Swords, magic, and martial arts

On the way to the bandits' lair, several more tried to escape but were caught by Rhodes with a magic orb. Then Hammer smashed their hands with his warhammer, and after that, no one made a move to escape again.

"This is it. Remember you promised not to kill me." The bandit who was leading the way brought them to a low hill and pointed to a cave.

"Come in with us." Baron grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in front of him into the cave.

The group entered the cave, with Hammer, carrying a warhammer, bringing up the rear to prevent anyone from escaping.

Torches were lit in the cave, but it was still very dark. Webber walked at the front to prevent any traps or ambushes from being inside.

Not far along, Rhodes heard a woman crying and a man's wicked laughter coming from deep within the cave.

After he entered a room in the cave, he saw Webber wiping blood from his dagger. Next to Webber were two men lying in pools of blood, and several women wrapped in clothes weeping. In addition, there was a little girl lying on the ground with bruises all over her neck and her eyes wide open.

Rhodes went over and checked her breathing, finding her dead. No wonder the usually kind-hearted Webber would be so ruthless.

They thoroughly searched the entire cave, finding only the two men remaining inside. The rest of the cave consisted of several young women in their twenties and thirties who had been abducted. They also found an infant's skull on the ground and several decomposing female corpses deep within the cave.

Now those highwaymen are kneeling on the ground, begging Rhodes and his men to spare their lives. They swear they will repent and start anew.

"Should we hand them over to the local lord, or should we just execute them all?" Weber asked.

"If I wanted to be the lord of this place, I would do it myself," Hammer said. "I would uphold justice."

This land was only acquired by the Kingdom of Nord last year, and descendants of great nobles like Hammer are fully entitled to receive land here.

Baron nodded with his arms crossed, and Rhodes had no objection.

"Let's start with you," Hammer said, stepping on the back of the bandit who was leading the way.

"You promised you wouldn't kill me," the man said pitifully.

"I won't kill you, I just want you to confess what bad things you've done," Hammer said.

"We robbed them, then took them to a cave and did some pleasurable things with them..." He was interrupted by a woman next to him who had just stopped crying.

She trembled as she said, "You not only killed my husband, but you also threw my one-year-old child to his death in front of me, and then you kidnapped me and brought me to this cave..."

"It wasn't me, it was them. I was coerced by them," the man immediately said.

The bandits blocking his way glared at him angrily. One of them spoke up, "We used to make you our leader, but you were the one who personally ordered that baby to be killed, saying that another mouth would make our lives harder. You did it yourself, and you were the one laughing the happiest afterward."

The bandit leader tried to argue but was kicked in the face by Hammer. "I'm not letting you speak now."

"Anything else besides these?" Hammer asked the women beside him. He had originally wanted to see if these highwaymen showed any remorse, and if so, he would give them a quick death.

"You must not let these bad people off lightly..."

"According to the laws of the kingdom, they should be hanged," Hammer concluded after a moment's thought.

"That's hilarious! Who do you think you are? Trying to judge us like some nobleman?" one of the bandits shouted, spitting at Hammer.

"I am the son of Marquis Randyll Smith of Forge City, and I, Hammer Smith, hereby sentence them to hang in my name, with the Holy Spirit August as witness," Hammer declared loudly, wiping the saliva from his body.

Hammer and Weber then began searching for materials to build a simple gallows.

"Why not just behead them? Why hang them instead?" Rhodes asked. "Hanging is too much trouble; you have to build a gallows."

Hammer stroked his chin and replied, "Hanging is more painful than beheading. These wicked people should be executed by hanging."

"Then why not use the most cruel method of skinning?" Rod asked again.

"Skinning is too cruel. I saw it once and didn't eat meat for half a month," Hammer replied.

"Then we only need to make one gallows, let them go up one by one, and the rest of us can squat on the ground and watch the people in front of us get hanged. Let them enjoy their last moments before they die," Rhodes suggested.

Knowing that you are going to die, the agony of waiting for death is the most agonizing.

Hammer looked up, smiled, and said, "It's a bit cruel, but I like it."

Baron and Weber wanted to object, but in the end they agreed to the idea.

