Chapter 567 - Footprint of the Bandits

Chapter 567 – Footprint of the Bandits

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit.

How did this happen?

My name is Astra.

I’m the leader of a famous bandit group.

-0-

I’ll say it honestly.

I’m currently being threatened.

By an unidentified opponent.

If you’re going to ask me why.

All I can say is it’s because of my mismanagement of my subordinates.

They seem to have done something and steal from a certain adventurer.

It’s a normal thing to do.

However, if you want someone to take responsibility, go to my subordinates and not to me.

What do you want me to do?

You want me to correct my men’s mistake?

If we’re going to do it in our own way, I’ll just kick them out and we’re done…..

That’s not….what you want.

I understand.

-0-

Subordinates….I’m so angry at you so I’ll just call you idiots.

These idiots seem to have sold the stolen things from the adventurers to a merchant.

It’s a normal thing to do. We’re going to sell it to a merchant at a certain price but the merchant should not disclose that we’re the ones who sold it.

And the unidentified opponent wants us to steal it back.

Troublesome.

In addition, the merchant who they sold it to will sell it in an auction in a certain city.

The unidentified opponent ordered us to chase the merchant to recover the stolen thing.

It’s difficult but we have no choice but to do it.

If we don’t do it, we might just become a corpse in this place.

The strength of the unidentified opponent is overwhelming.

Believe this or not, the unidentified opponent annihilated my over one hundred subordinates.

However, if you want to recover what was stolen, shouldn’t you hold back a little bit?

By chance, is the unidentified opponent a muscle head?

This makes things more dangerous.

Let’s do our best.

Our target is only a merchant.

We can take care of it.

Ehto…..

There are about….only 30 of us who can still move.

I left half of them to treat the others who couldn’t move and started to act.

-0-

The target merchant is heading to the place where the auction will be held but since he’s still trading on the way, we can’t predict his route.

Since the number of my subordinates has decreased, it is also impossible to say choose randomly.

But we know where the auction will be held.

We just need to go there ahead of him.

It’s just a little far away.

The travel expenses will be no joke.

If our money runs out, we just need to do our usual banditry. But of course, I want to minimize our actions since we’re outside our territory.

If we do poorly, we will turn the bandits of that area into our enemies.

If that happens, we’ll live a fugitive life and we can’t even sleep properly.

That would be a problem.

And so, we cut down our spending and even find temporary jobs while traveling.

It was a long journey that lasted two months.

When we arrived in the city, I was a little tearful feeling a strange sense of accomplishment.

However, our aim is not to arrive at the place where the auction will be held but to retrieve an item from a certain merchant.

First of all, negotiation.

If it is useless, we can only steal it.

If we do it grandly, we will offend the bandits of this place. However, we will only rob a merchant that lives in our territory.

They might be able to accept it.

Anyway, we waited for the merchant to arrive.

……..

The auction is more than a month away.

We decided to look for a day job to earn our stay.

-0-

When we got used to the city, we got acquainted with laborers while doing our preliminary inspection of the auction venue and thinking about how we’re going to steal it.

But a shocking news came in.

The auction will be held in another city.

All the preparations we’ve don’t so far have been wasted and my vision even darkened….but I regained my calm immediately.

If you’re working as a bandit, it is normal for targets to act unexpectedly.

I shouldn’t panic. Calm down and deal with it. I should be able to come up with something.

And I did.

…..

After listening to the detailed story, the new auction venue is Village Five.

It’s just a day away from Shashaato City.

It’s nearby so there shouldn’t be any problem.

However, there’s also a change in the auction schedule.

The event will be held next week.

That’s too short.

No, if we move now, we might be able to do something.

I thought the auction is still far ahead so I still have to work on my job for some time.

Even if I’m a bandit, I still keep my promises.

…..

Let’s be honest.

It’s because we don’t have money so we can’t move.

Damn it! Who made the food at Marla so delicious!

Me and my men can’t stop eating!

We can’t even save money!

Let’s continue eating!

…..

Today is our last day at Marla!

-0-

We managed to arrive at Village Five on the day of the auction.

The screening to enter the city is unexpectedly strict.

Not just our obvious weapons, even our hidden weapons were found and confiscated.

What’s going on?

Maa, I don’t really care because I don’t need hidden weapons this time.

Rather than that, the auction venue….

Is very obvious.

Thank goodness.

However, we can’t approach it carelessly.

First of all, information gathering.

Ramen street?

……

Maa, eating is important.

I was surprised to see noble ladies on a seat nearby but I concentrated on eating.

I have to use chopsticks after all.

But this is no problem for us who were trained at Marla.

You have to eat there using chopsticks too unless you’re eating curry which you have to eat with a spoon.

A noble lady is teaching the other noble ladies how to use chopsticks….don’t overdo it. You can try eating it using a fork.

I enjoyed ramen.

It’s delicious.

-0-

I would like to convince myself that it was already too late even before we came here and not because we took our time eating ramen.

We managed to contact our target merchant.

It is no longer possible to recover the target item by using negotiations……

It’s because the merchant already sent the item to the auction so it is no longer with him.

Damn it!

If we managed to get that item by bidding, there shouldn’t be a problem in getting it back but if it falls into another rich person’s hand, it will be impossible to get it.

It can’t be helped.

I threatened the merchant and instructed him to buy the thing back by using his own money.

The merchant knew me so he nodded obediently.

What a relief.

-0-

But that’s not possible.

If the seller can bid on the item, there’s a possibility of the seller raising prices.

So basically, it is prohibited for sellers to bid on their own items.

But there’s a way out.

Only the seller is prohibited to bid on the item.

Because of that, the merchant asked his merchant acquaintance to bid for the item up to the price of a gold coin.

However, if the bidder got the item and wasn’t able to pay it on time, the credibility of that bidder will fall.

During the auction, someone bids for an incredible amount which is something we can’t compete against.

Yeah.

It can’t be helped.

We don’t want to do this but we have no choice.

The guys guarding the auction are patrolling the venue.

We set up a camp at a place where the venue is visible.

We’ll attack at once, rob, and escape.

I wanted to eat ramen again but….it can’t be helped.

I can’t turn that unidentified opponent into an enemy.

I’ll do my best.

And, merchant.

What kind of guy outbid you?

Tell me what he looks like and his clothes.

Even if you tell his name, I won’t be able to recognize him.

It’s a group with a girl riding on a man’s shoulder?

Is he carrying her like that all the time?

Everytime they move?

What a good father and daughter.

Maa, good.

I’ll try not to kill them.

However, forgive me for injuring you.

……

We waited a little and found the group with a girl riding a man’s shoulder.

There are a lot of them but….half of them are women.

It’s good to go.

My subordinates also signaled that there won’t be a problem.

Alright, let’s go!

I came forward.

And we were attacked by the residents.

…..

Excuse me?

Why?

We got caught.