"The bandits are retreating!"
"We're alive!"
"We won!!"

Calm down, this is only the first day here. We will meet more bandits from this moment on.

"Brill, The bandits are retreating."
"I can see that. Why tell me about it, victor."
"They seem like the vengeful type. They will likely cause trouble for us throughout our journey. They might even bring other bandit group to attack us."
"We have a good bow but the arrows we have is limited. We also don't have much material to make anymore. Unless you have your own arrows, make do with the rocks on the ground to snipe them out."
"They are too far and a rock won't be able to kill them in one shot."
"Then leave it to the army students. It looks like the two with the mount took the archers to finish them. Let's just hope that they won't escape."

However, I do understand the worry. I'll give them a little help. I can't do anything flashy but a simple rock magic to make them trip should be possible. It is good that the combat healers aren't here since I need to project a substantial amount of mana to target them from this distance.

Connect my mana to the ground, let it travel underground to where I think the bandits need to cross and sink where their foot steps on. They are moving all over the place so its hard to aim.

One more time, aim ahead of them and,,,,,tsk.

*Tap* *Tap* *Thump*

"Anybody hurt!"

Looks like one of the combat healer came to check on us after they heard the sound the giant's spear threw.

"Me and brill are ok, we can heal ourselves with [Holy Armour]. I hit a few others when I was shook off from parrying the spear so they might have suffered some bruises or broken bones. How is the battle up front?"
"We are almost done in front, the teacher gave an advise to the leader so we reduced their strength by a quarter. However, they are stubborn and won't retreat but we can clean them up with a couple more charge, Don't worry. We are stretched thin right now so we don't have anyone to defend you all. This will happen often while we are on this road so be prepared and be alert. Those who are hurt raise your hand and I will heal you."

Their score would be deducted for that. That situation could be attributed to their lack of experience but unlike the rest of us, army students have graduation trips before we even suggested this trip to the central island. Military students would travel to monster-rich lands to have battle experience since its important for their career.

They might not have enough experience against groups especially against organized combat forces like the former gold mine guards. If that is true then the enemy might have read that and bluffed their formation to make them dismount since they know that the iron rhino is a huge disadvantage for them. I hope they learn from this and defend us better for the rest of our journey.

My main problem would be the vegetable dry bandits that are running away. Our mounted guards are cleaning up the small frys but the bandit leader, and I guess a few of his trusted aides, are escaping. If this keeps up the leader would escape. I don't care about the underlings but the leader is the brains and the one who is plotting revenge against us.

I can't help now that the combat healer is here. They really don't want me to use magic. It's not like I am some kind of suspicious character that they need to be on guard against.

He escaped. Looks like we are targeted from now on.

"The leader escaped, what now brill?"
"We can't do anything about it."
"What does it matter if the leader escaped? The escorts already killed most of the members and the giant is almost done too."

Yeah, the giant is already on his knees with a disable arm. They must have broken it with the hammer with that purple bruise and huge dent.

"Chatterbox, if the leader escapes then he could always assemble a new crew to bring trouble to us."
"Yeah, like victor said. Also, the one who chose to attack us is the leader. The followers don't care about what to do as long as they are paid. The leader is the one who schemes and plans, he is the one who wants revenge."
"That sounds threatening but we already beat them twice so they won't be a problem anymore."
"Its true that if it was only him it would be an annoyance at best. However, if he keeps attacking us whenever we are battling another bandit group then it could prove fatal. The worst case scenario would be if he enticed other bandit group to attacks us. We would have to face hordes of enemies until we reach the central island or we are robbed clean."
"But this trip is approved by the council and we are protected by the army. That would be a deterrence for the bandits right?"
"Think about it, what if he spread a rumour that one of us is already killed? This means that a sweep of this area is inevitable. Since they will kill everyone here, they might as well kill the rest of us and take all our cargo. They would then have money to use while they lay low until the sweep is finish."

This is the reason you go for the leader. The leader makes the plans, organizes the information and they are the ones who are well known. If an underling from this group went to another bandit group to ask them to get revenge against is, they would just dismiss it as a trick. If a leader tried that then it would have credibility.

