Very Wrong Reincarnation: Isekai with Game Nation

Chapter 17

However, a sudden interruption echoed through the tension – a gunshot.

Bang!

"Stop!"

The resounding gunfire was followed by a commanding shout, compelling both sides to freeze in their tracks. The leading assailants turned to face the unexpected gunfire, and Nive, driven by instinct, glanced behind her. There stood Leticia, not fleeing as expected.

"What are you doing!?" Nive's voice rang out, questioning why the others hadn't made their escape.

"Those aren't Valurians! They attacked them first to begin with!" Leticia explained, attempting to pacify the nervous Nive, whose senses were on edge due to the fear induced by the opposing side.

The words from Leticia snapped Nive back to reality. She redirected her attention to the other side, noticing a figure of higher rank engaging in a low conversation with the former leader of the assailants, their guns now pointed downward.

For a few more seconds, their conversation seemed to conclude. The person of higher rank stepped forward and offered a polite apology. "My apologies to my hot-blooded subordinate," he stated. "They thought you could be bandits."

This explanation irritated Nive, given the fear and anxiety the person had induced in her, which chipped away at her pride. "You think we're bandits!?" she roared. "Do we look like bandits to you!?"

"No," the person calmly replied.

"Then why can't your men discern that!?" Nive aggressively retorted. "And there are no bandits here!"

"For the first question, only a few knew there are no bandits here... actually, on how many remained," he explained, pausing to observe the calm and curious expression on Leticia's face and the aggravated look on Nive's. He continued, "And for the second question, the reason why there are no bandits here is that we wiped them out." This revelation elicited, synced two different moods from them, accordingly — opening their eyes wide in surprise.

He continued, "Those vermin kept pestering our friends in Mineas. Thus, the governor ordered their total extermination. We've counted 372 bodies of those lowlife idiots so far, and the count is still ongoing. The criminal reports of bandit attacks in the surrounding border should have greatly diminished in the past three weeks of our operation," he explained, shedding light on the events unfolding in the shadows.

Silence lingered in the surroundings before Leticia broke it. "I see, so that's how the bandits somehow disappeared, and their dens were destroyed. The people they captured have been liberated and returned to the border outpost. So, you're the 'ghosts' they're talking about," she said to them, with Nive tilting her head in confusion.

"No, we're not ghosts, but when operating, well, kind of like one. Spooky and we only strike in the most unimaginable places possible," he admitted. "It's not our thing to get those folks out in the open once we've slaughtered those vermin. In fact, bringing those captured slowed us down. Well, anyway, we got praised by the governor, so nothing bad, despite taking our precious time to slaughter more of them," he said without any hint of emotion.

Leticia found his unpredictability intriguing. The way he spoke about this 'governor' made her question his identity. Why would a highly trained person like him take orders from a governor? Could they be a private army cozying up against Valur slave convoys and presently attacking them? However, she couldn't understand why they would hunt down bandits openly, especially speaking people in Mineas as friends since the only people considered friends in Mineas were those from Kashim. Meanwhile, Valur regarded non-humans as nothing but commodities, and the majority of people living in Mineas weren't remotely human.