Hello again, this is your friendly neighborhood Lune speaking. We are currently located in a lustrous forest area on the road leading up to Melgam, and might I add that calling it ‘lustrous’ is a HUGE understatement. Joining me here today are the bandits from last chapter who will be making a guest appearance, although the driver won’t be present for obvious reasons…

In any case, the bandits over here claim to have an inexplicable need for my items, food and money. Quite the rowdy bunch, aren’t they? Swinging their knives and staves around like it’s nobody’s business! They really seem to be enjoying their line of work, and in my opinion that’s all you should ever strive for in life: A high-paying, fun job you can enjoy with your friends! It’s outdoors too, so your body’s in tip-top shape, as well!

All in all, it seems these guys are in some sort of rush to just take off with my belongings and leave me without a way to get to Melgam. Sadly, it looks like they aren’t as lucky as they initially thought, as they definitely found the wrong adventurer to piss off.

“Hiyah!” One bandit struck with his sword, although I easily dodged it, “Take this, and this and this!” He said, being unaware of the fact that his swings were so wobbly that one well-timed parry could actually inflict more harm on him than he ever thought possible to inflict on me (poor, naïve soul…)

“Stop squirmin’ about and fight like a man!” The other guys said as they all charged at me full-speed with their daggers.

Now I’m by no means well-versed in the art of not giving a fuck, but these guys are making it too easy! I mean, don’t they know how much time I’ve spent gawking at Cecily as she danced around the training dummy with her knife? They’re sullying the art of knifesmanship, damn it! (Well, I guess they wouldn’t know who I am, nor Cecily for that matter…)

“Oh ho ho! You want me to fight like a man? Your wish is my command!” I said, striking the first bandit with the blunt side of my sword.

The others were shocked at how utterly fast I disarmed their ally, but didn’t waver once when they thought to attack me again. Looks like they’re the type to learn from their own mistakes, eh? Although, to give credit where credit is due, they do seem to be working together pretty well, I think I even saw some guys pull off tandem moves. Then again, my eyesight was quite omitted, as I saw the world in a gray tint. I guess I went Solipsistic again without realizing it.

“Fuck, this guy’s mopping the floor with us!” A bandit commented on the situation, “Get Lem!” He said as he commanded his allies back into the bushes.

Lem? Who’s that?

Just as I was wondering who this mysterious person was, a somewhat dainty fellow emerged from the bushes with the same eye color as Cecily – Yellow.

Is this their trump card? What’s this kid gonna do? I thought, before shouting out to mock them a bit.

“I didn’t know you were this desperate! If I had known you were gonna send some kid my way, I’d give you some of my money as pity!”

They started laughing at my provocation, almost as if they knew I didn’t know what was coming. I still decided not to let my guard down against this kid, just in case. He stood there for what felt like a needlessly, awkwardly long time, not even saying a word. He seemed quite worn down, with bags under his eyes and the edges of his mouth dragged all the way down into a frown. He was definitely being forced to be here, I thought.

I didn’t really pay all too much attention to my surroundings, leading to a bandit giving me a sucker punch and making me tumble down. They all saw the opportunity and made a mad dash to jump on top of me. I was getting attacked from all sides, and I couldn’t pivot myself at all since I was on the ground. They quickly restrained both of my arms and started beating me senseless. I could barely breathe as they just kept wailing on me.

“Looks like you’re all talk after all, pipsqueak!” Said a burly looking bandit as he smashed both his fists down at my chest, breaking a rib or two.

This is it, I thought, no choice but to use it… I quickly opened my palms and focused with all my might to burn them all to oblivion with Spark. I felt the heat transferring from my face down to my chest, before scurrying through the upper arm, leading to the lower arm, then finally to my palm.

Just then, I remembered the promise I made that day…

“I won’t use Spark ever again, not after what I did to Carter…”

But it looked like I was too late with my backing out, since the flame was all but ready. I can’t stop it in time…!

“Hey,” the kid said somewhat quietly, “stop that.”

Just then, I caught a glimpse of his eyes shining bright yellow, and before I realized it, my Spark was completely neutralized. I couldn’t even stop it, so how did he…? Not only that, but the other bandits stopped barraging me as well. It’s as if we all stopped to listen to what this Lem kid had to say.

“Now that I have all of your attention,” the kid spoke up, “I wanted to say that violence isn’t the answer for these types of things. If all you wanted was his money, you should’ve called me here from the start to us Command on him.”

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What’s this kid talking about? Command?

He saw me staring at him with a confused stare, so he went to explain himself, “Nice to meet you, I am a Beholder of Authority, that is to say I have a Yellow Iro. I’m not sure why, but when I tell people to do something and focus my entire heart into the words I’m saying, they’ll always listen to me completely. I’ve had this power ever since I was born, so don’t think it’s a skill someone as lowly as you could learn.”

Is this kid serious? Is he underestimating me? I can probably learn to switch to Yellow as well, given enough time and training…!

“Ah, come on, Lemmy, you know we would never use up Command for such a boring thing as having someone hand over the goods!” their boss answered back, “We need your power for when things get tough, who knows when a decisive moment might come by, and it’d definitely be bad if you were this wasteful with it. It’s a last resort first and foremost!”

“Shut it, you!” Lem shot back before turning to face me again, ”Don’t worry, we won’t harm you as long as you give us your belongings, I think we both stand to benefit from this transaction.”

“Do we now?” I spit on his shoes. I’d reach for higher, but I’m lying on the floor and he’s standing in front of me. “How’s that work?”

