Year 141_Keireki Era_Spring/09
Hmm.
Ah.
Ahh…
Yo.
It’s me.
...
Ah, right. A bandit.
A bandit—that’s me.
Yeah, my body feels heavy.
When I touch my chin absentmindedly, there’s a rough sensation. A scruffy beard, huh.
Going through the memories in my head, this group of bandits apparently attacked and took over a village just recently.
Their size is about twenty members.
That’s quite a number, but yeah, if they’re going to control a village, they’d need about that many people.
Seems like I’m one of the outsiders who joined after they took over.
And now, I’m lounging in one of the victims’ homes, sitting in a wooden rocking chair, lazily enjoying the swaying motion.
It’s a ridiculous situation, but no matter how much I try to hold it back, tears keep spilling out.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
I made my own choice, yet here I am, regretting it.
Thinking there must’ve been another way, or wondering what things might’ve been like if I were still alive back then.
But there weren’t any other options, were there?
I know that. I really do.
And yet, I can’t stop the tears from pouring down.
I miss those days—those days when I still believed in a future—so much that it hurts.
It’s absurd, isn’t it?
I’m a bandit.
There’s no way I could’ve been happy. I should be grateful I got to see a fleeting dream, even for just a moment.
“Hey, old man.”
I was crying so much I didn’t notice someone had come into the house.
It’s one of the other bandits—a girl.
She handed me a ragged piece of cloth.
“You look pathetic. I’ve never heard of a bandit bawling their eyes out like this.”
Her dull red hair and sharp eyes gave her a tough appearance.
She was wearing something that’s more like scraps of fabric than actual clothes. A strange look overall.
A slim sword hung at her waist.
She looked more like a tribal swordswoman than a thief.
“Ah, well, sorry about that. Just realized I lost something important to me, you see.”
“Realized, huh?”
She reacted with a puzzled expression.
Seems like the type to say whatever comes to mind.
“Huh. So, old man, you’re not one of those bandit brats? I heard most of this group grew up as bandits.”
“Ah, yeah. I’m a latecomer.”
“Oh, so you’re like me then. Honestly, I was kinda scared, you know? All these crazy, unhinged bandits.”
She laughed brightly.
For a bandit, she sure is... wholesome.
Her smile somehow lifted my spirits.
“Latecomer, huh. When did you join?”
If her smile helps me, I ought to respond sincerely.
As far as my memories go, I arrived after the village was taken.
The bandits seemed eager to keep their hold on the village, so they welcomed anyone who could fight with open arms.
I was told to make myself at home, so I came here. That’s when my consciousness took over.
And then I just cried non-stop. Thinking about it, I must’ve seemed like a total creep.
“How about you? When did you arrive?”
Her face isn’t in the memories I have, which means...
“I just got here. They said they needed more hands. Honestly, I didn’t expect them to have taken over a whole village. The guys I came with were grumbling about how these guys are the ‘kill-everyone’ type of bandits.”
So she’s pretty much in the same situation as me.
Told to do whatever she wanted, she wandered in here—right into a grown man crying his eyes out. Brave, or just curious to a fault?
“Bandit brats tend to be merciless. That’s just how they are.”
“Yeah, seriously scary. Truth be told, my group isn’t into anything big like this. More like... ‘Hey, this area’s dangerous, but we’ll protect you if you pay up.’ Stuff like that.”
“Extortion, then.”
“Exactly.”
What do you think about this chapter?
