Chapter 42 :

Chapter 42 - Thieves and Jing

“Stop right there, you thieves!!!”

To think he would experience being treated as a thief for the first time in his life thanks to someone.

If Jing let his guard down, his tear ducts, loosened by age, felt like they might burst open.

“Both that side and we are thieves, so can’t we just knock them down?”

Feeling as if his own head might burst because of that certain someone, who was saying outrageous things while fiddling with the sword at his waist, Jing diligently stretched his legs.

“Thieves? The only thief here is you!”

Watching the young man running alongside him with a shrug, Jing wanted to tear his hair out.

He had to shake off this hopeless young man quickly.

* * *

After climbing up a leafy tree to avoid their pursuers, Jing looked at the black-haired young man who was watching the situation with him from a tree across the way.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, Ratel met Jing’s eyes expressionlessly.

“Where did those thieves go?!”

From below, the voices of angry men searching for Jing and Ratel could be heard.

The ominous-looking blades in their hands clashed together, making a chilling sound.

“Damn it, just let me catch them. I’ll make sure they never walk on their own two legs again.”

A large, bald man who seemed to be the leader punched the massive tree trunk Ratel had climbed.

Ratel looked down at the bald man as if he were about to pounce on him from above.

Jing shook his head rapidly at Ratel, quietly but strongly conveying his desperate wish that he not do that.

Fortunately, after seeing the old man’s frantic gesture, Ratel quietly stood there holding onto the branch.

After thoroughly searching the area, the group seemed to conclude that the people they were looking for were not in this section and disappeared into the distance.

Only then could Jing and Ratel climb down from the trees.

“If we can kill them all anyway, why take the difficult path?”

As soon as both his legs touched the ground, Ratel asked Jing.

“Because I’m sane. Because I’m sane.”

At Jing’s answer, filled with lament, Ratel tilted his head as if he could not understand.

“If you’re sane, wouldn’t it be convenient to kill all of them and make sure the ones who saw us earlier can’t run their mouths carelessly either?”

Feeling his head go faint, Jing looked at the young man who spoke such cruel words as if they were nothing.

“...... How old did you say you were?”

“I am probably eighteen.”

Good heavens.

As expected, only his body was large. He was completely a child.

Just how did the priests of Amica educate children?

Jing pressed a hand to his forehead as he recalled the face of the sly old man.

Jing remembered the moment he had grabbed Ratel, threatened the elder, and been wrapped in the unidentified light that the elder released.

Because of the dazzling radiance that surrounded him, along with the laugh of some unlucky person, Jing could not open his eyes for a while.

By the time his stinging eyelids settled and he could open his eyes, the sight spread out before him was a forest of endless green grass and dense trees.

What remained to him was a heavy leather bag full of stones, a single sword, and one unconscious young man.

It was absurd that he had ended up coming out like this, but Jing was relieved by the fact that he had escaped Amica’s space anyway.

He thought all that was left was to return to the ducal house.

He sat Ratel against a tree along with the sword.

Since the other party was so large, Jing had used quite a lot of strength when knocking him out, but for him to still not have regained consciousness?

Was his body weaker than it looked?

He was a little worried, but he had no intention of waiting there until Ratel woke up.

Once he regained consciousness, he had a sword, so he would surely manage to return on his own.

As the person who had knocked him unconscious, Jing did not feel entirely comfortable leaving Ratel sitting there like that, but he did not want to clash and fight with a fellow who had not even a hair’s breadth of respect for the elderly.

Most of all, the last thing that unlucky old man had said bothered him.

—I mean, take good care of that child.

—The child’s name is Ratel Roera. He eats well if you feed him, so do not worry.

Those words had sounded as if he were entrusting a child to him.

He already had too many things to resolve.

He no longer wanted to be involved in anything related to Amica.

Still, in the sense that he should at least not catch a cold, Jing covered him with a cloak and left.

