Re:START/If {Book 1.0}
Chapter 35: The Rees and Rabe 2 of 5 (Part 02)

Near the city gate of Mylta, the young man with black hair looked up at the rapidly rising morning sun. The people of the city government had prepared with six wooden carriages each ready to be pulled by two horses. Among the five means of transportation, four of them had the cover of skeletons and star skins for people to ride, while the other two were cargo loads containing combat equipment and food supplies.

Preparing with their respective squads, 27 people including Odo and Fiola rode on horse-drawn carriages and prepared to travel on extermination plans. They were divided into five squads of five people each if Odo and Fiola were not counted. One of the squad rode its own vehicles and horses, tasked with guarding the equipment and the rest of the squad consisted of soldiers selected based on their high stamina.

The main gate of the city was opened wide by guards, the sound of bells clanging was heard and quite a number of the townspeople came to usher in their departure. Soon the group was ready, riding their means of transportation with all the goods that had been prepared. After everything was done, the horse-drawn carriage was driven out of the city and the journey for the plan of extermination began.

In the estimates made, the plan will last for two weeks with almost half the time spent on the trip. The plan will be in accordance with the trade route, by gradually eradicating the headquarters of the bandits and moving with high mobility.

Their main points were the speed, total elimination and restriction of the information of the bandits. In other words, the city government of Mylta planned to eliminate all the bandits in the trade route with a single one-way trip. If reviewed, it is indeed quite difficult to completely eradicate all bandits from one headquarters to another with one transit point. But with the review they did last night, the possibility of failing it could logically be lowered as the estimated location information of the bandit headquarters had been narrowed down.

Being on one of the horse carriages with a cargo-like and simple model, Odo sat at the very front end right behind the coachman. Next to him was Fiola and in front of him was Lisia. Daydreaming for a while and glancing a glance out, the young man got an uneasy premonition with the trip that had just taken place.

“What's up, Mr Nigrum?” ask Lisia.

Staring at the woman whose red hair was tied to the cepol, Odo briefly moved to observe him. Lisia was wearing a blouse with a plain brown color and was tied with a halkah shirt, her subordinates were wearing tight black trousers with double short skirts. Seeing the simple appearance of the woman sitting on her knees folding forward, Odo squinted his eyes and turned his gaze toward the soldiers who were in a carriage with him.

They wore light armor, putting helmets on their laps along with their weapons. Little understood what kind of combat strategy they would do without the cavalry later, Odo breathed heavily because he felt it was quite time-consuming later on every bandit base that would be attacked.

“What ... do you want to use how to Plug Charge?” asked Odo while looking at Lisia.

“Do you mean the once lunge barbarian strategy that the navies used when conquering the castle? Why do you think like that?”

“You don't seem to be carrying a large shield or spear, so it's impossible to use Testudo or Spear Box ...”

Lisia smiled slightly got such an answer. Poking a finger, the redhead woman put it in front of the mouth and then spoke in a soft tone, “Salah ... You'd forgotten? We have a newly acquired secret weapon from those people, loh.”

Odo immediately understood what plan they were actually going to do. Given something about the Moloia people who once docked, the possibility of it is not small. Taking into account the number of people who participated in the expedition was not too many, Odo felt that the number would also be right for the battle.

“We also got some more from the incident at the dock, I think the incident was also there fortunately,” Lisia said in a slightly joking tone.

Squinting his eyes, Odo only smiled bitterly because now he could not comment on such a joke. Glancing at Fiola, the blackish-brown-haired girl was not provoked and looked calmer than usual.

Hearing that, some of the soldiers began to take part in the conversation and began to make their comments about it.

“Well, that's right. If the Dragon Killer were here with us, maybe he would be even more useful.

“Haha ha! He's from the Luke family. If he's with us, Lord Dart might come straight to us and give us some more hard training!”

“Really too! So remember when he first returned to this region, it felt like kangen!”

“Eeeh? Isn't that terrible? We are physically trained until the breath is almost broken, youh!”

“Weak basis! Eat it you just put on the archer team.”

Hearing their jest, Fiola remained unreacted and speechless. Even though those people knew that the girl was Shieal, they did not seem to have much trouble with her. Odo began to understand what kind of position Shieal in the scope of Luke's territorial government, he nodded small and looked back at Lisia.

Sighing slightly back, the young man thought, “So, yes .... So it's true that Shieal's influence tends to be strong on non-military alone. For such things still come to the power of the Luke Family. After all Father also his position now is the Supreme General, he has top-level military power after the Royal Family.”

“Mr Nigrum, may I ask you something?” lyia said with a slightly serious expression.

“Hmm, what is it?” Odo momentarily kept unnecessary thoughts, stared at the redhead woman and listened carefully.

“What ... You ever kill people?”

