Shaking his head in resignation, Ash cast a final glance at the cell door before walking away. He never considered himself a hero, especially not when he couldn't defeat a single bandit after fighting with him many times. However, if he managed to escape alive, he wouldn't mind reporting the matter to Mayor Hans. If the old man took action, everyone would be happy. If not, then she could only blame herself for being too weak.
Soon, Ash passed all prison cells and found two more cells that emanated the sound from within mirroring that of the previous one, before reaching a large oak door, weathered and visibly struggling against the passage of time.
"This cave and all those cells didn't appear to be the handiwork of bandits. Judging by the strange symbols adorning the oak door, it seemed more like someone else's abandoned ruin that the bandits had subsequently occupied," Ash made the judgment thoughtfully.
After a few more seconds of scrutiny, Ash cautiously pushed the heavy door open, revealing another passage, this one wider and illuminated by numerous fire torches lining the walls. A similar large oak door stood at the passage's end, flanked by three doors on the left and two on the right, which probably should be the living room of elite bandits.
Ash, who knew his own limits, didn't have any curiosity to explore those rooms which may have fortune waiting for him. Taking advantage of the assumed slumber of everyone else, he sprinted towards the oak door. However, halfway through his dash, a searing pain erupted in his back, sending him crashing to the ground with a groan.
Out of nowhere, a man materialized beside Ash. The man, dressed in luxurious attire – a crisp white shirt, brown leather pants, and a flowing red-and-black high-collar cape – held a crossbow aimed at Ash, who lay there with an arrow protruding from his back.
"Who are you, brat? I don't think I have seen you before," The man's face, etched with a clear mix of disgust and arrogance, looked at Ash as if he were staring at the shit beside the road, not a human being.
"I... I am a new recruit, I just joined the gang today," Between gritted teeth, Ash mustered a reply, trying to mask his pain to not show too many flaws. In any condition, he had to leave this cave and find the location of the bandit base so he could later prepare a nice funeral for all these bastards.
"Oh, a new recruit, you say, huh? Can you tell me the person's name who let you join the gang without my permission?" As if convinced by Ash's lie, the man with crossbow asked with a smile. Although his sudden unnatural shift in attitude, marked by a smile, surprised Ash. While the unexpected friendliness raised a red flag, he couldn't pinpoint the source of his suspicion. So, he simply nodded and feigned ignorance by mentioning Urmas' name. After all, since that little runt had caused him so much trouble, it was only fair to let him take the blame.
"So it's Urmas, my dear old friend," the man exclaimed with a booming laugh. "Seems I misjudged you. I thought you were a prisoner who escaped his cell. You know, after emptying their balls, those bastards don't give a damn about anyone. There have been many times when prisoners easily escaped from their cells and caused havoc. Although no one had successfully crossed that oak door, but it's still disappointing to see the kind of useless buffoons I'm raising." The man's expression morphed into one of helpless sadness as if the entire bandit gang's responsibility was on his shoulders and the way he talked it seemed he clearly wasn't doing his work properly.
Does this dude literally have nothing better to do than play with me in the middle of the night? Don't tell me he's also gay. Although he does seem shameless enough to be the bandit leader, even his acting skills are quite solid. But where did he get the confidence to fool me with his third-rate lies? Even the dimmest person with a shred of knowledge about bandits knows he's spouting nonsense.
Otherwise, how can any sane man even think about having any expectations from bandits? If they are really smart and honest enough toward their work, then why would they even need to become bandits? I wonder what he wants from me, he shouldn't be idle enough that he had nothing better to do except wasting time on a prisoner like me, right? Ash thought confusedly while watching the supposed bandit leader drone on with his theatrics, suspicion gnawing at him.
"By the way," The bandit leader interjected casually, interrupting his monologue, "who was the one you killed? While we don't usually care about the lives of prisoners, they are ultimately our main source of income. So, I need to take some measures to address this loss... You did kill a prisoner, right?" His voice remained nonchalant. He gave a quick glance at the blood stains on Ash's hands and a few stains on his body and asked with a raised eyebrow. But his voice was still casual as if he didn't really care that Ash killed someone.
