Hang in there, guys.

Please calm down and read until the end of the chapter. Half-way you might want to hit something but please read till the end.

This is the only chapter left about Rena’s tragic past and the next 140 chapters will be ALL HILARIOUS again.

Name list:

ブラウン: Buraun => Brown

オーガスト: Ōgasuto => August

ゴードン: Gōdon => Gordon

エリック: Erikku => Eric

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Mile Chapter 55: Red Rena

ED: Bluegraine

 

『Red Lightning Bolt』was a party of four men.

Swordsman Brown 38 years old.

Swordsman August 27 years old.

Spearman Gordon 22 years old.

And 『poor dexterity』Magician Eric 28 years old.

Eric didn’t have much magic power, but he could use simple magic with short chants, he also used a bow to conserve magic power. But his aim was bad which was why he had『poor dexterity』in his name.
They felt a little responsible and thought that one of the reasons why Rena’s father got killed was their careless approach.

Even a ten years old child like Rena could understand that everyone just came to help. They didn’t need to feel responsible, but everyone was good hunters.
Then they learned that Rena had no family other than her father who just died. After consulting for a while, they told Rena.

 

“Do you want to come with us?” (Brown)

“Eh…?” (Rena)

 

This world was harsh for a ten-year-old girl to live in by herself.
She could stay in an orphanage, but that was a story if she had a good fortune or a connection.

Would she be handled somewhere as a worker, and be expelled if she got sick, or would she live like an orphan in slums from the beginning?

Even more, a good looking girl had the potential of being kidnapped by slave hunters, and there were many other dangers.

In that case, it would be better for her to act together with the hunters.
Although Rena was ten years old, she was a child of a peddler.

She saw and heard various things during the trip, she knew about it.
Rena responded after thinking for a while.

 

“…Please” (Rena)

 

Everyone in 『Red Lightning Bolt』 dug a hole and buried the body of Rena’s father.

After that, they loaded the dead body of the defeated bandit on to Rena’s father’s horse-drawn carriage.

Even if the carriage had not been there, it would have been okay with just their head, but if you could carry it, the person who brought the whole corpse would more easily pass the inspection when receiving the reward.
Carriage and goods were to be sold in the city with the approval of Rena.

If one had a carriage, it was convenient for moving on the highway, but it could not be used for moving in forests and mountainous areas, maintenance costs were also serious problems.

For hunters under C-rank, the carriage was just luggage for gold eating.
Of course, the money that the horse-drawn carriage sold for would be personally given to Rena.
In this way, Rena, a ten-year-old, decided to act with 『Red Lightning Bolt』

Rena had practiced on self-study with magic that was useful for a journey with her father, mainly water magic that creates water for the horse and ourselves.

She could also use soil magic that keeps the wheels of the horse-drawn carriage on the muddy road. And lastly, she could only use small fire magic to ignite firewood.

And the『poor dexterity』magician Eric also taught Rena various kinds of magic.

Rena as a magician had less magic power than Eric, so Eric taught her how to use a bow but her aim was worse than his, and soon she became 『poor dexterity 2』magician.

Her body was small, her magic power was also low, and she had neither strength nor battle skills.

Because of that, the members of 『Red Lightning Bolt』 didn’t try to register Rena as a hunter even though she was ten years old.

Rena was insufficient to be a single hunter, and if she had been an adult, she would have thought about getting into ordinary work in some city.

For that reason, they had Eric teach her magic that could be used with less magic power and be useful in the future, they also taught her how to handle a staff for self-defense.
Rena, on the other hand, practiced desperately enough to be useful for everyone. Magic, staff techniques, and even hunters’ knowledge training.
There was only one ten years old girl who wasn’t registered as a hunter among adult men who ranged from 20 to 40 years old.

『Red Lightning Bolt』 was ridiculed variously by hunter friends. 

But other hunters also knew about the circumstances that 『Red Lightning Bolt』 protected a girl who became an orphan. All they could see was a cute little girl that respected and tried her best for 『Red Lightning Bolt』

And as time passed, one day when Rena was thirteen years old, 『Red Lightning Bolt』 had an escort quest.
For two carriages, the escort was 『Red Lightning Bolt』, 4 people. It was a reasonable number.

Although Rena already remembered attack magic, she was responsible for water supply to preserve Eric’s magic power.

The effect of her healing and recovery magic was really weak, and she wasn’t counted in the fighting force.
Besides the 『Red Lightning Bolt』, there was one merchant and one man on each carriage.

The existence of the escorts meant the carriages carried some kind of goods to trade from city to city,  and it wasn’t a peddler’s horse carriage loaded with miscellaneous goods.

It was a delicious prey, so the merchant had to hire the escort hunters.

Would they attack even if the merchant had escorts? It depended on the number of bandits.
And on that day, the balance of the bandits’ judgment tilted towards “attack”.

 

“There are bandits from the front! Their numbers are about ten!”  (probably Brown)

“From the back, six! Too many!” (probably August)

 

Even if there were some escorts, they could still easily win.