The question made Odo was jolted, he who had been trying not to think about such a thing was warned by Lisia. Although he had killed people during an expedition to the Pando Forest, but it was just like carrying out an indirect attack and he had never slaughtered people. What Odo often slaughtered was a monster, not a being that possessed human-like intelligence and feelings or Demi-humans.

Slightly curious about the young man's answer next to her, Fiola glanced at her flatly and waited for the young man to open his mouth. The Lisia subordinate soldiers also started to get curious, as did the coachman sitting in front. Odo was silent, without regard for the gazes of the people in the wooden carriage that were beginning to be directed at him.

The quiet atmosphere felt, the uneven road made the carriage slightly shake and made the sound the only thing that filled the horse carriage.

“Don't worry,” said the boy as he looked at Lisia. “I won't trouble you. Just focus later and don't mind me. Even though I am a noble child, at least I have provisions to protect myself,” he said with a small smile.

Lisia breathed a sigh of relief as well as a little envy. The woman never killed anyone, she asked like that just to relieve her own heart that began to hesitate to break the sword to the bandits she would fight later. Although Lisia had above average swordsmanship, but what she fought against was only other soldiers who were her subordinates and that was only a simulation of a fight.

Fiola read the contents of Odo and Lisia's heads, understanding what they were thinking and the obvious doubt they had in mind. Closing his eyes at a glance, the Huli Jing said, “If in doubt, don't look them in the eye .... When fighting eye boxes will create doubts, just look at their gestures ...”

Everyone inside the wooden carriage was surprised to hear that, the soldiers began to realize that Fiola was indeed not an ordinary girl like her appearance. One of the soldiers sat down to the Huli Jing, then started asking, “Nona Fiola is a veteran, ‘kan? Is it true that you are also often adventurous and enter the Pary Exterminator Demon that God once led?”

“It was not adventurous, we just carried out the task.”

“Ouh! So it really is you! I guess Miss child figure called the Holy Animal!” said another soldier in the train.

Hearing that, Fiola's brows twitched slightly and he was offended by the misunderstanding. “I don't have any children!” sternly with annoyance. After that, the soldiers started asking Fiola some questions and overwhelmed him.

Disregarding them, Odo only looked at Lisia who looked doubtful. The child understands such feelings because it is also on him, and it will definitely hinder later. A moment closed his eyes, the young man muttered, “Delete ...”

Lisia faintly heard that, raised her face and looked at the young man with black hair in front. Tilting his head a little, he asked, “What did you say?”

“Nona Lisia scared?” ask Odo with low volume.

“Eh?”

“Your Face ..., looks pale ...”

“Ah ..., I'm just a little anxious.”

“What's the problem?”

“I have been sharpening swords for a dozen years to protect the city's residents and become a good leader. But when it came time to use it, it felt doubtful instead .... Although they are criminals, they are still people who live in this kingdom.”

The way the woman looked at the red hair made Odo a little surprised, he began to understand what kind of person Lisia was. Little smile, the young man said, “So, yes .... Miss is indeed a gentle person.”

“Not really, I'm just a coward ..”

Smiling back, the young man said, “Being a coward is important, those who do not know fear will lose many things.”

“But, still ..... Did you not doubt? Not that you are also the first time will do something like this.”

“Consider this world's rules, the unwritten laws of this world.”

“Regulation?” Lisia was a little confused.

“Iya. Think of it like we eat other living things to stay alive .... We kill animals, cultivate them and make maximum use of them. It's been a cycle, if we don't do that we'll die. People like us cannot be like purists, but at least we can be aware that what we do has a clear meaning and reason.”

“Reason ..., yes.” Lisia lowered her face, slightly musing.

“Chicken that is cut in the morning does not die free, they become protein and energy for small families working in livestock that will feed other chickens,” said Odo.

“Hmm, it turns out you are good at stringing words, yes.”

“Not really ...”

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Almost six hours passed since coming out of the gate, did not feel they finally reached the area that is expected to be one of the headquarters of the bandits. It was still within the territory of the city of Mylta, in the forest area before entering the hills and highlands. About a day and a half drive to the outermost village of Rockfield.

Parking the horse carriage inside the forest, the soldiers immediately went down and took their respective weapons. Everyone carried a short sword at the waist, while for the main weapons had different variations based on their type of work. The witches carry sticks, while the hunters carry bows and arrows.

The two scouts who a few minutes ago drove back first on their horses, the two people riding on one horse were from the cargo carriage control squad. Immediately down, one of them said, “They are there, a distance of about 600 meters in front .... As expected, the bandits knew we were coming. They're hiding in the trees and ready to scuttle us.”

“Hmm, then we start the plan,” said the Head Warrior.

Immediately they began to docked based on the squad that had been determined before leaving. The number of soldiers was only 15 people including Lisia, while the hunters were only five people and the witches were also five people. In the division, the entire squad numbered five with provisions of each number of soldiers three and hunters and witches one.

