After dealing with the lanky man the day before we happened upon some bad luck. The camp was empty, not a single soul remained after merely one of their leaders perished.

I felt pity for them, but that pity was pretty easily crushed when we decided to acquaint ourselves with the other leaders. The Empire has nearly never had a shortage of resources. There is always an abundance of resources that have allowed the people to survive through all manner of terrible tax ideas.

These bandits sought an opportunity, and as such they were currently receiving punishment… well the ones still alive anyway. I didn’t actually get to do anything because Mark went apeshit the moment, he saw them wearing gold.

The smarts of the group was actually really smart. They made the bandits dress like paupers and have them hide the truly valuable stuff away from their camps. They would hide it at designated points that the main camp would collect from.

I knew all this because I was currently reading their records while Mr Cedar dolled up the corpses for display. It wasn’t a sight I particularly wanted to see so I decided to get the fuck away from the maniac. There was nothing illegal about it and displaying dismembered criminals was actually encouraged, but… actually I have no idea why I preferred not to see it done to humans.

I have made plenty of animals look far worse to get what I wanted from them. It was probably the fact that I had to deal with humans every day. depending on the animal I might not see it for weeks or even years. I was sure there was another reason, but thinking about it just made me feel like shit.

The records mentioned where the gold was held, but it was all collected already. Even from the destroyed camps the remaining ones had come over to clean up after we were done with them. it made things easier for us in multiple ways. Their greed had become their undoing. They would each get a share equivalent to the amount they helped collect. The reduction in members to pay out to seemed great… that was until they stopped being able to collect that much due to their lack of numbers.

It seemed like a really great way to earn money at the expense of others. That would have been the case if I didn’t do the math. If my calculations were correct, (they probably weren’t) then the bandits would have earned more by joining a mercenary guild with all their members. Maybe that smart guy wasn’t that smart.

I picked up another bunch of parchment and wooden planks. I had mainly been reading what was written on the parchment as it seemed the most interesting, but I decided to at least see what was on the planks.

…

That wasn’t nice

I picked up all the planks I found and hiffed them in a pile. The planks paired with the records made me realise two things. The first was that humans are gullible, very gullible, especially so in a crisis. The second was that that so called smart guy was the worst scum I could possibly even imagine. I would go so far as to say he is worse than mother.

My mind was filled with three thoughts after that. 1. It is getting harder and harder to tell if I regret killing or not. They did evil for evil intent and their stupidity is kind of their own fault. Then again killing didn’t feel that great… anyway 2. What was I thinking about again?

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I swear I had a few things on my mind. Nope, apparently not. Turns out if I am thinking about too much stuff and I try to organise those thoughts the others just disappear. Kind of convenient actually, well until it isn’t of course.

I kept talking to myself possibly out of boredom and some mild mania. This continued until Mark tapped me on the shoulder.

“You, okay?”

“Oh, yeah, why?”

“You were smiling…”

“Oh, my thoughts kind of drifted, wait I was smiling?”

“Evil smile.”

“That makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t, you scared the shit out of the tree… well the opposite actually, I think he is too scared to shit.”

“Why do you call him such weird names?”

“I don’t know his first name and I ain’t not calling the guy younger than me Mr.”

“You don’t know his first name?”

“Nope, you?”

“Ye… actually no.”

“OI, TREE!”

I put my head into my palms at Marks shout and I dug it in deeper when Mr Cedar shouted back.

“YEAH!”

“What’s your name?”

“WHAT?”

I could hear the air move and slap my back as Mark moved his hands in some sort of dance. I chuckled a little to myself as I remembered how dumb I must have looked when I tried to explain things to Mr Hildegard.

After my chuckle I heard a grunt from Mark, and it felt like his movements relaxed.

Soon Mr Cedar came up to us.

“What was it?”

“nothin”

“It wasn’t nothing, you shouted at me then summoned me with whatever that was.”

“Whatever what was?”

“You know, that thing you did.”

Mr Cedar tried to imitate Mark’s movements, and I just sighed at their lacking braincells.

“Oh yeah, what’s your name?”

“Seriously?”

“…”

Mr Cedar turned his eyes to me, and I just shrugged.

“Come on!”

“Hey, I was a little kid back then, why would I know your first name?”

“Fair, but still!”

Mark put his hands on his shoulders and rocked his head to either side.

“Just tell us already.”

“Fine, it’s Mathew.”

“Really?”

“what’s wrong with Mathew?”

“I don’t know, I always thought you would have a more southern name.”

“I in fact, did not come from that frozen hellscape. If I did, I would not be so weak that a baron could afford me.”

“Some of the weaker folk that come out of there are about the same level as you. Though I suppose they probably got lucky.”

For once I didn’t require them to elaborate. Mathew was a common name in the centre of the empire… at least according to that one book I read several years ago. I remembered that book because I didn’t memorize it in time and training that week wasn’t pleasant in the slightest.

The old men seemed to be having a nice conversation for once, but I wanted to get out of here now.

“so, what do we do with the money?”

“Donate it to the merchant guild.”

Mark said it but Mr Cedar didn’t have any objection. Instead of asking I just looked Mark in the eyes… of his mask.

“it’s better that the merchant guild keeps sending supplies our way. If they get offended the barony is going to become the vassal of not only the emperor but the king of the south.”

“Why do you say that?”

“They need manpower, always and desperately so. they pay off nobles’ debt and in return they send people to fight the demons.”

“is the emperor okay with this?”

“it’s better that the debtors supply the north than the imperial treasury have to bail them out in hopes of a return… oh shit, how far in debt are we?”

“I have no idea, but it’s nice to see that mother assigned an errand that actually benefits me for once.”

Mr Cedar seemed desperate to change the topic, and he shouted.

“NICE OPTIMISM!”

The thumbs up was a nice touch, but the result was me and mark just staring at him. with a sigh he seemed to accept our apathy, and he relented.

“Okay, let’s just go now.”