For Dorothea, camping was nothing more than a routine activity.
For soone who had even experienced infiltrating a troll’s nest to carry out her eccentric teacher’s instructions, sleeping in an ordinary forest hardly qualified as hardship.
Dorothea was well aware that others typically made more elaborate preparations, but she didn’t particularly care.
After all, Dorothea had the power of magic at her disposal.
Using ashes from burned root plants as a catalyst, she could ward off cold and dampness, and with a powder made from dried white flower petals, she could repel most insects. Mana-infused insects were an exception, but such insects were rare.
The blanket she was using to cover her body was made of a fabric that expanded when infused with mana. Normally, it would be no larger than a handkerchief, making it convenient to carry around.
This was why Dorothea couldn’t help but be dumbfounded when the Tin Knight suddenly ran off into the darkness, talking about cooking.
“Wait, aren’t magic dolls incapable of consuming food? How does he plan on cooking without even being able to taste—“
Dorothea paused mid-sentence.
She rembered secretly flipping through a magic doll catalog before. She vaguely recalled seeing so that could supposedly cook.
She wondered if such an advanced function could be present in an old model that couldn’t even receive mana remotely, but considering his ridiculous combat abilities, she thought it wouldn’t be strange if he had so unexpected abilities.
“...Maybe I’ll wait and see.”
Dorothea put back the dried fruits and jerky she had taken out.
Just as being used to sleeping on a hard surface didn’t make it more comfortable than a bed, adapting to simple als didn’t an it tasted better than a proper al.
While Dorothea herself had no intention of preparing anything, there was no need to refuse if soone was offering to do it for her.
Feeling a faint sense of anticipation and excitent, Dorothea awaited the Tin Knight’s return.
***With a powerful swing of your blade, the deer’s head split in two.
It was a truly crude and brutal strike—devoid of the finesse expected from a skilled swordsman.
As you stared down at the twitching carcass, you fell into thought for a mont.
It wasn’t a belated repentance for the life you had taken.
No, your thoughts were entirely focused on how to process the carcass before you into delicious “at”.
You didn’t have any experience but despite that, you were brimming with enthusiasm.
With no experience and plenty of enthusiasm, the outco was naturally disastrous.
You hacked off one of the deer’s legs with your sword and tore it away.
It was such crude butchering that a professional butcher would have clicked their tongue at your ignorance.
With a sword in one hand and a large chunk of at in the other, you wandered about searching for a place to start a fire.
It was a cooking plan that blatantly ignored various processes like removing the skin, trimming the fat, seasoning with salt in advance to let the flavors seep in, and other such steps typically involved in the cooking process.
It was then that the flickering of flas caught your eye in the distance.
Generally, it was easier to use an existing fire than to start a new one.
Grateful for this unexpected stroke of luck, you began heading towards the light.
***One person’s fortune often spelled misfortune for another.
Though commonly an indirect affair, there were those who despised the idea of a middleman taking a cut.
Therefore, they took it upon themselves to take the fortune of others through a more “direct” thod.
The world called them bandits.
“So there she was, clinging and begging, ‘Please, please, not this child!’ you know? And I, with a very solemn face—“
“Solemn my ass. Even a monkey could’ve looked more dignified than you.”
“Shut up and listen. Anyway, then I said, ‘Tsk, can’t be helped. Co with . I’ll get you out before the others see,’ and then that woman started bawling her eyes out, can you believe it? She bowed her head exclaiming, ‘Thank you, thank you!’”
“You bastard. I was wondering why you disappeared halfway. So that’s what you were up to?”
“So, what happened after that?”
“What do you think? I enjoyed myself plenty and then threw her and the kid in the cage. I made sure she wasn’t separated from her child, aren’t I too kind?”
“Kind my ass. We’ve got to acknowledge that you’re trash through and through.”
“Hey, you bastard. Explain that ‘enjoyed’ part in detail! You’re skipping over the most important part!”
Those laughing and chattering here were among the worst of their kind.
They were particularly vicious in that they raided villages, plundered wealth, and most disgustingly, kidnapped people to sell them elsewhere.
The lighter their conscious, the easier it was for them to gain sothing new.
These people, who had discarded things such as morals and ethics on the street, were wealthy precisely because of that.
The alcohol and food scattered around them were proof enough.
After a while of such lewd and vulgar chatter.
One of the bandits casually brought up a suggestion, “...Man, just listening to the story makes feel like we’re missing out. How about we bring a few out from the cage?”
Another bandit frowned in response.
Of course, this wasn’t out of consideration for the victims who were probably shivering from cold and hunger in the cage.
“Have you already forgotten what the second-in-command told us about keeping our hands off the rchandise?”
“That was just because that dumbass Eric ssed with the high-grade goods without any fear and ruined it for all of us. These peasant won won’t even be noticed anyway.”
