Seeing the burly man in front of him suddenly burst into tears, the boy was a little stunned.

What’s with people these days? How are they so mentally fragile?

One person just passed out, and now another’s randomly burst into tears.

Hey, you’re the ones who started it!

The boy turned around and saw the girl behind him standing there, completely dumbfounded too.

What in the world is going on?

How did things suddenly turn out like this?

Completely baffled, the boy sighed and headed back along the road.

Back where the caravan was.

The bandits had long since finished their business. Now they sat together in a circle, drinking and laughing to their hearts’ content.

Every one of them was drunk, their faces flushed red.

Beside them sat the caravan’s original guards and coachmen, all bound tightly by “Intermediate Magic: Wind Binding.”

“Man, that job went damn well! Come on, boys, bottoms up!”

“You bet. With the boss being a Sword King, we’re pretty much unbeatable around here.”

“Hahahaha! A trash caravan like this was no trouble at all. After waiting around for a whole month, I’d say it was worth it.”

“Andy, keep your voice down, will you? Can’t you be a little more humble? Look at those prisoners over there—they’re looking pretty desperate. Show them a little respect, yeah?”

“Right, right, you’ve got a point. We should show them some respect. Hey, you losers over there, how about a smile for me? Hahahaha!” The bandit named Andy didn’t lower his voice at all. If anything, he laughed even harder.

“You… you bastard!”

One of the guards couldn’t hold back and shouted.

But the very next moment—

“Ah!”

A bandit standing close to the guard rushed over and swung his sword.

“Thud!”

The guard’s head was cut clean off and fell to the ground.

Blood sprayed from his neck, and his headless body collapsed to the ground.

Seeing this, the other bound prisoners squeezed their eyes shut and didn’t dare make a sound, afraid they’d be the next to die.

“Hey, Andy, where’s my booze?”

The bandit who’d struck the guard went back to his spot and reached for his usual bottle, ready to take a drink.

But his hand found nothing, so he turned to ask his companions.

“Your booze? Everyone got a bottle. Yours is right there with you,” Andy replied.

“Don’t give me that crap. If it were here, why the hell would I ask you?”

“Then get out of my way and find your own bottle. Quit bothering me while I’m drinking…”

“You…”

Just as the two were about to start arguing—

A “glug, glug” came from the left.

A little black-and-white cat sat on top of a carriage, clutching a bottle and guzzling from it.

“Nom!”

The cat put down the bottle, picked up a small piece of cake with one tiny paw, and popped it into its mouth.

“Mmm! Delicious!”

The cat still wasn’t satisfied. After finishing the cake, it even licked its little paw.

“No wonder my master always wants to eat human food, meow.”

“This water tastes great.”

“Compared to this soft food, what we Sacred Beasts used to eat was practically shit, meow.”

“Hahahaha! Come take a look, boys! Hansen actually let a cat steal his bottle! What a useless guy! Hahahaha!”

“Glug, glug!”

The bandit Andy shouted to the others, pointing at Hansen and laughing at him. He lifted his own bottle, then drained it in one go.

“Hahahaha!”

The other bandits saw what happened and started gloating too.

“You… you guys…”

Seeing them act like that, Hansen was furious enough to burst.

“What are you looking at? Keep staring and I’ll cut you down!”

Hansen even thought the prisoners behind him were laughing at him, so he bellowed at them.

“Meow~ I’m so full~”

“No, it’s so good. I want another piece, meow.”

“No, no, I’m already full. I can’t eat any more, meow.”

“No, just one more piece…”

Meanwhile, the culprit atop the carriage didn’t even spare the furious man below a glance. It was still looking down, torn over whether to eat another piece of cake.

“This is all your fault! It’s because of you! It’s all your fault, all your fault…”

Hansen picked up the wand beside a tree and pointed its tip straight at the top of the carriage.

“Intermediate Magic: Wind Arrows!”

Dozens of wind arrows formed around Hansen.

“Whoosh!”

“Whoosh!”

“Whoosh!”

They shot toward the little cat.

“Bang!”

“Aaaah! My water… I hadn’t finished drinking it, meow!”

the cat cried out.

One of the wind arrows had shot straight through the bottle of booze it hadn’t finished.

“Nooooo!”

Several more wind arrows flew past, piercing the pieces of cake beside it. Each arrow held a tremendous amount of wind energy, and they whipped the cakes into crumbs.

“You… you…”

“Boom!”

A gigantic cat paw appeared and slammed into the ground, leaving a five-meter-deep pawprint.

The earth around it shook three times over.

As for trash like those wind arrows, an invisible force had already blasted them away.

“What! Do! You! Think! You’re! Doing! Meow?!”

The cat’s round little eyes glowed red as it glared down at everyone.

A cold aura radiated from its whole body, making everyone shiver and tremble.

The whole area fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.

A little while later.

“Come on, Hansen, hurry up and pour Cat Bro a drink.”

“Y-yes! Here you are, Cat Bro. Allow me to serve you.”

“Hey, boys, got any more booze? Bring some over for Cat Bro, quick!”

Just then, a boy came walking over from the front of the caravan.

“Hey, kid over there! Bring me a bottle!”

A burly man spotted the boy and shouted to him.

“Huh?”

“What do you mean, ‘huh’? I said bring me a bottle! Hurry up!”

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to bring Cat Bro a bottle.”

The boy casually picked up a bottle of booze and walked over.

There was a little cat leaning against some cargo, surrounded by a crowd of burly men bowing and scraping. Bottle after bottle was being brought right to its paws.

And that wasn’t all. Two burly men were helping out: one held an umbrella to shield the cat from the sun, while the other kept waving a wand to cast wind magic and “cool it down.”

“Glug, glug!”

“Ahh~ *hic* This tastes so good, meow~ *hic* So refreshing, meow~” the cat said, setting down the bottle and hiccuping.

“Wow, when Cat Bro drinks happily, we’re happy too!” A burly man immediately chimed in, thumping his chest.

“That’s right, that’s right! Andy, you put it perfectly… Even if we’re thirsty, we can’t let Cat Bro go thirsty. Don’t you agree?” another burly man added.

“Yeah!!!” all the burly men shouted.

The boy was a little stunned by the sight.

“Crash!”

The bottle slipped from the boy’s hand and smashed on the ground.

“Oh my god… What the hell is going on?”

“Can someone explain this to me?”