Chapter 10

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“So, here is the new ambush route. We will take on this path now.” Nora said as she pointed at the street. We don’t have a map, but Nora and Matheus seemed to have memorized every possible path connecting the city to the neighboring country.

“Okay. We will wait here the whole day?”

“Well, yes..” Nora said, unsure of herself.

“What about food?” Lily parrotted my first question to her. Unless the caravan is full of food, we would starve. And even if it was full of food, we needed to sell most of them to meet our quota for the land the other nation promised us.

“Well, it was difficult with the two of us back then. But with more weapons now, we can ask others to hunt, right boss?”

“Hmm? They are already doing it. Don’t worry. We just fucked up last time because there were no weapons. We still need swords or other sharp things to kill juvenile moss boars.“ Matheus said as he was surveying the area. I asked Lily about our status, but since she has never looked at her actual status, she left it all to me. I decided to put an equal amount of STR and Dex. Since we don’t have magic, the decision was easy.

A carriage then appeared. Matheus went to work mode all at once

“Stop. Leave everything behind and go! He said as he swung his giant sword to intimidate the carriage.”

“I-I am a friend of Baron Glon! If you don’t want to make enemies with the Count Albert of Verundra… I suggest you l-leave!.” The merchant stuttered as he replied, but Matheus only ordered his men and us to scavenge his carriage.

“Don’t kill him. Leave a minimum of valuables for him, and then we leave!“ Matheus said as we robbed the merchant. The merchant was only with a guard, so the guard gave up without a fight. Lily and Nora stayed behind and guarded against possible monster ambushes.

“Hmm… we don’t take the spear from the guard?” Lily asked Nora.

“If we take them, they might die from some wild monster after all.”

“I thought there would be a party of adventures, five or ten people strong guarding a trade merchant,” I whispered. Lily then parrotted my question to Nora.

“Hahaha! We aren’t strong enough for that kind of activity….” Nora laughed.

“I will report this to Albert, and Silvester will hunt and put your heads on pikes! Leave now, and I will forgive this transgression!” the merchant shouted, but we ignored him.

Patrick then unloaded several boxes and examined the contents before taking them. Then he smiled. “Jackpot!” inside, we found Silk, several raw gemstones, Iron bars, and a bag of coins. There are also a lot of other necessities such as soaps and tableware. This merchant has some random goods with him. I wonder what his main trade is? General store? Raw material seller? Jewelry stores? I can’t tell.

“W-wait… I will give you all the coins. But please don’t take the Silk and gemstones. I will go bankrupt at this rate!!” He screamed as he pleaded with us.

“Well, if you go bankrupt, we will welcome you to our group. We are the Pirate Band of Gaia!!” Patrick laughed as the other bandits also laughed with him

“Is it our name?” Lily parrotted my question with a cold voice. It seemed the cringe hit her as well. Pirate? In the middle of forests? Nora looked at Matheus for a second, and he just looked the other way. Let’s leave it at that.

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“Hmm?” I noticed something in the distance.

“Knights!” Nora said.

“Men! Grab the loot and run into the forest!” Matheus said. He also ordered us to stay behind since we needed someone to stop the knights. Two knights guarded a carriage. as soon as they saw us, they drew their blades.

“Help me! These bandits tried to rob me!!” the merchant said.

“Wait! You need to protect my carriage first,” the other merchant said.

“They are running away with my wares! Chase them!!”

The knights were confused as to which order they should follow. However, since their employer called them to stay, they stayed. We took the chance to run away with the loot as they screamed at each other.

“Whew. That’s a good haul. I didn’t know what would happen if we fought those knights!” Nora said.

“Hmm. If those knights are from Verundra, I doubt they will be able to do much. I believe Lily would be able to best Saldrak or Cain now if she had my assistance.“ I muttered. This group is a bit too cautious. I bet we could overwhelm the knights and take custody of the other carriages as well.

“Okay, now we haul this to our rendezvous point. We can sell the goods there.” Matheus replied.

The rendezvous point was far. We walked slowly since we had to guard against monsters. Only when evening comes, we finally get to the rendezvous point. There, a young man walked towards us.

“Hello, Matheus. How’s the spoil today?”

“Hello Jack, Today we hit the jackpot. Look! There are gemstones. And then, in these piles of gemstones, there are mana stones!” Matheus said while looking excited.

“Great!! This will, of course, count toward your contribution. I will prepare the lands for you in about 3 months. How’s that sound? Of course, if you can get more loot like these ones, it will also speed up the process.”

“About that… I am sorry, I don’t think we can last that long in Verundra… you see, we heard rumors that Silvester is gathering knights to hunt us. So, is this not enough? Maybe we should raid different territory?”

“Hmm… I see. I knew this would happen. I will tell my father about this. You may camp around here for today.“

“I see. Sorry, Jack. But Silvester might be hunting us next week. So we can’t live there anymore.”

“Is this information credible? How do you know about it?”

“When Silvester is about to hunt us, some trolls killed the second child of the lord. His beastman slave managed to run away and joined our group. Her collar is off, so we are sure she is not lying.” Matheus said.

“I see. Trolls are supposed to live much further in the north. Why did those beasts go near human settlement?”

“Apparently, some hunters are fleeing from it.”

“I see. Thank you for the information. I will see you tomorrow."

“Thanks, Jack. I am sorry that I could not contribute more…” Matheus said.

“Yeah. I will meet you tomorrow.” He then left while his servants carried the boxes. Somehow I don’t have a good feeling about this. I don’t think I can trust nobles in this world after what they did to Lily and Nora. I wonder if other nations view demihuman differently. We might have to leave this group and go to other countries altogether.

The group then hunted some wild boar nearby and roasted it today. The group was cheerful as their dream of owning lands and becoming a legitimate citizens was finally in sight.