“Ugh,” he stopped to wipe his shoes on my face before continuing, “if you do as we say, we get the goods, you get to live. I’d advise you to think it through carefully…”

“I’m not one to ‘think things through’, so it’s a waste of time even trying to negotiate. Ptu!” I said spitting at him once again, this time having it reach his shirt.

“Would you stop doing that, dammit!” He screamed out in rage, “Whatever! Your choice! Sleep…!”

As he said those words, I could suddenly feel myself getting drowsier and drowsier, to the point I could barely keep my eyelids open. I just had a nap though, what’s the deal? Could it be his Command skill or something? Ughh….

Before I had completely gone to sleep, I remember the bandits bickering amongst themselves, especially their boss and that damned kid.

“Stop wasting your Commands, Lemmy! You’re being too careless, plus you accidentally made half of them go to sleep as well!” He shouted, pointing at the people on the ground who were beating the shit out of me just a few minutes ago.

“I don’t care!” Lem shot back, “That stupid guy had it coming, I shouldn’t have stopped our teammates from wailing on him. I mean, just look at what he did to my shirt, imagine being so sick in the head that you’d spit on a kid! Twice!”

“Lemmy, go back to the base. I’ll take care of things here, and you’re grounded for this, no more sweets for a week, mister!” Their boss said to him.

“What!? Oh shut up! You’re not my dad! Plus I saved you guys, you should be thankful! I don’t wanna have to always clean up your mess and then get punished for it!” He said, before turning back at him all teary-eyed, “And stop calling me Lemmy! It’s annoying!”

After that, they bickered some more, but I couldn’t really catch what they were bickering about, exactly. I drifted off to sleep for the nth time now, and awoke soon after as I was being carried off somewhere on their boss’ shoulder, sort of like how you’d carry a bag.

***

“Hey,” I spoke up, “are we there yet?”

“Whuh?! Oh, y’scared me there.” He added, “No, we’re still a ways away from the base.”

“Oh, so we’re heading to your base, I see.”

“Wait, you didn’t know?! Crap, I gave it away!” He said, fumbling over his words as he realized he was outsmarted.

“Yeah, I’m good at extorting information from people, I am a General of this Country’s largest gang, y’know.” I started boasting about my time at ARA, hoping for him to get scared and run away without me.

“Yeah right!” he snorted, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…”

“Wait, you’re not gonna believe me?” I stopped my bragging to ask him that.

“Of course not! The Generals of Blue Lions are a menace! They’re my idols since childhood! Like you could ever even hope to be compared to them!” He said with stars in his eyes.

“Your sources are extremely outdated, old man.” I said to the mustachio’ed fella’, “I bested Aaron in battle ages ago, and he now stands as Vice-General of my own gang, ARA.”

He was worried since I knew Aaron’s name, but then started laughing at my proclamation, “Phahahahaha! Oh shut up, you! Bested Aaron? You wish! And how’d you do that?” He asked, wiping away tears.

“……” I didn’t have anything to say, as I banned myself from using Spark, and he would never believe me if I said something like A flame sparked from my palms and set his clothes on fire.

“Well, in any case,” he said as he plopped me down on the floor, “we’re here, welcome to your new home, ain’t it nice?”

This is about the time I realized I was completely tied up, to the point I couldn’t even open up my arms at all. I was just stuck here, alone and without my belongings, in an enemy base without anyone coming to save me.

I was placed in a cell made of sturdy looking wood, with a metal lock placed to keep it closed. At first I laughed at their building material of choice, but upon further inspection (trying to punch away the wooden bars and hurting my fists) I noticed that the entire build is quite masterfully woven. It was almost beautiful how well-crafted it actually was. If I wasn’t these guys’ enemy, I’d hire the bandit who’s responsible for this to build my house.

As they were all eating their food happily over their campfire, I was sitting alone in the dark, seated far away from them. Just when I thought these weirdos were irredeemable, their boss slowly walked up to me to hand me my rations.

“You may be our prisoner, but I know firsthand what it’s like to starve out here in the wilderness. I really wish things went differently, you could’ve just handed us your food and cash and we’d point you to where the nearest city is. You shouldn’t have fought back so dangerously.”

“Shut it,” I said, “I have some important things in there, handing them to you would be impossible.”

“You mean this?” He said, taking out a picture of Nelly from his pocket we had printed when she was getting registered.

“!!!” I was visibly shocked, “Why do you have that?!”

“Because,” he said, “once we nab someone’s luggage, we take what we want from it, and the rest we burn.”

“What? What does this mean?” I asked, looking at the campfire they had made from my passport and other important documents.

“It means,” he continued, “they wanted to burn this picture, but I took it to give it back to you. No clue who she is, but if you’re taking it so far out, then I imagine she’s important to you. Take it.”

As he handed me Nelly’s picture, I started to gently weep as I held it close to my chest. To think this guy had such a soft and understanding heart…

“I… I’m sorry things had to turn out this way,” he turned around to head back to his allies, “c’mon, eat up, the food’s getting cold.”

“Wait!” I stopped to ask him one last question, “What’s your name?”

“…Lee, no last name.” He said quietly, as if ashamed of it.

“Lee! If we ever meet in the future, just know we’ll be allies! I won’t forget what you did for me today…” I said as I wiped away the tears.

And just like that, he went back to the campfire as I ate my dinner and went to lay down again. I couldn’t sleep though, as I was quite well-rested, and the broken ribs didn’t help with that at all…