Chapter 28: 28

At night, returning from the guards’ training, I stepped into the throne room for the first time in a long time.

“Gustav, I’m glad you’re here.”

There were the usual two people there. The king and Morgan-san.

“Thank you for the training command. I’m glad to see you’re making excellent progress.”

“No, I’m not at all. It’s a testament to the loyalty of all the guards to His Majesty.”

“Don’t be modest, Gustav. I recognize your achievements. I have something more in mind for you in the near future.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes. I have called you here this time to thank you for your training and to ask you for one more favour.”

“A favour?”

“Yes.”

The king nodded, and Morgan-san responded by handing me something as he came to me.

“Well, is this… some kind of decoration?”

“It’s a sword crossguard, Gustav-kun.”

“Crossguard?”

“It’s the thing that’s stuck between the handle and the blade of the sword. Look at this.”

Morgan-san shows me the sword at his waist… it’s true. I didn’t recognize it because I hadn’t really looked at the sword consciously, but sure enough, it’s on every sword. This flat iron one.

“So what’s this about, Your Majesty?”

“Mm. You see the distinctive emblem on its brim? That emblem belongs to a band of bandits who have been running rampant in this kingdom in recent times.”

“Bandits!”

“What? Did you already know that, Gustave?”

“No, no…”

How could I not know? Because it is also related to one of the events of the game.

The bandits, who had taken advantage of the appearance of the Demon Rhode’s army and gradually expanded their power in the kingdom, began to be seen as a problem when they raided towns here and there and attacked pedalers on their journeys. The king, who couldn’t bear to see this, asked the bandits to be destroyed – by the hero Arc.

But these events have apparently changed a little with the intervention of me.

“Gustav, I want you to destroy this band of thieves.”

“After all…”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“No, no, nothing.”

That’ s what you’d expect. If it is possible to solve the problem with only the personnel in the castle, rather than having the heroes stop their journey to defeat the Demon King and defeat the bandits, it is a natural course of action to do so.

“Will you take care of it then, Gustav?”

“Yes. Understood.”

“In the meantime, I want you to leave Leia’s protection to the upgraded guards and take care of things as soon as possible. I’m sorry that I always give you the runaround.”

“No, I’m not. I will leave immediately.”

But an event to defeat a group of bandits? I’ve accepted it for the time being, but is it really okay for me to do it? Actually, in the game, by clearing this event, a new elf heroine will join the group of heroes. The elf’s occupation is magician, and she is supposed to be an important asset in the future journey to defeat the Demon King.

Well, it’s okay, the current party of hero has a magician called Agranis, who I don’t know, but she seems to be a very competent magician.

“──So, I’ll be counting on you for the next few days, Nina.”

“Well, if it’s a request from the king, I don’t blame you. Let’s get this over with.”

Nina let out a melancholy sigh as she fiddled with something like a Rubik’s cube in her hand.

“Perhaps you’re worried about being away from the children?”

“…No, Leia said she’s going to show up here occasionally.”

“…I see, that’s good.”

I feel a bit bad. I really thought I could handle it on my own, but I took Nina out too, just in case.

The two of us left the castle town and headed north-west on a horse-drawn carriage. Morgan-san was worried about whether we would be okay with just the two of us in this case, but we were fine.

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Destroying the bandit group, which seems like a pretty big task in the written word, is notsuch a big task. I know this because I’ve played the game, but there are three medium bosses and one big boss in this bandit group, and once those are defeated, all that is left is zako.

“Well, I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that this is my job too.”

Click, click, click. Nina looked up at the same time as she completed her Rubik’s Cube imitation.

“I think the bandits were last seen in the town of Phobos. That’s where we’re heading too, right?”

“Well, in the direction, yes. But we’re not going to stop at the town.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because there are no more bandits there. They are deep in the forest to the west, in what is known as the ‘Devil’s Forest’.”

Nina looks at me with wide eyes.

“The Devil’s Forest… as I recall, it’s a place full of monsters so strong that humans can’t enter! The bandits are using such a place as their hideout?”

“Yes. Many of them are former mercenaries and have a lot of combat experience, so they know how to fight monsters. They probably chose places that are safe for them and dangerous for the rest of us as their hideouts.”

“It looks like you have a high level mission. I can see why the king would throw a request to you. It’s a bit much for ordinary guards.”

“That’s true.”

As I recall, the bandit gang’s zako level is between 12 and 15. The medium boss level is 20, and the big boss level is 25 or so. Considering that the average level of the Royal Castle Guards is around 15, the damage when the mid-bosses and above appear would be significant.

“Well, me and Nina can afford it.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone who could beat you or anything…”

“Why do you say that like you’re so dumbfounded?”

“I can just imagine you blowing away a band of bandits all by yourself. Do you need me?”

Well, if you ask me if I can do it alone or not, I can.

“Even if I could, I need Nina. That’s why I asked you to follow me like this.”

“…Hmph, hmph! You don’t have to be so concerned about it.”

“I’m just telling you the truth.”

“Hmm… O-okay.”

Nina’s lips are pouting and she looks like she’s sulking, but she’s not too upset about it. Yeah, it seems I’ve got her in a good mood. I’m starting to treat girls a little better, I think.

And I’m not lying about needing Nina. It’s not just the bandits we’re going to meet on our way. We’re going to meet an elven heroine, too.

In the game, the elf’s heroine is forced to work with the village’s young children, who are taken hostage by the bandits. The hero and his party are supposed to defeat the bandits and bring the elf into their party… but this time that role has fallen to me. I’m sure that having a girl called Niña with me will be more reassuring than dealing with the elf heroine and me alone as a man.

“I’m relying on you, Nina.”

“Well, I’ll do my best.”

With a click, Nina starts fiddling with the Rubik’s Cube-like object again.

“…By the way, that toy you’ve been playing with since a while ago, what is it?”

“Huh? What’s this? It seems to be some kind of old wooden puzzle. An old man in the slums gave it to me when I was little, and I still play with it whenever I’m not busy.”

“Hmm…”

I borrowed a bit from Nina. …Hmm? What’s this? There are no patterns on any of the sides. And it’s not even a 3×3 cube like a Rubik’s Cube. There were only lines formed by irregularly shaped pieces of wood and wood put together. I didn’t even know where to move it.

“Well… what do I have to align these?”

“Align… what?”

“No, puzzles like this, aren’t they supposed to have the same colours and patterns and things like that? I don’t know what to aim for and where to move the pieces.”

“What do you want me to aim for… other than to open this box?”

“Open it? Is this a box?”

“Yes. The old man said it was an old-fashioned treasure chest, but I don’t know if he was lying or not.”

“Heh… but you’ve been tinkering with it since you were a kid, so you seem to be used to having it all together, don’t you? Does Nina know the whole procedure for opening this box by heart?”

“Eh? The solution to this box puzzle changes every time you repeat opening and closing it, so memorising it is useless. And it’s no fun at all.”

Oh, Nina, you seem pretty smart. At least much more so than me.

We spend a day in the carriage, making new discoveries. We arrived at the entrance to the Devil’s Forest.

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