Chapter 67: The Fierce Criminal, Gerd
The highways have barrier devices installed at regular intervals, making them relatively safe roads where monsters are unlikely to approach. However, due to cost and terrain constraints, they do not always connect cities via the shortest possible routes.
This was no exception in the present case. There was no highway directly linking the city of Tron to the city of Lientz. As a result, returning to Lientz by way of the road required a detour through an intermediate point.
Now that the issue of mana fever had been resolved, there was no particular need to rush—but Jin and the others chose to travel by the shortest route rather than using the highway.
They simply wanted to get back as quickly as possible and see everyone safe, yet for Jin and the others, that alone was more than enough reason to hurry.
Several hours after leaving the city of Tron, just as their meeting was starting to wrap up, Jin detected human reactions on his MAP.
Five glowing points on the map, located slightly off their direction of travel, were moving slowly farther away. Since they were also off the highway, Jin guessed they were probably adventurers traveling on foot.
When the reaction first appeared, Jin had tensed up instinctively, but he quickly relaxed with a wry smile, thinking there was no way they’d actually run into bandits.
But as if perfectly timed to that lapse in caution, a single new point of light was added to the map.
The story he’d heard from the male guild staff member in the city of Tron flashed through Jin’s mind, and a chill ran down his spine.
An adventurer who had lost his companions and fallen into banditry alone. A fierce criminal with strength nearing A-rank, who had already taken several lives.
It had been assumed he was hiding near the royal capital—but what if that assumption was wrong…?
Jin immediately began slowing the carriage and called out to Aria and the others behind him.
“Listen! I’ve got a reaction on my MAP. There’s a group that looks like adventurers a little ahead—and one person is approaching them.”
The carriage came to a complete stop, and by then Aria and the others understood what Jin was getting at.
“You mean the bandit we heard about in Tron?” Erza asked.
Even as she said it, the feeling of no way was strong—and Aria and Rachel felt the same.
“I can’t say for sure. But I think there’s more than enough chance that it is.”
He might have been simply a survivor from a party that had narrowly avoided total annihilation, but otherwise, the situation was far too similar to that of a lone adventurer who had fallen into banditry.
“There’s no time. Let’s assume that’s who it is and proceed on that basis. If we’re wrong, it’ll just be a laugh later.”
The three nodded at Jin’s words, their expressions growing more serious.
“The opponent is a high-level former adventurer. We have two options. One is to leave the fighting to the adventurer group he’s approaching and run. The second is to join up with that group and cooperate to defeat him. I want to take the second option.”
One of the conditions for reaching C-rank as an adventurer is being level 15 or higher. For B-rank, it becomes level 30 or higher, and for A-rank, level 50 or higher.
Regardless of their actual combat ability, Jin and the others were only around level 20—at best, C-rank in terms of levels.
If their opponent really was a former adventurer said to be close to A-rank, his level could be near 50. While there are individual differences in how much one’s stats increase with level, facing an enemy with double or more your level made it impossible to say whether they could truly stand against him.
Even so, when Jin considered what would happen if the adventurer group lost and the atrocities the man would likely commit afterward, running away was not an option he could choose.
Even as they spoke, the distance between the two sides was closing. Even if they rushed their decision, it was questionable whether they’d make it in time. But what was at stake wasn’t just Jin’s life; it was the lives of the entire party. For Jin, this was not a moment where he could skip deciding their course as a group.
“Let’s go!”
““Let’s go!””
As if the question itself were unnecessary, Aria and the other two answered instantly.
Jin was a little surprised, but he quickly smiled and said,
“Alright. Let’s go!”
Jin immediately cracked the whip and sent the carriage racing toward where the group of adventurers was.
Now then, let’s turn back the clock to shortly before Jin and the others made their decision.
The five-member B-rank party, The Giant’s Twin Arms, was on the move toward a village that was the destination of their subjugation request.
“Man… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
The one muttering was Zack—the same Zack who had picked a fight with Jin and the others at the guild the day before. Within The Giant’s Twin Arms, he served as a skirmisher, a light warrior. Known at the Tron Adventurers’ Guild as a skilled fighter capable of deftly switching between spear and bow, he was someone others regarded highly.
Besides him, the party consisted of two frontline warriors, and in the rear, a mage and a priest—both women. Adding Zack, who could be described as a midline skirmisher, the total party numbered five.
Yet in Zack’s current appearance, there was none of the commanding presence one would expect from a B-rank adventurer, and to varying degrees, the same was true of the others.
About half a month earlier, they had received news that the party Raging Giant, which had once taken care of them, had been annihilated—leaving only its leader, Gerd, behind. That alone had been a shocking event.
Then, just ten days ago, more news arrived: Gerd had fallen into banditry.
Because they knew the former Gerd—a bold, dependable, big-brother type—it was a story they found impossible to believe. But as more and more information poured in, they were forced to accept that it was undeniably true.
Overwhelmed by shock, they’d had no motivation to take on requests for a while, drowning their sorrow in alcohol—that had been their state up until yesterday.
What they felt upon meeting Jin and the others was unclear. But now, having finally forced themselves to get moving again, they were traveling toward a nearby village to take on a manageable request.
That was the situation they now found themselves in.
“Don’t tell me you’re still not sober. You know you’re terrible when you drink, yet you always overdo it.”
“There’s no alcohol left in me. …Yeah, I know I caused trouble again yesterday.”
Scolded by the party’s female mage, Zack replied with an awkward expression.
Zack himself knew he had a bad drinking habit, but once he started drinking, he just couldn’t stop, and exchanges like this were nothing new.
“Yesterday turned out to be a false alarm in the end, so it could’ve been worse… Fufu. Still, that kid was strangely polite and kind of odd, wasn’t he?”
