"They asleep?"

"Yeah, boss. They actually lasted a lot longer than we thought they would but those drugs are enough to make a person with the resistance of three grown men fall asleep, let alone a bunch of kids."

"Good, all we have to do is wait for Shanty and we're good to go."

The innkeeper had three men surrounding him, they all had rough figures making them increasingly suspicious. It was at that time that the door to the inn opened and another man walked in, shockingly, it was the captain that manned the ship Kai and the others were on.

"What'd I tell ya?"

"Good job Dereck, your cut will be given at the usual place."

"No need, you can just give it to me after they're taken care of, I'll stay here."

"...Alright."

Though the innkeeper's face twitched for a second, he still acquiesced. The people they were robbing today were obviously very wealthy so Dereck, the captain felt that his share would be cut and came to pick it up personally. Of course, if they succeed, Arata and Kei held the entire group's money and had at least ten gold pieces so they would profit immensely.

Five more minutes passed by as they discussed many things.

"Where the hell is Shanty?"

"Probably went out to find some drunkard and take his money."

"She should be done by now... Unless she actually enjoyed the drunkard's techniques."

"Alright, let's cut part of her share if she doesn't return in the next minute."

Hearing his men, the innkeeper once more changed their plans. Shanty was their greatest thief and could even be said to be the spearhead of their group but she's always been greedy and always looked for extra coin on the side. This wasn't a secret to the members of the group but as long as she did what she was told, then it was all fine.

Not just the men here, everyone in the whole inn was part of this scheme save for Kai's group. The captain always recommended people to this inn and they'd rob the customers blind, some who put up resistances 'disappeared' as well and beautiful women were sold to slavers and nobles.

"They've got two women who would fetch us quite the price, mind we if sample the products first?"

"Go ahead, I don't think they're virgins because they shared a room with a guy, unless he's dysfunctional. Who the heck would be able to resist their bodies? Their faces are nice but their bodies are the real deal, even I had to hold myself back from staring."

The innkeeper finished his words which signified that the minute ended, they quickly moved. Date, Kei, and Arata were in the dining room while Erina and Amelia were upstairs, although they couldn't drug Kai, he was only one person so they knew he could be handled easily. The men split up, two of them went upstairs while the rest went to the other three.

Once the bandits arrived at the dining room, Kei, Arata, and Date went on full alert, they were all on the table and even had their faces planted into the food so it was evident that they fell asleep during the meals.

"Bill, Shank, check those two, I'll take this one."

The innkeeper told the other two their orders and went on to Arata.

"Swords? These people know how to fight."

"They're drugged anyway."

The two men conversed while checking Date and Kei's pockets.

They took a whole five minutes to search and waited another five for the other two.

"...They're actually sampling them."

"Idiots, they should've done that in the warehouse, are they that horny?"

The innkeeper felt a headache seeing that the other two still hadn't gone down, he left the loot with the other two men and began walking upstairs but as soon as he stepped into the second floor, he felt a chill.

"Cold air?"

Seeing as how winter was about to arrive soon, it was only normal but the cold air was only on the second floor. The innkeeper quickly put up his guard and walked towards Amelia and Erina's room but as soon as he did, he saw two frozen ice statues outside.

"What the-?!"

Before he could finish his words, his mouth was sealed by ice and his entire body was frozen. With only his head free, the innkeeper tried to struggle to no avail.

"So everybody in this inn is part of your scheme..."

Erina stood there without a single weapon in her hands. She had her arms crossed and was glaring at the innkeeper, she had just finished clearing out the entire inn and if anyone were to look around, they'd find frozen ice statues inside each room.

"I'll deal with you once Kai returns, go to sleep."

Erina pointed her hand at the innkeeper. The inkeeper tried all he could with wide open eyes but how could he do anything? His head was sealed completely. He wouldn't die but he needed to be set free in a few hours or he would get hypothermia. Though Erina was proficient at controlling ice and cold air, she still couldn't remove the symptoms of hypothermia once a person was encased in ice, only delay it.

Seeing as how the innkeeper was frozen, Erina walked back into her room.

Just like that, a few more minutes passed by since the innkeeper went upstairs.

"Did he join them or something?"

"...No, something's wrong."

One of the men immediately unsheathed his sword but the moment he did, he felt pain and his vision blacked out. Arata had smacked him in the back of the head.

"You!"

The other man quickly tried to unsheathe his own sword but before he could even grasp the hilt, Kei arrived and kneed the man in the gut.

"Agh. Cough, cough!"

The man was forced down on both knees and cough repeatedly.

"Miss Mio must've taken care of them already."

"Yeah, let's get everything we can out of this guy before Kenji returns."

"Alright."

Arata, Kei, and Date respectively spoke.

Just as they expected, Erina already took out the men and after seeing the frozen ice statues, they shivered.

"She's merciless..."

"As expected of Kenji's lover..."

"Don't let him hear you."

"Yeah, don't let me hear you."

Hearing the fourth voice, the three of them turned their heads in unison and saw Kenji's face.

"Wait, that was a joke!"

Kei quickly raised his voice but was smacked in the back of the head.

