Chapter 37 - A Better Next Time (2)

Now that they were all tied up with Binding, I could take a breather. To check the identities of these audacious attackers, the Mage floated an orb of light to brightly illuminate the surroundings.

"W-We were wrong. Please, please show us mercy just this once."

"We failed to recognize such noble people. Please, please just spare our lives..."

"Oh Sea Dragon..."

"Take pity on us..."

However, the appearances revealed were somewhat unusual.

「Thief│Those who have decided to take from others for their own sake. Many take pride in making a living out of pillaging.」

「Hound│A beast tamed by humans. Loyal and brave.」

Their monster classification was identically set to Thief, but while the ones obsequiously begging for mercy had good builds and proper equipment, the ones crying out to the Sea Dragon were far too shabby.

Considering they didn't even have proper swords and were holding kitchen knives or harpoons, you could roughly get the picture.

"These bastards..."

Furthermore, the latter group had leather straps tightly fastened around their necks. There were far too many unsettling details to view them as belonging to the same group.

"Ha! You dare hope for forgiveness when you tried to kill people!"

Meanwhile, the Inquisitor slammed her mace onto the ground, expressing her anger to the fullest. Seeing as she was someone who had immediately tried to cut off a wrist for theft, it wasn't surprising.

"I have no intention of covering up their faults, but it seems some of them have their own circumstances. Inquisitor."

"They tried to kill us. If it were ordinary people passing by instead of us, they might have actually died. Even so, must we consider their circumstances?"

"Hey. Do you not have eyes? Do those guys and these people look the same to you?"

"Even so, is it not the same that they are attackers?"

"Ah, seriously, there's no getting through to you..."

*'This is a bit much.' * I looked at the groveling prisoners while newly confirming the Inquisitor's stubborn nature.

The shabby ones just kept praying, but the proper Thief bastards were rolling their eyes around. It really felt like those guys were beyond rehabilitation.

"Inquisitor, is a crime committed through oppression and coercion still a sin?"

"But... there were almost victims."

"Of course, that is true. There is no need for the victims to understand that. However, did any harm occur to us? Was there an irreversible loss? That is not the case, is it?"

Fortunately, right before DeB died of frustration, the Archmage gently coaxed her.

"Forgiving and moving on just because no immediate harm occurred is no different from neglecting future incidents."

"You aren't wrong. However, it is highly likely they took up weapons under the coercion of others. This means they would not take up weapons if they weren't forced to."

"That... is not certain."

"Nor can we be certain of the Inquisitor's expectation that they will take up weapons. Am I wrong?"

"..."

"Understanding that difference and giving them an opportunity is what we call mercy."

As expected, a Sage is a Sage. The Archmage persuaded the Inquisitor in a flash and turned her gaze.

"I kept you waiting. Now, it seems you folks have your circumstances, could you tell me about them?"

At her question, the ones muttering prayers with their heads planted on the ground slightly raised their heads.

"A-Are you going to spare us?"

"If your circumstances fall within the realm of understanding."

The praying ones held a little hope at those words. However, the way their eyes kept darting sideways made it seem like they were walking on eggshells around the ones who looked like real bandits.

Also, it was pure coincidence that I read the lips of one of those bastards—the bandit-looking ones. *'Tell them properly.' * I thought they were just being cautious, but they were actually being intimidated.

"This little shit."

However, before I could step in to punish him, DeB kicked that bastard's head. It looked like some teeth got knocked out, but well, they had it coming so I didn't care.

"Please speak without worrying about them."

With the Archmage adding a word to that.

The praying ones scrambled over each other to spew out their convoluted stories.

"We are originally folk who settled and lived by the sea. But the sea went crazy, making it completely impossible to catch fish..."

"So we tried to find food in the mountains instead, but the bandits who had settled in the mountains..."

"They told us they'd kill us if we didn't rob travelers!"

To summarize, they were captured by the bandits; some were locked up in the stronghold, and others were mobilized for raids. If that was true, they really had tragically unfortunate fates.

"T-This is our first time attacking you four. We haven't killed anyone yet."

"Just once, please give us a chance just this once. We won't do this again."

Given their circumstances, even if the system classified them as Thieves, I felt there was no need to go out of my way to kill them.

It was those bandit bastards who led the attack anyway, and these people hadn't even properly participated in the assault.

Furthermore, this wasn't related to demons. Just as I had let the Inquisitor and Archmage off the hook when we fought intensely over a misunderstanding, these people were also fully included within the extenuating circumstances of my concept.

