Chapter 160: From Confirmation to House Search (1/2)

“This has become a kind of odd story, don’t you think?”

Loren muttered after finishing his interrogations, and the others all nodded to show their agreement.

After Loren had questioned all the surviving bandits, they had checked the information with Lapis’ map, and had found the approximate location of the bandits’ base. And that was what Loren mentioned as ‘odd’.

“No matter how you look at it, this place is…”

“It’s where Tizona-chan’s ruin is.”

Lapis and Gula, who were huddling over and checking the map, pointed to the same spot at the same time. That spot was at almost the same location as the unexplored ruin Tizona told them.

The bandits Loren interrogated didn’t know what the HQ looked like, so they couldn’t get any information about that. There were three possible reasons why the bandits’ HQ was at almost the same location as Tizona’s ruin.

“It’s possible that the bandits’ HQ and the ruin are at different locations.”

Lapis raised her index finger and said as if to organize her thoughts.

“If there really is an unexplored ruin at this place, it won’t be strange to set up a bandits’ base next to it. They can do illegal diggings as a side job.”

People would only need one look to recognize an unexplored ruin even if they hadn’t known of its existence before. If one had even just a little knowledge of how much fortune an unexplored ruin could hide, they wouldn’t be able to leave it alone, even considering the danger of illegal digging.

“In that case, the bandits won’t let the treasures be taken out of the ruin.”

Ruins were dangerous places by themselves. Aside from the guardians, all kinds of monsters might settle in there. Adding bandits to that mix, and the level of danger and troublesomeness just skyrocketed. Loren felt sickened just thought about it.

“Another possibility is that the bandits have settled in the ruin.”

Lapis raised her middle finger and said.

Tizona found it questionable:

“Is it even possible?”

“It’s unlikely for a ruin to be in pristine condition. If one part of it is damaged, monsters usually come in through that and settle inside. If monsters can live there, then so do bandits. Probably.”

Everyone wondered how she could equate bandits with monsters, but considering how very annoying both were, it could indeed be said that they were similar.

Ruins’ guardians only attacked if you entered certain areas, so if you were careful, you could still live there.

“But there are lots and lots of bandits, right? Can they all fit in one ruin?”

“Yea, so der’s another possibility.”

Lapis raised her ring finger and answered Gula’s question:

“The third possibility is, the bandits set their HQ up around the ruin.”

Lapis believed this to be the most troublesome of all possibilities. It was a fusion of the first two possibilities, and it would take twice as much time to deal with.

This third theory would be unlikely to happen if the number of bandits at HQ was low. However, from what they gathered, there were quite a lot of them, so this theory was the most likely.

“Are there really a few hundreds of them at their HQ?”

“I think it’s a lie.”

All the interrogated bandits said the same, so its credibility was actually high. Loren just didn’t want to believe it. Their HQ must be on the same scale as a town or a fort if they really had a few hundred there. A bandit gang that big was so unexpected that it was unbelievable.

And there was still another question: Where the hell did they gather that many people from? Assimilating other bandit gangs in the region wouldn’t be enough. For this to be possible they had to assimilate some remote villages.

“At this stage, it’ll be a big trouble if the kingdom doesn’t step up, won’t it?”

Multiple depots with a hundred at each, and a few hundred at the HQ, in total, the member count of this bandit gang must have reached a thousand. The person who could command that many people must be quite a character, and it was difficult to imagine them as a nameless bandit.

“If I’m told that the head of this bandit gang is a spy from another country, I’ll believe it.”

“It’s actually the most desired scenario, isn’t it?”

Loren sighed. Rather than the act of some character that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, this being linked to subversive activities of another country was much more comprehensible.

“Well, whether it’s an unnamed great man or a spy, what we have to do is still the same.”

“Do we rly have to? It’s too troublesome.”

“We can’t complete Tizona’s job if we don’t.”