They held the child hostage and were waiting to negotiate with the bandits.
“Whoa, what do we do? They’re finally here!”
Ignoring Imon, who was panicking now that they had arrived, we looked up at the sky to greet the bandit group. A considerable number of Hunter Harpies were coming towards us with incredible speed.
They dove down like arrows, raising dust, and landed on the ground. The aged man who had spoken with Imon took the lead and walked towards us with a fearsome expression.
“Hey, you’re the ones who kidnapped the child, aren’t you?”
Forcing my fleeing legs to move, I took a step forward.
“That’s right, give them back…”
“You bastard! I’ll tear you limb from limb!”
Before I could finish speaking, everyone behind him seemed ready to pounce.
“Just a minute, old man. If you move from there, your precious child will get hurt.”
Seeing Karubene holding the hostage, the leader stopped.
“Damn it, how cowardly…!”
“Cowardly? No, you’re just good at jokes. If you want them back, release the water source.”
Accusations rose from behind the man. Everyone was criticizing him for using a child as a shield.
“Look, you guys stopped the water source arbitrarily, causing us trouble. You might not have laid a hand on them directly, but because there’s no water, many children might have already died. Thinking about that, aren’t two people a cheap price in exchange?”
Karubene’s words silenced the hecklers. The bandit leader gritted his teeth in frustration.
“Tch, fine. We’ll withdraw. Now, hurry up and return the child.”
“No, just withdrawing isn’t enough. Swear you’ll never steal again.”
I added another condition. I didn’t want them causing trouble elsewhere again. This again drew accusations from them. “Then how are we supposed to live?” they complained.
“Well, how about trying to work normally?”
“What are you saying? Are you mocking us?!”
As expected, they became defensive. For the time being, I decided to return the child and have them leave. Just then, a large shadow suddenly passed before my eyes. Everyone present looked up at the sky.
A large eagle, no, it had the body of an animal. A strange creature with the head of a bird and a body like a lion.
“Ugh, whoa! Now a Gryphon is attacking! Immediately take shelter in the buildings!”
Imon shouted, pointing to the sky. Ah, that’s right, I vaguely remembered such a monster. The Gryphon circled overhead and then came towards us.
