Chapter 96: Bandit encounter

July 29th, 2023

Beta Reader: My_Own_Worst_NPC============================================================================

We continued our journey toward the imperial capital.

Word had spread around the region about the saint, and so we were welcomed with open arms in every village we went to. We were in no particular hurry, so we went wherever we were asked, even if it meant we needed to take a detour or go through a difficult road. There was no need to quickly return the staff anyway, and I was also enjoying being pampered by the three girls.

I was also improving my level of creation magic because I was creating a mountain of medicines, and because of this, the quality of the life potions I can create had also improved dramatically. Also, I’m now able to expand the variety of treatment.

———–

Creation Magic Lv.48 (All category creation time reduced by 52%, Improved quality of finished product)

MP 7291/7291 (MP recovery rate up: 86MP/minute) [1]

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If I had to say, the significant reduction in production time and faster MP recovery speed really had made creating new things a breeze. Furthermore, since I acquired [Multitask] when I reached Lv 45, I can now make two things at the same time. I can now make crepes for snack while also making antibiotics to prevent infection.

However, our journey was not all fun and games; there were also emergency times when we were attacked by monsters and bandits.

The girls would always be able to fight them off, but as usual, I’m still bad with fighting. I always prepared myself to equip Eminence Rock and join the fight, but thanks to Cecily and the others, there hasn’t been any urgent situation that required me to join any battles yet. Maybe it’s because the girls are having the mindset that it’s outrageous to make a man fight.

Cecily always takes the lead in kicking the enemy away, and her strength and capabilities always impress me.

But you know, it was hard to see people die, even if they were bad guys. However, I also realized that the enemies are seriously after our lives, so I fully understand that it’s impossible to go easy on them. But like I said before, I’m bad with fighting. [2]

It’s well known that the saint is not taking any monetary compensation, so money is not the reason why bandits have been attacking us. Rather, what they want is my body.

I don’t know when or where it started, but baseless rumors about the saint have been spreading around. Something like, ‘having sex with the saint will make you immune to any and all sickness’ or ‘having sex with the saint will grant you your wish’, and so on.

It’s really annoying…

Look, I’m not some kind of lucky charm, alright? I don’t bring good fortune to others! [3]

If only all the woman who are trying to sleep with me were of good character, beautiful, and had good sense of style, then I wouldn’t mind such rumors. Unfortunately the world is not that conveniently made. Most of the time, the people who attacked us were either pirates or corrupted soldiers, all of whom were trying to rape me.

I was already fed up with it, so I was thinking maybe it was time to stop doing the saint cosplay and make a new costume instead.

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“Whoa! Stop!”

Just when I thought I heard Rouge’s voice, the carriage stopped.

Is it time for a break already?　

As I move forward towards the driver’s box, I saw that the road ahead was blocked by a large tree. It would be impossible for the carriage to pass through.

“Shirou-san, stay inside.” Rouge warned me in an unusually stern voice.

By now, I was getting used to traveling and knew what was going on. The large tree blocking the road had been cut down by human hands, which means bandits would soon appear. Cecily’s hand was on the sword at her waist, and Miina was pulling out her Arrow of Absolute Precision [4] from the quiver on her back.

As I returned to the inside of the carriage, I heard the bandit’s voice, which was to be expected at this point.

“You’re all have been surrounded, cease your futile resistance! As long as you leave your valuables behind, we’ll let you go with clothes and some food.”

What to say, that is rather a kind request for a bunch of bandits. Usually, they would just start attacking out of nowhere.

“It’s you who should turn back now, for your own sake. This carriage belongs to the saint, and anyone-”

“Captain Parker?”

“Eh…?”

“Captain Parker, it’s really you! This is Emmy, do you remember? Emmy Claude!”

  It seems that Cecily ran into an acquaintance. From what I could see from inside the carriage, it wasn’t just Emmy, but many other people aside from her.

“I never thought I’d meet with Captain Parker in a place like this. Actually, Countess Elmo is with us too.” [5]

“Countess Elmo?!”

“And that’s not all. Princess Evangeline herself is also together with us.”

“It can’t be! So, she’s still alive…”

 Cecily’s eyes glistened with tears. I’m sure she’s an important person to her.

“I’ll guide you to them right away. I’m sure both the princess and the countess will be delighted to see you again, Captain.”

“Understood. Please quickly— Oh…!” Cecily looked back at the carriage with a troubled face and her eyes met mine.

“Please don’t worry about me. They are very important person to Cecily, aren’t they?”

“Sorry for troubling you, Shirou.”

———————————————————————————————————————————–

It seemed that this group of bandits were remnants of Cecily’s home country, the Kingdom of Luwei.

