-Bandit’s POV-

A cave deep in the mountains.

Everyone’s having a terrible hangover.

We had beaten a group of adventurers hired by Ibiden Village a few days ago.

Afterwards, we had extracted some information from the adventurers we had taken as prisoners.

Here’s what we learned—

1.       The village has been abandoned by its lord.

2.       The village’s fund was exhausted when they hired adventurers.

—in other words, it was confirmed that the attack of the adventurers was the village’s last stand.

The plan for the future is to raid the village in a flashy manner in the near future and take away all valuable items except for farming tools without killing anyone.

No, it’s not that we’re not really going to kill anyone.

We will kill a few grown men to make an example of them and let a few dozen suffer.

As for why we all have hangovers – well, we just had a victory party.

I mean, how can we celebrate without drinking?

Since we had confirmed our safety, we drank until we could no longer stand.

「Hey, aniki? We’re in luck, aren’t we?」

A toothless middle aged guy….a subordinate called out to me.

「Yeah. They’ve been abandoned by their lord and can no longer hire adventurers. That mean….we can do whatever we want to them.」

「But, why go easy on them? We can just kill all men and sell the women and children to the slavers….」

「This is why you’re stupid!」

I hit my subordinate on his head.

「Eh? What do you mean?」

「The lord has abandoned them, right? That decision cut off that village from others….and it’s already been a long time since that happened, right? You know what that means?….it means we can control the village for now on and for a long time.」

「….?」

「We’ll just have to leave them enough food to keep them alive and then, we’ll take the rest of their money from the sale of their crops!」

「However, what if the lord changes his mind during that time….? What if he sends his knights?」

「It’s good that you’re learning how to think. If that was to happen, it means it is the time to do what you suggested….we’ll kill all the men and sell the women and children to slavers.」

Then, my subordinate clapped his hands.

「You’re going to squeeze as much as you can from them and when things gets tough, you’re going to reap what you sow and be done with it?」

「Yeah, that’s the plan.」

Then, my subordinate started laughing with his hands on his stomach.

「Wahaha! As expected of aniki desu wa! You’re a genius desu wa!」

「Yeah, we will be safe for a while! Let’s get out of this hole and set up a hideout in the village.」

「Oh! That’s bold! But a good idea! The biggest disadvantage of banditry is that you have to sneak around but….this time, we’ll be the lord!」

「However, those adventurers were too weak.」

「A-rank adventurers are no match to aniki.」

「No, that little girl….the black haired disciple of the sage was strong. If the adventurers did not pull her down because they were too small fries….thing would have been pretty bad.」

「That’s true. She’s almost evenly matched with aniki.」

At that time – my subordinate, who was supposed to be our lookout, turned pale and jumped in.

「A-a-a-aniki!」

「What’s wrong?」

「do-do-do…..dora…………..! Dragon!」

「Huh? This is not the forest of no return. Are you sure it’s not a salamander or something?」

「No, I’m sure it’s a dragon!」

Well, if it’s a small dragon….I can take care of it.

In the rare event that it loses at the competition for survival in the forest of no return, the weaker ones may flee outside….

「What a pain in the ass.」

However, even for me, it will be difficult to subdue a dragon.

I went outside praying that my subordinate was wrong—

「W-wh-wha…..what the hell is this!!!」

100 gigantic dragons—no, an army of zombie dragons was encircling our hideout.