Open the way with your life.
That incredibly nonsensical yet profoundly dramatic phrase transformed Belita’s outrageous misunderstanding into a ‘minor’ error woven with truths.
“Ugh…! It’s now or never! Move it!”
“If we can just reach Pelmia…!”
The hired hands, sensing a drastic shift in atmosphere at his words, became witnesses confirming that Belita’s assumption was indeed true.
As soon as Rug’s shout rang out, the guild employees desperately began to escort the lead carriage, literally opening the way with their lives.
Leaving the other two baggage carriages completely behind.
“What, it was real?!”
I halted my approach towards Belita and gaped at them in disbelief.
“Get out of the wayyy!”
“Lord Rug! Go! I’ll hold them off here!”
The hired hands, pushing back Belita’s subordinates with determined fury. Although their skill was clearly inferior to that of the enemies, they made up for the skill gap with a disregard for their own lives, flinging the way wide open for the carriage to escape.
Stabbed in the gut with spears, they stepped forward instead, tackling and rolling around with their opponents, blocking arrows aimed at the horses with their own bodies instead of protecting themselves.
‘…Those guys were never a standard guild to begin with.’
The raging force of a fire-starting buffalo. A suicidal assault that even rigorously trained soldiers wouldn’t dare to emulate.
This was behavior that no mere guild hirelings could display.
The name “Rivilla Guild” was nothing but a facade, a cover-up to avoid suspicion from others.
“…I’m sorry! You go on ahead!”
Anyway, thanks to their desperate struggles, Rug’s carriage successfully broke through the enemies’ interference and started racing toward its original destination.
“What are you doing! Chase them to the end!”
Upon seeing this, Belita shouted angrily at her subordinates.
After managing to divert the adventurers’ attention and causing a distraction, she seemed irritated that they couldn’t even stop a single carriage from escaping.
“Y-Yes! I’m so sorry! I’ll chase them right now!”
Belita’s subordinates, startled, hurriedly turned around and dashed after Rug’s carriage.
Not just the ones blocking the carriage, but also those who had been engaged in battle with the adventurers.
“…….”
Bardu and Jane didn’t stop them.
The two simply lowered their weapons and stealthily retreated instead of taking shots at the clearly visible enemy backs.
It couldn’t be called cowardly. If Rug was indeed transporting Jotun hearts, then that alone was a breach of contract.
Since the client broke the contract first, the adventurers had no reason to adhere to the request any longer.
Moreover, right now they had practically been abandoned to fight for their lives while the client fled.
Sticking to the contract under such circumstances would not be an honorable act but just plain foolishness.
“Hmm….”
“No, seriously, what is this….”
Because of that, both Friede and Amy seemed to have no intention of fighting any longer, letting the enemies pursue the carriage without interference.
As for Amina’s trio, there was no need to mention them. They were sitting on the ground clutching their wounds, exhaling sighs as if all the situations were resolved.
It was a miracle they were even alive. The weakest among us.
While other adventurers were gritting their teeth and battling, they were sneakily glancing around, just looking out for their own necks.
If that were the case, my hatred for the naïve would only deepen. Even Amina wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes shut out of frustration.
“What? Why aren’t you fighting? No surrender here!”
Only Kikel, however, couldn’t make sense of the other adventurers standing idly by. He tried to strike at the enemies with a harpoon but…
“No, it’s not about surrendering… just hold on. The situation is turning strange,”
Amy stopped him, her expression telling him to simply pick up on things.
“Khaah… That’s right. I got too excited,”
Kikel exhaled a slight sigh as if he felt a bit sheepish, putting the harpoon down. Maybe he had gotten overly hyped due to the chaotic scene of bloodshed.
As a result, the enemies were able to pursue Rug’s carriage without any hindrance.
“…What are you standing around for?”
Except for Belita, who was standing still, staring at me.
◆◆
They say people ramble on when they’re scared, and just how scared had Belita been to deliver such an impassioned speech?
