OH MY GOD A DYSLEXIC WRITER GAVE ME A REVIEW!

And his question actually has a point. But as I already explained in the AN at the end of the last chapter, there are a lot of ways to interpret the sin of Sloth. And Motoyasu's self-awareness about his failure is just one factor that leads to the real condition to unlock his Spear of Sloth. After that realization, Motoyasu was submerged in deep regret and hatred of himself. And that kind of emotion leads to utter despair and dejection, which is one of the ways to interpret the sin of Sloth, because that also makes people lose interest in life. That's why I chose the Spear of Sloth as Motoyasu's Curse Series, because none other than it could explain the emotional turmoil in his head at that moment better. And for your question about how it should have affected how Motoyasu acted when the King summoned them back, I would say that yes, it should, but not at that time. Motoyasu unlocked the Curse Series without himself even knowing about it, and how he acted at that moment could be said as an act of denial and self-survival. He might have felt some of the effect of the curse in his mind, but his subconscious kinda unconsciously reacted and pushed him to do something so that he wouldn't have to feel bad about his actions. It's how I interpreted Naofumi's action in canon; even though he got the Shield of Wrath, he didn't rampage around like a mad bull all the time.

For people who were wondering why Motoyasu still kept Malty in his party, I would need to remind you that even though he had realized that he was a failure of a Hero, he still had a fatal flaw in his personality, which was his loyalty to the people he considered friends. You must remember how blindly he believed in Malty's lies in canon even though she continuously told him lies after lies, each of which was more and more unbelievable than the previous one. Asking him to abandon her immediately is basically impossible, at least at the moment. He is going to realize the truth about her, but this isn't the time.

And I noticed there was a guest reader who not only understood my ideas quite well, but also dedicated a lot of his time to answer the questions of other reviewers in place of me. I really appreciate your effort, and thank you very much for that.

Anyway, onward with the story!

Chapter 17: The Four Bandits

"So, how are you going to explain about this, Queen Mirellia? Not only did your country break the agreement of summoning only one Hero for each country, but it also seems that from the news we have just received, our God, the Shield Hero is being mistreated by your royal family! He's even called a rapist by your King and Princess! What do you have to say about this?"

Before the rage of the whole High Council of Siltvelt, as well as the inquisitive eyes of the diplomats of other countries, it was incredible that Mirellia still managed to keep her calm expression without showing any hint of fluster.

"About violating the agreement, then yes, I sincerely apologize about that," she said calmly, hiding her mouth behind her hand fan. "The summoning ritual happened when I was not in Melromarc, and my King Consort actually did that without any permission from me. I will ensure that he will face proper punishment for that action. And now as the Heroes were already summoned, it's not like we could send them back to summon a new batch of Heroes, and whether they want to stay within Melromarc or travel around is beyond my control. However, I have been doing my best to fix that. I am sending words to the Heroes, granting them permission to travel freely to other countries so that they can assist you in fighting back the Waves in your countries. You can send your envoys to meet with them, to see if they're willing to move to your countries or not. I hope that is enough to satisfy your need for the Heroes?"

"Those are just pretty words," the representative of Zeltoble sneered. "If you're really that sincere, how about you just simply give us some of the Heroes?"

Mirellia's eyes hardened. "That was a very bold proposal to say, Lord Bentley. Are you implying that the Cardinal Heroes are something that a country can simply possess like an object?"

The burly man faltered upon the glare of the Ice Queen of Melromarc. "Ergh… I didn't say that, but…"

"The summoning ritual does call the Cardinal Heroes to our world, but it doesn't make them the properties of the countries summoning them," Mirellia cut him short with a sharp voice. "They have the right to decide where they want to go or stay, and no country has the right to keep them anywhere, unless they violate the law of the country they're staying at, or give them to someone. You should be careful with what you say, Lord Bentley, or no Hero is going to come to your country when they know how you think about them."

Lord Bentley slammed his hands on the table angrily. "Are you threatening me?!"

"I'm just stating the fact," answering the Queen coldly. "If you can't stomach that, I have to say I'm not sure if it's the wise choice for Zeltoble to employ the Cardinal Heroes anymore, as the fate of the world doesn't seem to be as important as your personal benefit."

The Zeltoble representative glanced at the representatives of the other countries. Obviously, they were also thought of the same thing as him, but no one raised their voice to support him. The Ice Queen of Melromarc was not known by everyone in the world with that name for nothing; she always knew how to strike where it hurt the most when it came to political debates. The Cardinal Heroes were within her hand now; if they supported Lord Bentley's idea, not only would they lose their faces, but there's no way they would be able to draw the Cardinal Heroes to their side anymore if they knew they were going to use them for political purposes.

"Very well then," finally, the shusaku representative of the High Council said. "However, what your country did to our God, Lord Shield Hero, is not something we're going to let go. The way your King and your Princess treated him is absolutely unacceptable! We're not going to…!"

He stopped mid-sentence when Mirellia stood up from her seat. "Wh-what are you…?"

"Actually, I was planning to explain that also, Lord Werner," she said with a lighter voice than before. "You see, actually, the Shield Hero is actually collaborating with me to rid our country of the corruption and the mistreatment of the demi-humans from the inside."

