Duke looked at the Bandits in eerie silence, much like how he looked at Darius.
The Bandits mistook Duke's silence and thought he was hesitating in giving them punishment.
Stank saw Duke and thought to himself [This fatass' hesitating, he must be one of them altruistic Nobles, kehehe I can use this dumbass to escape...]
"Oh, kind sir! I was only forced into banditry by these dirty bandits!" Stank spoke in an uncharacteristically clean manner, unlike how he normally spoke.
"If you're gonna execute anybody, execute him! He's the one who forced us to steal and rob from others!" Stank disgustingly pointed at Waxer, dumping all the blame onto the Bandit Leader.
"Y-Yeah! He's the one that forced us to do this!" Another Bandit chimed in.
"Yeah! Kill him, not us!" And another.
Waxer looked on filled with indignant anger, but he did not talk, stoically facing the punishment that awaited him.
"You traitors!" A slightly older and rugged Bandit beside Waxer blurted out.
"You were the ones suckin' up to the Boss, telling him to do this do that... And now your saints all of a sudden?!" The rugged Bandit added.
"Hmm, puahaha!" Waxer who had been silent all this time suddenly blurted out a laugh. But while he was laughing he was suddenly kicked by Rudon, though the kick was quite ineffective due to Waxer's strong build.
"What do you think you're laughing at?!" Rudon angrily shouted, unable to take the fact that the person who took his daughter from him was still here and even laughing.
"Heh, it's nothing... I never thought it would be Monty who'd speak up for me in the end..." Waxer sighed.
"Waxer..." Monty the rugged Bandit who stood up for Waxer looked at him, then shook his head. [I told you we should've stopped while we were still ahead, but you never listened...] The old bandit thought while regretting the unchangeable past.
Waxer suddenly bowed to Duke and said word for word: "I'll gladly accept my execution, but please hear my last request. Spare these twelve including the old man, but execute those treacherous bastards along with me. Those eleven boys including that old man just stole what they needed to survive, but the rest kill, pillage, are rape for the heck of it. They are dumb and lazy bastards who just wanna eat then hurt others for their amusement... And I, the one who enabled them..."
Waxer paused for a while, staring deep into Duke's eyes, firm with resolution.
Duke, who was still eerily silent, trembled for a bit. In truth, he too was extremely angry at the lazy and dirty looking Bandits, he even agreed with Rudon's suggestion. But when he stared into Waxer's eyes, Duke realized his resolve was lacking when compared to Waxer's.
"D-Don't listen to him, your lordship! He's a liar!" Stank stuttered in fear when he heard Waxer's words.
"Execute? Relax, no one's going to get executed..." Duke calmed the tense atmosphere as he gave the Bandits a strange smile only the Knights realized was quite peculiar. The Bandits behind Stank didn't notice the strangeness in Duke's expression as they rejoiced that they weren't going to get killed yet.
"I'll let you guys go, but you must promise me that you will stop your evil ways" Duke reiterated.
"Yes yes! We promise! We promise!" Stank despicably bowed up and down pretending to be respectful while in his mind he thought [Let us go? Just like that?! Hahaha, I have never seen a Noble more stupid and gullible that this fatass!]
"Let us go?! Just like that?! You actually think we'll stop just because we "Promised" you?! Are you an idiot?! We'll just go back to the way things were if you let us go! We'll go back to raiding Villages, stealing, looting... destroying..." Waxer blurted out, revealing his honest disposition. Maybe some good left in him felt bad for tricking the gullible Count, or maybe it was because the absurdity in Duke's words made him doubt that he was being let go just like that, even Waxer himself probably didn't know why he being so honest with Duke.
"Don't listen to him, your lordship! I swear on my word that I'll change for the better!" Stank begged.
"Yeah, we'll change, we'll change" The Bandits behind Stank soon chimed in promising Duke of their change of heart, but ridiculing and laughing at him inside their minds.
