The Precious Baby of the Bandit Leader Chapter 2

With a runny nose dripping from my nostrils and sniffles, I kept smiling gently.

 

‘No matter how much they are thieves, surely they wouldn’t try to kill a smiling baby, right?’

 

“Chief, are you alright!” 

 

While trying to show harmlessness to the fierce gang leader who was staring right at me.

 

“The way it’s hanging from the tree… isn’t it truly a bizarre-looking wild beast?”

 

“Looks like a jannabi (*monkey), if you ask me.”

 

“Whatever it is, how dare it attack the chief!”

 

The men standing behind the chief, who already had fierce expressions, scowled even more and raised their voices.

 

‘T, this isn’t it?’

 

“Chief, I’ll shoot an arrow and take care of it right away.”

 

And one of them stepped forward solemnly.

 

The bronze-toned muscles on the man’s arm twitched as he swiftly drew an arrow\…

 

“Euk?!”

 

No? W, wait a minute.

 

You’re really going to kill me with that?

 

Killing me just because a bit of snot splashed on you is way too cruel!

 

“Waaah, waaah! (No!)”

 

As the terrifying muscular men one by one drew their bows and clubs, I screamed desperately.

 

‘I’m a human! You guys!’

 

The sackcloth wrapped around my body was completely covered in white from the snow falling heavily from the sky.

 

Maybe because I was hanging from a pretty high tree branch, they didn’t realize I was a person.

 

“Stop.”

 

At that moment, the leader stopped his men with a heavy voice.

 

At the leader’s command, the bows that had been raised in an instant went down.

 

‘Whew, I’m alive.’

 

Fortunately, it seemed that man wasn’t the kind of scoundrel who would thoughtlessly harm a wild animal.

 

It was a moment when I felt sorry for unintentionally making him get a waterfall of snot.

 

However.

 

Rustle—!

 

“?!”

 

The next moment, that guilt vanished in an instant.

 

The branch I had been hanging from—essentially my lifeline—was sliced clean through in an instant.

 

By the massive blade of the bandit chief, who had flown in with a gust of wind.

 

“Whaaa!”

 

The branch I had been hanging from was a full 6 meters high.

 

In other words, if a mere newborn like me were to fall from that height, there was a 100 percent chance I’d die.

 

‘I’m going to die!’

 

I cried with all my might as I felt my breath suddenly disappear.

 

When I closed my eyes tightly, feeling that I would fall to the ground.

 

Swoosh—!

 

I was caught in someone’s grasp and stopped in midair.

 

I thought I was definitely going to die, but the edge of the swaddle was caught in the leader’s hand, dangling in midair.

 

“H, hick!”

 

Feeling like I was about to choke, I gasped for breath and barely blinked my eyes.

 

My vision was completely blurred by tears and snot, making it hard to see clearly ahead.

 

‘I… am I alive?’

 

The one thing I was sure of was that, thankfully, I was still alive.

 

Of course, a new problem arose—I was being held tightly in the chief’s hand.

 

“A, a baby?”

 

“What? Where?”

 

Only then did the bandits, having finally seen my tear- and snot-covered face clearly, widen their eyes in surprise and rush over.

 

“Wow, what is this? Did they just abandon this little thing? Looks like a monkey has come out!”

 

“Chief, should we search the area?”

 

I wanted to look them in the eye and have a proper conversation with these bandits.

 

But perhaps because the tension had finally released, my vision suddenly began to blur—and then my eyes shut.

 

‘What’s wrong? My body feels weird.’

 

Is it because I was a small baby, left outside in the cold for a long time, freezing to death?

 

“Byaaaaah….”

 

Drowsiness came crashing in like an inevitable tidal wave, swiftly engulfing my entire body.

 

‘I can’t… what if they leave me behind like this…?’

 

I wanted to say something, but it didn’t come out easily.

 

“D…Dad…” 

 

Before I lost consciousness, the sound that came out of my mouth as if squeezing it was a cry for the pain I felt from my frozen hands and feet.

 

I just died in pain, and to wake up only to suffer again—isn’t that just too cruel?

 

So please… just let me live.

 

“…!”

 

Before my vision completely darkened.

