Chapter 3 - Raiding Bandit’s Hideout
I should say, my scout team is the cream of the crop in my army. I only give them modern army training methods and other basic scouting that I know of from movies, novels, and YouTube videos and here they are, becoming a pro at tracking and stealth missions. They managed to find the cave where the bandits made their hideout in no time after finding a rather obscure broken branch that turns out to be a track the bandits left behind.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that the others from my army are not capable. It's just that my scout team pretty much acts like a special force team from the modern world so I can’t help but have a bit of bias toward them.
Thanks to them, we managed to reach the bandit’s hideout in no time.
As we are lurking around the cave entrance, we noticed that there is no one guarding it. There are donkeys tied up on trees and a few wagons around the cave entrance so we know it is the bandit’s hideout but there is no one in sight. We could hear battling noises from the cave though.
“So, what kind of situation do you think this is, Leon?”
“Well, it is most likely that there is a fight inside. And it is between the bandits and the innocent people that the bandit captured. That, or they already caught wind of their main group capture and are scrambling to escape while carrying as much loot as they can”
“Both scenarios put the bandits distracted then. It's the perfect time to ambush them”
“Then shall we, young master?”
“You are the commander. I will follow your command in combat”
“Acknowledged, young master. Everyone, move out”
We are talking in whispers to avoid the bandits inside from noticing us. Leon also gives commands in whispers while making hand signals to attack. He spearheaded the scout squad inside the cave. What am I doing you ask? I am guarding the entrance so that no bandits could escape. I have my ‘stun gun’ magic to incapacitate anyone after all.
So I go find a hiding spot near the cave entrance to ambush anyone trying to escape after I watch Leon and the scout squad enter it.
*Leon POV
It’s been a few years since the last time I raided a bandit’s hideout like this. Was it when I was 12 or 13? Anyway, there has been no bandit activity around Gold Castle, the city where we came from, for years now. Young master has been very zealous in exterminating them so he could get more pocket money to pay us who are working for him. And the result of that is a safe city for everyone to live in. Although he can just ask his father for money, young master chooses to earn it himself, well, with the orphans and Earl Stadford's private army’s help that is.
Back then, most of the loot that we got from raiding the bandit’s hideout was taken by the Earl’s private army. They did most of the work after all as their fighting power is above us, orphans. But young master could keep all the loot for himself now as we are the only ones doing the work. Well, knowing young master, he would share some coins with the troopers of Milo's army. But I will make sure young master’s coffers are satisfied. Oops, fighting spotted ahead, I need to focus.
“We are the knights of the kingdom! Bandits! Raise your hands and surrender or face the hammer of justice!” This is just a bit of flair to make the bandits fall into panic. It would be good if there are some actually surrendering under the pressure.
“Nyanya!? Kingdom knights? Quickly help us nya! We have wounded people here!”
Looking at the source of the voice, I immediately see a pair of beast race women fighting a group of what I assumed were bandits. The owner of the voice is a cat woman with white hair and accompanying her in battle is a dog woman with black hair. The cat woman uses her fist and claws while the dog woman uses a wooden stick to fight. There are also some other people who are fighting the bandit group but they don’t do as well as the beast women duo. We need to quickly help them.
“Troopers! To battle! Neutralize them!”
“““Sir! Yes sir!”””
The bandits' formation instantly turned chaotic with the 9 of us ambushing them from behind. I could see with a glance that the bandits are outnumbered. With the prowess that the two beast women showed, the captives might be able to win the fight but the casualties would be huge. Most of the captives seem to be non-combatants after all. Fortunately, we arrived on time. The bandits could be swiftly subdued.
*MC POV
The fighting sound from the cave gradually quieted down. I could see Leon walking out of the cave while sheathing his buster sword. Yeah, Leon uses an oversized sword as his weapon choice. He chose that weapon because I told him about the story of another buster sword user in the past. That character wished for a weapon that could destroy his enemies while also could be used to protect the people he loves. Thus that character chose the buster sword. A sword that could crush enemies with its weight while its broad central ridge could be used as a makeshift shield in a pinch. Leon is also inspired by the story to pick the buster sword and he worked really hard so he could wield the sword normally. That might be how he managed to reach tier 2 knight while I could only reach tier 1.
