Mile Chapter 54: Rena’s Past

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Translator’s note:

Dear readers, we have a

SERIOUS PROBLEM.

Arge will have 13 continues Cliff Hanger chapters (From 109 to 121).

Mile will have 6 cliffhanger chapters. (From 54 to 59).

To deal with this trouble. I will translate 6 Mile chapters in 6 days. 13 days after that will be translated Arge chapters.

And then I will return to Mile chapters again.

You had been warned, readers.

Cliff Hanger

will be here for 6 chapters. Prepare yourself. Harden your heart and your will.

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T.N: I’m sorry, look like last time I make a mistake. There are only 4 merchants and some coachman drive 6 carriages. Not 6 merchants in this group.

TN: because reader complains about censor swearwords so I change the thieves words to lighter words that don’t need censoring. 

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Mile Chapter 54: Rena’s Past

ED: Bluegraine

 

The thieves had bruises and broken bones but no serious injuries or life-threatening ones. All of them were tied up.
As a result of interrogating the leader and the others, it turned out that these thieves were just ordinary thieves, not the large-scale thieves group. Recently the number of carriages had drastically declined, and if there ever was one, it would be a really large-scale merchant group that had hired a lot of escorts. After a long time, a rather small merchant group appeared so they attacked right away.

 

“… we should kill them!” (Rena)

“Well …” (Bart)

 

And now, talks about the treatment of the thieves who had been caught were being held.

 

 

“There’s still a day and a half until we reach Amuros town but it’s troublesome to take these guys because we can’t afford to prepare a horse-drawn carriage for them.
And if we let them walk, the speed of travel will be delayed and we will not be able to arrive at Amuros within tomorrow.
Besides, there is a possibility that they can remove the rope at midnight and kill us…
Certainly, if we take them to the city, we will receive some of the money from selling them as criminal slaves besides the reward.
But right now we are on an important escort request, and we can’t afford to have more luggage. We only need some proof to show the guild!” (Rena)

 

Rena insisted strongly, and the thieves were trembling after hearing it.

 

“No, … to me, even if they are enemies, I will not kill them after catching and disabling them. But I will not hesitate to kill if they plan anything to harm us” (Bart)

 

Bart wanted to keep them alive, but I didn’t know whether he didn’t want to have unnecessary killings, or if he wanted the criminal slaves’ reward.

Eventually, it was decided by a majority vote, twelve guards and four merchants made the decision. The coachmen weren’t included.
The result was 9 to 7 so we would take them alive.
What surprised me was that all the merchants were raising their hands to “kill”, but it may be natural if I think about it. Their original plan for this trading group had been to kill all the thieves.

And the thieves were treated by Pauline and Mile. Of course, the girls only treated their legs, for them to be able to walk and the other parts were left untreated to reduce the risk a little. Mile still planned to treat them when handing them over to the official constitution in Amuros. If so, the value would not go down when they were sold as criminal slaves after the interrogation.

During travel, only the leader was tied up and inside the carriage, the other six had their hands tied, with a rope tied around their necks which was connected to each carriage one by one. If you did not want to walk, your neck would be squeezed. It was left for the bandits themselves to choose whether to walk or become a corpse dragging behind them. And so, we could travel without worry. The reason why they were tied one by one to each carriage, was to avoid giving them any chance to help each other.
It was Pauline who had proposed this method.

The four people of『Red Oath』had stopped sitting on each carriage like before. Everyone was on the fourth carriage and everyone was still equipped with their hunter equipment.

The atmosphere among the four people was not good.

 

“Rena, why did you try to use lethal magic at that time? All the other thieves were disabled and there were plenty of options. We also need to collect information, so we should keep them alive. Rena, you could have just used any non-lethal magic to capture them”  (Maevis)

“Because we don’t need to keep them alive, we don’t know when the thieves will betray us even if we spare them. They had been killing countless people until now so they don’t have any right to complain when it’s their turn to be killed” (Rena)

 

Rena responded to Maevis in a blustering manner.

 

“No, we can do it in battle, but it will be different after we have already disabled and captured them. We will get rewarded if we properly hand them over to the official constitution. Is the “first time killing”that Rena wanted us to experience different from killing the opponents like this?” (Maevis)

“…” (Rena)

 

Rena is silent.

