The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I'm a "Farmer", Not a Demon King! ~ - Chapter 112

The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I’m a “Farmer”, Not a Demon King! ~

Chapter 112   Thief extermination

“…However, the atmosphere here is quite different.”

With that in mind, we decided to take a walk around the village, and along the way, Scott made such a comment.

“Hmm? Ah, yeah. Well, putting on the act of a quiet child works better for a first impression. This is more like my true self.”

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the first impression when meeting a person sets the tone for everything. So, I try to be as friendly as possible at the beginning. It might not necessarily bring gains, but it wouldn’t cause losses either.

Well, there might be a few really twisted individuals who might nitpick and complain, saying they don’t like my smiling face, but they’re the minority. Overall, being friendly is the safest approach.

However, that’s only at the beginning. If continuing to be friendly is beneficial, then I’ll keep it up. But if I decide there’s no need for the act, I switch gears immediately. After all, being overly friendly is bothersome.

Scott and the others were in a position where we sought shelter from the rain at first, so we were polite and friendly. But now, we’re in a position to help them. There’s no point in keeping up the act anymore.

While discussing these things and walking, we were approaching the end of our round of the village, and just then, there were consecutive sounds like something wooden being knocked.

“They’re here!”

The moment Scott heard the sound, he jolted in surprise and turned abruptly towards me. It seemed like this was the signal for the bandits’ arrival.

“I see. Then… Sofia, are you ready?”

“Yes. I’m ready whenever.”

“Are you… really okay?”

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

Saying that and nodding, we dashed towards the direction of the sound.

“Hey, you guys! We’re here again! Hurry up and hand over the valuable stuff!”

“If you don’t have money, give us a woman! If you do that, we’ll spare the rest!”

The bandits had arrived on horseback, and some of them were pulling wagons. Most likely, the remaining bandits were inside those wagons.

As they descended, the visible bandits numbered about twenty. Well, it was roughly as we had heard.

“Hey there, Scott. As for the collections this time— huh?”

Being the village chief, Scott often conversed with the bandits. Perhaps because they recognized him, they found him quickly and called out to him.

However, in the middle of their sentence, they unnaturally stopped speaking. Probably because, or rather most certainly because I was there. There was nothing else strange or noteworthy.

“…What’s with this kid and the maid?”

The bandits noticed us standing next to Scott and all directed their gazes towards us. That kind of pressure might make an average person tremble, but from my perspective, it was nothing more than a dismissive chuckle at ‘that level.’

“This one is—”

“It’s okay. Let me talk.”

Interrupting Scott, I walked forward with Sofia towards the bandits.

“Huh? Who the hell are you? Do you think you have something to do with us? Huh?”

It seemed strange to them that only we stepped forward, and one of the bandits intimidatingly questioned. But again, it didn’t faze me.

“I’m just a traveler. I happened to stop by this village this time and heard about the bandits raiding the village.”

“Ha! So you decided to show off your sense of justice, huh? Or were you told to fight us? In that case, too bad! Scott sold you out! He brought you here not because he wanted you to help in some way but because he wanted you to be a scapegoat in place of themselves!”

The words of the bandit echoed around, followed by laughter from the other bandits.

But for me, listening to them was just noise. To be honest, it was annoying.

It’s not only the bandits but also the delinquents and thugs I encountered in Japan, those guys who spread their uncouth and nasty laughter are irritating. Back then, I never thought there would be someone in real life going “Gahaha” like that.

Their laughter was the same, a type of laughter that was just unpleasant to listen to. I won’t tell them not to laugh, but could they be a little less grating?

Well, I wouldn’t care even if these guys changed their laughter; I’m going to take them down anyway.

“Looking closely, that woman over there seems to be of high quality too. That outfit she’s wearing on top. Isn’t that a servant’s attire? So what? Are you some rich kid from somewhere? If that’s the case, all the better. This is a jackpot! Hey, Scott! You’ve done well! Be a bit more discreet next time during the collections. Show some gratitude.”

Saying this, the man stared at Sofia as if inspecting her, but neither she nor I reacted to the bandits’ words.

“Tch. You’re a damn boring kid. Say something already. Or are you too scared to speak?”

Apparently displeased with our attitudes, the bandit who had been talking to us until then clicked his tongue again and then looked away from us to Scott.

But…

“Is that all you have for your final words?”

When I asked this to the bandit who had averted his gaze from me, his movements came to an abrupt halt.

“…Huh? …What did you just say?”

And then, he locked eyes with me again, anger evident in his expression.

“It seems like not only your head but also your ears are not working well. Did you really say those pitiful words as your last statement, you worthless insect?”

My words triggered a change, and the previously audible chatter and laughter around us disappeared completely.

“Haha! Oh man, this one’s a masterpiece! You think you can get cocky just because we were talking to you?” the man who had been talking to me laughed loudly after a silence of about ten seconds…

“Die, you brat.”

He drew his sword and lunged at me.

“You die.”

But it was too slow. A sword of that caliber was nothing more than child’s play compared to the monstrous swords I had faced before.

“What—ugh, Aaaargh!?”

I didn’t bother dodging the opponent’s sword that came at me, but instead grabbed it without avoiding it and used my skill to turn the opponent’s wrist into fertilizer. With just that, the opponent’s attack was nullified. I seized the sword that had now separated from the opponent along with their wrist and returned it to the person, piercing through their neck.

“W-what the hell have you done!”

My actions seemed unexpected to them. The bandits fell silent again, creating a moment of blankness. But this time, they immediately sprang into action.

“Die, you bastard!”

The next bandit thrust a spear at me while shouting, but their attack wasn’t particularly skillful.

Avoiding the thrust, I slipped into the opponent’s space, placed my hand on their abdomen, and turned it into fertilizer. That was the end of it.

