* * *
I peek at my base, the Great Tree of Kaliva, from within the bushes. There are three dirty-looking men present. They’ve carelessly lit a fire on the makeshift stove I made from stones, and meat is being grilled.
Meat… meat! It’s different from the rat meat I usually eat! It’s big, fatty, and smells delicious, that meat…! The fragrant aroma drifts over here. Ah! My enhanced sense of smell is now a curse! It looks so delicious, I want to eat it…! I want to inhale all the smoke drifting over here…!
<Emi! I strongly agree with that feeling, but now is the time to focus on those men!>
Right… you’re right, Extra-sama! Who exactly are those guys?
Ragged clothes and some sort of makeshift leather armor… is that what it’s called? They’re all wearing something like that, and they all have bad faces. They’re dirtier than the drunken trash men from that trash village. Not that a vagrant like me should talk. They’re carrying menacing large axes. If they were to swing those thick arms at me, I surely wouldn’t stand a chance.
…Could those people be what you call “adventurers”? I wonder if they would share some meat if I asked them (wishful thinking)?
<No, they clearly look like thieves. If you naively approach them, they won’t share their meat with you. Instead, your meat might be what’s getting shared (harsh reality).>
…Right! But why would thieves suddenly show up here…?
<Let’s observe the situation a bit longer.>
* * *
“Ah! Damn it all!!”
The largest man among the three, with a bushy beard, Megzam, the head of the thieves, gulps down his drink and smashes his cup onto the ground.
“Seriously! What’s with that red-haired bratty kid!?”
The man with a long face, Megzam’s underling number one, Ander, rubs his hands together, eagerly echoing Megzam.
“Right?! We never heard about any monster-strong kid being in that village!”
The man with a square face, Megzam’s underling number two, Tappa, tries to join in on the conversation.
“Ah!?”
However, that touched Megzam’s raw nerve. Megzam punches Tappa right in the face, yelling.
“Tappa, you bastard! Are you saying my preparation was lacking, huh!? Ah!!?”
Among the three in this band of thieves, none are particularly bright, but Megzam is the smartest. Thus, he plans and leads their looting raids. The recent job… planning the raid on Fenoben Village to steal crops, valuables, and the like, was also Megzam’s idea.
“You guys! You’re so stupid, hopelessly stupid, and weak, yet all you do is complain, huh!? Ah!!? Want to die!? You asking to be killed!!?”
“No, I mean… sorry! Boss, I’m sorry! Plea… please forgive me!!”
Megzam relentlessly stomps on Tappa, who was knocked to the ground, inflicting pain. Tappa has no choice but to apologize while bleeding from the nose.
“…Tch. Hey Ander! Don’t just stand there, come over here…”
“Yes, yes…”
Unable to calm his irritation, Megzam also punches the approaching Ander in the face. It’s terrible tyranny.
“Ah…”
Ander groans in agony. Unlike Tappa, he’s a more capable man, so he manages to deflect some of the impact to reduce the damage, but it still hurts.
“Hey, Ander, Tappa, what are we?”
“We are ‘The Mad Dogs of Yabonove’! The Megzam Thieves Band!!”
The two underlings shout in unison.
“That’s right!! And these ‘Mad Dogs’ got beaten up by such a brat and ran away!! How pathetic is that!?”
“Yes! Pathetic!!!”
“What did you say!?”
“GYAAA!!!”
Megzam once again unleashes unreasonable violence on his two underlings. In their world, might is everything. Since Megzam is the strongest among them, he is allowed to do whatever he wants.
He has always been allowed.
Megzam was strong. He also had the wisdom, or rather, the nose, to not pick fights with those stronger than himself, distinguishing the strong from the weak.
At least, the two underlings had never seen Megzam lose a fight. That’s why they followed him all the way here, across several mountains, from the distant “thieves’ nation of Yabonove.”
But Megzam lost.
They were supposed to kill villagers randomly and loot. They planned to take a girl with blue hair hostage and force the villagers to bring them valuables. However, that proved to be a mistake.
“…Don’t, harm Caro!!”
Suddenly, a boy with red hair appeared, shouting as he kicked Megzam to save the girl!
Megzam was so shocked that he was blown about three meters away. Enraged, he, along with his two underlings, attacked the boy with red hair.
…The result was a complete defeat.
The boy with red hair faced off against Megzam and his men, who were armed with large axes, with just a wooden sword. Just a wooden sword!! Yet, Megzam and his men couldn’t beat him. They couldn’t land even a single blow on the boy. In fact, the boy was clearly holding back. In a perfectly healthy state, Megzam and his men were driven out of the village.
They hid near the village in the forest and, conveniently finding someone’s campsite, they took it over to rest.
(This is not good.)
That’s what Megzam thought.
Megzam was a violent man who could only interact with others through violence. Violence was the lubricant for his human relationships and a means to dominate his two underlings. Even these idiots had their uses.
He couldn’t afford to let them be disillusioned with his weakness and run away.
Megzam was anxious.
Therefore, the action Megzam took to keep the two tied to his band of thieves was the unreasonable violence towards them. He had to reassert his strength to them. He had to show his dignity as their leader. This was the violent communication that Megzam had cultivated throughout his life as a thief.
“…Anyway,”
After unleashing violence and calming down a bit, Megzam spoke to the two underlings trembling on the ground.
“We can’t just let that brat get away with it. Right?”
“Yes… yes…!”
“We won’t forgive that kid. We can’t end this being looked down upon. It’s revenge. We’ll kill all the villagers. We’ll mutilate that kid, and in front of him, we’ll rape the girl with the blue hair.”
“Yes!!!”
Megzam and his men had decided on their diabolical course of action.
…That’s when it happened!!
“MYOGO!! MYOGOMYOGOMYOGO!! SHUGOOOOOOO!!!”
A large number of Myogomyogoshugos started screaming all at once from the bushes behind Megzam and his lackeys.