Chapter 530 (1/2)

“Die, you fool!” The Bandit King leapt at him with his bloody blade raised.

The young boy managed to bring out his hidden knife just in time. As he caught the blade with his own sword, the knife slipped into the larger man’s gut. He let out a noise, stumbled back, and then collapsed to the ground dead.

Seeing their leader fall, the bandits turned and ran. This Bandit King also was their Dark Priest. That’s how he had brought so many of them to him. He had managed to acquire two jobs, and one allowed him to resurrect dead bandits. Officially, the church refused to resurrect someone who had done enough crimes to earn the Bandit job and have it be their primary profession. Priests wouldn’t change a Bandits job, and they wouldn’t resurrect a bandit.

It was possible for a Bandit to lose their Bandit profession by reforming until another job took precedence, but the more banditry you did, the more the job stuck. Thus, the rather rare Dark Priest was a coveted position among Bandits. This one just so happened to be strong as well.

With his death, none of the bandits would be able to be resurrected. Suddenly, their unstoppable reign of terror across the country-side had ended like that. They would be more careful with their lives in the future, and wouldn’t boldly attack villages as they had been doing.

The boy who defeated the Bandit King collapsed to the ground. It had been pure luck that he had managed to do it. He had seen them cut down his father, and he had been filled with rage and hatred.

“You have saved this village, for that, I grant you the token of the Hero. You are this village’s Hero from this moment onward!”

The mayor of the village tossed money and rewards on him, and the boy used it to buy good armor and good weapons. Then, he collected all the coin his city had and set out for the Imperial Cloud City to find a Priest to resurrect his father and the rest of the village. He experienced many hardships on the way and eventually was scammed by a woman out of most of his coin and armor. She had claimed to be a White Mage and had the ability to resurrect his village. However, that had been a lie, and she had fled with everything but the trinkets he needed to save them. By the time he made it to the capital, he no longer had the money to save his people.

“Please! I will pay you back! My village will pay you back!”

“Hmph! Do you think we run a charity? If you don’t contribute to the Gods, then you don’t get a resurrection!”

“But… this isn’t about me… it’s… my village, my people.”

“Who are they? You’re all nothing. If they were so important, they’d have someone more competent and richer than you to resurrect them!”

Desperate to save at least some, he got a job in the city, doing anything he could to raise money. Yet, he only had a short span of time, and by the time he was done, he had only earned enough to save one person.”

“My father, please… this is his sword. Bring him back!”

“Very well…”

They cast the spell, but it didn’t work.

“The item you selected was not attached to your father.”

“N-no… impossible. Father… he said he fought with this sword in the north. He fought demons! It’s why I wanted to be a hero!”

“Many fathers who lived unremarkable lives will make up such things.”

The boy shook for a bit, but he finally got his breathing under control and decided what to do, “Then… please, resurrect him using me as the bond.”

“The spell has already been cast. Do you have enough for another?”

He didn’t… the month passed, and he left the capital having been unable to resurrect anyone. With shame in his eyes, he returned to his mother. Even if he had his Hero token taken away, he would make it up to everyone he had wronged, even if it took him his whole life.

In the end, he didn’t have to though. When he returned to the town, all he found were ashes and skeletons. The bandits had found a new leader, and to consolidate his power, he had destroyed the village who killed the last. Worst of all, the boy could have been there on time, if he had used the Return ability. However, being inexperienced, he didn’t know about its existence, and even if he did, he was so ashamed, he needed time.

He eventually found a bandit still plundering the wreckage hoping to find something his brothers missed and managed to corner him.

“You killed them all!” the boy accused.

“N-No… they’ll just be resurrected, right?”