“Carriage Ambush” ~From Megzam's and Emma's Perspectives~

Lately, business had been going very well for the Megzam Thieves Band.

About a year ago, they had botched a raid on some backwater settlement called Fenoben Village, then let a mysterious vagrant get away from them in the forest, and two of the henchmen had lost an eye apiece.

It had been one disaster after another.

Still, a situation like that could easily have wiped out an ordinary thieves band, yet the boss, Megzam, had pulled them through it with violent communication, the kind that never failed to win his underlings over.

First, he had them rob small-time peddlers traveling alone to build up the two henchmen's confidence, then moved on to raiding small caravans with weak-looking guards, again and again.

All those successes piled up and helped the two henchmen grow as thieves.

That wasn't all.

Having heard rumors of the Megzam Thieves Band, good-for-nothing thugs from all around began to flock to Megzam.

Heading west from the Raybreak Kingdom along the highway, giving Sacred Mount Zahan a wide berth, the Megzam Thieves Band had grown to 10 men by the time it entered the Teenidys Kingdom.

It was at just such a time

that a tall, mysterious man with his face hidden by a hood appeared before them as they camped in a nameless forest a little way off the highway.

Megzam and the others bristled with killing intent at the sudden visitor, but one look inside the hefty bag he handed over, and their attitude softened in an instant.

The bag was stuffed with gold.

Packed tight.

According to the man, who kept his identity hidden, that gold was the advance.

The advance.

The man promised that if Megzam and his crew accepted the request and carried it out, he would pay them another 10 times that amount.

The request was to attack a certain poor baronial house.

He didn't want them to target the baron himself.

He wanted them to attack the baronial house's only daughter.

Whether they killed her or captured her to sell her off didn't matter; the target was simply the daughter of the baronial house.

The tall man drove the request home again and again, almost obsessively, then vanished.

(Dunno what happened, but somebody's sure got it in for that baron. Go after his precious, precious only daughter, huh?)

The thought flickered through Megzam's head, but, well, being the brute he was, he couldn't have cared less about anyone else's business.

All that mattered was this one thing: a pile of gold, just for attacking the daughter of a poor baronial house that probably couldn't even afford decent guards.

Of course, there was no way he would turn down such a request.

Megzam and the others immediately began preparing for the job.

To be doubly sure, he'd had some of the washed-up adventurer thugs who came running to join him slip in through the Adventurers' Guild as guards for the carriage, so at this point, nothing at all stood between the baronial house's carriage and harm.

That part had gone almost too smoothly, and Megzam figured the client had probably pulled some strings behind the scenes.

After all, the man had enough clout to hand over that much gold just like that.

A little arranging like this was probably nothing to him.

Thinking that, he didn't dwell on it.

Megzam was one of the smarter ones in the band, but he lived for the moment and didn't think things through.

He didn't care about the details.

And so, the attack on the Salar baronial house was carried out.

The guard thugs suddenly turned and attacked, knocking the coachman flat in an instant, and that left just the three women in the carriage.

A massive amount of gold was now within reach.

The job was as good as done.

If only that damned vagrant from way back hadn't shown up.

◇ ◇ ◇

PAAN!!!

The instant Hagen's head burst apart with that sound, Megzam knew the job had failed.

Speed in knowing when to quit. Precision in cutting his losses.

These were among the talents that had made Megzam the head of a thieves band.

“Wha!?”

“What is it!? What's going on!?”

“A mage!?”

While most of his henchmen panicked, Megzam caught the eyes of just the two eyepatched old hands, Ander and Tappa, and began slowly backing away.

After all, he had no idea what was attacking them.

Before he could even think it through, two more henchmen's heads burst apart.

Taking on an enemy that could do something so, so terrifying just wasn't worth it.

He didn't care about the reward money anymore.

Money's no use to a dead man.

He backed away, inch by inch.

“Wait, wait, wait!? What is this!?”

“What's happening!? What the hell is going on!?”

“C, come out, you mage bastard! Hiding and sneaking around! You coward!!”

He decided to use the recently joined henchmen, who could do nothing but run around in circles, as throwaway pawns.

Little by little, little by little, he kept moving without letting the pawns notice, and the forest where he could hide was only a short way off.

Just then.

The enemy who had stayed hidden all this time pushed through the bushes and stepped out of the forest directly across the carriage from Megzam and his men.

At the sight of it.