"Like hell it was, you obviously meant it. Anyway, go and bring all the statues downstairs, I'll deal with them all at once."

Hearing Kai, the three of them spurred into action, the inn had about five floors with only three rooms each floor so it was quite easy at their level.

With all the ice statues gathered in place, Erina melted the frost from above their necks which gave the men back their consciousness.

"W-what's happening?!"

"Where are we?!"

"Shut up."

Using his killing intent, Kai intimidated the bandits and made them frozen in fear. To Erina and the others, Kai didn't seem all that intimidating because he only said two words but to the bandits, he was like a death god controlling their lives within his palm. It was as if with a single whim, he could take their lives. To them, they've never faced this kind of situation before, they've faced life and death but not one that would make them shiver in fear. A normal death would at most make them uneasy but in this line of business, they've long since been prepared but Kai's killing intent seeped into their very souls and removed all of their mental defenses.

"I'm a merciful man-"

Date on the side, snickered once he heard that. Kai's eyebrow twitched but he continued his sentence.

"I'll give you all two options, one: die."

The killing intent became even heavier than before, the bandits could barely breathe as their pupils kept contracting and expanding. Kai intentionally paused for quite a bit in between his sentences to intimidate the bandits even further.

"Kenji's a huge sadist after all... How do I react if he asks for that type of play?"

Erina said with a helpless expression as if she didn't know what to do.

"Or two: become my servants."

Kai's killing intent dispersed as if it was never there. Erina took this as the right opportunity to release all of their bodies from the frost but the sudden dispersal of killing intent turned their bodies into mush as they all laid down on the floor without moving.

"Well? I'm waiting for the answer."

Hearing that, all of them mustered all they could and with trembling bodies, prostrated on the floor.

"""We'll follow you!"""

Not like we have a choice in the matter...

They would normally choose death over following Kai but the killing intent made them taste fear and changed their subconscious decisions.

"B-boss!"

A girl burst into the inn and yelled in distress, her clothes were dusty and she had a scratch on her cheek but other than that, she looked completely fine. Seeing Kai sitting on the chair and the prostrating people in front of him, the girl clicked her tongue and quickly tried to leave but as soon as she turned around, she crashed into a wall of ice. Seeing that her path of escape was gone, the girl turned around and shot a miniature fireball.

Nobody moved yet the fireball dispersed before it hit anyone. The girl's eyes opened wide and she quickly used another fireball but this one was large but it dispersed just as it reached the point that the other fireball disappeared.

"It's useless."

Erina's cold voice rung beside her ears. A shiver went down the woman's spine and even her breath became visible under the cold air.

Seeing this phenomenon, the woman knew it was futile and quickly tried to bite her own tongue but before she could do so, Erina held the sides of her mouth and slammed her into the wall.

"...What happened to Miss Mio?"

"..."

Even Kai couldn't answer Arata's query. Normally, Kai would be the one doing that but Erina acted as if it was all natural. Of course, Kai wasn't as clueless as the rest of them, he had spent two lives with Erina already after all. It was most likely her wanting to protect Amelia, the strongest of them, in her most vulnerable state.

Nevertheless, the girl wouldn't be able to die even if she bit off her own tongue, they had two healers here after all. Restoring a limb from nothing was something they couldn't do but simply restoring a tongue was possible.

"S-Shanty, surrender! We stand no chance against them!"

"You cowards! You swore that we'll take our lives rather than get captured!"

"""..."""

All of the other bandits fell silent. They made a pact but because of Kai, they now had a fear of death unlike ever before.

Shanty struggled to speak under Erina's iron grip but her eyes still held the will to fight.

"Mio, let her go."

Without questioning Kai, Erina's grip loosened and Shanty fell to the floor. She quickly tried to launch another attack but before she could even raise her head, a crushing pressure that made her soul tremble as if it was about to break appeared and poured down on her.

"I won't suppress you unlike these ones behind me. Instead, you contact the person with the highest position in the underground that you know and if that's not possible, contact someone who can. I can't let you lose that light in your eyes or you might get suspected."

Kai's words held the aura of a king, it was as if each of his words could only be followed.

"What makes you think that I'll follow your orders?!"

Kai released some of the pressure to let Shanty raise her head and in the instant she did, her eyes widened because in Kai's hands were the heads of each of her comrades.

"You're free to refuse... unless you don't want this to happen of course."

To Shanty, Kai's words were like the grim reaper's, with a single whim, all of their souls would be collected. The heads vanished from Kai's hands and Shanty had to blink a few times to register the scene in front of her.

Such dense killing intent...!

To make the user experience death was one thing, but to use killing intent to make illusions of others' death was another. If you needed to kill hundreds enough to show an illusion of death, you needed to kill thousands or even tens of thousands to do what Kai had just accomplished.

Of course, nobody other than Shanty felt that killing intent, this showed Kai's mastery.

"Now, go and do what I asked, I'm giving you three days and if you accomplish it earlier, I'll even give you a reward."

Without bothering to listen to another one of Shanty's complaints, Kai teleported her out of the inn.