Chapter 160: 160

Chapter 160

 

It rained all night, and we had to return on a much more muddy road. I was absolutely tired, but I couldn’t sleep because of the rain.

 

We took turns compiling a rough outline of events that we would report to the guild.

“It had to be those guys who attacked Als Point. They knew that if they attacked Als Point, an important supply base, the guild would organize a large convoy to support the Points at the frontier.”

Ellen nodded. 

The Adventurers at the frontline had no idea what was going on because they went up to Klitz Point after destroying Als Point.

“And the adventurers who traveled down here to investigate what happened at Als Point, and those from the isolated Points who decided to return, probably were all killed.”

Anyone who went there, whether they came from the south or the north, were all killed. So no one knew what actually happened. Adventurers had no other choice but to use the route going through Als Point and Klitz Point to be the most time-efficient, so they would helplessly fall into that trap, not knowing that bandit adventurers were waiting for them.

 

“Just how many people did they kill? Only for the sake of money…”

 

Eleris lamented and muttered quite spiritlessly. They destroyed two Points and killed all the adventurers that were in them or came to them.

No matter how many supplies they would have been able to acquire, would it really be worth the countless lives they robbed of others?

 

Ellen shook her head.

“They didn’t just do it for the supplies.”

“…Were they aiming for all those adventurers’ possessions as well?”

“I suppose so.”

“I noticed that they kept quite a bit of their loot in the inn. Not all were burnt, so we could use that as evidence.”

There were no witnesses, but the loot remained as evidence. Ellen seemed to think that if we used that stuff, our report wouldn’t be seen as a complete lie at least.

As we had been walking all night, we could see the sky gradually getting brighter.

“We’re almost there.”

We returned to St. Point around the same time we started our journey the previous day.

There were numerous wagons waiting at St. Point, as one could see from afar.

The rain probably prevented them from leaving.

“Let’s go to the Guild office immediately.”

Ellen said that she had something she wanted to check.

We went to St. Point’s Adventurer’s Guild branch as soon as we arrived. The present clerks seemed a little freaked out when they saw us.

Ellen and I were covered in blood, and that fact didn’t change even if we were drenched by the rain.

“It’s an emergency. Please call an officer.”

Ellen immediately asked for an officer.

 

* * *

 

The guild officer who tried to persecute us last time showed up as soon as we prepared to wait. Perhaps because of our appearance and behavior, not only that officer but also some guards employed by the Adventurers’ Guild surrounded us.

“What’s going on? You said there was an emergency?”

The uniformed officer looked at us with furrowed brows.

It seemed that he believed that we just came back after going through something outrageous. Ellen shook her head.

“It’s a matter concerning the convoy. I think Mr. Hugson should also be here.”

“…Mr. Hugson?”

“Yes.”

He had already seen that we were in possession of the Imperial Crest.

With that in mind, the officer pondered for a bit and then ordered someone to call Hugson.

After some time, Hugson came to us as well.

“…Who are you to order me to come here?”

Unaware that it had something to do with him, Hugson looked at us with a very displeased expression. Because of the weather, the schedule of the convoy had changed, so he still seemed to be very annoyed about that.

Ellen slowly began to explain.

“Our group left St. Point for Klitz Point yesterday.”

Hugson’s expression twisted slightly at those words.

“Yeah, what about it? Why’d ya come back?”

“Klitz Point had been occupied by a gang of about twenty bandit adventurers, and all the people originally living there had been killed.”

“…What?!”

“!”

Their faces looked as if Ellen’s words had struck both Hugson and the officer over the hand. Everyone inside the Guild was very quiet as well. Completely speechless in astonishment.

Not only Als Point, but Klitz Point as well. What’s more, robbers? Ellen spoke while looking at Hugson with a slight smile.

“We killed them all last night; then we decided to come back to St. Point to report about it.”

 

There was a gang of bandits.

However, they were all killed.

 

“What? What are you… by small brats like you?… What nonsense…”

Hugson frowned, thinking we were blowing one outrageous bluff.

“See for yourself.”

Ellen took out a collection of ten cards from her chest and put them on the table.

Some were still soaked in blood, and some were relatively unscathed.

“That-that’s…!”

Both the officer and Hugson opened their eyes wide as soon as they saw all the ID cards we had brought along.

“I couldn’t retrieve all of them, but these are some of those bandits’ Adventurer ID’s.”

I was wondering why she suddenly started searching their bodies, so it was to have some evidence backing us in case people didn’t believe us. She didn’t get all of them, but she still had more than ten of them.

“…S-so you guys really…?”

“Yes.”

The officer’s eyes were shaking violently. Just hearing that we took care of such a huge bandit group was ridiculous. However, there was evidence backing that absurd story right in front of him. Evidence that our group of three had really exterminated all those bandits.

Ellen said that she came to St. Point because she had something she wanted to check.

“You don’t seem to be very good at controlling your facial expressions.”

“…What?”

Ellen stared coldly at Hugson, pointing at the various Adventurer’s IDs.

“What? Do they look familiar?”

It seemed that Ellen got her answer.

 

An Accomplice.

Ellen suspected that the convoy leader, Hugson, was the bandits’ accomplice. Everyone was startled at Ellen’s unexpected words.

Wha-what… What nonsense is this?”

“They knew when the convoy would be leaving today, on the dot.”

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Ellen noticed something very suspicious in those words we had overheard.

“Of course, the convoy’s schedule isn’t exactly a secret. They could have heard it from one of those adventurers that wandered into their arms and got themselves killed. Yes.”

