The aftermath of the bandits' encounter with "paralyzing eyes" is silence. They are sitting obliviously.

"What the hell happened?" Almade laments.

"Probably, rare magic. The girl with long bang and chestnut hair. Something from her eyes." Atir replies while pouring beer directly from bottle to his mouth. He continues, "That strange magic is not learnt, probably inherited from her bloodline. Without understanding her limit, it is foolish to chase after her."

"Boss, so that's why you stopped us from having after them?" An underling asks from beside him.

Atir just nods.

Almo adds, "And the three girls we overcame were very good fighters, we only succeed by making surprise attacks."

Almade nods, "Yes. In well prepared one on one fight outdoor, things will get troublesome." 

"...." They become quiet for some time.

"Still.... For that many capable women assembling at one place, led by a man... What kind of man is him?" Atir poses a question with serious face. 

Everyone just either stare at the ceiling, floor and each other face, blankly.

***

A day later in a small town several hours away by horse from Megis. The girls are with me in bar, same as yesterday, we are being pestered by thugs.

Two men fondle half exposed boobs of Clementine and Kurotsuchi. 

"Stop. Remove your dirty hands." The girls warn but the men keep massaging their elastic breasts.

The two girls respond back to them and punch the men back in the pit of their stomach.

"Guh……ggh……go……"

They lift their dirty hands away from the girls' boobs.

The men stagger, clutching their chest as they dribble gastric juice, then eventually knock over a table and fall down.

"What? Is that it?"

I thought they were more agile than they looks, but they were actually not that strong.

"Bitches, don’t think you can get away scot-free."

A man loses his temper, climbing on top of the table and scattering the food and wine before anybody could have a taste.

Hey, don’t put your foot on the table. 

Myla slams the edge of the table with one hand.

That is enough for the cheap yet heavy table to flip, knocking the little man off balance and spinning him in midair.

Sekrit grab his hair as he screams, carrying his dangling body like a mother cat carries her kitten.

"We won’t go free? Then how much will you give us?"

"H-how about one gold coin?"

Blinking innocently, the man meekly offers a hand holding the said coin.

If you’re giving it to us, I’ll take it.

After I accept the money, Sekrit throws the man out of the store.

He bounces on the ground once, making a nasty groan, and rolls outside.

Sekrit dust her hands off and survey the area.

Of course, everyone is staring menacingly at us, excluding the shopkeeper.

"What? Are the rest of you going to give me something too?" Clementine provokes.

"Don’t get cocky, bitch."

The shouting man takes a knife out of his pocket with a blade measuring 15 cm long.

"I’ll slice you up!"

He waves his knife from right to left, then left to right, but because the course is not in line to hit Sekrit, she doesn’t particularly react.

"H-huh?"

"Oh, are you playing around?"

When he swings his knife at Sekrit cheek, she simply tilts her head to the side and dodges it by a hair’s breadth.

With such a short knife, aiming somewhere other than the neck won’t kill her, what a weird guy.

"Hm?"

Next he thrusts at my jaw, but I keep the lower half of my body planted firmly and simply lean my upper body back to dodge.

With such a short blade, you won’t get sufficient reach by thrusting only with your arm.

"W-why can’t I hit her?"

He was threatening Sekrit over and over so I thought he was going to do something, don’t tell me that was his attack.

"How does she dodges with that tall body?"

"I-I can’t see his moves……"

The others are also on the same level, huh?

Well, I guess that’s expected of a bunch of thugs.

"N-no more mercy! I’ll seriously kill you...eh?"

While he’s busy rambling, Sekrit reaches out and grabs the back of the knife where it isn’t sharp, and steal the knife. If he is going to be a thug, he should train holding weapon better.

"H-how about I give you three gold coins?"

He smiles nervously as he rubs his hands together.

If he insists, I’ll take it. Afterward, she kicks his stomach an he collapses.

Kurotsuchi tugs my sleeve and whispers.

Looking at her again, she really is dressed lewdly.

"Infiltrating. We’re infiltrating."

"Oh, right."

We were going to intimidate them a bit and then try to find out about the slave trade by asking things related to profit-making, except my calculations went awry. How should I fix it?

"I guess I’ll have to half-kill everyone, search for the hideout, then infiltrate." Clementine nonchalantly says.

"The infiltration has already failed. Let’s go home."

As Kurotsuchi gives up, the entrance door opens with a bang.

"How long are you guys gonna fool around!!? I told you to gather out front when the sun rises!!"

Everyone but us flinch from the angry yell.

Just as Kurotsuchi’s brows furrow, a bright light gleams from her eye.

"That’s the head or an officer at the very least."

I nod internally at her hushed voice.

The man also observes me.

He is the same height as me or slightly shorter. Although he is smaller both vertically and horizontally than the earlier man, this guy is evidently a lot stronger.

His gaze instantly sweeps from his underlings, me then lastly to the girls.

Unlike that big guy whose eyes were only glued to the girls' ass and tits, the presence this guy gives off tells me the number of fights he’s been in is on a different level.

He mercilessly tramples on the other man’s head.

"Listen, insect! When you guys are late, the cargo transport is late! And when the transport is late, we lose profit! My profit and the boss’s profit goes down, don’t you get it!!?"

Kurotsuchi’s eye gleams again.

After he has had enough of stepping on the man who is holding his head and leaking blood from his nose, he stares at the fallen man.

"Fine, I’ll hire you guys. You can replace the bug who kicked the bucket."

"Yeah."

I instinctively respond, thinking to myself that this progressed in a strange direction.

However Kurotsuchi shows me the ‘OK’ mark with her fingers, so I guess this is fine.

"Your job is to transport the ‘goods’ and act as bodyguard. You get paid double what the small fry get, and you get a bonus if you’re useful. Also……there are employee benefits. I’m sure you’ll love what we have in store."

"That’s great. I look forward to working with you."

I fold my arms internally while replying.

Even though this is to expose his wrongdoings, I never expected to go from a slave to a king and now to a henchman of a criminal organization.

Ivanna will definitely be furious if she finds out, I better keep this a secret.

The man and I are finished, but the other men seem baffled.

"Boss, are you sure? Who knows where this guy comes from."

"You’re telling me that there is a person with an upstanding background among you shits?"

I laugh internally at how dumb the question was.

I gently rub Kurotsuchi’s back as she got goosebumps all over her body, and I sneakily trace a finger over her ass crack.

When I poke her hole, she glares at me.

I give cue to her to continue acting.

"Looks like you’ll make some big money. Do your best."

Kurotsuchi sticks out her tongue, seeking a kiss.

I rub her uncovered shapely breasts and hug her.

The top priority is to confirm the boss’s face and location. Next, find out where the goods, I mean where the slaves are being collected.

Kurotsuchi mutters a thank you and licks my chin.

"Hey you, don’t flirt right after getting the position! I’ll let you do it as much as you want on a big clean bed after you do your job! Get moving!!"

The thugs follow him in succession.

It’s not that they don’t have complaints about me, that’s just how scared they are of the boss.

"Yeah, I’ll be right there."

We leave the bar together with the thugs.

It seems we will be leaving the town.

We won’t be hiding in the cover of night or passing through an underground tunnel, we’ll be forming groups and walking boldly from the front.

Of course the citizens will be wary of a bunch of villainous-looking men, but they would all be watching tensely from within their houses.

The jealous Clementine sticks closely to me as I am feeling her supple ass and breasts.