I heard that Dominic is an expert archer who can also shoot cavalry and has a good eye. That's great.

　Now, even if the bandits find out, we want to increase the number of places to start the fire so that it will be harder to put out the fire. But we don't want to be noticed by the sound of it penetrating the crate, so we'll stop it in one more place.

　It would be better to burn it all down at once, but the bandits are currently fighting for the succession of the dead leader's mercenary group, as well as a fight for the leader's job, who is unconscious and who was originally on bad terms with them. I want to add water to this internal struggle as much as possible later.

　If the Commander-in-Chief dies and much of the supplies are burned down, they will collapse in the near future if left unattended.

　However, with the Allied Forces consuming so much of the war effort on a daily basis, it is hoped that this will be resolved as soon as possible. Moreover, if the remnants of the bandit army are captured as much as possible and made into criminal slaves, they can be used to make up for the losses.

　Therefore, the Commander-in-Chief will be wiped out, exhausted by internal strife, and many of the supplies will be destroyed by fire, bringing the morale of the bandits to a low point. If the allied forces attack there, we are aiming to lose or surrender without any resistance as far as we are concerned.

　That's why I fired the second shot carefully.
　........hits the piled up supplies.

The third one from the bottom and the second one from the left was hit, what's in the... bag?　It's a bag of oats in the hull. The fire isn't strong enough, but it's likely to spread to the crate itself.

　The bandits had a shoddy way of stacking the crates. The lids weren't tightened securely, and the crates were stacked in the proper way, with many air passages.

　There was smoke coming out, but no one noticed it at the moment.

　Finally, the inside of the crates burned down and the flames finally went up. All at once, the air supply increased and the fire was strong. And the spare equipment, food, and even the horse's fodder was almost completely consumed.

　The reason for the delay in realizing it was probably due to the fact that the cooking bonfire had been ravaged by an internal dispute, and the smoke was terrible, and the confusion caused by the fall of the Commander and Deputy Commander.

　On top of that, the ranks aren't settled, and the transition of command hasn't gone well. Even the regular army is a messy rank and pecking order compared to Earth. Even more so when it comes to a band of mercenaries.

　It has completely lost its function as an organization now. Now they're blaming each other for the fire, and the fights have escalated into blows, not to mention exhaustion, and even death. This may have gone a bit too far, will it last until Midea brings in the cavalry?


★Manya and Midea return.

　Manya came back around 5 p.m. and Midia came back around 6 p.m. with the cavalry in tow. The bikes are in the wilderness, even though the bikes are Kanayako modified, right?　I wondered how much they had skipped, but there was a cause.

　Berta had set up several simple forts quite far south to speed up the decisive battle with the bandits, and they were pressuring the bandits. Manya found one of them and entrusted him with the papers, and he was only halfway there as planned.

　Midia has a similar reason.

　There had been no bandit raids on the merchant corps in the last few days, and the cavalry had apparently been alerted to the fact that the bandits were on the cusp of a full-scale offensive, and had moved the encampment quite far westward in order to detect the bandits early and to conduct a delay operation in case they were to be attacked. So they were able to meet up with Midia much closer, and the cavalry battalion rushed in.

　However, Midea is a tireless motorbike, but horses are tired of a strong army alone. Therefore, it was decided to hide for a while, rest the horses, and then forcefully attack.......

　The bandits were more demoralized than expected, and there were a number of deserters. One of them happens to run into the cavalry, and all hell breaks loose. The main body of the bandits heard about it and fell into a state of panic, and before they could fight, they were all crushed.

''Aha! Ryota, you've gone too far!　The bandits are fleeing in pieces, and the horses aren't tired yet, you know?　You're taking too long to catch up!

　Even if you subtracted out the counterattack, there are still about three thousand bandits left alive. And yet, an all-out crusade... Modern morale leadership techniques are nurtured by a long history of overestimating the power of the crowds. If it's instant, it's religion or ideology, if it's not there, it's drugs or fear to bind them.

　And yet, the leader of the group all fell, the chain of command disappeared, supplies were burned down, and even the other groups, even if they are allies, distrusted the other group, and they were tired and ragged from fighting each other. So of course we should run away....

　It was unexpected, so we hastily changed our policy to control the direction of escape.

