“Your party specializes in guarding merchants as well as nobles, right?” Cyne asked Patry while shifting uncomfortably. “Got any tips for enduring these lousy carriage rides?”

“You just gotta roll with it," Patry shrugged. "With our rank, we usually ain't riding in high-tier carriages. But yeah, even for our standards, this one is particularly subpar.”

The two D-rank parties had been cramped together within a cart for nearly an hour. Presumably, the client had procured it from a local peasant in order to save money.

"If we're lucky, the client might let us have a breather soon," one of the Sword Believers chimed in.

"True. But you'd think that noble could've tossed us a pillow or something, like for that job we did a while back."

"Ha, you mean that one from half a month ago?”

(Ah. Is it my cue to blend into the background...?)

“That’s right. It was the young noble girl who had insisted we each get a pillow."

"Oh yeah, the kid with the bizarre hair. Hard to believe she’s now an adult.”

“Huh? There’s no way she is. Wasn’t it her brother’s coming-of-age ceremony?”

“No, Carl’s right," Patry said. "As surprising as it sounds, the girl was the older one.”

Flushed with embarrassment, Iris had no choice but to silently sit through the adventurers reminiscing about their past expedition.

Eventually, Cyne whispered to Iris. “What’s wrong? Your face is red.”

“I… I’m fine.”

“Ah, I think I’ve got it.”

(Oh no, did he make the connection?!)

"You're just too bashful to admit all that bumping is getting to you, huh?" Cyne produced a jacket from his bag. "You can use this to sit on if you want. It isn't much, but it's better than nothing."

(... I should have expected it, by now.)

“... You're exactly right. Thank you."

Just then, a whistle pierced the air. It had come from Patry, who looked alarmed.

“From the East! A carriage just emerged from the woods! Likely bandits!”

“Here? Why?! This road isn’t even used that much by merchants!”

(Another mission that goes south… Maybe Melis was right about Cyne?)

“... What’s that look for, Iris?”

“... Nothing.”

“To be clear, whatever kind of rumors you heard about me, I’m not responsible for this! Bandits don’t just spawn like insects!”

“Sure…"

('like insects'... Don't tell me folks here believe in the spontaneous generation of insects... Well, I suppose it was Pasteur's experiments that contributed to disproving this concept on Earth. Should I give lectures on biogenesis...? Maybe I could write a book about this and publish it anonymously?)

“Whatever is going on in your head, stop it!” interjected Cyne as he grabbed Iris' arm. “Focus on the fight that is coming!”

"Ah, um... Yeah."

Still far away, the carriage was quickly approaching. To make it worse, next to it, there were brawny men on top of mounts. The carriage’s driver… was also a brawny man.

(Isn’t this a lot?)

A heavy silence fell over the group, their laughter from a minute ago replaced with grim expressions. The Sword Believers began to discuss their options, their voices low and strained.

"There are about twenty of them, And I’m not even counting the ones who might be in the carriage… This is way too many..."

“We have a chance if they’re not too well-trained at the sword!”

“What if they are actually skilled? They are at least four times as many as us!”

"What's your plan, then? Wave the white flag?"

"What choice do we have?! If we fight, we're most likely dead. If we do surrender beforehand, they should spare us after taking our weapons!"

"I’m not surrendering,” Patry said. “The client’s a woman, so they wouldn’t let her go."

"What can we do about that? She would not hesitate to send us to our deaths if that meant she could escape! I don't want to die for a noble!"

(Huh… Was it what he was thinking while guarding my family too?)

Half of the Sword Believers were thinking of surrendering without putting up a fight, even though it would certainly mean that their client would be enslaved.

Although Cyne knew they were probably right about their slim odds of winning, he didn’t like how they were openly discussing this in front of a female adventurer.

"Hey, do I need to remind you that Iris is a woman too? Will you let her be enslaved as well?"

"... Well, what do you suggest then, Cyne?!"

“Just as Patry said. I’ll fight. You can just do your job and guard the client. You can surrender if we’re killed on the front.”

“...”

“Iris,” Patry started, “You can stick with them and keep an eye on the client.”

“No way. I’ll fight too.”

