Honestly, that idea is scary

I suddenly thought of a way to kill time.

"Hey, so you know how there are bandits, right?"

"There are, nya."

"And they're the kind you're allowed to kill, right?"

"That's right, nya."

"So if I captured them, wouldn't they basically be test subjects I could use however I wanted?"

"… What you're saying isn't wrong, and nobody would be troubled by it, so I guess it's fine, but honestly, that idea is scary, nya."

Alright, if Misha says it's fine, then it must be fine.

And so, I set out to find bandits in order to obtain 'people I can do whatever I want with,' even more so than slaves.

"I'm gonna do things even Aishia can't do, hehehe."

"This girl's dangerous, nya. Can't even tell who the real bandit is anymore with the way she's talking, nya."

For the record, what I'm actually going to do is use them as guinea pigs for magic experiments.

But wouldn't it be great if there were some beautiful girl bandits, I wondered as I scanned the roads from above.

For the record, I was doing this from my room at the base, just creating a window and peeking through. Bandits should be easy to spot, right?

… Surprisingly, I couldn't find any. Nobody who looked the part.

"Hey Misha, I can't find anyone who looks like a bandit."

"Well, even if they were hanging around out there, they'd just get attacked by monsters, nya. Bandits usually live as regular villagers, nya. There's loads of cases where entire villages are bandits, and those types do it as a side gig when there's no fieldwork, nya."

"Seriously? If they're just blending in with normal villagers, how am I supposed to tell them apart?"

"That's exactly the tricky part, nya. You can't really call someone a bandit until they actually attack you, nya."

… Apparently, your stereotypical bandit gang that rampages around openly is pretty rare.

And even those types moonlight as mercenaries when they're not doing bandit stuff…

"Oh. Come to think of it, the oni village folks were technically bandits too, nya? They drugged us, nya."

"Hmm. Now that you mention it, I guess you're right…"

That said, I don't really feel like turning the oni villagers into test subjects at this point.

They're already tucked away in my Storage, after all…

I need to track down some bandits somehow. The quickest way would be catching someone red-handed in the act.

"Guess I've got no choice but to keep searching the roads…?"

"Ooh ooh. Look at you, contributing to public safety, nya."

Ideally, I'd just happen to witness the exact moment they launch an attack.

Prevent the attack before it lands, grab the test subjects before the victims notice anything, and nobody loses (except the bandits). What a wonderful world.

"Also, Karina. Aren't you bad with men, nya? Bandits are mostly men, nya."

"Well, I've got magic to deal with that, so… female bandits would work. There are some, right?"

"Even if there are, there's definitely no cute girls to your taste, nya. Any girl that pretty would be working as a prostitute or con artist in town instead, nya."

She's… absolutely right!?

"… My motivation just tanked."

"Ah, but wait. There's this, nya. There might be cute girls among the bandits' daughters, or their slaves, nya."

"Oh? Go on."

"For example, bandits attack a noble's carriage, nya? Let's say they capture a cute young lady. If they tried to sell her, she'd definitely get traced, so they can't, nya. So they drag her back to their hideout and keep her as an illegal slave… and eventually children are born… cute daughters who take after their mother… you get where this is going, nya?"

"Misha, I'm suddenly very motivated! Let's go do our part for public safety!"

And so, my bandit hunt began.

… Oh, and this is a secret from Dea-kun and the others, okay!