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Chapter 1 – Departure from the Perdis Kingdom
I, Haruto Yuuki, a high school student, was suddenly summoned as a hero to another world together with my whole class.
However, after checking our status, it was found out that I did not have the title of 『Hero』, nor did I receive a 『Gift』 that is usually bestowed to all heroes.
So I was driven out by Mariana, the princess of the Glicente Kingdom responsible for the summoning, and almost got done in by her knights, but then a god appeared before me.
As an apology for forgetting to give me a Gift, I received some cheat skills, such as All Creation, which allows me to create all sorts of skills, God Eye, which lets me see through anything, and many more.
I vowed to one day take my revenge on the Glicente Kingdom, and decided to work as an adventurer while looking for a way to go back to my original world.
Having relocated to the neighboring Perdis Kingdom, I was awarded the world’s highest adventurer rank, the unprecedented 『EX』 rank, for my efforts in preventing the destruction of the royal capital by a massive outbreak of monsters.
I received a mansion as a reward and began living there with a fellow adventurer Finne, the first princess of the Perdis Kingdom Iris, her attendant Asha, and the newly hired butler and maids.
One day, I rescued an elf, Ephyr, from a slave merchant, and learned that her hometown, the Elven Village, had been invaded by the Glicente Kingdom.
After reuniting with my former classmates, the heroes, and bringing them into my party, I decided to leave the Perdis Kingdom for the Elven Village and Glicente royal capital.
～
The morning of our departure had finally come.
“Alright then, Sebas, Lyla, Mia, we’re off now.”
“Understood, please take care on your way.”
““Please take care.””
Sitting on the coachman’s seat of the horse-drawn carriage, I called out to Sebas, the butler, and the maids, Lyla and Mia who are currently employed at the mansion.
Finne, who was already sitting on the coachman’s seat a little earlier, also lowered her head briefly towards them.
“Hoot hoot, let’s get going, Maguro!”
As soon as I called out, my favorite horse, Maguro, neighed as he pulled the cart.
Iris, Asha, Ephyr are accompanying me on this journey, as well as my former classmates Suzuno Ichinomiya, Koji Tendo, Shinya Mogami, Aoi Shinonome, and Natsuki Asakura, all of whom I have already asked to ride in the back of the carriage. Incidentally, I have decided to drop all formalities and call Shinonome and Asakura by their first names starting from this journey.
We are quite a large group, and we also have cargo to load on the back of the carriage, but on the other hand, the carriage isn’t exactly big enough to accommodate eight people. So, a certain amount of cargo and a few people are carried in the back, and the rest in the subspace that connects through the wall in the back.
『Subspace』 is like another world that I created with my immense magic power and space-time magic, and within it lies a vast grassland and a splendid house.
Everyone but Finne was amazed by the subspace their first time in and impressed by its comfort.
I had made sure that a few of us stayed in the back of the carriage so that we wouldn’t draw suspicion in case something happened, although the methods used to determine those who are to stay in the back were a sight to behold.
And so, our new journey began smoothly.
According to Ephyr’s information, the elven village is in the Tonitia Forest.
The Tonitia Forest, known as “Sea of Trees”, is located on the border between the Perdis Kingdom and the Glicente Kingdom, and can be reached by going south from the Perdis royal capital, where we are now, and then proceeding west along the border.
It’s about a week to the forest, and we were in no particular hurry, so I steadily advanced the horse-drawn carriage while chatting with Finne.
By the way, Maguro is smart to begin with, so I don’t even have to steer him. He is a very reliable companion who thinks and acts for himself and listens to what I say.
Before I knew it, the sun had risen right overhead, so I decided to pull up the carriage at the edge of the road so we could have lunch.
However, I have no plans to make anything fancy, just simple bread and soup.
I asked everyone out of the subspace and proceeded with the preparation.
Finne and I, who are accustomed to traveling, and Ephyr, who lived in the forest, were leading the preparation, but surprisingly, Tendo and the other heroes were also moving rather adeptly. Well, I suppose they must have experienced quite a few trips before making their way to Perdis.
As for Iris and Asha, in that regard…I guess I’ll have them get used to it on this trip too.
I gave Maguro a heap of vegetables and fruits for his hard work, and also got myself some bread and soup.
The bread was baked by Lyla, and for the soup, we decided to go with corn soup to go with the bread.