Three squads served as light infantry for frontal attacks, while the other two were gunners tasked with assisting the main squad in attacks. The witches immediately cast spells, giving camouflage magic using sunlight to make the soldiers hard to see in the snowy white zone. The magic is only valid within five meters of the user.

Lisia entered into three infantry squads, then rushed into the forest on both sides of the road to attack from different directions. For the other two squads, they went deeper into the forest and set themselves further away from the headquarters of the bandits to aim from behind the trees.

Together with the two firing squads, Odo and Fiola observed. They do not fall into that division category, the two include a biased factor in the plan and serve as the opening attack.

“We go first,” Fiola told one of the witches from the firing squad. Together with the young man in black hair, he ran towards the bandit headquarters which was visible from behind the snow-covered forest trees.

The headquarters was on the right side of the road used by trade routes, Odo and Fiola who had turned around and were behind the headquarters observing the storm. There were several bandits guarding the tree tower, looking out toward the street alertly. Waiting for a moment and observing, Odo and Fiola immediately prepared themselves and gave the signal to the firing squad to prepare.

“Feuer .... Anfangstructure. Gebildet ...”.

Odo extended both hands forward, then began to activate the Magic Core and magic circles began to appear before him. Mana is processed through the change of properties into red lightning, then directly fired towards the bandit headquarters. The thunderbolt hit one of their cabin buildings, burned quickly and crept up the tree tower. It was not just one or he was struck by red lightning, but in a row and made a fast fire fence at the headquarters built within the forest trees.

The bandits panicked at the sight of the flames coming after the thunderous sound of explosions. At the same time, the infantry squad that had been ready from earlier immediately came out of the range of camouflage magic and charged towards the panicked bandits.

Even though they knew that the opponent was coming and had prepared with weapons, they were still not comparable to those soldiers. Before the bandits guarding the frontline could swing weapons, they were slashed and annihilated easily. The soldiers also entered the base through a path that was not devoured by fire.

Following the attack, the firing squad began advancing to the point where Odo and Fiola were. Having prepared with the axes that had been ignited and making use of the positions that tended to be higher than the headquarters, they aimed and shot at the bandits with shotguns. The sound of firing created horror amidst the flames in their headquarters, making the bandits collapse mentally.

Although the firearms used are classified as ineffective because the soldiers who use them are poorly trained and only affect a few people, but the sound created is the main effect of the use of these weapons. The tone of destruction from the fire made the more numerous bandits think they were being attacked by a large army.

Odo and Fiola did not attack, they were tasked with overseeing the bandits and making sure no one escaped in the attack with the aim of extermination. Seeing one by one the fallen were hit by the slashes of the sword and hot lead, the black-haired youth just stared flat with a cold look.

The hunters who climbed to the top of the tree began to fear the sight, as did the unusual witches who saw such a bloodbath. The sound of screams, moans and requests for mercy was heard from the headquarters that was burning in the middle of the snowy forest. Because of the magic Odo uses, the existing fire will not be extinguished and continue to propagate unless the young man releases his magic structure.

Climbing up one of the trees, Odo watched closely. When he saw that there were some bandits who escaped the flames that were made to fencing with his magic, Odo pointed directly at the bandits. Understanding the command, Fiola immediately used a physical enhancement technique and dashed towards the blurred bandits.

Looking at the other side, there were also some bandits who were trying to escape by crashing into the flames. Seeing that, Odo murmured, “Yeah, if I magnify the fire ..., can-can the children of Lisia and his men come to the roast.”

The young man made a palm-sized magic circle with his right hand, channeled Mana and started to turn it into red lightning and focused it on the index finger. The red lightning formed several small balls like shotgun bullets, orbiting around his arm and moving to the index end. Holding his right hand and holding it steady, Odo immediately aimed at the target with his index finger.

“Blitz Bullet.

Poutz!

One ball of lightning bolted from his fingertips, and within a distance of over five hundred meters hit precisely the chest of one of the blurred bandits. Seeing his comrade suddenly fall down, several other bandits came to a halt. Odo closed his eyes at a glance, corrected the calculation of the firing line and stored the attack data into Auto Senses.

“Blitz Bullet .., Auto Mode.”

In the same way, the young man shot out a red lightning bullet and finished off the bandits one by one with no hesitation at all. That he did by using internal magic calculations, does not mean he always aimed one by one the bandits. What the young man did was just pull the trigger, directing his index shot was Auto Senses.

While firing through the heart of the last bandit to escape, the young man looked in a different direction from the burning base and found the other bandits fleeing from the flames. With a red lightning bullet from his fingertips, he aimed and executed them very calmly. Always on target on the chest somehow far distance that exists as long as it is still visible to him. Odo is after the heart for some reason, it is central to the vitality of living things and makes it easy to lock on to the target.

