The Ten-Minute Heist
It seemed to refer to the other villages she had yet to visit.
Lasen, where they said tomatoes were cultivated, must have been one of them.
The status window’s warning that favorability would plummet back into the negatives the moment the next village was opened was something Chloe herself agreed with.
As soon as the next village is opened, favorability will drop back into the negatives.
It would be strange if it didn’t drop.
After a moment of quiet thought, the instant the status window vanished Chloe returned to the kitchen. She looked at Delma and the head cook, who were still devouring the dural fries, and said,
“Delma, I’ll be in my room for a while. Have the cook steam and fry the dural that’s still outside.”
“M-me?”
Scrooge apparently could eat no more. He sat beside the pair, contentedly rubbing his swollen belly. The basket that had been piled high with dural fries was now nearly empty.
“Should I do it myself, then? You saw exactly what I did earlier, didn’t you? You’re clever and your skills are excellent, so I’m sure you’ll create far superior dural dishes than I ever could. I’ll be looking forward to the results. Once everything is cooked, distribute it to the servants.”
Hurriedly correcting the word that had nearly slipped out, Chloe dashed upstairs to her room.
She was eager to see the newly opened areas around Borim-dang.
At first, taking goods from ownerless shops had felt deeply uncomfortable. Now it seemed perfectly natural, like plucking ripe fruit from wild, unclaimed trees.
Best of all, no matter how much she carried away, everything reset to its original state, so her conscience barely twinged.
Passing through the front door and changing into comfortable clothes inside her old room had grown familiar. To move more freely in the activated zones, Chloe had recently begun leaving her cumbersome dresses behind and wearing her worn-out sweatpants and hoodie like battle gear instead.
“First I’ll enter Borim-dang, use the full ten minutes, then check the other places.”
Stepping out of the old room and standing before Borim-dang, the number 10:00 floated up in the status window.
Remaining Time: 10:00
Separately, Chloe set the timer she had brought from the room to eight minutes. She didn’t want to make any mistakes in her haste.
“All right!”
Chloe steeled herself like an athlete stepping onto the field and opened the door to Borim-dang.
09:59
The moment the glass door opened, the status window’s timer began counting down.
Having visited several times, she now knew the layout as well as the owner.
Since she still needed to gather items from the other shops, she filled only the first hundred inventory slots.
Instead of grabbing randomly, she selected the most expensive-looking goods, so the time flew by. Thanks to the eight-minute timer, Chloe managed to leave Borim-dang before it expired.
The instant she stepped outside, shops that had been invisible until now emerged from the fog.
At the same time the status window reset to 10:00. Chloe immediately started her handheld timer again. With only eight minutes to finish everything, her heart raced with anxiety.
To the right of Borim-dang stood the gold exchange and a clothing store. To the left were another gold-and-silver shop called Gold Diamant and a hot-dog stall. Yet another gold shop was visible, though half-hidden in the mist. Its gloomy atmosphere made her decide it was wiser to stay away.
“Jackpot.”
Chloe chose to enter the gold exchange first.
Nothing beat gold, after all.
Now that she had secured the gold exchange, it was practically the same as owning a gold mine.
Reviving the Grace Territory would be as easy as drinking cold porridge.
“Hehehehehehehe.”
Simply standing in front of the gold exchange drew a sly chuckle from her throat.
Chloe stood there giggling until she belatedly checked her timer and rushed inside. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Just like Borim-dang, the shop was utterly deserted.
But the real problem was—
“Why is there nothing here!”
The gold exchange was completely empty. Not a single person, not a single speck of gold. Even the display shelves were covered in a thick layer of dust.
With a horrified expression, Chloe dragged her finger across one of the grayed-out shelves.
The finger left a clean trail through the dust, revealing the barren surface beneath.
Damn it!
“It was closed!”
Swallowing the irritation that flared up, Chloe shook her hand sharply and bolted outside. Her panic inside had already eaten up more than three minutes.
She had roughly seven minutes left. The timer in her hand showed about five.
“Gold Diamant!”
In her urgency she sprinted into the Gold Diamant across the way.
She had feared it might be closed too, but fortunately the interior was packed with gemstones every bit as varied as Borim-dang’s.
The sight of the fully stocked displays brought instant relief.
“Thank goodness!”
Chloe practically hurled the items she pulled from the cases into her inventory. Even when tossed haphazardly, the clever inventory sorted each piece neatly into its own slot.
Nice catch!
If Borim-dang’s jewels had carried an older-generation charm, the ones here boasted unique designs that would appeal to younger tastes. Many had lower gold content than those at Borim-dang, yet their styling was far more attractive.