The fact that the bandits knew the convoy’s schedule wasn’t any conclusive evidence on its own. However, there was one more suspicious part. 

“By the way, all the members of the convoy, except you, are all E or F ranked adventurers. Most of them are people whose skills aren’t worth considering. You must have had some purpose behind this.”

The composition of the escort team.

When Ellen and I first saw that list we had thought that he was doing that to line his own pockets even more, we had both agreed on that.

However, if we were to add the information that bandits were waiting in Klitz Point, Ellen began to suspect something else.

Wasn’t he just filling the group with easy-to-kill guys? They would be very easy to kill if the whole group was only made up of newbies who couldn’t even be compared to those bandits.

He didn’t even feel any remorse about getting the dozens of convoy members, the escort team included, completely eradicated by that group that had already committed massive massacres.

There were two suspicious aspects.

 

“And the look on your face after you saw that ID.”

Ellen pointed to Hugson’s face, revealing it to be the last piece of evidence, which was the thing she wanted to check.

“I’m sure you’re their accomplice.”

Hugson was unable to retort to her words.

The guild officer’s lips were trembling.

“M-mr. Hugson… Tha-that’s… your brother… Hudson’s ID… but…”

The guild officer’s face seemed as if he was hoping that the puzzle pieces swirling around in his head wouldn’t fit together.

Seeing that scene, it seemed like the officer wasn’t in the know regarding it.

 

“I’m going to kill you bastaaaaaards!”

Hugson stuck out towards Ellen with the axe he was carrying on his back. 

-Crash!

“Right.”

Ellen closed the distance between her and Hugson, avoiding his attack.

There was no way that Ellen would get hit by such a heavy and slow weapon.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

Ellen had already realized that Hugson wasn’t very patient after only meeting him once.

He was easily agitated, couldn’t control his emotions, and acted impulsively.

He accused us of robbing adventurers because we had won over the person he was trying to get on his team. He didn’t manage to get us in trouble, so he tried to hit us.

She deliberately provoked him because she knew that he wouldn’t be able to remain calm when faced with evidence that we killed his colleagues.

His aggressive reaction towards the situation was already evidence enough.

-Bam!

“Kuuaaark!”

Ellen didn’t even unsheathe her sword and only punched that giant’s solar plexus.

-Baam!

“Le-leeet gooo… Urg…”

Ellen then grabbed Hugson’s hair, making him bend his back and struggle.

-Puuuuuull!

Ellen grabbed his hair in such an awkward way that she was able to pull it out just by holding it like that. 

“It’s not because of your strength that you can act superior to others but your cruel nature.”

“K-kuuaaark!”

 

-Bam!

Ellen smashed Hugson’s head onto the floor.

 

Like most adventurers who were easily tempted to commit robbery, he only came that far because of his cruelty, which he mistook for actual skills. That was the kind of guy Hugson was.

In the end, he couldn’t even touch a single of Ellen’s hairs.

“Don’t mistake something like that for skill.”

Ellen looked down at Hugson with contempt in her eyes.

 

* * *

 

The three of us had to rest our completely exhausted bodies first. I noticed that Ellen was still reluctant to rest because she thought we weren’t over the hill yet, but she was already close to her limits, both mentally and physically.

She eventually fell asleep at the inn; it almost seemed like she had fainted. It was only natural that we got a triple room, just in case of any unforeseen situations. 

No matter what happened, I thought things would somehow turn out well as long as Eleris was with us, so I just evacuated to the sidelines and decided to watch the situation.

 

Hugson was detained in the temporary detention cells attached to the Guild Office.

Naturally, he denied all the charges against him. The guild officers were busy moving about, sending reports to their headquarters in the Exian Outpost, as they didn’t know that Hugson was planning something of that extent.

If they didn’t deal with Hugson properly, it might be their heads that got cut off.

 

We woke up around noon.

After reorganizing ourselves over meals and drinks, the guild officer came to us.

He said that we should be part of the investigation as important witnesses.

We told the investigator, who appeared to be a high-ranking officer who came there from the headquarters as fast as he could, everything we had seen, heard, and done.

He seemed to have nothing to do with St. Point’s affairs.

“…It’s rather difficult to call this self-defense when you actively murdered them. Of course, given the circumstances, you might think that you’ve made the best decision. However, it was dozens of them, not just one. You can’t be exonerated for killing all of them, so you’ll need to be arrested…”

Before he started to go off on some long rant, I took out the Imperial Crest and my Temple student ID.

“…”

He looked down at both of those items in silence and sighed.

“As Temple students, you have a clear-set identity and are protected by the court, so we don’t have to be afraid that you’ll run away. There’s no need for restraints, huh.”

He added that he wouldn’t place any restraints on us. 

Murder was common, but in the end, it wasn’t fine to just kill people.

Those who killed someone and hid it could get away with it; however, those who killed people that absolutely should be killed would be judged, not rewarded, if they revealed their deeds.

Hiding our actions was the correct answer, but Ellen chose to report everything to the guild to catch Hugson.

As a result, Hugson would get investigated, but we would also be held accountable for our actions.

How absurd.

However, I wasn’t particularly dissatisfied with how the situation panned out.

“Anyway, I’ll just conclude that your actions were completely justified in that situation. That’ll do.”

It was an absurd situation, but we were even more absurd. 

Murder, whether one deemed it good or evil, was ultimately wrong.

However, we were part of a privileged class that could get away with something like that, to a degree.

If one covered absurdity with even greater absurdity, no harm would be done to oneself.

That was all that mattered.

____

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