THUD

"!?"

Like a poor facsimile of a meteor complete with its own dinky little impact crater, It slams into the ground not too far from where we're standing.

Yahanaseara notices the impact pretty much the second it happens, but thankfully I'm able to block her path before she can actually go to check it out.

"You're better off not looking at that," I say, shaking my head.

"Wait-" she stammers. "Is that-"

"What's left of the fucker who tried holding you hostage, yeah," I nod.

Six-plus feet and two hundred something pounds of what was once a big burly human male, compressed into a tiny sphere the size of my fist.

"And if anyone ELSE wants to try their luck..."

I shoot a glare at the remaining bandits, all of whom are already on their knees with their hands in the air.

"WE SURRENDER!!" they shout in unison.

One, two... of the initial twenty-nine, only seven are left.

Another prime number.

Stupid pattern-brain.

"...do me a favor and keep an eye on them while I take care of something," I say to Yahanaseara, tilting my staff in my former(?) quarry's general direction.

"Of course," she replies.

"And if any of them so much as breathes suspiciously," I add, "feel free to fry them."

"Very well."

With that taken care of for now, I hurry back to the boundary of the Sanctuary that I placed prior to everything going to shit. Not too far past that point, I find the guy who's paying us... who also doesn't appear to have moved a single inch from where I left him.

Convenient.

"Hey," I say, motioning my shadows into a hand-waving gesture before finally dropping the spell. "Crisis aver-"

"Mmmmmiss Brigitte that was AMAZING!" Nils blurts out.

Oh God damn it.

"Despite their massive numbers advantage, you gallantly strode right in there all alone and trounced the lot of them with ease! And in such an artistic fashion, too! What in the world was that spell, was it original!? It was like I was watching a maestro conducting a symphony of the night itself! I am so so so so sorry for ever doubting you, there's no telling what could've happened if you weren't here to protect us! And rest assured, I'll put in a glowing review at the Guild when we reach town, as well as-"

"Alright," I cut him off, "you need to calm down."

"...my apologies."

A deep bow of genuine reverence.

"Anyways..." I heave a deep sigh. "...regarding the current situation."

"Yes?"

"To sum it up, there's seven bandits left. And they all surrendered."

"...eh?"

Great, it looks he wasted his entire word allotment on heaping praise on me.

"Since it's your caravan, it's up to you to decide what happens to them," I continue.

"What... happens to them?" He stares at me for a few seconds. "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said," I sigh. "If you wanna drag them with us the rest of the way to Hovora and turn them in to the authorities, that's fine with me."

"...and the alternative, if I might ask?"

"I put them down right here and now."

Somehow, despite the fact that he's clearly witnessed the violence that just took place here, my declaration causes all the blood in his face to drain in an instant.

"I get how you feel," I sigh, "but I'm also not about to turn a bunch of bandits loose so they can go and victimize someone else."

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"Y-... yes, I definitely understand your reasoning..."

With his previous fervor having completely dissipated, Nils closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

"Even if they're bandits, I still don't..." he mumbles. "...would it be alright if I talked it over with the others first?"

"Go ahead," I shrug.

Having received what I guess he assumes is my permission to leave, the caravan leader scurries off towards the collection of circled wagons where the other traveling merchants are.

As such, I take this opportunity to glance back at the former battlefield.

"......"

As expected, all seven of the surviving bandits are still there on their knees. Considering that more than a few arms out there are wavering, it's clear that fatigue is setting in... but a quick glare from their lovely warden is enough to straighten them back up.

As much as I do fucking hate bandits... and as easy as it would be to just flatten the lot of them right now... they did all surrender.

And while more than a few thoughts involving the various ways that I could snuff their lives out with but the utterance of a single spell do cross my mind, that would just be bad form.

So no, I'll just do my damnedest to maintain my clarity of judgement while the merchants figure out how much trouble they're willing to go through in regards to the lives of those who just tried to murder and/or rape the lot of them.

Fucking bandits.

"...excuse us for taking so long!"

After maybe five minutes of deliberations, Nils comes scurrying on back. Along with three burlier-looking guys who I'm assuming are workers from the caravan.

"Sorry for the long wait!" Nils says, as servile as ever. "Umm, we've decided to subdue the remaining bandits and hand them in to the town guards when we reach Hovora."

"I figured as much," I nod. "And these guys are here to help with that?"

Considering that they're lugging a bundle of rope each...

