01 Bandits
A line of carriages stretched along the mountain pass. There were more than ten of them.
Most were sturdy, prioritizing practicality over appearance.
Their exteriors were uniformly green, bearing large black dragon emblems that marked them as belonging to the Empire.
Inside sat about ten soldiers each, all dressed in green military uniforms. They all carried rifles.
Right in the middle of this menacing convoy was a large black carriage.
Iron armor plating was incorporated throughout its body, with only small window frames positioned high up, making it impossible to glimpse inside from the outside. It looked like a moving prison. Its thick wheels left clear ruts in the ground.
“Hey, did you know? They say bandits appear around these parts,”
said one of the soldiers crammed into the lead carriage. He was a man with brown hair of medium length and brown eyes—an ordinary face you might find anywhere.
“What, are you scared of some bandits?”
mocked the soldier sitting across from him.
“Where would you find anyone foolish enough to target carriages bearing the Empire’s emblem? We’ve got a full company here—a hundred men. Plus, we’re armed with guns. Fire one shot into the air and bandits would scatter like startled spiders.”
Guns were weapons that were becoming more widespread, but it was still rare for anyone outside the military to possess them. It was only natural that bandits would fear firearms.
“Well, the thing is, among this bandit group, there’s supposedly a knight and a mage. According to rumors, they’re pretty strong,”
said the soldier who had brought up the bandits, his expression turning grave.
“A knight and a mage?”
The soldier across from him frowned. Knights and mages referred to humans with special powers. Knights possessed extremely high physical abilities, while mages were rare individuals who had the magical power necessary to cast spells.
“What use are people like that nowadays? This is the age of guns and cannons. Point a sword or staff at us, and bang—that’s the end of it. …Ah, maybe they turned to banditry because they became useless? That would make sense.”
This soldier was right—the glory days of knights and mages were becoming a thing of the past.
In this world where warfare never ceased, they had indeed been the stars of the battlefield until about ten years ago.
However, in recent years, as the Empire developed technologies like guns and cannons, swords and magic, which required advanced training, were falling into decline. The power of guns, which anyone could use, surpassed that of most knights and mages. Yet even with this power, there was still no sign that the fighting would end.
“No, no, this knight supposedly deflects bullets with his sword. And the mage can apparently cast magic faster than guns can fire.”
“That’s obviously a lie!”
The soldier across from him dismissed it with exasperation, and the other soldiers in the carriage began voicing their complaints.
“How do you deflect bullets with a sword?”
“If we’re talking about knights immune to guns, there’s our army’s Black Knight and his subordinate Reapers, but that’s only thanks to their specially-made armor.”
“To pull off the feat of deflecting bullets with a sword, you’d need someone like Murakumo of Ouka, who was called the ‘Knight among Knights.'”
“That Murakumo is supposedly on the run after losing the war, but I can’t believe someone like that would become a bandit. This knight who supposedly became a bandit probably just got lucky and had a bullet hit his sword by chance, right?”
“And mages need to chant those long incantations to use magic, so there’s no way they could be faster than guns, right?”
Not a single person believed the bandit story. The soldier who had brought it up seemed dejected and shrank back, retreating to the very back of the carriage.
The soldier who had first declared it a lie shrugged when he saw this and turned his gaze outside. Mountains where bandits supposedly lurked came into view.
Then, from within those mountains, he spotted a small red light.
(A forest fire?)
That thought lasted only an instant, as the red light quickly grew larger and approached, striking the carriage directly behind them. With a thunderous roar, the carriage was blown away and flipped over spectacularly. He didn’t want to imagine what had happened to the soldiers inside.
“Magic!” a soldier shouted.
The moment he cried out, another magical light streaked forth, blowing away yet another carriage further back.
The overturned carriage blocked the road, bringing the black carriage to a halt. The soldier who had started the bandit discussion was the first to leap from the carriage, appearing at the edge of his vision. Soldiers were tumbling out of the other carriages as well.
“Such powerful magic cast twice in rapid succession? How many enemy mages are there?”
The soldier who had witnessed everything grimaced. There weren’t many mages capable of firing cannon-level magic. Moreover, such large-scale magic should require time for incantation and shouldn’t be usable in rapid succession. Therefore, the assessment that multiple mages were present was correct. Whether it was accurate or not was another matter.
“Fire! The enemy is in the mountains!”
The captain leading the company leaped from his carriage, quickly assessed the situation, and pointed toward the direction from which the magical light had come. Immediately, several deafening gunshots echoed through the mountains.
He didn’t expect to hit anything. It was more like suppressive fire. Gunshots did have the effect of making people freeze up.
“Move those fallen carriages! We’ll be sitting ducks if we stay here!”
While buying time with gunfire, the captain issued orders.
The soldiers rushed toward the overturned carriages blocking the road.
However, before the overturned carriage, a lone man now stood.
He had long black hair and black eyes. He wore distinctive indigo clothing that spread toward his hands and feet, with a silver breastplate attached. In his right hand, he gripped a slender sword. Since he used a sword, he was probably a knight.
No matter how you looked at him, he wasn’t an Empire citizen—they were predominantly brown-haired with hazel eyes.
“Who are you!”
