Chapter 109
"Everyone is here."
Guided by the villagers, we headed to the meeting hall.
The chief and I sat down in chairs facing each other, each as representatives of our respective sides.
Behind the chief, villagers who knew about the bandit group in one way or another had been called together, watching us with anxious faces.
They must have been thinking all sorts of things.
If they thought we might end up like the kingdom's soldiers—fallen victim to the bandits—they must have been trembling with anxiety.
But I couldn't afford to be anxious too.
I took a deep breath and began to speak.
"As you know, we are hero candidates from Melbrit.
We've come to catch the bandits. My name is Dekal."
The chief bowed his head deeply.
"Thank you for tending to the sick. I do not know how to repay this kindness…….
I am truly sorry that we cannot even offer you a fitting welcome."
"It's alright.
We desire a smooth resolution more than a welcome. Information regarding the bandit group.
Even trivial details are fine; we would appreciate anything you can tell us."
"Of course, we will cooperate to the best of our ability."
"I heard the bandits take alcohol, food, and women. Please tell me about the situation during those times."
"At first, they took whatever caught their eye.
They took every woman they saw, whether married or children, and swept away goods put out for sale.
Later, they set a date and told us to have women dressed up and ready by then……."
"So you prepared them?"
"Yes……. We had no choice. They threatened to kill all the people they had captured if we didn't……."
The chief's voice trembled.
I waited silently before continuing my questions.
To ascertain the size of the bandit group.
Looking at the series of events, it was clear enough that they weren't operating in a planned manner.
They raided the village to indulge in pleasure.
Eventually, they probably got tired of raiding and ordered the women to be prepared instead.
If anyone resisted, they were killed, and the women taken away were raped.
In the end, the village's functions had completely ground to a halt.
Kepa was already in a state where it could no longer function as a village.
"Do you know anything about the bandits' hideout?"
"The bandits' hideout is in the forest."
"In the forest?"
"Yes…. They are stragglers from the Northern Front. They grew their forces by stealing supplies near the Northern Front.
They absorbed deserters one by one, and before anyone knew it, their numbers grew into a large bandit group of over thirty people."
They messed with military supplies?
And they somehow avoided getting crushed.
Is it because this is a country that puts effort into raising official candidates with more experience than soldiers in the first place?
Either way, this is meaningful information.
It seems we cannot underestimate the bandits.
If they aren't starving peasants but soldiers who once fought the Demon King's army, they must be accustomed to battle.
"Understood.
I will ask my next question. Anyone here will do.
Actually, we are tracking a Red Soul Stone."
"A Red Soul Stone……?"
Everyone murmured, looking at one another.
"Stia. Explain it to them."
Stia nodded slightly and stepped forward.
"A Red Soul Stone is a remnant of the Demon King. An extremely dangerous and unstable substance.
We suspect there is someone among the bandits who has absorbed this soul stone.
Does this remind you of anything?"
Snap.
The moment Stia finished speaking, I snapped my fingers and put everyone in the hall under hypnosis.
"All of you, 'Answer the hero candidates' questions without falsehood.'"
Clap.
I clapped my hands, waking my companions and the villagers.
"Now that you mention it……."
One of the villagers spoke.
"There was someone who was strangely excited during the first raid."
"Yes. Those exposed to the Demon King's soul rampage and act irrationally.
Could you tell us in more detail?"
When Stia pressed him, the villager groaned and searched his memory.
"…Yes. Now that I think about it, it was definitely strange.
All the bandits were excited, but that person's eyes were severely bloodshot, and his speech was slurred.
He was just like a monster. Even the other bandits avoided him."
"……."
Good. We'd obtained eyewitness information.
"Did anyone else see such a person?"
"I think I saw him too. He was riding a horse, and had a scar on his face."
"Me too……."
After carefully gathering the eyewitness accounts, it seemed there were two bandits who had absorbed the Red Soul Stone.
"Has a soul stone ever been brought into the village?
Where the bandits might have gotten their hands on it……"
"I do not know. Soul stones are handled in the Holy City. Our village has no connection to them…….
Perhaps they obtained it at the Northern Front. There are many lost demonic beasts there.
It's a place even the Holy City has practically abandoned; support only goes there very rarely."
"……."
Then, they obtained it by catching a demonic beast that had absorbed a Red Soul Stone?
If this guess is right, this mission is far too dangerous. Because someone strong enough to do that would obviously have grown even stronger after absorbing a Red Soul Stone.
But I couldn't come to a conclusion yet.
There was no information available regarding the Red Soul Stone.
I didn't even know what the Northern Front was.
I was just roughly assuming it was a front line where humans and demonic beasts fought.
My conjecture had far too little basis.
I should hear what the others thought.
"Understood.
Let's stop here for today.
Please act as usual. So that the bandits don't sense anything strange."
"Yes, understood."
"When do you next hand over women?"
"The day after tomorrow, at midnight."
"……."
Rather than storming the bandits' hideout.
It was better to catch them when they came crawling here.
Even better if we could pinpoint the hideout and launch a surprise attack.
If the person who absorbed the Red Soul Stone had lost the ability to make rational judgments,
the bandits coming here to collect them should be intact.
Then we could just hypnotize them.
"We'll think of a plan.
For now, please prepare as scheduled. So the bandits don't notice anything amiss."
"Yes, understood.
You must be tired. We shall prepare lodging for you."
"Thank you."
That night, thanks to the villagers' hospitality,
we had a luxurious meal and were able to secure the best lodging in the village.
We took two rooms. A men's room for me and Aba. A women's room for the remaining women.
Then we all gathered in the men's room.
To organize what we'd heard today.
