Bandit Extermination (3)
We entrusted the two bandit thugs to the village chief and returned to the inn for a late dinner. Although we had brought emergency rations, they were mere emergency rations, so we ate the food served at the inn instead.
However, the inn's food didn't quite suit our palates, and in the end, we left most of it untouched.
"Kanisia, Abraham, here are the nutritional supplements."
"Ah, thanks!"
"Thank you, Lord Alan."
"Aquaril, you should eat too."
"Thank you, Master."
After the meal, we each took our fairies to our rooms.
"Um... Master."
"Yes. What is it?"
"But what are we going to do with these snakes?"
Aquaril asked me while chasing after the snakes that had followed us all the way to the room. The strangest part was that even though I hadn't used the snake-controlling flute, the snakes still followed me.
This is strange... I know snakes don't like wandering around like this. It might differ by region, but I thought desert snakes don't move much. Well, never mind.
Anyway, of the three snakes that survived from the flute-wielding bandits, they had chased us from the place where the bandits died all the way to this village, Jert.
No, more precisely, they chased me.
"Hmm... really? What should we do with them?"
"Huh?"
"Chuchu chu chu chu~ Come up here?"
Shush shush shish-
I reached out my hand toward the snakes, and they quickly started climbing up my arm. The way they rubbed their faces against my cheek was like they were flirting.
This... no matter how I think about it, it seems to be because of the Uroboros's Avatar class?
The 10-star monster Uroboros that had turned me into its avatar was a terrifying creature shaped like a snake. In a way, it could be called the god of snakes. Since I was an avatar of that Uroboros, maybe that's why the snakes were following me like this.
But I can't be sure because there's no mention of this in the explanation window?
Well, if it said something like [Increased affinity with reptiles], I'd just shrug it off, but since there was nothing, I couldn't be certain.
But if it's because of the class that the snakes are following me like this...
Wouldn't there be plenty of places I could use them?
Maybe not just snakes, but other snake-type monsters would follow me too. There were many snake monsters in the dungeon where Uroboros was sleeping, ones with horns on their heads or much larger in size than alligators.
If I could command snake-type monsters, I could use them in many places.
I hope so! Snake Master, Gazia!
"Um... Aquaril. Should I give them names?"
"Names, you say?"
"Yeah. They're surprisingly cute, so I want to raise them."
The snakes had plenty of uses. Since they were basically venomous vipers, I could periodically extract their venom, and they could be used for ambushes like the bandits did, catching rats.
Moreover, I wasn't a bad person who would just kick out the ones who were rubbing against me saying they liked me.
"What should I name them?"
Unfortunately, my naming sense wasn't great. Just looking at how my character name was Gi-bung, you can guess my talent, right? Aquaril's naming sense would probably be better than mine.
"Hmm..."
After a moment of thought, Aquaril seemed to have something come to mind and spoke up.
"Snakeil, Snakei, and Snakesam. How about that?"
"....."
Your naming sense is also lacking?
It felt like a perfect pair for a master and fairy with no naming sense.
"Then let's do that."
"Really?!"
When I nodded happily, Aquaril was surprised instead. What? You were the one who suggested it, why are you surprised?
And sadly, I had also thought of naming the snakes Snakeil, Snakei, and Snakesam. Since our thoughts matched perfectly, we decided to name them that way.
"To avoid confusion, the longest one is Snakeil, the next is Snakei, and the smallest one is Snakesam. From now on, those will be their names."
Shueeet...
"Hm?"
Did the snakes just curse? Must have been my imagination.
Thud thud thud-
At that moment, I heard footsteps walking down the corridor outside the door. The wooden floor creaked loudly with every step.
"Hwaaam~!"
Hearing that sound, I let out a big yawn in a loud voice and told Aquaril.
"Whoa, why are you so sleepy? Aquaril, let's go to bed soon."
"Yes, Master."
Thud thud thud- creak-!
As soon as I said that, the person walking outside stopped. The person outside started walking again after we had been lying in bed for about thirty minutes.
Thud thud thud thud thud thud-!
There were many footsteps in the corridor, as if several people were coming up.
*****
"....."
Calo and Hindo, the two surviving bandits, and the village chief's son, Seok-san, who was escorting them to the prison, stopped in front of the prison. Then he turned around and looked at the two bandits.
"S-Sir Seok-san..."
"You stupid bastards!"
Smack-!
"Aaaah!"
"I-I was wrong, Sir! Please forgive me!"
"Stupid bastards! Pathetic bastards!"
Angry Seok-san kept slapping their cheeks, and the two bandits apologized, calling him Sir.
That's right.
Calo and Hindo were actually residents of Jert village. In addition to the two of them, the dead bandits were also residents of the village.
The Snake Bandits and Jert village.
These two groups had a cooperative relationship.
Jert village hadn't joined the Snake Bandits from the beginning. When the Snake Bandits appeared, the village fought against them to protect it.
But as days passed, the power of the Snake Bandits grew, and it became difficult to protect the village. So the villagers sent people to Baidu to ask the bandit extermination force to come and save the village, but no extermination force came.
In the end, with no way out, Jert village chose to ally with the Snake Bandits, and even now, after ten years, the two groups maintained a cooperative relationship.
At first, the villagers didn't like sacrificing innocent people.
