Was she hurt by my hesitation, or did she suddenly remember something hurtful? Sh*t, I had no experience with this sort of situation...where do I even put my hands?

This bit of clumsiness didn’t escape her eyes as she giggled amidst her sniffling. She lowered her head and without wiping off her tears, took a few steps back and said: “Like this is fine, this distance is fine…”

As she said that, she continued her emotional roller-coaster of crying and laughing; however, she no longer tried to approach me.

Was she belittling herself? I guess if a fat ugly chick were to force herself on me...I would want to kill myself as well. Even if Duran was handsome, it still felt bad as long as it wasn’t consensual.

Should I give her a hug and tell her it’s alright? Wait, that would make it sound like we had a special relationship though….and it sounded so hypocritical as well. Would I be any different from that bast*rd if I did that?

Besides I didn’t even have a pee pee...wouldn’t it make me seem kind of immoral to talk about that stuff now?...No that wasn’t right, I meant to say, shouldn’t I at least have some moral standards if I wished to start a harem? Oh...why am I even talking about standards when I’m trying to start a harem?! d.a.m.n it, could someone please tell me what to do?!

However, in the midst of my delusions, the problem solved itself the moment Regine squeezed herself into our already small enough tent, and fell asleep without a word on my lap without her mask on. Was this...the legendary lap pillow?

Regine’s hair felt slightly wet to the touch, she probably just took a bath...didn’t she just take one three hours ago though? So why was her hair still wet? Did she take another shower again?

Speaking of which, she was a rather silent character most of the time, but who knew that she could be so considerable at the right moments; to think she could do something so charitable. From her stiff body and twitching long eyebrows, I could tell that she wasn’t that comfortable about this either.

However, after ten seconds of lying on my lap without being chased away, she finally calmed down; she gently turned her body and hugged my right leg with both of her hands. This posture...she almost seemed like a baby…

Seeing my panicked reaction, Ancarin gave a sniffling laugh as she wiped her tears dry and without saying another word, took over my other leg; hugging it in the same fetal position as Regine.

If all of you are sleeping here, then what about our carriage? If the matter about Duran was found out we...forget it, as long as you guys were happy.

This was the first time I had ever slept with a beautiful girl other than Nicole, yet I felt no l.u.s.t towards them…only...pity. They had suffered so much already, if possible, I hope that they could live a happy life from now on.

Not knowing how to react, we ended up spending the night in this manner without saying another word, until finally we all fell asleep unknowingly.

The next day, I woke up to find both of them already gone and both my legs numb from a night of being used as a pillow. Thankfully, it wasn’t so serious that I couldn’t move.

As if nothing had happened last night, Ancarin prepared breakfast for me as usual while Regine quietly checked her gear. After ensuring that Duran was still safe and secured, I made way towards George to enquire about the day’s mission.

If everything else went as planned, Dawson would arrive with a large group of bandits to exact his revenge. The spot we chose was a route he had to take in order to reach Plateau Village. While there were other routes as well, this was the nearest; while the others required a large detour on his part. As such, we merely had to wait here for them to take the bait.

Yet despite waiting past a third of the day, the bandits had not show up. Instead we found several people from the other villages. Their numbers were not many, with a total of over ten and all of them were injured. Though they weren’t serious injured, due to the fact that they had to rush over to us, they were deathly pale by the time they reached us.

Some of them were let go on purpose by the bandits while others were those fortunate enough to escape right when the attack started. While their survival was fortunate, it also brought with them a terrifying piece of news.

The bandits hadn’t followed George’s plan, and instead attacked the other three villages first; kidnapping all of the villagers...taking into account the time they needed to move the kidnapped villagers, they should be arriving in Plateau Village soon.

George and the other three-stars nearly had a heart attack upon hearing this piece of news.

“Im...impossible...how could this be…” stammered a defeated looking George.

Reality was no game after all, while we were busy plotting against them, they were busy plotting against us as well. Due to our recruitment, the four villages were basically defenseless right now and could barely defend against a wild beast attack. The bandits didn’t even need to send that many men to raid them in that state.

What a devious backstab on his part...now the bandits had a grasp on our lifeline; if they used them as hostages, this entire coalition could fall apart. While the other three villages might not agree to turn on us, the bandits could still force them to stand aside and leave us alone.

The command tent immediately erupted into chaos; with Io and Eddison requesting for leave to lead their hunters away in order to save the other villagers. As for George and Moranthal, they wanted to stay behind and defend Plateau Village instead. They felt that the situation wasn’t as simple as the other two thought it was and allowed no rashness on their part.