Ash, on the other hand, ignored the bandit leader and glanced around. Two new figures had materialized seemingly out of thin air, casually leaning against the oak door, the only way to go outside, and understood that there was no way to escape now. He was completely caught. With a helpless sigh and a shrug, Ash decided to play a bit with this bandit leader and annoy him to death.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"You should be the bandit leader, right?" Ash's sudden change in behaviour and voice, which became mocking and full of confidence, which made the bandit leader frown. He couldn't understand what made the brat in front of him suddenly change his attitude. Still not wanting to take any risk with his precious life, he snapped and signalled the two guards to approach Ash.
Ash ignored the two men coming toward them and continued while looking at the bandit leader with a mocking look, "Urmas told me a lot about you. Apparently, you're a weakling who only knows how to rob money from others and couldn't even fight a rat, let alone a man. Because no girl with the right mind would touch you with a ten-foot pole after seeing your disgusting ugly face, you used your daddy's money to build this pathetic bandit gang to fulfil your every whim."
"He also mentioned that because you yourself couldn't even last 30 seconds with girls, in a rage one day when you were drunk, you took the initiative to go to the gay people in your gang and offer yourself to them so they could give you real pleasure. Tsk, tsk, I have to admire your wonderful choice. A normal person couldn't do this kind of thing. By the way, is it true that after you experienced that wonderful feeling of getting your hole filled, you, in order to not ruin your image, killed that poor guy and later bought a few wonderful toys? And after a few seconds of fun with your slave girlfriend, the rest of the time she pumps the toy inside you?"
Ash's talent for speaking nonsense, which he learned from his previous life, is undoubtedly not something the poor people of the backward world could handle. Not only did Ash leave the bandit leader, the protagonist of his speech, so dumbfounded that he himself believed in Ash's lies and for a moment thought that he really had done all of this, let alone those two bandits guards. With their limited IQ and shocked looks on their faces, anyone could say that they had clearly swallowed every word.
"You bastard, I will kill..."
"Ah, the look on your face. It seems Urmas wasn't lying after all. When he first told me those things, I couldn't quite bring myself to believe them. But seeing your anger, the way you nearly exploded, there's no room for doubt anymore. As expected of a bandit leader, far removed from the realm of decency. You've certainly opened my eyes..."
Ash, still speaking nonsense without any hesitation, finally stopped. He hadn't changed his expression or responded further. Just a thud, and then he slumped to the ground, an arrow piercing the centre of his forehead.
After dealing with Ash, a shameless bastard, the bandit leader turned his chilling gaze towards his two remaining men with a very scary look. The poor fellows were frightened to death after being stared at by their gang leader. Although they wanted to say that they would never open their mouths and his secret would always be safe, even an idiot knows about the credibility of a bandit. It's no different than a stray dog, and believing that a bandit can keep a secret, especially such a juicy secret, then either that person is too optimistic about the world or he has some mental problem. Clearly, the bandit leader demonstrably belonged to neither category. He understood these men better than anyone. A few bottles of wine and his fabricated secret would become public knowledge, so rather than regretting later, he might as well deal with the problem from the root.
"Boss, please!" The terrified bandits pleaded, desperately attempting to interject before receiving another hollow promise. However, before they could utter another word, another arrow flew from the crossbow, finding its mark in the first bandit's heart.
The second bandit witnessed his comrade's lifeless form sprawled on the floor. Panic consumed him. Without a thought to defend himself or confront his leader reloading the crossbow, he bolted for the oak door. Now he wanted nothing but to flee. But his poor decision sealed his fate. Before he could even reach the doorway, an arrow pierced the back of his head, directly increasing the headshot count of the bandit leader.
"Phew, finally over," The bandit leader sighed with relief. "Thank goodness there weren't too many people present here; otherwise, I don't know how I am going to deal with all of them. Damn it, this little bastard's mouth is many times more venomous than mine. If he hadn't spouted all that nonsense about me, I could've considered recruiting him. His talent for humiliation could've proven quite useful against other gang leaders, they surely would be embarrassed to death under his fake gossip. Hehe... Sigh, but now it's too late..."
Suddenly a mischievous thought flickered in his mind. "Perhaps I should transcribe all the things he said for me and use them on those other leaders myself?" With newfound determination, the bandit leader hurried to his quarters to concoct his elaborate plan.