“Young Master?”
Tyr’s eyes widened.
It was understandable. He had just heard me declare that the two of us were going to storm the bandits’ headquarters alone.
But even if there were a thousand worthless bandits like these, I would not be afraid.
After all, in my previous life, I had single-handedly crushed the Steel Axe Band at the height of its power.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry. I’ll handle everything.”
Even the ever-loyal Tyr seemed to have difficulty accepting this one. He stared at me with eyes full of doubt, but did not question me any further.
The bald man, on the other hand, looked strangely pleased by what I had said.
Apparently, he thought my desire to meet their boss was nothing more than foolish bravado.
Not that I cared what he thought.
“Then we shall personally escort you.”
Unlike before, the members of the Steel Axe Band climbed onto their horses with broad smiles on their faces.
Enjoy laughing while you can.
You are probably imagining your precious boss splitting me in half.
Pathetic fools.
“Lead the way.”
I left the carriage and coachman where they were.
I instructed the coachman that if we had not returned before sunset, he was to continue alone to the next village and send word to the Seirin family.
Then Tyr and I mounted one of the horses the bandits had ridden here.
The broad dirt road, wide enough for a carriage, gradually narrowed until only a single horse could barely pass through.
Before long, we entered a gorge nestled between enormous mountains.
“It would be difficult to find this place from the outside.”
“Kehehe, exactly. That’s why we’re infamous for being so elusive.”
Of course they were.
I did not know who had constructed it, but a great deal of effort had clearly gone into the Magic Formation spread across this place.
Space itself had been folded with extraordinary precision. Unless someone entered through the designated route, they would never be able to find this place.
You people are remarkably dedicated to banditry.
You should have put this much effort into studying, you bastards.
“We have arrived.”
While I was cursing them in every way imaginable inside my head, we came to a stop before a massive boulder.
The bald man stepped in front of it and shouted loudly.
“Open! Perilla!”
What an extraordinarily bizarre incantation—
Just as I was thinking that, the enormous boulder smoothly began rolling aside.
Apparently, whichever mage had installed this gate had been extremely fond of theatrics.
For a boulder that large to move sideways without making a sound, either gravity had been manipulated or its friction had been adjusted.
Alternatively, they might simply have installed a magical device to suppress the noise.
Whichever of the three it was, the fact that someone had thought to block the entrance to a Mountain Stronghold with a giant boulder in the first place was rather….
Tasteless.
It was the sort of thing a third-rate mage would find impressive.
“Wow! Young Master! Look at that enormous boulder! It’s moving without making any sound!”
Of course, there were also people like Tyr who could sincerely marvel at such dramatic and tasteless contraptions.
Then I noticed the bald man beside him staring at us with a meaningful smile.
His expression practically screamed, ‘How about that? Impressive, isn’t it?’
There was something about that look that was deeply irritating.
I wanted to rap him across the head.
“Then, please come inside.”
The bald man entered the enormous cavern revealed by the moving boulder.
Inside was a space that could not have been more fitting for the term Mountain Stronghold.
Various wooden structures had been built throughout the cavern, while enormous torches illuminated the interior.
Considering that this group would eventually become the largest bandit organization in the Empire, its scale was already quite impressive.
“Password!”
“Mountain Dove, Gray Bear, Green Fox.”
When the bald man shouted the password in a booming voice, the guards blocking the entrance stepped aside.
At the same time, every bandit in the Mountain Stronghold bowed deeply toward him.
“Welcome back!”
“Yes, yes. Nothing happened while I was gone?”
“No. The boss is waiting for you. You should head up immediately.”
They were remarkably disciplined.
This level of discipline meant that they did not neglect their regular training.
It also meant that rewards were distributed properly even to the lowest-ranking members, enough to maintain their loyalty.
As expected, Britz was no ordinary man.
If he had joined the military instead of becoming a bandit, he might very well have risen all the way to general.
In any case, we followed a low-ranking bandit deeper into the Mountain Stronghold until we entered a vast open cavern.
Then I suddenly felt a wave of killing intent.
It was obvious when I thought about it.
They had gone through the trouble of bringing us all the way here. Unless they were complete fools, they would not lead us directly to their boss.
Apparently, that password about the Gray Bear and Mountain Dove had actually been an instruction to dispose of Tyr and me.
Pointlessly meticulous, were they not?
“Young Master. We have been surrounded.”
“So we have.”
Bandits wielding gleaming axes of every kind surrounded us, radiating tremendous killing intent.
Judging by their demeanor, they had done considerably more than merely rob travelers of their money.
They had probably killed their fair share of people as well.
“My, what terrible people.”
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I was considering how best to crush them when several arrows flew toward Tyr and me.
* CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Tyr skillfully knocked them out of the air with his sword.
As expected of the finest Young Talent in the Seirin territory.
But I had no time to admire his skill.
