03-03 Bandit Hideout 2

TL: Aria Red
Editor: MantouInv, Nick0

Alysia blasted the door open and coming into her view was three people with awfully generic bandit attires, and another four wearing shabby clothings.
Bewildered by the situation, the bandits immediately shouted towards the inner door of the hideout.

“Le-Leader! An intruder just came in!!”

“More importantly, she’s a loli!”

Following that sentence, loud footsteps could be heard from the other side of the inner door. It was apparent to Alysia that several people were coming for her.
The moment the door opened slightly,

“Hydro Pump!!”

“Kyaaaaa!?”

“Uwaaaaa!!”

Alysia planned to blast the door open with her waterball attack. However, the result of this was a certain arm stuck inside the door, and a certain person violently blown away.

“…..D-d.a.m.n loli….!!”
“Yo…..!!”

The three bandits grabbed the swords which were leaning on the wall and dashed towards Alysia.
The first man came slashing sideways. His slash was so strong, that it seemed as if he was trying to tear apart her slender figure.

“Too slow!!”

“Ah!?”

Unfortunately for him, his attack was no faster than slow motion to Alysia.
Alysia dodged his attack with fluency as she crouched down, and then proceeded to dodge the attack coming from the second man as if she was dancing as she back stepped. Naturally, she was able to easily dodged both of the attacks.

Expecting the late third man, Alysia lowered her posture, and dashed towards him. Arriving in front of him in an instant, she kicked his abdomen hard with her strengthened leg.

“Argh!?”

“W-wait!!”

Blood came out of his mouth as he was blown away. Crashing into another guy who was standing behind him, they both tumbled down onto the floor. Both of them appeared to have hit their heads and lost their consciousness.

“Well then..”

“Hiiii…..!!”

Alysia stood up and turned to face the lone survivor who was already frozen in fear. Seeing that, the man gasped and started trembling with fear due to the horror he was feeling.

She walked closer one step at a time, as if fueling the fear. With every step she took forward, he reflexively took a step back.
Although, it was quite obvious that person herself had no intention of doing so.

Zuush

“Aa….!!”

“G-nite!”

Just when they were about two steps away from each other, Alysia teleported to the back of the man. Touching the back of his neck, she poured a slight amount of mana inside. It was the technique she used during the tournament to knock down all her opponents.

Confirming that the three of them had pa.s.sed out, she shifted her attention to the four dumbfounded people who were sitting down. After looking around carefully, she noticed that the four of them were actually catkins. Furthermore, she noticed that two of them were still around ten years old. One shota catboy and one loli catgirl.

“What happened to you guys?”

“We are……”

“Ah, you don’t have to tell me if it’s hard for you to.”

Although Alysia said that, the girl who was sitting besides the young boy started speaking.

“Our village was attacked by bandits…..and then, when I and the other three woke up just now, we were already here…”

“Is there no one else here?”

“There were more people in the village, but, everyone else was taken further inside.”

Hearing that, Alysia ended up imagining many horrible things she didn’t even want to imagine. She speculated that the bandits took people from various races from multicultural and multiracial countries and were selling them to countries where they were treated as slaves.

If that were true, then there is no way that Alysia would leave them alone. Needless to say, it was also because one of her besties, Fian, was a catgirl. Friendship knows no borders. Be it human or non-human, friendships between various different races are very precious.

“Okay. I’ll go save them now.”

“Eh? Really!?”

“You sure? We don’t want to trouble you so much….”

“It’s fine. I have my own reasons as well. Our interests just happened to be aligned.”

Breaking the silence, Alysia unsheathed her katana from her scabbard and headed towards the inner door.
The moment her delicate hand grabbed the k.n.o.b of the door,

“Now! Seize the loli!!”

“Uwooo!!”

“What!?”

A group of bandits came marching on suddenly from behind the door like a black friday store stampede. A total of thirteen lowlives. Startled by the suddenness of the situation, Alysia failed to react on time. As a result, in the span of a few mere seconds, the bandits managed to tie a rope around her body, restricting her movements.

“Ku……!!”

“Hoo……What a cute loli we have here….”

Said the man standing next to Alysia. Judging by the other bandits’ fearful tones towards him, Alysia concluded that the man was probably their leader.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, just throw this one into the dungeon for now. We can sell her or do anything we want afterwards.”

“Ooh!!”

Alysia was then taken by the subordinates and they took her into the dungeon together with the four other catkins just like that.

What Alysia saw that day, the despair written on the four catkins faces, was probably something that she would never ever forget in her whole life.
Fall

“Aargh!!”

“Ouch!”

Clink

“Don’t move your a.s.ses from there!!”

The man threw the five of them violently into the cell and proceeded to lock the door. The man then walked away nonchalantly while ignoring Alysia`s intense stare of disgust.

There were quite a few people who appeared to be catkins inside the dungeon. However, no one seemed to be in the mood to chatter. Everyone had their head facing down gloomily while looking sorrowful.

It might have been because there were too many people, or perhaps because the ground was used as a floor that the place felt far more humid than the entrance of the cave.

“Onee-chan, I’ll untie your rope.”

The young catkin lad from before said and began to untie the rope. Staring at him, Alysia immediately noticed that there were tears in his eyes which were about to overflow.

“Please…”

“Yes.”

The young lad started with the rope which was tying up her elbow and body in a circle. And then next, he continued with the rope on her back, which was tying up both of her wrists. Finally, he went to unfasten the part of the rope below her skirt which was tying up both of her legs. Alysia who already had both of her hands untied also joined in.

They finally managed to untie the ropes after a while. Without being prissy about sitting on the ground, Alysia fell lying on her back and stretched her arms and legs.

“Finally…..Thanks a bunch.”

“Onee-chan, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine. 100% fine. Just chill and I’ll let you guys out in a sec.”

“Okay.”

Alysia then hugged the little shota. Perhaps it was because of the trauma and fear of being attacked by the bandits and the warm sense of safety he was feeling that he buried his face in her chest, bursting out into tears. Alysia caressed the head of the shota gently, and from thereupon swore to herself that she would send everyone in that place back safely.