Author: 夜州 (Yashu)
Having finished their short break, the party and the bishop’s carriage slowly proceeded along, being vigilant.
Cain regularly sensed the people he assumed were scouts, and then noticed that the attackers were gathering one kilometer ahead of them.
Opening the carriage’s small window, Cain called out to Claude.
“Claude-san, the attackers are gathering a kilometer ahead of us. Their number –– is around a hundred.”
“You’re kidding!? Do that many of them really have to gather just for an attack!?”
“Not normally. And this is not a checkpoint, so I wonder what they’re up to…”
“Cain-dono, do you have a second?”
As Cain and Claude were talking through the carriage’s window, Bishop Harnam called out to Cain.
“How can I help, Bishop-sama?”
“I don’t like this. There shouldn’t be such bandits in Marineford. For this many of them to appear now… a cardinal might be pulling the strings.”
“Eh… so…”
“The bishops from each country are returning here. It’s normal for everyone to join the factions of one of the cardinals. And counting the votes of the priests from Esfort, I have around twenty. If I were to vote for an opposing candidate… there will be people who won’t like it. My older brother is one of the cardinals. My brother wouldn’t send thugs after me. So which of the remaining three did…”
Cain and Claude frowned at Bishop Harnam’s words. They were interfering with the voting, even using bandits to kill people. They knew that becoming pope was an attractive proposition, but they hadn’t thought the cardinals would use any means necessary in order.
Cain recalled the time when Hinata came to the Kingdom of Esfort. How the temple knights’ plot to assassinate her had failed. He made a bitter face at the fact that under the name of Marinefordism, behind the scenes, a world of corruption, backstabbing, and ruthlessness was actually spreading.
“Cain-dono… that’s a lot of attackers. Will you be okay?”
Bishop Harnam made a slightly anxious expression, but Cain and Claude just looked at each other and grinned.
“Bishop-sama, it’s no problem at all. We have Cain with us, see. Their attack has already failed. Well, we will have to catch them and question them though. Then we’ll have to have them rat on the mastermind. Let’s just tell everyone about the attack for now.”
Claude went to tell the temple knights, who were riding horses, and the other adventurers, and they all got ready for battle.
When there was only a little distance left until the attackers, they all got off their horses. If they had stayed on horseback, arrows might hit the horses, which would then injure their riders as they fell over, and getting off was also better for being able to move quickly.
Cain also spoke to Bishop Harnam, then moved over to the coachman’s seat.
The carriage proceeded along, and as if they had been waiting for it, bandits appeared one after the other from either side of it. They were wearing dirty leather armour, and only their already-drawn swords had been polished perfectly clean.
“Hey, hey, you can’t pass through here. Everyone, throw away your weapons. Unless you want to die.”
One of the bandits stepped forward, leering. However, as if knowing there was no way they’d throw away their weapons even if they were so, the close to one-hundred attackers spread out and closed in on Cain and the others.
“Hey, is the Holy Country full of bandits like this? They’re all so weak though. Do you think you got stronger just by picking up some random sticks you found?”
Claude taunted the bandits. The escorting temple knights’ faces tensed, but Claude continued.
“Hey, by the way, which cardinal’s lapdogs are you? We’re going to the temple after this, and I want to kick his ass.”
The attackers’ faces became red with anger at Claude’s goading. Watching the bandit who had stepped forward first, they all readied their weapons.
“How long will you keep bluffing for. There’s three women there too. We’ll have some fun with them after we’ve disposed of everyone else.”
However, not letting that get to them, Lina, Milly, and Nina’s expressions stayed clear. They knew there was no way they would all lose.
“…Can I deal with them already?”
Holding her staff at the ready, Nina was prepared to cast magic any time.
“Let me have a go too. Their faces make me want to shoot them.”
Lina and Nina went and stood on either side of Claude.
“Oho, the cute ladies even came out to us.”
The bandit invited his companions to laugh with him with a dirty smile. However, that was the end of that man.
[Air Cutter]
[Fire Wall]
The bandit standing at the front was split into a top half and a bottom half and then burnt to ashes by the two’s magic. The blade of air Nina had shot at him split up into many smaller versions of itself, and not stopping with just one person, it tore multiple people apart.
Similarly, a ten-meter-wide and five-meter-tall wall of fire swallowed up the bandits.
