Two days later.
Outside a farm, several figures could be seen hiding behind a large tree, their eyes fixed on the wooden house at the very back of the property.
"This should be the place," Lillian said.
He wasn't wearing his Military Police uniform. Instead, he had changed into the rough gray linen clothes he'd worn when he first joined the Military Police—attire that marked him as someone from the very bottom rung of society.
After two days of elimination and scouting, during which they investigated more than twenty farms of all sizes, their attention had finally settled on this one. It was a small farm on the outskirts of the district. The reason it was identified as the bandits' hideout was simple: at a glance, the fields were overgrown with weeds, completely barren, clearly untended.
A normal farmer would never allow such neglect. But for people accustomed to making quick money through robbery and murder, laboring in the fields was the last thing they'd bother with.
"Captain, do we charge straight in?" Marlo asked.
Lillian shook his head. "Too dangerous."
No one knew what awaited them inside the wooden house. Even though they were armed, these bandits were desperate criminals with no way out. They knew that once caught, execution by hanging was guaranteed. Since death was inevitable, they might as well drag someone down with them.
Lillian didn't want a single casualty. He had only this handful of men—lose one, and that was one less. The ideal outcome was to resolve this without any losses at all.
"Should we pull back and call for reinforcements?" someone suggested. "With more people, it should be safer."
"No," Lillian replied immediately. "That would be even riskier."
Calling for support wasn't just about losing credit. If word leaked and those bastards escaped, it would be disastrous.
After all… Lillian couldn't be sure there wasn't someone inside the Military Police colluding with the bandits. Given the overall atmosphere of the force, taking bribes was practically routine. If any Military Police were secretly tipping them off, then these dozen or so men would be walking straight into danger.
Right now, the only people he could trust were these new recruits. They hadn't yet been fully corrupted, and they still carried a sense of justice. If it were a bunch of seasoned veterans, none of them would be willing to take this risk.
"We're enough on our own," Lillian said as he dropped to the ground. "Everyone, crawl forward with me. We'll move into that large patch of grass ahead."
"Yes, sir!"
They all lay flat and followed Lillian forward. With the large trees providing cover, there was little risk of being spotted. Soon, they reached the tall grass, now only a little over ten meters from the wooden house. They could even faintly hear laughter and voices from inside—someone was drinking.
Everyone tightened their grip on their guns, exchanged tense glances, then looked to Lillian, waiting for his command.
Instead, he said, "You stay here. I'll go in alone."
"What?!"
They stared at him in disbelief, unable to understand what their captain was thinking. Lillian tugged at his clothes and said calmly, "Why do you think I put this on? Relax. I know what I'm doing."
"Captain!" Marlo protested anxiously. "That's way too dangerous! You alone—let's all go in together!"
"No." Lillian shook his head, then added after a moment's thought, "We'll do it this way. Screams are the signal. The moment you hear screaming, charge in."
"But—"
"Follow orders."
With that, Lillian stood up and walked straight out of the grass.
The others looked at one another, completely baffled. To them, this was insanely risky—borderline suicidal.
"I don't think we should—"
Marlo gripped his gun and tried to follow, but in the next instant he lost his balance and hit the ground with a thud. He turned his head and saw Annie gripping his ankle, her expression icy.
"Listen to him."
"Annie!"
"Marlo, the captain must have a plan. We should wait for the signal."
"Yeah…"
Seeing everyone else staying put, Marlo didn't know whether they were truly obeying orders or simply afraid. With no one backing him up, he could only lower his head and say nothing more.
---
Knock, knock, knock.
Lillian rapped on the wooden door. The laughter inside stopped abruptly. Heavy footsteps followed, and with a creak, the door swung open.
A burly, bald man appeared. He froze when he saw Lillian, then a gleam lit his eyes. "What do you want?"
"Well, um…" Lillian said nervously. "I noticed your farm's been left unattended. Are you short on farmhands? I was hoping to work here. I don't need much pay—just enough to fill my stomach!"
"A farmhand?" The man looked Lillian up and down, then burst into laughter. He grabbed Lillian by the wrist. "That'd be a waste. Come on, come in—I've got a much more profitable job for you!"
Before Lillian could react, he was dragged inside. His face filled with panic as he shouted, "What are you doing?!"
Even as he struggled, his eyes swept the room. There were far more people inside than he'd expected—around a dozen men, each positioned strategically, all armed with blades. Their alertness was obvious. Even while drinking, they were ready to switch into combat mode at the slightest disturbance.
No wonder they'd evaded capture for years—they were capable.
Seeing Lillian dragged inside, the men frowned. A long-haired man asked, "What's this?"
"A farmhand looking for work," the bald man replied, barely hiding his grin. "Boss, this kid's an Oriental! We're about to make a big score!"
The long-haired man—the boss—looked at Lillian, who was struggling and shouting, "Let go of me!" Then he nodded slightly. "Keep eating." He turned to the bald man. "Gien, take him downstairs. Find out where his family lives, then grab them too and sell them."
"No problem!"
"Y-you're human traffickers?!"
"Heh, kid, someone delivering himself to us is a first. Guess you're just unlucky," the bald man said as he dragged Lillian toward the corner of the room. He pressed a switch on the wall.
With a mechanical click, the floor slid open sideways, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.
So there was a mechanism like this…
Lillian thought to himself: If we had charged in earlier, these people could've slipped straight down here. In that case, we probably wouldn't have caught anyone at all.
The bald man dragged him down the stairs. Below was an underground passage about seven or eight meters long, and at the end it split into two branches, left and right.
Lillian's heart skipped a beat. How did a dozen people manage to build something this big…?
No—wait. This is an underground passage.
Suddenly, he remembered. This was the very underground passage from the original story—the one where the main trio tried to lure Annie down. A maze of hidden, interconnected tunnels, dark and secretive. Everything clicked instantly.
It wasn't that the farm had tunnels beneath it.
It was that the tunnels had a farm built on top of them.
These bandits must have spent a long time living in the underground passages. At some point, they discovered that one of the tunnels led directly beneath a farm on the outskirts. Whether by force or purchase, they took control of the farm, then connected the surface and the underground with hidden mechanisms.
That way, whenever danger appeared, they could immediately retreat underground, making pursuit incredibly difficult.
A truly crafty bunch—three burrows for one rabbit, Lillian thought. Good thing I discovered this ahead of time. Otherwise, at least half of them would've escaped.
At the end of the passage, the bald man turned right. It was a dead end—but built into it was an iron cage. Inside were seven or eight people, tightly bound, blindfolded, with their mouths gagged.
"You're really careful," Lillian said calmly.
"Huh?"
The bald man froze. Only then did he realize that the panic on Lillian's face had vanished, replaced by cold indifference. The sudden shift left him momentarily stunned.
"You little—uh—gh?!"
Before he could finish, Lillian clamped down on the man's wrist. A terrifying force surged forth, instantly crushing the bones in his hand.
"Mmmph—!!"
The scream never made it out. Lillian covered the man's mouth with one hand while his other snapped around his neck. With a sharp crack, the neck broke.
Lillian released his grip and gently lowered the corpse to the ground, making no sound. He glanced at the prisoners, then turned away.
Now wasn't the time to rescue them. The people upstairs still needed to be dealt with. If the captives started shouting, the element of surprise would be ruined.
He moved back around the corner toward the staircase.
What he didn't see was that shortly after he left, one of the captives reached up and removed the blindfold. After staring at the bald man's corpse on the ground, the person's expression turned icy. A hand slipped into a pocket—and a dagger was drawn.
---