The Kind-hearted Robber

Chaos Era, Year 1815.

"Ah! Moke, shut up! Just shut up already!" Liyana covered her ears.

"Could you at least not start every sentence with either 'let go' or 'shut up' when calling my name?" Moke replied helplessly.

"Then could you stop either biting me or singing every time?" Liyana shot back defiantly.

"Is my singing really that bad?" Moke pouted, seemingly unconvinced.

Liyana widened her eyes. "Do you really have no self-awareness? If it were up to me, I’d ask Musen to cast a healing spell on my ears every time you finish singing!"

"Should I?" Musen suddenly looked up.

"Ah, just kidding. No need to waste your magic on something so trivial," Liyana waved her hand dismissively.

"Because it’s bad, that’s why I need to practice harder..." Moke clenched his fist lightly, as if steeling his resolve.

"And what about us? Are you just going to sacrifice your teammates for this?" Liyana wailed dramatically.

"If it’s just you, I won’t feel the slightest bit guilty."

Moke lowered his eyelids slightly and glanced at Xia Lun sitting across from him.

At the moment, the five of them were crammed inside a carriage—Liyana and Aina sat on one side, while the petite Moke and the towering Musen occupied the other.

Xia Lun showed no reaction.

Noticing Moke’s gaze, Xia Lun removed two cotton balls from his ears. "What is it?"

Moke: "..."

That small gesture from Xia Lun inflicted far greater damage than Liyana’s endless complaints.

Moke then turned to Aina, who sat half a meter away from Xia Lun, her face expressionless, seemingly entirely unaffected by his singing.

"Yes?"

Since Moke was still her teammate, Aina wouldn’t outright ignore him.

She lightly touched her earlobe, and with a faint shimmer, a simple silencing spell dissipated.

"N-never mind. Sorry for bothering you." Moke’s face fell.

Suddenly, the moving carriage jolted violently, accompanied by the neighing of horses and the driver’s sharp exhale as it came to an abrupt stop.

Aina swayed slightly, losing her balance, and her hand landed on Xia Lun’s thigh before she quickly pulled it back.

"Something wrong outside?" Liyana lifted the carriage curtain.

"S-sirs!" The temporarily hired driver stammered in reply. "We’ve been ambushed by bandits!"

"What? Bandits? That’s perfect!" Liyana exclaimed excitedly.

"Huh?" The driver wondered if he’d misheard.

Liyana turned back into the carriage. "Xia Lun, did you hear that? Bandits! Can I handle this one?"

"Do as you like," Xia Lun replied resignedly.

Liyana grabbed the quiver and longbow at her feet and rushed out eagerly.

"I’ll lend a hand too. Can’t let Miss Liyana face any danger alone," Musen slowly rose from his seat.

"Why is she so excited? Is she some kind of deranged killer?" Moke muttered in disbelief.

"Because when we first started adventuring, we were broke," Xia Lun reminisced, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Our first income came from the kindness of bandits."

Kind bandits?

Moke’s lips twitched, unsure how to respond.

Then again, anyone foolish enough to rob them clearly had no sense of judgment.

......

"Boss, there’s a carriage up ahead!"

"Oh? Just one?" Xelow raised an eyebrow.

This area was his territory—the infamous Xelow the Mad Blade, with a bounty of a hundred gold coins on his head. Who would dare trespass so recklessly?

"Y-yes! Probably outsiders who haven’t heard of your reputation, Boss," a lackey quickly flattered.

"Then rally the men! Time to get to work!"

As the carriage reached the crossroads, a group of over a dozen bandits leaped out from behind the roadside trees, startling the driver into halting abruptly.

Then, an elf stepped out of the carriage.

Xelow’s eyes lit up. Just this elf alone—whether sold into slavery or kept for himself—would be a massive profit.

Next, a muscular, bald giant emerged from the carriage.

Xelow’s expression darkened. That guy was clearly not to be trifled with.

So that’s how it was. The bald one must be their bodyguard, which explained their audacity to enter his domain with so few people.

But Xelow wasn’t about to back down.

After all, he’d once been an adventurer himself—a mid-tier warrior with peerless blade skills. He wasn’t the least bit intimidated.

"Hey, got any last words?"

To his surprise, the elf woman was the first to speak.

Xelow paused.

Probably relying on that bodyguard for confidence, huh?

Once he hacked off that bald head and kicked it like a ball, he wondered what expression that pretty face would make.

"Hand over everything valuable! The elf stays with me—the rest can scram!" Xelow pointed at Liyana with a vicious grin.

"How unoriginal," Liyana sighed.

In the next instant, she drew her bow and loosed an arrow, piercing a bandit’s heart before anyone could react.

"She’s an archer!"

"Charge!"

"Return fire!"

Under Xelow’s command, the bandits moved with surprising coordination—some advancing with round shields, others nocking arrows, resembling a proper adventurer party.

Without skill, Xelow wouldn’t have thrived as a bandit.

Musen shielded the driver, blocking several rusty, poorly maintained arrows. To him, they stung less than the hornets they’d faced earlier.

Liyana’s hands became a blur. Despite the four or five enemy archers, she outpaced them all, her arrows striking true—each one crippling a shield-bearing bandit with shots to the legs, leaving them writhing in agony.

Xelow finally realized something was wrong. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.

Were these two bounty hunters sent to claim his head?

Gritting his teeth, Xelow turned tail and fled.

A moment later, a razor-sharp arrow pierced his throat, pinning him to a tree.

"How foolish, turning your back on an archer," Liyana lamented before hopping off the carriage to rummage through the corpses.

"These guys are dirt poor. Nothing valuable at all."

Moke suggested, "Should we take the leader’s head? Might be worth a bounty."

Liyana shuddered in disgust, "Eww—no way, that's just too gross. Besides, this guy's so weak, how much could he possibly be worth?"