Hero or Villain, Both

With the few people that were still able to move, I was able to lead this group away from the bandits.

Though I put a sense of urgency into them, there actually wasn't a need to hurry.

That was because all of the bandits were already on the ground as lifeless corpses.

With the stats that I received from the other avatars, these bandits weren't a match for me at all. I was able to easily keep ahead of the rest of the bandits and use my bow to pick them off.

When they realized that they were completely outmatched, the bandits that remained actually tried to run away.

But of course, I wouldn't let them run.

When they turned around to run, the only thing that they felt was an arrow piercing right into their backs.

It only took a single arrow for me to take care of each bandit, which was why it took no time at all for me to take care of them all.

But these people didn't need to know that.

I wanted them to think that it was still dangerous so they would move as fast as possible. At the same time, I wanted the two elves from the caravan to think as highly of me as possible.

After all, these two were my targets in the first place.

They were the reason that I had been traveling with this caravan group in the first place.

After a while, we finally reached a place that seemed safe, so I raised my hand for everyone to stop. They had been following me since I had taken the lead in drawing the bandits away.

But now that they were in a safe place…

"Why didn't you do something sooner?"

That was the first thing that one of the women said as soon as she calmed down. She even came forward to grab at my collar, but I just deftly took a step back to avoid her which made her fumble.

After catching herself mid fumble, she looked up at me with an angry look on her face before turning to the guards to say, "Capture him! I'll make him pay for not saving my father!"

The guards that remained didn't move since most of them were seriously injured and they could see that I was still gripping my bow.

As guards, they naturally were more skilled when it came to the bystanders of the caravan. They had sharp eyes that allowed them to see how fast my arrows were.

So they didn't really want to be on the receiving end of my bow.

Seeing that they weren't doing anything, the woman turned back to point at me before saying, "You must be working with the bandits! How dare you not save my father! He was the one that organized this caravan, the one that hired all of you!"

"I paid for my ride, you didn't hire me." I said in a simple voice.

The woman looked like she wanted to argue again, but the elf girl from before came forward to say, "Who do you think you are? Just because your father was the leader of the caravan, you think that everyone has to listen to you. Isn't it your father's fault in the first place for not providing proper security when we are paying customers?"

"You! You! You!" The woman looked like she was about to raise her hand to slap the elf, but she didn't get the chance as the elf slapped her first.

When she was in shock at the fact that she had been slapped, the guards finally made a move. After all, they could see that I was already pointing the bow in my hand at the woman.

"Young miss, that's enough."

"You! You're nothing more than hired guards of our family, how dare you speak to me like this?" The woman exploded when she heard this, but the guards didn't back down.

"If you can't even see what the situation is like now, then I won't bother saving your life. There's no one that can prove whether you were killed by the bandits or not." The guard said with a sigh as he looked at my bow.

The woman slowly looked over to see me pointing the bow at her.

The moment that she turned over, that was when a look of fear finally appeared on her face as she saw the arrow pointed at her.

In a trembling voice, the woman asked, "What, what do you think you're doing? Do you know who, who you're messing with?"

"I'm a simple mercenary that paid for passage on your caravan that was attacked by bandits. I don't think there's anything that will actually pursue this matter."

Then turning to the guards, I said, "I don't think that anyone will be snitching about this matter either."

The guards slowly nodded in agreement to the shock of the woman.

When she was pushed into the corner like this, she really didn't have anything else to say.

Once she fell silent, I didn't bother threatening her any longer as I put down the bow and said, "We should rest up while we can. We'll have to try to make our way to the nearest settlement after this and it doesn't seem like we have much resources left."

Grim looks appeared on the faces of the guards as they turned back to the caravans that we escaped in.

It seemed like they were planning on getting as many resources for themselves as they could before anyone else could do anything. That would be the difference between life and death over the next few days.

I just ignored them as I waved my hand at the two elves to follow me.

The two of them seemed to hesitate a moment before following me to the side.

Once we were apart from the others, I pulled open the cloak that I was wearing and revealed my true appearance to them.

As soon as they saw my true appearance, they became much less wary of me.

In fact, it even seemed like they were looking at a friend.