'Manya is driving an armored car, Window Flower is controlling the RWS machine gun, Midia is a small motorcycle, and Dominic-san is a bow on top of an armored car. East is the cavalry and west is the spotted forest. The bandits only have an escape route to the north or south. I want to lead them to Berta, so they can block the south escape, and I'll prepare for the emergency.'

　The cavalry from the east and Bertha from the north. To the west, the Specter of the Spotted Forest would clear out the area. However, there is a settlement in the Spotted Forest at a relatively close distance in the southwest direction. I don't think so, but if the bandits are lucky enough to get there, there is a chance that the residents will be in danger.

"Sir, what about the self-driving car?

''That's light armor too, the wolves can't do anything about it, so let's park it. When the escape to the south is blocked, you'll help the cavalry hunt the remnants of the cavalry, focusing on spotting the enemy. I'm going to be able to see if there are any survivors in the bandits' stronghold and take care of them, then join the armored car. Ask Window Flower for command.''

"Yes, I'll take care of it.


We've made our move.

　An armored car suddenly appears, blocking the south side and firing suppressive shots at the bandits moving south. Midea's motorcycle fills in the gap between the armored car and the bandits. Dominic has a history of battles, and he uses his longbow to take care of the omissions of Midea's attackers.

　Also, Dominic-san was even more skilled with the bow than I had expected. He fired arrows that curved with special arrows and qigong, bypassing shields and surgeon's barriers and shooting through them.

　The bandit who tried to move southward unbearably rolled north.
　The rest is left to chase and threaten, leaving the capture and pursuit to the cavalry.

''Ladies and gentlemen, there is no more escape to the south. Please refrain from firing as much as possible in the future.''

　Quite the window flower, a safe decision.
　I don't want to consume ammunition once the victory has been decided.

　It's hard to gather materials, chemicals, casings, and bullets need to be made, and ammunition needs to be manufactured. Beeswax wax bullets are rust-proofed and applied with a rag to polish them before storage. The magazine also has a lot of loading work to do. Besides, the high bounty hunter has already died an alcoholic death and a confirmed surplus.

　A single round of ammunition is more important than ten miscellaneous soldiers, if they're captured, they can be sold as criminal slaves, but that's not the group's policy. In this case, the bandits are a hindrance that can't get the magic nucleus or back oil, and it's more likely that they'll be looking for funds left in the base.

　In addition, the cavalry drives out the bandits, but so far they haven't killed them.

　It seems that they will make up for their losses with criminal slaves, after all, the cavalry was focused on capturing them. Many of the remnants of the bandits are also slaves, but many of them surrendered as better than death. I don't think the survival rate is high for miners or oarship slaves, but voluntary surrender is a shorter sentence.

　The armored car group has also crossed the stronghold and moved to assist in the pursuit of bandits fleeing north.
　So I'm moving on to the firemen.

'The survivors of the stronghold are almost all deadly wounds, or if anything, they're a mercy strike...'

　I came here on a medium-sized motorcycle hoping to find some treasures, but the bandits' funds were meager. No wonder there are no bootleggers or prostitutes. If the army was well-funded, they would come from nowhere, whether it was a bandit army or a mercenary army.


　After they have managed to collect the coins, they take fatal wounds from each other and make the abandoned ones comfortable.
　Then, roughly cleared out, they try to chase the armored car, but find footprints that have escaped into the forest.......

　Oh, my God!　There were people who hid and got away with it!　And the direction of the escape is southwest, in the direction of the mixed settlements. And this area is far from the roads and towns. In other words, it's a settlement of mixes who are particularly easy to hate and have a strong speciality in appearance.

''This is Ryota!　There's a loose end, immediate pursuit...　You're out of range!'

　I was waiting on the forest side to make sure this didn't happen, but I was caught off guard by all the bandits I could see going north, and I was busy trying to stop them and steal their fire.

　I'm armed with Nagamaki Yukikaze, an MP5F and its two mags, a P229, and two grenades with handles, and it hurts that I had to cut back on my armament for the sake of the loot.

　It's been a long time since we checked our bases. I doubt I'll be able to chase after them now in time... Still, my oversight is the cause, I'll do my best to chase them!


Near the mixed settlement of the Mura Forest

　I'm finally catching up to them but I know it's too late.

　The smell of blood in the air, the sound of bandits laughing I've made another colossal mistake. I'm going to go clean up the mess and take responsibility for it.

　I get off my bike and approach the village gate with my gun at the ready.