The bandits immediately launched their assault.
“Get them!”
“Kill them!”
Every last one of them certainly had a vicious line prepared.
But I had rarely seen anyone strong who shouted things like that.
I slowly extended both hands toward the ground and spoke the trigger word for one of the spells I had stored through Memorize earlier.
“Entangle (Entangle)!”
I had decided that in this life, I would rely on the sword rather than magic.
But expecting Tyr and me to handle this many people by ourselves was absurd.
Moreover, considering what I stood to gain, I could hardly turn around and leave.
I had no choice but to use magic.
At my command, the children of the earth began moving at tremendous speed.
Plant stems swelled to unnatural sizes, burst through the ground, and wrapped themselves around the ankles of the charging bandits.
“Guh!”
“Aagh!”
The bandits plunged face-first into the ground without losing any of their momentum.
Entangle was not a particularly high-level spell, but used properly, it was more than effective enough against thoughtless opponents like these.
“Listen carefully, bandits. I didn’t come here because I particularly wanted to hurt any of you. I might just have a conversation with your boss and leave. So how about waiting quietly? If you do, I promise no one will get hurt.”
“Urgh…. You bastard!”
“You think we’ll let you reach our boss?!”
Even though the plant stems tightly binding their ankles prevented them from moving, the bandits remained fiercely defiant.
They had seen me cast a wide-area spell of this scale, yet instead of fear, they responded with an even greater desire to fight.
Britz really was exceptional.
Instilling this much loyalty in common bandits was impressive in itself.
“Everyone, stop!”
“B-Boss!”
At that moment, someone appeared with a booming shout.
He emerged from the highest section of the Mountain Stronghold.
He was not particularly tall, but he was a massive young man whose build brought a bear to mind.
He looked somewhat younger than the man in my memories, but there was no mistaking him.
This was Britz, leader of the Steel Axe Band.
“Oh, so you’ve finally appeared.”
“Who are you to cause trouble in my stronghold?”
“You want to know who I am? Instead of doing this here, why don’t the two of us sit down and talk?”
“…Do you have a death wish?”
What a dramatic fellow.
Britz was undoubtedly born with an exceptionally powerful physique, but he had not yet absorbed the legendary flowers.
He was unquestionably weaker than the Britz I had fought in my previous life.
“If you can kill me, then go ahead and try. But we can at least talk first, can’t we? I’m not going anywhere.”
Britz bristled at my relaxed taunt.
But Britz was a straightforward man.
Two people had suddenly barged into his Mountain Stronghold, caused havoc, and then asked for a conversation.
He was not the sort to waste time pondering every possibility.
“Come up.”
As expected.
This was why warriors were so pleasant to deal with.
Unlike mages, they did not waste time analyzing every little detail.
They were refreshingly straightforward.
“Tyr. Wait here. I’ll go have a conversation with that gentleman.”
“What? Young Master, are you really going to leave me here by myself…?”
“Hmm. I suppose that is a little cruel.”
Admittedly, being left alone among a group of axe-wielding bandits glaring murderously at him would be somewhat frightening.
I reached into my coat and tossed Tyr a Scroll I had prepared before our journey.
“If they suddenly attack you or try anything suspicious, tear this immediately. It’s a Lightning Storm (Lightning Strom) Scroll. Most of them will probably be reduced to ashes and die.”
At my chilling warning, I saw the color drain from the faces of the Steel Axe Band.
In truth, obtaining a Scroll containing high-level 7th-Circle magic such as Lightning Storm was almost impossible.
And given how weak these people were at this point in time, there was no possibility that they possessed a way to defend against magic of that caliber.
“Listen, bandits. If you don’t want to become piles of ash, stay quiet. The adults need to talk.”
They glared at Tyr and me with furious expressions, but what exactly could they do?
They had no choice but to suppress their anger and remain still.
With a leisurely stride, I slowly made my way up toward Britz.
Near the upper section of the Mountain Stronghold stood what looked like an extravagantly decorated tent, apparently intended to distinguish the boss’s quarters from everything else.
Britz seemed to have been in the middle of a meal, because various dishes covered the table.
Judging by the variety and quality of the food, banditry must have been fairly profitable.
A short while later, Britz and I sat at opposite ends of a long table, facing each other.
“There’s land for graves everywhere in this world. Why go through all this trouble to come here and die?”
Britz’s growling eyes were filled with murderous intent.
An ordinary bandit chief would probably have lost his temper long ago and sent every subordinate he had to kill me.
As expected, this man was different.
“I came to buy something. That legendary flower that blooms once a year in your homeland. You have it, don’t you? Give it to me.”
The instant I mentioned the flowers, the murderous rage vanished from Britz’s eyes.
Shock took its place.
In an instant, he drew his enormous Battle Axe and pointed it at me.
Dangerous.
He was far faster than I had expected.