Chloe moved busily, eyes darting between her timer and the display shelves.
It was her first visit, the surroundings were unfamiliar, and her frantic pace made her heart feel ready to burst from her chest.
She really had become a thief with nerves of steel.
Beep, beep, beep, beep!
She had collected almost nothing, yet the timer screamed that only one minute remained.
“I have to get out!”
With no time to mourn her half-empty inventory, Chloe dashed outside. Though the status window still showed time left, she had to return to her shabby old room, so she could not relax. She sprinted toward it with everything she had.
“Huff! Huff!”
She had not run far, but tension made her breath ragged.
She could not afford to dawdle and let the newly opened area close again. There would be plenty of chances next time.
There was no real need to rush, yet her growing greed quickened her steps on its own.
Fortunately she reached the old room before the ten minutes expired.
The moment the front door shut behind her, Chloe collapsed onto the mattress.
Lying there catching her breath, she noticed the ceiling stained by leaking rainwater. In the past it had felt like a mirror of her own miserable life, but now it did not bother her at all.
Her mind was utterly occupied with thoughts of the gold and silver shops.
“I wish the time limit would disappear.”
With a sigh of regret, Chloe examined the items she had brought out.
She should have inspected them more carefully.
Still, at least she had visited Gold Diamant. That was something.
Pushing the disappointment aside, once her breathing steadied Chloe left the old room once more and headed for the convenience store. She felt freshly grateful that no timer restricted her there.
Stepping inside felt as comfortable as entering her own room.
The remaining hundred or so inventory slots filled rapidly with convenience-store food.
With far more relaxed steps, Chloe wandered the aisles and pulled out a bottle of Bacchus, gulping it down.
“Mmm, so refreshing.”
She had never appreciated how lucky it was that the refrigerators were still running.
The reality of her situation struck her anew. She set the half-empty bottle down and looked around.
Just that short burst of running had made her hungry. Chloe rose and tore open one of the spicy bibim ramens she used to love.
She peeled away the plastic and lid, poured in hot water, then sealed the gap with wooden chopsticks like a lid on a steaming mouth.
Three minutes.
While the noodles cooked, Chloe simply stared blankly at the cup’s lid.
Two furious chickens glared at each other as though ready to fight.
When the silence grew so heavy her ears felt stuffed, the three minutes finally ended.
Slurp, slurp.
The ramen was scalding and fiercely spicy.
Her nose stung and sweat beaded above her lip, yet Chloe kept eating until the bowl was empty.
She had been about to toss the empty container into the trash, but for some reason left it and walked out of the convenience store.
She was curious whether the trash would remain the next time she returned, and a sudden burst of pettiness made her unwilling to clean it up.
After stepping through the front door and checking her inventory, Chloe let out a long, unconscious sigh.
For all the excitement of the expanded activated zone, the results felt rather meager.
“I should have eaten at least one hot dog before leaving.”
She belatedly remembered the hot dogs bubbling away in the stall beside Borim-dang.
Though no one was there, the hot dogs continued frying on their own, studded with potato bits and browning beautifully.
“Would they burn if left alone? Or do they stay preserved like that? Still, they’d be awfully greasy, wouldn’t they?”
Unable to let go of the thought, Chloe decided she would simply have to try one herself next time to find out.
After hiding the jewels she had brought back inside the dressing room, she stepped into the main room and heard a knock.
“My lord, are you inside?”
It was Delma’s voice.
When Chloe opened the door she had locked, Delma stood there with an extremely animated expression.
“Yaaawn… what is it?”
A yawn slipped out with the words.
After racing around madly inside, exhaustion had caught up with her. She would probably need a nap.
“My lord! The servants ate every single bite of the dural dishes without leaving a crumb!”
That was welcome news. Her fatigue seemed to vanish in an instant.
“No stomachaches or anything?”
“None at all! They said they were full, it tasted wonderful, and even asked if they could have it again tomorrow!”
Even as she spoke, Delma could not hide her own excitement; the whole thing still seemed miraculous to her.
“See? I told you it was delicious. Tomorrow we’ll send all the servants from Grace Castle to harvest more dural.”
“Near the Black Forest?”
A trace of hesitation colored Delma’s voice.
The smile that had filled her face only moments earlier was now tinged with worry.
It was only natural. A custom observed for decades could not vanish overnight.
Even Chloe would not have the confidence to casually plant grass from a graveyard in her own front yard.
To these people, dural had to feel even more taboo than graveyard grass.
“Anyone who’s scared doesn’t have to go. But tell them that those who do will receive a generous daily wage. Of course, this is a special allowance entirely separate from their regular servant pay.”
“A special allowance?”