Those questioning words and the gunshot came simultaneously.
In front of the black-haired knight’s body, there was a sharp clink and sparks scattered.
He had deflected the bullet with his sword. However, the knight’s movement was instantaneous, and the soldiers couldn’t follow it with their eyes.
“Shooting without asking questions? Then I need show no restraint either.”
The knight’s lips curled upward.
“Fire! Keep firing!”
The soldiers began shooting their guns all at once.
The knight wielded his sword at tremendous speed, and sparks bloomed wildly along its trajectory.
The rifles the soldiers carried required reloading after each shot, but their movements were smooth, showing they had considerable training. Those bullets boasted enough power to penetrate even a knight’s armor.
However, after several shots, their reloading hands stopped. No matter how much they fired, the bullets were deflected by the sword.
“…Is he a monster?”
The soldiers stood dumbfounded.
“Is that all? Only about half your shots were aimed at me. Your training is insufficient. Thanks to that, I had an easy time.”
The knight laughed boldly and took a step forward, his foot sliding across the ground.
In that instant, his figure vanished from the soldiers’ sight.
“Ah…”
About five soldiers collapsed on the spot. The knight’s figure had darted into the midst of the soldiers and swung his sword.
However, the soldiers still couldn’t follow his movements.
The knight moved like he was gliding and swung his sword again. It was no longer gun range, and soldiers fell one after another to his blade.
“Eek!”
The soldiers fled. Until just moments ago, they had believed guns were supreme. Weapons that anyone could easily handle and that could easily defeat any strong opponent. That faith had completely crumbled in an instant.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
“What?! What’s happening?”
The soldiers at the rear of the convoy had been continuing suppressive fire toward the mountains, but sensing combat had broken out at the front, they hesitated over whether to go provide assistance. Their mission was to guard the black carriage. Perhaps they should retreat for now and prioritize securing its safety.
So, to check their escape route, the soldiers looked back toward the road they had come from.
What they saw there was a white man. He stood there like a ghost.
He carried no staff, but from the distinctive white robe he wore, they could tell he was a mage. He had long white hair and blue-green eyes. His beautiful features were androgynous and could have been mistaken for a woman’s. However, even his skin was white, making everything about him appear white, which drew the eye. All ten of his fingers bore thick rings.
“It’s a mage! He’s the one who attacked us! Fire!”
After a moment’s pause, one of the soldiers shouted. Judging from the situation, that possibility was high.
Following those words, the soldiers raised their rifles, but faster than that, the white man—the mage—raised his right hand. In that instant, red patterns ran along his white arm.
Light shot from the mage’s fingertips, piercing through one soldier’s chest.
“Gah!?”
The soldier struck by the light crumpled to his knees.
“Magic?! Impossible! He didn’t chant an incantation!?”
The soldiers were shocked. Normally, magic required the chanting of spells. The more powerful the magic, the longer the chant had to be. Yet this mage had cast magic silently and instantaneously. It was impossible.
The mage fired arrows of light one after another from the five fingers of his right hand. Each time light was released, the red patterns on his arm would briefly shine, but no one had the luxury of paying attention to that detail. They had other concerns.
Soldiers struck by magic fell one after another.
“What is that guy?!”
Soldiers who had rushed to provide backup aimed their guns at the mage.
When the mage raised his left hand, this time light ran along his left arm and patterns emerged, deploying a blue magic circle in the space before him. It became a wall, deflecting the bullets aimed at the mage.
“A barrier that blocks bullets?! I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
With the advent of guns, mages had long been driven from battlefields. Magic was slower than guns, and mages had no means of defending against bullets.
Yet this white mage cast magic faster than guns and even deployed barriers that could deflect bullets.
The soldiers were terrified. By the mysterious, incomprehensible nature that magic originally possessed.
They hid behind carriages and prayed for protection from gods they had long stopped believing in.
The driver of the black carriage was confused. They were definitely under attack. The target was obviously this carriage.
However, the road ahead was blocked, and they were being attacked from behind as well.
There was no way to move; he could only try to calm the horses.
Then one soldier came running up. He had an ordinary, unremarkable face you might find anywhere.
“Hey, don’t just sit there! Orders from the captain! Take that side road! We’re going to ride out this attack!”
Looking where the soldier pointed, he could indeed see a mountain path. It was a bit narrow and steep, but this sturdy carriage could probably manage it.
“Oh, I see! Got it!”
The driver believed the soldier without question.
This soldier was the same man who had been in the lead carriage earlier, talking about bandits, but the driver had no way of knowing that.
“I’ll ride along and guard you.”
“That’s a relief!”
The driver welcomed the soldier to sit beside him. The carriage then changed course and entered the side road.
“Hey! Where are you going!”
The captain noticed the carriage he was supposed to be guarding had arbitrarily entered a side road, but his voice didn’t carry over the din of battle.
TLNOTE
While waiting for the next chapter, I encourage you, dear readers, to explore other masterpieces written by Daken-sensei :
- Monster Meat Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Wicked Princess and 12 Eyes – The Strongest Squires and the Legendary Evil Woman, the Second Time in Her Life
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
- The Last Magic (translated by my friend narwhal)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
