Sneaking along the road that stretches from the village, staying off to the side.
Well, if I walked right down the road, yeah, I'd obviously get spotted.
Preventing unnecessary trouble before it happens.
That's adult social skills.
But wait, aren't you being a sneak thief yourself?
That's a completely different thing.
Anyway, this road seems to curve around the mountain and lead inland.
If I follow this road, the next town should come into view.
If it's a reasonably big town, maybe I could scout it out and go wild—well, only if it's the kind of place where I could go wild and feel okay about it.
So far, no one's been using this road.
Makes sense, though. Up ahead is that remote farming village surrounded by mountains and sea. Even traveling merchants wouldn't go there often.
If anything, this might be a dedicated road for villagers to deliver crops or go shopping in town.
Nobody would go out of their way to visit a village like that.
I'm actually more impressed that the road hasn't been completely overgrown with grass.
The mountainous area gives way to plains.
Well, I say plains, but there are still quite a few trees around—half forest, basically.
This means I can move while staying hidden.
I keep going.
Along the way, the road merges with several others, gradually growing wider.
What started as a tiny, unpaved path like an animal trail is now a proper road with actual width and packed-down ground.
Looking closer, there are even wheel ruts.
A horse-drawn carriage or something must have passed through?
Though just because something's pulling a cart doesn't mean it's a horse.
Horse-drawn carriages, huh.
Guess that confirms it.
Science isn't that advanced here, huh.
I kind of figured as much when knights started showing up.
Life in the village was pretty primitive too.
Typical medieval-European-flavored fantasy world, I suppose.
Seems like D's taste, yeah.
Well, I'm sure that's not the only thing going on, but it's safe to assume that science and technology haven't developed much in this world.
I mean, once your entire world gets remade from scratch, that's only natural.
Oh—carriage spotted up ahead.
Hm?
Hm hm?
Looks like they're in the middle of something.
That's... bandits.
They're being attacked.
What looks like guards are fighting the bandits.
Four guards versus six bandits.
Hmm.
From what I can see with Appraisal, both sides are about the same strength, so the bandits have the advantage in numbers.
Actually, every single bandit has the Plunder skill.
So that really is a bandit-exclusive skill, huh.
Oh—one of the guards just went down.
What should I do...
Jumping in sounds like a pain.
But I don't have a reason to just walk away either.
Leaving behind perfectly good loot just because they're bandits feels wasteful.
But if I do that, it means I just happened to stumble upon and save that carriage along the way.
How annoying.
Why do I have to do something as heroic as saving people?
And even if I do save them, I'm a Monster.
The people I save might turn their weapons on me.
Well, in that case I won't hold back, but having someone try to stab you after you saved them... that'd really sting.
Actually, why don't I just wait until everyone in that carriage is dead, then kill the bandits?
Brilliant plan, right?
That way there'd be no survivors, no witnesses to me.
Plus no rotting corpses to deal with. I'm happy, everyone else is unhappy.
Total victory, right?
Nah... no good.
Haa.
Fine.
I don't feel like it, but I'll save them.
I zip over.
The bandits are too focused on fighting the guards to notice me.
Perfect.
The slightly large man in the middle is probably the bandit leader.
Highest Status too, almost certainly him.
I slip behind him and drive my sickle into his wide-open back.
The sickle punches clean through the bandit's body and pins his heart to a stake.
Oh, and of course I've applied lethal poison, so death is guaranteed at this point.
I yank the sickle out with a squelch, and the bandit topples over, having lost his support.
To the stunned bandits on either side, I swing the sickle horizontally.
Split right in half.
That's half of them.
Of the remaining three, one gets his head blown apart by earth magic.
Turns out I have a high affinity for earth, too.
My earth magic has grown faster than the wind magic I learned around the same time.
Two left.
One tries to run.
Too bad.
I've already got your body restrained with threads.
I activate Evil Eye on the two immobilized bandits.
Their HP, MP, and SP are drained completely, and the bandits die.
There we go. Cleanup complete.
If I were some prince or knight, this would be the part where I approach the girl in the carriage and say something like, "Are you hurt?" while explaining, "I just happened to be passing by when I found you under attack by bandits," building up flags left and right.
Ugh, no thank you.
That's how flirty types operate.
Ugh.
Alright, enough escapism.
Bandits defeated.
Carriage saved.
Guards pointing swords at me.
Right now. Right here.
Yeah. Figures.
I knew it.
I expected this.
Honestly, the fact that they didn't immediately attack is probably the best-case scenario.
It's not like they're scared of me or anything.
They probably figured, "This thing is super suspicious but it did save us, so is it really right to attack it right away?"—some sense of conscience kicking in.
Let me say it again: they are NOT holding back because they're afraid of me.
Definitely not.
Hm?
Wait a second, the guard who got taken out first—he's still alive, isn't he?
Fine, since I've come this far, I might as well help everyone.
I move toward the fallen person.
Even just that tiny movement makes the other guards flinch back dramatically.
...If I take that personally, I lose.
I cast healing magic.
There.
That should keep you from dying.
Not just the guards—even the noblewoman who'd been peering nervously out from inside the carriage looks shocked.
If a Monster not only saved you from bandits but also healed your wounds with magic, yeah, I'd be pretty surprised too.
Haa.
I think that's everything.
No way I'm collecting bandit corpses in this situation. The spider makes a cool exit.
But then the noblewoman in the carriage hurriedly climbed down.
The guards were saying something, trying to stop her.
But none of that mattered.
My eyes were glued to what she was cradling in her arms.
'Human race Vampire LV1 Name
Skill Points: 75000 Title "Vampire" "True Ancestor"' A baby, cradled in the noblewoman's arms.
There are way, way too many things to point out about that.