Chapter 25: Traitor!

“All of you except these knights may leave,” the bandit leader said. The caravan leader looked at the bandits for a while, nodded and packed his things. He then motioned for other passengers to board the carriages, and they all agreed.

“Hey! We paid you to guarantee our safety!” Lain said. “How could you leave us like this?”

“I have helped you!” Alicia, who had never been betrayed before, glared at the mercenaries. She had read various novels about betrayals, yet she had never thought she would face one herself. It hurt more than she thought. She understood those edgy characters who were betrayed by their classmates felt now.

“Sorry, girl, but I have a family that I must feed.” The mercs and the caravan leader bowed their heads. He then threw John’s belongings out of the caravan. Their mercenaries followed them in tow. After putting Lain and Loharn’s goods out from the caravan, they boarded their carriages and horses.

“If you survive this, I promise to pay you back double the caravan fee!” the caravan leader said as he rode his wagon away. Alicia looked at those passengers in a daze. Some of them brought weapons—small daggers and shortbows—but none of them came down from their passenger seats to help. Over twenty passengers ignored her. If they all worked together, coupled with Alicia’s magic, they could win this.

Alas, human nature was not so simple. The bandit leader knew this and used the fact against them. He was a notorious bandit. He had never failed his hunt.

“...” John, Lain, and Loharn drew their swords. They were ready, but none of them made the first move. Fear was clear on their faces.

“Hmm… which one is our target?” the bandit leader called to his adjutant.

“It should be that man with brown hair.”

“You two may leave. We only need the man and the girl,” the bandit leader said. Alicia felt fear creep up her heart. If she lost them as well, there was no way they could win against this many bandits. Lain trembled. She looked over at the passage that had just been opened behind them.

“No! We are the proud knights of Shadowstep! There is no way we would surrender or flee in the face of bandits! Run back to the hole you came from, scum!” Loharn said, his sword drawn, his determination unwavering.

Alicia looked at Loharn in a new light. She had never known him. He was just a side character who only appeared in the original novel once. She never thought he would be this loyal.

“Thanks, buddy.”

“M-me too! I-I... I am a proud knight f-from Shadowstep. W-we will not flee in the face of bandits!”

“You stuttered,” Alicia said. Understandably, the female knight before her was usually tasked with clerical jobs. She had never faced—nor expected to face—real dangers against monsters or bandits. This job too. She didn’t expect to face monsters. She thought she was going to handle logistics such as stagecoach fare and administrative procedures in the capital.

“Hah! Stupid knights! I, Agrarias, will slaughter you and that pitiful countdom of yours,” the bandit leader said, raising his war axe like the bandit he was.

Alicia was about to shoot him with her magic, but he retreated while ordering his subordinates to surround John.

“ARGHH!!” a bandit screamed. Alicia struck first. Child mages should not be learning attack spells just yet, but since Alicia and Elidranthia had adult minds, they learned faster than other child mages and Alex had indulged them with advanced lessons.

“Hah! Hah!!” Alicia threw one fireball after another at the bandits. Having faced countless monsters from the forest, John and Loharn quickly adopted a formation.

“Guard the mage!” John said, forming the defensive formation he had practiced countless times with Loharn. Lain was one step slower. She was not the best knight, but she graduated from the academy as any other. Normal bandits with no training were no match for her.

“Shoot them! Cavalry, circle the blockade and attack them from behind!” the bandit leader spat as he just lost seven people from Alicia’s attack. Tigers do not attack a struggling deer—they always aim to get a clean kill. That’s why he made those offers to let the caravans and knights go. Real bandits do not behave in the same way as those in games, where they keep swarming the MC despite knowing they couldn’t even act as a meat shield.

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t happen the way he liked it to be, as Alicia and John were ready to bet their lives in this battle. Alicia was better than usual mages. She didn’t just lob one fireball. Using both hands, she tossed two at once. She was raining devastation—more than even low-level military mages in wars.

“Hah! Whoa!” Loharn deflected a lunge from a bandit. Then, minutes later, a fireball engulfed the bandit, singing Loharn’s blonde hair. He couldn’t help but wince. The battle was exactly like he had been trained for. But the fact remained that the mage he was guarding was a kid. The spell could miss and hit him instead. During his training, he remembered that one instance where a mage had missed his spell, resulting in a severe burn on a knight. So, he had been careful ever since.

“Die!!” John lunged at a bandit, ending his life with a slit to the throat. He was braver—he took the vanguard position, drawing three bandits to himself. The promise he took reverberated inside. He had promised to sacrifice everything for the sake of Alicia, his daughter. Today, he was a top knight of Shadowstep, along with Alicia.

“Hieek!” Lain took a step back. The clerk knight, or usually mocked as a paper knight, knew the motions, but she couldn’t help but yelp every time a fireball exploded around her. Among the knights fighting here, she was the one losing ground, but John took her slack and drew the enemy to himself.

“Arrows!” Loharn said.

“Argh!!” An arrow stabbed John in the shoulder. John didn’t flinch; he groaned. Thanks to his leather armor, the arrow didn’t penetrate far. Arrows from shortbows were often used for hunting game, not against knight in armor. Let alone plated armor—it could barely penetrate the leather armor John and the others were wearing.

“Wind wall!”

A gust of wind encircled her and the three knights. The arrows from the cheap shortbows swerved to the right, stabbing into the ground.

“Nice job!” Loharn said as he slashed another bandit on the shoulder. The battle was going in their favor. Agrarias then ordered his trump card. Dressed like a bandit, a mage from the guild struck.

“AHH!” Lain was struck—not by arrow nor spear, but by magic. An ice spear stabbed her in the stomach. The shock brought her down.

