Rwekarn was known as ‘Watcher’. It was a nickname he had received after becoming known for living off his ability to observe and read people. Reading people was not a useful skill for petty thieves and pickpockets, but it was a very useful one for someone who stole the ‘person’ themself.

‘I easily obtained an A-grade item. I guess coming to the desert was worthwhile,’ Rwekarn thought as he looked at the elves he had managed to catch.

The elves were blindfolded, gagged, and so tightly bound that they could not even squirm.

Rwekarn and his party had infiltrated the elf village by posing as adventurers. He thought, ‘I never thought something so obvious would work.’

The kind but ignorant elves had welcomed them with open arms, but Rwekarn’s party had secretly spiked the elves’ food with sleeping drugs. The elves had immediately fallen asleep after eating and slept through the day, and Rwekarn’s party had bound them up while they were sleeping.

‘I heard the desert elves innately know magic from birth, but it’s fine since I gagged them to prevent them from casting any spells,’ Rwekarn thought.

One of Rwekarn’s lackeys came up to him and asked, “Boss, can’t we choose just one of these bitches to use as our plaything?”

The elves started to cry through their gags from fear. Most of them just threw hostile glares at their captors, but some of the female elves could not hold back from crying.

“You fool, have you ever heard of a merchant who lays his hands on his merchandise?” Rwekarn shot back.

“That’s why I’m saying we’ll just use one. You can have first dibs, boss,” the lackey said.

Rwekarn grimaced and glared at the lackey, saying, “Stop talking nonsense and go secure our escape route. We’ll transport the elves by carriage.”

“Why? It’s not as if anything’s going to change if we take one elf…” the lackey said, sounding disappointed.

“I said go secure our escape route,” Rwekarn repeated firmly.

“…Alright, boss,” the lackey said. He turned around, discontent visible on his face.

‘I don’t want to make more enemies by touching a girl who could be someone important,’ Rwekarn thought.

Rwekarn had his own principles and he stood by them. He stood firmly by his principle not to touch any of the ‘goods’ he kidnapped until they were brought to the market and sold. That was one of the reasons why he had been able to survive for such a long time as a slave trader.

He motioned the elves to stand up with a finger; a good forty elves had been captured by his party.

‘It’s retirement as soon as I finish this transaction,’ Rwekarn thought. He was tired of living as a villain. It had started as a way to make ends meet and had turned into a lucrative business, but there was not a day that passed without him burying his guilty conscience.

“Boss!” The lackey who had just gone out to secure their escape route suddenly came back in a hurry.

“What happened?” Rwekarn asked.

“Someone’s headed this way!” the lackey reported.

“How many are there?” Rwekarn asked.

“That’s… He’s alone!” the lackey replied.

Rwekarn immediately smacked the lackey on the head and berated him. “Then just go and kill him already! What are you causing a ruckus for?!”

“T-that’s… It’s not easy to kill him!” the lackey replied.

“What are you talking about?” Rwekarn furrowed his brow and exited the tent with his sword in hand.

A man was slowly and leisurely walking toward the village; he could afford to relax because he was able to easily cut down any arrows that flew toward him.

“Tri-Shot!” a lackey shouted, firing three consecutive arrows at the man. The arrows flew in a straight line toward the man, but the man easily avoided two of them and blocked the third one that was aimed at his thigh.

The lackey who had been firing the arrows grumbled from exhaustion, “Damn it, I’m out of arrows now.”

“He must be very skilled if he’s managed to avoid the arrows shot from an elven bow,” Rwekarn remarked.

“Should I go and bring more arrows?” the lackey asked.

“No, never mind. The elven arrows are all money,” Rwekarn said, stroking his beard.

Then, another lackey spoke up and asked, “Should I go and dispose of him myself?”

“Arthur, we’re already shorthanded dealing with the elves. I don’t want to lose more men,” Rwekarn said.

“I can deal with him,” another lackey said.

Rwekarn scoffed and asked, “What was your name again?”

