The Eve of the Siege

As soon as he regained consciousness, Kirou realized that he was now standing at the entrance to SC Pier City. Immediately after, he opened up his friends' list to check if everyone was online.

Seeing that they were, Kirou sent each of them a simple message, following which, he closed the list and left SC Pier City's surroundings with extreme haste. As soon as he got far enough, he summoned out his Blood Shadow Wolf and mounted the beast before speeding off even faster towards his desired location.

Along the way, Kirou went over all of the equipment currently in his possession, mainly the weapons he's crafted. Due to his busy schedule, he's still yet to craft another set of armor from the book of incomplete blueprints he was given.

That being said, the basic armor that he was equipped with at the moment was more than enough to meet his current needs. Having said that, he did make note that his next objective was to craft some armor since he felt that the basic armor has outlived its usefulness.

*******

Roughly an hour later, Kirou was now outside the entrance to the former bandit settlement. As he rode the Blood Shadow Wolf, he made sure to observe his surroundings for anything that seemed to be out of place.

As the wolf mount finally came to a stop, Kirou jumped off of its back and recalled it back into the mount storage space. He then entered the settlement and circled its entirety to see if there were any changes between now and the last time he was there.

Having found no changes of note, Kirou then went to a secluded area before opening up his friends' list. He then sent a request for a telepathic call to Reya.

A few moments later, the telepathic call connected and Kirou was the first one to speak up, "How far away are you from the coordinates that I sent? Also, are you traveling alone, Ms. Elf?"

[Reya: Hello to you as well, Mr. Wolf. We're about five minutes away. I'm traveling with Sister Navi and your friend, Brother Fox. We met him along the way and are now traveling together]

Those words caused Kirou to arc his eyebrow slightly. While he was a bit curious as to when they got close enough for her to be calling him 'brother', he pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he spoke, "Understood. I'm already in the settlement, waiting for everyone."

[Reya: Understood, Mr. Wolf. I'll let them know and move as fast as we can.]

Before Kirou could even tell her that she didn't need to rush, Reya had already terminated the call. With a wry smile on his face, Kirou could only make a call to Moon Lily, inquiring about her location as well.

The good part about it was that she was already in the area, along with the former bandits. For now, Kirou just told them to wait for him at the eastern exit for the settlement while he would wait for the others at the western side and lead them over.

*******

Roughly twenty minutes later, everyone was now walking towards the cave system that led to the Bandit Stronghold. While the players, or rather, Kirou was being laid back about the whole situation, the others were emitting an intense vibe. This was especially so for former Bandit Warrior Jackson.

Upon noticing their mood, Kirou contemplated to himself as the group entered the cave. While walking, he made sure to constantly survey the surrounding using his various means as a few thoughts went through his mind.

After walking for another ten minutes, the group finally made it to the intersection. Upon reaching this area, however, Kirou decided that it was finally time to share his thoughts.

Before anyone even had the chance to ask, Kirou turned towards one path and continued walking. As he did so, the rest heard his voice, "Follow me."

The group did as they were told and followed Kirou down this path. Like that, the group traveled for another twenty or so minutes in silence with Kirou leading the way.

At this point, one of the former bandits grew impatient and approached Kirou before asking, "Leader Kirou, how much further until we get to the Bandit Stronghold?"

Kirou tilted his head to the side with a thoughtful expression on his face before answering, "About twenty minutes back the way we came and another five minutes down another path."

After saying those words, Kirou continued walking down the path without missing a beat. While the players themselves were confused, all of the former bandits stopped in unison while staring at Kirou's back.

Some had expressions of shock on their faces while others had expressions of anger that were quite visible. Out of the entire lineup, Warrior Jackson was the only one who maintained a composed expression, with only the slight narrowing of his eyes giving away his thoughts on the matter.

Realizing that everyone behind him had stopped, Kirou stopped as well and turned around to face them.

Seeing this, Jackson took this as his cue to speak up, "Leader Kirou, would you mind explaining to us why you've had us come down this path and traveled for nearly half an hour when we were only a few minutes away from the source of our anger?"

Kirou could see that Jackson was a bit angry and was doing his best to control his emotions. Instead of directly answering his question, Kirou posed one to Jackson in return, "Tell me, Senior Jackson. Are you and your men currently in a state where you can take part in a siege battle with a well-fortified stronghold filled with your former allies?"

One of the former bandits was quick to shout his response, "Of course we are! How could we not be ready to take down those traitorous bastards after what they did to us?"