“Reporting, young master. We have neutralized all hostility and rescued the captured innocent. There are two unusual captives that rallied the other prisoners to fight the bandit to free themselves. They are quite the fighter and do not seem to need our help when we arrive but the other prisoners are not as tough so there are quite a few wounded from the prisoner’s side. We need your help in patching them up, young master”
“Good work Leon. What kind of unusual captives do you mean? And I assume the bandits have some healing supplies we could use?”
“They are two beast women with decent fighting skills. And for the healing supplies, that is correct, young master. The captives have prepared them all inside. Young master just need to concentrate on patching the wounded”
“Alright. Prepare the wagon and the loot in the meantime. Gotta go patch the wounded”
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“This way please”
Yeah, being the boss, everyone always refuses my help in this kind of post-battle situation. I insisted on helping patch the soldiers when they were wounded once in the past and I did a good job with my past life knowledge. Thus my main job post-battle is mostly to give first aid to the wounded when there is not enough hand. I still get refused when there are enough people though.
And it also does not mean I can do healing magic. As I said before, my magic is based on modern science. I can only use the 4 basic elements which are water, fire, wind, and earth. I can also do things with light and electricity. But in the light element case, I can create and manipulate lights on the illumination side only. So yeah, no healing magic for me sadly. If I can do healing magic, there is a lot of pain training that I could do.
Anyway, gotta concentrate on giving first aid to the ones in the worst condition. That guy got shanked in the guts. That guy got bad bleeding in his armpit area. Bad bleeding bad bleeding bad bleeding.
“Hey, can anyone please help those that have bad bleeding here? I’m going to patch them!”
There are a few people with bad bleeding. The one that got stabbed in the stomach is also critical but the one with bad bleeding is in urgent need of first aid as they will die if they lose too much blood. They are easier to handle so I choose to help the people that have a bad bleeding wound first.
Several less wounded people help the one with a bad bleeding case to approach me and I immediately take action. And that is by casting freezing touch on the wounded area. Yeah, the frost would hurt the wounded a bit but their bleeding is instantly frozen. One technique of mine has been tried and proven on many occasions.
The people who are watching me in action are surprised to see me using magic. Well, can’t blame them for that. Mages have a high position in society after all and not every day you see a mage heal bleeding by freezing them.
Freezing the wound is just a makeshift act to stop the bleeding. I still need to suture the wound later but I need to handle the critically wounded person first. The one with a stab wound in his stomach.
This kind of wound might turn out to be an impossible wound to patch if the internal organs got damaged. Especially if the knife severed the intestines inside the stomach. Thankfully, I can use magic now. I pour my mana inside the wound so I can ‘see’ the situation inside and just as I feared, the poor man got some of his intestines severed by the stab. It is not pretty at all inside there with digested food and internal bleeding mixed together.
I immediately started working on the stab wound. I freeze any form of bleeding and leaks from the intestines. Freeze the blood and digested food mixed juice and take them out. And start suturing the wound, connecting the severed blood vessels and intestines. How do I suture the severed blood vessels and intestines? Well, I can’t do fancy things with my magic but I can do some degree of telekinesis with it. Combined with my mana detection, I cut a part of the intestines or blood vessels into a thread and use that to suture the wound. When I first have this idea, I need to concentrate really hard as my workspace is less than a centimeter but it is getting easier the more I practice my control on my magic.
Besides suturing the organs inside, I also need to suture the open wound outside. The same as before, I use my telekinesis to cut a part of the patient’s skin and use it as a thread to suture his wound, add some healing salve, then cover it with bandages and I am done giving him first aid. Even if I make it sound easy, I still need a few minutes to finish the procedure. A few minutes would make the one with the bleeding wound bleed to death. That’s why I stop their bleeding first before handling the critical patient.