Those words were complete bullshit, and it seemed even the Siltveltians suspected that. "That was even more unbelievable than saying that your husband was a demi-human," Lord Werner sneered. But Mirellia didn't even falter. She answered him with a mirthful smile.

"Oh, but it is true. The proof of that is how he got a demi-human slave as his companion and was willing to release her from slavery after he defeated the Spear Hero. His mistreatment is just a show to make everything look more convincing. And as you can see, it's working. A lot of nobles in our country have warmed up to him after the Sacred Duel. If I weren't wrong, your country already knew about what happened after the Second Wave of Melromarc, didn't you?"

That was a fact that the representatives of Siltvelt couldn't deny. After all, they had spies within the border of Melromarc, and even without them, the news about the Sacred Duel in the royal palace after the Second Wave of Melromarc had already spread around. There's no way they wouldn't know anything about it.

"So you're also using the Heroes for your own dirty business, after all. How noble of you."

Mirellia turned toward the direction of the voice. Those sarcastic words came from no one but her archrival in politics, the ambassador of the eastern country of Reiki, Ost Hourai. They had met each other a lot of times before, but Mirellia could never stand the other woman. Maybe because they were both female politicians, or maybe it was Ost's snarky attitude against her that annoyed her to no end.

"That was a little harsh, Lady Hourai," the Ice Queen of Melromarc shook her head. "You can think of it as a… favor the Shield Hero is doing for us. You all know that we have been trying to mend our relationship with Siltvelt for quite some time, and at the same time the summoning ritual happened, I heard the news that our demi-human protecting district was destroyed. That was why I asked the Shield Hero for his help to somewhat fix the situation with the demi-humans of our country. I'm simply acting for the sake of my country, and I believe even you would do that if something like that happened with yours."

Silence covered the meeting chamber for a while. Then, the genmu representative of the High Council stood up.

"It seems that we have no choice but to give you the benefit of the doubt for now, Queen Mirellia. However, don't think for a minute that this is over yet. If we find out you're lying to us, and if Lord Shield Hero continues to be mistreated… then war is inevitable, I assure you."

Mirellia nodded, without saying a word.

"Then, I think that's all for our meeting today."

One by one, the representatives of the countries started leaving the chamber. The last one walking out of the room before Mirellia was Ost herself. The representative of Reiki glanced at the Ice Queen of Melromarc with a thin smile on her lips.

"So, a favor, huh."

Mirellia answered her with a smile of ease. "Yes, a favor. Didn't you hear what I said just a few minutes ago?"

"Oh, dear," the brunette's mocking smile couldn't even be hidden even with her hand in front of her mouth. "The Shield Hero must be the nicest man ever to agree to help someone who he hasn't even met face-to-face, even after that person's kingdom put him through hell. I really want to see him someday to see what kind of person he is… a heroic man who would offer to help even his enemies without a thought… or a hopelessly naïve fool who still hasn't realized he's being used as something to trade around in the political table. And that's if… he actually were that nice of a person."

"Well, yes, he is," Mirellia answered her with a serene smile. "And I assure you, someday you will meet him. And when you do… we'll see whether I was telling the truth or not."

Dropping herself on the couch in her room at the embassy, Mirellia let out a deep sigh of fatigue.

This was obviously not the first time she lied. After all, as the Queen of a country and the one who had to take care of diplomatic matters, lying was something that she needed to do on a daily basis. She could lie anytime, anywhere without even blinking an eye.

However, this was the first time her heart felt so heavy after spewing out lies after lies like that.

Why? Maybe it's because she felt ashamed. She knew exactly the reason why her dear husband did something like that. She would say that anyone with a calm head would sympathize with him for his desire for revenge. After all, Siltvelt never gave a proper apology to him or Melromarc after that incident, or even attempted to do something to make up for it. If anything, they would rather rub it to his face, considering he was the very same person who crushed their ambition of conquering the whole world.

However, that does not justify the way he was doing it. Unlike the other aristocrats of this land, she was one of the rare people who understood that not everyone summoned to be the Cardinal Heroes considered it an honor. The summoning ritual basically kidnaps random people who the Legendary Weapons claim to be fit to wield them from different worlds and forces them into the role of Heroes, without the people themselves having anything to say about it. And what Aultcray was doing was no different from kidnapping an innocent person, who didn't know anything about the conflict between him and the demihumans, to torture just to satisfy his thirst for revenge.

Right now, the Queen of Melromarc's heart was filled with guilt and shame of herself. Even after all those years, she still couldn't do anything to quell the rage within the heart of the man she loved the most in this world. Had she been able to do something, everything might not have happened…

A Shadow appeared in the room in a gust of wind. She glanced at the agent. "Report."

"Things are calming down in Melromarc, Your Majesty," the Shadow replied. "Nothing worse than before is happening to the Shield Hero, and it seems he's planning to travel around the country to help people as well as gather more supporters. There isn't much difference about the Spear and Bow Heroes, although from what we observed, the Spear Hero seemed to be a little bit more careful around Princess Malty than before. A few days ago, he had a confrontation with the Sword Hero's party in Erhard's workshop, and he said something that enraged the daughter of Ike Randell, to the point that she attacked him right inside the shop. When he left the place, he was more than just shaken, from what we observed."