Although it had not been a very good relationship, he hoped the young man would find his own path well.

Of course, if he had known that he would encounter him surrounded by ruffians one hour later, he would never have done that.

* * *

The path out of the forest was not that complicated.

Seeing that the road people used was fairly well maintained, it did not seem to be such a remote countryside corner.

While that reassured him, in one corner of his mind, the worry that it would inevitably become a difficult journey if he had to travel a long distance also lingered.

He had not known he would end up setting off empty-handed like this.

Because he had come out suddenly, he had nothing useful on hand.

Aside from these damned stones he kept carrying around because he somehow felt he should not throw them away, he did not even have a decent weapon.

First, he needed to get out and find a village.

He had to return to the capital quickly and meet the young duke and Tollin.

Since he had died after handing over the position of family head, there should no longer be any justification to hold the Feedus family guilty, but just the fact that the previous duke had offended the imperial family and died would bring no small amount of suffering to the people left behind.

At the very least, he had to go somewhere he could obtain news of the capital......

“Hand over everything you have!”

What stopped Jing, who had been walking busily, was a rough voice faintly heard through the bushes.

It was a bloodthirsty statement that did not suit the beautiful forest scenery.

And following it was a familiar voice that should not have been heard.

“I have nothing.”

“I think I’ve said that quite a few times, but even though you have no hair to cover your ears, it seems you are hard of hearing.”

At that calm tone that made one’s insides burst, Jing squeezed his eyes shut.

If that fellow woke up, he should have gone back. Why was he still in the forest?

Soon after, the angry voice of the other party, enraged by Ratel, echoed through the forest.

“Are you mocking me by calling me bald right now?!”

“That’s right! Our boss is voluntarily bald! His hair didn’t fall out!”

It seemed the other party was even bald.

Jing sighed and quietly moved in the direction of the sound.

If it had been one or two people, perhaps, but he could sense the presence of quite a number gathered there.

If he had not known, that would be one thing, but Jing knew that if Ratel, who had ended up coming into the forest because of him, fell into danger, it would leave a bitter aftertaste.

Turning slightly from the direction he had originally intended to go, he left the densely grown bushes, and a small clearing appeared.

Jing hid behind a fairly thick tree.

As expected, among a fairly large number of people, one black head and one shiny head were sticking up.

Ratel was looking at them indifferently with a bald man, who was a head taller than him, standing in front of him.

It seems Ratel is not the only victim.

Jing thought this as he saw several people kneeling a little distance away from Ratel and the ruffians, their hands and feet tied and their faces turning pale.

It seemed that ruffians were committing robbery in the forest, and Ratel had gotten involved in the situation.

“Boss, he looks fine on the outside, but he seems to be lacking upstairs. Let’s just kill him with the others and take that sword.”

Perhaps Ratel, who was spouting nonsense despite being surrounded by around ten people, did not look normal after all, because the bearded man beside the bald boss said this.

“Y-young man, just hand over the sword and come over here. At this rate, we’re all going to die.”

Among the people sitting there, a man who looked quite old spoke to Ratel in a trembling voice.

Ratel briefly looked at him, then looked back at the group of bandits surrounding him.

Perhaps knowing that the silent Ratel would not hand anything over, the fellows began drawing their vicious-looking weapons one by one.

“If you don’t want to be sliced up piece by piece, hand over at least that sword at your waist while we’re still asking nicely!”

Contrary to his words about asking nicely, the bald boss raised his battle axe high, and the rest of the remnants also raised their weapons.

Jing grabbed a stone from his bag and kicked off the ground.

Even barehanded, small fry of that level were opponents he could fight.

But contrary to Jing’s goodwill, he had no chance to step in.

Ratel dodged backward from the battle axe the boss swung and kicked the dirt hard.

“Gaaah!”

While the bald man staggered as muddy soil mixed with grass and moss entered his eyes, Ratel drew his sword and swung without hesitation, and the bald man’s weapon split in two and dropped powerlessly to the ground.

