"...!"

Kazuma heard a voice shouting at him, but it sounded very muffled.

"W...e U...!" The voice shouted again.

He couldn't focus very well on the voice.

"WAKE UP!" Shouted an unfamiliar female voice before a bucket of water was thrown onto him.

"AHHHH! WHAT HELL?!" Kazuma screamed.

"About time you woke up." She said.

Kazuma blinked his eyes until he was able to focus his vision.

He looked around to see a bunch of people with masks that cover the bottom of their face. One in particular was a girl with a bucket in her hands, she had silver hair, almost similar to Chris, but it was a little longer. He was also in some kind of cabin of sorts, his cloak, sword, and satchel in the corner behind two other masked men.

"Who... who are you?" Kazuma asked.

"No one you should be concerned about." Said the girl with the bucket in her hand, right before she threw it at him, hitting him in the face.

"Why you little..." Kazuma grumbled, giving her a death stare.

"Awww, little man angry? Why don't you do something about it?"

Kazuma went to leap at the girl, only to be stopped by the rope that binds his hands together, and locked his arms around a wooden pole.

"Ahahahaha! You look so dumb right now!"

As she laughed at his misfortune, the door slammed open, halting her laughs.

"Boss!" She said before she got down on one knee, followed by the others.

Kazuma turned his head to the person they called their boss. He was tall, and decently built. He carried a staff that seemed as tall as he was. He also had a mask covering his lower face, and had crimson eyes.

'Wait, those eyes, is he a Crimson Demon? Megumin had eyes like that but she's the only crimson demon I've met. Regardless, he seems strong, I better be cautious about him...' Kazuma thought to himself.

The man looked at Kazuma before turning his eyes to the girl. "Is this the one who entered our lands?"

"Yes, boss. We found him coming from the direction of the kingdom of Belzerg." She said.

"Good work."

He walked to the end of the room and sat down on a chair.

"So, what is your name?" He asked.

"Nunya..." Kazuma lied.

"Nunya?"

"Nunya business." Kazuma said with a smirk which quickly got removed from his face with a kick to the face.

"Speak like that again and I'll be sure to hit you hard enough to make you piss yourself." The girl said.

"Fine... Satou Kazuma..." He said for real this time.

"Satou Kazuma eh... That sounds familiar." The boss said.

"He's the one that the imperial guards have been looking for in Belzerg. Last time I was in the capital there were posters of him all over." Said the girl.

"Interesting... I think the kingdom would pay a hefty price for your head then, wouldn't they?" Said the boss.

"Oh right, where are my manners. I am Anak, the leader of the Red Eye Bandits." The boss, now named Anak, said.

"You sure you're the Red Eyed Bandits? I'm only seeing one of you with red eyes so far. Hell, she has blue eye- gchk!" He was cut off with a punch to the gut.

"What did I tell you last time?" She said.

"While it is true that I am the only one with red eyes, our emblem is marked on our body." Anak said, rolling up his sleeve to reveal the mark on his arm.

Kazuma looked to the girl and she revealed the mark on the palm of her right hand.

"So, Anak... What're you going to do with me?" Kazuma asked.

"Well, normally we would give you the option of joining us or die. But, with the capital looking for you, you're more valuable to us dead than alive."

"S-so, what you're saying is..."

"We're going to kill you!" The girl said, taking out a knife."

'Shit! These guys are insane!'

The girl approached him, knife in hand.

'Think Kazuma! What can you do?!' Kazuma internally panicked.

Before he could formulate a plan, the girl stabbed him in the arm, causing him to shout out in pain.

"Where's that confidence now? Not so cocky now!" The girl asked, giving him a sly smile.

'I have to do something, anything!'

"TINDER!!!" Kazuma shouted, summoning some fire in his hands. He used the fire to burn through the rope that was binding his hands.

"He can use magic?!" The girl said in shock as Kazuma got up.

"That's not all I can do, Steal!" Kazuma used his "world famous" ability on her, and in his hand appeared exactly what he thought would happen.

Black panties.

"Y-Y-YOU PERVERT!" She shouted, making a move to stab him again.

"Create water!" A large torrent of water shot out of Kazuma's hand, soaking the bandit.

Due to the water, she couldn't see properly and missed Kazuma. He used this opportunity to use his lurk skill to slip by the two guards, grab his things and bust through the front door and escape.

What he did not account for was the flight of stairs that the cabin was on top of, causing him to fall down the stairs and land roughly on the dirt.

His cloak had flown out of reach from him while his satchel had leaked some of its contents onto the ground.

Barely retaining his conciousness, he looked at the top of the stairs to see the bandits exiting, with a very pissed off girl.

He barely managed to grab his satchel and the pouch of coins before limping away as fast as he could.

"He's getting away!" The girl shouted.

"He won't get away that easy." Anak before raising his staff.

"Hell Storm!" A ball of fire formed above his staff before shooting into the sky.

Once it reached its maximum height, it exploded into smaller, but many fireballs, each setting off an explosion.

"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!" Kazuma shouted as he tried his best to not get hit by the explosions.

He activated his lurk skill again to give him a slight speed boost so he could outrun the fire, but his limp and injured arm were holding him back from making a full sprint.

Just as he thought he was getting away, he looked behind him to see a fireball not too far beside him.

"SHIT-" Before he knew it, the fireball touched down and exploded, sending him flying into the forest.

He hit the ground hard, bouncing a few times before rolling into a tree.

He felt weak, he felt pain, his ears were ringing.

The only thing he noticed was that nearby the trees he landed was a large bush. There were many of them around the forest, so he crawled into the bush to hide before collapsing from the lack of energy.

'I'm so tired...' Kazuma thought to himself as his vision was fading.

He barely heard the shouts of the bandits, scrambling about to search for him, but at this point he didn't care.

He was too tired to do anything but close his eyes.