How could he swing something that enormous so quickly?
“Who are you?”
“I came here to buy something. Do I really have to tell you that too?”
“Did my homeland send you? No…. Are you one of the Northern Barbarians?”
This bastard.
He had just called the young master of an imperial count’s family a barbarian.
I was not that ugly.
“Hey. Can’t you see the insignia of an imperial count’s family embroidered on my chest? I’m a noble.”
“Do not spout nonsense. How would an imperial noble know about that? Even in my homeland, only the chosen are permitted to learn of it.”
“I don’t care about any of that. Are you selling it or not?”
“…People who know more than they should tend to die young. Die.”
I knew this would happen.
Britz approached me with his axe in hand, radiating even greater killing intent than before.
At his peak, he had once defeated an imperial knight order with that axe.
If we fought using nothing but martial strength, I had no chance of winning.
But who was I?
The Five-Colored Mage.
The Wind Mage.
The greatest Combat Mage in the history of the continent.
“Then I simply won’t fight you with martial strength. Flight (Fly)!”
It was one of the best spells for dealing with straightforward warriors like him.
Simple, but efficient.
All I had to do was deprive him of his ability to move.
Once I lifted him into the air, he would be unable to approach me or even maintain his balance, leaving him flailing helplessly.
However—
* CRACK!
Britz swung his axe, infused with Sword Mana, and severed the magical connection between me and the Fly spell.
This bastard.
He was nowhere near his prime yet, but he already possessed tremendous combat experience.
He even knew how to counter a Combat Mage.
“So you know a few cheap tricks. Die!”
After landing back on the ground, Britz suddenly swung his left hand and hurled a throwing axe at me.
I had not even seen when he grabbed it.
Naturally, the vicious attack was also imbued with Sword Mana.
“Barrier (Barrier)!”
* BOOM!
The throwing axe was relatively light, yet when it struck my Barrier, the impact sounded like an exploding bomb.
If my casting had been even slightly slower, the attack would have split my skull apart.
“Tch. You’re nothing but a strong boar.”
I needed to fight him without using high-level magic.
I could not allow the existence of Archmage Ruben Seirin to become known in this era.
That meant I would have to deal with him using only low-level magic.
Unfortunately, Britz seemed to possess extensive experience fighting Combat Mages.
But I was no ordinary Combat Mage.
I was the ‘Five-Colored Genius.’
Shall I start by pinning down his feet?
“Freeze (Frozen).”
The water elements dispersed throughout the air rapidly solidified and seized Britz’s feet.
It was merely a basic spell that froze moisture.
But things were different when the caster was a 10th-Circle Archmage.
Britz, who had been about to charge me again, faltered when the ice froze his feet in place.
Then he raised his axe high, preparing to sever the flow of mana again.
An opening.
“Lightning Arrow (Lightning Bolt)!”
* CRACKLE!
An arrow of electricity shot from my hand and flew directly toward the steel axe Britz was holding.
As befitted lightning, the attack struck with blinding speed, and Britz took it head-on.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Even low-level magic could vary enormously in power depending on how much mana was poured into it.
Because I could draw directly upon the mana of nature, I could theoretically increase elemental damage to the level of a Spirit King.
Naturally, a direct hit from lightning of that strength sent Britz crashing to the ground.
* THUD!
“You axe-headed fool. ‘Steel Axe’? Doesn’t that name sound a little too conductive? The moment I heard it, I wanted to fry you with electricity.”
Britz glared at me while breathing heavily from the shock.
But his entire body should have been numb by now, making even the slightest movement difficult.
I picked up a piece of jerky from the food laid across the table. It looked fairly well made, so I put it into my mouth and chewed.
“This is good. Horse meat?”
“…Urgh. Who… exactly are you?”
“I told you, I came here to buy the flowers. Ah, no. I suppose now I should say I came to take them from you. That’s what you’re good at, isn’t it? Taking things from innocent people.”
“You bastard. I will… kill you.”
There was no reason for me to dignify such a pathetic threat with an answer.
Without saying anything, I fired another weak Lightning Bolt at him.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Choose. Either you can die while I slowly fry you, or you can let me take the flowers now, stay alive, and continue your banditry.”
“…Those flowers are not something I can simply hand over to anyone.”
Unbelievable.
Who did this bandit think he was, putting on airs with me?
“Oh, for goodness’ sake. Fine. Then just die. Die!”
I was sick of this pointless standoff.
If he died, I could simply search for the flowers afterward.
This time, I cast Chain Lightning, continuously sending electrical shocks through him.
As the current abruptly intensified, Britz collapsed face-first onto the ground and writhed in agony.
All that remained was for him to be slowly fried.
It would not be pleasant.
“Uuurgh…. I’ll give them to you! I’ll give them to you!”
“I don’t need them anymore!”
“Aaaaaagh!”