Chapter 54 – Bear-san Catches The Thieves!
Late at night, Hugging Bear moved and woke me up.
「Hugging Bear?」
I rubbed my eyes.
Fina began to stir restlessly next to me.
In order to avoid waking her up, I used detection magic.
There was someone at a slightly distant location?
I observed for a while, but there was no indication of movement.
Hmm, it wasn’t there when I went to sleep.
Had Hugging Bear reacted to that presence?
「Hugging Bear, if it moves, let me know.」
Since they might have just started camping out at that location, I requested Hugging Bear to watch it and went back to sleep.
There was no reaction from Hugging Bear after that, and I didn’t wake up until morning.
When I woke up in the morning, I used detection magic, but it had not moved from that spot.
I ate breakfast without worrying and left when the sun rose.
I used detection magic again, for the last time.
The stationary party had begun to move.
If the other party were also travelers, it wasn’t strange for them to move out at sunrise.
I advanced towards the Royal Capital without worrying about it.
The party followed behind us at a constant distance.
When we stopped for lunch, the other party also stopped.
If we picked up our pace a bit, the other party also sped up.
What should I do?
It didn’t give me a good feeling when they were following us like this, and speeding up when we did.
In conclusion, we were being targeted, right?
If we were attacked, would it be at night?
Evening approached while they maintained the same distance from us.
Everyone began to prepare to camp out again.
「Marina, can I have a moment?」
Just in case, I decided to give a report to Marina, the leader of the bodyguard mission.
「What is it?」
「It’s not good news, but we might be attacked by thieves tonight, so please be a bit more careful.」
「…Wait, what is that supposed to mean?」
「They have been following us since last night, so I suspect that it is likely for them to attack us tonight.」
「If you had already noticed, tell me earlier!」
「Even if I told you, nothing could be done about it. It’s not like we can speed up, and there’s still a considerable distance to the Royal Capital. In addition, we don’t know when they will attack, and I was concerned that staying alert for a long time wouldn’t be possible.」
「That might be the case, but at times like this, we should head to the Royal Capital even faster.」
「We would be done for if they attacked us when the horses became exhausted. In which case, moving around as one would expect is better.」
「Do you have any good plans?」
「Well, if it’s only thieves and such, it’ll be fine, one way or another. Just, it’ll be troublesome if people moved selfishly. If possible, I would like everyone to stay with the carriage.」
「So then, will it really turn out alright somehow?」
「Won’t it?」
「Hey!」
「With that, I’ll leave it to you.」
As dinner ended, night arrived.
Now then, shall I sleep until the thieves come?
While I was sleeping, Swaying Bear woke me up.
「Swaying Bear?」
As my head gradually cleared, I remembered about the thieves.
When I used detection magic;
Oh, they’re here, they’re here.
4-, no, 50 people?
They were gathering steadily.
In order not to wake Fina up, I slipped out from Swaying Bear’s embrace.
If the thieves do come, I’ll tell them to protect everyone.
Though, it’s not like I would mind if they didn’t come.
「So, they’ve come?」
Marina came over.
「You were awake?」
「After you told me that thieves might come, there was no way I could sleep.」
「Well, as for the thieves, roughly fifty of them are gathered a short distance away in this direction.」
「50 people…」
「Well then, I’ll be going. I don’t think anything should happen, but please take care of everyone.」
「Are you really going by yourself?」
「It’s because I want those girls to keep sleeping, you see.」
I glanced over at Fina, Noa, and Misa, who were all sleeping while being embraced by the bears.
The three of them were sleeping quietly.
I ran towards the thieves in the darkness, while dressed in the Black Bear Dress.
The thieves had only gathered, and had not moved yet.
Were they waiting for everyone to get together? I didn’t really understand, even after watching them, but there was an opening while they were gathered.
I approached stealthily.
The Bear Shoes allowed me to run up to the thieves without making a sound.
「What?!」
By the time they noticed, it was too late.
I had already invoked the magic.
「Shotgun!」
Compressed balls of air attacked the thieves.
One person, who had been riding a horse, was dismounted and flew off backwards.
Another person next to the horse was blasted backwards, leaving the horse unharmed.
That was because the horse wasn’t bad.
The balls of air gathered the entire group of thieves into one place.
I executed earth magic next, without a moment’s delay.
A countless number of earthen rods thrusted upwards from the ground, surrounding the fallen thieves.
The thieves recovered, got up, and tried to run away, but because of the earthen rods, they couldn’t get away.
There was no way to escape; not through the front, the back, the left, or the right.
The only way was above them.
However, in order to cover the top, I used earth magic to cap it off.
「Damn it! It won’t break, even with a sword! Someone, use magic!」
Some of the thieves used magic, but it was reflected by the barrier of the cage; the situation inside had became quite serious, due to the reflected magic.
「Stop using magic! We’ll die!」
「Damn it! Just what the hell is happening?!」
「Someone, use light magic!」
What they could see, illuminated by the light, was a large cage imprisoning them.
「Good evening, everyone in the thief group.」
They finally noticed my presence when I spoke to them.
「What is it, you bitch?!」
「Let us out of here!」
「Do you think you’ll get away easily, after doing such a thing to us?!」
Were these guys stupid? Or maybe fools? To not even understand their own positions, in this situation where they had been imprisoned.
Though I caught the thieves, I could not take them out of the cage.
For now, let’s use water magic to pour water on them and shut them up.
「The next time you open your mouths, I’ll stick fire magic inside.」
「Shut up! You should know, we’re the Zamon Bandit Group-」
「Fire~」
I tossed a giant ball of flame into the cage.
「Ouch! Hot! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!」
A magic user inside used water to put out the fire.
「I told you, didn’t I? That if you opened your mouths, I would stick fire magic inside. Are you idiots? Morons?」
「You bitch…」
He tried to say something, but I didn’t give him the chance.
Next, I raised a 30cm tall prop in all four corners of the cage.
I attached wheels accordingly.
There wasn’t a suspension spring or something similar for moderating vibrations.
I wasn’t really thinking of the ride quality, so it didn’t really concern me that the uneven road would probably cause it to shake considerably.
For the time being, this mobile cage had been completed.
The problem was the power source needed to pull the cage.
I had thought of using horses for power, but because of the shotgun magic, all of the horses had run away.
Since I hadn’t injured them, they would probably live.
I considered my next plan for a power source to pull the cage.
A thought came to mind.
However, the problem was that it stood out.
「Come, Bear!」
I invoked earth magic and summoned a giant bear made of earth.
It was a 3-meter tall bear golem.
When I subjugated the tiger wolves, I had summoned flame bears and water bears.
I remembered that, at the time, I was able to move them according to my instructions, so I was able to complete golems for each type of bear.
I could summon bears made of flame, water, earth, ice, and wind.
「What the hell is that?!」
The thieves began to shout.
「Shut up. The next time you open your mouths, I’ll make this bear attack you, okay?」
When I said so, the thieves all fell silent.
Since they had finally quieted down, I had the summoned earth bear golem pull the cage.
When I returned to the carriage, everyone was already awake.