Year 1513
Night fell quietly on Kurohana Island. The moon hung low in the sky, casting a soft glow over the flower fields swaying gently in the wind. Inside a modest wooden house in the middle of the village, Bastien and Arthur sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by the scent of spices and bubbling soup.
They were staying at the village chief's house, now cared for by his daughter—a sharp-eyed girl with short hair named Nara. She was ladling spicy fish soup into their bowls, her expression calm as if nothing was unusual.
Arthur blew on his spoon before tasting a bit. A second later, his face turned red like a boiling tomato.
"IS THIS… SOUP OR POISON, NARA?!" he shouted, tongue out, eyes watery.
Nara shrugged as she sat beside them. "If you can't handle it, don't ask for seconds."
Bastien, who had already tasted it, just chuckled while patting Arthur's back. "Not bad. The spice gets the blood pumping. Good for war."
Arthur coughed. "Good for suicide, you mean."
"You made all this yourself?" Bastien asked, blowing on a piece of fish.
Nara nodded proudly. "I used to be a street cook in a port town. But everything went to hell when the bandits came. They took everything. Even my spices. Bastards."
"We'll help you," Bastien said seriously. "But we need to know more. How many of them are there? What kind of weapons do they have?"
Nara stared at them for a moment, then let out a long sigh. "You're just two people. Three, counting me. You want to fight ten fully-armed bandits? You're insane."
"We're Freebone," Arthur declared proudly, puffing out his chest. "We may be just two people now, but we can't stand seeing people pushed around."
Bastien nodded. "And you just said you're a good cook. The world's too big for you to stay locked up in this village."
Nara looked at them, her eyes softening. "You're crazy... But the kind of crazy that's... fun."
—
The next morning, they began planning. Arthur and Bastien observed the hill where the bandits' hideout stood—a crumbling old fort patched up poorly. Bastien drew a rough map in the dirt with a stick while Arthur yawned, chewing on an apple.
"There are three guards at the front gate, two in the tower, and the rest usually drunk in the kitchen," Nara explained, joining them.
"Bandits with a kitchen? These guys upper-class?" Arthur muttered.
"More like hungry-class," Nara replied with a grin.
That night, while the bandits were off guard, Bastien and Arthur snuck into the hideout. Bastien brought a homemade pistol and two throwing knives, while Arthur carried a sharpened sickle. They used the back path Nara had shown them.
One by one, the bandits were silently taken down. Arthur slipped while trying to imitate Bastien's stealth style and crashed into a jug, waking two bandits.
"What was that?" one of them asked.
"My voice. Too commanding," Arthur replied before hurling the sickle—right into the first bandit's head.
The second tried to shout, but Bastien emerged from the shadows and silenced him with a knee to the gut.
Finally, they reached the main hall, where the bandit leader—a large man in a fur cloak with two giant sickles—sat on a wooden chair, stroking a beard full of bread crumbs.
"Who are you?!" he roared, standing up with both weapons raised.
"I'm Bastien de Vill. Captain of the Freebone crew," Bastien said firmly, eyes locked on the bandit. "And I don't like you hurting innocent people."
"Free… what?"
"Freebone. Bones of the free. We came from hell and swam through the seas of justice just to beat you up," Arthur added, standing beside Bastien with a fake serious face.
The bandit burst out laughing. "Two skinny brats think they can beat me?! I'M KRAKO! SCYTHE KING OF KUROHANA!"
"Scythe king?" Arthur scoffed. "Sounds like a farm tool store."
Krako swung his sickles in fury. The fight broke out. Bastien moved swiftly, dodging the twin blades with light, precise footwork. Arthur flanked from the other side, distracting him with taunts.
"You're so big, if you sleep face-down, the earth becomes flat again!"
After a fierce battle, Bastien seized the moment and shot Krako in the knee with his makeshift pistol, sending the large man crashing down. Arthur leapt in and punched his face with the wooden handle of his sickle.
The rest of the bandits had already been taken down by the villagers, led by Nara, wielding a steaming hot frying pan.
"This is a legendary pan. It's fried 300 eggs… and now, your face!" she shouted as she smacked the final bandit.
—
By morning, peace returned to the village. The villagers lit lanterns and held a small celebration. Nara sat with Bastien and Arthur by the bonfire.
"You guys are really nuts," she said, laughing.
"We know," Bastien replied. "But the world needs a little madness to become a better place."
Arthur raised his bowl of spicy soup. "Except this kind of madness. I haven't felt my tongue since last night."