En Route (3)

Leading along our escort target and his four wagons, we made our way out of the River Town of Donsama and set off for Corky. We found a wagon with a broken axel stuck in the middle of a meadow next to some large rocks.

It was still somewhere around a kilometer ahead of us but it was positioned in such a way that we wouldnt be able to pass along its side, nor could we take a detour. Also, there was a man standing next to it with crossed arms looking troubled.

Seeing that, Gozoh immediately went to checking that his equipment was all in place.

Kehma, thatll be the thieves. Be ready fer a fight.

Ah, so I guess they popped up after all?

Course they did.

Gozoh popped his neck in preparation.

Yeah the wagons just too suspicious.

Alright, so its at least eighty percent suspicious that theyd get stuck right in the middle of the road like that. The proper etiquette is to either dismantle the wagon or at least move your luggage off it. So someone just standing there like that man is either an idiot or a thief.

There arent any horses either. Just an obviously broken wagons a bit eh, we just gotta deal with them, its a profit for us~

Hearing Ichikas supplement, Meat also stood up in the wagon.

We borrowed this wagon an I dont be feeling like riskin the crest to them. Lets stop here and walk the rest whos up fer lookin after the wagons?

Gozoh gestured toward the wagons crest as he spoke.

Ah, well stay back then. All you in Team Bacchus should be enough to deal with the thieves. Take Shikina along, shes a nuisance.

II am a nuisance!?

Yep, for my beauty sleep.

Its a good chance for you to fight some thieves, hopefully it doesnt turn out like it did with that orc.

I-Ill be fine!

Hmm. Alright then, guess Kehmas partys gonna be lookin after the wagons. Well not be needin te worry about that then. Oi Wataru, hear that?

Yep. Loud and clear.

Sitting next to the merchant in the furthest back wagon in the coachmans seat, Wataru responded.

Good, lets go.

Rokuko-chan and everyone, be careful.

Ill put up an [Air Barricade], so you should be safe from arrows but please be careful.

Stopping the leading wagon around four hundred meters from the thiefs position, Gozoh, Roppu, and Wataru got off the carriage. Then, doing their best to look defenseless, they called out to ask what happened and if they needed help.

They were probably going for a surprise attack.

Guess Ill just leisurely see what happens while I watch over the wagonssit back and relax.

Just as I started to lay down, Ichika unsheathed her kitchen knifeher weapon.

Man am I ready, Goshujin-sama!

Huh? Whatre you doing, Ichika? Were just watching over the wagons, we dont really need to do anything?

Whatre ya talkin about? Its our job to defend the horses, coachmen, and wagons from the thieves layin in wait? A chance to show off. Right, Meat-senpai?

Yeah. Goshujin-sama, I will show you, my good points.

Therere four wagons, so we got lots to defend. I never thought yad actually volunteer us for the harder job, Goshujin-sama?

Eh?

Seeing Meat also pull out her knife golem and prepare to fight, I started to ask if she was surebut just as I was about to, Gozoh and the others fight began.

Simultaneously with that, arrows flew toward the wagon, but Watarus [Air Barricade] caused them to miss their mark.

Oh, so watching the wagons was the more involved choice?

One of those arrows just now was aimin straight for the coachman~. Theyve got an archer with a pretty great aim. Alright, guess its our turn?

Leave the support role to me!

Rokuko, you sit down. And if you have a bow gun, isnt the rapier at your waist not needed?

*

Seeing that arrows were ineffective, the thieves that had been hiding came shuffling out. There was a handful of themno, more than ten. This is bad. How could three of us hold off against that!?

Oh, were pretty outnumbered.

However, my prided magic can make up for our lack of manpower itd be troublesome to get the materials and magic stones for using [Create Golem] ready, so lets go with [Summon Gargoyle].

[Summon Gargoyle][Summon Gargoyle][Summon Gargoyle] geh thats annoying, come here times ten, [Summon Gargoyle x10].

Reciting the magics name each time was annoying, so I skipped over them and caused magic formations to appear around the wagons one after another. A gargoyle burst forth out of each one of them.

Gargoyles, defend the wagons!

Although the merchant and coachmen were surprised at suddenly seeing so many monsters, they looked like they realized they were support after hearing me tell them to protect the wagons.

