After healing and changing the jobs of all of the bandits, I gave them a couple of silvers too to help them start. I had slightly over 1000 gold, with probably another 500 gold in silver and copper. In that respect, silver was plentiful. I was originally going to give them gold, but Miki warned me against it. If they knew we had that much money, they might get greedy, or something like that.
One bandit was released at a time, and they each ran off in a different direction. By the time the last guy took off, the sun had come up and it was about time to get moving again. I looked down at the big guy with the ax.
“Um… do you want your job changed too?” I asked uncertainly.
The reason I was uncertain was that he didn’t have any jobs that came off as normal work. There was no Commoner. He had the Thief Job. He had an Assassin Job. He had a job called Raider, and he had a job Berserker. None of these jobs sounded any better than any of the others.
“You think you’ve won?” He sneered. “If I don’t return with the stuff, the Bandit King will just send more.”
“The Bandit King?” I asked. “You have Kings? What is this country doing, seriously?”
“Hehe… they have a bounty on their head a hundred times larger than my own, so don’t think you can so easily defeat them!”
“Wait… you have a bounty on your head!”
“…”
I snapped my fingers. “So, that’s what we can do with him. I was seriously worried, but if we can just hand him in, then that will be fine.”
“Y-you bastard… don’t tell me you’re not bounty hunters!”
“Huh? Well, I mean, I wasn’t. Is that a job?” I felt a surge of excitement. “If I turn him in, maybe I can unlock that job. That’d be really cool.”
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“…”
The guy seemed to be quieting up now that he realized he was causing more trouble for himself. On the other hand, trading them in for a bounty was an ideal thing to do. Let them rot in prison rather than get resurrected and form some vendetta against me. I didn’t really want to drag this guy to the closest town, but it seemed like the best option for him. He didn’t seem like a good guy at all, not like the other bandits.
We tied him up and I was glad to see he walked the direction we made him walk. I was worried he was going to drag his feet or do something annoying like that. If I had to carry him, things might end up differently. According to the map, the nearest town was about a five-hour walk, so it wasn’t too far from us. Thus, we headed in that direction. The trip went smoothly.
Upon approaching the town, I saw that it was surrounded by a small wall. The wall was only about ten feet tall. It certainly wasn’t enough to stop an invasion, but it would keep out wolves and discourage bandits. At the entrance, I encountered city guards for the first time.
“What is this here?” The guard demanded as we approached the entrance through the wall.
He was eying the big guy. Although he was tied up, he still looked the most intimidating and eye-catching of all of us.
“Ah… this guy attacked us, and I heard there is a bounty?”
The men looked skeptical when looking at me. I thought this world would be a little more understanding that looks could be deceiving in a world with job levels, but I guess common sense couldn’t overcome the fact that a guy like me with three girl slaves was able to overcome this guy.
“I guess we can take the bounty.” The guard said. “Usually, you’ll want to take bounties to larger towns, those with a bounty hunter guild. You have a bounty hunting license?”
“Uh… no…”
“Adventurer then?”
“That I have!” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. The bounty has a larger tax on it, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
I was worried I was getting in trouble there for a second, but I guess Adventuring really was a Jack of All Trades kind of job. I was happy I signed all the paperwork back then. I handed the guy over and the guard put a collar around his neck which had a rune flash. It looked like a slave collar, which differed from the slave marks on my girls. I guess that was a way to keep him restrained. I was also worried if this city wasn’t big enough, he might overpower them and escape, but that didn’t appear to be an issue either.
I ended up collecting 10 silver. It wasn’t enough to pay back what I spent on the other bandits I let go, but It helped.
‘What should we do now Master?” Lydia asked. “Do we continue on to the city?”
“How about we have a date?”