Chapter 2 - Common Plot, Bandit Ambush
It has been 3 weeks since I got permission from my father to become a mage. I am currently on the road traveling toward the capital city White Castle.
Of course, I am escorted by my private army and maid companion. Traveling in this isekai world is simply dangerous. Not only are there bandits, but there are also monsters here. Having a capable escort is a must.
This group of soldiers is indeed my private army because I hired and trained them myself when I was around 6 or 7 years old. At that time, I went to the local orphanage on a whim and ended up taking all the kids there to my home because the orphanage condition was just awful. I was looking for playmates but ended up with retainers.
I keep adding more orphans as my retainers since then. I give them housing, clothing, food, and training. Of course, I also give them martial training. My motive in helping them isn’t purely philanthropic. Many stories have the main character as a lonely hero who fights everything on their own like Superman. But that is not my royal road. That is just a recipe for poverty and lonely death if your plot armor isn’t strong enough. Humans are social animals after all and I want some companions on my long journey.
So I made them kids soldiers.
Child labor? Exploiting orphans? Maybe. But I was also still a child at that moment and I also gave those orphans hope for a better future. So who knows? It’s not like I treat them like slaves either. Heck, I will even give ‘good’ treatment to slaves too. I am a transmigator from Earth. I know the basic rule of investing in other people.
And it’s not like I force all of them to become my private soldier either. Still, I force them all to train in martial arts for the sake of self-defense. But not all of them ended up as my private soldiers.
Some were trained to become merchants, some trained to become craftsmen, and some were trained to become farmers. But all of them have also trained to become a spy.
That’s right, a spy.
Well, although I didn’t explicitly mention that they are going to be a spy, I just instructed all of them to gather as much intelligence as they can. Knowledge is power! And even more so in this backward civilization.
While I am still absorbed in my musing, a voice suddenly called.
“Would you like some more tea, young master?”
“Thanks, Jane, I’m already full. Get my armor ready. I want to have some exercise to help digest my lunch”
“As you wish, sir”
This cool and calm beauty serving me here is Jane. Her long black hair is tied in a double bun and she looks like a successful career lady with her sharp expression. If only there were glasses here, her looks would be perfect. Sadly, I never found any glasses in this world. Anyway, she was one of the orphans that had become my retainer and now she becomes my head maid of some sort. In the shadow, she is actually the head of my intelligence units a.k.a spy unit. I used to tell her story about a combat butler and maid when we were still a child and it seems that she really adores the contrast between being a mundane maid in the day and a cold-blooded assassin in the night that she offered herself to become the manager of the intelligence unit.
In the short moment when I was daydreaming about the past, Jane had already helped me wear my armor. The armor is not a fancy one. This armor is more of a training weight after all so there’s no need to make it fancy. In fact, the design is similar to what the ordinary soldier in my army wears. Just a bit heavier as I am already a tier 1 knight.
I walked out of my carriage and started marching along the caravan. And someone suddenly calls me from behind.
“After meal training again, young master?”
“Of course Leon, command the troops to follow”
“As you wish, sir. Troopers! Double time, march!”
““““SIR! YES, SIR!””””
“Seeing the troops in high spirits always fills me with pride”
“It is our honor, young master”
And yeah, I should introduce him too. This guy is Leon. He also came from the orphans' group before. But he is really talented in the art of fighting and is very handsome. Like, very handsome. Just imagine a handsome Caucasian boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He could become the main protagonist of a fantasy story himself if he wanted to. He has the brain, the brawn, and the looks. He is simply a perfect guy. But still not as perfect as me who has the advantage from my previous life… I know, I know. Don’t push the fact about the curse to my face. I am still anxious about that, okay?
While I jog forward silently, I saw Jane getting off from the carriage with her training suit. It seems that she is also eager to join the training. Yup, having the perseverance to keep training every day is the key to becoming a powerhouse.
“Joining the fun, Jane?”
“If I’m not disturbing you, young master”
“Of course not. Let’s race then!”
“It’s my pleasure, young master”
Ah. Jane used to be so cute before. But after learning about the combat maid and knowing how important it is to have strong control over one's own emotions, she became like this. Well, it’s not like her cool and calm side doesn’t have its own charm but I sometimes missed the old her, that’s all.