"But what Waxer said was indeed true. If you go, won't you have no way to make an honest living for yourselves? If you guys want, you can work for me. Honest and hard labor, Maine's undergoing a lot of changes lately, and we need good laborers. The pay will be low and the work hard, but it's honest work, and maybe if you work long enough maybe one day you can pay for your sins"
The 12 Bandits on Waxer's camp looked at Duke as if he was a savior, while Stank's group of Bandits started sweating, thinking they would be forced by Duke to work as slaves.
Seeing this Duke sighed and cleared up the misunderstanding.
"Don't worry, I won't force you. It's up to you if you wish to stay or not... Release the ropes!" Duke ordered as the Knights untied the Bandits one by one.
"Now choose... Stay and work to pay for your past crimes, or go. Duke gave the Bandits an ultimatum.
"Were free to go? Just like that?" Stank asked again.
"Yup, go" Duke answered.
Right after Duke clarified they were being set free, Stank and most of the Bandits there ran away, just as Duke expected, but surprisingly a few Bandits actually stayed.
Monty, the rugged Bandit, eleven young Bandits who looked like they had only newly joined into Banditry, probably out of necessity, and finally... Waxer, the Bald and Scarred Bandit Boss who looked as if he could snap a wee baby in two and not feel an ounce of empathy actually stayed...
Duke's face suddenly contorted as he asked "Why did you stay?" Duke's voice was low and visibly angry as he confronted Waxer.
"What? Can't I stay and work an honest living?" Waxer retorted honestly even as he noticed Duke's hostility.
[STUPID! STUPID! KUAHAHA, what a Dumb fucking idiot! Hahaha, whatever, at least I'm free! Kehehe] Stank thought while laughing out loud.
"What are we going to do now?" A Bandit beside Stank asked.
"Yeah, we're not seriously going to do what that dumb Count said right? I mean working the fields is too tirin'..." Another Bandit beside them butted in.
"Of course you dumb idiots! We'll raid the next small village after Kath! With me as the new Boss! No more stupid Waxer telling us what not to do! Why work hard for food when you can just steal from your neighbor's, right? Kekeke" Stank laughed as he ran along beside the other Bandits.
"Oh I hope they have some pretty girls in the next Village, and some dumb old people to torture" Stank added.
"Yeah, it's the old people that let out the best cries, them, and them stupid lil' kids. I hope there are lots of them in the next Village we can play with" A Bandit next to Stank continued his despicable line of thought.
As what Waxer said, Stank's group of Bandits liked to cruelly hurt and torture people from the Villages. And true to his prediction, they didn't change one bit when they were released by Duke.
The Bandits gleefully jumped up and down as they thought of their next victims, but before they could even get out of the forest, shots of arrows were suddenly shot one by one... Killing some of the running Bandits.
Then, after reaching the forest's entrance, tired and wounded, the remaining Bandits met Duke and his Knights on horseback.
"M-Milord?! What are you doing here?" Stank pretended to be respectful in front of Duke.
"Hm? To execute you of course" Duke's peculiar smile returned. The Knights finally realized what type of smile Duke made earlier...
It was a smile of cruelty.
"E-Execute??? I thought you promised we would be set free??? Wh-"
"Why?" Duke cut off Stank.
"Isn't it the best form of entertainment when you give someone hope, only to cut it off when they think they've finally won?" Duke copied the words of the dying merchant he met on the way to the Bandit's camp.
"Sounds familiar?" Duke mockingly asked.
Stank's face froze from hearing Duke's words.
"You see, as we were about to besiege you guys, we were suddenly stopped by a bleeding merchant crawling on the floor... He had gruesome wounds, pitifully scattered throughout his body. But he was surprisingly still alive... Before he died he tenaciously told us everything you guys did, especially you. And now I'll do to you guys what you did to him" Duke said with cold eyes completely out of place from the warm looking smile he was giving them.
This was the reason, Duke's smile unnerved the Knights so much, why it was so peculiar to them and why it rubbed them the wrong way.
It was because Duke wasn't really happy behind that smile...
He was angry.
"The merchant told me one of you left him some water before leaving him to die. And so I didn't want to pointlessly kill all of you. That's why I gave you a chance to do honest work and turn your lives around, but instead, you chose to run away from responsibility. Instead of hard work you steal and pillage from others who work hard every day to toil the rocky fields...
So now... face your punishment"