Kanzaka Slayers: Volume 16

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7183-7494-2
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 16, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Slayers

So, a virtuoso sorcerer and a master swordsman walk into a bar... Yeah, you've heard this one before. The locals immediately hit 'em up for a job because they look sooo powerful and the town's just that dang desperate for help. In the case of Atessa, city of blacksmiths, there's apparently some funny business going down in the surrounding woods. Mines are being attacked, caravans raided-the whole shebang. Yup, there's definitely something foul afoot in this forest. Frankly, I don't care to find out what, but if the price is right...

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kanzaka, Hajime

Weitere Mitwirkende

Araizumi, Rui

Ellis, Elizabeth

Leseproben

1: Shadows Circle the City of Smiths

Five loud bangs rang out. Then, once the commotion settled, I sat back down in my seat and took a sip of my still-warm tea.

“Ngh... hng...” On the floor before me lay one of the roughnecks I’d just decked. He was on his back, twitching, but managed to lift his head to look up at me. “The hell... do you think... you’re doing?”

“What am I doing?” It was an understandable question, but I blinked once, then replied, “Self-defense?”

“How...? I didn’t do... nothin’... to you...”

“Excuse me?” His utter lack of compunction brought a sigh from my lips. “You see a traveler enjoying his meal and use the old ‘haven’t seen you around here before’ excuse to surround him with four other guys and start badgering him. Then when a nearby delicate beauty calls you on your BS, you reach out to grab her. I’d say darn good and well that’s .”

Stopping for a bite to eat, getting accosted by roughnecks, and being forced to pound them down after one thing led to another... It was pretty standard fare for me while on the road, to be honest. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy it one bit.

The only silver lining was that, since the chaos started the food arrived, my lunch hadn’t been compromised in the conflict.

“Nearby delicate beauty? Who the—” began my traveling companion, who was standing nearby, in an attempt to derail my narrative with filthy lies. I shot him a glance. Taking the hint, he quickly clammed up. “Ah, never mind.”

Moreover, my dude was talking like what had transpired was none of his business... but after I’d laid out the first hooligan, he’d taken out the rest of the irate band before they could rush me. See, because of my companion’s handsome face, long blond hair, and casual demeanor, some folks presume his conspicuous longsword and light mail are just a front. But the dude in question, Gourry Gabriev, was truly remarkable with a blade. The roughnecks, whom he’d taken out in a flash without so much as drawing said blade, had undoubtedly learned the hard way that he was the real deal.

“Anyhoo.” I turned my gaze back to the laid-out roughneck arguing with me. “If you don’t wanna be in the business of losing fights, try not to pick them in the first place.”

But alas, my sage advice just caused the man to dig in his heels. “We didn’t pick a fight! We were just doing our job as the local security force!”

“Hmph. Is that what you call the neighborhood ruffians going around harassing people?”

“They really are local security,” said a new voice. I turned to see who it was.

We were in a rather large lodging house called the Silver Leaf Inn on the city’s main thoroughfare—more specifically, we were at the eatery on the first floor there. The place was probably packed with old drunkards at night, but with the afternoon sun streaming in through the open windows, the only souls there were me and Gourry, the five members of the so-called security force, a scattering of customers in nearby seats, and a bearded fortysomething man with friendly eyes behind the counter. The latter was who had spoken up.

“Really?” I asked him.

The old man nodded. “Really.”

“See?!” the roughneck—er, local security force member—said smugly, still on his back.

But the old man didn’t even spare him a glance as he replied, “Still, Randa, the fuss only started because you comported yourself like a hooligan.”

“Ergh...” The man on the floor groaned in chagrin.

Aha. You see this from time to time—guys who get a little authority and take it as a license to be a dick to everyone around them. This Randa dude apparently fell into that category. I mean, surrounding our table with his little posse and opening with a “haven’t seen you around here before” line? Talk about archetypal hooligan behavior.

The eatery’s owner shifted his attention away from the despondent Randa. “Now, you two seem to be quite skilled,” he said to Gourry and me. “And I assume the young lady there is a sorcerer?”

“Well, y’know...” I responded noncommittally. I just he was gonna try to wrangle me into some pain-in-the-ass hired job.