Thus the debate became a stalemate that swiftly devolved into a shouting match which nearly came to fists.

At that, I could no longer stand by the sidelines and watch. “Stop arguing! Right now the most important thing is to try and save whoever we can and not turn against each other. All you’re doing now is playing right into the palms of their hands. Whether or not you wish split up to save the other villages or defend Plateau Village, we still have to make that trip to Plateau Village.”

“Our first goal right now should be to save the one village that hasn’t fallen, rather than start regretting once even that is gone. Arguing is the silliest thing we can do right now!”

No matter what they thought of the situation, that scolding did indeed touch upon the crux of the situation; thus they unanimously decided to return to the village.

Leaving behind all non-essentials, we made our way back to the village as quickly as possible. All those traps...sigh.

Thankfully, the spot we chose to set up camp at wasn’t too far from Plateau Village, so by the time we returned to the village the bandits had not arrived as yet; they were probably delayed by the sickly and elderly they had to move. Seeing that, the hunters who wanted to split off stirred once more, and soon the four three-stars were engaged in another verbal fight in the old village chief’s home.

“The ones who were captured weren’t your villagers, of course you’re calm!”

While Eddison’s words weren’t all that helpful, George couldn’t refute it either as the fact was only Plateau Village was unharmed while the other three had been raided.

“Eddison, you’ve gone too far with that remark,” said Moranthal, the calmest of the three at the moment. He knew extremely well what the true goal of capturing those villagers were: to stir up conflict and hopefully destroy their coalition without lifting a finger. While he was anxious as well, he knew that the best thing to do now was to remain calm.

Unfortunately Eddison wasn’t the only one who had lost his cool, Io was ready as well with some choice words: “Of course you aren’t worried, you don’t have a family to care about, my wife and son are still in the hands of the Wolf’s Fang...oh right, wasn’t your fiancee kidnapped by Dawson, haha, I guess you’re already used to such matters.”

“...you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” Yelled Moranthal with fists raised. However, all that earned him was a scornful spit by Io and another insult: “Oh, the cuckold is angry?”

Seeing that the two parties were about to fight, George immediately stepped forward to stop them. “Everyone calm down, now’s not the time to fight amongst ourselves.”

At that, Eddison who wasn’t too willing to join us in the first place, lost his temper and snapped: “Easy for you to say, the ones who got captured weren’t from your village.” Like a raging fat bull, he shouted with eyes fuming: “What dog sh*t opportunity, I just knew that I shouldn’t have joined!”

To be honest, even if you didn’t join us the outcome would’ve just been the same; seeing as you would be the last village standing once we lost. The Wolf’s Fang were afraid of all four of the villages uniting, not just one or two villages.

The old village chief stepped forward to try and mediate this dispute, yet was completely ignored by both Eddison and Io; which left him in an awkward position. Thankfully, both of them still had the state of mind to not insult the old man.

Had this continued for any longer, the two men would’ve probably lost their cool and started fighting. Lucky for us, the bandits showed up before that could happen. Congregating slowly in front of the village was a contingent of bandits with a stream of villagers they captured in tow. This black ma.s.s of people was at least 3,000 strong.

The over 2,000 villagers were kept under heavy watch by several hundred bandits with over a hundred trained wolves backing them up. Their fierce growling, glistening fangs and predatory green eyes were more than enough to scare the children into tears. The remaining young men in the village had been bound up while the other women, children and elderly were forced into one spot.

The one silver lining in this whole situation was that due to the lack of time, the bandits weren’t able to violate the women. Still, there were some women who were visibly underdressed and shaken. There were a number of young women who were dressed in nothing but rags and had to walk around with their hands wrapped around their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Evidently, they had been targeted by the bandits.

Standing at the front of the bandit horde were two towering men; who by the looks of it were probably the two bandit chiefs, Dawson and Dohby. They were both mounted, with one riding a black horse and the other a chestnut brown horse. Beside them were over ten other mounted subordinates who were probably their personal guard.

Horses were luxury goods in this medieval world, with a normal carriage horse already costing several dozen gold coins. For horses trained for combat like theirs, each would probably set you back at least a thousand gold coins.

Having rushed here right after receiving the urgent message from the fleeing villagers, George immediately recognized the rider of the black horse. With a force that could shatter the teeth he was grinding, he yelled hatefully, “DAWSON!”