I swiftly give first aid to all the wounded starting with the one that wound I have frozen before. I followed the same steps as before, suture their wound, apply some healing herb, and close it with bandages. The one with bruises only got a fistful of ice to cool down their wound and I am finally done with the injured person. And with perfect timing, Leon also comes back telling me that they got everything packed and ready to go. So we immediately departed from the hideout to gather back with the rest of the army that should also be done processing the main bandit group.
My trooper and the healthy released captives help the wounded to get on the wagon. Each wagon has been fixed with a donkey and the loot has also been packed on it. The bandits have been tied up together in a line to prevent them from escaping. There are also several released captives moving under my trooper's command to surround the prisoner to watch over them.
In the first place, the number of captives is far above the number of bandits that are left behind. That was also the reason why the two beast women dare to try breaking out from their prison. And speaking of the two beast women.
“You healed the wounded person? That’s great nya! I thought someone would die because of my reckless idea”
A fluff of white talked to me after quickly approaching me. When I take a better look at it, I realize that it is a cat girl with white hair.
“So it was indeed you who spearheaded the prison break. I can’t exactly praise your action which brings danger to other captives but thanks to your action, my trooper could quickly neutralize the distracted bandits”
“Uuu, I thought it was a good chance to escape since their number is less than us”
She said that while having her cat ears dropped down. Damn cute. Need to resist patting her head.
“Well, things turn out fine this time so don’t blame yourself too much”
“Yes! Thanks to the kingdom’s knight we are saved nya!”
And now her ears return back standing. Did it really show how she currently feels? That is really easy to read. And we are not the kingdom’s knights strictly speaking but whatever.
“Anyway, help us transport the prisoner and the loot to our main group. It is safer there with the rest of my army”
“Okay, nya! By the way, my name is Moon. and my friend here is Night”
The cat girl introduces herself as Moon and I just realized that the other beast woman is also standing close to her. She seems to be from the dog family so a dog girl. She has long black hair that really matches her name. She seems to be the silent type from a glance.
“Nice to meet you Moon and Night. My name is Emilio Stadford, a younger generation from Earl Stadford house. It is my pleasure to be your acquaintance”
“Nya!? You are a noble!? I-I am sorry for being impolite, sir noble!”
Now her tail stands up just like when a cat feels threatened. She really is easy to read.
“We are still in the field. There’s no real need to mind our manners here. We better make haste and return to my comrades first and we can talk more after that”
“Euh, what was that again, Oh, right. Sir! Yes sir!”
Moon immediately dashes out toward the prisoner to help watch over them while Night only gives a simple nod before she follows her. Quite the unique duo, those two.
Anyway, we start moving back to the main group. My trooper threw out some of the loot from the bandit hideout, namely the low-quality food that is used for prisoners. It is burned together with the few bandit corpses that got killed in the caves. The usual policy is to not give the monsters food to limit their population.
We got a lot of meat from the monsters that attacked us along the road after all so there should be no problem feeding this additional group along with the hundred bandits we captured before. Food is rarely a concern in this isekai world, monsters are. Monsters breed quickly because of mana and we need to thin them out from time to time to prevent their population from reaching an uncontrollable level. And from that subjugation process is an almost infinite amount of meat that people can get… if they are strong enough, that is.
Anyway, I made a killing today. Selling those 100+ bandits as slaves would give me quite a lot of coins. Though I don’t intend to sell them all, I need a lot of manpower for my plan in the capital. I might hand over some that have bounties on their heads and the uncooperative ones but I might just turn them all into my slaves.
There’s also the loot from the bandit’s hideout. I will return most of the captives’ stolen wealth but I think there is still a sizable amount of it. And I am returning the stolen wealth not because I am a good person, no sir. I need the renown. Simply, being famous as a good person is a value of its own in this middle age society. It will definitely help me in my future endeavors.
Soon after, we managed to rendezvous with my main group. Jane welcomed me back and immediately served me some tea while also giving me the post-battle report with the main bandit group.
Time for some rest, I guess. Especially for the freed captives that have just experienced a battle earlier.