Chapter 1 –  It begins from here on?

The main highway that links the Kingdom and the Republic.

Here travels a single carriage and a group of knight that appear to be its guard.

“My, my… I can finally return home(to the castle) huh…”

So muttered a robed man who appeared to be in his thirties who was sitting in the carriage.

“Honestly… diplomacy isn’t supposed to be part of my job…”

Immediately after he said this, the carriage topped.

“What’s the matter?”

The man called out to a person outside.

“Bandits, it seems. There appear to be roughly 60 of them in front of us.”

A young voice voiced a reply from outside.

“Hmm… Shall I go out as well?”

Saying that, the man opened the carriage door.

..*

“Oi, leave all your money and weapons, and leave!”

The man who appeared to be the leader yelled out.

“Are you aware that we are a diplomatic envoy?”

“How would I know something like that. Even if I did, doesn’t matter! Doesn’t change my job, after all!”

Was the fact that they didn’t change their attitude at all after hearing that it was a delegation guarded by an official knight brigade because they had too much confidence, or was it because they knew from the beginning…?

The forces on the envoy’s side numbered 20, and including the magus, 21.
The enemy numbers were unknown, but there were probably plenty enough to send them into chaos.

“Even though it would only take half a day to arrive… Everybody, let’s elimate them.”

After saying that to the guard knights, he began constructing his own magic.
The knights took up positions that would allow them to deal with the bandits while protecting the carriage and the robed man.

Meeting the bandit charge, he fired off his magic.

“O scorching flames, burn all away!”

A fireball twice the size of a person’s head appeared above the robed man, and flew towards the bandits.

“I didn’t hear shit about a magus! Fall back!”

One of the bandits screamed, but the firebal erupted in the middle of the bandits who had gathered together to charge.

“”UWAHHHH!””

Roughly 20 bandits were wrapped up in the explosion and sent flying.

“Wipe them out.”

The robed man gave out instructions, and leaving the carriage and a few knights behind, he headed to check up on the bandits while preparing his next magic.

“O raging flames, become an arrow and shoot!”

Many arrows made of flame appeared around the robed man.
However, they disappeared without flying to the bandits.

“Guh…, what-…”

When the robed man looked down at his own body, he found that a sword was protruding from his chest.

“I have nothing against you personally, but this is an order too, you see. It’ll be good for my career.”

One of the remaining knight guards had thrust his sword through the robed man from behind.
At the same time the sword was withdrawn, the man collapsed.

“Gildas… you…”

While lying on the floor, and finding that the knight who had stabbed him was grinning, the robed man let out a weak voice.

“The magus is down! Hey, dickheads! The rest is as we agreed!”

The bandit leader yelled out.
Unrest ran through the knight guards.

“Ryle-sama!”

“Lord Sage!”

One of the knights fighting the bandits near the carriage ran to the collapsed robed man.
However, the moment they ran over, the knight called Gilgas swang his sword, and cut them down.

“Captain… why…?”

The knight who was cut down fell where he stood, and let out those words.

The last thing the robed man saw was a number of knights who should have been allies descending their blades upon other knights.

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“Lord Sage!” = (kenja-sama)