“It’s Hekel, boss,” the lackey named Hekel replied.

“Alright, Hekel. Do you think you’re a knight or something? We’re just a group of slave and organ traffickers. I can tell at a glance that you’d lose to that guy, so quit it,” Rwekarn retorted. Hekel seemed to be greatly offended, but he chose to remain silent and stay in his place.

“What brings you here?” Rwekarn asked the man.

“I came to negotiate,” Kang Yoon-Soo said in a low voice.

“What do you propose?” Rwekarn asked.

“I have business with the elves. Let them go,” Kang Yoon-Soo answered.

“And what will I get in return?” Rwekarn asked.

“Nothing,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Rwekarn and his party blinked a few times. Rwekarn asked just in case he had heard the man wrongly, “What did you say just now?”

“Nothing in return,” Kang Yoon-Soo said once again.

“What kind of a negotiation is that?” Rwekarn asked. He and his eight lackeys all seemed dumbfounded by Kang Yoon-Soo’s brazen words.

However, he suddenly raised his brow and muttered, “Wait… That guy…?”

“What is it boss?” the lackeys asked.

“There have been some rumors flying around these days,” Rwekarn said as he stared at Kang Yoon-Soo. He continued, “The Crossed Swords Bandits and the Fake Carriage Bandits. They’re well-known criminals on the continent, but didn’t people say they got done in by someone?”

“I don’t know, boss,” the lackey answered.

“They say there was an expressionless guy who didn’t bat an eye as he swept across those bandits. The people call him the ‘Bandit Nemesis’ because they think any criminals who cross paths with him won’t make it out in one piece. It’s quite a famous story in this industry,” Rwekarn said.

“Then are you saying… That guy is the Bandit Nemesis?” the lackey asked.

“I have a feeling…” Rwekarn replied.

“Then that means we’ll be pummeled and be done in by that one guy…?” the lackey asked again.

Hekel laughed as if the whole thing sounded absurd to him. He remarked, “Boss, do you think such a notorious guy would be here in this harsh desert? Also, where in the continent would you find a madman who would clash head-on against a band of bandits alone? It sounds like the kind of cheap story those drunks at the pub would peddle for a drink.”

Rwekarn lived off of his instinct alone. He was certain that the man in front of him was not an ordinary man, based on his courage to walk over alone. His instincts were telling him to avoid fighting the man at all costs.

“Bring one elf over here,” he said.

“Do you finally plan to have some fun, boss? Hehehe…!” Hekel replied.

Rwekarn kicked Hekel as soon as the other man finished laughing sleazily. Hekel seemed disgruntled by the fact that he had been kicked, and he rubbed his chin as he dragged a female elf to Rwekarn.

The elf was blindfolded, but anyone could see she was a beauty. Rwekarn brought a blade to her neck and said, “You must be acquainted with them if you’re trying to save them. Stand back at once if you don’t want this woman to die!”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not reply. Instead, he pulled out a dagger from his sleeve as if he had been waiting for the situation to occur, and threw it.

Rwekarn jumped back as he tried to avoid the dagger, but the dagger had not been aimed at him in the first place. The dagger Kang Yoon-Soo had thrown narrowly missed the female elf and only grazed past her mouth; the gag covering her mouth fell as soon as the dagger flew past it.

“Damn it!” Rwekarn shouted as he stuffed his fingers inside the elf’s mouth. However, the elf bit his fingers hard and ran away from him.

“Extinguish, as a candle before a storm!” the elf shouted.

Rwekarn and his gang tensed as soon as the elf finished casting her spell, but nothing happened. Hekel mocked the elf. “Haha! Were you in a rush? You seem to have made a mistake casting your spell!”

Suddenly, numerous voices rang out from the tent.

“May shining light burn the bodies of these evildoers.”

“O light that shines brighter than the stars, please punish these vile creatures.”

“I call forth the sands of the earth to crush them!”

The tent where the elves had been kept captive flew away. Rwekarn and his gang were thrown up into the air as well. They did not grow wings all of a sudden; rather, they just flew up into the air.

