Chapter 19 -
The cursed magic sword shined ominously as it sucked the mana of the bandit leader.
I really wonder how such a dreadful weapon came into existence.
The bandit leader came running in with a hacking motion just as I wondered if this was a hidden piece buried in the dark of the same abandoned mine town that had once produced so many famous swords.
"Quite fast, huh?"
"Is that all you got!? Too scared to make a move!?"
The bandit leader's speed was much faster than before as he attacked the barrier from all possible angles.
I calmly analyzed his state while the barrier made a squeaking sound.
"You're... as strong as an A-rank Adventurer who learned «Body Hardening»."
It was really impressive that with just one weapon, he was able to overcome the wall that separated A-rank Adventurers and B-rank Adventurers when so many adventurers dedicated their whole lives to do just that.
It's just that一ー
"A Cursed Sword, huh? It's not that impressive. 一一«Wind Cutter»!"
"Keep bluffing! I'm just as strong as you now! Don't you realize I can now kill you!? Just drop deaaaaaad!"
He used his sword to repel the wind blade that I fired to keep him at a distance, dodged with his heightened physical abilities, and once again rushed in to slash at me.
Then he performed dozens of slashes at the cracking barrier and finally destroyed it一一
"This is the end for you! Now dieeeeee!"
一一but he was once again repelled by another barrier.
"What!?"
"Idiot, who said there's only one barrier."
"What, you一... Gah!"
I fired another shot of compressed air at him which blew him away like a ragdoll.
"The barrier I activate is always made out of several layers of compressed barriers."
"Sever...al layers...... You say..."
Raising barriers one by one was the limit of normal magicians. I, who used several layers of barrier to protect myself, always had another barrier at the ready in case the outermost barrier gets destroyed.
So it was simply impossible for him to harm me in any way, even if he has the support of a cursed sword.
In the end, even the barrier that the bandit leader had given his all to destroy repaired itself at a visible rate which further stunned him as if he couldn't accept it.
"No...... Is this the power of «Syndicate Smasher Witch»…?"
"If you had enough, then surrender quietly."
"Impossible! I can, I can still fight! Haaaー... Arggggh!"
The bandit leader propped up the sword in half-desperation and poured in his mana.
But the magic sword didn't stop at just sucking away his mana until emptying him this time, it even began to drain his vitality.
His hair visibly turned grey, and even his face turned wrinkly.
"Let go! Let go! Why the hell can't I let it go?! Help me, I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
The phrase “Cursed equipment can't be discarded at will” crossed my mind.
It seemed like that cursed sword had taken root in the bandit leader's hand. But I couldn't let this man die yet, not until I cleared everything out.
"一一«Wind Cutter»!"
The spell I quietly chanted turned into a sharp wind blade and cut away the bandit leader's arms from the elbow down. Both his arms danced in the air alongside the magic sword.
"Aaaaaack! Arm! My arms!"
"So noisy. 一ー«Shadow Bind»!"
I used «Dark Magic» from the «Origin Magic» skill, and manipulated the shadow that gained the ability to interfere with material things to restrain the body of the bandit leader and cover his mouth.
"Well, gotta do something about the wounds, too. 一一«Heal» «Fire»."
I held up my hand and casted magic while ignoring the bandit leader who was making groaning sounds due to the pain from his arms being cut.
I blocked the wounds on both of the elbow tips with a first-aid treatment spell of the «Recovery Magic» and his flesh slightly swelled up and took the shape of stumps. I also burned both of his hands to ashes at the same time.
"Muh!? mmh!?nmmmh!?"
Seeing the tip of his elbow treated and his own arms burning, the bandit leader thrashed even more wildly and groaned more loudly.
However, there was no way he could break free of the shadows that I had strengthened with my enormous mana to give them the power to interfere with material things.
"I'm glad I put up the barrier. The children didn't have to see this unpleasant sight."
It was standard practice to use recovery magic in the case of severed limbs where you stick the limb to the wound without healing it first and then activate the recovery magic over it.
However, I instead burned the arms that were supposed to be reconnected to ashes and also closed the wounds where they should have been attached.
This cruel way of applying recovery magic was my strategy to break the bandit leader's heart quickly.
(Recovery magic is ineffective when the wound has already been healed. So the only option after that is either to regrow the arms using advanced regeneration magic or to use an expensive ancient recovery magic potion.)
"Mmh!? Mmmmmmh!"
The bandit leader's eyes peeled back to their limits from the pain of his arms being cut off and the psychological shock of seeing his arms burned away in front of him, wetted himself, and collapsed on the ground.
I'm really glad the kids weren't here to see my torture-ish method to neutralize him.
"But this magic sword can absorb vitality, huh? It does have horrific power, but, to be honest, I don't need such a dangerous weapon."
I could make the curse disappear by using the cleansing magic «Purification», but the curse and the magic sword were so intricately connected that the magic sword itself would crumble if I did so.
"There's no way you're going to have a good end if you use a cursed sword or some other external methods to power up."
'The price was just too much,' I thought as I recalled previous cases like that B-rank Adventurer in the past who used demonic possession to gain power or the bandit leader right now who used a cursed sword to increase his power.
