The Villagers of Another World Were Actually Mountain Bandits

Watching the unconscious homeowner's cheek gradually swell, Hughes shrugged. He hadn't wanted to do it either.

Only the devil knew how this system made its judgments.

A villager from the world of Fairy Tail had suddenly been classified by the system as a mountain bandit from Mount Colubo in the world of the Pirate King!

Still, were the rewards this system gave out in advance really this overpowered?

Hughes clenched his fist. He could feel that his strength had increased dramatically. He had only put a little force into that slap, yet it had sent the man spinning three and a half times through the air.

As for what the system had just done, Hughes only wanted to say... please, do more.

The task was simple and clear, the difficulty was low, and the reward came in advance. Hughes wouldn't mind if the system gave him a few more like it. He was young, strong, and full of energy; he wasn't afraid of a little hard work!

It was far better than that "King of Mount Colubo" task, which didn't have a single hint. Pah! A garbage task that only rewarded him with Tekkai.

Who had ever learned Tekkai and come to a good end?

Tekkai, your first choice for a trip to heaven, huh!

With a complicated mixture of pleasure and annoyance, Hughes stepped out of the house.

"Hey, open up! Here to spread some warmth!" Hughes walked straight to the door of another house and tapped it lightly with the back of his hand.

He wasn't petty.

But he clearly remembered every person who had attacked him outside the church.

The person in this house had thrown stones at him.

Timid, shuffling sounds reached his ears from inside.

For some reason, Hughes suddenly felt a sense of relief, like finally letting it all out after a bout of constipation. Just calling it satisfying didn't do it justice.

No, he couldn't be the only one enjoying himself. The person inside had to enjoy it too.

Hughes had always been someone who liked to share.

He pressed both hands against the closed wooden doors and shoved with his strengthened body.

Bang!

The wooden bolt snapped, and the two doors creaked before crashing to the ground, revealing the helpless young man inside.

"Don't look at me like that. You threw stones at my head twice, so taking one slap from me isn't too much!

Take a deep breath. You'll live! Fainting and pain are perfectly normal."

Smack!

Hughes turned briskly and invited the next debtor to step forward.

As the sun gradually sank, Hughes walked with a spring in his step. He only needed two more people to complete his first task.

He had gone through every house in the village, dragging out everyone who had attacked him earlier and giving them a chance to atone for their mistakes.

He wasn't petty. He simply believed that every grievance had its source and every debt its debtor. He couldn't very well hit the villagers who hadn't provoked him, could he?

As for why he had let thirty-four people enjoy a baby-like sleep when only twenty-something had attacked him...

Well, even sages made mistakes. It was only normal for a mental patient like him to have a little more room for error.

Wait... it seemed he didn't have to take the blame for this. Earlier, he had accidentally hit someone who hadn't taken part in the attack, and the system had automatically added one to his task count.

Then, even though he had kept making mistakes afterward, the system had counted every one of them.

Its indulgence had let him do whatever he wanted!

So Hughes thought the system should take the blame.

As his thoughts wandered, Hughes gradually came to a stop. At the far end of his gaze stood an even more dilapidated house.

The exterior was mottled with marks, the wooden door was battered, and some of the windows had nothing left but their frames.

Someone lived inside. Hughes could hear a girl's voice from a long way off.

The house stood in a remote corner on the edge of the village. Judging by its condition, whoever lived there was probably a pitiful person too.

Hughes had originally intended to pick two lucky people at random from the village to complete his task. He narrowed his eyes and struggled with himself briefly, then shook his head.

He was too kindhearted to do it. He only needed two more people to complete the task, so he would just have to make the villagers suffer a little longer. If all else failed, the village chief's father would do too. The system could take the blame!

Having found a solution, Hughes set off toward the house in front of him.

He had a feeling that if he didn't go inside, he would miss out on a lot.

What Hughes didn't notice was that a system notification flashed by at that moment.

[Oars the Demon has been detected. Please defeat him as soon as possible!]

"Hey, is anyone home? Could I have a drink of water?" Afraid of breaking the battered door by knocking, Hughes stood outside and called out loudly.

The house, where a girl's voice had been audible moments ago, fell silent at once. Hughes waited a long time, but no one came to open the door.

Feeling awkward, Hughes could only ask again. This time, after another long wait, a little head finally peeked out.

The familiar face made Hughes's eyes fly open. Wasn't that Lisanna??

Lisanna, who had white Dora-style hair and blue eyes, hid behind the wooden door. Her little head peered out with some unease, and her young face was full of caution.

She was afraid the strange uncle outside had also been called over by the villagers to drive them away.

Not wanting Sister Mira to get hurt again, Lisanna hadn't wanted to respond, but her kind heart made her worry that the person outside might really just be a passerby.

So, hiding behind the door, she pointed ahead with a little finger. "Uncle, the village is farther in..."

"Un... uncle!!"

Hughes pointed at himself with his index finger in disbelief. He opened his mouth, but his trembling lips couldn't get a single word out.

The blow made his entire appearance seem to fall out of step with the world around him, turning black and white.

It was now X778, which meant Lisanna was eleven...

An eleven-year-old girl had called him uncle...

He was a genuine eighteen-year-old! Not one of those shameless bastards who claimed to be eighteen.

It was perfectly normal for an eighteen-year-old to have stubble!!

As if he possessed the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Hughes appeared in front of Lisanna with a lightning-fast whoosh.

He clamped both hands on her shoulders and brought his kind, friendly face close to Lisanna's fair little face, speaking warmly.

"Kid, our ages both start with a one. This is called the mature look, understand?"

Startled by Hughes's sudden approach, Lisanna's already fair little face turned even paler. She stumbled backward, then fell to the ground with a thump, her eyes brimming with tears and her hands clenched tightly into fists against her chest.

"Lisanna, run!"

Elfman, trembling all over, gripped a wooden stick in both hands and ran over on his little legs from behind her, planting himself firmly in front of Lisanna to protect her.

Hughes looked down at his shaking legs, met Elfman's determined eyes, and tilted his head.

This time, surely it wasn't his fault... right?

But Lisanna, Elfman... so this was the village where Mira and her two younger siblings had lived as children??

The all-too-coincidental encounter left Hughes a little dazed.

A moment later, Hughes came to his senses. Seeing that the two were still watching him nervously, he waved a hand to show that he meant no harm.

If they were Mira and her two siblings, then Hughes could forgive what Lisanna had just said.

Memories of the past welled up in Hughes's mind...

He remembered that because of Mira, Elfman and Lisanna had had a hard time in the village when they were little.

As he recalled, Mira had gone to the church to eliminate a demon on the village's behalf. She had been extremely lucky and awakened Take Over Magic on her own, absorbing the lesser demon into her body.

Because she wasn't yet proficient in Take Over Magic and rejected the demon herself, her arm had remained in the form of a demon's arm.

In the end, instead of showing gratitude, the villagers had insisted that Mira was a demon too and tried to drive the three siblings out of the village.

But that was the plot of the anime. Hughes's experience today told him this village wasn't so simple.

The church stood right in the village, yet just a few members of the Black Magic Cult, a bunch of people hated by everyone, had dared to operate so openly.

After he destroyed the church, the unruly villagers had appeared, ready to kill him without caring about anything else. It looked very much as if they were covering something up!

Hughes smacked his lips thoughtfully. If there was nothing wrong with these villagers, he'd eat shit standing on his head.