"How can we believe that?"

However, the Inquisitor didn't bat an eye this time either. I could hear the sound of DeB's veins popping very clearly.

"Do you not have eyes?"

"What?"

"There's a severe difference starting right from their clothing! And do you not see the collars on their necks here, or the rope marks on their wrists? Even if they lacked camaraderie, there are no thief bastards who do this kind of shit to their associates."

Besides that, he brought up the dragon statues that only the praying ones held in common, and the saltiness on their clothes—caused by the sea breeze—to prove they were telling the truth.

His eye for reading people really was incredibly good.

"Hmm?"

So, well. It would be a bit wrong not to act when it's become this certain, right?

"What are you trying to—"

"Demon Knight?"

CLANG!

I struck down with my sword and severed the chains. I wasn't confident I could break the parts touching their bare skin without injuring them, so I aimed for the sections surging up from the floor, and fortunately, smashing just that part shattered the whole thing.

"T-Thank you. Thank you..."

"The Sea Dragon will bless you..."

"There is no need for thanks."

Their gratitude wasn't my concern, and didn't they say more people were held in the stronghold?

"Just tell me the bandits' location."

It had nothing to do with demons, but there was no way someone who was once a knight would just overlook this and leave. We didn't have any pressing matters right now, and it wasn't like we had to make a huge detour.

"...!"

The freed people opened their eyes wide, and the Inquisitor, who was about to argue about something, eventually shut her mouth.

"... Anyway, Sir Knight sure is something."

DeB smirked for some reason and spouted that kind of nonsense.

"A-Are you going to save them?"

"I have no hobby of leaving pests alone."

But the Archmage's pleased face was a bit much.

The sin of this concept ran too deep. Though I was at least grateful they didn't consider it out of character.

* * *

"Is that it?"

"Yes, yes. That's the place."

Guided by the people—though they didn't know the way very well either, so DeB actually found most of it—we climbed the mountain. What we soon saw was a wooden barricade and a sentry post hiding a cave.

It was on a fairly steep section, and because they had cleared away all the surrounding trees, it seemed it would be difficult to approach without getting caught.

It was a rocky area to begin with, so it seemed like it would be a bit hard to climb as well.

"A cave... these bastards settled in a tricky spot."

"Since people are held captive, we can't blow smoke in there either..."

While the Archmage and DeB, who were in charge of the party's intelligence, pondered, I stepped forward.

"Oh man, Sir Knight is at it again...!"

The two seemed to let out shallow screams as they intuited what I was doing, but they couldn't stop me.

My body touched the ground overgrown only with weeds. Naturally, the sentry post set up by the bandits made a fuss and soon started firing arrows.

"I will—"

"No, Inquisitor, please step back."

The Inquisitor, who tried to run out past the bushes after me, was restrained. Thanks to that, I was the only one about to get hit by arrows, but it was the path I chose in the first place. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and endure it.

CRASH!

Well, it didn't look like I would need to go so far as gritting my teeth and enduring it, though.

RUMBLE.

I swung my Zweihänder and sent out a slash. The sentry post was sliced diagonally and collapsed just like that, and the arrows bounced off from the wind pressure when I unleashed the slash.

"Aaaagh!"

Collapsing logs and a person rolled down together, but as long as they didn't touch me, I didn't care. I sheathed my Zweihänder.

It was nothing special; I just wanted to test out my combat style while wrapping my body in dark energy. A long weapon like a Zweihänder is uncomfortable to swing in a cave.

"What's the commotion!?"

"What is that thing!"

As I stomped my way up the sloped ground, there were people who dashed out after hearing the noise. It was at the exact same time that dark energy coalesced around my feet.

Since it was a sloped section, I merely pushed off with the balls of my feet, yet my body reached the cave entrance in an instant.

"What the—"

It wasn't distinctly defined as a skill, but if it were, the effect would probably be described as being able to increase jump power and running speed.

With that thought, I grabbed the collar of a guy who had poked his head out of the cave.

SWOOSH.

The guy whose collar I grabbed was yanked backward just like that and thrown down the hill.

"This bastard— Urk!"

In succession, the guy behind him had his neck snatched by my right arm. I really didn't like touching others with my right arm, but the target I was holding right now wasn't a person, but a criminal.

SMASH!

After smashing the guy into the wall to turn him into modern art, I slowly proceeded inside. I hadn't wrapped it in energy, but my original grip strength was incredible, so this was enough to knock him out.

CRUNCH.