Riding silently atop that black horse was a handsome faced man with a head of medium length white hair; I could already imagine how that cool image of his managed to attract women. He was clad in a form fitting suit of leather armor, which showed off his toned but not overly muscular body. Slanted behind him was a giant greatsword that towered over his entire body.

Riding next to him was a bandit that, judging by his uncanny similarity to Doran, was probably the other bandit chief, Dohby. While he wasn’t exactly ugly, he had that typical bad guy look and wielded a similarly large greatsword.

George led his furious pack of hunters out of the village and had them take up positions a hundred meters away from the bandits. Having recognized their trembling loved ones amongst those being held at blade point, the enraged hunters nearly rushed forward in a bid to save them. Luckily, they were held back in the nick of time by their more rational companions along with George and Moranthal’s command to hold their ground.

Thankfully, Eddison and Io weren’t rash enough to charge at them either or the consequences would’ve been dire.

“Dawson! You despicable bast*rd!” Having calmed his own men down, George was the first to step forth and rail at the bandit chief. “Hurry up and let go of those villagers, they’re innocent! This grudge is between us only, don’t bring in these innocent people.”

The head bandit chief sat atop his black horse and coldly glanced at George, but said nothing in the end. Instead, it was his second-in-command that spoke up having lost all patience with the man who killed his brother. Pointing his horse whip at George, he yelled: “So you’re the one who killed my younger brother, this chief is here today to exact revenge for him!”

“Every debt has a debtor, I hope you’ll find it in your heart to release those who are innocent,” said Eddison with a pleading look. Amongst those captured, he spotted his female servant who thankfully was still unharmed but had a blade to her neck.

“Haha, isn’t that Eddison? Do you still remember that beating I gave you then? You’ve recovered so fast? I guess you should thank me for being so merciful!” Dohby had a scornful grin on his face as he taunted the fat man. With a casual wave of his hand, he commanded his men to bring the female servant to him.

Bending down, he pinched the girl’s chin and tried to force her to look up at him so that he could admire her beautiful face. As they were in a hurry earlier, he barely had any time to spare; now that he did, he was going to admire his prize.  However, who would’ve thought that the girl was such a fiery one; as he laid his dirty hand on her, she immediately turned her head away and tried to evade it.

Clearly, the lecherous bandit didn’t expect that as well. Having missed the first time, he forcefully grabbed her jaw and forced her to look up, not showing anymore softness in his actions as a show of his displeasure. The moment he saw her unyielding look, he couldn’t help but chuckle: “Haha, a virgin. Good! I like them fiery like that! Lads bring her away, once we’re done killing them off I’ll be sure to head back right away and make her bend to me in the great hall!”

Random minion: “Second Chief, that’s not good, we still have eyes to watch you know.”

Random minion:“Hah, don’t you get it, Second Chief means to share her with us. Just look at those curves and that white skin…”

Random minion:“Stop drooling you trash. Don’t get off just by looking at her.”

Random minion:“You’re the trash, just watch! I’ll show you my indomitable golden pole right after the Second Chief is done with her!”

Dohby gave a boisterous laugh and said: “Hahahaha, very good. Once we’re back, you guys can have your way with her once I’m done! Now hurry up and bring her away, make sure not to injure her once the fighting starts or we’ll have nothing to play with, hahaha…”

Eddison and his hunters were even more incensed by his declaration, but because of the hostages, there was nothing they could do about it.

“Marie!” He cried, calling out the servant’s name as he helplessly watch her back disappear into the crowd. The girl bravely turned around and gave him a rea.s.suring smile before disappearing for good.

I don’t know what she meant by that smile; did she mean for him not to harp on this matter, or did she mean to say that she didn’t regret being implicated in this? Either way, I could clearly sense that she wanted him to be well.

Eddison’s eyes grew red as they almost burst out of their sockets, he immediately reached for his sword but was held back by an equally enraged George. With one hand holding back the fatty, he pointed a finger at the servant and yelled at Dawson with unblinking eyes, “I always thought that you at least had some morals in you!”

“You shouldn’t have killed Doran.” In the face of George’s accusation, he blandly stated the purpose of this attack. “The moment you killed Doran, you should’ve been aware of the consequences.”

“But I never thought that you would stoop so low as to use the innocent to threaten us!”

“Innocent?” Dohby laughed as he said that. He swept his right hand over the villagers, after which he swayed back and forth in an insane manner and reb.u.t.ted: “What do you mean innocent? Don’t tell me these villagers aren’t the kinsman of those bow and blade wielding hunters behind you.”

“You!”