*Tap* *Tap*

"Sit down everyone. We will move soon. We need to find a secure place to make camp."
"Thanks for the hard work, Captain!"
"Good work too viola. Any problem here?"

It looks like they are finished at the front. Its too bad I couldn't watch the battle. I saw the battle at the back but compared to the well organized former soldier, who is trained in battlefield strategies, the dried vegetable bandits are a mob at best.

"Nothing more than minor injuries, Captain. It has already been taken care of."
"Perfect, we should be moving soon. You were hit badly in the previous battle so go ahead and rest."
"...I...Sorry captain...because of my inexperience.."
"Stop! Learn from this and perform well in the future. Remember, we are the one that can decide whether or not our units survive and to make sure of that, we must also know how to take care of ourselves. Rest up, you are taking first shift on guard duty tonight."
"I won't disappoint you again."

She must be one of the two new students. The reason she was sent back to check up on us is partly to see if we are alright but mostly because she got hurt bad at the battle. If she got injured she should have already healed since that is her specialty, why did they have to send her back here then? It's not because they are worried about us. Blacksmiths, miners, and alchemist are all proficient in [Holy Armour]. The spear didn't destroy the carriage so they know we survived.

She must have lost her nerve during the battle but that is also not enough of a reason to be sent back. The military of the dwarf continent has a reputation for solving weakness with force. If you get weak in the knees during battle then they would send you to battle more frequently and following that reason, they would send her to the thick of the fight with a few assistants to make sure she doesn't die.

The only reason I could think of that the combat healer captain would send her back is if she became unable to move but if that happened then someone would have carried her back. The other reason is that she is related to some powerful figures so they baby her to avoid the anger of that person. This also means that she is rich. I need money but I won't resort to seducing her for it. However, it doesn't mean that I can't build a good relationship with her to sell some expensive junk.

"...Brill, don't do it."
"...What do you mean chatterbox?"
"...I know that look and I can tell you want to swindle her."
"...I don't swindle anyone. I sell them things."
"...It's okay as long as you sell them semi-useful things but her family would erase you if you only sell decorative useless junk to her."

hmm? chatterbox knows her and cautious about doing business with her family? Is she more of a big deal than I though?

"...You know her?"
"...Her family manages the finances at the capital. The castle, the gold and silver mine, the council, and even the whole continent. They know how much goes to where and how much should go to anything. If you want to sell things to her then you better be sure that it is immensely useful and absolutely worth the amount paid. They have the most authority just below the council you know."

That only applies during times of peace though. I am sure the grand general commander, or what the title is, takes command during war but with the current situation unless a huge coup d'état occurred, we won't have to worry about that happening.

I guess I could put my small busines ambition to rest, I don't want to be involved with that kind of family.

"...If her family is that rich, Why did she study at our little town?"
"...I heard she is the youngest daughter of a branch family. She doesn't have talent in accounting so she chose to be a combat healer. Our head blacksmith teacher and her mother are old classmates so she sent her here."
"...Just that?"
"...It's more than enough. Who do you think can stand up to our course head teacher?"

That is very convincing. Even the principal and military instructors take a passive approach against head blacksmith teacher sophie. She also brings back large monster every time she goes out to get materials. I have only seen her a few times but I can tell she would crush everyone that opposes her. I still want to taught by her, I heard she is really skilled and also teaches some simple techniques to boost your skill as a blacksmith and could also be used in battle.

*Rattle* *Rattle* *Clip* *Clop*

The carriage started to move and the two mounted graduates, along with the group that charged the bandits behind us, are back in their positions.

This means they finished cleaning up the fight with the ex-guards. The weapons they have might have been broken from the charging iron rhino but they were wearing full plate armour. Even if it was broken, we could melt it down to make some simple weapons. As long as its made by blacksmiths from the dwarf continent then it would sell well. It's our specialty so other races would definitely line up to buy it.

One afternoon to find a secure camp so we have a nice rest tonight. I wished for a quiet afternoon but rather than peace, I would rather face the problems this afternoon as long as they give us peace tonight. Bandits, no night raids please!