Raid [1]

"You also know that very well that no one can harm this village if I don't want them to," said Haruto as he narrowed his eyes.

"Hmph," Zen smiled, Haruto had hit the mark. There was no one better than Zen who knew that no one can harm this village if Haruto is defending it.

But he had missed a thing; Haruto never said that he would defend the village if it were to get attacked. He has simply said that they can't attack *if* he doesn't want them to.

Since he doesn't want to reveal his powers, there was a high probability that he'll just leave this village and settle in a new one if something like that ever happened.

"Very well, I don't have the power to force you if you don't want to help me," said Zen.

"If that's all you had to say, I'll excuse myself," said Haruto as he opened the door of the carriage and went out.

As he was about to leave he turned behind and looked at Zen.

"How's Jessica doing?" he asked, it was Zen and only Zen he hated. He didn't carry and hate for Mary or Jessica.

"She hasn't completely left her room but he comes out often to eat and walk in the evening," Zen replied.

After listening to this, Haruto looked away and walked toward his home, it was almost night and he wanted to sleep.

An adventurer who often eats with Haruto joined him on his way back home, he was a boy with brown and ordinary black eyes. His name was Ryan, he shared the same inn with Haruto. Though Haruto mostly isolated himself from the rest of the village, Ryan was the only one he talked to.

You would be wrong if you say that they were friends; Ryan liked to talk to him because he admired Haruto since he was the only platinum-ranked adventurer in this village. And it was not like Haruto could stay fully isolated so he used Ryan to relieve his stress.

It was a type of relationship which both parties formed for their own benefits; after all, making friends was a Haruto was worst at.

On their way, Ryan asked him things like who were those people he met and why were they searching for him. He simply dodged the question by saying things like 'I don't know who they were' or 'They wanted to hire me as a mercenary' and so on.

They reached their inn and went into their own rooms. Haruto fell asleep as soon as he entered his room, he didn't even eat dinner.

***

The carriage that was carrying the elf children and the silver-haired girl stopped. Outside was a stone building that looked like a small castle, there were two watch towers at the gate and it was shielded with high and thick stone walls.

It was not a castle but it would be better to call it a fortress. It was one of the bases of the bandit group.

The carriage stopped before the big wooden door which was closed. Two bandits which were guarding the door approached the driver and did an identity check.

When it was confirmed that he was a part of this group, the guard gave a signal to the people on the watch tower and they singled the men who were inside, they pulled the ropes and the gate was opened.

The carriage moved forward and stopped when it was inside the fortress, some bandits came and instructed the children and the girl to come outside. They went off the carriage and were taken to the basement.

The girl who had silver hair was looking around the fortress like she was scanning it; she didn't have that much fear on her face.

"Move faster! Take them to the basement quickly! He had to raid a village after this!" a bandit said to another bandit who was leading the children and the girl to the basement.

"Okay okay I know!" he replied.

"Move your legs quickly you brat!" she shouted at the kid who was last in the line and kicked her.

"How is the village we're going to raid this time?" he asked the other man who was with him.

"Ahhh, I don't know the details but it's a small village compared to the ones we looted before," he replied, he had brown beard and a scar on his face.

"Are you an idiot or what? If it's a small village then we can finish the raid quickly. Damn it I'm so excited! I hope there are some good women there," said the guy who asked first.

"You're again on your search for milfs," said the guy with the scar.

"Shut up Scar! At least I'm better than a lolicon like you!" he said to the guy with the scar, apparently his name was also Scar.

"Everyone has their own choices and fantasies, there's no point in arguing or forcing our opinion on others," said Scar.

"Huh? Are you a philosopher? Well, what you said is right I guess," replied the other man.

***

Haruto was deep in sleep when he heard some crisping noises, he changed his position and again tried to sleep while ignoring the voices.

A while later, the sounds of rushing footsteps could be heard in the inn, it was like people were running rapidly.

—Click!

The door of his room opened and someone came in.

"Hey you! Wake up bastard!" shouted the man who entered the room.

Haruto slightly opened his eyes; he was still half asleep so his vision was not clear, "Ahhh, just 5 minutes more! Let me sleep 5 minutes more," said Haruto before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

The man clicked his tongue in anger when he saw Haruto insulting him like this.

"YOU BASTARD!" he shouted and kicked Haruto in the stomach.

Due to this, Haruto's body went into defensive mode and reacted on instinct. He quickly stood up, did a 360-degree spin, and landed a kick on that man's face.

He went flying and crashed into the wall behind him, he broke through Haruto's room wall and stopped when he crashed into the hallway's wall.

He didn't move a muscle after that; he was knocked unconscious by that kick.

When all this was over, Haruto slowly opened his eyes as he continued rubbing them with his hands.

"Huh? Looks like I did it again," he mumbled as he saw that guy's body was lying there like a sack of potatoes.