 

It seemed—just for a moment—that the bandit chief’s eyes, framed by his strikingly handsome and sharply defined features, widened in surprise.

 

For some reason, it seemed as if he was shaken by something.

 

But I barely had time to question that expression on his face.

 

My consciousness could no longer endure and sank into a deep darkness.

 

* * *

 

When I opened my eyes again.

 

“I, is it awake?!”

 

“…?”

 

A completely different scene unfolded before my eyes.

 

Blink, blink.

 

No matter how many times I blinked, the scene before my eyes didn’t change.

 

There were dark and fierce faces looking down at me.

 

‘What’s this? An ambush?’

 

Are they trying to kidnap a police officer to threaten someone or something?

 

Still in a daze, I tried to recall the names of various gangs—Seven-Star Faction, Tiger Faction, and so on.

 

Smirk—.

 

Suddenly, the mouths of the men I met were distorted and their faces became more frighteningly sinister.

 

‘….!’

 

It was like a scene from a horror movie.

 

‘Cannibalism? Organ trafficking? Deep-sea fishing boat?’

 

Ominous words quickly flashed through my mind.

 

But then, words came clearly to my ears that made me doubt what I was hearing.

 

“Ah, the baby looks so cute…”

 

Huh? I was wondering if I had misheard, when I tilted my head.

 

A bandit cautiously reached out his hand toward me.

 

‘As expected, they’re trying to hurt me.’

 

Swoosh—!

 

I quickly raised my leg to push his hand away.

 

However, my decisive kick failed due to the unexpected length of my leg.

 

‘S, short?!’

 

Oh, that’s right. I had become a baby.

 

At that moment, as if I had been splashed with cold water, I came to my senses.

 

I suddenly opened my eyes in the mountains, and then I met some bandits with fierce looks…

 

Ugh, I gulped and raised my head.

 

Disheveled hair, bulky bodies, and a rough appearance covered in patches of scruffy hair.

 

‘…These are the guys!!’

 

Meanwhile, the bandit who had fallen victim to my daring(?) cotton-soft kick…

 

“Kwaaak!!!”

 

Suddenly, he collapsed on the spot as if his legs had given out.

 

Clutching his chest near the heart.

 

‘Huh? Is that how powerful my kick is?’

 

I lowered my gaze and looked down at my small feet.

 

They were just small, fluffy baby feet that looked weak.

 

‘No matter how you look at it, that kick wasn’t even that strong. Don’t tell me… did I somehow get superpowers like in AvengerX or something…?’

 

With memories of my past life, I suddenly became a baby in a place I didn’t know, so it wouldn’t be strange if something even weirder happened. 

 

“Me, me too.”

 

“Me too, just once…….”

 

But what was even stranger was that they all began reaching out their hands, one after another, their faces flushed with excitement.

 

‘What is this! Why is everyone acting like this!’

 

By this point, I started to doubt their sanity.

 

I curled my legs up tightly in caution, and seeing that, everyone pouted with disappointed expressions.

 

“Hmph, get lost. The baby only did it for me. Only for me!”

 

The man I kicked with my foot slowly curled the corner of his mouth into a smirk and shrugged.

 

“So why does it only kick you!” 

 

“You don’t know what ‘kkukkuk-i’ is?”

 

“Kkuk-kkuk-i? Isn’t that something a chubby cat does?”

 

“I’m the only one doing the ‘kkukkuk’! That means the baby really like me…!”

 

…Sorry, but I think there’s a misunderstanding. Now’s really not the time for this.

 

I think we can communicate well.

 

Then please stop fighting and watch my desperate sign language.

 

“Woo, awooong. Awoong. Woo, euh-beu. (I… I don’t like any of you. Not at all. Not even a little bit.)”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Uh, auu, uuuu, au, ng?! (So please stop the nonsense and take me to a nearby village, won’t you?)”

 

“Hey, look! She’s flailing her arms and legs like crazy? I think she’s trying to do the ‘purring’ thing to me too!”

 

No! I’m saying no!

 

Desperately flailing my arms, hoping to get a chance to explain myself.

 

“Come out.”

 

A low and intimidating voice came from behind them.

 

“I, it’s the chief!”