By the Grace of the Gods

Today, three chapters are posted simultaneously.

This is the first chapter.

“Probably bandits.”

I’m not particularly confident in judging people, but I have encountered bandits in Gana Forest before. Not just once or twice, but several times, and in groups.

The men in the limule bird’s sight all had wild beards and hair, growing unchecked. They looked filthy, as if they hadn’t bathed in days. This wasn’t a place ordinary people would casually enter, and even if they were lumberjacks or something similar, they would dress a little more properly. At the very least, there was no doubt they were suspicious characters.

“They look like low-level grunts…”

There were five men in sight, sharing less armor than would even fit three people. Weapons and armor are useless if you don’t equip them properly!

…That’s often said in RPGs, but bandits lurking in the wild often don’t have decent gear. The higher-ups take the good equipment, and the leftovers go to the subordinates. These guys seemed to be exactly that type of underling in a poorly supplied bandit group. However, every one of them carried a sword that looked almost brand new… that was definitely strange.

“They don’t look like veterans who would be given decent weapons…”

They were battered and bruised, distracted, and lacked alertness, showing no sign of noticing the limule bird’s gaze. They didn’t talk among themselves and seemed somewhat despondent.

The uniformly new “swords” were mismatched with their shabby gear.

The shipment Pedro was carrying—the swords forged at the request of a blacksmith.

“…It might already be too late…”

Chances are they know something. While thinking that, the worst scenario filled my mind.

I needed information, and for that, I had to capture them alive…

Battle preparations. And just in case they weren’t bandits, I prepared to apologize profusely and compensate.

Once everything was ready, I canceled the inn.

Using slimes and special ropes, I charged straight through the forest for an hour, relying on my stamina. It took some time because we were off the beaten path, but we got much closer to the limule birds that were keeping watch.

Taking a break, I shared the visual field.

“…Are they asleep?”

Two were left on guard while the rest seemed to be fast asleep. They still hadn’t noticed our movements. But looking around, the mountain trees were too dense for archery. It wasn’t a good place to use the usual paralysis poison arrows.

The footing wasn’t exactly good either.

“This time, I’ll rely on them thoroughly.”

“Kukee! Kukee!! Kukee!!!”

“Wh-what!? Aaaah!?”

“My head, my head!!”

“Eek!!”

“Stop it! Disappear!”

“Ah, uh… ah…”

Wow…

“Seeing it again, the power is incredible.”

I rarely use it, so I tend to forget, but Ains… the nightmare limule bird can launch a wide-area mental assault with dark magic. Before our contract, it had caused chaos all around and I trusted it would help with subduing them.

In reality, it didn’t help but only caused confusion and knocked them out… but at least they were secured.

“Please.”

Nine iron slimes and nine metal slimes separated from the sword and scabbard each. The slimes split into groups of three and clung to the men’s limbs and necks. While watching for counterattacks, I helped bind their limbs together, and the slimes quickly transformed into metal handcuffs, shackles, and collars.

After confirming the men were fully restrained, I used the slimes’ appetite as a metal detector, disarmed them, and leaned their weapons against a nearby tree root.

“Ugh!”

“W-what!? What’s going on?! Hey! …A kid?”

Three regained consciousness from the rough handling.

At first confused, they quickly realized they were bound.

“Hey! Is this your doing!? Remove this, you!”

“Cough, you knew we were the Poison Spider Gang, right!?”

“Poison Spider Gang? …That’s the bandit group that was just recently defeated, isn’t it?”

“…”

They instantly looked regretful when I pressed them. Seems I hit the mark.