Mirellia blinked. What could have happened that gave someone like the Spear Hero that much trauma?

"What happened there?" she demanded, but the Shadow shook her head.

"There was no way to know, Your Majesty. There's no way we could approach the shop back then without being noticed by the Sword Hero, and Princess Malty was also there. We tried to ask Erhard, but he adamantly refused to tell us what happened, saying 'repeating the words that bastard said would just dirty my mouth' with an expression full of disgust. And he also said that he refused to sell equipment to the Spear Hero and his party from now on."

Mirellia winced. She had known Erhard for a long time, but she could never imagine there would be a day she would hear the nice blacksmith say something like that. What the hell did the idiotic Spear Hero do?

The relationship between the Heroes and the kingdom was reaching a dangerously low point. If she didn't do anything immediately…

"What are the Heroes doing at the moment?" she asked the Shadow.

"When I left the kingdom to deliver this information, they were all preparing for departure, except for the Spear Hero," answered the agent. "He's going to stay near the capital because Princess Malty is with him, but the three other Heroes are not going to stay in one place. The Bow and Shield Heroes are going to travel around the country, with the Shield Hero going to the west and the Bow Hero going to the north, but the Sword Hero has chosen Zeltoble as his next destination."

Zeltoble, huh…

That country was on the other side of the continent. It was impossible for her to go there to meet him face-to-face now. She still had to deal with other political problems here in Siltvelt, and she also needed to meet the Shield Hero soon if she wanted to maintain this façade.

She stood up and walked toward the table. The powerful Ice Witch raised her hand, and an orb made of never-melt ice started forming in her palm. She hadn't used this way of communication for a long time because it was very wasteful and inefficient, but in this situation, it was the only way for her to contact the Sword Hero without having to leave Siltvelt.

"Bring this to the Sword Hero, and make sure that he and his companions receive it without failure," she told the Shadow. "You have met the Sword Hero before, so you are the only person I can trust with this. Do not fail me, Akari."

The Shadow took off the face mask she was wearing, revealing the pretty face of the Shadow who had faced EMIYA in the forest a month ago. "I will do everything I can to find Lord Sword Hero, Your Majesty."

"How can I thank you enough for doing this for us?"

EMIYA nodded his head to the merchant driving the carriage they were sitting in. The young man turned his head and gave him a bright grin.

"It should be me who said those words, Lord Sword Hero! Had it not been for you, our village would have been razed to the ground by those lupines. It's our honor to do anything to repay you for your help!"

This merchant, Berthold, was the son of the Lord of Lafan Village. Team EMIYA had met him before, during their stay at the Lord's mansion after they defeated the lupine pack terrorizing the village. Even though he was the son of the village leader, he would rather run a business of his own than sit behind a table to do paperwork all day. When they left Castle Town, he was also there for some business of his own, and he had offered to carry the team to Zeltoble. He was also going that way to bring his products to sell there, which due to the monster wolf pack had been lying in the warehouses for quite some time.

"It's so lucky for us that you came early, Lord Sword Hero," the merchant continued happily. "Thanks to that, we didn't need to ask the kingdom to send the knights. If you were a few days late…"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Welt asked in curiosity. "I mean, it's not like everyone in the Royal Knights is a useless jerk, aren't they?"

The young merchant hesitated. "Well, of course not… but…" he bit his lip, "it's better if the Royal Knights don't get involved in this matter. You know… of course not all of them are like that, but… a lot of the knights aren't going to treat things like this as something worthy of their attention. They would rather sit back and get drunk than got their hands dirty in protecting worthless peasants like us. Something like that already happened to us in the past, so…"

"Tch," Tersia clicked her tongue in disgust. "I thought the Royal Knights were bad before, but they're even more disgusting than I thought."

"Hey, not all of them are bad guys, you know," Farrie chided her. "Some of them actually assisted us and Sir Shield Hero during the fight in Ryute Village, remember? Not every one of them is like that jerk of a commander."

The sword maiden grimaced. "Still…"

"Speaking about Ryute Village," Berthold suddenly remembered, "I heard that the kingdom appointed a new Lord there recently. They told me that the new Lord was the Spear Hero."

Welt stood up so suddenly the carriage shook in a very dangerous way. He exclaimed in rage. "What?! What did that bastard even do to deserve that honor?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Tersia answered him with a scathing voice full of sarcasm and hatred. "What can't he do, being the Bitch Princess' boytoy? Just pull her to bed and fuck her brain out, then tell her to go bawling with dear Daddy, and everything's gonna be his! Isn't it convenient?"

"I'm so looking forward to seeing the village overthrow him," Farrie said darkly.

The smallest member of the team also agreed with them. "Yuki hates the spear guy!" she blew the raspberry childishly.

Berthold winced. "Is the Spear Hero really that bad? I mean, I know what he did to the Shield Hero, but…"

He stopped midway upon seeing the three youngsters' faces. He gulped. "Never mind…"

"So," EMIYA cleared his throat to drive the conversation in another direction. "What kind of goods are you going to sell in Zeltoble?"

