"How does this look…. Rana grandma!?" Jue exclaimed as soon as he entered the room wearing his new clothes, the sand-colored shirt and deep blue pants on the back of which there were straps to put his knuckles on the backside at the belt level,
Ryu and Jue's eyes match and Ryu gave a thumbs up.
"You are looking very cool, Jue! Rana is here for some important work," the Village chief said as he praised Jue,
"We will change too," Ryu said, and Aiena nodded,
"Just hurry up!!" Rana complained,
Ryu went to Jue's room to change clothes and Hina took Aiena to her and Geld's room. Both of them came back after 5 mins of changing,
"How am I looking?" Ryu asked grandpa chief,
"How about me? Isn't this skirt... I'll buy knee-high socks!!" Aiena said,
'I vote for knee-high socks!! This is one of the simplest desires of an otaku!!' grinned Ryu,
Ryu stood in front as he put his hand on the white dagger in the dagger holder posing, and Aiena to stood at his side also posed as she had both arms in front of her chest joined looking very definition of a saintess.
"You both are looking very nice… right Rana?" the village chief remarked.
"Aiena is looking beautiful almost a saintess and Ryu is looking handsome, although Ryu you should put your collars down, the enemy will pull your collar if they are up like that and also the cloth seems to be tear-resistant so it won't even tear easily if it gets stuck somewhere," Rana said with an appraising manner,
Ryu was happy that Rana honestly praised them as she rarely showed her dere/loving side, and the Village chief said as he put his finger on his chin,
"Something is missing…" and looked towards Jue.
Jue quickly stood up, wearing his knuckles, and stood on another side of Ryu, and did a boxing pose with a proud smile.
"Now it is perfect!!... right Rana?" the village chief asked Rana, but no answer came.
Everyone looked toward Rana, her face down. If it was an anime a sign of anger would appear on her head, Ryu sensed it.
'She is going to shout!!' Aiena titled her head, and Jue thought she was overwhelmed due to their pose and spoke,
"Rana grandma become speechless due to our looks!!"
'He did it!!' Ryu thought as Jue pulled the last straw and Rana shouted,
"Stop these stupid poses, you brats!! Or I will make you speechless!?" Ryu saluted suddenly,
"Yes, mam!! Instruction clear we will leave at once" hearing such an unusual reply Rana got confused,
"Escape!!" Ryu said in a low but clear voice, and he with Jue and Aiena escaped from the room,
'Ahh peace… if we were there we would've been getting scolded till now!!' thought Ryu,
"Jue, go buy a rope! Aiena go buy a dagge… Where did you get that dagger from!?" asked Ryu, shocked, as he saw a violet color dagger in her hand. It seemed to be made out of a toxic croc poison tooth,
"This is one of my treasures… where I got it from is secret," Aiena answered as she carefully put the dagger in the pocket of her one-piece,
'Strange… did she buy it or something?' Ryu thought and decided it wouldn't be strange for her to have it as she is working as an adventurer all this while.
"Jue, we will meet at the entrance of the forest," and Jue nodded.
Ryu and Aiena went towards the forest and planned what they will do to the bandits,
"So according to miss Rana, they caught his nephew near the entrance of the Zerah forest path…"
"Ryu, I don't remember anyone mentioning bandits nearby?" Aiena said, as she was adventuring a bit every once in a while, with troubled adventurers, she found it strange no one complained about bandits.
"We shall bring them back alive, so grandpa chief can interrogate them"
Aiena looked at Ryu with a pale expression as she thought,
'We shall…?' and asked,
"Wasn't it already a plan to bring them back alive?"
"Aiena… if possible, we can bring them all back alive… but if a fight broke out, someone can die. It is obvious while fighting with bandits death is not a rarity and if one needs to murder, one of the bandits to protect one of themselves isn't it an obvious choice,"
Hearing this, Aiena came to know how naïve she was.
'Adventures are not just about healing and killing the monsters… killing humans?' this was something she never considered as an option or thought Ryu will kill a human,
'How will I face Ryu if he killed another person,' she fell into thoughts.
'She is thinking about that,' thought Ryu.
'Well, sooner or later she had to know I am ready to kill humans… better to have time for mental preparation' he sighed as he thought this, giving Aiena space and planning internally how to deal with Rana's nephew,
If Jack was first on the list of people Ryu finds more irritating than anything, then Rana's nephew was the second.
