Compass Carburettor watched the figure of the driver tremble in fear while his face turned ashen. He patted the other party gently, saying, "So, why did you become a bandit? The lives of everyone hinges on the truthfulness of your answer."
"T-That is..I…uh…I mean…" The driver stammered like a broken record as he soiled his pants. The expression of Compass Carburettor had remained the same from the start, like everything was in the palm of his hands.
His demeanour and the way he had predicted everything caused the driver to feel like he had been trapped amid a horror scene, trembling as he shouted, "What the hell are you?"
"Me?" Compass Carburettor smiled gently, gently pointing his index finger towards a certain direction high up into one of the trees at the back, "Guess?"
For a moment, the driver didn't know what had happened, staring agape as he heard a loud thud. Trembling, he slowly turned his head, noticing the mashed remains of a corpse on the ground, one belonging to the bandit group he was a part of.
As a traveller, it was always his duty to cross-check the identities of the people he gave a lift to. And, if they proved to be wealthy and were travelling as a whole family, then it meant they were right for the picking.
His job was to lead such people through this designated route that lay parallel to the actual route. And upon arriving here, the people would be killed by the bandits while all the loot would be harvested. They even had a team that handled the owner-less properties of the killed people back in Peckle City.
They had a sizeable organisation running amongst them that handled such stuff. And, among the drivers that led the prey to the forest patch, he was one of them. Normally, if he determined the travellers were someone poor or someone they couldn't afford to touch, he would travel through the actual route, and the bandit group wouldn't harm them.
But, as he was scared by Compass Carburettor, he had habitually guided the carriage through the bandit route. And, only after he saw the corpse of one of the bandit members mysteriously crash onto the ground did it ring a bell in him, causing him to realise what he had done.
He had royally screwed up!
"P-Please, leave them alone, great spirit." The driver resorted to begging immediately, "They haven't done anything wrong."
"So, in your eyes…" Compass Carburettor looked at the driver, slightly hardening his gaze as his voice turned chilly, "Murder, pillaging, property forgery, etc. isn't considered wrong?"
"Grotak, what the heck's wrong with you? Why aren't you giving any signals?" A bandit walked out from the thicket of trees, frowning in anger as he glanced at Compass Carburettor, glaring at the driver in response, "Say something, dammit!"
"They aren't a target. I drove here by mistake!" Grotak, the driver shouted, "This guy's…"
Right at this time, Compass Carburettor slowly pointed at the bandit, saying with a cheerful tone, "What about you, good sir? Do you wish to humour me the reason you became a bandit?"
"Huh? What the heck are you saying?" The bandit cursed in response, shouting, "Seriously, what's wrong with you, Grotak?"
He then shouted, "Everyone, come out and kill our targets!"
Right as he said that, Compass Carburettor smiled, retracting his hand slowly as the bandit steadily collapsed to the ground in response, his head now sporting a gaping hole, "Well, you should have answered my question properly."
There was a fluster among the people hiding in the thicket of trees, alarmed at the situation. Upon seeing the numerous Mental Energy streams incident on him, Compass Carburettor raised his voice, "All 17 of you, come out! If you don't, you can forfeit heading out during the night for the rest of your lives. You'll be hunted until the last of you."
"I'll give you three seconds," Compass Carburettor pointed at a spot from where the Mental Energy stream expressing the greatest fear appeared, "If you don't come out by then, I'll be cursing everyone."
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't kill me!" The bandit that he had pointed towards came rushing out of his hiding spot, afraid he would die like the others. He had been watching the actions of Compass Carburettor from the start, now aware that everyone the other party pointed at ended up dying mysteriously.
It wasn't a method using the energy blades. After all, the energy blades emitted enough light to glow brightly in the dark. So, if Compass Carburettor had used Armaments, it would have been apparent. But now that two bandits had dropped dead mysteriously, all of them were stricken with fear.
Moreover, when they noticed Grotak shuddering in fear all along, his pale face, and the statement he had shouted before, they realised that the one they were dealing with was a mysterious individual. They had chosen their target wrongly.
And, since their numbers had been accurately expressed, they didn't wish to make things worse for themselves, silently exiting their hiding places as they lined up before Compass Carburettor. Had they been regular bandits, they wouldn't have done such a thing.
They had a fair level of intelligence, a reason as to why they had survived for as long as they had done and even expanded their organisation to infiltrate into the legal administration.
'Hmm, they really did line up.' Compass Carburettor was amused for a moment, thinking of what he had to do next.
In Peckle City, when they were about to hail a driver to drive the carriage they had bought, he looked through the drivers' list in the association that provided them.
Among them, as he sensed the Mental Energy streams they emitted, he probed their mental states, getting an inkling as to what type of person they were. And, upon seeing a bandit disguised as a driver, he connected the dots, easily understanding the scheme at place. It was pretty much a cliché by this point, so he didn't even have to think much.
And, since he had decided to create drama to obtain as much Mental Energy as possible, he of course chose Grotak, the bandit driver. This way, he could give the bandit group a really good scare and cause them to fear him for the rest of their lives.
It was the most efficient method to obtain a steady stream of Mental Energy for his needs.
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