Whether fortunately or unfortunately, no attack came before sunset.
If the bandits failed to appear, Glen and his party would have to repeat the same method on the other side of the pass.
That was the plan.
Glen had been sitting quietly inside the baggage wagon with his eyes closed when he suddenly opened them.
It was already growing dark outside.
He briefly leaned his head out of the wagon and listened before speaking.
“Strange.”
“Yes?”
Erdin, who had been waiting in the same wagon, looked at him questioningly.
“Is it not too quiet?”
“…What do you mean?”
The air was filled with the sounds of horses’ hooves, wagon wheels, and footsteps. What could he possibly mean?
Instead of answering her directly, Glen spoke in a low voice.
“Nedain, Brunel, Tilen. Come here.”
Several figures approached at his quiet summons.
“Tell everyone to stop for a moment. Something is wrong.”
“…May I ask what seems strange, Young Master?”
“The insects. I could hear them occasionally until a moment ago, but there are none here.”
At those words, Nedain quietly closed his eyes and concentrated.
“…There does appear to be something nearby.”
“Is that so? If you sense it as well, then we should investigate. Stop everyone and have them prepare quietly. We will head outside too.”
Nedain was a high-ranking Sword Expert.
If he concentrated, he could easily distinguish a presence of this degree.
“Yes.”
After receiving the order, the members of the Lion Knights began drawing their weapons one by one.
They ran toward the surrounding groups, and before long, the entire caravan came to a halt.
“What is this? Who ordered us to stop?”
“W-Well, the Brunel Mercenary Company said there was something they needed to check….”
“Those fools!”
Soron came running over and began shouting.
His face was bright red, and he appeared thoroughly enraged.
He strode toward the Brunel Mercenary Company.
“Brunel! What do you think you are doing? Who gave you permission to stop?”
“I did.”
A man Soron had never seen before answered indifferently.
Red hair and green eyes….
He was definitely unfamiliar.
Had he been among those new mercenaries?
However… his appearance was far too unusual for a mercenary.
“Who in the world are you… sir?”
Soron unconsciously changed his manner of speech after sensing the atmosphere surrounding the man.
“What would you do with the answer? In any case, keep quiet.”
His natural condescension and clean skin, pale enough for the blue veins beneath it to show, told Soron everything he needed to know.
He was a noble.
Damn it. What is a noble doing here?
“What in the world is…?”
“Did you not hear him tell you to be quiet?”
Beside the man stood a stunning blonde beauty who was enough to make anyone stare.
She was clearly a noble as well.
But why were both of them looking at him as though he were an insect when he had never met either of them?
…Wait, two people I have never seen?
There was no possibility that he would have overlooked appearances like theirs.
Then….
“D-Do not tell me you were the two wearing those hoods earlier….”
“Perhaps you will listen once I cut out your tongue.”
Erdin frowned fiercely and tried to raise her sword, but Glen stopped her.
“Enough. Sir Nedain, are the preparations complete?”
Nedain signaled that everything was ready.
“Hmm.”
Glen slowly walked to the front of the group and drew a Dagger from his waist.
SWISH—!
At a moment no one could have anticipated, he hurled it toward the bushes.
“Guh!”
“A hit.”
When a man’s scream rang out, Glen grinned and charged into the bushes.
“Damn it! What happened?”
“Attack them now!”
Figures burst out from all directions at the same time.
The bandits had been lying in ambush.
“Y-Young Master!”
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
Nedain followed Glen in alarm, while Erdin charged toward the nearest bandit.
“My lady! Have you lost your mind?”
Horrified by the sight, Tilen raced after her.
“Aaargh!”
“Wh-What is wrong with this bastard?”
“Kill them! Kill every last one!”
The surroundings descended into chaos in an instant.
***
“What in the world…?”
Soron was utterly dumbfounded.
The unexpected ambush had shocked him, but what astonished him even more was how absurdly easily it had been repelled.
The bandits known as the Red Hood, who attacked travelers along the Tail Pass, were infamous for their cunning.
They never attacked first unless they were certain that the difference in strength was sufficient for them to plunder their targets.
Soron’s group had fewer than thirty combatants, but their numbers appeared considerably greater when the caravan members were included.
The fact that the bandits had attacked regardless meant that they must have been confident in their strength.
This was already the third time the Soron Mercenary Company had traveled through the Tail Pass.
Soron had heard that the bandits occasionally launched large-scale attacks like this.
Through truly terrible luck, today had been one of those occasions.
And yet….
“All those men were wiped out?”
Even a rough estimate placed the bandits’ numbers near sixty, almost twice as many as their own combatants.
However, the outcome of the battle was absurd.
The supposedly inexperienced mercenaries had suffered no casualties whatsoever, while six members of the Soron Mercenary Company had been wounded.
Anyone who saw the aftermath might have mistaken Soron’s side for the ambushers.
Soron had a vague idea of the reason.
It was because of the newcomers he had assumed were nobles—the figures who had charged into the heart of the enemy formation as soon as the battle began.
They had torn through the enemy ranks like madmen, throwing the bandits into complete disarray.
“Young Master, I have told you time and time again! You are the Heir to the duchy!”
“I am well aware of that.”
Unlike Nedain, who was scolding him with a grave expression, Glen looked entirely unconcerned.
“Then why did you charge into the very center of the enemy formation? Please show some awareness of your position!”
