Epic Of The Demonic Sage

"Anything, sir, lord!" the nervous one said while the other also nodded his head promptly.

"You have mentioned that there is a group of people hunting down bandits? Tell me more about who they are and how the two of you evaded their capture." Lucius said.

'Based on the delays of their arrival here, I can easily conclude that they must have done a lot of running and hiding to survive.' Lucius thought.

The two were indeed bandits and were dressed in a manner that was actually befitting of their station. However, in addition to the usual bandit attire, one could notice the grass, mud and other signs of running for their lives on their attire.

'If it truly weren't for Lord Asher needing answers from them, then I wouldn't have even allowed a single one of them to approach. I can smell their stench all the way from here. It's an unpleasant odor of sweat along with grass and others…' Kiana thought as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

True to Lucius's conclusion, the two bandits began to explain their situation and were actually stuck in a strange contradiction.

One wanted to ramble and explain everything.

The other wanted to keep it brief and straight to the point.

"We were able to escape by the skin of our teeth, sir, lord! Multiple bandit groups have been taken out!"

"We don't know what happened. When the first group went down, we assumed that it was just the local nobility getting lucky and capturing them. Our bandit chief was mostly just happy that we lost competition because it's tough being a bandit group when there are others in the same area."

"Either way, that was the first mistake that our bandit chief and the others within the nearby territories made when we simply assumed it was a one way deal."

"It's… hard, but even if there's conflict and competition between the groups, we still sometimes end up needing to trade and barter with one another. And when the first bandit group didn't start contacting us, well, we and several other bandit groups thought it was pretty much a good idea to raid their base. It was practically up for grabs, sir."

"Yes, I can see why your group and the others would think it was a good idea to pursue that." Lucius nodded.

When a competition was eliminated, it was only natural to wish and check their areas to gather any possible spoils.

"It… it was to our surprise to know that the Blue Th—"

"Don't say their names." The second man hissed.

"They're already all dead. What difference would it make, Helm?" the first one snapped back. "But yes, sir, lord, you could imagine the shock and horror in our faces when we saw the people killed there."

"Only your face." The second one said, already looking slightly annoyed at the way that the first one mentioned his name, even though it was most likely an alias.

Suffice to say, they didn't exactly feel safe, and it was up to Lucius to facilitate a certain level of trust in order to make the process easier.

The process of interrogation wasn't necessarily easy unless there was a rapport between the people and thus Lucius cleared his throat.

"Please call me by the name of Lucius, Helm. I understand that there truly was a level of shock that occurred during such an ordeal. I actually do appreciate the details," Lucius said with a far more genial in his tone and voice.

His initial decision to choose an interrogative method was rapidly switched to this method, and could have been the first one that Lucius adapted to for high-stakes situations where answers were needed.

'Well, I did not necessarily need to communicate in a manner as I did have the upper hand and it is clear to these two criminals that their safety depends on me, but without allowing them to trust me, then they'll find themselves at a certain state of unease.'

If one had to choose between fear and love, it was better to be feared than loved. However, a greater number of people were most likely to respond to some level of rapport and trust.

As Lucius finished his words, the two criminals exchanged looks and were a little shocked at the change in demeanor.

It was something that eased the tension a little for the first bandit who threw a look at Helm as if to say that it was better to speak more.

Helm seemed a little on edge still, but also loosened up lightly. 

'As long as our information makes this man say yes and allow us to stay here, then it is better for him to sympathize and like us. We have to survive, and damn, Peter already revealed my name anyway so there's not much use hiding his. We have aliases for a reason but he goes out and uses my real one.' Helm thought frustratedly.

"Thank you for your kind words, Sir Lucius." Peter said with a far more easy smile. "It… not every one of us was as shocked as I was, but it was a terrible event regardless, and it made all of us really cautious. The bodies were rotting, infested with flies, and left there when we arrived at their base."

"But especially because the ones who were involved in the murder of the Blue Thieves were also there, it was an ambush. Fortunately, since a lot of bandit groups were there, I think there wasn't much engagement besides it being meant for gathering of information I think, now that I'm thinking about it now.

Back then, we thought they were stragglers also wanting to raid the base, but they were actually the ones responsible for murdering all of the Blue Thieves and we didn't even have a single clue. They were right under our noses back then."

"We saw some of them, but they mostly escaped and just attacked again in the future. They took out one bandit group after another. It was terrifying, Sir Lucius."

"I see. I can understand why it's frightening. This is a premeditated attack. Something that was thought upon by an organized group of people, and with how the two of you had described them, they were able to do it with a level of strategy that made you guys underestimate them at first." Lucius acknowledged.

'I cannot help but think if this is the Aarkaves Mercenaries. Well, a certain group of them is designated for information gathering and they also have had individuals good with combat like Doyle was to a certain extent, and he was just at the lower ranks.

But there is no credibility and certainty to my words unless I were to gather more information from these two. Nurse June back then was a difficult threat, even at her rank, so if these people were truly from the same organization, then they would have been strong enough to handle multiple bandit groups.' Lucius thought.

It was far better to not instantly jump to a certain conclusion, and Lucius was open to having the truth revealed to him on the proper occasion, but without the information, Lucius was fine enough to speculate about it.

If anything, Lucius's instincts were clear cut above everyone else due to his experience in the past life, so if he was actually wrong about this, then he would have gotten disappointed in himself.

There was a level of certainty needed in his past life as a scholar, researcher and even a mage where even one little mistake had dire consequences and so he also applied it now in his new life.

"We really missed the signs until it was too late and that was frustrating." Helm said and grabbed his head, frustratedly. "It should have been so obvious, but we still missed it until everyone was dying and there was nothing we could do until it was our turn to be the next victims."

"We could have all banded together, stayed to be more cohesive and stronger, but everyone thought it was far better to stay at their own locations than work with any of them, afraid that there was a traitor and a spy in their midsts." Peter added with a shake of his head. "It's a terrible world, not being able to trust, but I guess it really comes down to the line of work too."

Lucius found themselves to be interesting enough of a tail and was already trying to find ways as to how to operate with this, but it still begged for a far larger question at the end of the day once Peter and Helm were done with them recounting the tales.

'I need to gather information on how they look, act and speak and I will leave it for Kiana to pursue while I do not have the time to do it myself.' Lucius thought.

"Did any of you either catch a glimpse of this group of people who finished off the bandit groups by any chance, gentlemen?"