“Kill them all!”

“Sword Slash!” “Pierce Thrust!” “Monstrous Strength!” “Projectile!”

The confusion was evident among the bandits after seeing their two companions, much older than a kid like me, getting defeated. They unleashed their respective skills.

Their attacks, enhanced by their skills, were more dangerous than the two bandits from before. If struck, these attacks would likely be fatal.

However, their attacks never reached me.

“Earth Reversal!”

The moment I uttered these words, the ground beneath the feet of all the bandits, including those who hadn’t attacked, lifted.

The bandits stumbled even before swinging their swords, the one with a spear lost their balance, and the arrows flew off in a different direction.

The elevated ground then rotated in mid-air and proceeded to fall, trapping the bandits as it descended.

“I didn’t bury them too deep this time, so I think they’ll survive… Well, let’s see?”

This time, the depth was about 1.5 meters, so they shouldn’t be completely buried. Although, considering the fall’s height, which is around three meters, they might not survive a direct hit to the head.

“W-What… damn it.”

“Oh, some of them are alive.”

It seemed that a few of them were still alive, as they were trying to push the soil off themselves. However, it would take them a bit of time to crawl out.

Good. It seemed like my calculations on how deep to bury them paid off.

“You… What the hell did you do?”

“What? Just played around with the dirt a bit. You saw it, right?”

“Dirt… damn it! A magician here of all places!”

“Ah, well, if you want to label it that way. I guess in a general sense, techniques involving manipulating earth for combat would be considered magic.”

But in reality, if someone was attacked with manipulated earth in a battle, wouldn’t you doubt if they were a ‘Farmer’ rather than an ‘Earth Magician’? If warriors or regular spellcasters were natural fighters from the start, one wouldn’t think a farmer would resort to this.

“Anyway, forget about that. I have something to ask. If you answer honestly, I’ll let you live.”

“You… wait, damn it! You think we’ll spill everything just like that?”

What a clichéd line. Well, what else could I expect…

But will it end for free? Seriously? It’s pretty obvious how this is going to play out.

“That’s what I’m thinking. After all, there are only about ten more of you, right? That much won’t be a problem.”

“Hah! You idiot! Ten, you say? You’re a fool. It’s fifty! We still have that many comrades! This village is doomed in no time!”

“Fifty? Are there really that many?”

I thought there wouldn’t be a hundred, but still, having close to a hundred is quite a number. Seems a bit large for regular bandits.

But, well, it’s not my concern to delve into that. Even if some force is involved, it’s up to the authorities to handle it. My role is to deal with these guys.

“That’s right. Scared now? And the bosses are from that den of criminals, Karakas! There’s no way to win against them! But how about this? If you promise to spare me, I’ll convince them to spare this village from an attack. So…!”

Ah, I see. So no country was involved, only karakas. That’s my hometown.

It’s a city where criminals gather, but unless you have a certain level of ability, you won’t survive. So, a bunch of low-level bandits wouldn’t make it in that city.

The ones leading this group are probably those who managed to survive and thrive in Karakas, individuals with some considerable strength.

“But you’d just be the losers who fled that city, right?”

“What…!”

“Think about it. If you had enough power to survive there, you wouldn’t bother being little bandits like this. Even so, being here doing small-time banditry means you fled from that city, right?”

Exactly. If you had the ability to make it in that city, you wouldn’t be doing banditry here. After all, it’s more profitable there, and you wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted by the country or lords.

Yet here you are, gathering small-time crooks and playing at being bandits. That means you’re a loser who couldn’t last in that city. In other words, you’re weaklings.

“And really, no matter what you say, it’s pointless. Because you’re going to die soon.”

I said this while approaching the still-buried bandit.

He probably saw me approaching, which prompted him to start frantically digging to get out.

“Don’t move? Do you think you can smooth things over? There’s no way that’ll work for small fries like you.”

However, he wouldn’t easily escape like that. I reached the man and crouched right in front of him.

I suppose he intended to grab my neck or something to threaten me, but I grabbed his outstretched hand and used my skill.

“—There’s no reason to keep you alive.”

The part I grabbed turned into rot and sludge, and the wrist that was there before fell to the ground with a soft thud.

“Ugaaah! My arm, my aaarm!?”

The other arm also turned into fertilizer in the same way, and the man’s cries turned into even louder screams.

Seeing that I was reaching for the man, he started begging, his face contorted with tears and saliva.

“N-No, no! St-stooop, pleeaase!”

“You’re begging now, even though you didn’t stop when I asked.”

I stuck my hand into his mouth and dissolved his tongue. The inside of the mouth might have dissolved along with it, but there was no choice. I needed to make him give up.

“Mmmmmmm!”

With his tongue completely melted and gone, the man couldn’t articulate words anymore, just producing unintelligible sounds.

“Now, who’s next?”

As I said this and stood up, I scanned the surroundings. I walked towards those who weren’t completely buried in the ground.

“—I’ve heard enough of the story.”

Those who just shared their tale… well, leaving them be should be fine. They’re not completely buried in the ground, so they could probably escape if they tried. However, even if they did manage to escape, they probably wouldn’t survive, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to do anything.

But yeah, might as well water them while I’m at it. Some are partially submerged in the ground, but a single ‘earth reversal’ might not be enough to bury them completely. If I sprinkle water, they should suffocate properly.

“Become fertilizer for the earth.”

I just made some fertilizer, so it’s perfect. Those buried in the ground will become fertilizer after they die, so that’s a good thing!

Well, I do feel like trying to cultivate a field here would feel somewhat cursed. After all, the corpses would remain as they are.

…Not worth worrying about. If it bothers me, the villagers will handle it.

“Suffocating buried in the ground versus melting away and dying. I wonder which one is better?”

I’d rather not experience either.