The path that the ladies were using this time was a famous road and it also had good security. So for the first days journey, they did not encounter any bandits or monsters at all.

They managed to reach their destination of Tohar city with any trouble. There the ladies booked a four person room in an inn and spent the night there.

Even though this was a just a very ordinary city, Weiss still went out to check out the night market. It was a rather large market but there was nothing that attracted her attention.

They left the city very next day and continued the journey. The next city was located two days away so the ladies needed to spend a night camping under the stars.

The horses that the three ladies were using, they were some of the best horses that the Souran territory had. So not only they were extremely fast runners, they were also capable of carrying a decent amount of weight.

So the tent that the ladies had brought with them was quite fancy. It was made from the pelt of the bear monster that the black clad swordmaster had defeated in front of all the villagers.

Even though this tent was not an artifact, probably because of the materials, it had the function of keeping the beasts away.

Apep had communicated that this tent gave off a slight aura of intimidation that only the beasts with their keen senses would be able to sense. That was why these tents were capable of keeping the beasts away.

But even though the tents could keep the beasts away, monsters and bandits could still attack. That was why there was a need for at least one lady to stay awake and keep watch while the other two were sleeping.

The ladies obviously decided to do this by taking turns. It was decided that Peria would take care of the first shift, Elise second and finally Weiss the last shift.

As Peria's shift time was quite early, nothing really happened when she was guarding the tents. Then as Elise came out for her turn, Peria went to take some rest.

As Elise was sitting before the fire, suddenly she heard some foot steps in the forest nearby. Even though perception was not her boasted attribute, as she was a high level knight, her senses were quite powerful compared to regular people.

Elise then suddenly disappeared from her location. This happened so fast that it felt as if she had teleported away.

...

At this exact time, a group of 16 bandits were going toward the tents while using the forest as a cover. Even though their total numbers was lower than a typical bandit group, they were actually one of the strongest and more scary bandit group of this region called the "Wicked Marauder".

All 16 of them were above the rank of a low level apprentice knights. Even the weakest among them was a mid level apprentice knight while the man standing at the forefront was just one step away from reaching the realm of an offical knight.

But he was already too old. That was why he was sure that if he tried to make a break through now without the assistance of some extremely precious medicine, then his chance to sucessfully becoming a knight was less than 5 percent.

As for his chance of dying, it was over 70 percent. That was why he was trying to gather as much money as he could in the shortest period of time.

And the best way to accomplish this that he had came up with was being a bandit. So he targetted the area that was heavy guarded but for that same reason, any sucessful looting was more profitable here.

He also made sure to only recruit powerful individuals to his bandit group and this way his team become an elite and experienced team of bandits who were capable of matching the soldiers of the nobles easily and were always getting away with their crimes with brute force.

This time, their targets were a group of three young women. They actually looked stronger than most but the leader here was still confident in taking care of them with his own personal strength and the numbers advantage that he had.

As he about to come out of the forest, he stopped for moment to catch his breathe and gave his men the order to attack.

But the enthusiastic reply that he had expected did not come. Then as he looked back, he only found several dead bodies, all in several pieces. Blood had already coloured the floor of the forest red.

Then just as the man was about to let out a shout of surprise and fear, suddenly a sword pierced his throat and prevented him for shouting. Then another sword went through his forehead and the man died.

After the dead man fell down, Elise appeared out of the shadows. Then she put a finger on her lips and said -

"Now now. I can not allow you to shout and wake mistress Weiss up before the time. So just die silently, okay ?"

Saying so, Elise smiled a little and started to search the body of the death people. They all had some decent sum of money with them but the most valuable thing that she was able to find was a treasure map.

...

The next morning, as Elise handed the treasure map to Weiss and told her about the incident last night, suddenly Weiss started to scold her.

And she continued scolding Elise for almost an hour and made sure to make her to understand that when encountering bandits who were weaker than her, she should always take then in as hostages to learn about their hideout and treasures first.

Only then they should be killed. Killing them from the very beginning was a massive missed opportunity and loss of profit. After enduring this lecture, Elise was definitely never going to make a mistake like this ever again.

So after this discussion was over, it was time for the treasure hunt to begin. The location of the treasure spot was not too far away from where they currently were. So Weiss decided to take a little detour and check it out first before continuing their journey.

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