Mathilda, being a rabbit person, has far superior hearing and sensitivity to her surroundings compared to ordinary humans.
However, even Mathilda, with her long experience as a mercenary, failed to notice the men who had hidden in the bushes, perfectly concealing their presence and holding their breath, until the very last moment.
She only realized their presence just before the three men leaped out of the bushes.
In an instant, she shouted, “Master Noein!” to alert her master, then delivered a kick towards the sound from the bushes on her right. By the time she turned back to her master,
“Hey, don’t move. Don’t you dare move…”
Her beloved master had already been captured, a knife blade pressed to his neck.
Noein himself was caught so off-guard that he still seemed unable to fully grasp his situation.
“This guy’s your master, isn’t he? If you care about him, don’t move… Then we won’t take his life,”
said the man holding the knife to Noein’s neck, staring directly at Mathilda.
He appeared to be in his mid-thirties, with numerous scars on his muscular arms exposed by his short sleeves.
One look was enough to tell he had lived a life of combat. He was likely the leader.
Next to him, another slender man pointed a sword at Noein’s abdomen, his face also showing familiarity with battle.
“Hey Radley, you alive?”
The leader called out, and the man Mathilda had kicked earlier responded, “Yeah, boss…”
Despite his nose bleeding profusely from the kick, the man stood up, sword ready, positioning himself in front of Mathilda.
“…Umm, what do you want? Money?”
In the tense atmosphere, Noein’s carefree voice sounded somewhat out of place.
Despite his casual tone, his face was pale with fear.
Seeing her beloved master trembling in fear with a blade pointed at him made Mathilda’s heart ache. But there was nothing she could do to save him now.
“Yeah. We want money. Stay still, and we won’t kill you. That female rabbit looks like she could be a hassle if she fights back, so we’re using you as a hostage.”
As he explained, the leader didn’t take his eyes off Mathilda. He seemed to have judged from her earlier kick that she had combat skills and was wary of her.
“Alright, Radley, tie up that female rabbit. Let’s take her and get out of here.”
“Got it.”
Under the leader’s orders, the man with the bleeding nose grabbed a rope and approached Mathilda.
As Mathilda glared at him and stepped back, he warned, “Hey, we’re not gonna kill or hurt you. We’re just gonna tie you up so you can’t follow us until we’re far away… Move, and that kid will get hurt.”
With those words, the leader brought the knife closer to Noein’s right eye.
“I understand. I’ll comply. Just don’t hurt him,”
Mathilda said, kneeling on the spot before the knife could touch Noein’s eye.
The man with the bleeding nose efficiently tied her up, then rummaged through the cart, taking several bags of food.
Meanwhile, the slender man searched Noein’s clothes and, saying “Got it, boss,” handed over a bag containing all of Noein’s money to the leader.
Having achieved their goal of taking money and food, the men seemed ready to leave.
“We’re getting out of here. We’ll let this kid go along the way, but if you try to follow us, we’ll cut him up and kill him. If you don’t want that, stay tied up here.”
Leaving those words, the leader and his men carried Noein away.
“I’m fine, Mathilda. I’m okay, really,”
the fifteen-year-old master said bravely, despite his frightened, tearful face, as he was carried away like luggage.
Just before he disappeared from sight,
“Lord Noein! Lord Noein! Noooo!”
Mathilda, who had been desperately trying to find a way to save her master, finally reached her limit and screamed.
…
Noein Earlkvist had a twisted personality, but that didn’t make him mentally strong or tough.
Born into an unfortunate situation, he could handle being disliked by others, but he wasn’t used to having actual killing intent or physical threats directed at him.
He was no good in rough situations, was small and physically weak, had no combat training, and had never faced a real life-threatening situation.
So now, he was extremely scared. Even though the bandits said they’d let him go on the way, he couldn’t trust their words and was genuinely afraid he’d be cut up and killed.
He didn’t want to die. As both a lord and an individual, he still had many attachments to this world.
So, how could he survive this situation?
He couldn’t possibly defeat these bandits in combat.
That left him with only his wits, his words, and his persuasion. Though he wasn’t particularly confident in his speaking skills, it was still a better chance than fighting.
As he thought this, the bandits continued to carry him, moving south, skirting the edge of the Bezel Great Forest.
Along the way, two more people joined the bandits. One was a man and the other a woman.
“Boss, looks like you caught the prey safely.”
“Yeah. You guys did well too… Now that we’re this far, this kid’s no longer needed.”
The leader said this to the newly joined members, looking at Noein.
The other four pairs of eyes also turned towards Noein.
Terrifying.
“…Uh, why do you kill nobles? Do you have a grudge against them?”
Desperately trying to buy even a second more of life, Noein blurted out the question.
“…I see. You want to know. Since you’re going to die anyway, I’ll tell you. We hate nobles because they tried to kill us.”
With that, the leader—Yuri—began to tell their story.
They had been a fairly large mercenary group, and he was their leader.
They were hired by a southern noble to provide troops for a conflict with the eastern Pallas Empire and went to the battlefield.
There, they were used as cannon fodder by the regular army of the employer, and many of their comrades died horribly.
They escaped the battlefield to survive, killing several knights in the process, and became fugitives, eventually turning into bandits.
They resented the noble class for putting them in this situation.
After hearing Yuri’s story, Noein, instead of showing sympathy, seemed to be deep in thought.
It was a strange reaction given the flow of the conversation.
“What are you thinking?”
“…By any chance, was it Count Kivileft who hired you and then tried to use you as cannon fodder?”
“Wha—?” “How do you know?” “Why do you know that?”
Yuri’s expression froze for a moment, suppressing his reaction, but his subordinates couldn’t hide their shock and revealed the truth.
Seeing this, Noein, who had been on the verge of tears moments ago, suddenly changed his expression to a wicked smile.
“I see. So, you were also messed around by that bastard father of mine.”
The smile was too sinister for a boy who barely looked old enough to be an adult, and who had been almost crying just moments before.
It was an evil smile that even Yuri, who had seen many battlefields, found unsettling.