Megzam, Ander, and Tappa could only stand there, stunned.

Because it was.

That girl was.

The black-haired, black-eyed vagrant who had outsmarted them and escaped a year ago.

But the killing intent and menace pouring off that small body were nothing like a year ago.

A monster.

That was Megzam's blunt conclusion.

In this one year.

In just one year.

He didn't know what had happened.

But that vagrant had become a monster.

A monster so powerful that they, as they were now, stood no chance against her.

“A...... ah!?”

“A brat...... seriously......!?”

The henchmen were bewildered by the sight of the girl, who remained expressionless while rolling pebbles in her palm.

Because, going by looks alone, she seemed far too frail a girl.

That small, frail figure and the overwhelming menace coming off her just wouldn't connect in their heads, and it threw them.

Megzam, meanwhile, came back to his senses quickly and set about doing what he had to do to survive.

He gave orders so that “he himself” would survive.

“Hey! What are you lot standing around for! Don't get spooked by some brat! Surround her and kill her!!”

“““Y, yessir!!!”””

Once he'd seen the pawns' backs as they charged at the girl, Megzam, Ander, and Tappa dove into the thicket and fled at full speed.

The henchmen they left behind were just to buy time.

He didn't have the luxury of worrying about their fate.

◇ ◇ ◇

Emma, baroness of the poor noble house of Salar, could only stare, dazed, at the scene unfolding before her.

Maybe the shock had been too much; she felt as if she were floating.

It felt like she was in a dream.

None of it felt real.

“Hey! What are you lot standing around for! Don't get spooked by some brat! Surround her and kill her!!”

“““Y, yessir!!!”””

At the thief boss's bellowed order, the henchmen went for the girl.

But the girl didn't look the least bit flustered.

Remaining expressionless, she threw the pebbles she had been playing with in her palm.

She threw them, or so Emma thought.

The motion was too fast for Emma's eyes to catch, though.

Then came that paan sound she'd heard so many times now, and the head of the thief in the lead burst apart.

To put it simply, the battle that followed was settled in an instant.

No, it hardly deserved to be called a “battle.”

A “trampling,” or a “massacre.”

Those were the right words for it.

4 thieves had attacked the girl.

The instant the first one's head burst, the girl swiftly gouged up the ground with both hands and flung the clods of dirt, right, then left.

That was all it took: the 2 thieves behind him had their heads burst before they even had time to think.

The last one left, thanks to the sacrifice of the 3 who had run ahead of him, had managed to reach the girl without getting his head split.

He had managed to get close.

But that was all he could do.

He took one more step in, raising the big machete over his head to bring it down on the girl, and in that instant.

The girl held the fingers of her right hand out straight and swept them up at the thief as if slashing.

That alone was enough: like a sharp sword, her right hand cut the thief's body in 2 and ended his life with ease.

◇ ◇ ◇

Nothing was moving anymore.

The relentless sun warmed the dark red pools spreading across the ground, raising a foul stench.

The girl stared silently toward the forest for a while, perhaps searching for the remaining thieves, but eventually, she let out a sigh and turned her face toward Emma.

“Hih......!”

That girl was the benefactor who had saved Emma and the others from danger.

But no matter how strong-willed a woman Emma was, she was not a combatant. She was a baroness.

......A girl who had wrought such carnage right before her eyes.

On top of that, she had the hideous black hair and black eyes that people loathed as the mark of a “cursed child.”

It would be cruel to blame Emma for instinctively gasping and backing away.

But the girl paid Emma's fear no mind at all and came trotting closer.

No emotion could be read from her expressionless face, and within those black eyes, a bottomless darkness spread.

A sudden doubt took root in Emma's mind.

This girl saved us.

Until a moment ago, that's what she had thought.

Because the very first thing this girl did was kill the thieves who had been roughing us up.

And because she killed only the thieves, and still hasn't laid a finger on us.

But.

What if that was nothing more than this girl's whim?

What if this girl, this monster in the shape of a girl, was a humanoid monster that loved slaughter?

As the girl approached step by step, the doubt grew, increasing Emma's terror; her breathing became ragged, and sweat broke out......

Just as she was about to scream and run for it, dignity be damned.

The girl, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth for the first time.

She spoke, and it was to Emma.

“......I'm, hungry.”

Had she not been caked in grime and spattered blood, it would have been a remark all too fitting for how young she looked.

It was a cute voice.