"W-Wait! We surrender! We can't beat you! We'll cooperate with your questioning and hand over everything we've stockpiled! So please, don't kill us!"
The bandit shouted as he threw his weapon to the ground.
Watching the man surrender so readily, Rei wondered how to handle the situation.
Without so much as a single exchange of blows, the bandit had cried out and surrendered the instant he laid eyes on Rei.
If it had been just one of the rank and file pulling a stunt like that, Rei might have accepted it without question.
But the man kneeling before him looked unmistakably like someone who held a position of authority among the bandits.
For someone of that standing to surrender so abruptly... anyone, not just Rei, would have been dumbfounded.
(No, is this some kind of feint to exploit an opening?)
The thought crossed his mind, but with their weapons discarded and both hands raised, they wouldn't be in any position to try anything.
Was it possible they were using him as a decoy while someone else targeted him with a bow from elsewhere? The possibility occurred to him, but from what he could sense, there was no one else out there.
"Ah... You give up pretty easily. I figured you'd put up more of a fight."
"You're Rei the Bandit Eater, right? Even if we fought you, there's no way we'd win. In that case, it's better to surrender. It'll leave a better impression when we get questioned, too."
"That's remarkably gracious of you. Do you understand what this means? As things stand, there's a high probability you'll all be sold into slavery. What's more, depending on the verdict, execution isn't entirely off the table either."
To Rei's words, the bandit nodded without any visible sign of agitation.
"Like I said, I don't think we could escape you in a fight, let alone win. If that's the case, as unappealing as it is for us, surrendering has to be the smartest choice. ...So, about the treasure we've stockpiled—"
"Yeah. But in this situation, if I go into your hideout, you'd have the chance to run, wouldn't you? Considering that, I can't just take your word for it so easily."
Bandit hideouts were, naturally enough, caves or self-built huts—and in some cases, holes dug into the ground.
If Rei were to step into such a place right now, it would be the perfect opportunity for the bandits to flee.
Even though they had surrendered the moment Rei appeared, it was only natural that they would try to run if given the chance.
At this rate, if they were lucky, they would become slaves... and if things went poorly, execution was a real possibility—exactly the outcome Rei had just described.
With that in mind, they wouldn't do anything to let this opportunity slip away.
"But... then what? Are we just supposed to wait here quietly until someone comes?"
"No, something different. ...Well, since you know who I am, I imagine you can guess."
Holding Death Scythe—the very reason the bandits had recognized him as Rei at a glance—he called out.
"Set!"
The word left Rei's mouth and vanished as if swallowed by the surrounding trees.
Then, after some ten-odd seconds passed...
"U-Uwah!"
One of the bandits screamed as Set suddenly appeared from between the trees.
They knew Rei had a partner named Set, but they clearly never expected to see a gryphon this close up.
Still screaming, they half-instinctively scrambled backward.
Set, showing no concern for the bandits' reaction, approached Rei and purred as usual, rubbing its face against him.
"Sorry for calling you so suddenly. ...Alright, I'm going to search the bandits' hideout now, so Set, keep watch over them here. If they try to run, you can attack. It'd be more convenient if they're alive, but if they die, there's no need to worry too much about it."
Rei's tone made it clear this was neither a threat nor a bluff—he was stating an absolute truth.
Realizing this, the bandits felt a chill run down their spines.
They understood that one careless move would genuinely cost them their lives.
The other bandits felt the same and froze in place.
Leaving the motionless bandits behind, Rei stepped into the hideout.
It didn't appear to be a place where they slept, but rather where they stored their stolen goods and valuables, so it wasn't very large.
Naturally, there were no captives being held inside either, and stowing the items into his Misty Ring didn't take long.
(Come to think of it, what happened to their carriages? There were no horses, but did they haul all these goods here by hand? What's more, to sell this off somewhere, they'd need to transport it again. In that case... no, it'd be faster to just ask them. Hmm? Come to think of it, those scumbags didn't have carriages either. Or were they hidden? Are the horses somewhere too? ...Well, whatever.)
Having made that decision, Rei promptly exited the hideout.
He didn't even need to search for the man who had surrendered first—seeing him in the same spot as before, Rei walked right over.
"Hey. How were you planning to transport this when you sell it? Specifically, where are your carriages?"
"Well, um... we have carts, but no carriages."
At this somewhat unexpected answer, Rei paused.
"Really? Then you haul it on carts whenever you go to sell?"
"The underworld buyers come to purchase it from us directly. Most of the bandits around here do it that way—selling off stolen treasure and goods."
"...Huh."
At yet another unexpected answer, Rei muttered under his breath.
He had assumed the bandits went to sell their valuables themselves. The idea that the merchants came to them was completely outside his expectations.
(Well, a lot of things like jewels lose value if they get scratched. So figuring it'd be problematic to leave transport to the bandits, the merchants come directly... that makes sense.)
Even if they were part of the underworld, they were still merchants at the end of the day.
It was only natural they'd want to avoid, as much as possible, having expensive goods become cheap because the bandits damaged them in transit.
"And? When is this merchant coming next?"
In Rei's mind, merchants who bought goods from bandits were criminals themselves, so he figured it would be perfectly fine to capture them and seize their money and merchandise.
