"Damn it! What do you mean they're dead?" The burly man slammed his fist on the table.
He was the leader of the bandits who had attacked Colt and the others.
"Bring me the one who planned that raid! Now!"
Two men rushed out of the office like room.
They were inside a mountain. Though no one would call it one.
Its insides had already been dug out to create the bandits' base.
More than 100 bandits from 50 levels to 150+ levels were inside this mountain.
Minutes later, a nervous man with glasses was dragged into the room and forced to his knees.
"You're the one who planned the attack yesterday?"
"S-s-sir, y-yes. It was m-me," he stammered.
"Then explain why my men are dead!"
"I-I swear, I did everything right! We scouted them beforehand, checked their strength. Th-there was no way we could l-lose."
"Then why did we lose!?" the leader roared, making the man shrink back further.
"I don't know, sir! We were winning, b-but then they just… started dying!"
"Useless!" the leader growled. "Get rid of him."
The two men grabbed the trembling planner and dragged him away, his pleas for mercy echoing behind them.
The leader didn't even glance his way.
"Who exactly did we attack?" the leader asked, his voice low.
A lazy chuckle came from the left. "Hehehe, just a bunch of kids."
He turned and saw them—one man, one woman, both with gray hair. They were the strongest members of the group, second only to the leader himself.
Well, the woman was. She stood there with a bastard sword slung over her shoulder like she was already headed for war.
"I should've gone myself," she said, smirking. "I had my eye on one of those noble girls. Would've made a fine little pet."
"Come on, Sis," the man said. "You'd break her in a few days anyway, so don't worry too much about it."
"No way! I'd be a perfect host. I'd make her tea and everything. We could even play house. I'd be the doctor, and she could be the patient."
The leader sighed. Even among bandits, their idea of fun was off. He was just glad he was the strongest here, or he might've ended up the patient himself.
"Enough!" he barked. "I'm not asking about your twisted fantasies. What families were those kids from?
If they made it out alive, they'll run straight to their fathers. We might need to relocate again."
The man with the woman answered. "Springold, Ramgan, and Daceran."
"Shit. We couldn't be in deeper trouble. How the hell did that idiot screw up such a critical job?"
"I don't think it was his fault," the man replied.
"Explain."
"He was your most trusted guy. Never messed up before. And yeah, there's a first time for everything—hehe—but this wasn't that.
I went over his plan. It should've worked. Solid all the way."
The leader narrowed his eyes. "Then what went wrong?"
"The lookouts said the same thing. The nobles didn't have any secret backup. It looked like they just held their ground. Won by sheer valor—both sides did, really."
"Valor, my ass! If my men died because of sheer valor, I should step down from my seat as I—"
Just as the leader was shouting, the door burst open with a deafening crash, splinters flying in every direction.
"Who dares?!" the leader roared.
The man and woman instantly shifted into battle stances, though the man didn't look like he could back his posture up with actual strength.
A white-haired boy with red eyes stood in the doorway.
"Maybe you should step down," he said flatly. "Though, even if you don't want to, there's no one left for you to lead."
The leader squinted. "Boy, are you tired of living? How the hell did you sneak past all my men?" Then he shouted, "Men! On duty!"
But no one answered.
"I told you already," Colt said, voice ice-cold. "There's no bandit group left. I killed them all."
The leader scoffed. "What kind of joke is this? Did you cast a silence spell outside? Is that it? Trying to make me think no one can hear me yelling?
You expect me to believe some brat, barely level 65, wiped out all my men?" His laughter boomed through the room, and the woman cracked a smile.
"Let me be the judge of that," she said, stepping forward. "I wanted to play house with a noble girl, but I guess I can make do with a boy. Maybe I'll play football—with your head."
In a flash, she lunged.
She was level 165. Her speed made her nearly invisible to the untrained eye.
Colt raised his hand and cast three shields in quick succession, layering them in front of himself. But they shattered like glass under the weight of her bastard sword.
He let out a quiet sigh. Even if he somehow beat her, the leader was level 180.
There was no way he could win with level 66 spells alone.
He didn't want to, but he had no choice.
Of course, that came with a punishment.
But the punishment wouldn't fall on him.
No, the punishment was for the people who made him use her hair.
The woman came at him again, swinging down with full force, but this time, Colt raised a single hand and caught her blade in his palm.
No spell. Just raw strength.
The difference in level was too great.
But that wasn't enough.
The ground cracked open beneath them. Ivy surged out from below like snakes, thick and glowing, wrapping around the three bandits and rooting them in place before they could react.
Even the leader, at level 180, couldn't escape it.
"What the hell is this?! How—"
"Shut up!" Colt's voice shook the room. "Do you even realize what you did?"
None of them answered. They were frozen, not just by the ivy, but by fear.
"You made me lose a strand of her hair!" he roared.
The woman was the first to go, dragged beneath the ground by the ivy in an instant.
"You led the attack on her!" he shouted at the leader, and the vines swallowed him too.
Colt turned to the last one. "And you." Colt stopped and thought for a moment. "What exactly do you do here? What's your role?"
"S-sir, please... I'm nobody. I was just here with my sister. That's all. I don't even know the 'her' you mentioned..."
"I didn't ask who you were with. I asked about your job. What do you do here?"
"I l-look after operati—" he didn't finish. The ivy took him, too, dragging him down like the others.
"Your crime was doing whatever that was!"
Silence.
No blood. No mess. Even the floor had returned to normal, without a single trace of what had just happened.
And from that day on, no one ever heard of the biggest bandit group outside Lofpus City again, nor was any crime committed by them.