Chapter 43

Chapter 43. Bandit Subjugation (2)

The procession of martial artists heading out to subjugate the bandits continued.

Mitchell rode Nox, while the twin brothers traveled on horseback.

At that moment, Bendrick quietly moved closer to Mitchell.

“Lord Mitchell, isn’t that mask uncomfortable?”

Mitchell touched the silver mask covering his face before answering.

“It’s fine. It’s more comfortable than it looks.”

When Mitchell asked for a mask, Tulgram measured various parts of his face and had Lauren cast several convenience spells on it.

Thanks to that, Mitchell had only asked for something to cover his face, yet he ended up receiving a mask of far higher quality than expected.

Even though it fit closely against his face, making expressions did not feel uncomfortable, and it seemed to have good ventilation because it did not feel stuffy either.

After wearing it for a while, Mitchell even wondered whether it was really made of metal.

“Oh, as expected of a dwarf... Ow! Why did you hit me?”

At that moment, Rydrick struck Bendrick on the back with his scabbard.

Bendrick, angered by the sudden attack, was about to complain, but when he saw Rydrick glaring at him, he realized what he had done wrong.

“No, well... It was a mistake.”

“Make that mistake one more time and I’ll sew your mouth shut.”

Except for a few people, even the martial artists still did not know about Tulgram.

Even if every martial artist in the family knew about him, it was still better not to mention him outside.

Bendrick knew that well too, so he obediently admitted his mistake.

But he did not actually stop talking.

“About that joint formation you taught us. Is it really the same as the Raphel Family’s?”

“It isn’t completely identical. I studied it after seeing theirs.”

“You created a similar joint formation just by looking at it?!”

At Bendrick’s shocked shout, all the martial artists turned toward Mitchell.

Their eyes were filled with admiration.

Mitchell tightly bit his lip and glared at Bendrick.

He had no idea where that man had thrown away his sense of tact.

[Serves you right. This is punishment for pretending the formation I taught you was your own. Kekeke.]

Mitchell did his best to ignore Calian’s loud laughter.

Instead, he turned toward Rydrick.

“Have you still not found the location of that man calling himself the Wild King?”

“No. It seems he completely hid himself after hearing that the subjugation force was moving.”

“For someone who named himself a king, he’s quite cowardly.”

“Indeed.”

“We can’t keep waiting forever. Let’s get information from some bandits. It seems there are some nearby.”

“What? Where?”

Mitchell looked toward the place where faint sounds of blades clashing could be heard.

“There’s a battle happening beyond that hill. Let’s go.”

Mitchell had already told Nox not to run at full speed, so they matched their speed with the twin brothers and the other martial artists.

When they crossed the hill, they saw bandits trying to attack merchants.

The merchants also seemed to know that bandits had recently become active, because they were accompanied by a group of mercenaries.

However, because the bandits outnumbered them several times over, they could only barely defend themselves by using their cargo wagons as barricades.

Mitchell and the martial artists did not stop.

They charged straight toward the bandits.

A bandit who had just killed a mercenary turned his head and suddenly met Mitchell’s eyes, who had already come quite close.

“What’s that?”

And those became his final words.

Slash.

His head was cut off in a single blow.

Only then did the other bandits notice Mitchell and the martial artists.

“E-Enemies!”

“Those guys are from the Runei Family!”

“We still have more people! Attack!”

While riding on Nox’s back, Mitchell created his Possession.

Nox reacted excitedly to the Dark Aura and began rampaging happily.

Mitchell swung his sword in rhythm with him.

Screeeeeeech!

Ghostly wails echoed wherever Mitchell and Nox moved.

One bandit planted his spear and tried to hold his ground against Mitchell’s charge, but after seeing the shape of the monster, fear made his legs tremble.

When Mitchell came closer, the bandit’s legs gave out and he collapsed.

Mitchell stabbed his sword into the bandit’s chest.

“M-Monster!”

“G-Go up the mountain! He’s riding a horse, so it’ll be hard for him to follow us!”

The bandits whose spirits had been crushed could not even properly raise their swords before falling helplessly.

The other bandits who saw this began running away, but Nox was no ordinary horse.

He easily moved between the densely packed trees and chased after the bandits.

Thanks to him, Mitchell was able to easily subdue all of them.

After the fierce battle ended, the surviving bandits were gathered together.

Mitchell looked at them and asked,

“Where is your leader?”

“I know! I’ll tell you everything...!”

“If you go a little farther east...!”

“...There’ll be a wooden stockade!”

Mitchell had thought it would not be easy to get an answer.

But unexpectedly, everyone tried to speak at once, making the place as noisy as a marketplace.

After faithfully answering the question, they immediately began begging.

“Please spare us!”

“We’ll never attack people again!”

All of them were terrified.

Mitchell frowned at their strange behavior.

Calian answered his question.

[That just means your Possession has become that much stronger. Those fellows haven’t even opened their Aura Holes, have they? Your Possession has already driven them half-insane.]

“...”

Looking at them made Mitchell feel as though he really had become a monster.

However, in the current situation, that was not entirely bad.

If rumors spread, the number of thieves would decrease accordingly.

A fairly good idea came to Mitchell, and he turned toward Rydrick.

“Assign a few martial artists to them and send them to the guards in Ranga. It doesn’t matter if it takes longer. Make sure they stop at every village along the way.”

