Side: Bandit
A cave, deep in the mountains.
We were nursing catastrophic hangovers.
See, a few days back, we crushed the adventurers that Ibiden Village hired against us.
Afterward, we squeezed the captured adventurers for information.
What we learned—
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The village has been abandoned by its lord.
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Hiring the adventurers drained the village’s funds to zero.
—In short: that adventurer raid was confirmed as the village’s LAST line of resistance.
The go-forward plan: hit the village hard in the next few days, kill no one, take everything of value except the farming tools.
Well — “kill no one” is overstating it.
We’ll kill a few grown men as examples, and a few dozen more will need to hurt.
As for the hangovers — victory party. Obviously.
I mean, how do you NOT drink to that?
Our future security was locked in. So we drank until the room stopped cooperating.
“Heh heh — boss? We got LUCK on our side, don’t we just.”
A gap-toothed middle-aged man — one of my underlings — sidled up.
“Yeah. Their lord’s cut ‘em loose, and they can’t hire another blade. Which means… open season, forever.”
“But why go easy at all, boss? Kill the men, sell the women an’ brats to the slavers, an’…”
“THIS is why you’re an idiot!”
I smacked him across the head.
“Eh? How’s that, boss?”
“The LORD abandoned them, fool. A decision to write off a whole village… that’s not a few months of neglect, that’s YEARS. Which means… play it right, and WE effectively rule that village. Long-term.”
”…?”
“Feed ‘em just enough not to die, and skim the cream off every harvest they sell — forever!”
“But boss — what if the lord’s situation changes midway an’ a knight order shows up?”
“THAT’S what the shadow guild’s for — we keep a feed on the lord’s side at all times. And the moment it turns truly dangerous, we fire the golden combo: massacre the men, sell the women and children.”
My underling smacked his fist into his palm.
“Milk ‘em while they milk, an’ when it sours — harvest everything an’ vanish?”
“That’s the shape of it.”
He doubled over laughing.
“Haha! That’s our boss! A GENIUS, I tell ya!”
“Damn right. We’re set for YEARS! Hell — shall we quit this cave and set up shop right IN the village, out in the open?”
“Ohh, BOLD! But that’s a good one, boss! Worst part o’ banditry’s all the skulkin’ — but this time WE’RE basically the lord!”
“Those adventurers were weak, though.”
“Against you, boss — a former A-rank adventurer — there’s no such thing as an enemy!”
“No… that girl. The black-haired sage’s apprentice — SHE was strong. If those trash adventurers hadn’t been dragging her down… that could’ve gone very badly.”
“True — she fought ya near to a draw, boss.”
And right then — the underling on cave watch burst in, face drained of color.
“B-B-BOSS!”
“What now?”
“D-d-d… dra… drago…! A DRAGON! There’s a DRAGON out there!”
“Haah? This ain’t the Forest of No Return, moron. You saw a salamander or somethin’.”
“No — it’s a dragon, I SWEAR it!”
“Like hell it is.”
Well — if it’s a small one, I can handle a dragon myself.
Every so often, a runt that lost the survival game in the Forest of No Return strays out this far…
“Pain in the ass either way.”
Still, even for me, a zero-risk dragon kill is a tall order.
Praying it was a misidentification, I stepped outside—
“Wh-wh-wh… WHAT IN THE HELLS IS THAAAAT?!”
A horde of one hundred colossal dragons — no. An army of DRAGON ZOMBIES had our hideout completely surrounded.