However, when the cunning leader of the Snake Bandits, Sal-mu, generously handed over some of the items of the dead masters to the village, the villagers gradually began to sincerely follow the Snake Bandits' affairs.
In the end, they even recruited young villagers into the Snake Bandits to take more wealth.
There were no more people left who had no choice but to ally with the Snake Bandits to survive. They were monsters who had tasted banditry and become bandits themselves.
After beating Calo and Hindo for a while, Seok-san asked them with a rough breath.
"Hoo... hoo... what happened to the others? Did they... all die?"
"I-I'm sorry, Sir Seok-san..."
"Those guys... weren't ordinary! All the vipers Sal-mu-nim gave us died!"
"What?"
Strictly speaking, three vipers had survived, but that wasn't important. What was important was that Alan's group was quite strong.
"You stupid bastards! Wait? Why don't you have a flute? Did they even take the flute?"
"T-That's..."
"You damn bastards!"
"Aaaah! I'm sorry, Sir! I was wrong!"
Seeing Hindo hesitating, Seok-san got even angrier and started beating the two bandit thugs again. After Seok-san calmed down, they continued the conversation.
"B-But what are you going to do with those guys?"
No matter how much they cooperated with the Snake Bandits, master hunts didn't always succeed. There had been cases before where, like today, the bandits or village people had been caught.
But the cunning rabbits had prepared for such cases, as the saying goes about digging three holes for a rabbit.
Exactly the inn in the village.
There was only one inn in Jert village, so the masters who received the bandit extermination request always stayed there.
They mixed a powerful sleeping drug from the Snake Bandits into the food the masters ate, and when they fell asleep, they took their lives and stole their wealth.
They planned to handle Alan's group in the same way they had always done.
"What are you going to do? We'll just handle it the usual way."
"....."
Calo's face darkened at Seok-san's answer. It was because something felt ominous.
Other people who had killed their friends were scary, but the scariest of all was Alan who had blackmailed him. That guy was different from the party members in some way. He was human, but the feeling was strong that he wasn't quite human.
Especially those eyes that had flashed with killing intent... they were eyes that could give nightmares. Even if it was a misunderstanding, he felt like his pupils had split vertically for a moment.
"Damn. It's going to be noisy for a while because of the elders."
Seok-san muttered as if it made him angry just thinking about it.
"Anyway, since I don't want to see your faces, stay locked up here."
"S-Sir! Aaaah!"
"I'm sorry! Please let us out, Sir!"
"Shut up, you damn bastards!"
Seok-san, who had put his younger siblings in the prison after they begged to be released, turned his body around. Then he entered his house, gathered his weapons, and headed to the inn where the target was sleeping.
Even at this point, Seok-san didn't know. In another sense, the village was going to become noisy.
*****
Klick- klick- tick-!
The locked door opened, and someone entering inside was felt. The presence of people entering without permission was not just one or two.
Oh gods, I hoped it wouldn't be the case.
Feeling the presence, I smiled inwardly and muttered.
As expected, Jert village was also allied with the Snake Bandits.
The place where the bandits had set a trap and were waiting for us was clearly the path we had come. We had stuck sticks in the middle to not lose the way back to the village.
They didn't see people walking around? That doesn't make sense?
We searched around with eyes on fire to find the Snake Bandits. It didn't make sense that we couldn't see people.
From there, suspicion began, and the words the bandits had spat out in the middle amplified my doubts.
Just in case, I told the party members that the entire village might be a trap, so we should eat as little of the inn food as possible. Of course, we had our emergency rations, so we didn't have to eat at all, but to make the village guys complacent, we ate a little of the food the inn served.
And my suspicion was confirmed by the guys who just came in.
"Hup!"
The guy who came near the bed let out a big gasp. Hearing that as a signal, I opened my eyes that had been closed.
"Waaah?! Y-You woke up?!"
"Kill him quickly!"
The guy who met my eyes panicked. He hurriedly swung his sword.
Clang-!
"Uwaaaak! Kk?"
"What? Where did the sword come from?!"
But I took out a sword from my inventory and blocked the attack. Not only did I block it, but I pushed the guy away with all my might. Then the guy who floated and was slammed into the wall, a normal person couldn't withstand my strength stat that exceeded 60 points.
"Bite!"
Shush shush-!
I got up from my seat and shouted.
"Aaaaaah!"
"W-What's this?! Aaaaaah! My leg!"
Then, from behind the village people, no, the bandit thugs, screams were heard. Snakeil, Snakei, and Snakesam, who had been coiled up near the entrance, bit their ankles.
"Aquaril!"
"Yes, Master!"
"Aaaaaah! Save me!"
Aquaril, who had been lying next to me with a sword beside her, jumped forward and started slicing the bandits. Then the bandit thugs whose bodies were being sliced with a crunch, crunch, crunch, it was too easy.
"Uwaaaaaah! It's a trap!"
And the situation was the same in Kanisia's room across from us. Since Kanisia and Abraham's weapons were hard to swing in the room, the two of them beat the bandits to death.
"Damn! Why are these guys awake! Damn, light the fire first!"
"Ooh! You're going to use fire magic?"
In addition to the guys who entered the room, there were also bandit thugs outside the inn. Feeling that something had gone wrong from the screams coming from inside, they tried to set the inn on fire.
"Captain's landing!"
Clang-!
I took out a shield from my inventory like Captain escaping from the elevator trapped in the Hydra trap, broke the window, and jumped outside.