Rydrick immediately understood what Mitchell was thinking and nodded.

“I understand. I’ll tell the escorts to make sure the rumors spread as much as possible.”

“Then let’s go capture their leader.”

At Mitchell’s words, the waiting martial artists began moving in perfect order.

Their gazes toward Mitchell contained far more admiration than before their first battle.

They immediately attacked the stockade and captured the leader.

Unfortunately, he did not know where the person called the Wild King was.

Instead, Mitchell confiscated all their property and continued destroying nearby bandit bases while asking them where other bandits were located.

Over the past several days, Mitchell had moved around capturing every single bandit group, even the smallest ones.

Because of that, Mitchell and the Runei martial artists gained new nicknames.

“The Silver Reaper and the Gray Wraiths... That sounds too tacky.”

“Haha! Instead of wearing gray clothes, I should’ve worn red. Then it would’ve sounded cool.”

Mitchell did not think that would have sounded particularly cool either.

Anyway, leaving Bendrick, who genuinely sounded disappointed, behind, Mitchell looked at the martial artist taking away the bandit they had just captured.

They had captured so many bandits over the past several days that they were now short on martial artists for the actual subjugation.

So they had received additional martial artists from the main family to escort the prisoners.

Just like before, they would visit every village along the way.

“So this time too, you’re going to send them around shouting about the Silver Reaper and Gray Wraiths?”

“Of course! Thanks to those rumors, all the bandits have been hiding deep in the mountains lately.”

And because of that, they had become much harder to find.

Fortunately, they had found a trace of the Wild King.

“The Wild King is more thorough than I expected.”

“Indeed. I never thought he would receive supplies through another bandit group.”

The Wild King had a separate bandit group that acted like his hands and feet and used them to supply his people.

It was to make sure as few people as possible who directly knew his hiding place appeared outside.

“Still, if the leader goes around bragging that he’s the Wild King’s right-hand man, he should know where he is.”

Mitchell urged Nox toward the location they had just learned.

The martial artists were exhausted after spending several days sleeping outside and fighting.

However, now that they had found a trace of the Wild King, speed was important from this moment onward.

If the Wild King was clever, he would soon notice that Mitchell’s sword was approaching.

Mitchell promised the martial artists a long vacation if they captured the Wild King before the end of the day.

Perhaps those words gave them strength, because their pace became a little faster.

After walking for several more hours, they were almost at their destination.

They reached a narrow path that had to be passed through in order to reach the bandits’ main base.

Then—

Craaaack!

Huge trees fell at the front and rear of the path, blocking the way.

Someone appeared from the high ground on both sides.

“So you’re the bastards with those ridiculous names, the Reaper and the Wraiths?”

“Actually, I don’t really like those names either.”

“You don’t like them, yet you’ve been spreading them through every village?”

He even knew about that.

Mitchell felt a little embarrassed, but he did not show it.

Instead, he calmly looked at the man.

“That’s separate from this. Anyway, why don’t you tell me where the Wild King is? Then there’ll be less bloodshed.”

“Hmph, you’re all talk. You got arrogant after catching a few people who barely qualify as bandits. I’m different. I’ve been a bandit here for over ten years.”

Mitchell wanted to say something about how he sounded proud of that.

However, the moment the man finished speaking, the bandits hiding nearby fired arrows.

Mitchell and the martial artists swung their swords and blocked the arrows.

Some martial artists were occasionally struck in the arms or legs, but nearby comrades helped them, so no one died.

Once the rain of arrows visibly weakened, the martial artists began moving to find the enemies.

The bandit leader, who had confidently claimed he was different only moments ago, screamed in a hoarse voice.

“Stop them! Stop them!”

They had numbers.

But their opponents were not ordinary people.

They were martial artists who spent nearly all their time training martial arts.

On top of that, they had recently fought Raphel, Braxton, and countless bandits, giving them plenty of real combat experience.

Because they calmly and skillfully handled their enemies, only the bandits suffered casualties.

Mitchell watched them with satisfaction and kicked Nox lightly in the side.

Neigh!

Nox cried once and began running up the steep slope as if it were flat ground.

“Huh?!”

The bandits were already fighting the Runei martial artists.

When Mitchell suddenly charged toward them, they could not help but panic.

Mitchell’s Possession was simply too horrifying.

Its body looked as though countless corpses had been fused together.

Countless faces covered it, and those faces opened their mouths wide.

“The rumors about the Silver Reaper were true!”

“R-Run!”

The moment one bandit shouted, everyone lost their will to fight.

Some even threw away their swords and fled.

The leader gritted his teeth and cut down one of his fleeing subordinates.

“Cowards! Kill anyone who runs!”

The bandits could no longer run.

They trembled as they looked at Mitchell.

Then they began falling one after another beneath Mitchell’s approaching sword.

Thud.

After cutting down the bandit in front of him, Mitchell saw the leader trying to escape and jumped from Nox’s back.

Mitchell almost flew through the air and landed in front of the leader.

“Haah!”

The bandits around the leader rushed toward Mitchell.

But when Mitchell unleashed Heaven-Breaking Flash—

Shhk.

Their bodies were instantly cut into several pieces and scattered across the ground.

The leader watched the horrific scene with wide-open eyes.

Then he let go of the weapon in his hand.

He dropped to his knees and flattened himself against the ground.

It was a perfect sign of surrender.