 

“…Obsessed with killing thieves, Rena, you aren’t like normal! What happened with those thieves?” (Pauline)

 

With Pauline’s question, Rena, who had been silent for a while, whispered in a small voice.

 

“… It was …” (Rena)

“Huh?” (Mile + Maevis + Pauline)

“They were killed! Everyone, both father and colleagues, was killed by bandits!” (Rena)

 

And then Rena started telling about her past to the party.

 

 

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Rena’s Past
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Rena had been the daughter of a peddler.
From her first memory, she had always traveled with her father with a single carriage and gone from village to village. There was no memory of the mother.
Rena, who had the potential for magic, was able to create enough water for the horse and both herself and her father. She was also able to light a fire.

 

“It is a great help when I have Rena” (Rena’s dad)

“E he hehe…” (Rena)

 

Although they were neither rich nor poor, the journey with her father as a peddler was a lot of fun. This life would end when they saved enough money to set up a shop in town, or when Rena got married …

But that time suddenly came.

It was when Rena was ten years old. While moving to the next village, Rena who was resting at the front of the platform, suddenly heard a loud shout from her father.

 

“It’s a bandit! Get in the carriage and hide!” (Rena’s dad)

 

Rena quickly hid in between the gaps of the goods loaded in the loading platform. It was not the first time this had happened.

But even thieves still knew that peddlers who couldn’t hire an escort with a horse carriage didn’t have a lot of money and even if they robbed them, they could only get some goods and agricultural tools, which were bulky, and not very profitable.

So, normally they would leave those peddlers alone and aim for prey that seems to be more profitable.

But occasionally, there were thieves who came stealing from even the carriages that didn’t have much money. In that case, if you handed all your money to them, the bandits would let the merchant go. Because the more damage caused by the thieves, the higher probability that troops would be assembled.

 

It was more profitable for the thieves to earn money if they let the merchant pass through this road than killing the merchant and stealing the whole cargo which wasn’t worth anything. If the thieves let the merchant go, the merchant would lose his money, but if the carriage and the sale were safe, rebuilding the business wasn’t so difficult.

When the merchant traveled in the future, the thieves had more chances to steal again.
Her father was preparing money like usual. It was bad luck that he had encountered several times before, and this time the number of unlucky situations had increased by one.
However, he still worried because he heard that the thieves in this area were bad.

 

“Don’t be silly! Do you only have this much!” (Thief leader)

“Well, even if you said that sale money will be used to purchase the goods for the next sale … I’m also eating with that slight difference, I don’t any money left on hand”  (Rena’s father)

“I don’t need to know such things! We need money!
Then, I suppose we are going to take all the items and food in the carriage … Hey!” (Thief leader)

 

With the thief leader signal, the four bandits began to climb on the carriage.

 

“Please, stop, if you steal everything, business will be…” (Rena’s father)

 

Her father desperately tried to stop Rena from being found, but of course, thieves could not listen to such words. The bandits came up to the loading platform and began to take everything that seemed valuable inside the load. After a while, a cry was heard from the loading platform.

 

“Iya, please stop it!” (Rena)

 

And Rena was dragged down from the platform.

 

“No, please don’t hurt her!” (Rena’s father)

 

The leader looked at Rena who was caught by his underlings and started smiling.

 

“Take everything valuable and that girl” (Thief leader)

“Please, stop, my daughter, is only ten years old!” (Rena’s father)

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill her. After playing with her to our heart’s content … I can make her live happily in some noble or rich place, as a slave, Hi~ya” (Thief leader)

 

At that time, the leader’s laughter was interrupted by one of his underlings.

 

“Leader, that was… !” (Thief B)

“What do you mean …” (Thief leader)

 

Rena’s eyes were filled with tears when the leader was laughing, but when she heard the bandits talking, she looked in the direction the bandit was pointing…

 

“No, the hunters are coming!” (Thief leader)

 

There were figures of four hunters running with full power to help the carriage attacked by the thieves.

Those who fell to the level of thieves did so because they weren’t strong enough to become hunters. They stood no chance against hunters with the same numbers. Besides, the hunters seemed to have a magician.

