While the village was drowned in the noises of battle screams and clanging weapons, the hilly areas surrounding it from afar were awfully silent under the dark night. In one of such a hill, on a small cliff protruding out of a forest, one could see a massive sword stuck on the rocky ground, it's blade illuminated by a small campfire burning slightly away from it. The fields on which the settlement stood was clearly visible from this cliff, and the small firefly like lights in the distance gave away the village's location.

In front of the campfire sat a large burly man on a piece of log, beside the half-eaten roasted carcass of a massive boar. A thick and shiny scaled hide lay just beside the naked carcass, dying the soil red with drops of blood. The man occasionally tore large chunks of greasy meat from the monster, vigorously gulping all of it down before savoring the flavor along with a jar of alcohol.

A dozen figures stood guard around the campfire, their rags and weapons being coated in viscous monster blood. Only one person had the privilege to sit on another log opposite to the burly man, wearing a pitch-black hooded robe. His scholarly and refined aura made quite a contrast to the barbaric and vicious appearances of the bandits behind him. Although, his current mood appeared restless as he gazed into the distance now and then as if waiting for something.

"You did inform them, right?" the cloaked man opened his mouth after fidgeting for a long time. An unusually charming, and youthful voice escaped his throat, which made the bandits imagine quite a lady killer's face hidden inside the black hood.

"Hmm? About what?" the burly man glanced ahead, greasy juice overflowing from his mouth and the savage chewing produced a constant, rhythmic, and annoying chackle! A nightmare for any person with misophonia.

"About the person I am looking for!" the cloaked man spoke, raising his voice. He was already repulsive about working with such a barbaric lot, but their lack of tension throughout the event had only added to his frustration the entire time.

"Oh, just that! Hahahaha!" the burly man laughed, his booming voice reverberating around the hills. "Didn't you say the individual was a beautiful girl in her early teens? Hahaha! Don't worry, those runts will not think twice before killing a smelly old man, but a woman, be it beautiful or ugly, changes the story. As long she is 'usable' she will survive the raid.

"Although...I hope you would not mind the parcel getting roughed up a little eh, Hahaha!"

"You!" the restless man got furious, almost standing up to his feet, before taking long and deep breaths to regain his composure. From his perspective, these fools didn't understand their situation at all.

"That's right," the cloaked man replied with a sigh. "Her appearance must have been changed from her original looks, but even then, she would be like a flower blooming around dirt and mud in this rundown village of the outskirts.

"But that's not the issue!" he continued with a serious expression. "I'm warning you. You people don't even know what is it that you are dealing with. If something were to happen to this person due to your stupidity, then...", the man ended the sentence on a threatening note as a fierce glint flashed past his eyes.

At that moment, the surrounding temperature instantly dropped down at a frightening pace as if the place was in the arctic tundra. The cloaked man could feel the prickle on his skin that came from the bandits' glare, their eyes laced with overflowing killing intent.

These people have survived in hellish monster-infested regions with barely any protection other than their skills, and hence, they naturally followed the law of the jungle. Some random outsider dared to take the high ground and threaten their leader right in front of them! Only after the burly man raised his hand in a gesture did the bandits restrain themselves from their urge to skin the man alive.

"You talk as if your sources haven't exactly seen this girl living here," the burly man asked with an expression of doubt.

"You don't always need to 'see' to confirm anything, the same result could be inferred or deducted with enough evidence."

"Oh? ...and what if the person in question has already caught wind of this raid and escaped?"

"That's impossible," the cloaked man shook his head. "You don't know how long has it been since this skirmish has initiated. It took us such a long time to locate the person because they had holed up inside this dirt hole of a place. On the contrary, if they had tried to gain information, creating any sort of contact, we would have captured them long ago.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"So information about this raid should not have reached them. Also, even if they escape..."

"...Your men surrounding this entire region would eventually find them, right?" the burly man ended the latter's sentence, raising his eyebrows with a smile.

The cloaked man nodded. He knew very well that the bandit chief was trying to get hints so as to grasp the situation through this questionnaire. Just when he was about to warn the brute again, not to pry any further than necessary, he suddenly felt a disturbance in his mind.

"Hmm? What happened?"