“Lain!” John looked away for a second. Then, another ice spear came at him. If not for the wooden shield he had swiped from the bandits, he would have faced the same fate as Lain.

“Damn! They really have mages!” Loharn cursed as he leaped to the side, dodging a fireball that came at his face. The fireball went off with an explosion, burning the blockade behind them. Loharn scrunched his face. Now that the enemy also had mages, their chance of victory tanked.

“Hey! Let’s stop fighting. I won’t kill you.” The bandit leader said. He inwardly cursed. Fifteen men had died trying to take down these three knights. He even had to use the mages lent to him by that guild. Mages were often rich, but greed knows no bounds. There were mages willing to work for shady business if it provided them with better opportunities.

“Lain!” Sensing the lull in the battlefield, John went to the injured knight. The bandits had let up their attacks. Knowing they were on the high ground, they moved closer, bunching up near their commander as they approached. A fatal mistake.

“Ugh…”

“We are not here to kill you. Just surrender obediently, alright?” the bandit leader said.

“I know what you want. You want my daughter. Like hell I would let you. I would rather die! Tell me—who do you work for?” John roared. He felt guilt. Lain and Loharn were at risk because of his personal family matters. He would rather die than burdening his comrades like this, but with his daughter here, he could not surrender. Who knew what would happen to Alicia?

But then a thought came to him. What if he died? He couldn’t leave Alicia alone with these bandits. John knew he was expendable. They all wanted him so they could blackmail Alicia into doing their bidding.

“I will treat your friend if you surrender.”

“Die, scum!” Loharn cursed. The bandit leader frowned. He had suffered fifteen casualties, almost a quarter of his troops. Moreover, he had been told to bring John alive.

“You can kill everyone else except that knight and the maid.” The bandits sighed. He regretted accepting that man’s proposal. Three hundred gold coins were not a small sum, but losing this much manpower was severe.

Then he sensed warmth on his face. A golden light emanated from Alicia’s hand as a sun seemed to spawn above her.

“I will not be defeated here! I am a hero!” Alicia said with conviction. She had not been idle when the bandits stopped their attacks. She had been mustering her mana.

She did not learn other spells except beginner spells. But with more mana, she could change their sizes. With all the mana she had mustered, she unleashed her beginner spell: Fireball.

A beginner spell, supposedly only basketball- or baseball-sized, now had grown to beach ball size. It kept growing and growing until it reached a basketball field wide in diameter. The spell was crude. It leaked so much mana. But the display brought awe to the bandits and the knights. They stood still, watching the sun grow before their very eyes.

“W-wait. O-Oi! What are you doing?!” The bandit leader looked at his subordinates. “Kill her!”

“You will not!” Lain stood up, took a wooden shield, and with John and Loharn, protected Alicia like they were trained to. The bandits were not trained soldiers. Some followed, while most of them fled after seeing the massive sun that would come crashing down on them.

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” the bandit leader thought. A child mage should not be this powerful. He had met other mages, but not one this powerful. Of course—a mage higher than Rank 6 was always employed by the crown. They only appeared in real battlefields, not in skirmishes with bandits. They are an elite unit.

“Mages! Cover me!” the bandit leader said as he ran to the nearest mage with his horse.

“Take this! Die!!” Alicia threw down the fireball. The bandits who had gathered near the knights scrambled in panic. They had never fought a high-level mage, so they made the taboo mistake of bunching up.

The fireball burst, and a sea of flame came forth, engulfing all the bandits. The wall of flame spread out, consuming everything in its path. Alicia, being the mage, had to spend extra mana to prevent her own spell from hurting her family. The flames stopped mere inches away from the knights, as if an invisible dome had protected them.

When the sea of flame had run its course, all they could see was devastation. The ground was charred. Flames that had consumed everything started to flicker and dim, leaving nothing but burned remnants of plants and humans. The nauseating smell of cooked meat permeated the air. Apart from Alicia and the knights, only the bandit leader and his mages-for-hire stood—protected inside a water dome. A few other bandits who rode horses and stood far away had escaped the fiery destruction of Alicia’s spell.

“Fuck! My bandit troupe was destroyed!” the bandit leader said. “You bitch! Die!”

He threw his axe at Alicia in anger. John, being the best knight of Shadowstep today, did his duty. He parried the thrown axe. The tables had not exactly turned—they were still outnumbered. seven bandits still roamed, including the three mages who had escaped the AoE magic earlier with their horses.

“Kill them all! Start with the damn mage!” the bandit leader said.

“Protect Alicia!” John rallied. Despite having a hole in her stomach, Lain stood up and followed the order. Ice arrows and fireballs cast by the mages were parried by Alicia’s fireball. She had not used all of her mana. For mages of her caliber, mana was not like a pool, but like a faucet. There is a limit to how much mana a beginner mage could draw at a time. For the first time though, she had felt mana fatigue. But she could still keep going.

“Protect the mage!” Loharn said, repeating the military doctrine that had been drilled into them in the academy. Alicia was taking on three mages through brute force alone, spamming fireball after fireball. Her basic spells could not hit the cavalry bandits, and despite their lower levels, the enemy mages were more experienced than her. Mages were valuable on the battlefield, but even they had weaknesses. They were strong against bunched-up infantry, but cavalry and archers were their weakness.

“Reinforcements!” John said when he saw a banner on the horizon. Jadenbale had come to his rescue. They had braved through the night to chase after John. Thanks to Elidranthia’s light magic, the horse could travel without stopping. For almost two days, the horse had kept on trotting, chasing after John.

“Hah! Hahaha! Who is crying now! Fuckard!” Loharn was ecstatic. Adrenaline took over him as he lunged at a horseman and dismounted him. After he took over his horse, he began chasing down the other bandits. The bandits had lost morale and were fleeing for their lives.

They had won.