The female mage recalled Zack’s attempt to pick a fight being cleanly deflected. What was more, the person being targeted had responded with a smile the whole time, and even went out of his way to stop by the table of the people who’d bothered him to say goodbye before leaving.
After that, they’d ended up chatting animatedly about Jin and Zack for a while—one of the few topics in recent times that hadn’t been clouded with gloom.
“Yeah. If we run into them again, I’ll make sure to apologize properly.”
Even if he hadn’t caused them any real harm, it was still something Zack regretted once he’d sobered up.
“I mean, you really should start being more careful with your drinking—”
“Watch out! Someone’s there!”
Cutting off the mage mid-sentence, the party leader raised a warning.
As expected of a B-rank party, they reacted instantly, each of them bracing themselves.
“Ohhh. What a warm welcome. I’m flattered.”
As Zack and the others went on alert, a man emerged calmly, a leering grin plastered across his face.
His upper arms, thighs, and head were bare, but the rest of his body was wrapped in crude armor that appeared to be made of black iron. Resting on his shoulder was a massive greatsword that was clearly of fine quality at a glance. It was the sort of appearance that evoked a veteran adventurer but the atmosphere he gave off was different.
It was savage and ominous, something that could only be described as a demonic aura.
“No way…”
The words slipped from Zack’s mouth the moment he saw him.
This was the man they had once admired, the one whose party name they’d emulated when naming their own. A boisterous, easygoing big brother figure, whose relationship with one of his party members, a female warrior, had been so close that it made Zack think, I want to be like that someday.
It hadn’t even been ten years since they’d left the city, yet there was no trace left of the cheerful figure he remembered.
“Could it be… Gerd-san?”
The voice he forced out trembled despite himself.
“Hey now, Zack~. That’s pretty cold of you. What, you forget my face already? Yeah, it’s me. Gerd himself~.”
The Gerd Zack remembered had never spoken in such a sticky, unpleasant way. The reality that he had changed at a fundamental level was finally beginning to sink in.
“What’s with you guys? Every last one of you making such weird faces~.”
Even so, Gerd never stopped grinning. With exaggerated motions, he covered his face with his free left hand and looked up toward the sky.
The sight was somehow comical—and at the same time, unmistakably insane.
Zack and the others believed they’d already accepted the fact that Gerd had fallen into banditry. And yet, they neither attacked nor took decisive action, remaining wary but ultimately frozen in place.
That hesitation proved fatal.
“Alright then, guess it’s about time…”
Still in that pose, Gerd glared at Zack and the others through the gaps between his fingers.
Though he was not yet within sword range, Gerd had somehow closed the distance and was already right near them.
“For you to die!”
At that shout, an overwhelming pressure slammed into Zack and the others, and at the same moment, Gerd lunged.
The gap that had separated them vanished in an instant. As he leapt forward, the greatsword came crashing down, smashing the leader, whose reactions had been dulled by the pressure, into the ground.
The armor from his shoulder down his back was shattered, but perhaps because he’d been knocked flat, he was still breathing despite being incapacitated.
The other frontline fighter recovered at once and swung his sword, but it was easily evaded. In return, he took a direct hit from the greatsword.
“Gahh!”
The blow struck him square in the gut, destroying his armor. He was blown away, writhing in agony before losing consciousness.
Both men were barely alive, but the two frontline fighters were now out of the fight. All that remained were Zack, the skirmisher, and the two rear-line members.
The two in the rear specialized in magic and healing, respectively, and were not suited for close combat. The only one left who could face Gerd on the front line was Zack.
Panic set in as cold sweat ran down Zack’s cheeks.
“Huh~? Were you guys always this weak?”
Even though they had heard about his many atrocities, part of them must still have refused to believe it. Under normal circumstances, things should never have turned out this one-sided. But despite spotting him, they neither attacked nor stopped him from closing in—that hesitation had decided the outcome.
“Well, whatever. I guess I’ll just finish off the two of them for now.”
“Stop it!”
As Gerd raised his sword to strike the fallen companions, Zack hurled himself at him, determined not to let that happen.
Zack knew full well that this wasn’t an opponent he could handle alone, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch.
The two in the rear began chanting their spells, but healing magic required getting fairly close to the target. If the two frontline fighters were still standing, that would be one thing, but in the current situation, approaching would be nothing short of suicide. Still, the two who had fallen clearly needed treatment as soon as possible. The female priest steeled herself and moved forward, but there was no way Gerd would overlook that.
Gerd’s murderous blade swung toward her.
“I won’t let you!”
Though his balance broke, Zack barely managed to deflect the strike, but even that had been within Gerd’s expectations.
“Gah!”
Aimed perfectly at the unsteady Zack, Gerd’s greatsword came crashing down, blowing Zack away along with the spear he’d raised in reflex.
“Gyaa!”
Next, Gerd kicked the defenseless priestess, sending her flying.
The blow, delivered by his heavy greave, carried more than enough force to rob her of consciousness.
“Too ba~ad.”
The mage’s spell, released a moment later, was met with the flat of the greatsword and failed to deal any damage.
Only Zack and the mage remained conscious now, but Zack had yet to rise after being blasted away.
“Yeah, mages really are a pain~. Guess you should die.”
Twisting his mouth into a grin, Gerd started walking toward the mage. Overwhelmed by his killing intent, she couldn’t even begin a chant and stood frozen in place.
“Stop! Please, stop!!”
Zack desperately tried to regain his footing and stand, but at this rate, he wouldn’t make it in time. His anguished shout echoed out.
Then, as if he’d noticed something, Gerd halted mid-step. Almost at the same time, Zack saw it too—a carriage charging toward them.
Though it had slowed slightly, it was still moving fast, and from within the onrushing carriage, a single figure leapt down.
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