"Someone's trying to peep on us!" the cloaked man exclaimed, his voice carrying a tint of surprise.

The bandit chief furrowed his brows. He had great confidence in his skills and had not felt any unusual movements whatsoever. But he also couldn't find any reason for the cloaked man to lie in this situation, after all, he knew the man was a powerful mage.

"Not from anywhere near, someone's trying to peep at us from within the village," the mage explained, as he got up before trotting towards the cliff. Only he could see the bluish, distorted barrier covering the area that was bombarded by strange lights, which flickered on top of it as if wanting to pierce through.

pzzt! pzzt!

"An ocular skill? To be able to see through this distance, probably a Ranger?" the bandit chief muttered with a thoughtful expression.

"I don't know. If not for my ward interrupting it, he would have found us."

"Heeeh, for someone with such skill to appear in a place like this, does this mean we have hit the jackpot, or, is it someone else entirely?"

shua!

Before the mage could speak his thoughts on the matter, a man's figure landed right behind the group, seemingly appearing out of thin air. A deep running scar posed for an eerie vibe on his smiling face. He wore similar clothing to the other bandits, the only difference being his temperament, which was much more relaxed compared to his fellow brigands as he casually approached the bandit chief.

"What's taking them so long?", the burly man asked with a tinge of displeasure.

The scarred man's smile did not vanish in the slightest as he thoroughly described the raid in exclusive detail from the beginning. The breaching of the gate, the slaughter of men, and then about the omnipotent arrows that seem to have their own will.

"...and when those three kicked the bucket, I immediately rushed back to report. More members have probably been killed already by now."

The entire group behind made faces of astonishment, their mouth being wide open as if they had swallowed a fly. Those 'three' were counted among the stronger ones in their bandit brigade. For all three of them to be killed within such a short amount of time, just how strong was this archer!?.

"Hiya, those were quite the archery skills~~. Even I could not predict the directions from where the arrows originated... until they reached the target.", the scar-faced man exclaimed in awe. Not a trace of remorse could be seen on his face, rather his attitude was overflowing with playfulness.

"Tch! Those bastards! Letting their guard down," the burly man muttered, clicking his tongue. "But still, archers of this caliber are rare during these times. This is getting interesting!"

With a curious smile laced on his face, the bandit chief made his way to the giant sword stabbed on the cliff, and the moment he grasped the handle...

whoosh!

An incredibly thick and murderous aura assaulted the entire region, inciting desperate monster howls in the distance. The cloaked mage was startled with this sudden development as he faltered back a few steps. Even the bandits were trembling with fear behind the campfire, and only the scar-faced man seemed fine, although his smile had gone stiff.

Heavy! The presence was so overbearing that the people present in the region almost felt crushed just by that intangible pressure. Goosebumps appeared on each one of their skins and cold sweat dripped out of their backs. It took all of their efforts just to stand upright as their legs felt like jelly, wobbling due to instincts.

"Oi mage," the bandit chief growled. The former flinched in fear as he hurriedly brought forth his hands that glowed with a luminous blue, trying to defend himself.

"You should know who I am and what is my past," he spoke in a slow, heavy tone. "I only agreed to their condition because we both have something common to hate. Our cooperation only exists until the raid is finished, whether you get the girl or not is not of my concern."

Only at this point did the mage realize that this act was the answer to his previous threat. He had forgotten that the man in front of him was not some random bandit small fry, but an existence feared by the adventurer's guild itself. A tremendous bounty loomed on his head in the guild blacklist, which meant that he was subjected to being hunted throughout the human lands and beyond.

"If..." the bandit chief continued with his solemn voice. "If in the future, those dipshits behind you, who are busy orchestrating events from their dinner tables, ever decided to bare their fangs at me, then convey this...", the man took a deep, terrifying breath.

"....... that I! Bojorn! will not hesitate to evenly duke it out with them! and send their pathetic selves to the oblivion!"

The booming voice of the chief shook the entire hills, the heavy murderous aura spiking up to the peak as he lifted the massive sword off the ground. The trembling mage could only weakly nod as sweat poured out from all over his body, drenching the dark robes.

The chief grinned, satisfied with the reaction he received, before glancing at the direction of the village with an ominous glint.