The caravan then picked up their pace to follow me for a while. It feels nice to sweat a bit and feel that you are getting stronger. It’s just that the situation around is not that good to go full throttle in training. As I said before, the road is filled with danger. Must keep some stamina left to face anything that is wishing harm to us. And speaking of the devil…
“Chirp chirp chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp chirp”
“A message from the scout? Leon, handle it”
“Affirmative. Troopers! Forward, march!”
“Young master, I will prepare the carriage for the encounter”
“Okay Jane, do your thing. Leon, I will also mix in with the troops. Ask the scout the situation”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Okay, young master. Tweet tweet tweet tweet”
Yeah, I used bird calls as a secret code to deliver messages in my army. It worked great as most areas along the road are still wilderness untouched by man civilization and wild birds are everywhere. Monsters and beasts do not pay attention to bird calls most of the time. As for bandits and other sentient races, they would sometimes suspect the bird calls but there’s no way to decipher them so the bird call technique is still passable for alerting the main body of any danger approaching.
“Reporting, young master. Bandits. Around 100-strong. In the choke point up ahead”
“Well, damn that's twice our number. Anything else?”
“There is one person suspected to be a mage mingling with the bandits”
“A rogue mage? Well, indeed it will be hard for any ordinary bandit group to reach 100 men strong. It would make sense if the leader is a mage. Leon, get the troops ready”
“Affirmative. Troopers! On alert! Forward, march!”
The caravan returns back to walking speed again after Leon’s command. The troopers are getting into high alert formation. They don’t seem nervous about facing the imminent battle because they have gone to battle a few times before.
100 bandits and probably even more in their hideout. Time to earn some money then. Why am I and my army not afraid of the bandit group that is double my army number? Well, aside from we already aware of their ambush, as I have mentioned before, my troopers are not weak. Heck, my army might be even stronger than the kingdom’s regular army. I am the one training them after all.
After a while. The caravan finally approaches the choke point that the scout has reported before. The road is actually sandwiched by 2 hills on both sides and there are some large rocks littering the hills. I should say that it is a perfect place to ambush people but too bad the surprise has already been spoiled and we are fully ready to intercept. We still act like we are unaware of the ambush and march on without taking out our weapons.
We kept marching forward until the high pitch sound from several arrows flying toward us could be heard. The arrow rain is coming at us from the hills on the left.
The soldier immediately intercepted the arrow with their shield. We have succeeded in receiving the enemy’s ambush without any loss.
“Ambush!”
“Troopers! Defensive formation!”
““““Sir! Yes, Sir!””””
The soldier and caravan immediately move around. And in quick succession, all the soldiers are now covered by the four wagons in a loose box formation. An instant fort suddenly appears to block the bandit's advances. And the soldier started to retaliate back with the repeating bow that a certain famous YouTuber made in my previous life.
“Hahahaha. Raining arrows on my enemies just never felt dull. Don’t forget we are trying to capture those bandits alive. Try not to aim at lethal areas”
“As your wish, young master”
I can’t help but let out a laugh that imitates that YouTuber when he gleefully plays with his ‘toys’. It is indeed an exhilarating experience.
This repeating bow is actually just a bow and a magazine box put together. It can shoot fast because of the magazine box feeding arrows to the bow. Crossbow style handle and trigger system also make the shooting process more stable which increases its accuracy. The arrows needed are also shorter than the usual arrows so the enemy could not pick up the shot arrows back. The only downside is the longer loading time needed to fill the magazine but that’s where volley firing tactic comes to play.
The enemy seems to be frustrated because they could not do any effective damage to us while being under constant arrow rain and the magician hiding amongst the bandits starts attacking.
That’s good. Usually, a normal bandit group would scatter away after being showered with arrows but as they have a mage, they got some blind courage backing them. Soon after a ball of fire can be seen flying to our position.
“Magic attack!”
That was a call I taught my soldier to cry out when they notice a magic attack. Just think of it like when modern soldiers scream “sniper” when they notice one. It’s a good way to warn fellow soldiers of possible threats.
“Cover me! [Intercept]!”