"Ah, I'm glad you asked!" the merchant's face brightened. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a ring made of some kind of shiny metal very similar to silver. "My family specializes in making jewelry. Our products are very well-known around the world, and people would pay a lot for a piece of jewelry made by us. However, because our products are hand-crafted, it is impossible for us to mass-produce them, and if we're unable to sell anything for a month… well, you know what will happen. We don't even have the money to hire guards to make a caravan…"

"So that's why you let us tag along, huh," chuckled EMIYA. "You could have said you needed bodyguards for your caravan in the first place."

The young merchant winced again. "I'm sorry… It's just… I have a very valuable accessory I need to deliver to someone, and this route usually has a very vicious band of brigands lurking around robbing caravans getting by. Normal adventurers won't be enough against them, and because of the lupines attacking our village, we can't find enough money to hire someone better to guard us all the way to Zeltoble, so…"

Suddenly the carriage screeched into a halt. From outside, a rasping, harsh voice came through the cloth opening.

"Come out of there with your hands up! You are surrounded and we are not going to care which one of you would be skewered under our blades!"

The ex-Guardian sighed. "Oh, boy…"

The voice didn't lie. The little caravan was actually surrounded by four figures wearing hoods. EMIYA couldn't see their faces, but he could feel hostility pouring out each of them. It's not something unfamiliar to him; after all, he had met a lot of bandits in the past.

The intriguing thing was the weapons they were holding. Each of the bandits was holding a different weapon: the one standing in front of the carriage wielded a spear with decorated head, the one standing next to the carriage to the right side had a long bardiche, the one on the left side wielded a big hammer, and the one holding the bridle of the filolial pulling the carriage carried with him a scimitar in a sheath engraved with gems. The ex-Guardian could realize the quality of any weapons he saw with just a glance, and he's more than sure the weapons the four bandits were wielding were of the best quality he had seen on mundane weapons. There's no way some mere bandits could possess such good weapons. And their stances were those of official soldiers who were trained in the art of war.

These guys are not normal bandits, that's for sure.

"Well, well, well," the one with the spear sneered. "It seemed we got a really good haul today, didn't we? A caravan coming from the city, guarded by a guy in fancy clothes together with a bunch of brats."

EMIYA sighed. Either these guys were idiots, or they were just newbies who hadn't known a lot of things about being a bandit. "You know what?" he said, shaking his head. "You could have done a much better job if you had just stayed in ambush and delivered a surprise attack. Now, without the surprise factor, you've lost most of your advantages. Are you sure you are robbers?"

Those nonchalant words took the four bandits aback. Even though no one could see under their hoods, it was clear that they were completely flustered. "Y-you!" one of the bandits, the one who wielded the long, decorated bardiche, pointed at EMIYA with his shaking finger. "Who do you think you are, underestimating us like that?!"

"Is that really that important?" snarked the ex-Guardian. "The only thing you should care about now is running away, because at this rate you're no match for me. All of you."

"You basta-!"

Before the bandit could finish his sentence, he was stopped by the bandit holding the scimitar. This one seemed to be the leader of the four, because EMIYA could feel an aura of commanding coming from him.

"Don't fall for his trick," he said in a calm tone. "He's trying to rile you up so that you would lose your head before the fight. If you don't calm down, he's really going to take all of us down."

EMIYA grinned. "Pretty sharp for a bandit, aren't you?"

"And if you think you're able to escape easily…" the leader continued with a growl, "…then you are sorely mistaken!"

The scimitar flew out of its sheath faster than everyone imagined. The blade drew an arc in the air, aiming for EMIYA's neck in a bright flash. Had the person the bandit was fighting a normal warrior, that attack would have lopped off his head before he could even realize what was going on.

But too bad for him, facing him right now was not a normal warrior, but EMIYA, the former Counter Guardian with a lifetime of experience fighting on many battlefields. With a simple flip of his hand, the Legendary Sword flew upward, stopping the blade of the scimitar dead on its way, not even leaving its sheath. Not stopping a second, the Sword Hero delivered a low kick at the bandit's heels, sweeping him off his feet and while he was still flailing in the air uncontrollably, a knee hit his stomach, sending him flying. He bounced once, twice, three times on the ground painfully.

"Anything more impressive you can offer me?" taunted the Sword Hero, and those words triggered a surge of rage from the band of bandits.

"Don't you dare mocking us!" the hammer-wielding bandit, the tallest one among the four, who towered over even EMIYA who was considered pretty tall for a grown-up man himself, yelled and launched himself forward. He swung the heavy weapon in a horizontal path, aiming for his waist, where he was sure that he wouldn't be able to block if he didn't want his weapon to be broken. And just as he expected, the red warrior had to jump up, and that would give a big opening for his brother-in-arm to cut him down when he was in mid-air…

What he didn't expect was that his target suddenly spun in mid-air and kicked the one going for him from the sideway in the face. He did that so easily and effortlessly it was as though he had already read their minds. The bandit with the scimitar once again crashed on the ground painfully, and just as his feet touched the ground, EMIYA's hand lashed out, and the hilt of the Legendary Sword hit the bandit wielding the hammer in the jaw.

The hood fell off his head, and EMIYA was surprised at what he saw.

A demi-human, huh…

The bandit lying on the ground had animal ears on his head. Round bear ears, to be exact. He looked kinda the same as how Raphtalia looked, albeit a little bit rougher and more feral. His face was similar to that of a slave EMIYA had seen in Beloukas' shop; his face was that of a human, but his cheeks were covered in brown fur just like that of a bear.