The person named Emmy earlier was a subordinate of Cecily’s during their time in Luwei’s navy. Countess Elmo was her superior officer, and Princess Evangeline was the first princess of the Kingdom of Luwei.

“I never thought that a part of the royal family still survived. I thought they had all been executed by the Empire.” Cecily smiled with a relieved expression on her face.

The bandits led the way through the highway, eventually entering a side path that was cleverly hidden by fallen trees and debris. It was so well disguised that at first glance it was impossible to tell that there was a path there, but after a short distance through a forest of pine trees, a fairly solid trail emerged.

It must have been very difficult to build such a path.

I know this because I myself have been using the Iwaos to build roads, so I could guess that the remnants of the Luwei Kingdom must have a fairly significant number of people.

“Anyway, I never thought that we’d meet the famed saint ourselves. We’ve heard many rumors about him, and I certainly never expected that Captain Parker would be the one escorting him. He’s truly as gorgeous as they say.”

I’m actually not that good looking though. You were only deceived by my costume and the amount of skin I’m exposing.

Since in the end, my face only scores 78 anyway. [6]

“What kind of rumors did you hear? We’ve been troubled by some of the rumors, you see.”

“That’s, well, various… things…”

Emmy glanced sideways at me.

“I’ll just say this in advance. Anyone tries messing with Shirou will be in for a world of hurt, got it?”

Cecily drew the line with her statement, and Emmy only shrugged in response. She seems like a normal person, but I could feel her staring at me with lustful eyes. I’ve been in this world long enough that I’m already used to women staring at me, but don’t they realized that they’re being too obvious about it?

But then again, maybe that was the same case for me too back on earth, when I thought that I was ogling women discreetly. After all, as the saying goes, ‘A simple glance for a man, is an obvious stare for a woman’. [7]

I reflected on that for a moment.

…

“We’ll soon reach a clearing. We’ve almost arrived at our hideout.”

We passed through a pine forest and came to a wide hillside. At the top of the hill stood what looked like an old, crumbling fort. That must be the hideout for the refugees.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Cecily was overjoyed by her reunion with the princess and the countess again. I was introduced to them, too, and both were pleasant people.

The princess, in particular, was a very beautiful girl who seemed a bit strong-willed, which reminded me of Chris. She was only 16 years old, but I got the impression that she understood her position well and was thinking hard about the future of this group.

I thought they might have some things to talk about so Miina, Rouge, and I waited in the carriage. We were told that they would prepare a room for us in the fort, but to be honest, it seemed more comfortable for us to stay in the carriage.

“I wonder what big-sis Cecily would do. Her character is upright and virtuous, so she must still be loyal towards the princess…”

I didn’t need Rouge to tell me that, since I already thought so too.

“Yeah, probably so. Cecily is too strait-laced after all. That’s her charming point, though.”

“Eh? Is Cecily-san going to leave us?”

“She probably will.”

It makes me feel sad, but it’s a reality that I have to accept.

“In that case, what will Rouge and Miina do?”

“For me, I will follow Okami-san.”

“And you Rouge?”

Rouge, who was unusually quiet with her eyes closed, stared at me with a serious face. “I’m going to follow big sis.”

Yeah, they get along really well after all. Surprisingly so since they have rather different personalities.

“I see…”

“And you, Shirou-san, what are you going to do if that’s really the case?”

“What to do, huh…”

I really don’t want to part with Cecily, but I have no intention of getting involved in a country’s revival.

“I’ll decide it after I hear all of the details.”

I leaned back on the sofa, and vaguely looked up at the ceiling of the carriage.

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1 In Chapter 76, Shirou’s level was only 17, with 21% Reduction time, 3994 Max MP and 10 MP/minute regen at that time. He sure has come a long way since then. Just like User ‘Why!?’ have commented, at this rate Shirou is going to be OP.

2 Bad here means he can’t stand how people are getting killed in battle, even though he realizes that it’s inevitable.

3 Are you sure, Shirou? I daresay Chris, Gram, and Miina, who have slept with you would think otherwise. Let’s exclude Janice from the list, because fuck that wench.

4 From Chapter 81, she made it by combining Stone of Absolute Hit with arrow.

5 I thought Cecily Nonbart was her real name. Either the [Repair] skill only refer to currently assumed name, or Parker was her aristocratic’s name and was no longer relevant after the country is gone. (Maybe her name when she was still an aristocrat was Cecily Nonbart Parker?)

6 Poor Shirou still feeling insecure about his face lol.

7 Not entirely sure about this, since I couldn’t find the reference in English wiki and Japanese site. I think what the author means is that what men considered as an unnoticeable glance (toward a sexy girl), is actually an obvious stare for women.

Which is why we need to doubly sure not to take a glance at other woman when we’re with our GF/wife.