"So? All you caught was this one male brat?"
Looking down at the cat-faced boy trembling like a leaf, Sado, the female leader of Sadotela, glowered at her subordinate.
"Y-Yes, Boss. For some reason, they were already on high alert. We only managed to snatch this brat because he got separated from the rest..."
An unspeakable fury flared inside her as the man stammered out his pathetic excuse, but—
"In short, your clumsy screwup blew our cover?"
She reined in her temper with all her might to establish the bottom line.
"N-No, Boss! We didn't do anything sloppy enough to get noticed—"
"Then why the hell are they on high alert?!"
Grabbing the man by his hair, she roared directly into his face. Getting made and putting their quarry on guard before the raid was the very definition of a blunder. If he was going to make excuses, he could have at least come up with something believable.
"I-I honestly have no clue..."
Her rage boiled over at his stammering. She balled her right hand into a fist and pulled back her elbow, but Sugar caught her by the wrist.
"Now, now. If we're found out, we just take them by force. Isn't that why you hired me? So why not just let nature take its course?"
He called it letting nature take its course, but the man simply wanted an excuse to butcher. That was all. If he took the field, he wouldn't hesitate to slaughter even the women and children. If that happened, an absolute fortune would slip right through Sado's fingers.
"Not a chance! It's not your turn yet!"
"Then what will you do? With nothing more than this single whelp as a shield, do you really think you can bag all several hundred monsters in that settlement by yourselves? Isn't that just a teeeeny bit arrogant?"
"..."
Infuriating as it was, Sugar had a point. The original plan had been to sneak in while their guard was down, snatch the women and children, and use them as hostages to force a surrender. For pack-dwelling monsters like sheep cats, who were every bit as intelligent as the human race, that was the most effective tactic.
"So, what's it gonna beee?"
"We're handling it ourselves first. If it gets out of hand, then you can step in."
Subordinates were easily replaced if they died. Far worse was the risk of Sugar damaging the merchandise and ruining their market value. Besides, if Sugar barely lifted a finger, she would have the upper hand when negotiating his payout. If Sado's crew could pull this off on their own, that was the ideal outcome.
"You really are a slave to your greed, aren't you?"
Sugar gave an exasperated shrug.
"Very well. I suppose I'll just sit back and watch your little show."
With that, he faded silently into the forest shadows.
"Listen up, you lot! We move! Our targets are monsters! Better safe than sorry. Slaughter every adult male and bag only the women and children!"
"Boss, what if the women and children fight back?"
"Slice their tendons and turn them into scarecrows. If they've got too much fight left in them, they're useless as merchandise anyway."
"What about this brat?"
"He's our ace in the hole, just in case."
Even if things went sideways and they had to cut and run, keeping this brat hostage would keep the locals from doing anything reckless during their retreat.
(Not that we'll need it, of course.)
At the end of the day, they were just monsters that happened to understand human speech. The sheep cat tribe was hardly a lethal breed like the ogre tribe. With a washed-up hunter mage on her payroll, taking the village would be child's play.
Licking her lips as her subordinates nodded in agreement, she leveled the tip of her longsword toward the settlement.
"Move out!"
She raised the banner of her avarice.
With a chorus of battle cries, the bandit gang—Sadotela—stormed the settlement.
And so began the monster's utterly malicious scenario, steeped in ruin and despair.