“Ugh!”

The bald boss retreated as the shallowly entering blade grazed his chest and made him bleed.

“What the hell is this bastard?!”

Among the flustered men, some hurriedly swung their blades, but even those urgent movements were far too slow compared to Ratel.

Without giving Jing, who had intended to help, any chance to step in, the ruffians fell to the ground one by one.

On the face of the boss, who had fainted while clutching the wound on his chest, there was anger and fear.

At that level, there is no need to worry.

Jing awkwardly put the stone he had been gripping back into his bag and had to continue watching the situation.

“Good heavens, he wasn’t just an unlucky fellow, he was a savior!”

“Young man, please untie us!”

Hope appeared in the voices of the people who had been captured after Ratel’s unexpected victory.

Jing too felt relieved at that heartwarming scene and tried to turn away.

“Aaagh!”

“Y-young man, why are you doing this?! Aaaagh!!”

But the flustered screams that soon followed grabbed him again.

What entered Jing’s eyes when he turned around was Ratel expressionlessly knocking out the bound people one by one.

What is he doing right now?

After knocking all of them out like that, Ratel leisurely approached the fallen thieves and searched their pockets.

It was an extremely familiar and swift movement.

Since Jing was not the type to show mercy to criminals either, he had no intention of blaming Ratel for that.

The problem was that Ratel was also reaching into the pockets of the unconscious ordinary people.

“No, what are you doing?!”

Jing forgot that he had been hiding and jumped forward.

“Ah, you were there?”

“Yes, I was here. I saw everything from here! Including what you are doing right now!”

Even while speaking to Jing, Ratel was diligently collecting the pockets of those whose hands and feet were bound.

“Stop doing that!”

“Why?”

Jing snatched the people’s wallets back from Ratel’s hand and shoved them back into the pockets of the unconscious people.

At Ratel’s truly puzzled question, Jing was dumbfounded.

“Why are you robbing those people’s wallets?”

“Because they have quite a lot of money?”

“Aren’t they ordinary civilians?”

The black-haired thief, who was worse than the bandits, tilted his head as if he could not understand.

How in the world did that elder raise this child?

“I don’t understand why Jing is so angry. Did Jing not do something similar to me?”

“That is.......”

Jing, who had knocked him out and threatened the elder, was momentarily at a loss for words.

Jing let out a sigh and untied the ropes binding the limbs of those people.

“That is a different case. You are not a civilian, and I was a prisoner. It is not right to steal money from innocent civilians......”

“Ugh.”

Just as Jing was about to continue explaining step by step, the large bald man regained consciousness.

Opening his eyes with a groan of pain, he discovered Jing and Ratel standing awkwardly.

His gaze lingered on the pockets in Ratel and Jing’s hands, including those of the thieves.

Fire blazed in his eyes.

“So you were in the same line of work!!! Look at these bastards with no professional ethics!!”

His furious shout was loud enough to wake the others.

The fellows who regained consciousness one by one seemed quite humiliated by the fact that they, who were also thieves, had been robbed, and chased Ratel and Jing with fire in their eyes.

* * *

And so, having reached the current situation, Jing took his hand away from his forehead and asked Ratel.

“Why did you not go back? Were you searching for me to capture me?”

“It is true that I was searching for you, but I did not come to capture you.”

“No, why were you searching for me? If you are worried that I will go around telling people about it, there is no need. The one who let me out was that elder!”

As Jing spoke with large gestures, Ratel quietly looked at him, then raised his hand to calm him down.

“Actually, that is the problem.”

“Why is that?”

When Jing asked with raised eyebrows, Ratel lifted the sword hanging at his waist and answered calmly.

“I cannot return to Amica’s space. It seems the path is blocked.”

Jing felt his mind go blank.

In his head, someone’s unlucky voice echoed faintly.

—I mean, take good care of that child!

That damned elder.