As the majority of our fighting force came from the three villages, that move by him was nothing short of ingenious. Using those hostages, he could easily nullify this threat by forcing them not to attack. This was exactly what I was worried about.

I had not been here long so I still wasn’t familiar with the routes to the other three villages. However, being the local criminal gang, the bandits were definitely aware of these routes, and probably had their own spies among the villagers. In all likelihood, our movements were already made known to them.

“Gill! You brat, get out here!” Instead of arguing with the man further, George inexplicably called out an unfamiliar name, after which an extremely familiar person stepped forth...that’s the...that’s the small fry who kept taunting George on the day Doran died!?

“Big Brother George…” said the small fry with a guilty look on his face.

“Don’t call me big brother, you aren’t worthy! Good, very good, is this how you repay me?” George yelled from the bottom of his now broken heart.

“Big Brother...I…” he stammered as he tried to find an explanation but couldn’t in the end. Dohby casually rode up to the kid and patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t blame the kid, I spent a large sum of money to recruit him.”

So that’s why...it wasn’t that George believed in Dawson’s moral standards, but rather he already had a mole in the Wolf’s Fang from the beginning. Unfortunately for him, that mole wasn’t a dependable one and sold him out at the critical moment. Man...the memory of those two quarreling is still fresh in my mind too.

Back then I thought those two had a grudge of some sort...to think a mere fight between a medium sized bandit troupe and a village actually turned into such a treacherous game...how deep does this rabbit hole go?!

This bit of treachery instantly raised the stakes in this otherwise run of the mill confrontation. I had to admit, I underestimated these otherworldly hicks...they weren’t as brainless as I thought. Just the opposite, they were just as conniving as anyone you’d meet on Earth. If you transmigrated over with a high and mighty att.i.tude, you’d definitely get destroyed in seconds by their cunning.

“They promised me...as long as I gave you false information, they would let go of Little Red…” said the bandit with an anguished smile that stabbed right into George’s heart.

Later on, I found out that Little Red was Gill’s girlfriend; whose actual name was Scarlet. She was a lovely la.s.s that had the misfortune of being kidnapped by the Wolf’s Fang and ended up on rifle cleaning duty. As long as a bandit wished for it, he could fire as many shots as he wanted into her. She wasn’t the only poor soul either, as of right now, there were several dozen other girls just like her who were still alive.

Most of them were kidnapped by the bandits while a small number of them were prost.i.tutes who were cheated into coming to the hideout. However, there was no way these women would ever get paid for their services.

It was precisely because of Scarlet that Gill ended up joining the Wolf’s Fang as George’s spy. Unfortunately, his love for his girlfriend superseded the hate he held for the Wolf’s Fang. Each time he saw his lover lifelessly cleaning the rifles of the bandits, his heart would bleed from pain and guilt. He hated the bandits for their savagery, but he hated himself even more for his weakness…

That unbearable pain accompanied him each night as he went to bed. It was as if a giant hand was squeezing down on his heart each night as he stared at the ceiling with wide open eyes...so one day, he capitulated. Even though his lover had long since given up on life; even though she now bore the child of some man that she didn’t know; even though she had turned into a base creature that couldn’t live without cleaning rifles...he still loved her.

Why was it that everything I witnessed ever since returning to the Western Human Realms had been nothing but tragedy after tragedy? Were humans truly worse than devils? At least under my supervision, my potato men didn’t do anything like force themselves on a female devil.

Yet what did I see right when I was summoned back to the human realm? A mage who abused his powers to cheat over a dozen beautiful girls, turning them into his toys and even allowing his henchmen to have their perverse ways with them...these bandits weren’t any better either.

Not only did they commit a bunch of atrocities that even heaven wouldn’t stand for, in a ordinary confrontation, they actually kidnapped their opponent’s entire village and used them as hostages. Didn’t they know that the sins of the parents do not make the child!

There’s a Confucius saying that goes “One shall not be judged for the iniquity of another”.

(TL: I’m not even sure if he said that but this is a popular saying. Whether or not Confucius actually said it, I’m not sure or at least I haven’t been able to find the line itself. Also, I’m not sure if there’s an “official” translation for this but this is the best I’ve got)

Apparently others found this to be reasonable as well, as every gang movie ever made featured this theme. However, was this really so in reality? No, just the opposite, those gangsters would use any means necessary to get what they wanted. Whether or not you were a brother or a friend didn’t matter as long as you stood in their way. All that talk of loyalty and family was nothing but drivel the directors added into those movies.