I heard from Helene that there is a bandit group in the forest near Reius that calls itself the「Hungry Wolf Fang 」.
「That’s the hideout?」
Looking from outside the forest. There was cooking smoke coming out of the forest, so at least there were people living there.
There are three women behind me.
Helene, Tania, and Io.
Helene, dressed as a ninja, answered.
「Probably. I’ve heard that since the Hungry Wolf Fang set up their hideout here, the residents of the city of Reius have become unable to get close to it.」
「I see. How big is it?」
「There are about 200 people, which is nothing for you to worry about, Kakeru-sama, but the leader of the group is said to be very cunning and will stop at nothing, so be careful.」
「Okay.」
「Hey, hey, are we going to take down a bandit gang now?」
Tania, the ghost maid, translucent and floating in the air, asked me.
「Yeah.」
「Are we going to do that?」
「You don’t have to. If it’s only 200 people, Kakeru-san alone can do it quickly and easily.」
Said Io, the magician.
That’s certainly what I would do if I went in there.
I have Eleanor, and I have the warp feather. I can wipe out a bandit gang of about 200 people by myself.
I can do that.
「I’m going to try to keep out of it today. I want the three of you to do it.」
「The three of us should ……?」
「Oh, you mean that?」
「You’re going to loan us your powers, Kakeru-san?」
Two of the more experienced people immediately noticed my intentions. The smart but inexperienced Helene has a number of「???」floating above her head.
「What do you mean?」
「Can Helene do anything? I mean in combat.」
「I always carry something like this with me for minimal protection.」
Then she took out her dagger. It’s similar to the kind of dagger used by yakuza, but Helene’s has ornaments that make it more valuable as a work of art.
She pulls it out and sets it up in a backhanded position.
「Can you fight with that?」
「No, it’s a martial art that allows me to take advantage of gaps and slay a few people to buy time to kill myself. If I, a member of the royal family, were to be captured alive, many problems would arise.」
Well, that’s understandable. But.
「Suicide is no longer allowed.」
I said.
Helene was a little surprised and nodded quietly.
「If you insist, Kakeru-sama.」
「Yeah, well, let’s run a few tests.」
I regained my composure and tried to loan my abilities to Helene. The question is, what abilities do I loan her?
This was also designed as a test, but was a little sketchy.
『Loaning Dagger Arts to Helene Teresia Mercouri. 29 seconds left.』
Well, it looks like we can do it.
「Helene, try attacking me with it.」
「I understand.」
Helene didn’t hesitate to slash at me with the dagger she held in her other hand.
「Eeeeeh?」
She was surprised. A sharp slash flew at me.
I receive it lightly with Eleanor.
「You were much sharper than usual.」
「Eh. eeeeeh……」
Helene is unusually bewildered.
Her face looked surprised, which was unusual for Helene, who was usually calm and unflappable in carrying out what I said or ordered.
Just being able to see it was probably worth winning this in the limited time lottery.
I’ve already done that with Tania and Io, but I’ll explain that again.
「I loaned you some of my powers.」
「Kakeru-sama’s power. That makes sense.」
She’s a very understanding Helene. It might be too good to be true and a little boring.
「So, today we’re going to test it. I’m going to test how far you can go with the power I loaned you.」
「I understand.」
Helene replies. The speed of acceptance after being convinced is still the same.
「Let’s get to work.」
I declare and loan the ability to each of them.
『Loaning dagger arts to Helene Teresia Mercouri. Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds left.』
『Loaning ice magic to Tania Chitiakis. Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds left.』
『Loaning lightning magic to Io Akos. Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds left.』
I loaned my power to the three of them, using the single-use type.
We go into the forest and head in the direction of the cooking smoke.
One of the men showed up immediately. He’s a bandit in every sense of the word.
「Who the fuck are you?」
「──」
Helene went towards him silently.
Her movements were exactly the same as she normally was, not particularly faster.
「Enemies. You’ve got to be kidding me.」
So the man had time to swear.
Swearing, he drew the sword at his waist and slashed at Helene.