Though she completely overturned the situation with that one blow, instead of chasing after her subordinates, she was just glaring at me.
“…What’s going on?”
She turned her head to look towards the retreating carriage, then glanced back at me and Friede, then pointed her intact left hand towards the carriage.
“What’s wrong? We need to chase after them.”
It seemed that her anger towards me was overruled by her curiosity, leaving her with a slightly bewildered expression as she asked.
“You insane woman. Why would I chase after that?”
“Huh?”
Belita tilted her head, her eyebrows twitching.
“Do you think they can get away safe without you girls?”
I couldn’t care less about that.
Seeing Rug actually transporting a Jotun heart made me only more convinced that it was a secret guarding maneuver I was hired for…
That was a spectacular misunderstanding.
“I couldn’t care less. All I wanted was some easy pocket money for a job and got tricked by that scammer instead.”
I spat out my response in irritation.
Packed with enough feelings of injustice that even a judge known for sentencing minors to death would grant me an acquittal.
Did Belita properly convey that emotion to her?
“…Really?”
Belita asked back, her face dumbfounded.
“Yeah. I just found out the cargo was a Jotun heart a moment ago.”
“No…really?”
Belita gaped in shock, looking as if she had just found hundreds of half-beast drawings instead of the infidelity evidence on her partner’s phone.
“Seriously, I had nothing to do with it; I was just in a misunderstanding, and it happened to be true? Huh, how ridiculous…Does that even make sense?”
Belita seemed to think it was absurd as well, letting out a hollow laugh and wildly ruffling her unruly short red hair.
“Tch, haah. This is troublesome….”
She then clicked her tongue, let out a sigh, and alternated her gaze between me and the carriage.
While she was engaged in a chase with her hirelings, Rug’s baggage wagon was gradually disappearing in the distance.
“…….”
That face was radiating tremendous internal conflict.
As I entertained that thought while loosening my grip on the longsword,
– Swooosh.
It seemed Belita had finally made her decision, as she pointed her index finger at me.
What is this, is she going to shoot a beam or something?
As I instinctively lowered my sword and took on a defensive stance,
“Hey…you. We’ll meet again someday. Make sure to prepare your neck and wait for me!”
Belita began retreating slowly, with a line so cheesy it was almost admirable.
Clearly deciding that chasing after the carriage was a priority over fighting with me.
“What do you mean ‘see you next time’? I don’t want to do that!”
“Hey, where are you going!? You should be groveling and begging at Hilde’s feet for your life!”
Or maybe it was because of Friede, who was approach us while spinning her great sword with a look that made it seem like she finally had her chance for revenge.
With an injury on her right arm, she couldn’t possibly face both me and Friede at the same time.
“Is there still a fight left here? I like a worthy opponent!”
“Isn’t this just asking for trouble…? But still, if I think of it asmy chance to collect the bounty on Belita’s head… it’s not bad at all.”
Even Kikel and Amy were getting ready to raise their weapons, asserting their willingness to fight again.
Although Bardu and Jane raised their hands lightly to indicate they wanted no part in this, even without their help, this was a four-on-one.
“Stop thinking about meeting later, let’s settle it here.”
Belita had no chance of winning. I was confident enough to boldly declare that I could stick around till the end.
After all, people tend to become excessively courageous when cornered. In contrast, they get endlessly cowardly when situations flip against them.
“Wow, look at them talk. Isn’t it laughable?”
Belita let out a scoff, as if she found it utterly ridiculous.
“Yeah. You could totally switch to a clown job.”
Isn’t it laughable? The self-confident demeanor she had when making her entrance had vanished, leaving behind a trapped beast’s face.
“…What a mess. Seriously.”
Belita twisted her mouth in a grotesque manner, her face scratched as if something inside her was itching.
She looked at me, Friede, Kikel, Amy, and finally glanced at her own shoulder while slightly bending at the waist, her left hand clenched tightly.
