"Thank you for letting us stay here."
Austina bowed to them in gratitude, and Aozora follows. The village chief and his wife just smiled at them.
After that, they turned to the merchant.
"Please take care of us!"
"That should be me saying that."
While the two of them are talking, Aozora goes to the cart and sits on a clear space before opening the Status within her vision. Nothing really changes on it so she just shrugs and closes it again.
"Are we going now?"
"Yes. Let us depart then!"
----------------------------------------
She is not liking this ride. Half an hour after their departure, she is already becoming sick. The road, despite being flattened dirt, are still too bumpy for her that she is feeling the bile rising on her throat.
'I didn't thought it would be this bad!' She felt so dizzy that she wanted to lie her head.
She can only lean her body on the cart and it is still uncomfortable. She is trying different positions but the discomfort are still staying. It is just causing her to be more dizzy.
Austina is besides her and trying to comfort her by letting her lean on her shoulder. She is also rubbing her back and trying to soothe her discomfort.
"Hey! Didn't thought the lady to be unused to this."
"Mr. Sherman. I apologize for this."
"Nah! Don'tcha worry, I can just stop the ride and let her rest."
"... What do you think, Milady?"
She barely processed what they are talking about but she managed to made a dissatisfied grunt, which Austina easily understood.
"Let us continue."
"Oh... if ya fine with that..."
They moved through the roads in silence, the only sound being the loud clops of his horse and the wooden wheels rolling on the dirt. The sound of nature is barely audible, but it's presence still pronounce. The birds chirping at each other and insects making noises are a bit prevalent on this parts.
Despite all of this, Aozora is busy trying to empty her mind. She felt it is helping on her headache somehow.
"Stop!"
Then Sherman quickly lashes out at Austina's serious tone, causing the horse to stop. "What is it?" He turned to her in surprise.
"I felt some hostile intent. They are coming to us!" She leaned her Master to the side before going down and gripping the handle of her blade in her waist. "Show yourselves!" She bellowed.
A silence, before some guys walks out behind the shade of the trees. They numbered on eight, easily outnumbering all of them.
"Bandits!"
One of the crooks, a bulky looking person who doesn't wear anything on his top, steps forward. His eyes focused on Austina's form and he licks his lips.
"Hey lass. It would be better if you come with us peacefully. We'll make sure to give ya a good time!" He made an unpleasant laugh, and his compatriots joined at it.
She unsheathed her blade and exposed the beautiful crimson make of her sword. It is a wonderful blade that is decorated beautifully. It's like the blade is a work of an artist instead of a craftsman. Despite that, the blade looks sharp and tough as it's point glinted on the sunlight.
"I have to decline on your offer."
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"Oh? Playin hard to get eh?" He made some hand gestures. "Welp, we'll get rougher then!"
With that as a signal, all the bandits brandishes their swords and axes.
Austina turned to the merchant. "Please look out for my Master!" After that, she dashes to the outlaws.
"Okay!"
Sherman is quickly on the move. He took a short sword lying besides his seat and unsheathed it. Then he grips it strongly while looking around him in wariness.
As the battle occurs, the incapacitated Aozora suddenly saw something new in her vision. A floating panel suddenly popped up in her vision showing an overview of the battle.
She saw Austina quickly getting in front of a bandit and striking him down with a single slash. Then she moves on and slashes another one. He tries to block but the handle of his axe was easily cut in half, and bisected him at the same time.
After that, the remaining six just managed to snapped out of their stupor and quickly move to encircle her.
Austina smiled, seeing their focus solely into her. She made sure to cause havoc as much as possible.
One guy tries to attack her with an overhead slash, which she easily dodges with a sidestep before countering with a swipe. It easily cuts through his abdomen. Another goes behind her and also did an overhead strike, but like having an eye on her back, she managed to parry and deflect his sword. This causes him to lose his balance, which she immediately took advantage of and cut off his head.
Another two tries to attack her in a pincer. One with a sword and the other is with an axe. She easily made quick work of them by spinning, doing an arc that both bisected them.
One bandit and the guy on the lead is the only one remaining. The bulky man glared at his remaining men, which causes that guy to rush at her in a panic. She easily kills him with a single stroke of her blade.
"Impossible!" The remaining bandit exclaimed, fear taking his heart. "I thought only low level people are here, why is there a monster like you here!?" He tries to take step back as cold sweat drops on his cheek.
"My apologies, but I don't answer to scoundrels like you!" She kicks the ground in a burst of speed, quickly appearing in front of him. With a quick swing, his neck parted on his shoulder.
She swings her sword, taking the blood out of it before she slowly sheaths it back. Then she walks back, returning to their side.
While that is happening, Aozora saw some fanfares happening within her game.
> [YOU WON]
It's a familiar font that she always sees when winning a stage on Princess Saga, though the written message is different. It should be "Stage Complete" and not "You Won".
"!?"
Her eyes widened after seeing something important. In her Princess Saga panel, she can see that the Gold Coins (Basic Currency) increases and she now have a total of 54,000. Then her Princess Gems increases and she now have 80 of it.
'What's the meaning of this?' She wonders.
As her mind is still preoccupied, Austina came back and checks up on her before she smiles. "Thank you for looking out for her!" She politely bowed to the merchant.
"Ah. I didn't do anything so there is no need for that!"
Austina nodded. "By the way, what should we do about that?"
"Hm. We can leave them be."
"Are there any rewards for them?"
"Yes."
"Then how would we proved that I killed them?"
He gave her a wry smile. "You don't. It can be easily verified on the checking station."
"Checking station?" The princess tilts her head, an imaginary question mark floating on her head.
"It's the entrance checkpoints for any towns and cities. They have a magic tool there that can check whether you are lying or not."
"Ooh! Then it is not necessary to take them then!"
"Of course."
Satisfied, she hops up and sits besides her Master.
Despite their conversation awhile ago, she is still focused on the sudden changes of her currencies. Her eyes focused on the Princess Saga panel.
'Is this because my summon killed someone?'
It is the only viable explanation. There are no changes even until this day. Only when she finished dealing with those bandits that she suddenly acquired the Gold Coins and the Princess Gems.
'Right. I also have to check on that!'
She changed the screen mentally and goes to the panel that listed all of her idle games. Looking below, she sees that she have 56,000 EXP in it.
"This...!?"
"Milady, what is wrong?" Austina is alerted, hearing the gasps of her Master.
She shook her head. "It's nothing. I just thought of something."
Austina looks at her in worry before trying to wrap her head with a hug, much to her surprise. "Don't worry Milady, I already took care of the scary people." She pats her head while making some soothing sounds.
"That's not it!"
Her protest were solely ignored, her mind forcefully being taken out of her focus about her system.
----------------------------------------
It took them until afternoon before they finally arrived at the next town. There are no more mishaps that occured on the way.
Going down the cart, Aozora is still feeling weak but she is grateful that she can step on the ground again.
'... But I have to ride on it again...' She shuddered in terror.
This is the town of Chloe. A town they need to passed by before getting to their destination.
Though before that...
"You need to get to the Adventurer's Guild. You won't have to pay the fees if you have their ID."
That is what Sherman told them. He is the one who paid for them to get inside awhile ago.
"Thank you for your consideration. So, where is the Adventurer's Guild?"
"Glad ya ask! Follow me!"
Austina tries to walk behind him, but she saw her Master being pale. "Mr. Sherman." The guy stops and turned at her. "I think we should find a place to sit first, just to let My Lady to rest for a bit."
"Oh. Good point. Sorry bout that!" He scratches his head.
With that, they decided to take a sit on some plaza and wait for her to get better.