The Most Dangerous Bandits in the Region
To either side rose a mountain gorge, dizzyingly deep and high. Ahead, a band of twenty to thirty mounted riders barred the way. Fleeing at a carriage's pace meant certain capture—no bandit would let such slow prey slip free. The column reined in its horses and, weapons drawn, warily eyed the enemy.
"Ho there. Bandits, did you say?"
I opened the carriage window and called for my attendant.
"That is correct, Your Highness."
A knight dismounted and came near, though only as near as a distance far from my window, head bowed, unable to meet my eyes as he answered.
"Are bandits all like this? More than twenty of them, and every last one mounted."
"They appear to be the most dangerous bandit gang in this region, Your Highness. They have appeared on the road from the Dragonian Kingdom to the Gloria Empire, and are said to prey upon travelers."
For bandits, they looked remarkably bold. Daring to bar the path of Dragonians—that took no ordinary nerve. They could be nothing but dangerous men.
"The most dangerous bandits in the region, you say. And they would dare block the road before the royal house of Draikna?"
"That is..."
At my question, the knight's voice trailed off. The carriages of our procession bore the crest of the Draikna royal house, plain for anyone to see. That bandits had struck regardless was, from the royal family's standpoint, a humiliation.
"I find myself curious, what manner of men they are."
I decided to look them over myself. I had grown interested in these bandits, after all. Would they flee at the sight of me? Or would they attempt an attack, like the assassin who had slipped into my chamber last time?
I hoped they would not run. I welcomed any chance to speak with someone new.
Step. Step.
I walked toward the front of the column, where the captain of the guard and the bandits stood locked in confrontation. As I drew near, the Dragonians scattered to either side as though shoved apart by an unseen hand. No one could remain standing within three meters of me. This much was an improvement, thanks to the mana-suppression bracelet and cloak I wore—in the old days, they had been too frightened to come within ten.
"Lord Drakan! There is no need for you to come out! We shall handle this ourselves!"
Drakan was my family name. Demesis Kal Reg Drakan. That was my full and proper name. At my stepping forward in person, the captain of the guard went pale and bowed his head low. He wished to spare me the bother.
"It is quite all right. I came out because I was curious."
"Y-yes, Your Highness...!"
Had it been any other day, the knight would have pressed a word or two more to dissuade his lord; instead, he shut his mouth at once. He dared not cross my will. Such was the usual reaction of anyone who dealt with me.
"Oh? A new Dragonian steps out. What are you?"
"I-insolence!"
A bandit astride his horse had asked this, looking me over. His brazen lack of courtesy startled the knight beside me half out of his wits. I silenced him with a glance. I had come out of curiosity about the bandit, after all—the answer would be mine to give.
"So this is what a bandit looks like. I hear you are the most dangerous gang in this region. Tell me—what reason have you to block our road even after seeing the crest of our royal house?" I asked, studying the man.
The bandit flinched at my low, heavy voice—his body jerking before he could stop it—and looked me over with care. He seemed to be wondering just what I was. A grey hood and cloak hid my face; when a Dragonian of perfectly ordinary appearance stepped forward, every Dragonian around gave way to him and bowed in deference.
"Hah. What a pathetic question. Why do you think we blocked your road? To kill every last one of you and take everything you carry, of course. You stupid, arrogant Dragonians—did you think all humans knew nothing but to fear you?"
The Dragonians recoiled, aghast, at the bandit's insolence. They could not so much as imagine me being insulted. Too stunned even to rage at the man, they could only watch me with blank, dumbfounded faces—and somehow, with every passing moment, they drifted another step farther from me.
"Pathetic. Stupid. Arrogant. Those are words I hear for the first time. So you are saying you do not fear me?"
"Would I have come out to rob you if I were afraid? You're the one asking strange questions. Enough talk—get down on the ground and beg, Dragonians. Do that, and maybe I'll let you keep your lives."
"That you do not fear me—it truly gladdens my heart."
I pushed my hood back and let it fall behind my head. I wanted to know whether it was this cloak and bracelet, smothering my aura, that kept him unafraid—or whether he genuinely did not fear me.
The bandit who met my unveiled face head-on choked out a strangled gasp and fell clean off his horse. Fear spread through the bandits like a plague.
"Did you not say, just now, that you were not afraid?"
I walked toward the bandits, one unhurried step at a time. I was doing nothing more than walking. All of me that showed was my face, and the cloak and bracelet should have been smothering my aura. And still they trembled with fear.
A strangled yelp. Shaking limbs. A panicked whinny.
Like the bandit who had met my eyes, some men dropped their reins and tumbled from their saddles; others simply fainted where they sat. The horses at a distance cried out in distress, while the beasts nearest me could not so much as twitch, letting out only thin, feeble moans.
"Do go on. I quite enjoyed our conversation."
"Aaagh!"