“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got. Come on, adventurers.”
She assumed a clear combat posture.
The moment I was about to spring towards her, she shouted with a roar,
“I’ll tear your head off-!”
Bending her knees, she swung the ground hard with her left hand.
The ground trembled with an almost troll-level force, shaking the immediate area.
BOOOOM!
The earth trembled momentarily, sending cracked stones soaring like a fountain into the air. With dust billowing up like mist.
“Smoke screen?!”
Because of the heavy dust cloud, Belita’s form was obscured.
Was she planning to hastily ambush amid the dust?
“Kikel, protect Amy!”
If she intended to sneak, then Amy was probably the most vulnerable target.
So I called out to Kikel to safeguard her and dove headfirst into the dust.
“What a sneaky tactic!”
I swung my grasped longsword towards the location I sensed Belita might occupy.
WHOOSHH!
With an air-splitting sound escaping, the black iron blade cleaved through the brown mist, clearing the dirt that enveloped it like smoke.
However, there was no sensation of hitting anything.
“Did I miss?!”
That was the sound of having missed.
“You’re freakishly quick…!”
Just as I turned my head in a panic to reassess Belita’s shape.
“Hilde! Over there! She’s escaping!”
Amy shouted, pointing in the direction the carriage took off.
“What?! Now?!”
I swiftly turned my head that way to see…indeed.
The fierce red-haired villainess, who had been so intent on fighting moments ago, was turning her back, running away as fast as she could.
She had created quite the distance already, almost seventy meters.
“Where do you think you’re going! Stop right there!”
“Stupid slowpokes! Do you really think you could catch me? See you later!”
Not that there was time to chase, as she was pulling away in an instant.
It wasn’t just a run with her legs; it looked like she was using her left hand to hit the ground, leaping off that rebound, thus propelling herself rapidly with a speed like lightning.
With every bound, pieces of metal, presumably shoulder pieces and gauntlets, were flying up, suggesting she was enduring the injury to her left arm to gain that speed…
In any case, it was a pace that simply wasn’t within our reach.
“…We lost her.”
Friede ground her teeth, looking utterly disappointed.
“Is that a rabbit human? This is my first time seeing a beastfolk.”
Kikel marveled at finally encountering the beastfolk he had only heard about, placing a hand on his forehead while watching Belita’s escape.
“What a shame… But what does this mean for our reward?”
Amy let out a sigh, looking forlornly as she suddenly turned to me with a thought.
Considering the client was a scam artist and had fled, this meant we had failed the mission, and we wouldn’t be able to claim the bounty on Belita either.
So what would that mean for our payment, which seemed to have vanished into thin air?
“Uh….”
I had no idea.
If I explained the situation to the guild, I thought they might give us at least the base payment that had been deposited as an advance…
Even if we could manage that, it was just a few silver coins. There would be no chance of claiming while we defeated each of the attackers accumulating extra rewards.
That bounty probably hadn’t even been deposited at the guild’s yet.
In other words, we had fought off all those bandits for absolutely no reward.
“So, let’s at least try to ask for the base payment later.”
When I explained that to Amy, she sighed deeply, shaking her head in denial.
“Hah…Hey, Hilde. If you don’t mind me saying, would it be okay if I chose the quests from now on?”
Then she proceeded to say that every quest I selected seemed to go ridiculously off-course, so she wanted to take the initiative to choose on my behalf from now on.
“…….”
I had no words to refute that.
“Th-That…uh, um…! Hilde, I, um, I’m sorry, but I think that might be for the best?”
Even Friede, who usually enjoys taunting me, selected her words carefully enough to agree with Amy’s suggestion.
“Ah, um, of course! There’s nothing wrong with Hilde, but still! But, um…!”
“…Alright, let’s do that.”
I ultimately had no choice but to exhale a sigh and nod in agreement.
Even I could admit that the quests I had been selecting recently had all been seriously flawed.