Everyone had taken off their uniforms and changed into comfortable clothes, sitting on the beds.
"Stia. What do you think?"
"It's going to be harder than I thought. It might be a mission too difficult for us to handle."
Stia dampened the mood with words that coldly confronted reality.
"The soldiers at the Northern Front have a lot of combat experience and high average levels.
With over thirty such people gathered as a bandit group, that alone won't be easy.
And since there are humans who've absorbed Red Soul Stones, the odds are too against us."
Aba nodded.
"It might be better to be satisfied with the investigation and return.
If we explain the situation to Melbrit, they'll organize a higher-level team."
"So you're saying we should give up?"
Diana said in an annoyed tone.
"We're hero candidates of Melbrit. We can't just pick and choose easy tasks.
There are people here who need help, and our opponents are bandits who commit atrocities.
And the fact that they were once soldiers but turned to banditry makes me even angrier. Are you going to give up just because there are a few crazies among them?"
"A Red Soul Stone…… doesn't simply destroy the mind and body."
Stia suppressed her emotions and quietly recited.
"……A human consumed by the Demon King's soul can walk calmly toward you even with dozens of spears and blades lodged in their body.
No matter how much magic hits them, they ignore it. You can't bring them down with such things. If an enemy like that charges at us and we fail to combine our strength……
one of us will definitely die. Throat torn out, eyes gouged……"
"……How do you know all that so well?"
To Diana's question, Stia spoke with a hollow, transcendent expression.
"Because my father did. My father touched a Red Soul Stone."
"What? Didn't he die during the war?"
"That's not true. The Harpe family fell under the false accusation of being the Demon King's kin.
The truth was, they didn't even have the strength to rise on their own…….
I saw all of it. My resolve toward this mission is different. But I also know how dangerous it is because of that."
"……."
Everyone's expressions stiffened with severity.
Because they knew what desperate straits the people were in, it was difficult to speak of giving up.
Naturally, I realized it was my turn to speak.
"It's too early to back down. Imagining costs us nothing, so let's discuss it further.
Let's discuss the topic of 'what if we strike that bandit group of thirty.'"
"Right. Sorry……. I ruined the mood by blurting out things no one asked about."
"Thanks to you, everyone here now properly understands what a Red Soul Stone is.
That it’s extremely dangerous."
"……Yeah."
"How many people do you think the bandits would need to take away the tribute the village has prepared?"
"Hm?"
At the question I suddenly threw out, everyone fell into thought.
Stia was the first to speak.
"Seven.
Including porters and lookouts, they’d need at least seven."
"Right.
What do you think would happen if we could reliably eliminate those seven in advance?"
"Reliably eliminate……?"
"Without our side taking any damage."
"Ah!"
Karen suddenly looked at me, her eyes wide.
"You can hyp……."
I clamped a hand over Karen’s mouth.
"Hyp?"
"What’s hyp?"
When I took my hand away, Karen blushed as if embarrassed.
"……It’s nothing."
"……."
Diana stared fixedly at me, her suspicious gaze unwavering.
"So you have some effective method, but you can’t tell us?"
"……Is that it?"
The two women looked at me with eyes full of curiosity.
"Well……."
If it was like this, it actually worked out better.
I could gloss over it without explaining hypnosis in detail.
"Yeah.
But this could put everyone who knows about it in danger. Please understand."
"……So Karen knows."
Stia murmured, sounding lonely.
"What do you think would happen if we subdued all the bandits who came as the transport detail, and if we could extract the information they have?"
"Information? Dekal, you can do that too?"
Stia asked back, her eyes widening.
"I’m saying, assuming that’s the case.
Let’s consider both possibilities: when things go well, and when they don’t."
"……This is when things go well, right?"
"Yeah. Whether through torture or bribery, say we cleanly subdue the bandits.
We obtain information about their base, and find out who’s lying in ambush nearby and how many people are on guard.
Then what do you think?"
"……."
Stia quickly reached a conclusion.
"It’s worth trying.
If we have an informant on our side, we can greatly weaken their numerical advantage.
If we approach during a time when they’re unarmed, we might be able to wipe them out in one fell swoop."
"That’s assuming things go well."
Diana said bluntly.
"To begin with, there’s no way something like that would be possible. We’d definitely get fed false information and be thrown into confusion.
Or we try to subdue them, but one escapes, and then the rest all arm themselves and lay waste to the village…….
That’s a perfectly possible outcome too."
"So that would be when things don’t go well."
"In the worst case, we might have to fight bandits on horseback in the streets.
I can take down guys like that, but you won’t be able to hold out, will you?"
Diana said with a snort.
It was an overly biased opinion, but she had a point.
Even if they’re on horseback, it’s easy for a mage to attack the rider, but for a swordsman, it isn’t.
But I’m a hypnotist.
Capturing the bandits, and even extracting information from them.
I can do it perfectly. No, even more than that.
The problem is how to convey that accurately to my allies.
Should I just hypnotize them and tell them to trust me no matter what?
I don’t want to do that.
Unless it’s to make them trust me so we can have the kind of sex that gets me off.
"I think going to attack them right now is reckless. Everyone agrees on that, right?"
"Of course. The situation now is different from when I was talking in the carriage.
Now that we’ve confirmed they have large numbers, charging in without any countermeasures would be a poor plan."
"Thanks for the explanation, Diana."
"Hmph. If anything, I would’ve been terribly disappointed if you’d suggested we just charge in blindly."
"Let’s make contact when they come to receive the women and the alcohol."
I’d already thought of the operation itself before we came to the lodging.
I’ll just do what I’ve done my entire life.
I don’t feel sorry for those bandit bastards.