Chapter 414: Imouto 5

Then, Red Oath rests leisurely in the tent.

Unlike the villagers, Merlina-chan’s parents are thankful. Even so, they didn’t invite the girls for a meal.

…No, they aren’t bad at all. Well, if they were watching the treat last night, they probably didn’t think it was necessary

There are no poor people who donate to the rich, and few would even try to give top-ranked chefs some amateur meal.

Except for those who are lovers and families, or who are very enthusiastic…

It was just that.

「Ooooh!」(Merlina)

…Then, as Merlina-chan heard Mile’s “Japanese Fukashi Talk”, she was amazed.

Yes, as expected, Merlina-chan’s parents also had the feeling that they had to say thanks to the girls.

From last night’s situation, they thought that the Mile’s groups seem to like playing with children, so they exempted Merlina-chan’s work for today and told her to go play with the girls.

Of course, Mile is greatly delighted!

The same goes for Maevis, who longed to have a younger brother and sister.

Pauline remembered when she was taking care of her younger brother, Alan.

Rena, who wants to be embraced by others like the feelings he has for Telyucia (Leader of Goddess’ servant).

They didn’t show their emotions like Mile did, but everyone was happy with Merlina-chan.

That’s why everyone is relaxing…

「It’s kind of noisy outside…」(Pauline)

As Pauline says, it seemed to be noisy somewhere away from the tent.

There are only a few cases where there is noise in such a rural village.

A peddler’s wagon has come, an injured person came to ask for aid, a powerful monster came to attack… or the bandits appeared.

And considering the past event, of course this time must be…

「Here they came」(Maevis)

Yes, as Maevis says, it’s “those guys”.

The bandits that the girls have been waiting for are coming

Yes, and for that, Red Oath is sitting here waiting for them.

… While playing with Merlina-chan.

「Let’s go (Iku wa yo)!」(Rena)

「「「OOh!」」」(Mile’s Trio)

And with Merlina-chan, four girls of the Red Oath are coming out of the tent.

…For safety, and not to show the cruel scene to the loli, should they leave Merlina-chan in the tent?

No one was thinking of such a thing.

Mile’s group showed Merlina-chan the harsh and cruel reality of “living in this world” so that she could live without the Red Oath in the future… so they didn’t stop her.

Besides, if they leave Merlina-chan in the tent, they can’t show her their “cool parenthood”.

Then they can’t get her praise, respect, admiration.

Or after seeing the villains being defeated, she can’t run toward the girls and hug them “Are you okay? I’m sorry worried”.

…Yes, Maevis, Rena, and Mile were full of expectations.

But Pauline alone didn’t seem to have such an idea.

「The sale amount as a criminal slave will decrease, so please don’t hurt them with site defects or aftereffects!」(Pauline)

…However, she was full of other ideas…

Mile’s group responded vigorously to Rena’s “Let’s go!”.

However, they didn’t just jump out of the tent, they gently tidied the tent up while watching the situation.

Yes, so far they only saw the bandits gripped Merlina-chan’s hand.

As for other “nuisances against the villagers”, they only heard stories one-sidedly from the villagers.

Yes, Red Oath is in a stalemate which they can’t act freely just yet.

Yes, the girls didn’t receive any request from the guild or villagers.

What if those men aren’t really bandits but just some punks.

Then Red Oath would attack violently on innocent people and detained them. That would hurt their reputation, they might even get punishments from the guild, country.

They can’t convince the judge that “we heard from the villagers” when the defendants saying “there is no such fact” or “Did you just attack us without hearing any evidence from us?”

Even if the girls said “They were about to kidnap Merlina-chan” they can object with “We are just playing with the kid. In fact, was she kidnapped or injured?”

Or even further with “You are just villains who excuse innocent people into bandits and try to sell us as criminal slaves”

They might have caused some nuisance to the villagers and the lack of money but that wasn’t enough to make them “Bandits”.

They demanded something from the villager and the villagers gave them to avoid trouble aren’t that much different from some drunkards demanded more wine.

So…

「Apparently, it seems that they change plan to “reap” now.

It’s clear that their attempts to kid Merlina-chan have become known to the villagers. So they can’t keep the minimum line of harassment.

They seem to have abandoned the plan “taking minimum food and drink from the villagers”」(Mile)

Apparently, as Mile says, the bandits seem about to rob some cash, young children, females, and kill other adults.

In order to make villagers obligingly give out cash or money, they will take away females and children who still have commercial value. They won’t mind killing people they deem worthless.

This is still a little weak evident.

For Mile’s group, they could only say that “we were attacked!”, and it’s not strange that people fighting each other. But They can’t let the bandits commit a crime to capture them. They need the “fact”.

In that case, they just need the bandits to admit that “fact”.

「 What’s happening?」(Pauline)

Pauline speaks to the dispute between the thugs and the villagers at the right time.

After all, Pauline is the best at the delicate timing around here.

Well, there can never be an agreement between the thugs and the villagers, so Pauline just aimed at the right moment to cut off their words.

「What are you (teme-tachi)?」(Bandit)

「Ah, you are those girls yesterday」(Bandit)

It seems that some of the thugs were mixed with those of yesterday.

Well, all of them seem to have come this time around, so it’s understandable that they are mixed…

Yesterday, maybe they thought they couldn’t win if their opponents were newbie hunters who were about the same number, that’s why they escaped immediately.

As expected, they are all coming today. Since there are 16 to 17 people in total while the hunters are only 4 people and two people seem to be minors, they thought they could win easily so they have a proud attitude.

Besides, the appearance of Red Oath in this place was convenient for them as well.

They may think that Red Oath is the hunters who were hired by the villagers to fight them, the villagers’ last hope and means to oppose them. If they can defeat these girls, they can do whatever they want.

Of course, they would expect the villagers to resist. But if it’s just villagers oppose them, then villagers may at their wit’s end, maybe there aren’t anything worth here. But when the villagers hired hunters, there are chances that villagers have hidden goods and valuable things. They just need to defeat the girls, the villagers’ means to fight, then the villagers will surrender and obey them.

…In face, they can just kill everyone after robbing everything, there’s no witness.

Yes, it’s necessary to avoid news spread to the next village or the country.

Yes, the next village only knows that “a group of bandits suddenly attack, kill all villagers and rob everything” while they only get harassed by “some punks who demand food and drink”. The villagers won’t suspect them.

And of course, all members of Red Oath look good. If the bandits can defeat the girls without killing, they can have their way with the girls and sell the girls off as illegal slaves for a good price.

So…

「Catch ’em all.

Don’t hurt them as much as possible, the price will drop!」(Bandits)

Of course, they will say such a thing.

There are just 4 newbie young female hunters.

It would be easy to catch the girls and show the overwhelming difference in power to the villagers.

The bandits were so confident in their victory that they didn’t consider to take the villager as hostages.

Because it was a means to fight in the fight you can’t win.

The bandits can’t make the villagers feel fear with such an underhand tactic even if they kill the villagers…

And the result is…