I cast a spell to block the enemy’s magic. The name might be fancy but it's actually just a wind magic fly swatter. I condense the air to make an invisible screen and swat the magic that is still flying on its course. The condensed air fly swatter hit the fireball and it exploded midway, preventing it from harming anyone.
“There’s the mage. Snipe him!”
A hidden mage is a threat but an exposed mage is a target practice. The archer just needed to suppress him so he could not cast any magic.
“Young master, we have confirmed all the hostiles’ positions. We can start to round them up with the scout unit as back up”
“Yes, take care of the rest, Leon. I will get my magic ready to haul them up”
“Affirmative, young master”
Well, the bandits are all grouped together on the left hill. Although it made them a big group to fight, it eases our defense as we only need to focus in one direction.
The bandits’ morale started to tank. When my soldiers started to rush out with their shields, some of them started to run as the mage that I suspect was their leader finally got downed by an arrow. But they are surprised because there are also people with the same uniform as the soldier chasing them on their backs.
That was the scout unit. Their main objective now is to delay the enemy and prevent them from running. With the delay provided by the scout unit, the rest of my soldiers managed to encircle them. Okay, time for me to do my job I guess.
“Clear the front! … [You Wa Shock]!”
After I screamed that command, the defender in front of me quickly moved away to give me a clear shooting position. Don’t want to do any friendly fire, especially with magic. After the front is cleared, I let out my magic. And I just can’t help screaming the magic name. My body is still that of a boy and my soul will forever be that of a boy, okay?
Anyway, that is my large area-electric shock magic. Yeah, yeah, the name is an old meme but this magic is just a glorified stun bomb with almost no lethality so a grand name will be wasted for it. Also, using words like lightning or electric is also a mouthful so ‘You Wa Shock’ it is.
The theory of this magic is that I pulled the electron, the negative charge in an area towards me then released it. The area where the electron got pulled out became filled with positive charge and as I let go of the negative charge, it created an electric jump toward the affected area. By analogy, It is like pulling a rubber band and then releasing it. Still, because I have to pull electrons from a large area, I need a long time to prepare the magic so I need my soldier to cover me.
As the bandits have been trapped in one area, my AOE magic could do its work perfectly. Almost all bandits entrapped received my ‘You Wa Shock’ attack and they are now spasming on the ground. Leon immediately commands my soldier to capture everyone. The few that managed to evade my magic got ganged up by my soldier and also got captured.
I let my soldiers clean up the aftermath while I return to my carriage.
Inside, Jane was already waiting for me with a cup of tea.
“Good work, young master”
“Thank you, Jane”
Jane congratulated me on the successful bandit raid. Well, I’m not particularly working hard for that but whatever. At least I could earn some money from the bandits. I just gave an order to Jane to help clean up the aftermath. And by cleaning up, I mean to help look for the injured and give the overall report on the battle.
A while later, Jane comes back with the battle report. A few of the scouts got wounded when they tried to block the enemy from running away and one guy stumbled on a rock and hit his head but it was nothing serious. We barely had any losses. On the other hand, a few of the bandits died because of the arrow rain and the enemy magician also died from being trampled by his men when they tried to escape. Poor guy. Try to become a good person in your next life, okay?
There were also some wounded bandits that managed to survive so we gave them first aid to prevent them from dying. We are going to sell them as slaves after all.
Jane also reports that Leon had successfully interrogated the bandit to give information about their hideout. That is great. More loot. And almost undefended to boot.
I told Jane to give my order to Leon to immediately find the bandit’s hideout. What is that? I am already rich so why bother with bandit’s loot? My friend, no matter how much wealth one has, one will always wish for more. Especially if you have your own private army to feed and arm. I need reasons to give my trooper bonus after all.
I only take 9 people with me. Leon and all the scouts that are still healthy. I only take a small team with me because the rest of my army needs to tend to the wounded and watch the bandits. They would also be responsible for cremating the corpse of the bandits. Undead is a thing in this world and monsters would also approach areas with decomposing corpses. So the corpses need to be disposed of quickly and the easiest way to do it is to burn them.
And moving with a small team will also allow us to move faster. Gotta make sure the bandits guarding the hideout don’t run away so we need to go fast.
Well, away we go to raid the bandit hideout then.