Definitely Not Suspicious People

Right off the bat, two people were put out of commission. That only left eight people, and while that number greatly outnumbered us, they were rather shaken up. It appeared that these kinds of people were all talk, and had only picked on targets they thought were easy.

It seemed this much bloodshed was too much for them.

Right after puncturing the man's heart, Nathan yanked his spear back, causing the body to lurch towards him and collapse next to him. In that brief moment, he attempted to do the same thing but those nearby immediately backed off and guarded the bottom of their rib cage.

However, that did little to discourage him as he lunged forwards to slam his spear against the side of their knees. Making them groan in pain before falling down.

As for me, while those next to me were shaken up, there were still a few that rushed in with their knives out. Unfortunately, they really underestimated the difference in reach a sword and a knife had.

With ease, I slashed at the nearby hands and wrists. As a few fingers ended up flying through the air, they cried out in pain and dropped their weapons. However, I did happen to underestimate their fortitude as most of them wasted no time in bending over to pick up their weapon with the other hand.

However, they weren't the smartest, simply looking down at the weapon instead of at me, revealing the backs of their necks. Not letting such an opportunity go, I threw myself forward and slashed at the backs of their necks one after another.

Although it was hard to get a deep cut because of the angle, it was still more than enough. The bandits fell one after another. I snuck a glance over my shoulder to see Nathan directly lunging his spear through their heads. His target was the eye for the most part, but would also go through the mouth as well.

In a flash, only two of the bandits were left, one for each of us.

Deciding that it was no longer worth it, they both fled. Mine was going towards the Trade District, meaning he would soon be considered under the protection of the guards upon reaching there.

Understanding that, I put my all into running and pulled my sword back all the way.

When he was just a few steps from reaching that place, I drew a horizontal arc with my sword and beheaded him. The resistance I felt was surprisingly small. I was unsure if that was because the sword was good, or it just wasn't that hard to behead someone.

On the other hand, Nathan picked up one of their knives and just threw it at them. It landed squarely in the back of their head, causing them to collapse onto the ground.

I called out to him.

"I didn't think you were going to kill him?"

Nathan sighed.

"It's best to have fewer people see us and get away with it. If I can just kill him, then there's no point in leaving him alive, no?"

I blinked a few times.

"Um, I guess so."

I heard the guard let out a sigh before picking up one of the dead bodies and carrying them away. It appeared that disposing of bodies was part of his job too, and was probably something that he had done at least a few times before.

We continued walking on, and most people ended up leaving us alone. That was probably because Nathan didn't even bother cleaning his spear, letting the blood dry the tip. It seemed fairly peaceful for the most part, but I then heard Nathan cursing under his breath several times and mumbling to himself as though he were crazy. He rubbed his temple with the base of his palm aggressively.

With a bit of concern, I called out to him.

"Uh, you ok there?"

Nathan let out a long sigh. And tapped the side of his head a few times.

"This guy in here doesn't like the fact that I killed all those people."

My eyelid twitched. Ah, right. It seemed that the original hosts were still in our bodies, making this rather awkward. It made me wonder how mine was doing, but that wasn't important right now.

"Even though they were the ones that were attacking first?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders.

"He said that we should've let the people running go."

I rubbed my chin after thinking for a while.

"Yeah, I guess that is a pretty reasonable request. But letting them go would be bad for something about traces, like you said?"

Nathan nodded while pressing two fingers to his forehead.

"Yes. It would have been, but this guy doesn't get it at all."

I let out a chuckle.

"Well, I guess you can try to convince him or just give up on that for now."

Nathan smiled bitterly.

"Well, maybe it was a little too much..."

My guess was that he didn't really mean that and just wanted to pacify the guy in his head. By the way, I didn't bring the book along with me, just because this was supposed to be more secret than usual. The book was understanding and didn't complain.

Wait. Hold on a second.

"You can talk with him normally?"

Nathan blinked a few times. He looked around to see if anyone was near before speaking to me with a hushed voice.

"Ah, apparently it was difficult for him, but he was able to find a way to talk with me. From what I gathered, while the host of the body will always be conscious, and able to see everything that happens, they have second priority when it comes to controlling the body. In other words, when we wake up, they lose control, and only gain control if we fall asleep."

I raised an eyebrow.

"So that means that Bryson has seen everything that has happened until now, huh?"

Nathan laughed before nodding.

"Guess so."

Hm, that was within my expectations anyway.

"So uh, since you're probably listening to this, Bryson, why don't we have a chat?"

...

Nathan glanced at me.

"Um, did he respond?"

I shook my head.

"No, it doesn't look like it. But there's no rush."

We continued on walking without much thought. At some point, I spotted Bernie, who was at someone's door apologizing to them. The person in question was really confused, but accepted the apology with a confused smile before closing the door.

Huh. I guess he really was doing his thing.

Nathan gave me a strange look.

"Why the fuck did that guy turn into a door-to-door salesman?"

I coughed a few times.

"This and that may have happened and now he's going around apologizing to every single farmer in the kingdom."

Nathan paused for a moment.

"...How the fuck did you convince him to do that?"

I tilted my head to the side.

"Honestly, I don't even really know myself. It feels more like he was the one that did it to himself."

Nathan chuckled.

"Huh. I see."

While we were walking, there was a fairly large group of bandits dressed up just like the people we had seen earlier. They casually walked up to us, with the one in front clearing his throat before speaking up.

"Hey, you two creepy guys with masks, have you seen a group of people that look like us around here anywhere? They were supposed to show up here by now, but aren't here."

Hm. I do remember seeing them not too long ago. Nathan let out a laugh before shaking his head.

"Ah, no, we haven't seen them. We were just wandering around for a bit."

The bandit nodded a few times. It felt a tad bit strange considering we were actually the ones that killed them.

"I see, well, thank you anyways for telling us."

Nathan waved casually.

"Of course, of course. We'll be on our way now."

"Hold on."

The bandit raised his hand. Although his face was covered, it was still easy to tell a smile was forming on his face because of how tightly the cloth was wrapped around him.

"First, drop your weapons. Don't think that I'll be intimidated by that so-called bloody spear you have there. I can tell that you just used some sort of fake red dye! I mean, blood isn't that dark of a color. I would know, you see."

Um... but it was real blood. I guess the color was indeed a tad bit darker because it had dried, but that definitely was real blood. It seemed as though the bandit didn't actually have a concept of what made sense and what didn't.

Nathan tilted his head to the side. Though I didn't see his face, I knew he was getting annoyed.

"Oh, is that so? My kindness earlier means nothing to you?"

The bandit shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not that it means nothing to me at all, I will leave you with your clothes, but everything else will be going to us. No hard feelings, that's just how it is when one party has power over the other."

Nathan took a deep breath.

"When one party has power over the other, you say?"

I slowly took out my sword and held it out, as though I was going to drop it. The bandit nodded with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Thank you for being so cooperti-"

Nathan once again rushed forth and pierced the man through the heart. I rushed forth as well and directly cut off one person's hand, making them collapse to the ground while crying out in pain.

"Y-You bastards!"

One of the bandits from behind screamed that out before running away. Both Nathan and I had narrowed our eyes, not wanting this guy to get away. But this time it was different, because there was still a wall of people in front of us.

But... that didn't mean we were going to give up.

"Hey, Nathan."

I called out to him, to which he responded almost immediately.

"Yeah, I got it."