***

“Well, they’ll arrive in a minute now,” Cyne said as he worriedly looked at Iris. “Is your baton really a good weapon?”

“It’s perfect. I needed something both sturdy and blunt to fight with only concussive force.”

“Gotta ask… Have you ever killed someone? By that, I mean an individual from any humanoid species."

“... I haven’t.”

“Thought so. The very idea of choosing a non-lethal weapon to subdue an enemy without killing them says a lot about you.”

“Like what?”

“That mainly shows that you value life, and I think that’s respectable. I myself would prefer to render them unable to fight without taking their life," he said with a bit of melancholy in his voice. "Plus, defeated bandits earn even more when they’re alive.”

(That last part is your main reason, isn’t it…?)

“However,” he continued, “Sparing a bandit’s life shouldn’t come at the price of your safety or that of a fellow adventurer. Sometimes, you have to kill a bandit to save an innocent life. Be aware that they’ll definitely try to kill us as soon as we resist.”

“Just so we're clear, my concussive weapon can become lethal with a bit of magic. The whole idea is to reduce the risk of killing by accident. I don't particularly value the lives of worthless criminals."

“Choosing a weapon that restrains your destructive power... You sound awfully edgy and confident. Are you sword-proof as well?”

(I-I don't want to hear this from you!)

“Well, for the last part, I might just be. We’re about to find out.”

"Wait, really?"

(A blade that can’t apply its work should be as harmless as a training sword. Now the real question is, will I be able to drain the energy fast enough? I’ll need a denser armor than usual.)

As soon as Iris put her hand on her pendant and breathed in, all the approaching mounts braked at once, which made a few bandits fall from them.

(... I forgot about this. I guess even animals who never use their mana veins can feel this.)

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Looking at the bandits, one of them appeared to be unconscious on the ground, while another had apparently stabbed his own leg with a dagger as he fell. The third fallen bandit had stood back up but seemed to be limping a bit.

(That… wasn’t very fair play of me. Wait, is the one who isn’t moving dead? Not even ten seconds after I said I wanted to reduce accidental deaths…)

“That sensation… You did this, Iris, didn’t you…?” Cyne tried to confirm, which made Patry look at Iris with round eyes.

“Um… In a way? I didn’t use any magic on them yet, though…”

Unsure about this strange collective behavior from their mounts, the other brawny men came down and finished the short distance with their own feet.

The leader of the bandits, a brute with a scarred face, stepped forward with a smirk on his face.

"Well now, youngsters! Your best bet is to surrender. We promise to go easy on you."

Cyne smirked back at him, a cold glint in his eyes. "After seeing your pals tumble off like idiots, I feel like you lack a touch of credibility."

The leader's smirk turned into a sneer. "... Forget what you saw, they're still young. Anyway, there is no way the three of you could take us on."

A quick survey of his men seemed to bolster his confidence. His gaze fell on Iris and he let out a scornful laugh. "And you've got a kid adventurer with you! Ain't that cute! Bet you guys are E-rank."

Cyne's eyes looked at Iris, noticing her body trembling. However, he couldn’t tell if it was from fear or anger. Her fingers were curled around her baton so tightly, they were nearly white.

"Pretty sure she's a girl!" a voice rang out from among the bandits. "Decent face, too. She'll fetch a good price on the market if we leave it intact!"

"Last chance," the bandit leader warned, a dark smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Drop your weapons, and we won't harm you."

In the blink of an eye, his smirk vanished, replaced by a look of confusion. He was staring at the adventurers standing before him, but only the adult ones were there. Before he could utter a word, a sharp crack sound reached him, and he let out a blood-curdling scream.

"AAARGH!! What the...?!" He looked down at his leg, which was now bent at an impossible angle, the bone jutting out grotesquely.

A soft voice rang out at his left, "O-oh... So this much is too much..." Standing next to the now-falling leader, Iris looked at her baton, which seemed to be manipulated with ease despite its size and weight.

Doubt and fear grew among the bandits at the sight of their agonizing leader.

Iris was a bit surprised about how quickly they had become wary of her. From the looks of it, some were even suggesting retreating. She honestly expected them to deceive themselves and say things like ‘the child got lucky, that’s all!’, but they were in fact quite level-headed. For human traffickers and quite possibly murderers, that is.

