“Shut up!” the leader snapped.
“S-Sir! I thought the plan was to ask her peacefully to go with us at first!” one of his men pointed out.
“Ah...” the leader said, realization dawning.
If they’d asked her politely, she would’ve had no choice but to respond in kind, and she wouldn’t have been able to immediately label them as bad guys. But since they’d closed in on her with ten or so men and started yelling at her, it was a very bad look for them, and she had more than enough reason to yell for help, run away, or even fight back. They’d fallen right into her trap.
“Ugh, y-you little... L-Lady priestess, we’d like to ask that you come with us to meet with our master!” the leader had reconsidered and was making an attempt to change strategies. At the moment, there wasn’t anything decisive that would identify them as part of the same group as the four men who had previously tried to take her by force.
“What? Are you colleagues of the four men who tried to kidnap me, then tried to kill me as soon as things weren’t going their way?” Kaoru asked.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“I haven’t heard anything about that.”
“What’s she talking about?”
Confusion spread among the group of men.
“Oh? Did they lie about it so people wouldn’t find out what they’ve done?” Kaoru asked. “Wait, there they are! Those men wanted to kill me after capturing me because they didn’t want me telling their boss what happened!”
“Eek!” The four men yelped and turned pale as their leader glared at them.
“Hey! Take them over there and keep a watch on them!” the leader called out. One of the men walked the four to a spot in the distance, and the number of people facing Kaoru was down to half.
Kaoru grinned, thinking it was far easier to deal with half at a time rather than ten or so of them at once.
It’s about time...
Just as Kaoru was getting ready to make her move, a familiar voice rang out. “Stop right there! Have you no shame, ganging up on a young girl like that? Prepare to be punished!”
The Blazing Valkyries had arrived.
My plan is ruined...
Kaoru slumped her shoulders and said weakly, “Why...?”
“We are devout servants of the Goddess, the Blazing Valkyries! We cannot sit idly by as a young girl is endangered!”
“Uh...”
Kaoru hadn’t seen the Valkyries walking along the path. It was as if they’d appeared out of thin air. They quickly joined Kaoru and stood between her and the enemies.
“Wait, you were hiding here the whole time?!” Kaoru said.
Ishris smiled. Indeed, Kaoru had noted this was the perfect spot for an ambush; it was on the way back, far away from town, and in a blind spot for both the town and orphanage. That much was clear even to an amateur like Kaoru, so a professional would obviously realize the same thing.
The Blazing Valkyries had been aware of Kaoru’s schedule far before the enemy—long before Kaoru had left for the orphanage at the second daytime bell. This meant they had plenty of time to set up an ambush before the enemy began preparing their own. Plus, they were locals, they knew the lay of the land like the backs of their own hands, and they could easily predict where on the route an enemy would stage their attack. However, they wouldn’t have been able to take on so many enemies with just five women; Ishris had said so herself.
Their actions had been meaningless—a needless sacrifice that only got in the way of Kaoru’s plans. Just as her head was spinning with bafflement, another voice called out from the distance.
“Hey! What are you doing to those women?!”
“Huh?”
The attackers turned to the angry voice coming from behind them and found a group of twenty or so hunters marching toward them from the road leading to the orphanage.
“I’m the guildmaster of this town’s Hunter’s Guild! I was on the way back from a large-scale monster hunt with a group of our elite hunters. What business do you have with my lady guild members?”
The leader stared blankly, speechless. Elite hunters led by their guildmaster were powerful fighters who would put up a good fight even against veteran soldiers, yet his group consisted of bottom-tier soldiers who were basically cannon fodder, low-level hunters, and common thugs. Not to mention, they were vastly outnumbered. There was no way they could win with each of them fighting a two-on-one battle. If this had been a fight with thousands of men on each side, the only ones who could engage in battle at once would have been the ones clashing at the front lines.
However, in a battle on a scale this small, all of them would be fighting all at once, so the side with the greater numbers could gang up on their opponents. As they felled each enemy, they would move on to assist their allies by cutting down the next foe from behind, and this process would repeat until the battle came to a swift end. In fact, with this extreme an advantage, it would all be over in an instant without all of those extra steps.
The Blazing Valkyries must have shown themselves first so the enemy would underestimate them and not bother to prevent them from regrouping with Kaoru. They had no reason to rush, as they thought the Valkyries would eventually surrender, and they could kill the women any time if they wanted. And it seemed they wanted to avoid killing, especially women, if it wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t unusual for the enemy soldiers to think that way; they weren’t bandits, after all. However, if the Valkyries and hunters had played their hand too early, the enemy might have taken the priestess hostage or killed her and tried to flee. The Blazing Valkyries had planned things out so they could prevent that from happening and protect the priestess, since Edith had told them four soldiers had tried to kill her in order to keep her silent.