“We might be screwed if we get caught so soon after the warning.”
“Damn coward. If you’re scared, just stand back and watch like the damn cuck ye are. What about the rest of ya?”
The other gang mbers looked tempted by the bandit’s suggestion.
Even the bandit who had been against it until now seed to sense the mood and clicked his tongue.
“Screw that. I will not be sitting this one out.”
“That’s more like it.”
Their actions were swift once a consensus was reached.
So of the bandits threw themselves into the cargo wagon, erging a few monts later with frightened captives at their sides.
The victims, with haggard faces and tear-stained cheeks, had grown so weak that they couldn’t even put up a proper resistance, being dragged along as the bandits led them.
Against the backdrop of burning campfires and torches, a cruel feast began to unfold in various corners of the campsite.
“Ah, damn bitch is thrashing around like mad!”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
One of the bandits spat out curses with an impatient expression.
The woman he had chosen for her pretty face was putting up a fierce resistance, desperately kicking and struggling against the bandit.
“Just! Stay! Still! Already!”
Displeased with her resistance, the bandit resorted to violence without hesitation.
The woman, with her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged, couldn’t fight back properly, and soon went limp.
Her bright blonde hair was sared with dirt, and her moist green eyes reflected various sights.
The dark night sky.
The bandit’s face, distorted by vile desire.
The knight swinging his sword toward the back of the bandit’s head. Sights like thes—
Huh?
Simultaneously, the bandit’s head split in two as a question mark appeared in the woman’s mind.
The sword, which had claid its second head following the deer, glead red under the torchlight.
Imdiately, the knight charged forward.
Slash!
“Gah!”
“W-wait, you—“
It didn’t take long for the scene of reverie to turn into one of slaughter.
The knight’s sword showed no rcy, treating ard and unard foes alike.
Only after losing a third of their gang did the bandits belatedly manage to prepare for a fight.
“Damn it, where the hell were the lookouts when this bastard crept in?!”
“Is that important right now?! Let’s take care of this bastard first!!”
Murderous intent overflowed from the bandits’ eyes.
They were confident.
Their enemy was but a single knight, while they still had more than ten n left even after the surprise attack that had thinned their ranks.
“You bastard. Don’t think for a second you’ll die an easy death!”
One of the bandits spat out threatening words towards the knight.
It was a very basic intimidation tactic, ant to make the enemy cower and bolster his allies’ morale.
The knight responded—not with words, but with action.
The sword in the knight’s right hand sliced through the air.
Until now, the knight’s attacks had relief purely on brute force, but the following display was a very orthodox yet efficient killing technique.
Clang!
When the bandit’s sword clashed with the knight’s, what followed was one of two outcos: either the bandit’s sword was deflected, or they lost their balance while still gripping their sword.
That was all.
Slash!
Necks were severed, hearts were pierced, and entrails were spilled.
Like livestock at a slaughterhouse, the bandits were thodically and unceremoniously butchered. The sheer efficiency drained the remaining bandits of any morale they had left.
“Gah!”
Those who rushed at the knight’s left side fared worse.
If what his sword-wielding right hand displayed was a refined killing technique, what his left hand holding the deer’s hind leg showed was barbaric violence itself.
Thwack!!
The mass of bone and muscle weighing dozens of kilograms was no different from a colossal mace.
So bandits tried to boldly slash at with their swords, but the result of their effort amounted to little more than shallow cuts to the at.
Among them, so stupidly tried to stab it, only for the blade of their sword to get stuck in the at chunk, rendering themselves weaponless.
“W-what is this monster...!”
At last, the bandits realized the misconception they had been under.
They hadn’t been properly vigilant of their surroundings. They had been caught off guard. They hadn’t been fully ard.
All of these were re excuses.
Even if the bandits had been perfectly prepared and attacked as a group from the very start, the knight before them was a monster capable of effortlessly annihilating them all the sa.
It was a realization that ca far too late.
The surviving bandits tried to flee, abandoning their comrades, but the knight didn’t allow even that.
“N-now, wait a mont! Do you know who we are—“
“We were wrong! We were wrong! Please forgive us just this once!”
“Hic, heek!”
Neither threats, pleas, nor desperate attempts to flee made any difference.
Slashing and striking, slashing and striking.
The calm, thodical killing continued without pause until every last bandit was slaughtered.
“...”
The surviving won watched the knight cautiously, holding their breath.
While they were truly grateful that their devil-like tornters had been vanquished, the knight’s monstrous appearance during battle left them far too unsettled to give praise.
Clank. Clank.
Ignoring all those gazes, the knight walked to the center of the bandits’ campsite and plopped down.
Then, he began to roast the deer leg he was holding over the blazing torch.
???
A huge question mark appeared in the minds of all the survivors.
Regardless, the knight diligently roasted the at in indifference, turning the deer leg round and round.
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