Seeing the young man on top of the tree firing magic continuously, the hunter and the magician accompanying the firing squad were stunned. The two magicians below were amazed to see him not chanting at all while using the magic, whereas the two hunters who climbed on top of the tree and saw what the young man was actually doing began to tremble. Every time the magic was fired, it was always on target and took one's life. The hunt even undoes the intention of pulling the bow, then looks at the young man with cold sweat pouring out.

Before the day was truly afternoon, the annihilation of the first bandit headquarters went very smoothly without any casualties. The wounds suffered only in the form of incisions and abrasions of infantry squads that attack directly, besides that there is only minor damage in terms of equipment.

Odo's fire was extinguished with its ability when the sun began to set so as not to be conspicuous in the middle of the forest, leaving only red coals that quickly extinguished as the snow began to fall. After making sure the bandit headquarters was flat on the ground and no one escaped, the soldiers dragged the corpses of the bandits to one place and burned using the blue flames of the witches that did not cause thick smoke. It took quite a long time until the corpses that numbered in the tens were completely cremated and turned to ashes.

After finishing and resting until the magicians' stamina returned, they returned to the horse carriage to prepare the tent. But when he saw the pile of bandit weapons lying unused, Odo chose to wait on the spot when people returned to the train to make a tent to spend the night and rest there.

The reason was very simple, the young man wanted to loot all those weapons and put them into the Dimensional Bracelet. Realizing later that there will be suspicious and protest with the action given the soldiers tend to be idealistic and full of a high sense of justice, Odo wants to outsmart him. He drew a magic circle on the ground with a twig, then covered it with cloth and stockpiled it with a pile of weapons of the bandits that the boy chose from the pile.

With a satisfied face, he returned to the tent that the soldiers had made. They had lit bonfires, the hunters were cooking with big pots and preparing dinner. Despite having just fought, seeing corpses and blood flowing, the soldiers did not look depressed at all and casually ate food.

In contrast to them, the faces of the mages from the Miquators looked pale and they looked a little reluctant to eat the meat soup served by the hunters.

Seeing that her master had just returned, Fiola who was sitting with them felt suspicious. He who had been chasing bandits to and fro had no time to watch over the young man during the extermination. Waking up and about to ask the young man, but when he saw his big smile Fiola undo the intention because he immediately understood that his master was planning another complicated thing.

In the morning, the sun began to rise but was still blocked by cloud cloud cloud so it looked a little dark. They prepared, tidied up the tent and put it back in the cargo hold. After having breakfast with the rest of the cooking last night, they resumed their journey.

Odo was in the same horse carriage as when departing, but this time sat at the back end and away from Fiola and Lisia who were sitting near the coachman. Some of the soldiers wanted to ask the reason. But upon seeing the young man's innocent smile, they undo the intention of feeling that there was something they should not know.

When it was far enough away from the bandit's pedestal that had been leveled to the ground, Odo extended his hand out of the carriage and began to activate the magic he had installed last night.

“Load Circle, Take All!”

The magic circle that Odo left behind at the bandit headquarters began to glow, active and seeped into the fabric. The structure of dimensional magic was active, then engulfed the weapons stacked on it into the storage dimension on the cloth. Soaring into the air, the cloth flew rapidly towards the main key signal emanating from the Odo Dimension Bracelet.

The fabric floated very quickly, making the snow scatter in the wind. In less than half a minute, the cloth arrived and went straight into the black bracelet at the youth's showpiece. The soldiers, Fiola, and Lisia glimpsed at the incoming cloth, feeling puzzled and astonished.

“What ... that, Mr Nigrum?” ask Lisia.

“By-by ...” Odo looked at the woman, then smiled lightly and said, “Don't worry, just my frown. This does not harm, kok.”

Hearing these words, the soldiers on the carriage slightly recalled the talk of the hunters last night after the extermination. They were talking about the black-haired youth using deadly magic and slaughtering the escaping bandits.

One of the soldiers tightened his seat, then asked, “You turned out to be a witch, huh?

“Hmm, indeed.”

“What have you studied at Miquator?”

“More or less ..”

“Eeeh, what magic can you use, Mr Nigrum?”

“Only lightning and fire elements.”

They actually began to shower Odo with questions. But what came out as the young man's answer was almost entirely a lie. Although Lisia could not read minds like Fiola, but she knew it very well. The red-haired woman began to feel envious of Odo, then looked at her own trembling hands.

At the time of the first clearing of the headquarters yesterday, he slashed over five bandits with his own hands. The sensation of his sword cutting through flesh and bone was still palpable, the blood flowing as if it could not disappear from its shadow. Looking towards Odo talking intimately with the soldiers, such signs were not on him.