“They were merely small-time bandits. Why are you making such a fuss?”
“Young Master!”
“I understand, so stop shouting.”
Glen waved him away and approached the caravan.
Scolding could also be heard from the other side.
“My lady! Were you thinking at all? How could you charge in so recklessly?”
“Tilen, I am not your lady—”
“Is that truly important right now? I thought my heart was going to stop!”
“It was not only me. Young Master Glen also…”
“Do not make excuses! I am telling the Count everything!”
The difference between the two situations was that, unlike the shameless Glen, Erdin appeared to possess at least some awareness that she had done something wrong.
After confirming that she had also returned to the caravan, Glen casually addressed Soron.
“You there, Kron? No, was it Soron? What was the name of your mercenary company?”
“It is Soron, Young Master.”
When Glen could not quite recall it, Nedain quickly corrected him.
Cold sweat ran down Soron’s back.
Judging by the fragments of conversation he had overheard, those two must have belonged to extremely prestigious noble houses.
“In any case, report.”
“Y-Yes?! Report… what?”
When Soron stammered, still unable to comprehend the situation, Glen frowned.
“The casualties. How many of your men were injured?”
“S-Six were injured. There were no deaths.”
“And the merchants?”
“W-We withdrew them to the rear as soon as the battle began. They did not suffer any casualties either.”
Glen nodded as Soron answered haltingly.
Despite his appearance, he had handled the situation rather cleanly.
“Hmm. It seems you are not merely all talk. Nedain, did we capture any of them alive?”
“Yes. The knights are conducting some ‘work’ separately.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Please, restrain yourself.”
They were most likely torturing the captives.
Nedain had recently witnessed Glen personally perform torture under the name of ‘work.’
Afterward, he had repeatedly begged Glen to leave such matters to the knights in the future.
Glen did not particularly enjoy doing it, so he had no reason to refuse.
Of course, if their methods proved inadequate, he would take over again himself.
“Good. Extract only the information we need, and then we will move immediately.”
“What? Are we not waiting for the rear unit?”
“They will all escape if we wait for it.”
The original operation had been for Glen’s group to lure out the bandits before the rear unit, which had been secretly following them, launched a counterattack.
However, it now appeared that the rear unit would have nothing to contribute to the battle.
The advance unit had already ended it by themselves.
“Soron, have your mercenary company handle the aftermath here. Gather the bodies separately. Ah, when the rear unit arrives later, tell them which direction we went.”
“Y-Yes, sir. Understood.”
While Glen instructed Soron to handle the cleanup, someone approached him.
“Young Master Glen.”
“Hm?”
Erdin was staring at him with an exceedingly serious expression.
Tilen, who stood beside her, looked strangely uneasy.
“Sixteen.”
“⋯Sixteen what?”
“The bandits I killed. How many did you…?”
“My lady! Please!”
Horrified by her absurd behavior, Tilen shouted and dragged Erdin away.
Erdin frowned as though she could not understand why.
“Tilen, this is an important matter—”
“No, it is not! Let us inspect our equipment instead. Come with me!”
Nedain sighed as he watched them.
“You truly made such a ridiculous wager… Dame Tilen certainly has her hands full. Ha ha.”
Unlike the chuckling Nedain, Glen’s expression had stiffened.
“…This is serious.”
“What is the matter?”
“Damn it. I only killed fourteen.”
“⋯.”
Even if he included the man he had killed previously, he was still one short.
At this rate, he would lose the wager.
“Where are the survivors? If I kill a few of them to raise my number….”
“Young Master, please preserve your dignity….”
Nedain suddenly felt that his situation was remarkably similar to Tilen’s.
***
“That appears to be the place.”
“As we heard, there do not seem to be many people remaining.”
Just as Nedain said, only a few figures could be seen guarding the entrance to the Abandoned Mine.
Their hiding position made the angle difficult, but even a generous estimate placed their number at no more than four or five.
“Was it Lakolin? Did we learn anything regarding the Captain of the Guard?”
“We heard that a new group joined them recently. They are most likely the ones in question. We have not discovered them yet.”
Strictly speaking, capturing Lakolin was as important to Glen as eliminating the Red Hood.
Distributing Narcotics throughout the city while serving as the Captain of the Repen City Guard was an extraordinarily serious crime.
“What shall we do?”
Glen contemplated Nedain’s question for a moment before looking behind him.
“Dame Erdin, what do you think?”
“…Me?”
Erdin had been pouting because her wager with Glen had been interrupted, but her expression immediately brightened when he called upon her.
“Yes. Tell us your opinion.”
“In my opinion….”
Erdin narrowed her eyes and studied their destination for a moment before continuing.
“There do not appear to be many people outside, but we do not know how many more may be inside the Abandoned Mine. The conventional approach would be to establish an encirclement and wait for the rear unit.”
“Is there another option?”
“We could simply break through. Only a limited number of people can enter the Abandoned Mine at once regardless, so I believe we should plan to use a small elite force from the beginning.”
“Hmm. I agree.”
“Then I shall take the vanguard—”
“Absolutely not!”
The word “vanguard” had barely left Erdin’s mouth when Tilen shouted.
Erdin tried to object, but then closed her mouth again.
“Before that… there is something I wish to confirm with those men.”
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
When Glen turned toward Brunel with a slight smile, Brunel suddenly felt uneasy.
“Let us try this first.”