.」

「I understand. Go to aid them immediately. I don’t think we should have any problems with that many bandits. What about you, Rei?」

「Of course I’ll help. Bandits are good business for me.」

Rei replied to Elena with a smile as she promptly gave instructions to Tufal.

To Rei, bandits were simply treasure chests.

Any goods that the bandits had stolen would belong to any adventurer that could deal with them. The residents in the surroundings would also no longer need to worry about bandits.

Although Rei didn’t usually bother with it, capturing and selling bandits as slaves was also a good way for adventurers to earn money.

However, that would only be possible with a small group of adventurers who were capable of defeating bandits. Some bandits were much more skilled, like the Prier Wolves that Rei had fought before, who were now working under Daska.

「Hah, seriously……well, I have no complaints since you also want to deal with these bandits.」

Elena must have realised Rei’s thoughts. She gave a wry smile as she pulled out her sword whip and got ready to fight.

Her feelings for Rei seemed to have made that a bit of a weak spot.

Rei was almost lost in Elena’s dignified expression for a moment, but quickly shook his head before calling outside the carriage.

「Set, go behind the carriage. If the bandits see you, they might try to run immediately. If a fight breaks out, get behind the bandits to catch them in a pincer.」

「Guru~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a cry. Leave it to me! He seemed to say.

When they fought, Set would complete a simple pincer attack. At that point……

「Elena-sama, Rei-sama, we are about to pass the merchant caravan, so please prepare for battle.」

As Tufal stopped the carriage by the roadside and called out, the caravan of several carriages gradually narrowed the distance to them.

The last carriage in the caravan seemed to hold their escorts. Arrows were shot towards the bandits, but the bandits weren’t stopped. With simple wooden shields, they kept their distance from the carriage as they blocked the arrows.

Of course, the bandits could only protect themselves from arrows, they couldn’t protect their horses. In fact, several horses were shot by arrows, throwing the bandits on their backs to the ground.

Still, there were more than 10 mounted bandits running towards the merchant caravan.

「It looks like they’re a bigger bandit group than I expected.」

Rei muttered to himself as he saw the exchange between the bandits and the last carriage.

「Indeed. If you consider the number of horses they have, there can’t be a small number of bandits. Perhaps the ones on horseback stop the carriages so that the ones on foot can follow up. That might be why the carriage is so desperate to escape.」

As Elena and Rei conversed casually, the merchant carriages rapidly closed in.

「Run away, they’re bandits! If you go that way, you’ll be caught as well!」

The driver of the first carriage cried out to them.

Hearing the shout, Rei and Elena looked at each other with surprise and a bit of admiration as they opened the carriage door.

If they had only wanted to save themselves, they wouldn’t have bothered to call out to someone they just passed by along the road. In fact, this might even have been a good opportunity to push the bandits that were chasing them onto someone else. However, they hadn’t done that and had gone out of their way to call out to them.

「Rei.」

「Yeah, I know.」

Rei nodded at Elena, who held a favourable impression towards the carriage driver’s previous actions.

「Hey! They’re bandits, bandits! Just get out of here!」

The carriage driver shouted at them again, but Rei just shouted back in response.

「We’ll handle the bandits! You guys just keep running!」

「There’s too many of them! ……Argh, damn it! There’s no time! Listen, if you’re in danger, just get out of here!」

As they shouted at each other, the merchant caravan got closer and closer. At some point, the carriage driver must have judged that Rei and Elena wouldn’t be able to get away even if they started to move their carriage right away. They gave one last shout to Rei before they passed them by and left.

One carriage after another passed by them before the last one finally went by.

The bandits were close behind the last carriage, but when they saw another carriage parked on the roadside, they couldn’t help but take a look. At the same time, they also paused to look at Elena, who was ready to draw her sword whip from the sheath at her waist.

The reaction from the bandits was strong. Normally, it was clear which one was the more profitable to attack, Rei’s group, which only had one carriage, or the merchant caravan, which held a large amount of goods. However, Elena’s looks easily overrode the thoughts of profit and loss in the minds of the bandits that saw her.

「Stop, stopppppppp-!」

At the voice of the man leading the bandits, all the bandits following after him pulled on their reins to stop their horses. Of course, there was no way that the horses could stop immediately, but they finally succeeded in turning their horses around after 10m to look back at Rei’s group.