“I was wondering if you might be willing to stay here for a while as mercenaries and help protect the city from bandits.”

Gourry was dressed like your typical swordsman, while I wore a long cape, a black bandanna, and jeweled accessories. In spite of the shortsword on my hip, I was a sorcerer. Plus, given the fact we’d just laid out five guys, we were obviously strong. It was perfectly natural to presume we were a mercenary duo.

And, yeah, okay. Gourry and I have a history of taking on work in our travels, but we weren’t hurting for funds at the moment, so I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of a side quest. Yet before either Gourry or I could respond...

“Wait a minute, Master MacLyle!” Randa objected. “We don’t need their help! We’re—”

“Randa,” MacLyle said. His tone was quiet, but it shut Randa up immediately. “Could you please pipe down?”

“S-S-S-Sorry...” he replied apologetically, trailing off.

I was surprised to see the roughneck—er, local security guy—so cowed. Just who this MacLyle guy?

“To tell you the truth, our town has been plagued by bandits of late,” MacLyle began before I could even ask.

I was reminded that I’d sensed someone watching us as Gourry and I entered the city. They hadn’t seemed hostile, so I’d just pretended not to notice. Could that have been the bandits MacLyle was referring to? Except their presences—aura, whatever you’d call it—hadn’t particularly bandit-y...

“It’s been weeks of nasty business. Goods en route to nearby towns stolen, workshops and mines sabotaged... We rustled up a crew to take care of the problem, but they don’t seem to be making any progress.”

“What about soldiers?” Gourry asked.

“There aren’t usually any stationed here in town,” I answered, taking a nearby seat now that it seemed the trouble had passed. “Though a few might stop by.”

“Why not?”

“Various reasons.”

“Like what?”

“Er...” I didn’t want to say “don’t ask,” but I also had doubts he’d really understand even if I spelled it all out for him. “As you saw when we arrived here in Atessa, the city’s smack dab in the middle of a buncha woods. It’s known as the Celcelas Forest, and it stretches from the Kingdom of Zephilia to the Holy Kingdom of Saillune, with breaks here and there where you can mine high-quality gold. So with both lumber and mineral resources aplenty, Atessa developed as a hot spot for smithing, but... Hey! Don’t fall asleep in the middle of my explanation!”

I gave Gourry a swift chop to the head.

“Mmah?” He looked up suddenly and craned his neck around.

“How are you not listening? the one who asked!”

“Oh, no, I was listening. I heard the whole thing. There’s stuff going on in town, right?”

“Liar! I wasn’t even finished! And if ‘stuff going on’ is enough of an explanation for you, don’t bother asking for the details!”

After screaming my heart out, I slumped over on the table, and...

“We produce a lot of weapons and armor in this city, you see,” MacLyle continued. “If either kingdom set up a garrison here, the other might see it as a prelude to war. So to prevent that, neither has soldiers officially stationed in Atessa. We run our own security locally.”

“Ah, I see.” Gourry nodded in understanding, then looked over at me. “That would’ve been a much simpler explanation.”

“You spaced out before I got to that part!”

“Well, if I may...” MacLyle reinserted himself into the conversation. “I said they were bandits, but they don’t seem to be any ordinary brigands. Our local task force can’t track down their hideout, and the offenders seem more interested in petty spite than money. In that sense, perhaps I should call them raiders instead. I was hoping you could offer some new insight into the situation.”

“I see...” I nodded vaguely in response.

To be honest, Gourry and I weren’t strapped for coin, and this job sounded like it was shaping up to be a real pain. It would’ve been one thing if it was just a couple days’ bodyguard work, or just going to the baddies’ hideout to give it the ol’ kaboom. But a vague objective like “do something about a band of thugs we haven’t even tracked down” was the kind of work that could become a huge time sink.

Assuming I take the job... If the bandits made a straight charge at the village and I wiped ’em out with a flashy spell, that’d put a pretty quick end to things. But on the other hand, if the raiders had already abandoned Atessa and gone elsewhere, I could end up waiting around forever for nothing.

Not that I had anywhere special to be, mind you. I was simply out on a rambling journey after my big sis back home told me to go out...