Chapter 296: Returning

I stepped in and thrust my sword. The man tried to sweep it aside, but his strength was weak. He could not finish the sweep, and my sword pierced his chest.

"Guh!"

A muffled sound came from the man. He tried to cut me with his sword, but the blade I had stuck in him got in the way. The path of his sword shifted and he swung through empty air. Lily leapt in and swept his neck. Lily jumped back, and blood sprayed from the man’s neck.

"Kuwa..."

The man made a sound that was not a voice, sank down, and gripped my sword. His fingers dripped, drop by drop. Paying that no mind, his hands slipped, and the man collapsed.

I lit a very weak lamp so as not to stand out. No one seemed to have come out. The man fallen in the road was bleeding from the neck. Was he already not breathing? Was he not playing dead? No last stroke as a souvenir for the other world? I pulled the sword from the man’s chest. Perhaps because the blood had run from his neck, little came from the chest.

"He seems dead."

"Yes. Will you put this one away as well?"

"I will."

I held out a hand and stored the man’s corpse.

"Fingers are left here. What will you do about the blood?"

Lily pointed at the pool of blood. Even with the lamp weak, a black pool was visible on the road.

"I will store the fingers, but the blood... what should we do?"

"What if you washed it away with water?"

"Would a blood stain not still remain?"

There was no drain at the roadside.

"Would that not be better than leaving a pool of blood like this?"

"That is true. I will put out water. Step back."

If I thinned it and spread it, it would be less noticeable. That was about the level of my thinking.

A deck brush somewhere would have been nice, but convenient tools did not just sit there. All I could do was put out water and thin the pool. If it was going to be like this I should have kept at least a deck brush in the mana bag, I thought, and put out water. I had gotten better at putting out water. I admired myself. Every day I thinned semen with water I produced (adjusting the viscosity so it was easier to drink), so putting out water was something I was used to. Quantity was no great trouble either. I did not know where I was pulling the water from, but I put it out in a rush.

It felt as if a thick, narrow pool of blood had only become a thin, wide pool of blood, but I would call it good enough. Come morning, once people and carriages passed, it would soon be unreadable.

Now we had to rejoin the unit.

Lily and I went back the way we had come.

We arrived in front of the house the unit had raided. From outside there was nothing odd. It was no different from before the raid, and no light leaked. A worry crossed me. They had not stormed in and been wiped out in a counterattack, had they? No, no, I must not raise a flag like that, I thought, and timidly knocked on the front door. After a short wait a small voice came from inside.

"Who is it?"

"Roy and Lee."

I answered. Good that the names had been decided. The door opened a little, they confirmed us, and opened a gap just wide enough for one person. Inside a faint lamp was lit, but people lay here and there, bleeding. Not making large pools of blood like mine... was that the skill of practiced hands?

Dee asked,

"When we stormed in we let two get away. And?"

"Both died. One by suicide, one we killed in a fight. The corpses are in the mana bag."

The whole unit heard my words. There was a reaction at the corpses being in the mana bag. I think it meant both, how can you do something that disgusting, and what kind of mana bag holds two corpses?

"Shall I take the corpses out?"

I asked, and Dee shook his head.

"I do not want this place dirtied any further. Take them out after we return to the palace. And I am sorry, but will you hear a request? Does Roy’s mana bag still have room for more corpses?"

"Yes. I think it will be fine."

"I see. Then I am sorry, but I ask you. Forgive me."

As Dee said, I stored the corpses. The dead were not only the Empire side. There were unit members as well. I had not thought we would come through unharmed, but the dead still hurt the heart. Feeling nothing when people of the Empire died, and hurting when I thought these were people of the kingdom, even though I had only just met them... when I thought of that as a contradiction, it was strange.

"You are injured, are you not? Shall I heal you?"

Lily seemed to have found the wounded, and healed them.

"Amazing, Roy and Lee."

Dee murmured, so I answered,

"This much is ordinary, is it not?"

But the fact they had not been healed meant there had been no one in the unit who could heal.

"Many people dislike putting corpses in a mana bag. I thought that was the ordinary sense, but unexpectedly Roy agreed and it helped. It is a curious thing. Many will store a beast’s corpse without trouble, yet they will not put a human corpse in."

Dee told me. Was that how it was?

"Anyway, I had resigned myself to bringing a cart and hauling the corpses, so being rid of that is large. We want as few people as possible to know about tonight."

That was true. Pulling a cart or carriage in the middle of the night and loading corpses on it, even if you hid it, the surroundings would know.

"I see. Then what happens to this place after?"

What would they do about this blood?

"We make it as if nothing happened. We clean it thoroughly. We make it look as if the people who lived here evaporated one day."

"And what happens then?"

They would leave it an empty shell, and do what? For what purpose?

"People of the Empire’s hands are sure to come. They will find it strange that contact from those who lived here has ceased, and they will inquire. That person will see the place empty and go to contact someone. We determine that place and raid again."

"Hoho. I see. You crush them by repeating it."

"Yes. The Empire’s hands lurk without number. That will never go away, but we have to reduce them."

"That is reasonable."

It was like stacking stones on the banks of the Sanzu, but Mainz Kingdom was surely doing the same. In fact Marie Kingdom had an information-gathering unit as well, and the contest would continue.

"Talking with Roy, I do not feel as if I am talking with a child at all. Strange."

Dee muttered. That is only natural. It is a light-novel staple.

When I finished taking in the corpses, Dee called one member.

"Clean the rooms."

he ordered. That member began using a purification magic to take away the filth. I thought they must be tired from fighting, but it had to be done. I could probably help if it was purification, but if I helped with everything I would sink deep into the swamp, so I held back what I wanted to say.

Lily’s healing was finished as well. Watching that, Dee said,

"Roy, you saved us tonight. Take the corpses out after we return to the palace. I will have Vee guide you."

"Understood. Thank you for your work tonight."

I said, and was about to leave the house when a member came running from the back carrying a wooden box.

"Dee! I found it! It was hidden in the basement warehouse! What is it? Something is rattling inside. I unlocked it, so I will open it!"

The member set it in the center of the room as if he had found a treasure chest and opened the lid. There was no time to stop him. I prayed it was not a mimic.

The instant the lid opened, the box exploded!