R.I.P. Jerry's Bandit Group
The bandit leader, Jerry, stepped forward with a cocky grin and jerked his chin at me.
“Well now, ain’t you a brave one? Dragging a kid all the way out here like this.”
“When a man talks to you, you ought to answer. What’s with the attitude, girl?”
His nasty, commanding tone made the corner of my mouth twitch for a brief second.
But just as quickly, my expression smoothed back into perfect calm.
I stood there in silence, offering no reply.
“Well, I don’t mind a woman who plays hard to get. There’s a certain pleasure in breaking them.”
With that, Jerry grabbed my wrist and yanked me into his arms.
That was when a cold, sunken voice brushed against his ear.
“I happen to enjoy breaking things too.”
“What’d you say?”
“I said I enjoy breaking things too.”
I paused for a moment, then looked up at him and smiled, baring my teeth.
It was quite a chilling smile.
“What the hell did this bitch just say?”
“I said I also enjoy the taste of breaking men who don’t know their place and act like fools.”
I continued in a perfectly composed tone.
“Especially the kind who strut around like you.”
“Hah!”
Jerry widened his eyes in surprise, then turned to his subordinates and burst into laughter.
“Puhahaha! They say the women in the capital are bold in that sort of way. Guess it’s true!”
But his laughter didn’t last long.
The bandits, who had been cackling along with him, fell silent the moment Jerry raised one hand.
“Still, you know… a woman should be soft and sweet. When she doesn’t know her place and talks back, it really pisses me off!”
The instant he reached for my hair—
I vanished from his sight.
“Wha—?!”
“You’re too slow.”
There was no time for him to turn toward the voice coming from directly behind him.
A sudden kick to the back of his knee sent Jerry sprawling forward in a pathetic heap.
With his face planted in the dirt, the shame he felt seemed far greater than the pain in his nose.
To think that this body had been kicked down by some worthless woman.
His face flushed red with humiliation as Jerry shot back to his feet.
“You— you bitch—!”
In a flash, he drew the dagger he kept hidden in his coat and charged at me.
But the title of bandit boss clearly didn’t suit him.
Crack.
With the sound of something snapping, the dagger clattered to the ground.
“Aaaaaaargh—!”
Jerry gasped and screamed.
My slender hand had snapped his wrist in the blink of an eye.
When their boss began foaming at the mouth and thrashing, his subordinates finally started to panic.
Among everyone gathered on that road, the only one who remained perfectly calm was the mysterious woman—me.
“I told you. I enjoy breaking things.”
My gently drooping eyes curved into crescent moons.
“Why are you shaking? Didn’t you say you enjoy breaking things too?”
It was the gaze of a predator toying with its prey.
The bandits recoiled in terror at the murderous aura radiating from me.
They didn’t even understand why they were so afraid as they gripped their weapons tighter.
“Is it because you’re stupid? You can’t even read the situation. If it were me, I would’ve run away by now.”
The voice that had been clear and bright only moments ago now carried a bone-chilling frost.
But humans are weak to what they can see.
Even after witnessing their leader being beaten down, the bandits still couldn’t believe that the culprit was a delicate-looking woman.
Though their instincts screamed at them to flee, they refused to back down.
“This crazy bitch! Who the hell do you think you are?! Hey, get her!”
In the end, they rushed me to avenge their boss.
“This is exactly why idiots never last long.”
In the middle of the howling bandit swarm, Rachel Brown’s eyes gleamed sharply.
At some point, the dagger I had taken from Jerry had found its way into my hand.
“None of you are going to die of old age.”
The dagger flew through the air like a swallow that had finally met its true master—swift and deadly.
“Uwaaaaagh—!”
“Huk!”
Wherever the silver blade passed, only streaks of blood remained.
“Catch her! I said catch her!”
“She’s too fast! What the hell is that thing?!”
The bandits all charged at the woman weaving through their ranks.
It was useless.
Her movements were overwhelmingly faster than theirs.
Already, five out of the fifteen bandits had fallen to my dagger.
“Over there!”
“Where—? Uwaaagh—!”
A bandit who had been looking around at his comrade’s shout let out a scream.
Because the woman, backlit by the sun, had dropped down right on top of his head.
Crack.
Without hesitation, I snapped his neck.
The other bandits who witnessed it firsthand stumbled backward in horror.
