Published: September 2, 2025
※2018/6/11 Typo corrections made.
This is Satou. There was a survival show where people lived self-sufficiently on deserted islands or deep in the mountains, but if I were actually told to do it, I’d probably refuse right away.
I’d probably eat up all the nuts and wild vegetables within a few weeks.
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“Master, there’s someone up ahead.”
“Yeah, I see them.”
Pochi, who was holding the reins on my lap, spotted a figure ahead. I’d already checked the map, but I still couldn’t see anyone.
“Ah, they went into the forest.”
The scout seemed to have returned to the others.
They were bandits, but this time it was a bit different. They were about nine to fourteen years old—unaccompanied minors. Three boys and six girls. The only penalty they had was “contract violation.” Their title was “runaway slaves,” so they were probably children of serfs who had fled the village. What worried me was that all of them had stamina below half.
Half-killing them would be too cruel, right?
“What was there?”
“A group of young bandits.”
“What’s that? Moe!”
I consulted Arisa and Liza about the penalty.
“Runaway slaves, huh? If that’s the case, killing them wouldn’t result in any penalty for us, so there’s no need to worry.”
No, Liza, I wasn’t worried about that.
“Why not just ignore them and pass by? Or should we add more little girls?”
Enough already, no need to add more.
“Right, if they’re runaway slaves, they probably don’t have ranged weapons. Let’s just pass through.”
…Nope, that didn’t work.
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Three girls were lying down across the road, blocking the path. Surely we couldn’t just run them over, right?
I tried moving the carriage as close as possible to the point where I’d have to stop, but the girls didn’t move. Since they weren’t tied up, maybe they were too scared to move. Maybe they desperately wanted to stop the carriage, but it was reckless to the extreme.
“Don’t move! Ten archers in the forest are aiming at the horses!”
They threatened in a high-pitched voice before their voice changed.
I didn’t want to waste time playing along with their bluff, so I decided to remove the girls and get the carriage moving.
I had Pochi and Tama guard the front and back entrances of the carriage, and entrusted Liza with the driving.
“If you value your life, leave some food!”
They made their demands as much as they could, but what came after ruined it.
“I want potatoes.”
“Idiot! You should leave dried meat here, right?”
“I want to try some bread too.”
“As long as it’s not weeds, anything’s fine.”
“Stupid, you guys just be quiet.”
“The one who said stupid is the stupid one, you know?”
“Just shut up already.”
The childish chatter of these little kids was ruining everything.
I grabbed one of the smaller girls blocking the path and gently threw her toward the others in the forest. She was unnaturally light. The children she was thrown to hurriedly caught her.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“We’ll shoot arrows!”
No one came out of the forest.
Did they have no weapons, or were they just wary of Liza?
“Which do you prefer: walking back into the forest on your own, or being thrown?”
“P-Please just run me over and kill me. If we don’t get food, we’ll just starve to death.”
Her trembling voice made it hard to tell if she was serious or bluffing.
She was the same age as Lulu but looked no younger than Arisa. She had semi-long red hair and brown eyes. The arm I grabbed to help her up was as thin as a dead twig.
“L-Let Totona go!”
Seeing me grab the girl, one of the boys who had been negotiating earlier appeared. He had red hair similar to the girl’s and held a club.
I helped the girl stand and pushed her toward the boy. The girl stumbled a little but was caught by him.
“Liza, get out.”
I jumped onto the driver’s seat of the now moving carriage.
“Here.”
Arisa said, handing me a large bag, which I threw near the edge of the forest. It contained food like vegetables and nuts Tama had gathered. We hadn’t planned this beforehand, so she must have listened to the boys’ conversation and prepared it.