The three other bandits gathered around the bear demi-human. The man himself crawled up from the ground and hastily grabbed his weapon lying next to him; all four bandits were now glaring at the Sword Hero with the same wary eyes. The man they were fighting… he was much, much more dangerous than they had thought. Who the hell was this guy?

"So what are you going to do now?" The aforementioned guy was mocking them. "If that's everything you got, I advise you to run away before you get killed. You cannot win against me."

Hearing those words made the blood of the four bandits boil. Gripping their weapons tightly, all four of them yelled the same cry of rage and rushed forward, charging at the red Hero. The four brothers were all at level 40 and above. They had fought next to each other for years, and they had faced many enemies together; there's no way they're going to give up that easily against one single person!

But once again, the four were taken aback by the ability of the strange warrior they were facing.

From what they observed, their opponent was only about level 45 at most. When it came to power, he wasn't that much stronger than them. In fact, their strength and speed might even surpass him. But for some reason, they couldn't even land a hit. Their teamwork was not bad at all, but the man was just too good. He danced between the rain of blows and swings the four brothers launched at him without even letting their weapon touch his coat. It's as though he had read their minds and known where exactly they were going to strike to avoid that place.

He was just like… her…

That single second of reminiscence made the four bandits hesitate. And that very same moment was their downfall. With a really quick movement of his hand, the sheathed Legendary Sword flew forward and struck the bandit holding the war hammer precisely at the left wrist. He grunted out in pain; his left hand was forced off the pole of the weapon. Even though he was a bear-type demi-human, it's still impossible to hold something so big and heavy with one hand, and thus, naturally, he dropped the weapon on his foot painfully. And that was the same opening EMIYA was looking for. Dashing through the rain of strikes, he sent a brutal kick at the bandit's chest, sending him flying. Not even stopping, he swung his weapon sideways, hitting the spear-wielder at the back of his knee, followed by another hit at his nape, making him collapse to the ground in pain. Kicking the fallen bandit at the back, he used him as a springboard to close the distance between him and the other two bandits. And with two simple strikes, one horizontal and one vertical, he dislocated the shoulders of the two, forcing them to drop their weapons to the ground in agony.

Everything happened in exactly five seconds. The hoods of all four bandits were all flipped open, revealing the head of a fox, a tiger and a dog demi-humans under them. And the red warrior's weapon still refused to leave its sheath.

"What… the hell… are you…?" the leader of the band, the tiger beastman, choked out when the red warrior started walking toward him. The man answered him by pointing the tip of his sheathed sword at him.

"What I am isn't that important. The important thing is you have chosen the wrong person to mess with. Now, surrender if you don't want to die."

"Stop right there or I'm going to kill this brat!"

Everyone snapped their heads toward the direction of the voice. The fox demi-human had grabbed the scimitar of his leader, and was now grabbing Yuki from behind. Having paid too much attention to EMIYA, no one had realized him moving. The blade of the sword nicked the white skin on the kitsune's neck.

EMIYA turned his head, slowly. And everyone was terrified when the road was suddenly bombarded with unbelievable killing intent. Slowly, the blade of the Legendary Sword slipped out of its sheath. And when the ex-Counter Guardian opened his mouth, the voice coming out was two octaves lower than his usual voice.

"Do it. I DARE you to do it. If you dare draw a single drop of blood from her, I swear to whatever god you have in this world that none of you bastards is going to leave this place alive."

The fox demihuman was on the verge of pissing himself. However, he still put on a brave face and sneered. "Then let's see who's going to kill who first!"

But before he could do anything…

"You… you meanie! Yuki hates bullies like you!"

And the fox-eared demihuman was blown away by a burst of energy coming from the little girl held in his arm. He tumbled to the ground painfully, and when he managed to recover…

A humongous fox with bluish-white fur and three giant tails was standing before him. And the huge maw with two rows of incredibly sharp teeth and four pointy fangs was right… in front… of his face.

A loud roar, and a gust of air coming from inside the creature's throat blasted his face. Naturally, he did the same thing anyone would do when facing this situation.

He fainted.

"What should we do with them now?"

Berthold asked worriedly while glancing at the four bandits, who were now tied up on the ground. The bear demi-human grunted out in a defiant tone.

"Just kill us and to hell with it! We would rather die than lose our honor!"

Tersia stared at the bandit incredulously. "You are bandits. You think you have the right to talk about honor?"

"Actually, they're not."

Everyone turned toward EMIYA, who had just raised his voice. Welt blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean, sensei?"

"Those weapons they carried are of very high quality," the Sword Hero explained. "There's no way mere bandits could get them easily. And from what I saw during our fight, they are quite used to fighting with them, which means those weapons were the ones that were made for them, not something that they stole from other warriors. They're not normal bandits, that's for sure. Therefore…" he pointed the tip of the Legendary Sword at the tiger demi-human, "…who are you working for? Did the King send you here to assassinate us?"

"The King? Ha!" the bandit laughed dryly and spat on the ground. "Fuck the King! We would rather die than work for that son of a bitch! There's nothing we want more than strangling that bastard in his sleep!"