“R-run—!”
At someone’s cry, the bandits finally came to their senses and began retreating all at once.
But of course, it was pointless.
Even after that, the screams of the bandits continued to echo through the mountain valley.
Until not a single one could scream anymore.
“Hah… haa…”
Jerry, the bandit leader, staggered backward as he stared at his subordinates sprawled across the road, then fell flat on his ass.
Three minutes? Five? No, it probably hadn’t even taken that long.
In the span of a mere instant, the woman before him had taken down every last one of his men.
“Y-you monster…”
The woman standing motionless among the broken bodies of her enemies let out a soft chuckle at his words.
“It’s been a while since I’ve heard that one.”
At her reply, Jerry bit his lip and clenched his fists.
“You should’ve picked your opponent more carefully. You should’ve realized when I broke your wrist.”
To think she had taken down fifteen men with nothing but a single dagger.
He wanted to scream that it was impossible—but he couldn’t.
Because it had happened right before his eyes.
Still, his subordinates were all battle-hardened thugs. Even though they came from the back alleys, there was a reason they had survived this long as bandits.
The fact that all of them had been defeated by a single woman was almost impossible to believe.
“Uuuuugh—!”
Jerry felt an overwhelming wave of terror as I slowly approached him.
His men were beaten to a pulp, yet my appearance hadn’t changed at all from before the fight.
Not even a single wrinkle on my clothes despite that chaotic brawl.
As if sensing his fear, I offered him a gentle smile.
“Don’t worry too much. They’re all still breathing.”
I added, as though I had just remembered something.
“Ah, though if they don’t stop the bleeding soon, some of them might die. I did nick a few vital spots—just a little.”
“W-what the hell are you?!”
I stopped right in front of Jerry as he screamed at me.
Staring into my green eyes, he couldn’t move a single finger, as if he had been paralyzed.
“You’re that curious about who I am?”
I tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear and tilted my head.
“Then I’ll tell you.”
The moment the woman, whose face looked impossibly kind, turned her back to him—
Thwack—!
Jerry was struck in the temple by a spinning kick and lost consciousness.
The last word he heard was the utterly incomprehensible term “nanny.”
Thankfully, they weren’t particularly skilled.
I swallowed my ragged breaths and wiped the sweat running down my chin.
As expected. Taking on multiple opponents at once is still too much for this body.
My stamina and strength were laughably weak compared to my previous one.
It was unfair, but what could I do? This wasn’t even my original body.
Still, if I hadn’t trained every single night, I would have died without even being able to use my techniques.
I comforted myself with that thought and turned around, only to be greeted by a troubling sight.
“Oh no.”
I stared in dismay at the coachman slumped over the driver’s seat.
A long arrow was buried deep in his chest.
It seemed the bandits had killed him to stop the carriage.
But an even bigger problem was waiting for me.
“What… what is all this?”
Edwin, whom I had knocked unconscious, had woken up.
His large eyes were filled with shock and terror.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
“Who are these people? Why are they all dead?”
“They appear to be bandits from this area. They aren’t dead, just unconscious.”
“O-oh my god…”
Edwin stared at the bloodstains on the ground and grabbed my arm.
“A-are you okay? Who did this?”
He pressed a hand to his temple as if his head hurt and shook it.
“I… I was definitely awake, but then something hit the back of my neck really hard, and after that I don’t remember anything.”
“It seems you hit your head when the carriage suddenly stopped.”
“R-really?”
“Don’t you remember? The carriage came to an abrupt halt and we both tumbled out together.”
“I don’t remember… none of it.”
Not remembering is a relief.
I patted his shoulder with a perfectly calm expression.
“I lost consciousness too. When I came to just now, everything outside was like this. I was shocked as well.”
Edwin looked up at me with a frightened face.
“Um… shouldn’t we go back? I have a really bad feeling about this.”
“We can’t turn back after coming this far.”
“But—!”
I grabbed the startled boy and lifted him back into the carriage compartment.
“See! You’re always so arbitrary—!”
“Luxen Village is just a little farther. If we want to return before sunset, we need to hurry.”
The sun was already high in the sky.
We didn’t have much time.
I moved the coachman’s body to the ground, then climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Hya—!”
I cracked the reins, and the two horses let out powerful neighs.
The carriage once again raced toward Luxen Village.