……

Hammer hanged the highwaymen one by one according to Nord law, but spared their leader.

Because Rhodes had sworn not to kill him, even though Rhodes didn't believe in the Holy Spirit, he still wanted to keep his promise.

Weber tied him up and secured him to a stone pillar in the cave, intending to let him starve to death inside.

Looking at the women who were still crying in front of him, Rod recalled the corpse he had seen in the cave earlier.

Screw vows, I don't believe in any Holy Spirit anyway.

He handed the sharpest dagger to the woman whose child had been thrown to his death in front of her, telling her to go into the cave and settle the score with the thief who had blocked her way.

However, fearing that she might become as soft-hearted as he had been, Rod selected several daggers and gave them to a few other women with resentful expressions, instructing them to follow him inside.

Screams echoed continuously from inside the cave, gradually fading from their initial shrillness to inaudibility.

After a long time, the women came out with their hands covered in blood. As for the life or death of the person in the cave, he didn't care. Even if he wasn't dead, he was too lazy to go in and give him a quick death.

Baron and the others pretended not to see anything after witnessing what Rhodes did.

"If there were other adventurers here, I might have another nickname: 'Oathbreaker,'" Rhodes thought to himself.

Finally, everyone worked together to bury all the bodies to prevent ordinary people living nearby from getting sick, although Rhodes thought it would be more convenient to just burn all the bodies.

By the time they finished, it was already dark. Rhodes and the others had planned to spend the night in the cave, but the women refused to step inside. To prevent them from being attacked by wild animals, Hammer and Weber kept watch near the cave entrance all night.

The women all had bruises and swelling on their bodies, and they were unwilling to talk about what those people had done to them.

Baron and his men were also stumped about how to settle these women. Some were Nords, and some were Imperials, but none of them had a home.

Some of them lived on this land, and then at night, that group broke into their homes, killed their families, robbed them of their money, and took them to that cave.

If they are left here, they might be taken away by the army to be used as military prostitutes, leading the same miserable lives. Or they might be captured by slave traders, suffering the same fate.

Finally, they decided to turn back and take them to Winterfell Fortress, so that even if they knew nothing, they could work as waitresses in the tavern and, if they were lucky, even start families with the adventurers there.

The first of them to be arrested was a woman nearing thirty. According to her, she was arrested just as winter was approaching, after the war ended the previous year. However, those past few months have been an unforgettable nightmare for her; she was pregnant, but dared not tell them and did not know who the father was.

That evening, Rod felt that he had been acting strangely lately, something he would never have done before.

Why did this change happen when I woke up in that pool? Did the dark side of human nature gradually break free from the constraints of my previous moral values?

With this in mind, it took Rhodes a long time to enter the state of "embracing the essence and guarding the one".

The next day, Rod and his men set off again with the group of women.

On the way, they gave the horses to the women who were unwell and led the traveling horses back to Winterfell Fortress.

"Most of the bandits in Nord still have their own principles and bottom lines, but I didn't expect these people to be so shameless," Weber said as he walked down the road.

"After I send you back to retire, I'll go back to Winterfell and ask my uncle for an officer position so I can lead an army to wipe out all the bandits here," Hammer said to Webber.

"We can come with you," Baron said, and Rod nodded beside him.

"I could actually go back to retire in a few years," Weber said. "I can help you too."

"You should just go back to your old age and relax. If you're lucky, you might actually find a young girl to marry," Hammer laughed.

"Seeing the state of things here, I don't know how many other people have been harmed by bandits like them. I can't just go back like this." Weber touched the short sword at his waist. "I used to worry that killing would bring misfortune to my life, making my already unfortunate life even more miserable. Now that I'm ready to retire, let me bear these sins for you."

Ever since Weber came out of the cave, Rod had noticed a difference in his demeanor.

"I've killed far more people than you, and I haven't had any misfortune befallen me," Hammer said.

"You are all still young, so it's best not to commit any more murders," Weber said.

With the women they had rescued from the cave, Rhodes and his companions walked until nightfall before returning to the roadside inn where they had stayed previously. Even before they stepped into the inn, Rhodes sensed that the atmosphere around them was very strange.

The hotel was eerily quiet...