She counterattacks. Helene’s dagger flashes sharply. The man was cut in half horizontally, sword and all.
「Ooooo!」
「You’re amazing, Princess.」
Tania and Io marveled, but Helene did not change her expression.
「Of course, it’s Kakeru-sama’s power.」
「Un, I guess so!」
「Yes!」
The three of them still praised me a ton.
The three of them pushed forward.
Enemies appeared one after the other, shouting at them – or attacking them with a lecherous look on their face when they saw that they were beautiful women.
Helene wielded her dagger, and Tania and Io fired off a series of their own signature magic.
In the blink of an eye, they were filled with nothing but screams.
The three of them alone defeated the bandits one after another.
777-fold increase in ability.
The three of them are, let’s say, some of the most skilled women in the world.
She is one of the world’s foremost users of dagger art, one of the world’s foremost users of ice magic, and one of the world’s foremost users of lightning magic.
I don’t know what their original abilities are, but I’m guessing 777 times their normal abilities means that.
It’s hard to tell with Tania and Io because they’re just shooting off magic, but Helene’s「one art」was very evident.
「Kyaa!」
She was still falling. She stumbled over a rock at her feet and fell heavily.
The bandit jumped at the chance ── but was cut in half by Helene, who was still in the fallen position.
She moves slowly and makes mistakes that causes her to stumbles over easily, but her dagger technique, which I loaned her, is unquestionably strong.
And the girls are aware of it.
「Princess, you’d better not move too much and intercept them as they come.」
「I’ll do that.」
The bandits were defeated one by one.
I would say the test went well.
And there was another harvest.
I found some lottery tickets that very occasionally fell from the bandits that the three of them defeated.
I thought this could be it. Maybe it’s because she’s with me, I don’t know if it’s because I saved her life, I was wondering if maybe that’s because she fell for me.
I’m happy with the results.
（You’re not gonna do anything?）
Eleanor asked.
「It’s fun to watch them fight. Especially if they’re fighting with my power.」
(Just like when I used to lead the army of the dead.)
「I can’t believe I’m being lumped in with that. …… Well, maybe that’s the way it is.」
I chatted with Eleanor and went into full spectator mode.
In less than five minutes, the three of them alone had wiped out the bandits. The only incident that seemed to be a problem was Helene’s fall, and none of the three had a scratch on them.
Again, Helene was the only one who moved around a lot, so she was breathing hard. Maybe I should have loaned her stamina or strength or something of that nature.
Well, no problem, I’m very happy with the test results.
I knew I should draw more and more lotteries. We should have more of these for a limited time.
The three of them came back to me, chatting and laughing. I thought of compliments I could give them.
A man suddenly jumped out from the side!
The man pinned Helene down from behind and grabbed her by the wrist holding the dagger.
「Don’t move! I don’t care what happens to her!」
「Princess!」
The man used Helene as a shield.
Tania and Io were too close together to shoot their magic, and Helene, who had her dagger blocked and was now in a pure contest of strength, could not free herself from the man’s hold.
「Princess? I don’t know what kind of princess she is, but if you want to spare her life, don’t do anything stupid. I’m a man of my word.」
The man grabbed Helene by the neck. It’s an expression that shows he can kill at any time.
「……」
I silently pulled out Eleanor.
「You prick, making me see that…」
In an instant, I stepped in and sliced off both of the man’s arms with Eleanor so as not to hurt Helene.
「Eeeeeh?」
His arms fluttered in the sky. The man didn’t seem to know what had happened.
He doesn’t need to know.
I pulled Helene in for a hug and beheaded the man.
That was the last time, and this time the bandits were wiped out.
「I’m sorry I put you in harm’s way.」
Helene was perfectly calm.
「I knew it would be alright since Kakeru-sama was there.」
「Okay.」
Helene was as calm and collected as ever.
This is how we destroyed the bandits.
As an aside, Delfina, who heard the conversation, appealed to me saying,「I, I know how to use a whip too.」
Next time, I’ll take her with me.