By that point, all the bandits who had seen Elena already had their minds numbed and couldn’t focus on anything else.

……Yes. Not even Set, who had jumped out from behind the carriage and moved behind them.

「Hey, hey, hey, hey, I didn’t expect to meet such a beauty here. You rarely see such a woman even in the Royal Capital. The warhorses with her are also some of the finest. It’s a bit disappointing to let that caravan escape, but it’s nothing compared to this woman and the warhorses.」

The man looked at Elena with eyes filled with animalistic lust. Elena had been courted by men many times in the past and she knew what those eyes meant. Because of that, she frowned uncomfortably as she spoke up.

「I’m sorry, but I don’t really want to deal with stupid bandits like you. Why don’t you just surrender and save yourself the trouble of getting hurt?」

「Hahaha, don’t be stupid. Can’t you see the difference in numbers? There’s still more on their way now. If you just hand yourself over, we won’t hurt you.」

「Hey, boss. Could you pass her around to us too?」

Another man called out to the bandit at the front.

Hearing their conversation, and despite her displeasure, she understood that the man who had accosted her was the leader of the bandits.

「Rei, don’t let a single one of them get away.」

「I under……stand-!」

Elena’s words were a trigger. Rei threw a spear out from the Misty Ring as a first strike.

The spear that Rei threw with all his strength tore through the air, blowing the bandit leader’s head apart.

「……Eh? What?」

The man who had just asked his boss to share Elena with them had been standing right next to the boss and had his face covered with pieces of flesh, bone, blood and brains.

He gently touched his face, failing to understand what had just happened. He almost cried out when he saw that his hands were stained a bright red.

「Guh-!」

At that moment, Elena’s sword turned into a whip as she pulled it out, slashing the man’s neck with its blades.

The man didn’t raise a scream, but just a gurgle of blood instead. The next moment, the tip of the sword whip pierced through his head and his life was snuffed out without a second thought.

「Ah-Ahhhhhh-, it’s a monster!」

Neither Rei nor Elena knew, but the man who had just died had been the second in command of the bandits. With the two leaders dead, the rest of the bandits were thrown into confusion.

Rei and Elena had just easily dispatched their leader and second in command. What chances did they have of winning a fight?

They thought about it for a moment before immediately dismissing the thought.

If they had no chance of winning, they could just run away, but from looks of it, they didn’t think Rei and Elena would let them them go. And, with the leader and second in command both dead, the thought of who would take their places also crossed their minds.

That said, the biggest reason why none of them tried to run away was due to Elena. She had the most beautiful looks that any of the bandits had seen in their lives and they felt like they could just give up on a woman of that level.

It was a shame that it distracted them from gauging Rei and Elena’s strength. And, even if they had wanted to run away……

「Gururu~!」

Set, who had gotten behind them, would never let them go.

「Hi-Hiii-! A G-G-G-Griffon-!」

Among the bandits that had turned around at Set’s cry, there was one who had been a former adventurer and was somewhat familiar monsters.

An A rank monster known as the reaper of the skies. Even though he had never seen one before, he still knew what it looked out.

None of the other bandits around him had even heard of a Griffon before.

While Rei and Elena’s fighting skills were unbelievable to the bandits, the two of them were still humans. However, a Griffon was different. For the first time in their lives, they saw a Griffon, a great unknown.

Their fear of this unknown creature broke down the last mental barrier in the bandits’ minds, who had only managed to stay because they had been dazzled by Elena.

「R-R-R-Run awaaaaaay-!」

The voice of the former adventurer, who had realised that Set was a Griffon, echoed into the surroundings. As if on cue, the horses that the rest where riding on immediately tried to flee the area.

「Gururururururu-!」

Set’s skill, King’s Awe, froze all the bandits……and most importantly, their horses as well.

After that, the bandits were unable to put up any meaningful resistance. They became prey to Elena’s sword whip and Rei’s Death Scythe, which he had taken out from the Misty Ring.

Just as they had killed all the bandits, leaving only a few behind, a carriage came up from behind them.

「Hey, are you all right!?」

The man who called out to them was the same carriage driver that had passed them earlier, telling them to run.