However, it seems like that also caused the thieves to put their marks on me.

Theyre summons, they disappear if that Summoner-dono dies! Hes in the first wagon!

Looks like they know how to deal with summons. I dont know if that meant theyre knowledgeable or not since it could be common knowledge but I guess itd be bad to just stay here?

Leave it to me.

Im gonna head out too~

Meat and Ichika stood in the way of the thieves that had started making a move toward where I was.

Its a woman! Her bodys great, shell make a great pet slave, lets grab her!

Refused! My chastitys Goshujin-samas!

Ichika. What?

Ei!

The two of them easily cut down the thieves. Oi, Meat was even having an easy time beheading human opponents what a scary girl.

Theyre strong!

Underlings, rush them! Well overwhelm them with our numbers!

With that, the underlings the ones with slave collars on them rushed toward Meat and Ichika who were defending me.

Hey, dont forget about me! Teei!

Rokuko shot her bow gun and shot a gargoyle in the head.

Yeah, friendly fire. Sit down.

The girls an aristocrat! Shell sell for a ton, dont hurt her to much and capture her alive!

Well make back our losses even if all the slaves die!

Whoops, looks like more and more of the thieves are concentrating on our wagon. I wont let them, though.

Chase them, [Summon Gargoyle]

I mean, I had enough gargoyles to make a small fighting unit. I just had to have them stop the thieves

Tch! You f*cking slaves, rush in and

Alright, thats enough.

Wataru pinned down the thieves boss. Checkmate. That was pretty quick.

By the way, Shikina was on the ground and twitching, so I guess she was bad against thieves too.

*

With the fight over, we decided to restrain each of the thieves. I left that to Team Bacchus and Shikina.

Theyd turn into a decent amount of pocket change since we could sell them as slaves if we kept them alive. If we sold them at a good place, we could expect around five silver each since none of them had physical defects. Even if we sold them at an inn town, we could expect three silver each crime slaves are cheap. But its a principle of mine to pick up whatever change I see, so long as I have the time to.

Good work, Goshujin-sama.

You too, Meat. Not many of them died, huh.

Yeah, thanks to you, Goshujin-sama. I would have had to slice through all of their necks if it werent for the gargoyles.

Ah, so she would have been able to handle it. I mean seriously, this girls way of thinking is dangerous. She is reliable, though.

That was an awesome strategy. But are ya fine showing it off? The gargoyles, I mean.

Dont worry about it. I mean, now that Ive shown them off I can just say this is my limit from here on.

Okay, I guess. Using summons as decoys or things to do things for ya is super convenient but the amount ya used was stupid no, super stupid.

The thieves called me Summoner-dono earlier, but did I end up using too many?

Haah, I wanted to at least kill one of them.

Rokuko, youre pretty disturbed. I mean, youve been like that for a long time now, but still

No, its that. I wanted to see if I would get DP if I killed someone outside of the dungeon. I wasnt wanting to do it for the sake of killing someone, you know?

I see. I hadnt thought about that. There isnt a disadvantage for us in finding out if we can obtain more DP even outside of the dungeon. Lets see if the one Meat killed gave anything nope. Alright.

But itd be weird for her to kill one of them now that weve got them restrained, so lets give that a shot next chance we get.

Just then, Wataru walked up.

Good job. Did any of the thieves escape?

I have gargoyles holding them all down. Should I have let some escape?

Nah, its fine. Theyll tell us what we want with a bit of force.

Wataru answered with that when I asked him the question with the nuance of [Should we use that to find their hideout?].

But man, Kehma-san, youre amazing. You can control that many gargoyle summons? Youre like a one man army.

Theres a trick to it. I give them a simple order and leave them with some autonomy.

Still though, theres so many of them. Ordinary summoners would have trouble with three, ones at the level of court mages would have trouble getting to double digits.

Yeeeeeeah, I summoned somewhere around twenty.

Ummm, lets unsummon the ones that arent doing anything. Go back, go backgood job.

By the way, we went with Wataru to the thieves hideout afterward.

I thought that their hideout mightve been a dungeon, but it was nothing like that. Just an abandoned village.

Guess bandits and the like dont usually take dungeons as their bases.

Their remnants were easily dealt with by Wataru. Id expect nothing less.