(Ngh... Did I pass out? This carriage is just too comfortable...)

"Finally awake?" said a soft voice.
"Y-yes, sorry!" Alice replied reflexively, checking if she hadn't been drooling the whole time.

In front of her, Isaac de Valmont was smiling at her. His son Maximilian, soon to be an adult, was lightly snoring against his shoulder.

"No problem. As you can see, you were not the only one."

(Pfft. He's usually so serious, but right now he looks like a child.)

As there was no such thing as a camera here and then, Alice committed this scene to memory, determined to reference this embarrassing moment in an argument later on as a wild card.

"We should be able to see the royal palace from afar any time now," said the marchioness.

(Then we should be there in about two hours, at that speed. I can't wait to visit all the places I heard about!)

"It is good to see you smile a bit, Alice."
"Indeed," added Elaina, a look of worry on her face. "We were afraid you felt pressured to accompany us."
"No, I am genuinely happy to go with you all. I am just... sorting out some thoughts."
"Did Rachel cause trouble, after all?" Isaac pondered. "From her brief report, it sounded like it was a success..."
"Besides a mishap or two, she put considerable effort into her way of talking. She did fairly well."

(Certainly better than me, at least...)

"But she caused you trouble, did she?" Elaina insisted.
"Well... She may have contributed a bit to my getting personally summoned by Lady Isabelle in the future."
"... We might need another talk with her upon our return," Isaac said, exchanging a grave look with his wife.
"I-I mean, Lady Isabelle is the one who suggested it, so Rachel only sealed my fate, that is all..."

(Honestly, it might have been worse to improvise an explanation of my element on the spot... I at least have some time to think of something.)

Suddenly, the sound of multiple whistles echoed from the leading carriage, which woke Maximilian up.

"What... was that?"
"Probably just some monsters off the road," Alice reassured him.
"I am afraid this is not a monster attack," declared the marquis with a grave expression.

(... Eh? Really?)

Isaac calmly grabbed a sword sheath from under his seat and climbed down to the ground. "None of you leaves the carriage. It will be over quickly."

"W-what is happening?" Elaina mumbled, her voice trembling.
"Bandits, probably..." her son said with a frown.
"Looks like it," Alice said. "A carriage is coming right at us from the side."
"So they are attacking us..."

Looking at those two, Alice felt like she was the odd one, feeling almost calmer in this situation than performing socializing tasks.

(They seem unprepared to take action in this kind of situation. Well, I can't blame them, since no one would expect bandits to strike on this busy road. What's up with that, anyway?)

As she had been told many times, the chances of being ambushed on the road to the capital were slim. After all, it was busy to the point of encountering many carriages every hour.
Statistically, it would be unlikely that no reinforcement comes from either direction during a fight.

As such, unless the bandits' skills were excellent, attacking a carriage was overall a bad move, especially since these carriages currently had a plethora of skilled guards.

While Alice was asserting the situation, the marquis advanced toward a small man, probably the bandits' leader. 
Alice couldn't exactly hear what the two were saying, but she could guess that Isaac was suggesting a retreat of the bandits so that no blood would be needlessly shed by introducing himself as a powerful noble with great sword skills and a considerable mana pool.
Alice glanced over and noticed Maximilian gently holding his mother's trembling hand, perhaps as much to calm himself as to comfort her.

(Isn't it a bit sad that the first daring moment I see of him is in this situation?)

"You do not need to worry too much," Alice said. "They will leave as soon as they understand who they attacked."
"You sound oddly confident," remarked Maximilian. "Did you experience something like that?"
"Well, I—"

Before Alice could finish her sentence, the sound of multiple blades being unsheathed was heard.

"Prepare for battle!" Isaac shouted in the distance. 
"What...?" Alice mumbled.

(That's strange. There are only a dozen bandits, and they're against at least as many guards who are equivalent to B-ranked adventurers.)

Whether the attackers were out of their minds or were just that skilled, she couldn't be certain. From what she could observe they did seem to be well-equipped though, with pieces of armor strategically located over their ragged clothes. As such, their inexperience seemed unlikely.

Alice reached into her bag, retrieved her artifact recreation, and peeked out of the carriage once again to get an overview of the whole scene.

"That pendant... This is the so-called 'lucky charm' you used to wear every time you were about to train with my sister, right? You are not thinking of going over there, are you?"
"... I am not planning to. They will be fine without my help."

(Still, better be safe than sorry.)

