I observed the guards as I hid in the grass not far away. Hmm, there are just two of them, so if we attack them, we could take care of them quite easily, but… to ensure a certain level of safety, we had to do this discreetly.

I used hand signs to tell Blazer to go towards the opponent’s right flank, and then I told Buster to look for a chance to attack after he moved to their left flank.

It was our usual hunting pattern.

And so I bent one knee on the ground, nocked my arrow, and waited to attack…

“Guruaaaaaah!!”

“Wha!?”

I aimed at my target the moment the two bandit guards turned to their left in response to Buster who jumped out and roared at the same time.

“Wofu, garuva.” (O wind, lead my arrows.)

Aiming for the arm of the bandit closest to Buster, I released the arrow at the same time as I exhaled and accelerated the arrow with wind-magic.

“Guh…”

The arrow hit the arm of the bandit who was about to pull his sword from the scabbard, causing him to falter as the arrow momentarily halted his movement.

“Guuruaaah!!” (You’re going down!!)

*Slash!*

“Gguwaaah!”

Buster immediately closed the gap and used a horizontal slash attack to bring the first man down, and the bandit fell forward dead before he hit the ground.

“Uuwaaaaah!!”

The other man, who was just behind the dead bandit, hurriedly raised his Long Sword, but he could not even swing it down.

“Guhhh!?”

He stopped moving as soon as he raised his weapon and stared at the blade protruding from his abdomen in wonder. Actually, when the bandits turned to face Buster who roared as he jumped out to attack from their left flank, they exposed their backs to Blazer who was stationed on their right flank.

“Gauh, garuku guooruaon!” (Hah! Backstabbing is the most basic of surprise attacks!)

Blazer kicked the groaning bandit on the back as he pulled out his sword.  Blood gushed and streamed out from the two fallen bandits. 

“Guruoa.” (Looks like we’re done.)

I stood up, emerged from the bushes, and carefully approached the fallen bandits as I slung my bow over my back, pulling out the arrows stuck on the dead man’s arm and returning it to my quiver.

Well, I had become a splendid Kobold Archer too.

Speaking of desires, it would be nice if there were someone among us who could handle projectile weapons…… As I recall, there was a Slingshot among the weapons we looted this time. Since it was easier to handle than a bow, maybe I should let Blazer have it.

Sensing that the battle had ended, Ax and Lancer, who stood by as backup, also rose from their positions.

“Gau, voau kuruaaoou…” (So what shall we find today…)

Now then, let’s see what the bandits have to offer us.

If one took away the personal belongings of a soldier as they pleased, then that was called looting, but there was no legal issue with collecting and confiscating the weapons and provisions that a hostile party needs for their operations after winning against them.

In other words, they had crossed the line first, and in this case, we have a right to collect them as spoils of war.

This is…salt and oil?

Come to think of it, legumes are growing wild in the grasslands and forests… if we ground those up into a paste and squeezed them with a cloth, then we might be able to produce some oil too.

Salt, huh… to get this, one has to go to the mountains or to the faraway sea to acquire rock salt… but ever since I had been reborn in this body, I have not had any salt, so it might be bad if I consumed too much of this.

But it was hard to throw it away considering it adds flavor to food, but it might be useful for other things too.

“Gurua, wofu wafa?” (Boss, what is this?)

“Wafuh, garuukuan.” (Ahh, that’s dried meat.)

“Wu, kuan?” (Eh, this is meat?)

Ax suddenly took a bite out of the dried meat.

“Au, kuuoru, kuaaan ♪” (Ah, it’s hard, but it’s meat~♪)

The rest of the food we found was bread and soybeans. The soybeans looked like they would germinate if we just watered them properly.

(Maybe I should think of cultivating crops soon…)

I remember seeing a few wheat plants growing in the grasslands that looked similar to the ones grown in the cultivated fields around Viel village. I wonder if they were from the seeds blown away from the cultivated lands. But even if it was available to us, it would be useless without threshing tools or a millstone.

By the way, I had recently begun to take an interest in farming. We had to think of the times in winter where there is no prey after all… Well, it was not really a pressing issue since we’ve been getting by anyway.

It was fortunate that the High Kobold had an earth attribute magic, so I might be able to exterminate pests by running my magic through the earth just like earth mages do.

I was having difficulty in which insects to exterminate, but basically, Eric (a soldier from my past life who was an earth mage) said that it was alright to crush the insects that are more than 1 mm in size or those who continue to move despite their minute size… 

“Gurua, wofu wafaou?” (Boss, I wonder what this is?)

“Wofu guruan.” (That’s an iron plate.)

It seems convenient for grilling meat.

I could use the flint to set fire to some dried stems of the hemp plant native to the forest that has been broken into small pieces, along with some firewood made from the trees that Ax had cut down. It might be good for some lightly salted grilled meat.

(Gulp…) 

Alright, we’ll also take the griddle, pots, and other cooking tools along.

Since there was a limit to what we could carry at a time, we sorted the items and loaded them into the wagon we found at the site and the other one we borrowed from the village and asked Buster and Ax to pull it and we went back to the settlement.