The heads of most of the former bandits nodded in agreement towards the outspoken man's words, but this only caused Warrior Jackson to frown. At this point, even if they didn't want to, the other players could now see the underlying problem that Kirou wanted them to see.

At this point, Kirou could only helplessly shrug as he spoke up, "As you can see, your men are a bit too heated up to be participating in a siege battle. If I let them join as is, I can guarantee that by the time that we are done, at least a third of them will have joined those traitors in death. Even if your revenge is completed, you'd lose the men you tried to save and I'm not about to throw away so many able hands over nothing."

After speaking up to this point, Kirou turned to face Warrior Jackson and all of the former bandits. There was a frosty look in his eyes as he surveyed each and every one of them, causing them to shrink back slightly. He stared at them for a few seconds more before speaking, "Even if you and your men are to die, Senior Jackson, it will be at a place of my choosing, not yours. I refuse to have people working under me throwing away their lives due to their misplaced pride. When we start the siege on that fortress, we'll do it right. You will follow my orders to the letter and carry out your duties properly. By the end of it, I expect to see everyone alive and well to continue with the development of my area. Until you guys have cooled your heads, we'll go gather some materials at the end of this path. If any of you don't want to follow my orders, you are free to leave. Just know that if you do, you'll no longer be associated with my <Shadow Palace>."

Following those words, Kirou turned away from the group and continued walking down the tunnel. Behind him, the group of former bandits stood still with trepidation as they stared at his retreating back. A few of them were randomly glancing at each other while others were glancing between Kirou and Jackson.

As for the players, while Moon Lily was a bit hesitant, Reya, Navi, and Mistaken Fox had already started chasing after Kirou's figure. Seeing this, Moon Lily gave Warrior Jackson a polite bow before chasing after Kirou's group. Although she wanted to say something, she realized that this is an issue that Jackson and the former bandits needed to sort out on their own.

Seeing the group of players disappearing down the path, Jackson took a deep breath. He then turned towards the rest of the group before speaking up, "I know many of you don't want to hear this, but Kirou is correct. We offered our lives to him the moment we made him our master, so we live and die by his word. As it stands, he's showing consideration by giving us a choice to walk away. I'm sure all of you are aware of what would have happened had you expressed the desire to leave when the bandit group was at its peak."

Warrior Jackson allowed those words to sink in for a few moments before he, too, started walking down the path. As he did so, the men left behind heard his voice, "Whether or not we follow Master Kirou, those traitors won't live beyond today. At least by following him, we'll be able to participate in our master's plan and earn a chance for our own personal revenge along the way."

With that, Jackson's figure disappeared into the darkness, leaving the former bandits staring in that direction. No one knew who started it, but the moment one person took a step forward, the rest joined him, and the entire group hurried down that path, doing their best to catch up to Warrior Jackson and Kirou's group.

*******

Roughly ten minutes later, Warrior Jackson and his men finally caught up with Kirou's group. Just as he was about to walk over to speak with Kirou, Jackson stopped dead in his tracks as he stared at the bodies of a few men currently bound a mix of wires and chain.

The reason for this reaction was because Jackson recognized the bound men. They are members of the bandit group that abandoned Jackson and his men weeks prior.

Upon seeing Jackson and his men finally show up, Kirou momentarily glanced in Jackson's direction before speaking up, "Now that you're here, I'll leave these guys to you. You've got ten minutes. Try to extract as much information as you can before finishing them off. We're on a tight schedule, after all."

Following those words, Kirou once again ignored Jackson and his men, as he needed to go a bit further to reach the material harvesting area.

This time, however, when he left, he noticed a distinct smile on Jackson's face before he left. As he went further into the cave, he heard Jackson's voice, "Understood, Master Kirou. We'll handle this properly."

There was a small smile on Kirou's face after hearing this as he could already imagine what was about to happen to those few men. If there's one thing that he's learned from his previous life, it was that thieves and killers never took betrayal very well.

As if to prove his point, less than a minute later, Kirou and the other players were listening to the horrific sounds of the men being tortured. While the girls found the sounds to be a bit unsettling and Mistaken Fox was a bit unsure as to what he should be doing, Kirou took in the sounds as if they were music to his ears.

Kirou's hands were never idle while the sounds played out in the background. In fact, if one were to observe him closely, they would realize that his harvesting speed was changing following the variation of the screams taking place.

Well.... while the girls may have been too busy to notice this little quirk, off to the side, Mistaken Fox was privy to this tidbit of information. This resulted in him giving Kirou another once over, wondering just what kind of person this strange player is.