"They are indeed!" He gestures to them. "C'mon, thank her for foiling that attack!"

"Her?" One of the men furrows his brow and tilts his head.

"Show some respect to the woman who just saved your sorry hide!"

And gets elbowed in the stomach by Nils for the blatant disrespect.

"I apologize for my nephew, Miss Brigitte..."

"'Sfine," I shake my head.

At this point, I'm more than used to it.

Following yet another round of apologies along with convincing Nils to stay behind to maintain his role as the Sanctuary's anchor just in case any funny business is attempted, I bring the three helpers over to where Yahanaseara is still keeping watch over the bandits.

Their first reaction is surprise at seeing this many grown men trembling in fear of what to them is just a cute little girl. And then they look past them at the scenery around us... and all three of them double over and violently retch.

Oh, one guy actually puked. Not that I can blame him, considering that we're surrounded by pieces of assorted sizes of what was once more than twenty men.

I hate that I've been desensitized to this shit.

One glance at Yahanaseara's blank expression suggests that she is as well...

...so at least I don't have to feel guilty about traumatizing her too.

It takes more than a little while for the three laborers to pull themselves back together, after which time I start issuing directions regarding the captured bandits.

Step one is to stand a bandit up and put his hands behind his back.

Step two is to tie said bandit's wrists together with rope.

Step three is to do the same with their ankles.

Step four is to have the bandit kneel back to the ground and tie his wrist-ties and ankle-ties together behind his back.

After repeating these steps six more times, I have the laborers gather them up in a circle and stand back.

"Bubble Float."

With those two words, a watery dome materializes around the bandits. As it slowly rises from the ground, it picks the bandits up along with it until all seven of them are just kind of lying in a jumbled up pile at the bottom of a massive bubble.

I hope it's every bit as uncomfortable as it looks.

Set the altitude at about three feet from the ground, and... there. While this spell is definitely a bit trickier to use when you're not actually the one riding inside it, I think this should cut it.

"Alright..."

I turn to the three men, who are presently staring in awe at my not-so-amazing accomplishment.

"...one of you three gets tether duty," I say.

"Tether duty?" Nils's nephew(?) parrots the end of my sentence.

"Yeah," I point to the giant bandit-filled bubble. "Since I'm not about to manually guide this thing for however long it takes to get all the way to Hovora, I'll be setting it to automatically follow one of you from a set distance away."

"Not it," the other two declare in unison.

"Hey!"

"Looks like it's decided," I say, patting the not-quite-volunteer on the shoulder.

Thus completing the tethering.

"You all can head back to the caravan now, I still need to take care of this," I say, gesturing with my staff towards the carnage surrounding us.

"Ah-"

Visible shuddering from all of them.

"S- sure, thanks again!"

With that, they retreat to the safety of the Sanctuary...

...and considering that the barrier didn't stop the bubble containing the captured bandits, it looks like they really have lost the will to fight.

So the battle really is finally over.

"Haaaaaa~........."

Slumping over, I exhale all the air in my lungs. And with it, all of the tension that was built up over the course of this latest shitshow.

Careless.

Fucking amateur.

If my mother was here right now, she'd beat my ass right out here in front of everyone for being such a moron.

And I'd deserve it.

Even if this bandit gang was a bunch of pathetic scrubs, which they most definitely were, I never should've just waltzed in there like it was some kind of game. It's no wonder that Yahanaseara panicked and rushed in to "rescue" me, I must've looked completely clueless to her.

Hell, I even dropped my spell!

I, Brigitte Martine Fehrenschildt. Daughter of not one, but TWO master mages. Practitioner of magic since the age of five.

Dropped.

My.

Spell.

What in the actual fuck got into me, I learned not to do that shit when I was fucking EIGHT! And then! AND THEN! I was actually careless enough to get disarmed!

I would've been in serious fucking trouble if my opponents weren't so incompetent, I swear to God.

It's just like my father said... a single careless mistake can easily snowball into an avalanche of stupidity.

And the fact that I resorted to using Movements to finish off that one bandit could be considered as yet another incidence of carelessness, too...

...not that I regret doing so at all, of course. Not only did that miserable rancid pile of shit in the shape of a man snatch my staff, he also put his filthy fucking hands on Yahanaseara...

...yeah, he had to Go.

In as spectacular a fashion as possible, if only to show those other fucks what happens to anyone who threatens the people I care about.