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~3rd Person Perspective~
A few hours later, Rikuya and the others were observing the guards outside the prison to see what was going on.
The guards were usually in pairs, but there were rare occasions when only one of them was on guard duty.
They waited patiently for the right moment.
“You’re up.” (Bandit)
“Yeah.” (Bandit)
“Seriously, can we sell these guys faster…” (Bandit)
Lazily, the guards took their turns.
At last, the time came when there was only one guard.
Rikuya signals to Maika with his eyes.
Maika looked hesitant, wondering if she should really do it.
But then, in a moment of contemplation, she shouted the words they had planned.
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“Damn you, brother! I can’t take it anymore! I’ll beat you to a pulp!” (Maika)
With those words, Maika really punched Rikuya.
It was a real punch, but it didn’t hurt at all because of her lack of strength. Rather, Maika’s arm was the one hurting, and she was in tears from the pain.
“What the hell, you brat? To do this to your brother! I’ll kill you!” (Rikuya)
And Rikuya screamed.
Then, with strong momentum, Rikuya jumped on Maika.
A fight suddenly broke out, and the guard began to panic.
From the bandit’s point of view, Maika is valuable merchandise, so they can’t let her get hurt. It would be even worse if she were to die.
As a guard, it would be very bad for him to ignore the situation.
“Stop, you fools, stop!!” (Bandit)
The guard, who was a little unsure of what to do, unlocked the door and went inside.
Takao took advantage of this moment and head-butted the guard in the back of the head. The guard fell down unconscious after being hit by Takao’s rock-hard head as hard as he could.
His arms were bound, and he could not use them, so he decided to head-butt him.
“…that’s something that went smoothly.” (Rikuya)
“He must have been an idiot. It’s a lucky start.” (Maika)
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Rikuya thought it was stupid to open it so easily, no matter how bad it was for Maika, even if she were to die.
Then he took the one-handed sword that the guard had and cut the strings that bound Takao’s hands.
Incidentally, Maika and Rikuya were not particularly restrained, as they had been looked down upon.
“Well, here’s the real part.” (Rikuya)
They were now able to get out of prison.
The next step is for Rikuya to act as the decoy to draw the bandits away while Takao and Maika escape outside.
The bandits seemed to be numerous, so even with Takao’s presence, it would be difficult to win against all of them.
However, if Rikuya could attract the attention of a large number of enemies, there would be a few bandits heading toward Takao and Maika, and they would manage to escape, or so the plan went.
Rikuya, who would be surrounded by a large number of enemies, would most certainly die.
If the enemy was not successfully pulled off by diversion, or if Rikuya was easily killed, there was a possibility that all three of them would be killed.
There was no surefire way to escape in this situation.
They knew the risks.
“You remember where the exit is, right?” (Rikuya)
“Oh, I’m confident in my memory.” (Maika)
“All right, then I’ll go first. When the time is right, you guys will follow.” (Rikuya)
Rikuya left the prison with the guard’s one-handed sword at the ready. The plan was for Rikuya to go out first and create a diversion, and then, when the enemy’s eyes would have focused on him, Maika and Takao would take advantage of the opportunity and escape.
Since it was not a carefully planned operation, there were gaps, and if Maika failed to measure the timing of their escape, it would fail, but there was nothing to be done but to do something.
“Brother…” (Maika)
Maika said in a quiet voice.
She sounded as if she was about to cry.
Hearing her voice, Rikuya did not look back and left the prison. Now that the guard has been taken down, there is no turning back. He had no choice but to carry out his plan.
Rikuya leaves the prison. The hideout of the bandits was built underground, and the prison was on the second basement floor. On the second basement floor, there were storerooms and other facilities, and on the first basement floor, there existed a space where the bandits lived. When he was locked up, he also passed through the first floor, so he knew the structure to some extent. Since Maika has a great memory, she should have understood the structure more accurately than Rikuya.
The stairs on the basement floor led to the ground level. There were bandits in the houses above ground as well, and it would be impossible to divert them, but there were not many of them. He expected that Takao alone would be enough to defeat them.
Rikuya climbed the stairs and headed first for the basement floor.
On the way, he came across a bandit.
When the bandit saw Rikuya, he had a dazed look on his face, as if he did not understand what had happened for a moment, but then he instantly understood the situation,
“A runaway!” (Bandit)
He screamed loud.
This was convenient from Rikuya’s point of view, who wanted to create a diversion, but if he was pushed back to the stairs, the plan would not work.
With the sword he had with him, he slashed the bandit’s head.
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“Guha!” (Bandit)
He bled profusely and fell down.
Rikuya rushes up the stairs.
The bandits who were near the stairs heard the commotion and rushed to him, but he killed them with a single blow and climbed the stairs.
When he finished climbing the stairs, he found himself in a wide space.
The bandits were waiting outside the staircase, trying to surround Rikuya, as they knew that fighting on the narrow staircase would not be good for them.
However, the bandits had not yet fully gathered, so they were not completely surrounded. There was an empty spot on the right side of the room, so he ran through it.