That outburst actually took EMIYA aback. He narrowed his eyes. "You know that saying those words are equal to treason, don't you?"

"Ha! As if that trivial thing is important to us now!" the bear demi-human snorted dryly. "Our village was destroyed, our Lord was assassinated, and the only person left who would care for us, his daughter, was imprisoned without even a reason, all by that bastard and his Knights! We don't have anything left in this world, after all!"

Team EMIYA looked at each other in horror. Did something like that happen for real?! They knew that the King hates demihumans, but doing something like that was just… wrong!

"I know that the King is a jerk, but I can't believe that he would do something so hideous," Tersia gritted her teeth, and the other members of the team nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"Considering how he made the Spear bastard the Lord of a village that the Shield Hero protected, it's nothing surprising after all, isn't it?" Welt snarked.

EMIYA just looked at the four tied demi-humans with calculating eyes. Then, when he opened his mouth, the following words came out.

"Do you take me for a fool?"

No one had expected the Sword Hero to say something like that. Farrie started. "Sensei…"

"Those words might be nice if they don't come from someone who has just attacked us with malicious intent," the ex-Guardian said without even trying to hide the suspicion in his voice. "From what I know, this might just be a ploy to get my sympathy and turn me against the Kingdom of Melromarc. Not to mention, you are all demi-humans, the main type of citizens of Siltvelt, who are well known around the world as the archenemy of this kingdom. How should I know that this is not a scheme of Siltvelt to make me abandon this country to go to their side?"

He didn't want to be cruel. However, his experience in life had shown him that there is rarely anything that might be considered a coincidence. And from what he found out from his gathering of intelligence in Melromarc, while the kingdom themselves had their faults, the country of Siltvelt wasn't completely innocent, either. He didn't want to favor any side at this moment. Therefore, he knew he needed to be careful. He could not afford to trust the words of those four immediately, even though their expression and behavior seemed to be genuinely angry.

Therefore, he decided to goad them. He wanted to see how they would react against those seemingly cruel words. And it seemed his words only managed to make them angrier. The tiger demi-human laughed in a dry tone.

"Hmph! If that's how you think, then sure, let everything be like that! If you want to do it, go ahead and cut us down! We don't have anything else to regret! At least like that, we will be able to reunite with our Lord!"

EMIYA calmly unsheathed the Legendary Sword. He looked at the four bandits with impassive eyes.

"Are those your final words?"

The demi-humans only gave him four similar defiant glares. EMIYA sighed, and lifted his sword…

…then suddenly turned around and cut down an arrow aiming for him in midair.

"Wha…?!"

"Ambush!" Welt yelled, and released an arrow of his own in the direction where the arrow had come from. A yelp of pain showed that there was indeed someone who was sniping them from afar. As though answering the retaliation, arrows rained down from the cliff above them at the team and the caravan.

"Leave it to me!" Tersia cried out, and with a really quick movement, she delivered a grandeur swing with her giant sword. The class-up, as well as all the training she had done together with her sensei and the team, had made her way stronger than how she used to be, and the shockwave coming from the swing alone was enough to blow away all of the arrows coming at them. And that move also exposed the positions of the ambushers, leaving them the clear targets for Welt to land arrows on their shoulders.

EMIYA's eyes narrowed when he saw people wearing red bandanas over their mouths appearing at the far end of the road. Glancing at his back, he saw that even the other end was also blocked by a band of the same bandana-wearing, saber-wielding thugs. The one leading them, standing in front of the group blocking the front end of the road, walked up and sneered in a haughty tone.

"Well, well, well, it seems someone is unlucky today! Riding straight into our territory!"

EMIYA shook his head. "Oh, boy. So these are the real bandits."

The bandit leader yelled gleefully. "Kill them all! With their belongings, we're going to have a big feast tonight!"

The Sword Hero sighed, and glanced at the four demi-humans on the ground. "You know what? I take back my words; bandits in this world are all idiots."

Once again, the four demi-humans were dumbfounded.

They were already shocked and impressed when EMIYA took down all four of them alone before, but now, when they actually saw all five members of the team in action, they realized that it was a terrible idea to try to rob this band of freaks.

Their teamwork was impeccable. The demi-human brothers were definitely not bad at fighting as a team, but when they saw the four teenagers, no, three teenagers and a giant mikon, fighting together to protect the caravan against not four, but forty attacking brigands, they understood that they were just tiny fishes in a big pond. Whenever any member of the team showed an opening, the other members immediately filled it up for them; they did it that easily and quickly it looked like they were all parts of the same body. There was a time when the short sword of the archer was knocked out of his hand into the air, and the sword maiden who wielded the giant blade just used her own sword as a stand to jump into the air and grab the falling sword, then cut down a bandit in midair while leaving her sword on the ground for the archer to use as a shield to shoot down two more bandits. Then after that, they exchanged weapons and continued fighting as if nothing had just happened. They did all that without even stopping their movements to think.

Even more absurd than that… they didn't even kill any of the bandits during the whole fight. They all aimed to disable their enemies without harming their lives too badly; the worst they had done was one bandit with a broken thigh and three more with their arms bitten bloodily by the giant mikon, who had spent the whole battle running around the field slapping the enemies silly with her giant tails and blasted freezing air at their faces.