"Merchants are sharp when it comes to information. Especially the underworld ones—their instincts in that area are sharper than surface merchants. I'm sure they already know we've been captured, so I don't think they'll come here."
"Troublesome opponents."
As for which was easier to hunt, bandits or merchants, the bandits before him were demonstrating the answer with their very existence.
Thinking that far, Rei suddenly wondered if his current line of thought was rather bandit-like... but he quickly brushed it off. There was nothing strange about a villain thinking like a villain.
Anyone who conducted transactions knowing full well they were dealing with criminals was a criminal themselves.
"Anyway, I understand the situation. I've got no more business here, so we're heading out."
So saying, he produced a rope from his Misty Ring and began binding the bandits' hands.
Tied together in a daisy chain, the bandits wouldn't be able to escape unless everyone tried to flee at once.
(Normally I should tie their feet too, but walking through the forest would be difficult, and it would take too long to get back.)
That thought was not Rei's mercy by any means—it was simply because taking too long to travel was a hassle.
For the bandits, it could be called good luck.
Though, being found and captured by Rei in the first place meant they couldn't exactly be called lucky.
(Still, these guys were really good at camouflage. If it weren't for Set, I would've missed them completely.)
Leading the bandits along, Rei surveyed his surroundings as the thought crossed his mind.
When it came to the five senses, Rei's were incomparably sharper than an ordinary person's.
But even with Rei's senses—even using the sight he had used to scan the forest from atop Set in the sky searching for bandits—he wouldn't have been able to find this group.
The one who found them was Set, with senses even sharper than Rei's.
Using not just sight but hearing and smell as well to locate this bandit group, Set's detection abilities clearly surpassed Rei's entirely.
Set originally possessed superior senses to Rei, and since it always kept watch when they camped outdoors, it was only natural that its five senses, Sixth Sense, and even its ability to sense magical power had grown ever sharper over time.
Thanks to Set, Rei had been able to capture these bandits, and now he headed back to the place where the dispute with Tarania had occurred.
Emerging from the forest, he found that several adventurers had already gathered there, along with bandits, those who had presumably been held captive, and the treasure the bandits had stockpiled.
The adventurers present readied themselves the moment someone emerged from the forest, wary of a bandit attack... or perhaps different bandits coming to seize the captured outlaws or their hoard. But upon recognizing Rei's group, they relaxed.
If it were just themselves, there would be nothing they could do against a large group of bandits. But with Rei's group there, they believed that no matter how many bandits came, it would be easily handled.
For that reason, the man leading the adventurers waved happily at Rei and called out.
"Hey, looks like you had a smooth time capturing bandits on your end too."
"Yeah. Their camouflage was good, so it took a while to find them. But once we did, they surrendered right away. Honestly, tying them up with rope and bringing them here took longer."
"Thinking of fighting Rei and Set is just reckless. So then, are all the bandits going to be sold as slaves? With that many of them, it looks like a pretty good haul."
The adventurer who had been talking with Rei looked at him... and at the bandits he was bringing along, with a hint of envy in his eyes.
The bandits Rei had captured seemed to be acquaintances of the ones the man had caught, exchanging glances with one another.
They didn't glare or start any trouble, which was fortunate for Rei's group as well, in the sense that they were easier to manage.
If the bandits had started fighting amongst themselves here, it would have been extremely troublesome.
"This job was pretty easy for us. ...The problem is how many bandits there are in total. No matter how many times we take them down, if there were already a large number to begin with and they've been increasing lately, we might not be able to keep up even by defeating them."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Even considering what just happened, it's a safe bet there are still plenty of bandits left around here. Besides... Tarania, was it? With that man's situation, there's bound to be all sorts of problems on Sablusta's end too, right?"
Those words were an undeniable truth.
A direct subordinate of Sablusta's Local Deputy had been colluding with bandits.
Naturally, there was no way his superior, the Local Deputy, wouldn't have known about it. And if that were the case, the investigation would naturally extend to the Local Deputy as well... and to the noble who had dispatched him.
Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult for Daskar of the Neutral Faction to deal with Noble Faction Nobles and their subordinate Local Deputy.
But this time, Elena had been traveling with Rei's group.
What's more, Duke Kerebel, who led the Noble's Faction, had issued orders not to obstruct Gilm's Expansion Construction.
They had taken this action knowing full well that, so the price they would pay was certain to be high.
It was possible the noble didn't know what the Local Deputy and Tarania had been doing, but a Local Deputy was, after all, someone who governed a town or village as the noble's proxy.
If that proxy caused a disturbance, the responsibility naturally extended to the noble who had appointed him.
(Appointment responsibility, was it? Even when I was in Japan, I heard that phrase a lot on TV.)
Rei, who had been a countryside high school student when he lived in Japan, had almost no interest in politics.
But when it made the news, he remembered how the opposition parties would shout "appointment responsibility, appointment responsibility" as if they'd just won a war.
That was why the phrase came to mind in this situation.
Of course, to Rei, this incident was ultimately nothing more than a Noble's Faction matter.
He could predict there would be various dealings with Daskar of the Neutral Faction, but since he had no intention or need to get involved, all he could say about their troubles was: good luck with that.