CHAPTER 13:

HIT 'N' RUN

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As Steve walked away from the group to find a place to relieve himself, he cursed. "Those assholes! They keep messing with me just because I'm the youngest! Don't you know age doesn't equal skill? What kind of toxic workplace is this? I swear Imma file a complaint to HR one of these days..."*

*Disclaimer: They are bandits, not office workers.*

He kept grumbling as he walked, and not until he was quite some distance away from the group, far enough that the light from the fire wasn't able to reach him anymore, did he realize he was in total darkness.

Being unable to see well had the effect of highlighting his other senses, and also his imagination, for better or worse. In this case, it was definitely for the worse. A simple tree branch began to look like an arm, the tree itself looked like it had faces. The stars behind the leaves looked like eyes that were staring at him. The shadows seemed to be flickering and shuffling, as if they were sentient.

Not making it any better, the chilly air, the sound of the wind whooshing and the nocturnal creatures crawling about only served to cause more paranoia. It was as if the forest was moving, giggling and whispering. 

"C-Calm down me, this is just a normal, most ordinary forest, nothing's out there to get me, everything's fine, that tree's just a tree, those lights are just stars...even though they're near the ground…" He tried to dismiss his fears, turning his head left and right like a chicken to find the optimal spot. When he did find one, which was a large tree stump with a hole underneath, he pulled down his pants, and the sound of water was heard.

"A little girl's ghost haunting the forest… What a joke. Just an awful ghost story to scare me cause they're all assholes. When something dies, its soul is immediately collected by our god Aethryus - everyone knows that, so it is impossible for a ghost to exist, much less for one to be behind me right now…"

The moment he said that, Steve felt someone's hand grabbing his shoulder, and something cold touching his throat. "H-Hey, stop doing that you guys, it doesn't work the first time, it obviously won't work the second...time?" As he slowly turned his head to his left, he saw a pale white face covered by black hair. The shadows casted by moonlight on the face combined with his imagination made it look like it had no eyes, only two hollow holes where they should have been. He couldn't see its nose and mouth, which of course was because they were in his blind spot, but he didn't realize that and just assumed it didn't have them.

"Come with me~", the face whispered into his ears. Hearing that, his face froze and he fell face down on the spot, with his pants still unzipped.

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"Uhhh, hello?" For some reason, Steve the bandit had dropped to the ground in front of me as if his power switch was turned off like *poof*. So I just stood there with my dagger out, while near my feet was an unconscious man with his pants pulled down…

Officer wait, this is a misunderstanding! I didn't do nuthin to 'em! I was just standing there, and he just fell! Him being naked from the waist down is just a coincidence, please put the handcuffs away!

While I was panicking, I heard voices coming from the bandit camp. "Steve? What's taking you so long? Do you have bladder issues or something?"

Damn, there goes my plan. I was intending to catch the bandits one by one, with this guy first and the rest when they couldn't find him and inevitably had to split up to search. But now it seemed they already were coming before I had the chance to hide Steve. 

*Tsk.* Abandoning my objective, I climbed up a tree, hid behind the leaves as the men came and inevitably found Steve.

"What? He's lying on the ground? Did he pass out or something? We didn't even drink that much though." The full bearded bandit spoke to the other two who were with him, then went ahead toward the unconscious Steve.

"Hey, Steve! Wake up or you gonna get a cold!" He shook his knocked-out companion by the shoulder, but got no response.

"Hey!" He shook harder, on his face a worried look. "Yo, wake up! If you're trying to scare us, it ain't working, alright? We're sorry for tricking you but that was funny, okay? This on the other hand isn't, so stop it." 

There was still not a sign of movement from Steve. At this point, the two other bandits also started to worry. "Steve! Get up or you'll get a cold for god's sake!"

"...Steve?" After several times shaking the motionless man, a horrified look appeared on their faces. "No, it can't be!" The full bearded bandit cried out. "Is he...d-dead?!" 

"What! Impossible! Steve can't be dead!" The boss despaired. "It must be a mistake! He was still alive and lively minutes ago!"

"B-But… he wasn't moving, or responding… He... he's gone!" Immediately after he said that, the full bearded bandit bursted out crying.

"N-No, that can't be the truth! Our Steve… OUR STEVE!!!" The mustached bandit, seemingly to have lost strength in his legs, kneeled lifelessly before he himself also cried out loud. "WHO!!! Who has done this to you? I'LL KILL THEM! I'll kill them all even if I lose this life!"

Even their boss couldn't hold back his tears from making rivers on his face. "Steve… I can't believe you left us… after we've sworn to be together forever… Why, Steve, why…" A lump in his throat prevented him from talking coherently.

"It was my fault!" The full bearded bandit shouted. "If only I hadn't told him that story… then he wouldn't have gotten scared and wandered off and… and died!"

"No, it was my fault! I was the one who poked his back, remember? If I hadn't done that, he wouldn't have gotten angry and left!" The mustached bandit interrupted him.

"No, it was...our fault." The boss wiped his tears as he looked at the sky. "Steve said he needed to relieve himself because he was full from the ale we drank. If we hadn't had this party, then he would've still been with us…" He lamented.

And so the three bandits kneeled around Steve with eyes full of tears, each kept putting the blame on themselves.

Meanwhile…

Wait he died??? How? All I did was tap his shoulder! How can someone die from that??? Did you have a heart problem or something? Does my hand have some kind of obscure magic that kills people if I touch them? 

Look, I didn't want to kill anyone, okay. If I did, I could've just told my knives to stab them while they were still around the camp! All I wanted was to capture them, get some information and bring them to the authority to get some bounty reward! 

And could the three of you stop crying?! Not only that my money's gone, now I'm beginning to feel guilty because of you!

...If-if I just leave now, nobody's goona notice me, right? I won't be held responsible for murder, right? I can't be going to jail less than a week after arriving in this world!?

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