Granted, the enemies were just stupid, low-level bandits without any notable skills, but still…

"Wh… who the hell are you freaks…?" the bandit leader groaned out in pain while glaring at the team from the ground. The jewelry merchant said in glee.

"You chose the wrong day to go robbing people, bastards! The ones you've just fought are the Sword Hero and his party!"

Everyone's eyes, including the four demihumans', widened in shock. "Th-the Sword Hero!?"

"I'm going to give you a choice," the aforementioned Sword Hero walked up and said in a cold voice. "Either you run away from here, give up the life of banditry, or I'm going to murder every single one of you right here and destroy your souls so that you are never going to be able to reincarnate. What are you going to choose?" he raised the Legendary Sword, which had taken the form of a black sword oozing out an evil, menacing aura, threateningly.

The last bit of color was drained from the brigands' faces. After promising wholeheartedly that they would give up being bandits, they hastily picked themselves up from the ground and turned tailed, fleeing the scene without even daring to turn their heads.

"Is it okay to let them go like that?" Berthold asked worriedly after the bandits had all disappeared. EMIYA nodded his head.

"I think so. I don't want to hurt anyone too much if I can avoid it. I doubt they would be able to go back to robbing people without being traumatized after that fight. Besides, this is a main commercial route; even if we get rid of this band of bandits, there will be more emerging if the kingdom itself doesn't have any way to prevent people from walking that path. My duty is not to clean up after the failures of the authorities."

Welt winced. "That's cruel, sensei."

"Speaking about that…" the ex-Guardian turned to the four demi-humans tied on the ground. He walked toward them, and with a swing of his sword, cut the ropes binding them. "You four have pretty impressive martial prowess. Killing you here is such a waste; you can use your abilities to do better things than robbing people. I will be merciful with you this time, but remember my words; the next time I see you robbing people, I'm not going to hold back like I did today."

Then he turned away, ready for departing. The four demi-humans just stood there, still not believing what was happening in front of them.

"Are you… really the Sword Hero?" he heard the voice of the dog beastman from behind him. "They said the Sword Hero was an incredibly cruel and ruthless person who wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who annoyed him. But… you spared our lives. And those bandits, too."

EMIYA snorted. "I never like being called a Hero, so you can think of me as anything you want. You should be thankful that I decided to show mercy and spare your lives. Or do you want me to take back my words and kill all of you right here, right now?"

The four bandits glanced at each other. Then suddenly…

"Lord Sword Hero! Please help us!"

EMIYA turned, and was startled when he saw all four of them kneeled in front of him desperately. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Please, Sir! You are the only one who could help us right now!" the tiger demihuman repeated, but his voice was now desperate. "If you don't listen to us now, we don't know who we should look for anymore!"

The team had gathered around EMIYA. Farrie said in a nervous tone.

"Um… maybe we can try listening to them, sensei. You know, there's no harm in it, right? I don't want to see them so miserable like this."

"Yeah," agreed Tersia. "They look so pitiful it pains me to see them like this. Besides, it's not like they could cause any harm to us at this state, isn't it?"

EMIYA sighed. Even though he had put them through a hellish training regime for more than a month, they were still only naïve, innocent teenagers. He sighed.

"Very well, then. What is your story?"

An hour later, the group gathered around a bonfire in the four bandits' camp. The tiger demi-human, the leader of the group, started.

"My name is Wotan, and these three are," he pointed at the fox, the bear and the dog, "Warin, Ulfric and Wendel. We were citizens of Lurolona Village. We served the Lord of the village, Lord Seatto, and his only daughter, Miss Eclair Seatto, as their bodyguards."

"Lurolona Village?" EMIYA blinked. "Isn't that…?"

"Yeah," Tersia nodded solemnly. "That's the village destroyed during the First Wave, and… the place where my dad…" she looked away, unable to finish the sentence.

"So I wasn't wrong after all," Wotan nodded with a smile. "You are the daughter of Sir Ike Randell. I've been suspicious for a while…"

Tersia blinked in surprise. "How do you know that?"

"It's your sword," he pointed at the weapon strapping on her back. "That great sword with the golden hilt was the very same weapon he wielded during the last battle in our village. Even how you fight reminds me of him, girlie. After our Lord was killed, Sir Randell told us to bring his corpse to run away, and he would hold the monsters back for us to escape. He was always the greatest adventurer, even when he faced death…"

Solemn silence filled the air for a while. EMIYA knew what happened during the last fight of the previous owner of Tersia's sword, so the tiger demihuman might be telling the truth, after all. He raised his voice.

"We're really sorry about your loss. But your… Lord Seatto… he was killed in the Wave by the Wave monsters, didn't he? So how can I…?"

"Oh, that's what everyone thought, yes," Ulfric growled, cutting EMIYA short. "Even we had thought so, until we checked his remain. Our Lord wasn't killed by the Wave monsters; he was assassinated!"

"After carrying our Lord's body back to a safe place, we checked his body to see whether we could still save him or not," Wotan continued. "And no words could explain how surprised and angry we were when we discovered a very tiny dart on his neck. No, it didn't contain poison, but rather a very powerful sedative. You are an experienced soldier, I think you will understand what will happen if you fall asleep when you are in the middle of a battlefield, Lord Sword Hero," he looked at EMIYA, who nodded in agreement.