Since there are a lot of us on this trip, it’s not a whole meal, but I have stored the foods made in advance back at the mansion in my dimensional storage.
The bread and soup are still steaming hot and warm as if they were freshly made, thanks to the dimensional storage where time does not elapse.
We expressed our gratitude to Lyla and devoured the meal in a flash.
～
We resumed our journey, and after a while, I checked the map with God Eye and detected a reaction that seemed like an enemy a little bit ahead.
Around fifteen of them. They are working together in such large numbers and seemed to be well placed, so they must be human bandits, not monsters.
… Doesn’t it seem like I almost always encounter bandits every time I go on a trip? Or is it just my imagination?
Well, we are outnumbered, but with this group, we should have no problem whatsoever. Just consider yourselves shit out of luck the moment you decide to target us.
At any rate, I communicated the situation to Tendo and Suzuno in the back of the carriage that bandits were lying in wait a little further ahead, and told them to tell everyone in the subspace.
And as we rode the carriage to that point, we saw a tree had fallen to block the road.
“Maguro stop!”
As Maguro came to a stop at my command, five bandits appeared from the grass on both sides of the fallen tree.
From what I could see on the map, the rest of the bandits seem to be circling to the sides and behind us. They probably intend to have us surrounded, talk about the obvious.
“Hehehehe. Hey kid, you won’t be going any further from here. If you want to go through, you’ll have to leave your carriage and all your stuff behind.”
“That woman over there, and the others if there are any, stay too!”
“You got that right! Gyaahahahaha!”
Do all bandits learn from the same teacher or something, how come they always recite similar lines?
…that aside.
“…Where are your weapons? And did you wipe your mouths properly? You’ve got something on you.”
Hearing my words, the bandits froze, looking at each other.
Yup. These dolts didn’t have any weapons. Not only that, but they had stains around their mouths like a sauce, as if they were just eating a minute ago.
The bandits remained frozen for a few seconds, but then, as if in panic, they went back into the grass and came out again with weapons in their hands.
Oh, they’ve wiped their mouths too.
“Hehehehe. Hey kid, you won’t be going any further from here.  If you want to go through, you’ll have to leave your carriage and all your stuff behind.”
“That woman over there, and the others if there are any, stay too!”
“You got that right! Gyaahahahaha!”
These dolts…
“…So you lot decided to pretend that didn’t just happen.”
“Sh, shut up!”
They were even more foolish than I had originally thought was possible.
While we were having this silly exchange, Suzuno and Tendo came down from the back of the carriage. Finne also got off the coachman’s seat and stood beside me.
The bandits gave Finne and Suzuno a vulgar look, as if they were assessing them.
“Tendo, what about the others?”
“Hmm? They’re asleep on the couch. Tried waking them, but they wouldn’t get up, so I let them be…”
Even at a time like this, what a carefree bunch.
“So…guys, you think you can take ‘em?”
I asked Tendo and Suzuno, hinting at the bandits.
“I still haven’t, resolved myself to murder…”
“Me too, I guess.”
“…I see. I won’t force you to kill anyone. You can go back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry.”
Well, as a matter of fact, I, personally, have no intention of killing the bandits. Because I need them to cough up the location of their hideout and the rest of their crew. And it’s not like I go around killing people proactively either.
However, if I let these two who aren’t accustomed to PvP battles fight, there is a possibility that their opponents might die by accident. When I thought of that… I opted to confirm, in case such a thing were to happen while they have yet to steel their resolve.
It seems like the two of them were reading too much into it, and were at odds over the assumption that they would kill their opponents, but in any case, it’s probably best not to let them fight.
Seeing Tendo and Suzuno return to the back of the carriage, I turned to Finne.
“Finne, would you mind staying back and guarding the back of the carriage? I can handle this lot on my own, but just in case.”
“Alright, I’ll leave the enemy to you.”
“Sure.”
Finne nodded and moved to the back of the carriage.
With neither Suzuno nor Finne in-sight, the bandits in front of me became rowdy with disgruntled remarks.
“Why did they go back now~”
“But still, they’re both high quality!”
“You bet, even the boss will be delighted with these!”
“After we’ve sampled them first, right?”
“You, you’re such a genius!?”
And the bandits all laughed vulgarly Gyaahahaha.
Wow, these guys really are beyond saving…
To begin with, the fact that they looked at Finne and Suzuno with such disgusting eyes already ticked me off.
I sighed and glared at the bandits.