With the screams coming from everywhere as a signal, the adventurers entered the fray. That the temple knights would guard the carriage, and the adventurers would carry out the offensive had been decided in a discussion beforehand.
The temple knights had been against it at first, but eventually they had reluctantly assented, as the protection of the bishop had the most priority.
Standing on the coachman’s seat, Cain was shooting magic at the bandits with bows further away.
[Air Bullet]
Cain’s rapid-fired spells hit their bodies, bursting them open, taking the bandits’ lives in one hit.
“They’re monsters! Run!!”
With more than eighty percent of them having been defeated and having witnessed the defending adventurers’ strength, the bandits ran away one after the other from fear.
Their numbers diminished even more due to being chased by Lina and Nina’s magic, the bandits threw away their weapons which were getting in the way of escaping and ran.
However, Claude and the others didn’t follow them.
The few bandits who had managed to survive and run away from that power breathed sighs of relief at not being chased by the adventurers.
“Unbelievable. What’s with that bunch of monsters… Bodyguards should be around C-Rank. But, we’re safe now… We’ll have to explain to that person once we get back…”
The bandits all thought they were safe. However––
“Don’t tell me you thought you’d run away? And could I have you enlighten me about who ‘that person’ is?”
For some reason, in the place they had run away to, Cain was standing there with the smile of a silver-haired devil and sword at the ready, having forestalled them.
Europa is a cool moon 
[ we will have to catch them and question them though. Then we’ll have to have them rat on the mastermind.]
I wonder, why hasn’t he created a mind reading magic, seeing as he can already send images into others ppl minds.
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Jajaja las balas de caín ya son tan fuerte que ahora solo estallan a la gente cuando golpean a de verse como un videojuego de zombies
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Thanks for the treat.
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It would be good if Cain boasted about his S Rank and see what kind of reaction they would get
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Thanks For The Chapter
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rip bandits.
no quick money today eh.
thank you for the chapters~
stay safe and healthy everyone!
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Thanks for the chapter
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Oxi pq os bandidos ficaram supresos com os guarda costa estarem por volta do rank C??? Não foi dito que todos os padres tinha escoltas rank D e rank C então esses bandidos deviam ser capazes de matar grupos rank C facilmente ja que essa era justamente a força que eles esperavam que tivessem….efim não faz muito sentido como sempre.
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Thanks for the chapter!
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Oh, I almost expected a repeat of the previous large scale attack, with all villains captured, but this time almost all of them died 😛
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yea its very random how he kills or not, who knows maybe next chapter he just heals them and they werent actually dead
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They are definitely dead, most of them were bisected and burned to ashes.
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Even so Cain can probably fix them up if he wanted to lol
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Last time it was a political issue. A head of a noble family (Cain), two princesses and a duke’s daughter were attacked on a foreign territory by that territories citizens.
This time, it’s not a political issue. The one attacked was a bishop of the country, within the country, by people whose affiliations are not clear. There is no one else of note, as Cain is there as a no-name adventurer.
If he killed wilfully in the first case, the result could be a war. Even if not, the country could have tried to upturn the attack, claiming that Esfort had a hand in it. If many would be killed and some spared, they could claim they were threatened. This is non-sensical, but real life proves that this kind of bullshit actually works in politics.
In the second case, no one needs to survive as there is literally no importance in their life. Keeping them alive is good only for getting the ‘big fish’.
Well, the above is a logical explanation for these two situations, but as far as the author goes…he may not have even thought about it too much…
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My only complain about killing most of the bandits is you don’t know if the survivors will have any information. Sure, the Author will conveniently give as much information as he wants for the story to progress, but stories don’t have to make sense. If the Author wanted things to be believable Cain should of captured the guy talking at the beginning because he is highly likely to be the leader and the most likely to have information useful to Cain.
If these ‘bandits’ are real bandits, they shouldn’t have direct contact with the church except for a small group of people that run messages. The smaller the group the better to keep it a secret. If the ‘bandits’ are actually church personnel … then they should all have information and be largely aware of everything but judging from how they are dressed, armed and acting it isn’t likely.
Every bandit there should know the local authorities are backing them, but they should also be wary of other church officials because they could be working for other factions in the church. They might all know which cardinal they are being backed by, but being able to provide contact information to their handlers or giving convincing testimony would be questionable at best.
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Waaaahhh, looks like they haven’t reached the MTL chapters yet. I’m so hype rn, i need next already *teary eyes*
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Thanks for the chapter
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