I was born into an aristocratic family, but through twists and turns, I was now a member of a bandit group.
When I turned 12, I received the Gift called [Telepathy]. It was a convenient Gift that allowed me to communicate with another person without speaking a single word. An extension of its ability was that it allowed me to hear the thoughts of a nearby person even without their consent.
My family wasn’t fond of it, so when I turned 20, I was driven out.
For years, I moved from place to place. And about ten years ago, I became a member of the bandit group led by Dorial.
Time passed and I was now the boss’ right hand man. The other members even adored me as their older brother.
All in all, I liked being in this group.
The boss was scary when angry, but on the other hand, he didn’t mind my Gift and even treasured it.
As for the boss himself, he possessed a combat Gift. He was very strong.
In this line of work, we would often clash with state-employed soldiers, but thanks to the boss’ might, we overcame each of them.
At the moment, our group was headed to a wasteland. A member of our group, Baal, was tasked to chase down refugees who managed to escape from us. According to the report he made via Telepathy, the refugees were in a village here.
“Aniki, it’s true, there really is a village out here.”
“I see. I was half in doubt about it myself, but it turns out Baal was saying the truth, huh.”
I was relieved to hear the scout’s report. Because then, coming all the way here wouldn’t be for nothing.
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After confirming with Baal who seemed to be within the village, I relayed the information to the boss.
“Haa, we can take this village even during the day; it’s not worthy of a night attack. But waiting until morning doesn’t make sense. Alright, let’s end this right away.”
After saying so, the boss snorted and then walked toward the village, his favorite battleaxe in hand.
Standing at over two meters, the boss was quite a giant of a man. An ordinary human would have trouble just lifting his axe, but he wielded it so effortlessly with a single hand.
We left some members behind to watch over the other refugees we caught, so we only had about 40 members with us. Even so, this much was already overkill for a village like this.
Before long, we reached the gate of the village.
As precaution, we moved without any lit torches, relying only on the light provided by the moon and the stars. Now that we were here at the entrance though, we lit our torches all at once.
“Gang! Follow me! Oraaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Leading the charge was the boss himself.
He slammed himself into the gate and it was blown away. Granted, it was only a wooden structure, but to do so much with a single attack was awe-inspiring nonetheless.
““Oooooooooooohhh!!!””
Following the boss, we all rushed in as well.
I couldn’t help but notice something strange at that time though: I suddenly didn’t feel the ground beneath my feet anymore.
“““…eh?”””
For a moment, I felt like I was floating.
In the next though, my body began to fall. I as well as the others panicked, of course.
Did we fall into a pit!?
However, instead of falling onto some spikes, we only fell onto some water.
“Buhaa!? Shit, they placed a moat behind the wall!?”
I swallowed some of the water due to the suddenness of it all, but I made it to the surface without any other issue.
But for me to even have to swim up meant that the moat was quite deep. Most moats were only about as deep as the height of the average man.
And then, one by one, lights illuminated the other side of the moat, revealing the figures of several people.
The people of this village not only knew we were coming, but also prepared against us?
“Don’t make light of us! We can swim our way–!?”
Before the boss could even finish, I felt the temperature of the water drop to the point that I shivered.