Dream Life Vol II Chapter 60.2: “The First Body”

　She seemed to be asking me about that because I had told her that I trembled during my first battle.

　I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I couldn’t say anything in the end.

　To change the subject, I removed the magic crystal, orbs, and anything else I could use from the two corpses.

　Beatrice still seemed to want to say something, but I shook my head and checked the condition of the horses. There were twenty-seven horses in all–three were loaded with cargo–and we hitched them all up.

　The bandit I killed didn’t have much on him, as thuggish as he looked. He had a long sword of poor quality, a single rusty dagger, and the leather armor he was wearing was so useless that I didn’t even bother to strip it off. The one Beatrice had defeated was the same way, and she dumped the corpse under a pine tree.

　We returned to the street with the tethered horses, and while Beatrice was guarding the horses, I went to tell Liddy and the others that I had killed the rest of the bandits.

　Liddy and Sharon greeted me with smiles and began preparing to leave.

　I told the merchants that we had killed all the bandits and prepared to leave as well.

　The merchants looked like they wanted to say something, but they didn’t say anything and just watched us.

　We again moved in front of the merchants and headed south along the road.

　We stopped matching the speed of the merchants when we passed through the Karsh Pass. We thought that we would be less likely to encounter dangerous monsters if we reached this point, but since we had more than 30 horses with us, including our own, we thought it would be difficult to match their speed.

　We pulled away from the merchants and continued south along the road.

　Around 4:00 p.m., we arrived at our destination, the village of Bowden.

　The rain we had been worried about had already stopped in this area, and there did not seem to be enough precipitation to make the road muddy. The clouds were still hanging low, but there was no sign of rain.

　We secured a room at the relatively nice inn where we had stayed before and took the horses to the square where we left the wagons.

　We then inspected the bandits’ luggage.

　It seemed that they were not a large band of bandits, and we found little in the way of money when we inspected their luggage.

　n the end, they found only weapons and armor, tools for camping, and food and clothing that smelled rotten. The total amount of money was less than 700 Crona (= 700,000 yen), which includes five gold coins and some other coins.

　Furthermore, when we questioned the surviving bandits, there was no sign of a hideout, and there seemed to be no hidden treasure.

　When we asked for more information, we learned that the bandits who had eaten their way through the northern part of the country had just moved their base of operations to the southern kingdom of Caum.

(The head is a former fifth-rank mercenary, so he must be around level 40. If they ambushed the merchants this time, they might have been able to kill a lot of them. But what kind of life is it like to be a bandit at this level?) (Zack)

　In a sense, the judicial system in this world is stricter than on Earth. This is because there is a magical tool called an orb, and if an orb is used for a criminal act, i.e., breaking the oath that is made when the orb is created, a record is kept, and the person is recognized as a criminal. In other words, if a person commits a crime, he or she is automatically classified as a criminal. There is no room for a trial.

　Also, even if you escape after committing a crime, your orb will be checked when you enter a certain size town, so if you become a criminal, you will not be allowed to enter a town.

　Of course, there must be various loopholes that I am unaware of. I think it is logical to keep criminals out of the city completely. Especially in the New Town of Doctus, there are no checkpoints, so even bandits can enter if they want to.

　However, the fact that criminal activity makes it harder to enter the city is a considerable deterrent.

　Especially in this area where monsters abound, it directly affects one’s own safety. If you cannot enter the city, you have no choice but to stay in the open or build a crude, homemade base of operations. The level of safety is far inferior to being in the city.

　So, the idea of not committing criminal acts to protect oneself is compelling enough.

　Furthermore, the punishment for murder and theft is heavy.

　Sometimes they are executed, but mostly they are dropped into criminal slavery to help the victims. Thus, those who lose themselves to banditry often end up as criminal slaves for the rest of their lives.

　It is with this determination that one becomes a bandit, but for the reasons just mentioned, the life of a bandit is mostly living in the wilderness. If you have a certain level of ability, you will be looked up to by your peers and may lead a somewhat better life, but the lowest ranks will probably live at the bottom. Fearing attacks by monsters, they cook meals from poor ingredients and cannot even get a good night’s sleep. It would probably not be much different from the environment they escaped from.

　I couldn’t even imagine what kind of life it would be like, or how the underlings were living.

　This time, we kept only three of them alive.

　We could have captured the guards that Beatrice and I had killed together, let alone during the first attack, and we would have kept them alive. There was enough of a difference in skill to do so, and considering the effect of the surprise attack, it was highly likely that they would have laid down their weapons without resistance.

　This time I was only following Beatrice’s instructions, but I would have given the same instructions even if I had been in command.

　There were several reasons.

　First, there was the risk of fighting among more than 20 horses.

　If the enemy became desperate and counterattacked, the horses could be hit. In that case, if the horses panicked and went on a rampage, we would be in danger. To eliminate this risk, it was necessary to kill them with a single blow.

　Of course, there were ways to neutralize them with magic. In my case, I could use dark magic, so it would have been possible to put the thugs to sleep. However, dark magic is not universal. There are individual differences in resistance to magic. If the magic had not been able to put them to sleep, the surprise effect would have been lost.

　Furthermore, the next destination was the poor village of Bowden, which had no garrison and no place to take bandit survivors. It would be very dangerous to take a large number of bandits to such a village.

　If someone were to lead them away, there is no denying the possibility that we could be killed in our sleep.

　I hear that many villages, especially poor ones, are willing to trade with bandits. Of course, they do not do business willingly, but only under threat, but even so, the possibility of having collaborators is much higher than in the city.

　A few injured bandits are not so dangerous if they are tied to a tree somewhere, but if there are more than ten of them, the level of danger goes up dramatically.

　And the main reason Beatrice decided to kill the bandits was to give me “experience.”

　Basically, my fighting style is a combination of magic and sword. In other words, one day, I will kill a human being with a sword.

　Beatrice must have thought that an enemy like this, whose skill level is overwhelmingly lower than mine, who I can surprise, and who has little psychological resistance to counterattack because they have been attacked, would be a good match for me.

　It was a great opportunity to gain hands-on safety experience.

　She’s trying to make me a full-fledged warrior, so maybe she’s always trying to find the right time to let me have my first “kill”.

　That’s why, after I killed someone, she must have been concerned about whether I was upset or not.

　Beatrice is a woman who, unlike her bold appearance, is very attentive to such matters.

　As for the three surviving bandits, they were to be left tied up near the field where the wagons were parked.

　Since there were only three of them, the guards of the wagons would take care of the guards. The guards have no mercy on bandits, so if they try to escape, they will kill them without hesitation. Of course, we who caught them also allowed it.