She sighed when she estimated that more than half of the mana the artifact contained had already decayed during the trip. Not only she had had no occasion to be completely alone to replenish it, but she hadn't even brought the specific solutions with her.

(Even so, I'll only be an extra at most. It's plenty to help out.)

***

"Something is off..." Alice said after a couple of minutes. "Why are the guards so on the defensive...?"

Since the fight had begun, the bandits were not faltering one bit. If regular bandits truly had the skills to put pressure on a dozen B-ranked, they surely wouldn't risk dying or being imprisoned by attacking travelers on this cursed road. At least, they would also have accepted the Marquis' act of goodwill and retreated right after.

(Ngh... Going over there blindly wouldn't be so efficient, considering how they seem awfully skilled. They would be able to dodge most of my attacks and I would burn through my mana pool because of the constant protective spell.)

Besides a couple of exceptions like Isaac de Valmont who was managing to push back his opponents, the battlefield was filled with stalemates.
Focusing on her breathing, Alice slowly moved her arms. 

(All I need to do is break those deadlocks by messing with the attackers. Doing it from here should spare me a lot of mana.)

Moments later, Alice focused her mana on the targets, compressing it tightly.
Just then, the expression on the faces of two bandits who had the upper hand over their respective opponents changed from a grin to a puzzled expression, followed by panicked cries and the stench of rotten eggs. This smell came from the keratin in their hair breaking down, releasing sulfur.
In other words, the bandits' hair was on fire. A significant amount of heat had been generated in a limited volume over their heads and had ignited several locks of hair, one of the most inflammable parts of the human body.

From then on, only two options were left to them: putting out the fire with their hands, or burning alive in seconds. Needless to say, the first option would mean losing the fight, either by surrendering or by letting their opponent fend them off. 

One of the two bandits chose to compromise by fighting with one hand while patting his head repeatedly with the other.

(Eh? That guy's got some fighting spirit... What kind of training did he go through?)

She had expected the instinctual withdrawal reflex to kick in as soon as he felt the scorching sensation, causing him to drop his sword and surrender. She was honestly impressed.
However, not managing to put out all the flames while getting weak on his swings with his other arm, the panic took over in a couple of seconds and his opponent eventually struck him down.
As for the other bandit...

(U-uh? Is he ignoring it completely...? Just who are these guys?)

The man was still fighting normally despite his blazing hair, possibly after watching his nearby comrade lose.
His face was betraying an almost fanatical determination, as if he was finding meaning in dying in this manner. Soon enough, his shoulder-length hair made a bridge between the fire and his clothes, slowly turning him into a fiery halo.

(Why...? Why would he prioritize killing his opponent over saving himself?)

"Alice, you..." Maximilian began, but his voice faltered as he saw the turmoil in Alice's intense expression.

Even with his arms ablaze, his face contorting in pain, the bandit managed to deflect the guard's strike and tackled the latter on the ground. Soon, flames engulfed the guard too.

The bandit rolled away as soon as he confirmed it, coughing as he desperately tried —in vain— to put out the fire on himself.
More likely than not, asphyxiation would claim his life before the flames could consume his flesh. After all, in a stressful situation where he had to intensely swing such a heavy sword, he ought to have breathed a lot of oxygen-deprived air.

(... I don't like this.)

He might have chosen to die himself, but seeing his scorching body wriggling weakly on the ground still made Alice feel like she was the one who pulled the trigger. She looked at the first bandit, unmoving. He might have died because of the sword slash he had received just earlier, but at least she was certain it wasn't her fire that did it, since the flames had been extinguished. 

As for the guard she was supposed to help, however, he was currently being a victim of friendly fire. Every second was crucial.
And yet, in a desperate attempt to cast the opposite spell and save his life, Alice strained to displace her mana over the distance, messing this simple operation over and over again. Upon reflecting on the reason, she realized her hands were simply uncontrollably trembling. 

(I try out experimental spells at a distance as if the battlefield is a sandbox, and I falter as soon as I realize I can't control who dies and who doesn't at this distance. And after I confidently told Cyne I was fine with taking a life if it's accidental, even.)

"I am such a hypocrite," Alice whispered before she resolutely clapped her cheeks.

(It's alright, I can make it in time. I've got enough mana.)

"... Sorry," Alice let out, clenching her pendant more firmly than before. 

With a deep breath, Alice propelled herself forward with explosive speed, ignoring the cries from the marchioness, and she started deploying her most trusted spell.