As long as there were sixteen people, even seven or eight hunters wouldn’t be able to achieve a fair match.

If this happened, the hunters would surrender without fighting, and the bandits’ side would also not suffer.

Normally, bandits also didn’t want to kill hunters, if they could earn without fighting it could not be better. Killing hunters who had already surrendered would just be asking for the guild to gather more hunters to hunt them down later.

 

“Well, we have no choice but to surrender …” (Brown)

“No, you all will fight” (Merchant A)

“Huh?” (4 of RLB)

 

Replying to the『Red Lightning Bolt』’s leader’s suggestion of surrender, the merchant who was the employer ordered a battle.

 

“But there will be no way to win with sixteen vs four!” (Brown)

“It is a job of escorts! Being robbed of money and goods, can you pay the fee of the escort that abandoned the work? Fight and drive them away!” (Merchant)

“…” (4 of RLB)

 

After a while in silence, Brown declared.

 

“Surrender” (Brown)

“Roger that!” (3 of RLB)

“How dare you go against the employer’s command! It is a breach of contract!” (Merchant)

 

Brown replied to the complaining merchant.

 

“It’s so obvious that you will surrender after all the escorts have been killed so don’t you have to pay the request fee either way” (Brown)

 

In preparation for such a malicious client, “Surrender is an acknowledgment of the client or a decision of the escort leader. In the situation that the hunter can’t win, even surrender is still deemed to have fulfilled his obligation, and the compensation will be paid.”

Well, since the investigation to confirm would be done by the guild, it was not possible to misuse the rule, and this difference in strength could be recognized without problems.

 

“What!?” (Merchant)

 

Ignoring the merchant shouting, Brown-san cried out to surrender loudly and the bandits got in a relieved atmosphere, they got closer with a comfortable feeling.

Even if the escorts was small, if a battle with hunters stronger than them broke out, some of their companions would be hurt or die.

If a battle could be avoided and they could steal goods safely, it would be the best.

In the first place, this bandit group who had gathered as many people as possible was aiming for that.

 

“We surrender, please don’t kill anyone, as for gold and goods, consult with the employer over there.” (Brown)

“I understand, as usual, I will not kill anyone. But I will have your weapons, we also have to eat … Weapons can be sold with good value, weapons will sell easily because they have high demand, we can also use them ourselves.” (Bandit leader)

“… can’t we keep some weapons, we don’t have enough money to repurchase all of them” (Brown)

“Don’t talk back to me! And I will take the armor as well.” (Bandit leader)

“It cannot be helped … I understand.” (Brown)

 

Armor has problems of size, even if they take it away, it wouldn’t be easy to find people of the same size to use it, and it was considerably cheaper than weapons.

Still, the bandits wanted to take away all the weapons and armor from those who surrendered.
After finishing negotiations with the escort hunters, the bandits ordered the underlings to confiscate weapons and armor from hunters. And then they moved on to negotiations with the merchants.

 

“What is in the carriage?” (Bandit leader)

“… salt and dried meat, salted meat, wheat, and other food items and a barrel” (Merchant)

“Hi ~yahoo~!” (All the bandits)

 

The cheers rose from the bandits

 

“Alright! All of you, take everything” (Bandit leader)

“Please wait! I want to negotiate!” (Merchant)

“What do you want to negotiate?” (Bandit leader)

 

To the merchant’s words, his head showed a dubious face.
It was natural. For negotiators and anything, what could you say to negotiate against bandits who were going to take away all of the goods in the carriage?

 

“If you have anything, just say it” (Bandit leader)

 

The merchant replied to the bandit leader who seemed prone to enter a bad mood at any time.

 

“I want you to return one carriage and half of the salt. And the price is a convenient and variously useable girl who can bring out a lot of water and can light a fire, so she can be used a lot …” (Merchant)

 

With that word, Rena froze.

 

“Stop joking or I’m gonna kill you!” (Brown)

“That is a breach of the agreement!” (Merchant)

 

Anger rose from the people of 『Red Lightning Bolt』.

 

“Ho ho …” (Bandit leader)

 

The bandit leader got interested in it for a moment, and it was negative words that came out of his mouth.

 

“This guy says an interesting thing … Do you sell the escorts you hired?” (Bandit leader)

 

But if the bandit leader took Rena, he would break the promise that was the condition of surrender.

Normally, if bandit broke the promise, even hunters who had surrendered would fight back, and the damage to the bandits would become bigger.

But, it wasn’t just a problem for them this time. The bandits already took all the armor and weapons.

 

“Well then, how do you think about this?” (Merchant)

 

The merchant had an evil smile on his face and tried talking with both Brown and the bandit leader.

