I looked at the leader, waiting for him to do the right thing.
He slowly lowered his gun.
"Very good," I nodded. "Now, tell everyone else to drop theirs, too."
After a moment of silence, I heard the clattering sound of the rifles hitting the ground.
I sighed again.
So much for being curious about Ravus' call.
"Okay, so we're cool now, yeah? No hard feelings, okay? Let's just call it quits, okay?"
The bandit leader hesitated for a second before nodding.
Then he pointed at the blank space on his face where his mouth used to be.
"Oh, I totally forgot you were meant to have one of those!" I laughed.
I snapped my fingers, creating a black sphere, which I threw into his open wound. It instantly began healing him. The flesh around his mouth opened up as though nothing happened, while his scarlet eyes glowed with an inner light.
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"My... my mouth, it's finally back!" He gasped in disbelief.
Wyn walked over and punched him in the gut, causing him to double over in pain.
"Don't fuck with me, asshole," she snarled. "Just because you got lucky doesn't mean I'll forgive you."
"Y-yeah..." he replied, coughing up some blood. "Ow! Ow! That fucking hurt!"
She grabbed his hair and pulled it violently to the side, eliciting a scream from the poor guy.
"Ugh, that really hurts," he whimpered. "Please forgive me!"
She let go of him, letting him fall on his knees. Then she turned her head toward me, smiling.
"Good work, beloved." She winked. "You did it. Now all we need to do is kill them all. I know I could have done it easily without your help, but it would have been too boring otherwise, yes?"
The other four, assisting their leader, backed away nervously.
I chuckled.
"Please spare us; we were only following orders!" one of them pleaded.
"Fuck off," Wyn spat. "We're not going to give you a choice in the matter."
We?
I haven't had a say in this, yet Wyn suddenly felt the urge to silence them.
Ah!
It must be because they witnessed what I was capable of doing.
"Wyn, it's not like anyone would believe them anyway," I said.
"That may be true," she replied, "but they were trying to ruin my hunt for fun. They deserve death for that."
"I had told you to get some rest today, didn't I?" I asked. "What if they'd gotten in the way of our plans?"
She shook her head.
"No, they deserved it. And besides, I can take care of myself."
I smiled.
"But if you kill us, won't that cause even more trouble?!" Another reasoned.
Wyn smiled.
"If you die, then there will be no witnesses, yes? "So long as nobody knows who the real culprits are, no one can come after us for revenge."
Wham!
With a knock on Wyn's head, I silenced her.
"Owww!"
"You not being captured is enough reason to be labeled the culprit," I continued. "Could you also try to keep some of your thoughts to yourself?"
"Fine," she agreed.
"What do you stand to get from this aside from the money?"
"Five-star review from our esteemed client! The bigger the client, the bigger the fee we can demand." The bandit leader exclaimed proudly.
"Who's the client?" I asked the leader.
He frowned.
"Why does that matter? The order was to capture the pretty lady, not to ask questions."
"Well, I guess that's fair," I said, then signaled for Wyn to step forward. "It's unfortunate that the pretty lady would be leading the questioning."
"Wait!" he called out desperately. "I know a name!"
"Is it worth dying for?" I asked with a grin.
His eyes widened in fear.
"No, please don't kill us!"
"Then spill it already."
He hesitated.
"It's... it's the royal advisor by the name of Lord Kael."
I looked at Wyn.
"Do you think he's lying? Or that the royal household has a role in all of this?"
She shrugged.
"Maybe. But he has no proof either way. If you want to save yourselves, tell us why you were hired to capture me."
They all nodded quickly.
The leader reached into his pocket and pulled out a small card with a symbol embossed on it. He held it out to me. It wasn't exactly the most high-tech method of identification, but it was better than nothing.
"This is a message from Lord Kael himself, giving us permission to capture Lady Wyn," he explained. "All you have to do is touch it, and it will activate. You should see an image of the person's face, along with a list of things."
I took it from him and looked at it closely.
"Yeah, I'm sure this is legit. Who would have thought the King's trusted advisor has extreme tastes in some feisty goods?" I said it sarcastically.
Wyn sighed.
"I suppose there is no harm in trusting this man."
She handed the card back to him, allowing him to put it away again.
"So how did you find me?" she asked.
The two bandits exchanged nervous glances before the lead one spoke up again.
"It isn't that difficult to track down someone in the entertainment industry. There aren't many places where you could go unnoticed, so we narrowed it down to those," he answered sheepishly.
I rolled my eyes while remembering what that lady had told me after I signed the contract.
So much for 'ensuring our safety throughout the duration of our stay'.
"Oh?" Wyn muttered.
I shook my head at how clueless Wyn could be sometimes. She seemed to forget that we were famous and well-known throughout all of the states.
"How much were you paid?" she asked.
He coughed nervously.
"Six hundred thousand gold."
"And what about the other weaklings that are unconscious and those four idiots?" she pressed.
He turned to look around him.
"One thousand gold each."
"You're kidding, right?" she scoffed. "That's barely any money. How stupid are you guys?!"
"Whaaaat?! No, it's fine," the bandit leader stammered. "We're just doing our job. I mean, who wouldn't want to get rich quickly? Why would we lie about getting paid that?"
I laughed loudly, shaking my head. I knew where Wyn was going with this line of questioning; it was too good to pass up.
"Am I really worth that little amount of gold? Is that even enough to cover the cost of hiring you idiots? A million, huh? That must've been a real bargain. I bet they couldn't afford to hire any more guards or anything, since that kind of cash would make them too big of a target for anyone wanting to take advantage of their position. What a shame, really."
She stared at him for a few moments before turning away in disgust.
The bandit leader blanked, unable to respond.
Wyn gave him another glare.
"You're pathetic," she spat. "If you can't even defend yourself properly, how can you expect others to trust you with this little task?"
"Wyn, it's best not to encourage them," I whispered.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat as she sat on a boulder. Her mind had already wandered off elsewhere.
"Well, let's get started then," I continued. "Are there any of your men stationed elsewhere?"
He shook his head. "Just sixty-nine of us present here, Mr. Dare."
"Alright." I rubbed my hands together excitedly. "How about I make a deal that you can't refuse?"
Their eyes widened slightly, obviously intrigued by my offer.
"What sort of deal?" The leader asked warily.
I smiled smugly.