"Someone actually struck him with that dart to make him lose his focus during the battle, and that's why he was overwhelmed by the monsters and lost his life," said Wendel bitterly. "When we told everyone else that, they just dismissed our claim, and they actually got a point, because even we couldn't imagine who could do something like that in the middle of a such a battle, to someone who was wearing a full set of armor."

EMIYA's eyes narrowed. Something like that was, indeed, incredibly difficult to do, but definitely not impossible. The ninja Heroic Spirits he met during the time he was in Chaldea, such as Fuuma Kotarou or Katou Danzo, or the various Hassan-i-Sabbahs, could throw needles and similar types of projectiles with that kind of precision very easily. Someone who managed to do that must be a very skilled assassin… someone like those Shadows. Could it be that the Queen was the one who ordered the assassination?

"After the Wave passed, our village was destroyed, and our villagers didn't have anywhere to go," Wotan's eyes went downcast. "Slave traders of the kingdom arrived and captured the villagers, and they were even backed up by the soldiers of the kingdom and the Church of the Three Heroes, claiming that we were the one who made the Wave happen because we were the blights of this world. When Miss Eclair arrived and saw what happened, she went into a rage and hunted down those slave traders to protect us. After that, the Church said that she was brainwashed by the Shield Demon, and she has been imprisoned by the kingdom since then."

"So… what you want from me is for me to go to the kingdom, break that Miss Eclair of yours out and escape?" the Sword Hero guessed. "You know that it would mean branding myself an outlaw of the country, didn't you?"

Wotan shook his head. "No, my Lord. We know that doing something like that would put you in a difficult position with the kingdom. What we want is just… please, my Lord, when you return to the kingdom, please, give a word to the King and find out whether Miss Eclair is still alive or not, and if she is… please, take care of her for us, don't let them kill her, at least until the Queen returns. We already lost our Lord and our village; we can't stand seeing another precious person of us perish unreasonably like that. If you can do that for us… we swear we will follow you until the end of our lives, Lord Sword Hero."

"Why do you trust the Queen that much?" EMIYA asked curiously. "We still haven't known who the killer of your Lord was; don't you suspect that she might be the one ordering his assassination?" he pointed out.

What he didn't expect was that Warin, the fox demihuman, suddenly stood up and pointed at him angrily.

"Y-you! Don't think that because you are the Sword Hero that you can say things like that about our Queen! She is a good ruler, and I'm not going to allow you to insult her in front of me!"

"Warin! Lord Sword Hero is not from this world, of course you can't expect him to know about that!" Wotan scolded his comrade, then turned back to EMIYA. "I apologize for his outburst, Lord Sword Hero. But even though the Queen is known as the Ice Queen, she's actually a very fair and considerate ruler. She is a human, but she always treats demi-humans like us fairly without any discrimination, and that was the reason why she entrusted the lives of demi-humans in Melromarc to Lord Seatto, because he was one of the rare nobles in this country who weren't a corrupt bastard. So if you're thinking that it's the Queen who tried to kill our Lord, it's impossible."

EMIYA pondered the thought. If a demi-human would openly defend the ruler of a country reek of race discrimination like this, then he guessed there was no reason to suspect that the Queen wasn't a decent ruler. However, he wouldn't put his trust in the Queen that easily, especially when he had never even seen her face to face. Politicians are always the ones he needs to be careful around the most. He decided to keep that thought to himself, though.

Finally, he nodded. "Very well. The next Wave is going to happen in about a month; when I return to Melromarc to prepare for the Wave, I'm going to ask about her. But now, we're on our way to Zeltoble, and we're not going to change our plan. So I guess you're going to need to wait for a while."

The four demi-humans' faces fell a little bit when they heard those words. But they still nodded. "That's fine for us."

"What are you going to do from now on, though?" Welt asked curiously. "You're not going to return to robbing people on the road like this, are you?"

Silence. The four demi-human sworn brothers looked at each other awkwardly.

"We… actually haven't thought about that," finally, Wotan admitted while scratching his head.

"There's nowhere for us to go, anyway," Ulfric grunted. "We're escapees from a village branded heretics by the Church of the Three Heroes; no matter where we go, people would just turn their heads from us."

Everyone looked at each other. This was getting harder than they thought.

"If that's the case, how about going to our village to be our family's guards?"

EMIYA turned toward Berthold, who had just said those words. "Do you think it's a good idea?"

"I don't see any problem with that," the merchant nodded. "Our village is desperately in need of personnel after that incident with the lupines, and we don't discriminate. Besides, we have needed a team of guards for our caravan for a while; we cannot afford to hire professional guards every time we need to bring our goods to other countries. I can't promise you a high wage or something like that, but if you agree, I can assure you that you will never be hungry. If you want, you can start your work right now by escorting me and Lord Sword Hero here to Zeltoble."

The four demi-humans' faces brightened with every word they heard. "D-do you really mean it? Are you really going to give us a chance?" Wendel said in a voice full of hope. The merchant nodded with a smile.

"Of course!"

The four demi-humans dropped to the ground. "Then please count on us from now on, sirs!"