"As they say, a down-to-earth way of acquiring power is the safest bet. Besides, if it's just going to be sealed again later on, I might as well just destroy it, ーー«Purification»!"
I muttered and then activated the cleansing magic on the cursed sword.
The ominous miasma was purified, turning it back to normal mana. The magic sword itself made a creaking sound as if screaming and then the blade broke into three parts.
Then, the originally ominous-looking blade showed the beautiful silvery shine of Mithril. Well, this settled the case of the magic sword.
"Ah, I purified it following my mood. I forgot to ask for permission from the Town Chief......"
Well, I will just honestly apologize if he got mad. Reaching that conclusion, I wrapped the broken sword blades in a cloth, put them in a magic bag, and confirmed the situation.
"Majou-sama~, I'm already done here~."
"...... Teto, great work."
"Majou-sama too-nanodesu."
Teto hugged me from behind, to which I just turned my neck to look at her.
After that, we silently chained the neutralized bandits with the handcuffs and rope I made with «Creation Magic» and threw them in a cage made of earth magic like usual.
And after finally dealing with the bandits, I dispelled the barrier on the carriage and checked the situation inside.
"Chise-chan, Teto-chan..."
"It's alright everyone. We've already dealt with the bad guys."
The kids were huddling together while hugging their knees to their chests in the corner of the gloomy, dimly lit carriage.
I called out to them to ease their tension after seeing their situation and Arim-chan's feeble voice said our names.
"We're here to take you back to town!"
“ “ “*cry* *cry* Chise-channnnnn!” ” ”
The kids immediately broke into tears.
Being kidnapped, feeling uneasiness and fear about the kinds of things they will have to go through, being unable to even cry because of the bandits, and then finally being relieved since the ones that caused all this had been defeated一一 the dam that had been barely holding back their emotions until now suddenly burst at once after they found out that they had been rescued and were now safe.
Teto and I silently accepted their outbursts until they calmed down.
SIDE : Arim-chan, the daughter of the dwarven couple of the inn
"Dad...... Mom......"
The day started out like usual, with nothing unusual happening.
Getting up, helping out in the inn, having breakfast with Chise-chan and Teto-chan, helping out uncle on his farm, and then playing with the other kids in the afternoon at the nearby river and forest while catching lots of creatures.
Just a while ago, we were either fishing on the river or searching for edible plants since the fruits weren't growing well in the fields. Other kids younger than me were eating the rabbit or bird monsters they caught.
However, Chise-chan recently asked us a favor to catch some insects or small animals. Apparently, they were used to lure out the monsters in the mines.
'Oh, I see,' so I began to catch them with other kids while thinking so.
Then, Chise-chan would buy the insects and small animals we caught. One copper coin per head. And 3 copper coins if we caught a pair of male and female. She also paid 3 copper coins if it was an unknown kind or had a big size.
She would also give us sweet, delicious candies, alongside the money. Candies were made of sugar which was an expensive product so we couldn't just eat them without a second thought even if we had them.
So the kids would break the candies they got from Chise-chan into pieces and then share and lick them with their siblings or parents.
The candies were like a ray of light that revitalized our lifestyle since the fruit harvest was bad this year. We kids also saved the pocket money we got to purchase items from the merchant who would visit here in the fall.
We were just searching for our next targets today as usual with the insect cage and insect-catching net that we got from Chise-chan when we encountered adults in the forest.
They pointed the swords in their hands at us.
"Run away! Inform the adults!"
My childhood friend, a boy, stood in front of us, turning the insect net towards the adults while shouting at us.
Some of the kids immediately ran towards the town but I was paralyzed by fear and stood frozen on my spot.
They beat my childhood friend in no time as he fell to the ground. Afterwards, the bandits caught us, put us in a bag, carried us to a carriage with a built-in cage, and began transporting us somewhere else.
They would strongly slam on the carriage's floor when we kids began to cry so we couldn't even cry.
“These chimps are our products.” ”The girls are around 7 years old, the boys 6 years old.” “I wonder how much they will sell for?” “The knights wouldn't be able to catch us if we take sea route” 一一 so they were kidnappers and they want to make us slaves. Despair-filled futures hovered around my eyes when I heard the bandits' words.
I became hopeless and I wanted to cry out from the fear of a horrible future. I wanted to return to dad and mom's side.
It was already dark when I looked through the gaps in the cloth covering the cage we were in.
The face of my childhood friend, who was beaten and captured with us, was swollen.
"Someone...... save us ..."
The ground shook right after I prayed so, the horses that were pulling the carriage made a loud neighing sound, and the carriage suddenly stopped.
'What was that?' As the uneasiness inside me further increased, there was a commotion among the bandits. Then only screams and shouting of bandits echoed for a while following the commotion.
I, along with the other scared kids who were kidnapped just like me, huddled in the corner and shivered but, strangely, no bandit approached the carriage all this while.
And when silence descended once again, someone opened the door of the wagon and got inside.
It was the same Adventurer we were all familiar with who entered.
"Chise-chan, Teto-chan......"
"It's alright everyone. We've already dealt with the bad guys."
"We're here to take you back to town!"
Everyone cried out with relief when they saw Chise-chan with her signature warm smile and the forever cheerful Teto-chan appearing inside the carriage and we all simultaneously broke into tears.
