“Salicia, any thoughts on this?”

“Eh? What do you mean by that?”

I poked the dead bandit with the tip of my foot, rolling him on his back. There was definitely a time where I would have been squeamish about this. Perhaps, my knowledge that these men could be reincarnated had numbed me to this kind of thing. Perhaps, it had been a result of my own deaths, and the countless people I had to kill. A not insignificant number of Knights had died thanks to my decisions. I had personally wielded the sword in several of those cases.

“I mean, you were the queen of the bandits in this area. You weren’t as powerful as they are now, but do you have a clue who their leader is? What methods he’ll employ? Any information that could help us defeat the bandits could help.”

“I never paid attention to that kind of stuff.” She waved her hand and laughed.

“Carmine, please hit her.”

“With pleasure, Master.”

“W-wait!” She held up her hand as Carmine prepared to shield-bash her sister into the ground. “It’s all coming back to me! What I meant to say was that the bandits had broken up into three territories. I was the Bandit King of the west. There was also the southwest and the south. Before we launched our assault on Penbrook to liberate dear sister, the Bandit King from the south sent me a missive. He wanted to meet to form an alliance. The southwestern were waiting to see what I did…”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“And you got captured and your bandits were scattered. Most of them went to join the other two gangs?” She nodded. “My capture probably would have scared the southwestern Bandit King, and so undoubtedly all three joined as one. That would be the only way the bandit activity would rise up in such an impressive manner.”

“What can you tell me about the other Kings?”

“Nothing.”

“Carmine.”

“Ah! I mean, I don’t remember much! One was a cautious coward. The other I didn’t share any territory with, so I only knew his reputation. I heard he was dangerous and unhinged! Unlike the rest of us, he fancied himself a true King. He wanted to conquer all of Aberis and found a country. Some said he used to be a former Hero!”

“A Hero? Seriously?”

“Y-yeah! They give him the name Bandit Hero now. He supposedly steals because he believes Demon Lord Aberis is still alive, and he wants to be ready for his return or something crazy like that!”

“…”

I didn’t know about any of that. The lore from Widow’s Dungeon had seen the Demon Lord Aberis die. Then again, lore could be inconsistent and incomplete. I could never forget that it was just a story, and stories weren’t necessarily true. Admittedly, a story would have to be true to elicit enough emotions to grow into a curse, but the narrators were unreliable, and falsehoods, exaggerations, and lies could spread just as badly as the evil.

I had no clue where Xin was, but she was probably the only real threat to Aberis. I presumed she was still in the Ost Republic, but almost thirty years had gone by since that time and there was no evidence that she was going to try to finish what she started. Was it all just crazy ramblings? If not, just who was the Bandit Hero, and where was this so-called Demon King?