... It wasn't just enough, it was overkill. I sometimes couldn't gauge my strength control or how much power I should use, to the point where mishaps like shattering cervical vertebrae tended to happen.

Still, it wasn't intentional. They weren't civilians either, but criminals.

I rationalized it to myself, thinking there was room for extenuation.

"What's going on!"

"An intruder?!"

BARK BARK!

More importantly, this cave looked way too much like a dungeon.

THWACK!

I escaped into my thoughts as I beat the crap out of every guy that came out with my hands. It was reasonably justifiable.

At the end of the long, ordinary rock cave, there were carved stairs and cracked, collapsed pillars. The walls had naturally formed piles of rocks jutting out bumpily in an aesthetically pleasing way.

"... Are these ruins?"

It didn't seem like the whole thing was artificially made, but rather that they had smoothed out a pre-existing cave to create ruins. And it seemed the bandits had occupied it as a secondary group.

"You bastard—!"

THUD!

"Gah!"

I slammed my fist into the face of a guy who popped out from the corner, kicked a dog away, and turned on my lantern.

The bandit bastards had torches hung up, but this was brighter.

"Kill him!"

However, there seemed to be too many gnats flying around for me to look around.

I swatted away the flying arrows with my gauntleted hand. By swinging my hand to the beat of one, two, two and a half, all the arrows were now broken and bouncing off in all directions.

But could I just end it with this?

I dashed forward and smashed a flying knee kick into the face of the guy who shot the bow. Additionally, I quickly pulled out a dagger from my chest and threw it straight at the guy behind him.

My aim wasn't the best, but because of the close distance, the dagger lodged precisely into the back of the hand holding the sword.

Seized by gravity along with the collapsing man's body, I landed on the floor. *THUMP. * I didn't forget to step on the chest of the guy who collapsed before me—the one hit by the knee kick.

THWACK!

At the same time, my body spun around and executed a roundhouse kick just like that. Deprived of his attack timing by the blade lodged in the back of his hand, the enemy was struck in the temple and instantly sprawled out.

I swatted away the fluttering tail of my coat with my hand to keep it out of the way, and then entered the cavern stretching out behind the guys I had just cleared out.

On the sides, there were murals that were heavily collapsed and cracked but still recognizable, and in the center of the cavern, rock fragments existed like obstacles.

I checked for those hiding using the rocks as cover and attacked starting from the closest one. Through my Survival Instinct skill, my body spun around as I leaped off a rock to dodge a flying arrow.

TAP.

Overcoming the ceiling height of about 3 meters, my body, having rotated 180 degrees, planted its feet on the ceiling. In the field of vision opened up by bending backward, I saw two enemies hiding behind a rock.

THUMP.

In that state, I put strength into my feet and bounced off the ceiling. Of course, I didn't have the slightest intention of smashing my head into the floor, so I immediately spun and slammed down onto one of the guys.

Of all places, the enemy got hit in a bad spot between the neck and shoulder, and as he fell to the floor, there was the sound of his spine crushing.

"Eek!"

The remaining guy still swung his sword, perhaps having good reflexes. My waist bent to dodge that sword, and my left arm struck his flank.

CRASH!

The target's body flew far away.

But at that timing, an arrow rushed in. It was aiming for my head, but somehow by tilting my head to the side as much as possible, I managed to dodge it.

My lips curled up.

"You pests."

Beyond the rocks, the bandits looked at me with horrified faces.

"How dare you."

My legs kicked off the ground and shot forward like a bullet struck by a firing pin. The energy wrapped around my fist accurately hammered the spot of the person who had just fired the arrow.

CRASH!

The rock connected to the wall shattered into pieces. If the target hadn't lost strength in his legs and slid down, his body might have ended up in that state. Of course, even if that had happened, I would have avoided him and hit the wall instead.

"M-Monster..."

Leaving that aside, this attack power was beyond my imagination too.

I had gotten a feel for light jumps and running by testing them a lot at dawn, but I hadn't been able to practice striking something because there was no target and it was too noisy.

Therefore, I didn't even know it produced this kind of destructive power. If I had known, I wouldn't have hit it this hard.

"Ugh..."

'Still, it didn't collapse. So let's let it slide with that. I'll let it slide just this once.'

Muttering such nonsense internally, I pulled out my arm that was lodged in the rock. The person sprawled beneath me looked up at me, while his crotch was turning into a dark, wet stain.

CLATTER.

CLINK.

CLANG.

The sound of weapons dropping began to ring out like an ensemble.