 

“You told the employer to surrender. Now your weapons and armor were robbed.
Even a foolish hunter should know his place and abandon the knocked down party member. Or do you want to be killed by the bandits?
She is just a small girl you guys take along to replace a water barrel.
I will tell the guild that I ordered the surrender instructions so you don’t need to pay the escort violation of contract fee.” (Merchant talks with Brown)

“And if you accept the deal, you only lose one carriage and one half of salt
You didn’t break a promise, you can get a useful slave
Won’t both of you benefit from it? It isn’t a bad deal” (Merchant talks with bandit leader)

“You, bas****, I’m gonna kill you” (4 of RLB)

 

The『Red Lightning Bolt』 was angry with the merchant’s words. Rena did not make a voice either.

 

“Waahahahaha, you are a terrible fellow! … No, that is really a merchant!” (Bandit leader)

 

After paying close attention to Rena with his eyes, he thought a little and ordered instructions to his underlings.

 

“… Kill them” (Bandit leader)

 

Somehow Rena got what the bandit leader was thinking. Because Brown just talked with the merchant about this before. If all the hunters were killed and Rena was taken away by the bandits, the only one left to report would be the merchant. He could say that all the hunters refused to surrender and were killed by the bandits, the merchant surrendered and half of his goods was taken away. The bandits also wouldn’t get chased by the guild for breaking the surrender deal.

She had to do something or the four of them would be killed. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think of anything.

 

“Stop…” (Rena) (TN: raw only have Ya… I guess it was Ya(mete)…)

 

And even before she could think of anything, many swords and spears struck the bodies of the four people of『Red Lightning Bolt』
Four people who had all weapons taken away and had surrounded to the bandits had no means to resist. And Brown, August, Gordon, and Eric collapsed on the ground.

 

“Aaa…” (Rena)

 

And Rena kneeled on the ground.

 

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhh …” (Rena)

“Then, let’s unload the carriage, transfer the salt …” (bandit leader)

Dorori (SFX inside Rena mind)

“You are a bad guy too!” (Merchant)

“Haha, aren’t we mutual?” (Bandit leader)

Pu~pu~ (SFX inside Rena mind)

Boko~ Boko~ (SFX inside Rena mind)

 

There wasn’t enough magical power to perform as a magician.
She wasn’t a hunter, but a non-combatant who could only make water.
The merchant had told that to the bandit leader.
Actually, Rena could use attack magic somewhat, but everyone in the 『Red Lightning Bolt』 had told the employer that she could only make water.

It wasn’t true, she could perform attack magic, though poorly, it seemed that 『Red Lightning Bolt』worried about Rena being used as a fighting force, or in the unlikely event like this, she may have been restrained or killed by the bandits …
However, Rena’s good magic was water magic. There wasn’t much attack power in Rena who had weak magical power. It should have been like that.

 

“But if we don’t have to worry about water, we will be able to broaden our range of activity, this is lucky …” (Bandit leader)

Gu~gu~ (Rena’s body is shivering)

“What on earth is this hot and stupid thing in my heart right now …?
Sorrow? Despair? Anger? Or Hatred …?” (Rena)

 

Rena murmured with both knees and hands on the ground and mumbled in a low voice. The bandits looked over with an annoyed gaze.

 

“Well, immediately load the goods …” (Bandit leader)

 

At that time, a hot wind blew on the bandit leader who was talking. The merchant and the bandit leader looked back at what was …

 

“Gyaaaaaa~!” (about 5-7 bandits)

 

Approximately half of his underlings became a torch wrapped in the flame that had the form of a red rose.

 

“What … !?”  (Merchant + bandit leader)

 

The merchant and the bandit leader were surprised by the scene in front of them.

The remaining half of the bandits were only watching their friends in fright.
And a small figure emerged from the flame.

 

“That’s impossible! (Sona bakana)! You should only able to use water magic” (Merchant)

“Oh, that girl, she’s already dead” (Rena)

“Huh…?” (Merchant)

 

Rena kept on talking to the merchant who was unable to understand the meaning of her words.

 

“The daughter of a peddler who is named Rena, who can only use shabby water magic, she died a while ago with my colleagues.
Now I am the one who succeeds the will of everyone in 『Red Lightning Bolt』. I, 『Red Rena』, will kill all the bandits!” (Rena)

“Kill … kill her!” (Bandit leader)

 

The leader ordered a loud voice like his throat was torn as well.
However, none of the bandits pulled out their swords and there was some distance to Rena. They didn’t have enough time to slash her before chanting.
And Rena spoke the words. The words that sprang up from the bottom of her mind filled with hatred.

 

“Burning, the flame of hell! Burn everything to nothingness!” (Rena)

 

Later, a large scale merchant with a large number of escorts, consisting of thirty carriages came.

The things they saw were the burned fields and the 17 burning fires. The four bodies of hunters, the two carriages and the two people trembling in it.
And it was the appearance of a single girl standing without expression.

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Translator’s Note:

With this chapter, we are done with Rena’s tragic past.

Next chapter, Rena will be “cheer” -ing up by Mile, Maevis, and Pauline (?)

Don’t worry, there’s no more tragedy.