Beating Down The Bandits

Wanting to get away from the annoying Holy Knights, I tried to cross the sea, but with the heavy rain, no ships could leave.

It seemed this rain was being caused by the Water Great Spirit Undine.

To persuade it (physically) to stop the rain, I headed for Mount Riikura where the spirit lived.

“…Seyi-sama. Please be careful. Mount Riikura is said to be a bandits’ den.”

“Thanks for the warning, Zenith-chan. As thanks I’ll give you some head pats—wait, that’s kind of childish…”

Zenith-chan quietly held out her head.

Huh? I thought this girl was pretty cool and grown-up. Well, whatever.

“Mmm! Daphne wants head pats too!”

“Oh, you do? Come here, come here.”

“But-but, if I didn’t do anything, I can’t demand head pats! Mmmmh! Ah! Someone’s nearby! They have weapons!”

“Ooh, nice one, Daphne-chan. Let’s give you reward head pats.”

“Yaaay!”

While patting the slave girls’ heads, I spoke to Toka-chan, who was driving, and to Cherge the robot maid.

“There are probably bandits up ahead. Toka-chan, neutralize them. Cherge, stay here and support from long range, and guard us too. Just in case.”

“Understood!”

“Understood. Over.”

Rabbit-tribe Daphne-chan’s super ears were like a high-sensitivity radar.

She could pick up enemy sounds over a wider range than even the robot maid with radar.

“My kid’s amazing. There, there.”

“Ehehe♡”

“…Will things be alright outside? With only Toka.”

“It’ll be fine. Since there aren’t any gunshots, Toka-chan probably handled it on her own.”

After a while, Toka-chan came back.

“I beat them up!”

“O-kay, okay. Good work. Rest inside the canopy. Cherge, we’re going—come with me.”

Wearing the Rain Cloak, I stepped outside.

Ughh, what a downpour…

“Hm?”

“Thrilled, yes.”

Toka-chan looked at me with sparkling eyes.

Her tail swinging from her butt was wagging back and forth.

Ah… she wanted praise.

Pat, pat.

“You did great, you did great.”

“Ehehe♡ Yaaay! Daphne! I got praised too!”

“Wah! We’re praise friends!”

My slave girls really got along well.

Bringing Cherge with me, I went to where Toka-chan had neutralized the bandits.

A short distance away, the bandits were tied up with rope.

There were quite a lot of them—about fifteen, maybe?

“Hello. I’m the master of that cute slave girl from earlier.”

“Tch. Damn… bringing along a slave that strong!”

One bandit—the only one who spoke directly at me—said that.

Since the others were silent, maybe this one was the on-site commander?

“You misjudged our strength. So… I want to pass through Mount Riikura safely from here on out. Will you promise not to target us? And if possible, I want you to go back to your base and make sure everyone knows.”

According to Zenith-chan, this mountain region was crawling with bandits.

It would be the ultimate pain if we got bothered every time.

So we captured these guys once and threa—persuaded them, and make them promise not to attack us.

That was the plan.

I didn’t have any lofty spirit of ‘I’ll punish every bandit!’ or anything.

I wasn’t a hero of justice, and as long as my companions could travel safely, there was no problem.

“Acting all high-and-mighty for a woman…”

Click—Cherge pointed her gun muzzle at the commander.

Hey, hey, isn’t this robot maid’s boiling point way too low?

“Master. Permission to fire.”

“I won’t… sheesh. What are you trying to do, shoot him dead?”

“Only I, the maid, am allowed to insult Master. Over.”

“I never allowed that, not even once. Seriously.”

I crouched and met the commander’s eyes.

“If I’d wanted to kill you, I could’ve done it whenever I pleased. Make sure you think very, very carefully about what it means that you’re still alive.”

“Gh… kuh, kuh kuh… y-you stupid woman. I’m just the on-site commander. If the boss shows up, you’ll all be slaughtered!”

Oh, look at him acting tough…

The boss, huh. So the real boss was elsewhere. What a hassle.

“Master, what will you do now? Over.”

“Wait a bit. If their buddies don’t come back, they’ll stick their heads out over here soon enough.”

And then—

Thump, Cherge shoved me out of the way.

A huge amount of water poured down where I had been standing.

Cherge got pressed to the ground by the water pressure.

“Tch, so there’s a sharp female here.”

“Bo-boss…!”

A man who looked unquestionably evil walked up toward me.

Cherge was still pinned down from above by that mysterious water.

…Seriously, that robot.

Just when I thought she’d started getting pretty rebellious lately, she suddenly went and did something servant-like.

“This water—was that your doing? You don’t look smart enough to use magic.”

“Got a mouth on you, don’t ya, miss. Correct. It ain’t my power. This one did it.”

Clink—the bandit boss lifted what he was holding in his right hand.

It was a chain. And at the end of it—

“A spirit… a slave collar?”

“Correct. I caught this water spirit and made her my slave!”

Beside the boss, a girl with a body of water floated, bobbing gently.

The water spirit had been captured by a magic tool—a slave collar—and was being forced to obey.

…What disgusting tastes.

“Hey. Suffocate that maid woman. You can, right? Huh?”

The water spirit girl shook her head like she hated the idea.

She didn’t want to hurt someone. She was a kind girl.

“Listen to the damn order!”

Jolt—the spirit girl’s body stiffened.

If a slave collar’s wearer resists the master, a high-voltage current flows through it.

I was well-versed in magic tools too, so I knew that mechanism very well.

Yeah. Very, very well…

Ah… what is this? I was seriously pissed off.

Forcing someone to obey and work against their will reminded me of my old self, and it made me feel like snapping.

“Yeah. I can’t forgive that.”

I reached into my chest pocket and took hold of what I wanted.

“Hey now, miss, don’t move. If you take even one step, the maid’ll suffoca—hey, hey, hey!”

I walked straight up toward the boss.

The boss ordered the spirit girl, gathering water around the robot maid’s face.

“Don’t come closer! She’ll die!”

“She won’t die. That girl can live without breathing.”

“Mmmph—mmmpf—mmmpph.”

Because she was a robot. She didn’t need to breathe.

I threw a Glue Potion at the boss.

When the bottle hit, the fixing liquid splashed out.

“What the hell is this!? I-I can’t move!”

“Stay there quietly. Now then… Spirit-chan. You’re fine now.”

I poured another liquid onto Spirit-chan’s collar.

“Hah! Dunno what you think you’re doing, but if you try to forcibly remove a slave collar—”

“Your neck goes boom and blows off, right.”

“H-how do you know that…?”

“Because I’m an alchemist, obviously.”

Not just potion-making—making magic tools was part of our work too.

I knew the collar’s mechanism very well.

And the release mechanism too.

I took out solvent used when making potions, and drizzled it onto the collar.

Then the collar melted easily and fell away, and Spirit-chan became free.

“You’re free now. Go wherever you like.”

Spirit-chan bowed to me again and again, then vanished somewhere.

“I-I can’t believe it… You removed a slave collar? Doing something impossible like that…”

“Oh, it’s not impossible. If you know the structure, it’s actually pretty easy… Now then…”

I smiled brightly.

“I can count that as intent to resist, right? Cherge?”

“I agree with Master. Over.”

Holding potion bottles, I gave a nasty grin, and Cherge raised her gun with both hands.

“P-please, spare meee…!”

““Like hell we will, idiot.””