Volume 5 Chapter 22: A Newcomer

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

The battle had already begun by the time Cain made it back.

Avoiding the huge rift in the ground, the attackers had split up into two.

Claude and Lina were up against one of those halves, while Milly, Nina, and the two other adventurers were up against the other.

Lina and Nina were both casting magic, making the attackers unable to get any closer.

And the ones who still managed to slip through between spells all fell prey to Claude’s sword.

“You’re late! So what happened over there?”

“I made them all unable to leave, for the time being. I’ll deal with them all later.”

“So they were also enemies…”

“Yes, Viscount Baldo and his men.”

“Are you kidding…”

Cain pulled out his sword while answering Claude, who was speaking while swinging his own sword.

“Got it, let’s deal with this lot first then.”

“Yes! For the time being…”

Cain once again placed his hands on the ground.

[Earth Fall]

The ground sank downwards, swallowing up the attackers just like it had done with Baldo and his men.

In the blink of an eye, they were all trapped at the bottom of the pit.

““““……””””

Claude and the others looked at Cain, their mouths hanging half open.

“Let’s do something like this for the time being…”

However, cold glances pierced into Cain from Claude, Milly and the others.

The other two adventurers couldn’t understand what had happened.

The attackers trapped inside the suddenly-made hole were equally stunned.

“…We get that you’re a non-standard S-Rank, but…”

Smiling bitterly while scratching his head, Claude looked down at the attackers trapped inside the hole.

“So, what do we do? This lot…”

A fireball came flying at Claude from inside the hole, but he cut it apart in an instant.

“They’re quite persistent, should I burn them all?”

Cain shook his head at Nina’s horrifying words.

“Let’s just take them back to the country for the time being. It’ll turn into a war otherwise…”

“Yeah… But there’s a bit too many of them for us to take back.”

“So I should turn them all to ashes after all?”

“Nina!”

Milly stopped Nina, who had flames floating above the palm of her hand.

At that moment, Cain felt another, new group approaching from Esfort with Search.

Looking over towards the Kingdom, he muttered to himself.

“There’s… another new arrival.”

They all heard Cain’s words.

“We will stay here and watch over them. Claude, go with Cain.”

“Yeah, let’s go, Cain.”

“Okay.”

The two of them nodded at Lina’s words, and went over to where Baldo and his men were trapped.

The new party heading towards them consisted of a knight on a horse at the very front, with twenty or so others following behind.

However, seeing who was leading them, Cain’s cheeks loosened.

Riding at the front, with green hair and wearing silvery-white armour, was Tifana.

Stopping her horse in front of the large hole Baldo and his men were trapped in, Tifana looked down at them and sighed.

Then, making her horse trot around the hole to Cain, she got off her horse and almost flew at Cain.

“Cain, I’ve missed you! But… what’s this?”

She asked Cain, glancing down at Baldo and co. down in the hole, who were unable to do anything.

“We were attacked from two directions, so I trapped them for the time being…”

Looking down at the trapped soldiers, Claude sighed.

“The other side’s like this too. All of them trapped like this.”

“I-is that so… That’s my fiancé for you.”

Responded Tifana while patting Cain’s head while he nodded, smiling bitterly.

“So then… why are you here Tifana…?”

Tifana opened her mouth as if she had just remembered.

“Oh right! I managed to get some information on Baldo’s plot, so I immediately left the royal castle.”

(It would be bad if the commander of the royal knights just ran off from the royal capital…)

Tifana told them how coming to know of Cain being attacked, she had only told Duke Eric, then split the royal knights in half and left the royal capital.

“So then, what about this lot…”

“We capture them all and take them back to the royal capital, of course.”

“The attackers over on the other side include a former MP of Ilstin, and also what seem to be members of the Dark Guild.”

“Mhm… we can’t just decide to take them to the kingdom on our own now can we…”

“What about locking them up in the prison in the fort by the border?”

Cain suggested to the worrying Tifana, who then nodded.

“Let’s do that. But we’ll have to separate Baldo from them and question him…”

Tifana sent a sharp glance at the helpless Baldo in the hole.

While they were talking, the royal knights who had been following Tifana had also arrived.

“Commander! You’re too fast. No matter how much you say Cain is being attacked… Wait what’s…”

The royal knights who had just arrived were all stunned at the sight of the large hole and the attackers trapped at its bottom.

“…Now this really should be impossible…”

“True… It wasn’t even a fight, this was…”

“He can’t be beaten with a sword, and this is what happens when he uses magic…”

The knights spoke to each other in whispers.

“Alright, first, let’s tie them all up.”

At Tifana’s words, they all pulled out their swords, getting ready for battle, when Cain called out to the helpless Baldo and his men in the hole.

“All of you, please drop your weapons. We will be capturing you all.”

However, none of them let go of their weapons at Cain’s words.

On the contrary, they started hurling words of abuse at him.

“We may have been trapped in here, but we haven’t lost!”

Said the soldiers, but then –– their remarks stopped.

A fireball multiple meters large was floating above Cain.

“Is that so… then…”

Cain said grinning, to which one of the soldiers threw away his weapon, and was followed in turn by all the other soldiers.

They all threw away their weapons and raised their hands.

“Please wait! We’ve thrown away our weapons! Please! Anything but…”

Cain nodded and let the fireball diffuse when they had thrown away their weapons, and the attackers made slightly relieved faces.

“Now then, I will make stairs, so please come up one at a time under my instructions.”

Cain held out his hand next to the big hole and chanted some magic, making the earth swell up, which then turned into a staircase one person wide.

Everyone gulped at that.

“Then, Viscount Baldo, you come up first.”

At Tifana’s words, with a face as if he had swallowed something extremely sour, Baldo slowly made his way up the staircase, one step at a time.

Then, just before he had reached the top, he took out a dagger from his pocket.

“I am sorry… it came to this.”

Baldo made a resolute face, and, pointing the tip of the blade at himself, stabbed himself in the neck.

While the royal knights were surprised by that, Cain went up to him in an instant, and, pulling the dagger out of his neck and throwing it away, cast healing magic on him.

“It’d be a pain if you were to just go and die on us…”

Having chosen suicide, and feeling with his hand the traces of the now closed wound on his neck where he had stabbed himself, Baldo made a despairing expression and sank to his knees.

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