I put the question to the leader of the bandits who had mocked me. He lay sprawled on the ground, wriggling like a worm. Gone was any thought of sneering up at me as he had before; unable to answer my question, he could only repeat the wet, choking sounds of a man drowning on dry land.
"Pathetic. Stupid. Arrogant. Words I had never heard before. Your jibes at me were novel as well. Go on—wag that tongue some more."
"Hrk—huuurk—"
The bandit's pained face crumpled further at my words, until at last he began to retch. Clutching his chest, he spat yellowish bile onto the ground. Only then did the rest grasp what they had done, and their faces drained a ghastly white. They dismounted and knelt, heads bowed to the dirt.
"I never told you to vomit."
With telekinesis, I lifted the fallen bandit into the air. After receiving the Dragon Heart, I had spent ten years abed with nothing to do, and so I had learned to wield my mana—even at distances my hands could never reach, I could raise objects by thought alone.
"Urk... uuuurgh..."
The bandit's face was a ruin, tears streaming down it. Hoisted by my power, he was forced to meet my eyes. He was on the very edge of collapse—at this rate, he might die of shock.
"How disappointing. I was truly glad, you know. To answer me so freely, without a shred of fear—I believed you might be different from the rest. But it seems that was only the hood hiding my face at work."
"A c-crime... I have c-committed... a c-crime worthy of d-death...!"
The bandit could not even manage a proper plea for mercy. Terror had swallowed him so whole that he had forgotten language itself. I had raised him up to look upon my face, but his rolling, unhinged eyes would never find their focus in mine.
"Bind every one of these bandits. As for why they saw fit to attack our royal house, we shall question them at our leisure."
"As c-commanded!"
The Dragonians bowed to me, glancing at the bandits who had been subdued in the space of a breath. Not one of them dared resist. Those who had lost the will to fight kept their heads crushed low, and even their swift, fine horses—sensing something beyond all reason—cowered like whipped dogs.
"You, I will not kill. Let us have a conversation."
"Hnnngh..."
There was much I wished to ask the bandit leader. How often this gang had preyed upon Dragonians. What confidence had let them halt even a royal procession. Where their lair lay. I also meant to ask, ever so kindly, whether he might dare speak down to me a second time.
The bandit miserably crumpled his tear-streaked face. Most people fear a private audience with me more than they fear death.
"Your gang has hunted Dragonians many times, it seems. That is how you found the nerve to raise your blades against the royal house itself."
"Yes..."
The bandit who had just endured this exchange of questions and answers with me now wore the face of a man whose screws had come loose. His nerves had given out; his reason had flown away. Time spent beside a being so terrifying had bleached his mind bone-white.
"That a mere bandit gang would hunt Dragonians and bar the path of a royal procession—this troubles me somewhat. I care not what you do otherwise, but were I to let this pass, my kin would go on suffering for it."
Blades pointed at me were no matter. As with the assassin I had spared some time ago, it was nothing more than a diversion. A rat gnawing at you with a toothpick looks only small and pitiable. But if a bandit gang attacked my kin—and my kin were truly coming to harm—then it was no longer a game. As a prince of the kingdom, I was bound to take proper measures.
"You will guide me to your gang's stronghold. From this moment, you will never attack a Dragonian again. You will not ambush travelers in these mountains, and you will answer for all you have done with due punishment."
"Yes. I understand. I understand."
Murmuring in a voice emptied of all strength, the bandit began to lead me toward the gang's hideout. There had been no need to berate him, no need for torture. When I give an order, people generally comply this obligingly. They cannot even harbor the thought of defying me, I suppose.
"Do not think that guiding me will earn you leniency. You will follow the Dragonians into the kingdom and stand a fair trial."
"Thank you. Thank you, truly."
The bandit—who looked as though a private word with me had taken him through hell and back three times over—received every order as a gift.
"Wreckar. We advance on the enemy's stronghold under the bandits' guidance. We have ample time before we must reach the imperial capital, so we will deal with this gang along the way."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
At my order to turn the column, the captain of the guard took up the reins and changed course at once. I intended to sweep them from our path, so that a gang that dared hunt Dragonians would never exist again.
Hoofbeats thundered.
No one disputed my command; no one asked why. We turned toward the bandits' stronghold, leaving a handful of Dragonians behind to escort the captured bandits back to the kingdom.
"From here, I climb alone."
The enemy's lair sat atop a mountain no carriage could ascend. I stepped down from the carriage and spoke to the captain of the guard.
"But Your Highness, they will attack you."
As captain, he worried at the thought of me entering the bandits' lair alone. It was less true fear for my safety than an answer faithful to his duty.
"It is quite all right. I intend to erase this mountain from the earth and show the world what becomes of men who attack Dragonians. Anyone who followed me would only be in danger. Wait here."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Captain of the guard or no, he would never have the courage to refuse me twice. Dragging the bandit guide behind me, I entered the stronghold of the bandits.