The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

"We'll talk! We'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Just don't do that!"

They were quite eager to spill the beans once I had finished my threat.

"Okay," I said, and walked over to one of them who looked like he could still speak. Some of them had been injected with so much paralytic venom that they couldn't get their words our right without slurring half of them. "What's your name- and why are you running with these folk?"

"M'name's Guo Fu - please let us go, sir, we meant nothin' by all this- we just-" a light kick stopped his mumbling.

"Answer the question. Why did you decide to rob this village?"

"Sir, we were let go from the army, and came back to find ruined fields," he said. "We had no choice, sir, and decided to take our chances…"

I sighed. That was about what I had expected - and sadly this was an easily foreseeable but hard to solve problem. People, after the siege was over, would realize that they didn't exactly have a rosy future ahead - but some of them still had the weapons they had been lent.

And many would decide that banditry was better than potentially starving or toiling fruitlessly.

These people had evidently thought the same, and assumed that a village like this would be an easy target.

My Tyrant Arachnea came back, carrying four more prisoners with it. Those who were already tied up shuddered - while most of them couldn't turn their heads to see it, there was no way they would mistake the way the earth shook as the giant spider approached.

"What should we do with them?" I asked Suki Tang. Back on Earth you would've just called the police - but I didn't know how it worked here. Was there a local sheriff or magistrate that we could send these people to?

"I say we slit their throats," one of the villagers said. "They wouldn't have hesitated if it was us on the other end, now then would they?"

"No sirs we would never hurt nobody we only wanted some food and-"

"Then you would have us starve to death instead!" the villager answered.

There were murmurs of agreement from the other villagers.

I couldn't blame them for feeling that way - they had also come back home to ruined fields, but they hadn't gone around trying to rob other people like these people. And they were right, if I hadn't been here, these bandits likely would have had no problem either outright killing these villagers or stealing so much from them that they would have no further future.

I don't think anyone would've even questioned it if we did decide to take the law into our own hands like that - as it was, it was easy enough to claim self-defense and with so many witnesses agreeing on what happened, what could the courts do?

But, I couldn't exactly condone that kind of thinking. "Is there a local magistrate in the area we can hand them over to?"

Suki Tang shook her head. "When conflicts arise within the village, usually the elders pass down their decision together. For such things like outside thieves, we handle them ourselves - but such a thing on such a scale…"

"…hasn't happened before," Granny Qi said. "At least in living memory."

I sighed.

So there was no precedent.

"Alright then, I say that we don't stain our own hands here," I said. "Let's keep them tied up, we'll drive them towards the city tomorrow morning, and dump them for the city guard to deal with them."

It was here that my reputation was more of a hindrance than a help. The truth of the matter was that I didn't really know much of what I was doing - it was the right thing to do by my own reckoning and with the way laws worked back on Earth, but this was a different world with different rules.

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My thinking might have been very wrong - the issue was that when they saw me, a 'Master Liberomancer' say something, they assumed I was right.

Even if they had some doubts or wanted to dissent, a lot of them would not speak up and bury those thoughts within their hearts. And they might've even been correct if they chose to oppose me - but I would never know unless they spoke up, would I?

I turned to Granny Qi - as I was sure that at the very least, she would give me an honest opinion on my plan. "It seems well enough," was what she told me. "And he has a point: let us not stain our own hands by stooping to their level."

That settled it, though afterwards no one seemed to fall asleep. I saw many of them pacing around the perimeter of the village, or looking outside the gate to see if there was anyone else who was coming.

I knew why they were so agitated - it was one thing to be attacked by a dryad, but another to see a group of humans try to attack you, people who were supposed to be working with you, was far more disturbing. Especially given that the dryads were gone, but the people within would continue to live. And these bandits were unlikely to be the last.

My summon went to hide in the nearby wilderness, almost blending in completely under the cover of darkness. I could make it out even among the trees - but that was because I always knew where it was through our mental link together. Otherwise, even with [Unobstructed Sight] I think I might have had some problems finding it.

But I was actually glad that it was out of sight, and not just because it could easily ambush anyone stupid enough to attack us.

I didn't feel as attached to the Tyrant Arachnea as I did to the Elephant Frog - and that was for a rather superficial reason - because it was terrifying to look at even when it wasn't on fire. It, unlike the frog, did not appear cute whatsoever. I knew people back home who kept pet spiders like tarantulas and the like, but I had never really understood that kind of craze. I could also tell that its presence made the other villagers uncomfortable as well, in a way that the Elephant Frog just didn't.

Daybreak came, and we loaded up the prisoners onto a wagon like they were sacks of potatoes before setting off.

The city guard did end up taking them, and from what I had heard, they were likely going to be hung till death.

Which, given what they had attempted to do, I really couldn't argue against. Perhaps we indeed would have saved everyone some trouble if we had just done such ourselves - but at least now we were sure we had done the right thing.

However, I now had another thing to worry about while rebuilding the village. I didn't want something like this to happen again, so I ended up hiring ten guards in the city - people who, much like the bandits, were out of work and could not return to their farms.

For now, their pay was in arrears until I got the reward that Zeke had promised me for my contributions in the war, or whenever I sold the Rank Three grimoire I had, but many of them were fine so long as their bellies were full for now.

The people we had rescued, numbering half a dozen in total, were beginning to recover and could start to walk around. They should've been able to be mostly functional within a few weeks. My magic could only do so much, I did not have the extra funds to hire a healer at the time.

With that, our time in the village drew to a close without further incident and Granny Qi and I returned back home.

We didn't encounter any dryads on the final trip back either, but we remained ever vigilant, as Granny Qi reminded me - you could never let your guard down.

Back in the city, there were a lot of celebrations now that the place was less congested and people were getting back to business.

Being one of the most famous figures during the war, I had been invited to so many celebrations, from both lizardmen and humans, that there would have to have been a dozen copies of me if I wanted to attend all of the ones that I was invited to.

I did attend a few of them - like one that was held by Master Jiah Pei.

He had set up a large celebration in the bookstore that his family owned - it was similar to the other one I'd been to, but the people were far more appreciative of my presence. "Ah, come meet my family," Master Jiah Pei said, and introduced me not only to his entire family, whose names I almost immediately forgot after he told me, but also some other important human Liberomancers.

Everyone wanted to talk to me - the hero who had distinguished himself during the fight, and I had ended up shaking so many hands that my own felt numb.

"So, I heard you're leaving Arconia," Master Jiah Pei told me as things were winding up.

I don't know where he'd heard it from, but I guess my preparations to leave by this time had been obvious enough for word to get out. "Yes."

He sighed. "I would've liked for you to stay - but, I guess you're leaving for your own reasons. Whatever they are." He did not make any further attempt to dissuade me from leaving. Had Lance told him about Earth and where I came from? That seemed highly unlikely. "There is a final bit of advice I'd like to give you - if you're open to hearing it. I want you to remember that magic is everywhere. We Liberomancers - we like to pretend that we're masters of the universe because we can write a few lines on paper and cast a few spells. But magic existed long before even the spoken word did, and it will exist long after we're gone. Be it the magic that magical beasts can use, the wild magic out in the natural world, or the spirits - we are but big fish in a small pond. The Ruler of the Astral Winds considered himself to be a world-conquering emperor, but was undone by the machinations of the Spirit of Darkness. Be careful when you go out there."

I nodded - not entirely sure what he was getting at, but feeling that parts of it did sound profound.

I did make a note to meet with the other Master Liberomancers in the city afterwards, though these were less memorable and almost seemed to blur together in a sea of faces and greetings.