Rena and her father weren’t sure if the Hunters came to help for a reward or just for honor, but the Hunters were heading towards here with full motivation. Because the thieves were wasting a lot of time stealing goods and were somewhat distracted by Rena and her father, they were late to notice.

 

“Oh no, get away, take his daughter!” (Thief leader) 

 

With the order from their leader, the thieves tried to raise Rena who was holding down in their horse.

However, Rena knew that she would be saved if she bought a little more time. She shook her hand from the thief and rolled down to the bottom of the carriage.

 

“Oh no, this girl…” (Thief leader)

 

Although he was trying to drag Rena out from under the horse carriage in a hurry, Rena was clinging to the axle firmly with both her hands and feet. Even an adult male was stronger than Rena but he still couldn’t drag her out in that situation. While doing so, the hunters were pressing closer.

 

“Hey, little girl! Don’t you care what happens to your father ?”  (Thief leader)

 

She heard the thief leader. Rena under the horse-drawn carriage didn’t see the situation, but it was easy to imagine. Perhaps her father was struck with a sword.

 

“If you’re not going to come out … your father will become like this!”  (Thief leader)

 

But Rena couldn’t hear any sounds or voices.

 

“You idiot, let your daughter hear you scream … then, how about this?” (Thief leader)

“Gu, gua~a…” (Rena’s father)

 

He was unable to endure it, and her father leaked a groan of pain.

 

“Stop it! Please stop it! I will come out!” (Rena)

“Rena, it’s useless, don’t … come out! Don’t … come… out…!” (Rena’s father)

 

Rena crawled out from under the carriage without being able to endure the voice of her father’s anguish and was grabbed by the arm of a thief.

 

“Father!” (Rena) 

 

The moment when Rena shouted at the sight her father was stabbed with a sword through his right shoulder and felt to the ground. When Rena looked, it was the bandit leader who had stabbed her father.

 

“Alright, this is already finished, so that the magician will be obliged to this …” (Thief leader)

 

The bandit leader pulled the sword out of her father’s shoulder and this time he pierced his belly.

 

“Gū ~…” (Rena’s father)

 

After that, the leader stepped on Rena’s father body and pulled his sword out of him.

 

“Did you faint or did you die? … Oh well, that’s what you get for opposing me!” (Bandit leader)

“Hey!” (Four other thieves)

“Fatherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!” (Rena) 

 

Rena desperately swung her limbs and scratched at the faces of the bandits.

 

“It hurts, this girl, quit struggling … get it?” (Bandit B)

 

Rena kicked the belly of one of the thieves.

 

“Gua~!” (Bandit B)

“What are you going to do … hurry up, they are …, Uwa!” (Bandit leader)

Hi ~yun! (SFX)

 

An arrow hit his cheek.
They left everything and ran away with full strength.

 

“Hey, leader…!” (other bandits)

 

The other thieves noticed it, let go of Rena, and they quickly moved to escape.

 

“Father, father~rrrrrrrrrr!” (Rena)

 

Her father used his last bit of strength to grab Rena’s hands and spoke.

 

“Rena, … live happy … for both father and mother’s part …” (Rena’s father)

 

That was his last words, and his hand fell to the ground, devoid of power.

 

“FATHERRRRR !” (Rena) 

 

The hunters had finally reached the carriage, and the magician cast attack magic and the archer shot arrows on the escaping thieves, three of them were chasing the thieves while one remained behind.

 

“Is everything okay! Are you injured?” (Magician Hunter)

“Father is… Father is!” (Rena) 

 

The man who seemed to be a magician immediately stopped to look at the condition of her father but shook his head in a silent manner.

 

“A~ a~a, Father … “ (Rena) 

 

After a while, the three hunters who were chasing came back.
Of the four bandits, two had been taken down. Two people who were injured by arrows and attack magic had been caught, but the remaining two seemed to have escaped. However, it was fortunate that one of them was the leader.

 

“If I don’t … if I do not get out from under the carriage and earn more time …” (Rena) 

 

To Rena’s repeating cries, one of the four hunters『Red Lightning Bolt』silently stroked her head.

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There’s still more tragedy waiting in the next chapter.

Hang in there, guys.

One more chapter about Rena’s tragedy past and the next 140 chapters will be ALL HILARIOUS again.