Weiss And Leopin (19)

The mysterious voice came from the surrounding forest.

The bandits raised the lanterns in their hands and looked around, shouting, “Who’s there!?”

The only one who knew the owner of that voice was one person alone… Weiss, crouching on the ground.

“Id… idiot… why… are…”

With his breath nearly gone, he blamed the owner of that voice.

In the next instant, with a wind-cutting sound that tore through the darkness, something struck a bandit.

…Splatter!

The thing that hit the tip of his nose and burst open splashed green liquid all over his face.

“Uwah!? What is this!? Something hit my face!”

“Looks like a tree nut! Are you okay!?”

“Yeah, it was soft, so it didn’t do anything! Though it stinks a bit!”

“Damn it, who is it!? It’s too dark, I can’t see anything!”

…Splatch!

“Gwah!? Again!?”

“Are goblins throwing tree nuts around for fun!?”

“Damn it, they’re looking down on us!”

…Splat!

“Gya!? I got hit too!”

“But I figured out the direction they’re coming from! Over there!”

“Find them and kill them! Split into two groups and take turns preparing to fight!”

The leader flew into a rage and shouted orders.

The underlings once returned to the barn, then armed themselves with the leather helmets and armor hanging on the wall, as well as swords and axes.

Starting with the group that finished preparing, they charged toward the direction the tree nuts had flown from while holding up their lanterns.

The leader was stepping on Weiss’s head like an empty can in a game of kick the can.

“I think goblins are the ones doing this, but I should still be careful. Even if they try to draw us away from you and save you during that opening, I won’t let them…”

In the middle of his words, a tree nut struck the leader’s face.

…Squish!

“Gah! Damn it! It flew from a different direction!? Hey, you lot! Search over there!”

After that, the bandits ran all over the forest.

Under the leader’s orders, they rushed around here and there.

“This time it’s that way! The enemy is throwing tree nuts, so the attack isn’t coming from that far away! Search nearby!”

An underling’s voice came back from a nearby bush.

“Th… they’re not here either! Gya!? I got hit! This time it came from over there!”

“Are there multiple enemies!? If so, then all the more reason we should have found at least one of them…!? Then climb that rock and search from higher up!”

The leader’s instructions were precise.

If it had been an ordinary enemy, it would not have been strange if they had already been caught long ago, but…

Even though they were being attacked one-sidedly, no matter how much they searched, they could not find their enemy’s figure.

During that time, the underlings continued being hit, and their whole bodies became covered in green liquid.

Exhausted from running around, they began to feel great irritation and a small anxiety toward their invisible enemy.

“Hah, hah, hah…! N-no matter how much we search, they’re nowhere…!”

“They should definitely be there…!? Why, why is this happening…!?”

“Th-this is bad…! This is bad…! It’s like we’re dealing with a ghost…!”

“Yeah…! If we can’t see them at all, then a ghost is the only thing it could be…!”

“And they’re only throwing soft tree nuts that don’t hurt at all even when they hit…!”

“Could they be playing with us…!? Do they think they can kill us anytime they want…!?”

The underlings feared the unknown enemy as though they were facing a predator from another world.

Among them, only the leader remained calm.

“…This is strange. They should be attacking from nearby, yet we can’t see them. That’s impossible… Are they transparent or something…?”

After muttering that to himself, he suddenly realized something.

“Hey! You lot, come back! We’ve got a clue lying right here for how to find the enemy!”

The underlings who had scattered in every direction gathered again.

The bandits looked as though they had been drenched in slime.

The leader, like a boss slime, crouched down and grabbed Weiss’s hair again.

“Hey, Weiss…! When we beat the young master to a pulp in the barn, you disappeared before we knew it, didn’t you?”

The underlings around him remembered with an “Ah!?”

“That’s right! Back then, Weiss disappeared like he had vanished!”

“Yeah! He should have been tied up and rolled around near the middle of the barn, but before we knew it, he was at the back of the barn!”

“Which means…!”

The leader took over and said, “Exactly.”

“The guy sneaking around in the forest right now must be using the same method. Now, Weiss, you’re going to confess what the trick is.”

“I… I don’t know…!”

Weiss was slapped across the cheek.

“Don’t play dumb!”

However, Weiss’s statement was true.

The Evil Remains Cloth Weiss had used to vanish was currently in Weiss’s pocket.

And he had already used up its two-use limit, so it had now become ordinary cloth.

Weiss truly did not know how the mysterious enemy was hiding their form.

However, there was no way the bandits would believe him.

After thinking for a moment, the leader shouted, “Stand up!” and grabbed Weiss by the scruff of the neck, dragging him to his feet.

He pressed a blade against Weiss’s neck again and shouted so the surrounding forest could hear him.

“Hey! Hero! Your target is this Weiss, isn’t it!? Let’s make a deal here! If you show yourself in front of us and reveal the trick, I’ll give Weiss back to you!”

Weiss shouted while twisting his body.

“Th… that’s a lie! Don’t come out! If you come out, you’ll be killed… Guhah!?”

“Now! What will you do, Hero!? Why don’t we end this game of hide-and-seek already!? Come out before I count to ten! Otherwise, I don’t know what will happen to him!”

The leader began a countdown in an intimidating tone.

“…One! …Two! …Three! …Four! …Five! What’s wrong, Hero!? Are you hesitating!? Or are you shy!? Or maybe…!”

The leader pressed the blade especially hard against Weiss’s neck.

“You want to see blood spray from this guy’s neck like champagne!? If that’s the case, say so already! If so, then we get along, don’t we!? Gahahahahahaha!”

A howl-like roar of laughter echoed through the night forest.

“Then I’ll go all at once! …Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Te…!”

…Whish…!

Suddenly, something came flying from ahead.

Unlike the tree nuts until then, it was large enough to see with the naked eye, and wrapped in the darkness of night, it looked like a rock.

And it was not only one; they came flying one after another.

…Whish…! Whish…! Whish…!

If they had been rocks, they might have been a threat, but the bandits did not try to run.

That was because they drew gentle arcs, clearly losing speed midway, and all of them were flying off in completely wrong directions.

Those objects landed away from the group, and from the impact of landing, they cracked open one after another.

Only after seeing what came flying out from inside did they finally understand their true identity.

“What are those? A bunch of things are flying out.”

“Aren’t those bees?”

“Which means the things lying around are beehives.”

“Yeah, I get it. They were trying to hit us with the nests and make the bees attack us.”

“But they’re terrible at it. They all missed completely.”

“Beehives that far away aren’t scary at all.”

However, in the next instant, they noticed something strange.

Amazingly, the bees became like a swarm of locusts and charged straight toward them…!

“Wh… whaaaaaaaaaaatーーーーー!?!?”