One of the bandits decided to slice at her with his sword in a panic, but she slipped away from his grasp with an agility that defied her small size and widened the gap between them. Apparently, these men had given up on the idea of not damaging the good. Their survival and freedom were apparently more important than profits now. Most likely, they would not hesitate to go for the kill.

With that, the battle had begun. Cyne squared off with one of the bandits, and Iris immediately smacked him from the side with her wooden weapon. Based on the sound it had made, one or two bones had broken.

In search of her next target, her gaze locked on a big and rotund figure in the distance.

(That one looks tough. Is he the powerhouse?)

With a forceful contraction of her muscles, she explosively propelled herself toward the round bandit. Then, gripping her baton like a bat, she applied a significant amount of energy to his belly upon impact.

His belly, however, seemed to absorb the blow, and her baton bounced back with equal force. Since the kinetic energy had been applied at the time of the impact, her weapon actually bounced back with significantly more momentum than with the initial strike.

(B-bouncy...!)

With her hurting arms and a light frown on her face, she took another swipe at a supposedly more rigid part of his body. However, the energy seemed to be absorbed all the same. It wasn’t like her magic, though, which made the energy disappear altogether.

In the case of this bandit, his body seemed to deform itself on impact, store the accumulated kinetic energy, and then return it with an equal and opposite force.

(That guy can make collisions unbelievably elastic? That’s neat, I must say. Though it’s disturbing to see his bones deform themselves like that…)

The bandit finally decided to counterattack with a punch, but it made contact with her robe with barely any force. Its energy hadn’t been converted into elastic potential energy this time, but instead into mana.

He chuckled, "Seems we're at a stalemate, ain't we?"

But Iris shook her head, "I wouldn’t be so sure…”

“Yeah? Just try to get me, then.”

“As for you, try to keep your spell activated if you don’t want to die.”

To Iris, there was no such thing as a perfectly elastic collision outside of high school-level physics problems. Especially in this case where it relied on mana, a finite quantity.

(Let's see how much kinetic energy he can truly absorb!)

***

Cyne and Patry were locked in combat, fighting back-to-back. Despite being outnumbered, however, their sword skills were superior and allowed them to hold their ground against the ill-trained bandits. It was evident these criminals relied on their huge numbers to win their fights.

Suddenly, the bandits Patry was engaging were knocked to the ground by a large, round figure that flew by.

"E-eh?" Patry let out in confusion.

It took a moment for the two adventurers to register the flying projectile as a human being.

"Bouncy~!" Iris' voice rang out as she followed its trajectory, her face lighting up with amusement— a stark contrast to the tense situation they were in.

Watching that big man being tossed around like a ball, Cyne muttered under his breath, "She's not having fun, is she...?"

Iris continued her playful onslaught, sending the big man flying toward other bandits every time he stopped bouncing. The number of conscious bandits was steadily decreasing.

In a process invisible to the naked eye, a series of energy transformations occurred with every strike. From mana to kinetic energy, then to elastic potential energy, back to kinetic, and finally returning to mana. However, there was an imbalance between the first two conversions, with more kinetic energy applied than the man's magical defenses could handle, resulting in him being tossed around like a bouncing ball. As for Iris, she simply reabsorbed the recoil energy as mana, using it to power her next attack.

***

“S-stop! I'm beggin' ya…! I-I ain't got no mana left! I’ll die!!” said the rotund bandit who couldn’t even lift himself from the ground.

“It’s a shame someone like you got such a nice element. Farewell.”

“N-no…!” he cried out an instant before Iris’ baton hit his jaw after following a swift golf club’s trajectory. Well, she smacked him once she had made sure to deactivate any enhancement or offensive magic.

As the trio of adventurers was slowly but surely gaining the upper hand, a rumble resounded. The back door of the bandits' carriage had burst open and a man was violently thrown out, only to be followed by a tied-up girl who landed deftly on top of the now unconscious body. From that man's trajectory, he had been knocked out even before he hit the ground.

(... What now?)

The two young girls, each standing on top of fainted people, gazed at each other. It was a surreal scene.