A combined magic attack made up of fire, ice, and sand hit them hard, breaking a few of the kidnappers’ ribs.

“Kuheok!” Rwekarn gasped, spinning a few times in midair before landing face-first on the desert sand. He managed to pull his head out of the sand, and he shook his head to come back to his senses.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was standing in front of him with his sword drawn. He said, “Hand over everything you have.”

“…The rumors were true. Please spare me! Take this if you want…!” Rwekarn pleaded as he pulled out a black marble from his chest pocket.

Suddenly, however, he threw the black marble onto the ground, and a cloud of thick black smoke covered the area.

“Run! Run as fast as you can!” he shouted. He ran as fast as he could while struggling with his broken ribs, and his lackeys did the same as they ran for their lives.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not chase after them, and just stood there as he watched them escape.

“It’s a cave!”

“Let’s hide in there!”

The kidnappers entered the cave and breathed a sigh of relief as they thought they had managed to escape from danger.

However…

What lay in wait for them was sixty club-wielding Fire Trolls who had suddenly appeared from the darkness of the cave.

“Those guys! They ran away the same way as that dwarf I caught! Thinking about it is making me mad!”

“We have to teach these kidnappers a lesson!”

“Our elven friends almost got sold off because of them!”

The Fire Trolls were cold and harsh, unlike their usual warm and gentle personalities.

Henrick approached Kang Yoon-Soo and patted him on the shoulder as he remarked, “This happened last time with the carriage as well… You don’t seem to get along with bandits.”

“I know, right?” Kang Yoon-Soo responded.

***

“Thank you for saving us,” the elf village chief said, grabbing both of Kang Yoon-Soo’s hands. He looked like a man in his thirties despite his title as the village chief, but of course, he was likely much older than he looked.

“But didn’t you get captured too easily? Aren’t you elves?” Henrick asked. Shaneth nudged his side with her elbow. Henrick groaned before he looked at the village chief and smiled awkwardly.

“We now live in a world where showing kindness is a sin. However, we do not regret what we did. Our beliefs are strong enough not to crumble just because of the evil those men did to us,” the village chief said.

A small elf girl came and nudged Kang Yoon-Soo’s knee. She placed a crown made of flowers on his head when he bent down to the girl’s height. She said, “Here, take this.”

“Thank you,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. The girl blushed and hid behind her mother when she heard Kang Yoon-Soo’s low voice.

Shaneth was surprised when she saw the flower crown. She asked, “Oh my, how did you manage to make a flower crown in the desert?”

“We are working on restoring the desert into a forest,” the village chief responded proudly. He added, “This is a flower bred to be able to grow in the desert. We call it a desert flower. There are not many of them yet, but we are slowly increasing their numbers.”

“To think that the desert could be restored into a forest. Is that even possible?” Shaneth asked.

“They say that the vast Desert of Death was once a lush forest in ancient times. I believe nothing is impossible,” the village chief said.

The Fire Trolls in the back suddenly faked coughs as if they were asking for attention as well. The village chief laughed and said, “Oh my, I seemed to have forgotten to ask you. What brings you to our village?”

“We’re out of water! Do you mind giving us some?!” the Fire Trolls asked.

“Of course; you are our saviors, after all. We will provide for you abundantly,” the village chief said, easily agreeing to their request.

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly added, “That’s not all.”

“What else is there that we can help you with? Just tell us anything you need,” the village chief said.

“We have to mobilize all of the Fire Trolls and elves who live in the Desert of Death,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The village chief was surprised; so were the others surrounding them. The village chief asked, “And why is that so?”

“There’s an enemy we have to ambush,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The elves’ expression immediately changed when they heard the word ‘ambush’, and a few of them seemed to be on their guard. The village chief said coldly, “We do not enjoy partaking in wars.”

“You have to this time,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“And what if we refuse?” the village chief asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo answered from experience. “The continent will be destroyed.”