'Hope that prideful bastard doesn't demand a showdown this time again!!' during their first meeting as a child when Ryu visited Pleura town with the Village chief, Rana's nephew was visiting too, and when Ryu was being praised by Rana, he challenged him to a dual in swords to see who is powerful,
Of course, he lost and cried, but it left a bad taste in Ryu's mouth as he would not stop blaming him for cheating with magic.
'Just thinking about him gives me headaches!!' Ryu sighed and felt his energy decrease just by thinking about him.
"Big brother, I brought the rope!!" Jue said as he come rushing towards them carrying a rope that looked very long,
"Jue, didn't I ask for multiple ropes for tying their hands and legs? Why did you bring a single and at that, this big rope?" Ryu asked,
And Jue scratched the back of his head as he spoke.
"Big brother, I thought that we could line the bandits in a straight line and tie only their hands from the same rope and make them walk behind us so it will save time!!"
As Ryu heard Jue's explanation, he once again felt,
'This brat is getting smarter… is it confirmed that level-up boost doesn't raise intelligence!?' and patted Jue's head as he said,
"You did well. Leaving them tied had chances of them running and we can't hold all of them just tying their hands separately. Have chances of them running away,"
'It is too late to confess. that I forgot which shop they sell rope at and just borrowed one from adventurer's guild… either way big brother praised me, so it is okay right,' Jue thought with an internal conflict as they started making their way through the forest,
When they reached the end of the forest, Ryu spoke.
"These bandits look like newbies? See how they lit up the campfire before sunset?" Jue pointed at the smoke in the sky.
They moved towards the place where the smoke come from, and surprisingly, the bandits had set up their camp at a distance of 30 minutes from the path on foot.
'Did they not attend their bandit classes!?' chuckled Ryu as how it was turning out to be easier to find them than he thought.
Slowly they moved through thought the trees towards where the campfire was lit and saw the bandits laying in the middle of the plains not hidden by anything surrounded by carriages.
'Are these bandits sick in the head!?' Ryu thought as he couldn't believe as naivety have its limit,
'The bandits don't hide in Grandpa chief stories like this!?' Aiena thought, they were hidden by the trees at the edge of the forest so bandits couldn't see them as they drink and partied there were people tied to the tires of carriage,
Suddenly, one of the bandits pointed right towards them,
"Is there someone there!!" he shouted as he felt his [Stare detection] skill giving him the signal,
Ryu believes it isn't the time to attack and already scanning the bandits, he is the only one with [stare detection] and all of them were around the level of 15 to 20,
'With a surprise attack, they would be done in 5 minutes,' Ryu thought and signaled Jue, who was behind another tree with a hand gesture,
Finger-pointing towards the back, then moved it forward which Ryu meant.
'First, we go back and then we attacked' but what Jue thought was,
'Take a step back and jump on them, got it!!' both he and Ryu looked at each other with understanding eyes, and Aiena, who didn't get what they did, just held hands with Ryu,
As soon as they nodded Ryu started running back using [Quickening] when Aiena shouted,
"Jue went ahead!! Jue went ahead!!" and Ryu turned his head back confused and shouted,
"You idiotic brat!! if you didn't get the meaning of the signal at least confirm!?" and rushed back towards their camp. their surprised attack somehow worked,
The drunk bandits didn't put too much fight as they were being punched one after another by Jue while the swords they slashed were easy to dodge for Jue who was trained by Geld common bandits are too slow,
Ryu protected Jue's back from a distance by throwing daggers at the bandit's feet as he rushed toward them, [Quickening] effect wore off.
"You don't know our boss. He is stronger than everyone in nearby towns. You brats are going to die!!" a bandit shouted,
"Boss!! We are under attack!!" the bandits began shouting and from a carriage came out a 7 feet tall man with a big scar on his right eye and shouted,
"Who the hell are you!? To spoil my sleep!?" he roared at them,
"We are common passerby… the heck do you think we are you fool!?" Ryu roared back in a voice louder than the giant bandit,
'He seemed really confident… let's scan him really quick…. Title [The buds plucking deviant]!? Is he a gardener or something?' Ryu thought as he read the details of the title,
"What happened, kid, scared of me?" the giant bandit laughed,
-To be continued