Chapter 320: At House Schult

"Those are thieves, right?"

I turned and asked Dee, but even in the night his face looked difficult enough to tell.

"We cannot decide yet."

Vague, like some official. Wait. Dee works in the palace, so he is a public servant. But if he decided, what would Dee do? I wanted to ask.

"Then how far do they have to go, and what do they have to do, before I may attack?"

"Nnnn."

Dee groaned. I had thought this person was in a more responsible post. Is he about a site supervisor? Called a supervisor, and still a sandbag for complaints and stress from subordinates and subcontractors, given progress management of a project that will not move and materials procurement from above, working hard and still beaten from above as if it were natural when it does not go well. A completely joyless post. Aaaah, like a construction site on some large building? Work that hard, and the pay the same as a rank-and-file. Ah, Dee, your temple is twitching. I recommend psychosomatic medicine. This world does not have it. Yes.

"Right. I decided!"

"Hah. What?"

Dee started at my voice.

"When they cross the gate I will shoot arrows."

"Eeh!? Impossible, yes? From here to House Schult’s gate is a hundred feet. And it is night?"

"I can! If I do it I can! Teacher Agnes Eisleben said so!"

That is so. Under the teacher’s instruction my technique is improving at a glance. Surely. I am already tired of shooting a target that does not move. Is this not the scene for hitting a moving target and also clearing out villains, two birds with one stone! If I miss this I do not know when I will practice for real. This is heaven’s aid! Even if I miss a little, no one will be troubled!

But Dee, perhaps with last time as trauma, said things like,

"Lord Marie, without doing something that reckless?"

Inside House Schult they still seemed not to have grasped the thieves’ movement. No movement in the mansion. The windows with lights did not change. If House Schult, seen from outside, gave no sense of movement and was waiting for the thieves, that would already be something.

"It may be they are after House Schult. There is a rumor they made a killing in the last clash fuss."

Dee explained the thieves’ movement, at least. But he did not say let us do something about those thieves. Will you stay a bystander? The sorrow and survival art of middle management showed through.

The thieves, of course, would not open the gate properly and go in. They set a ladder against the wall beside the gate and began to climb.

I took bow and arrows from Lily. Then I set myself. Now was the time to show what Teacher Eisleben had taught!

Shunk!!

I shot at the one who had climbed onto the wall. Aim at the hip. No fatal wound. Just enough that he cannot move, then catch him.

Tak!!

It hit the shoulder of the one on the wall! He tumbled down into House Schult. Close! I corrected a little and loosed the second shot! Next was the one who had finished climbing after the first. This time it hit the hip. He fell into the marquis’s residence too. Next the one who had climbed the ladder, the one who had put a foot on the ladder, the one searching for where the arrows were coming from, the one who pointed this way. I shot them one after another. The one who turned this way took it in the chest. Pitiful, but changing posture was the mistake. I shot the ones in the road one after another too. They hit as if it were fun. I was aiming at hips, but there was an error of about thirty centimeters in radius.

For some reason the ones the arrows hit did not move. Dead? Strange. An arrow hit should not be a fatal wound.

I looked at Lily, wondering, and she said, composed, a little proud,

"I coated them with a fast-acting numbness drug."

Yes, yes. Thank you.

"Amazing! They hit this much!?"

Leaving an impressed Dee aside, I shot the ones still standing. When four were left the thieves found us.

"You bastards!? Playing with us!!"

they shouted and ran this way. Coming with swords raised. Do they not know that running with a sword is slower than a proper run? And you go short of breath at once.

Playing with us is rude! For me it was I have been waiting!

"I will make you rust on my sword!"

I shouted, drew, and jumped down into the road. Behind me I heard Lily’s voice, well, well.

"Lord Marie, wait! I will take them! Do not run ahead!"

A scream-like shout from Dee, but if Dee’s voice would stop me I would not have jumped down from the start.

A big one ran at me with a sword raised on a slant. Already short of breath. Not enough ordinary training showed clear. He always moved only the people below and did not move himself. That would be fatal now!

I jumped to the side opposite the sword and slid my sword into his gut. The gut cut in a way that felt good. I dove straight at the man behind him and cut from face to ear, arm and all, as he tried to raise his sword. Amazing. It cuts, it cuts! Behind that a man was frozen in surprise. The sword was not even half out of the sheath. He had not made it. Pitiful, but I slid the sword from shoulder to neck. The wide-open eyes were striking. Blood must have come from the neck like a fountain.

The last one saw the slaughter and lost his nerve. He turned to run, so I switched my grip and threw. I meant to hit the middle of the back and it stuck in the base of the neck. Pitiful, he fell forward as he was. I ran to him.