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Cloud and Leon charged. And the bandits moved to surround them.

So far, it went as Leon imagined it would.

Ellen poured down her replaced magazine on the bandit that was trying to slip to Leon’s left. Once again, unloading all five arrows, the bandit’s face turned into a hedgehog once again.

Seeing that the other bandits shrunk back. Just dying would be one thing, but only a cruel end awaited them if showered by her arrows.

That was enough to dull their movements and deal mental damage.

For that reason, the bandits moved to the opposite direction—In other words, they rushed towards us who were gathered at Leon’s right side.

Finia and I had also charged soon after Leon. The timing matched perfectly with that of the bandits withdrawing to the right.

Three of the men rushed to Leon’s right at the same time. I rushed at them, intending to stop them in their place.

“Yah!”
“Seyah!”

Finia also flashed at them with the same timing.

Since there were other people around, I didn’t use my dagger that could transform into a spear or my threads. In other words, I was using my katana.

Finia also used her usual longsword.

Our two attacks overlapped, and so did our target, which was the right man.

As a result, the two of us crashed and I, who was lighter, got flung away.

“Nkya!”
“Ah, Lady Nicole!”

I fell over with a dramatic plop. The two men who rushed to escape from here approached me. If I stayed like that, I would have just gotten trampled on. But I wasn’t alone now.

“Oraa!”

Leon swung his sword with a somewhat barbaric yell. That slash cut one of them from behind as they tried to bypass him. And the other man was stabbed by Finia.

Given her meager strength, she decided to aim for the waist area to keep them in check. A stab from the lower position was hard to dodge for someone trying to run.

“Gyaaaaaa!”

His waist got gouged out and he collapsed on the spot. I immediately drove my katana into him as he fell right next to me.

Finia moved to stand in my way to make up for that opening.

“My apologies, Lady Nicole! Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m not injured.”
“Then hurry up and stand! More are coming!”

Finia apologized while Leon scolded us. This time it was our fault, so we couldn’t object.

The battle styles Finia and I aimed for were similar. We also had similar weapons, so our combat areas overlapped, so we should have considered situations like what just happened.

Leaving how to deal with this for a later day, dealing with the bandits came first.

Two who rushed out were down, and one more was put down with a charge. Ellen defeated one more guy. And Leon and Finia took two more.

Six of them were down while Leon held off one more. There were no more coming out, so this must have been all.

“Kh, what the hell… all my comrades…in an instant…”
“Too bad. Think of it as your retribution I guess.”

Leon pushed his sword towards the only survivor. He seemed to have realized he stood no chance and raised his hands and surrendered.

“Yeah, given the current situation. Everyone just ran off.”
“Sorry, but I’ll have to tie you up. We’ll take and hand you over Raum’s authorities, so be prepared.”
“S̲h̲i̲t̲, f̲u̲c̲k̲ my luck.”

Seeing that he didn’t plan to oppose, Ellen went and tied his hands. Cloud also stepped in to help her, but after failing over and over, she ended up doing it on her own.

Come to think of it, I suppose even if you know how to tie up the hunted prey, it wouldn’t help you with tying humans, huh?

“Cloud, I’ll teach you how to tie a rope later.”
“O-Okay.”
“Huh, you’re into bondage, Nicole?”
“How did it come to that?”
“L-Lady Nicole, me too please! Me too!”
“Calm down Finia. I’m just talking about tying up the villains.”

Actually, being an assassin, wasn’t I the villain?

I didn’t consider myself to be the absolute justice, but there were still unforgivable people. And I was basing that on my own judgment.

It might have been justice for me but… It was definitely evil from someone else’s perspective.

“…So I guess I’m evil so I’ll be the one tied up?”
“W-What—Agh!”
“Big sis Finia, your nose, your nose is bleeding!”
“I’m shoorry, I got a bit excited.”

…Finia who used to be my solace was already gone. It was just a carnivore standing here. Should this be called growth too?

At any rate, we had Finia use the Tunnel spell and bury the corpses there.

Normally, it was probably better to leave them as is until the guards came to investigate, but doing so could turn them into Undead or attract other monsters.

We were close to the traffic route, so it was wiser to just get rid of them.

Now if we handed the arrested men to Heath’s party, they would carry them to Raum. By exterminating the bandits and handing this man over, our request would be done.

The rest would be, well, up to Raum to decide.

With the bandits gone, you could say the regrets in my heart disappeared.

I found a new task at hand, so this was a good place to stop for today.

“Finia, we’ll be having a talk later, okay? About various things.”
“Ugggh, I’m shorry.”
“I don’t mean that. I’m talking about combat positions.”
“Ah, I was also thinking about that.”

With Letina out of our party, Finia took her place. But the two’s positions differed like day and night. If we fought as we had been until now, it could lead to a serious injury.

Michelle’s lethality had gone up, so in the off chance that she misfired, it would be extremely dangerous.

Back when Finia joined us during the training camp we acted with consideration, but now it would be an everyday thing.

For that, we had to compare and adjust to each other’s combat methods.