Rikuya was fast on his feet and succeeded in escaping the encirclement.
“Don’t let him escape!!” (Bandit)
He heard the angry shouts of the bandits from behind.
When he looked back, he saw that all the bandits who had surrounded him earlier were in pursuit.
They don’t seem to have time to worry about Takao and Maika not being there.
It’s working, Rikuya smirks.
The bandits came from the front as well.
He is pincered.
Just then, there was a room on the right side, so he entered it.
The bandits who had been chasing Rikuya came into the room.
There were more than ten of them. He did not know how many bandits there were, but he guessed that there were probably no more than 20. Most of the bandits seemed to have gathered to capture Rikuya.
(It went better than I expected.) (Rikuya)
Rikuya was a little relieved, even though he would surely be killed by the bandits.
He could not see with his own eyes that Takao and Maika could escape safely, but he was confident that if he had been able to attract them this far, they would be able to escape properly.
“You’re a mouse in a bag. You’ve done something really stupid.” (Bandit Boss)
It was the boss of the bandits who said so.
It seemed that the boss had joined in the hunt for Rikuya.
“…? What happened to the other two?” (Bandit Boss)
“I do not know.” (Rikuya)
“…Hey, you two, find the other two.” (Bandit Boss)
The bandit boss, realizing that he was a diversion, tried to give the bandits an order, but Rikuya slashed at the boss to stop him.
“Shaaa!” (Bandit Boss)
He seemed to be more skilled than the other bandits, and he easily defended against Rikuya’s surprise attack.
The bandit boss, while catching the sword, said,
“Find the other two! This guy is a decoy!” (Bandit Boss)
And he gave orders to his subordinates.
“There’s no need to look for them!” (Voice)
A woman’s voice rang out in response to the order.
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“Uwaaa!!” (Bandit)
“What the hell is this woman!!” (Bandit)
“Guaaaa!!” (Bandit)
Immediately after that, there was a scream from the bandits.
Rikuya, who did not understand what had happened, checked the situation.
He then saw Takao defeating the bandits surrounding Rikuya, and Maika giving him instructions from behind him.
“What are you guys doing!” (Rikuya)
“Catching the enemy by surprise leads to certain victory. Now that all eyes are on my brother, I saw a great opportunity to attack!” (Voice => Maika)
“Damn it, you idiot, that wasn’t the plan!” (Rikuya)
“You’re the idiot! The plan my brother came up with couldn’t ever be better than the one I came up with! Come on, Takao! Pound them to the ground!” (Maika)
Under Maika’s direction, Takao, although he had no weapon, used his huge body to beat and kick the bandits one after another.
The bandits suddenly fell into a state of mild panic.
Seeing this, Rikuya had hope that maybe they could make it.
“Tsk… troublesome…!” (Bandit Boss)
Among the panicking members of the group, only the boss seemed to have his nerve and did not lose his composure.
On the contrary, Rikuya thought that if he finished off the boss of the bandit group here, the bandit group would not be able to recover, and he went to finish him off at once.
“Haaaaaaaaaaa!!” (Rikuya)
“Guu…” (Bandit Boss)
Rikuya used all her strength to launch a fierce attack.
He wanted to kill him for sure, but the boss of the bandits was also on the defensive, but he managed to catch Rikuya’s sword.
“You guys, calm down! Don’t panic! If we deal with them calmly and we are more them, they are not an opponent we can lose against!” (Bandit Boss)
The bandit boss, who was himself engaged in a fierce battle, nevertheless proclaimed to calm his men down.
The bandits regained their composure with these words and began to deal with Takao by facing him firmly.
However, Takao still managed to dodge the enemy’s attacks with his extraordinary reflex speed and then delivered powerful punches to finish them off with certainty.
“Hmph, did you think you could win if you kept your cool? It was a mistake for you to feed Takao. On a full stomach, Takao can unleash 120% of his power!” (Maika)
Just when he thought this was going to work, out of the corner of Rikuya’s eye, he saw a bandit attacking behind Maika. The man has a mace and is running as fast as he can to hit Maica.
For once, Rikuya completely abandoned the fight with the bandit boss and ran with all his might to save Maika.
The bandit swings his mace.
Rikuya arrived just in time and caught the mace that was about to attack Maika with his own head.
“Ah, brother…?” (Maika)
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He took a powerful blow to the head.
A sharp pain runs through Rikuya’s head.
“Big brother!” (Maika)
His brain shook so violently that he lost his balance.
Hearing Maika’s screams, Rikuya fell to the ground.
There was a thumping sensation as if the area where he had been hit by the mace was pulsing violently. He realized he was bleeding when he felt a warm, raw sensation on his cheek.
(We got this far…) (Rikuya)
As he was drowning under consciousness deeper and deeper.
Like a whirlwind of images, his consciousness kept floating in and out, floating and disappearing again and again.
At the moment just when his consciousness fades away,
“Louvent family vassal, Ritsu Muses. Everyone, stay where you are!” (Ritsu)
Rikuya heard such a shout.