394 Recruitment, Refusal
"You, be my lackey. Beating up those small fry ain't no small feat. Power is everything in this world. Serve me and you can use that power to go wild and snatch erry thing ya wanna through force. Whaddya say? This is true freedom! I'm gonna become the big boss in this region soon. Yer' fit as my right hand man."
"Uwaa! Eww! So lame! Pfft! ...Ah damn... Almost snorted from laughing. The heck is this? A candid camera show? Who wanna lead such a lame life. A recruitment really, you went and woke me up for this crap? And by this small caliber man at that, quit daydreaming will ya? So dumb. Is that all you want? I'm gonna head back now. I wanna dive back in my bed."
All the bandits had the same dumbfounded look. Also all the villagers who had gathered here.
Are these villagers here as a peanut gallery? My thought wandered off.
Other villagers who aren't present here must be busy trying to flee.
These bandits threatened to kill them all and set the village on fire after all.
The people who came here out of curiosity would likely get killed first when it came down to that.
Also, taking this bandit boss's words at face value is a brainless move.
There's no way these bandits would just let the villagers up and go once they're done with me. I mean they are a bandit gang.
They're gonna kill villagers, rob their belongings and violate the women before selling them off as slaves. They're just that kind of folk. Lying comes with the territory.
The bandit boss couldn't process what I said and demanded me to say that again.
Hence I make it as concise and clear as possible with no room for misinterpretations this time.
"I don't wanna. I am not joining you lot. Go home if you're done. I'm sleepy."
"Men, surround him. I'mma make him regret for saying no to me. I'mma torture him real nice and slow. Get ready."
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I had sprung into action by the time the bandit boss said that cliched line.
I'll make him be on the regretting side instead.
There's no advantage to this action. The normal me wouldn't have done this.
But thanks to me fighting off drowsiness, my character collapsed and showed another side.
THUD, there was a sound of something heavy hitting the ground a moment later.
"...O, o, ooooooooo!? Why's this great me's arm!? My arm!?"
The bandit boss's scream was sucked into the void of night. Yep, that's his right arm.
"Healing magic! Oy! Get to it! Ya wanna die!? Dammit! The heck's going on!?"
One of the bandits holding a wand hurriedly ran up here, picked up the fallen arm, and stuck it on the stump before reciting some sort of spell.
The wound quickly closed and the arm got reattached. There's not even a mark left, like there's no wound in the first place.
However, the proof is still on the ground. The blood that seeped out. The bonfire shined on a dark spot where the ground absorbed it.
Other bandits who were inching in to enclose me stopped and turned around at their boss's sudden scream.
"You! You bastard did something didn't ya!? The hell did you do! This great me! Ain't gonna die! To a mere damned brat's hands!"
"What? Remind me what you said again? Power is everything, snatch what you want through force, power is true freedom. Or did I get that wrong? My power is simply 'higher' than yours. This is the reality, you experienced it yourself yeah? Admit it. You're going to get trampled down by an even higher power. This is the 'creed' you spoke about ain't it? You've been making people to follow that, 'course you're gonna live by it as well. It's your creed after all."