I Became a 6★ Gacha Character 359 - Sudden PatC.Notes 3

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/week

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I'd already anticipated an ambush, thanks to the chatter of the low-ranking mercenaries. From the start, if merchants were traveling with a hundred-strong escort, they must have been preparing for something.

Merchants are the type to drink lye if it's free, so why would they over-invest in security in a safe place? Everyone was talking about how merchants spending money to hire loads of mercenaries and adventurers wasn't due to some terrifying scheme by the Grand Temple or nobles.

The Empire's law enforcement was a mess, despite being larger than the Kingdom.

"Ugh, these bastards - is there nothing decent from the Empire?" I muttered quietly as I approached the ridge where the enemy had suddenly attacked, passing through the roadside undergrowth. The incoming arrows carried no aura, so I took my time.

Both the Kingdom and Empire had unexplored territories, given it was a world with monsters. Even the Kingdom had lawless zones on its fringes where wandering monsters and criminals roamed freely.

The issue was that the Empire's vast territory meant these "danger zones" were spread throughout like the appetizing marbling of A++ grade beef. The primary cause of these marbled danger zones was the huge landmass, and the secondary cause was the nobles' unbridled selfishness.

Those bastards treated maintaining public order like a group project.

Cities were collectives of freemen who'd grown large for profit, so they had little interest or ability to maintain order or subjugate bandits. After all, a city formed by coachmen, adventurers, mercenaries, and merchant guilds couldn't operate large-scale military forces.

The problem was that the lords of surrounding territories resented this. Cities made more money than typical agricultural domains, but they dumped the responsibility of maintaining order onto the nobles.

"Fire! Fire! We may have ambushed them, but their numbers are few!"

"B-boss? Isn't that a knight?"

"What nonsense, a knight in a mere caravan like this... Huh?!"

The city said, "We're not land managers, why should we catch thieves?"

The lord said, "Those city peasants make good money while freeloading on security?"

As they passed the buck like putting off research for a group project, a security vacuum formed. One mercenary had explained this, spitting as he spoke.

The reason this mercenary knew such details was simple: dissatisfaction that neither city folk nor local lords were posting bandit-hunting requests, leaving his pockets empty. Apparently this was an open secret throughout the mercenary world, beyond just public knowledge.

"Hey, you sh*theads."

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"W-what the- Who are you?!"

I didn't expect this bullsh*t on the first day though.

I was already stressed from the bad food, and now they kept aiming arrows at my forehead and eyes, making my blood boil. My "Frenzy" awakening skill seemed to be making me more irritable.

Gruel made from stale grains with nearly-rotten jerky thrown in and barely boiled. It filled your belly with moisture, salt, and protein, but it was tongue-torturing food. Right after eating that stress-inducing meal, getting hit in the back of the head was bound to piss me off.

Seeing the arrows didn't work, they should have either backed down or run away. But they kept aiming for my face, doubling my irritation.

"Drop your weapons, or... never mind."

"What are you doing, stop hi-"

That one had been noisy from the start.

The commander's upper body shattered as he tried to order them to stop me. The men hiding behind bushes and trees with shoddy masks paused at the sight.

I threw the warhammer in my hand out of annoyance, and he got hit while shouting and turning around without even trying to dodge. Their level was pitifully low.

Even though my specialties were tough stamina and powerful strength, anyone could dodge such a direct attack just by throwing their body to the side.

Both the attackers and I fell silent for a moment at the absurd situation where the field commander died from a warhammer I threw just to threaten them by smashing trees and rocks.

...Weren't they too weak for confidently ambushing a caravan?

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Raei Translations

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A rabble with only numbers.

That applied to both the attackers and the caravan's escort forces.

"Oh my, thank you, thank you! Um, if you'd like, I'd like to increase your request fee... the contract..."

"Aren't you going to pursue them?"

"Oh no, there'd be nothing to gain. Just look at the arrows - they're all poor quality, homemade ones."

Was it because of my character's backstory, or the player's Empire storyline?

A small caravan owner who traveled from the Grand Temple to the southernmost part of the Empire, but didn't make much profit. Of course, "small" by Empire standards with its large population - by Kingdom standards, it could occupy a decent-sized small city.

Anyway, being that level of caravan owner, he didn't know what the nobles were up to, but I was able to learn the basics of Imperial common sense and clues about the incident.

Whether due to a quest or not, some sh*t had gone down with the Imperial family. As a result, central political nobles split into factions, and as a further result, backwater lords curled up in their territories for self-preservation, and as a further further result, bandits freely settled in the subtle power vacuum between domains and cities - a kind of vicious cycle.

"Um, then I'll excuse myself for a moment."

"Hmm?"

If I were an ordinary adventurer, I might think it was due to succession issues, being bewitched by a dark mage, or lack of faith - something like that. But from a gamer's perspective, this was clearly quest material, right?

The Goddess's warrior appears in an Empire with shaken Imperial authority and thrown into chaos!

The Kingdom's royal family was supposedly chosen by the Goddess, but I hadn't heard about the Imperial family's situation. Still, I could roughly estimate. It was a bit odd to suddenly ask about the legitimacy of the Imperial family while talking about bandits, so I let it pass, but anyway, they must have believed in the Goddess since the Grand Temple existed prominently.

"Please, come in!"

As I was organizing my thoughts, the caravan owner suddenly opened the carriage door.

He nimbly descended from the stationary carriage with agile movements belying his plump body. Someone slipped into the carriage.

Two women, one with brown hair and one blonde. Looking closely, they were the caravan's female employees that the low-ranking mercenary who took an arrow to the head earlier was spewing lewd talk about.

The effects of Heroines Chronicle seemed to be here too, as they were dressed similarly to office ladies.

"Have a pleasant time, benefactor."

"...No, that won't be necessary." fгeewebnovёl.com

"Pardon?!"

Objectively speaking, the two female employees were quite beautiful. Skirts reaching their knees, slender calves stretching below, ample bosoms not concealed by their shirts. Add to that their flushed cheeks and disheveled clothing they seemed to have loosened themselves, apparently finding my appearance to their liking.

But perhaps it was because I was usually surrounded by beauties? It felt like going from being among top star actresses to being among self-proclaimed Instagram goddesses. Plus, Han Se-ah had somehow started streaming and sent me a camera drone.

Wait, wasn't it impossible to track with the camera from a long distance?

...Don't tell me she came to the Empire for streaming content too?