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Chapter 74: Capturing the Highway Bandits

The four of them rode horses along the path toward Barnite.

Because they were setting out on a long journey.

Reiner also brought Daisy along, and she sat behind Martina.

He certainly couldn’t leave her alone at home.

“You little one, don’t fidget and just do as you’re told; I fed you plenty of hay yesterday, so don’t put me to shame,” Reiner said as he gently smoothed the horse’s back with a brush.

The horse was indeed difficult to ride.

More accurately, the horse he had chosen was unruly, and as soon as they set off it acted insane, bouncing and jumping with Reiner until it tired itself out enough to walk normally.

Martina rode over, shaking her sandbag-sized fist, and asked, “Darling, do you want me to teach it a lesson for you?”

She and Nora rode with remarkable stability, as if they were self-taught.

Of course, that might be due to the horses they had picked.

“Better not; if you landed a punch like that it probably wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sun.”

Martina lowered her hand, suddenly stretched up to peck Reiner on the cheek, and then looked at him with an exceedingly adorable expression. “Give me a kiss; you haven’t kissed me at all since this morning.”

Reiner paused in slight surprise; he had shared a room with Nora the previous night, so it was indeed true.

He appraised Martina from head to toe, intending to give her a proper squeeze, but unfortunately every spot he wanted to grab was obstructed by her plate armor.

He would have to make it up to her tonight instead.

Just then, Nora suddenly slowed her pace, walked up beside Reiner, and kept glancing back every so often.

“Master, someone is following us.”

Reiner turned to look but didn’t see anything.

“Did you see who it is?”

“It’s probably the scout from yesterday; he’s on horseback too and moving very fast, so he might catch up with us soon.”

“Your ears are so sharp? You can hear that from so far away?”

Nora nodded emphatically.

Reiner glanced over his shoulder again, decisively released a large amount of water to soak the mud, and then cast Earthquake.

He then covered it with a thin layer of soil to conceal the mud pit.

In less than half a minute, a makeshift trap was completed.

It wouldn’t drown anyone, but it would definitely trouble them for quite a while.

“Let’s go; let’s shake him off,” Reiner said softly as he patted his horse. “Run faster and I’ll reward you with something tasty when we rest.”

“Huff huff!” It snorted and then started running.

After running for a while, Reiner asked, “Has he caught up with us?”

Nora shook her head.

“No, he probably already fell into the pit, so we can slow down a bit.”

Reiner nodded.

Suddenly, Nora perked up her ears and quickly reached for her waist pouch.

“Master! There are bandits on this road! They’re lying in ambush ahead; you stay here for a moment, I’ll go deal with them.”

Reiner fell into deep thought.

There were bandits everywhere, and Junice was definitely not very safe on her own.

He hoped she would be all right.

“I’ll go with you too, and try to capture them alive if possible; they might prove useful,” Reiner said as he dismounted and handed the reins to Martina. “You two stay here and don’t wander off; while I’m gone, let Daisy make the decisions, and be alert.”

The two beast-eared girls nodded.

Reiner followed Nora into the tall grass.

The two of them held hands and went invisible, but they still made a whooshing noise as they moved through.

After they had gone a short distance, Reiner spotted several men skulking in the grass, and he saw a rope laid out on the ground for tripping horses.

“Keep two alive and kill the rest at will.”

“Fine.”

Two were lying in ambush on the left side of the road, and three were on the right.

The two of them stealthily approached behind the five bandits, and in tacit coordination they sprang into action.

Nora took the lead, flicked out a pair of throwing knives and killed the bandit on the left side of the road, while Reiner raised his staff, smashing one bandit’s skull.

Almost in an instant, only two bandits were left alive and able to breathe.

With Nora’s help, controlling the situation had been utterly effortless.

“Look at you squatting here; I bet you haven’t been up to anything good, right?” Reiner asked with a raised brow, gently tapping their skulls with his bloodstained staff.

The two bandits knelt instantly, nearly frightened into silence. “My lord, spare us! We only wanted to get food, we had no choice but to… ”

One of the bandits even wet himself out of fear, trembling uncontrollably as he looked at the corpse next to him.

Reiner couldn’t be bothered to listen to their explanations.

If everyone chose to kill and rob out of hardship, the world would have fallen into chaos long ago.

The words they were uttering now were just attempts to garner sympathy, not genuine remorse.

“Cut the crap; four days ago, did you see a woman in a white cloak ride through here?”

The two bandits exchanged glances and neither spoke; instead, they began to stammer.

Reiner signaled to Nora with his eyes.

In an instant, the bandit with better composure had his head split open.

The cut on his skull was remarkably neat, and the grayish-white brain matter was clearly exposed.

“My lord, have mercy! No! I’ll tell you everything!”

Reiner crouched in front of him with a friendly smile and said, “This is your last chance; if I were you, I’d make the most of it. I’ll ask one more time: did you see that woman?”

“Yes, I saw her! I saw her! It was about four days ago when we encountered her. After tripping her horse, we tried to rob her of her money, but she drove us back with fire. In the end… in the end he shot that woman with an arrow and let her run away!”

The panicked bandit pointed at the corpse with the split skull beside him, placing all the blame on it.

Judging by that, the inference was correct: Junice had chosen to head to Barnite to hide from Yule and the others.

It was estimated that when she was studying foreign languages with Reiner, she had already mapped out her route.

But the bandits on the road were trying to boost their numbers at year-end, making it especially dangerous.

Even if she really intended to leave at this time, she should have found companions to travel with her.

“We had no choice either! The heavy snow blocked the roads and few people traveled this way; if we didn’t take something to sell for cash…”

“Where’s her horse?”

The bandit pointed toward the depths of the thicket and said, “It’s tied up at the camp.”

“Lead me there, and don’t try to escape, or you know what will happen to you.”

The bandit scrambled into the grass, crawling and rolling.

After a short while, Reiner saw a makeshift camp.

A white horse was tied next to the campfire.

It was confirmed beyond doubt that the person they had stopped was Junice.

“Did you take anything from her?”

The bandit hastily crawled into the tent and yanked out a wooden box covered in mud.

It appeared to have been opened already, and the clothes inside were in disarray.

There were also some personal items.

At that moment, Nora furrowed her brows and whispered a few words in Reiner’s ear.

Reiner suppressed his anger and calmly asked, “Is that really all?”

“That’s it! There’s nothing else, it’s all here.”

“Alright, understood.”

This time, without waiting for Reiner’s signal, Nora drove a dagger through his skull.

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