Star, Please Let Me Be a Righteous Thief Again Today

"Hmm. Nice! Klein never turns down a passionate newbie!"

But if she failed to understand the twisted mind hiding behind that purity and transparency, then even a seasoned Klein was, in the end, no more than an ordinary person. In a sense, it was an illusion spun from a situation gone bad. The Sword Emperor had appeared out of nowhere in the waterway and snarled the operation—so if she could hook Lupin even like this, it was nothing short of a miraculous windfall.

Lupin, the Cult suits you. From here on, I'll teach you everything the Cult has.

And then the thing Klein called passion exploded.

It was the creed and the propaganda of the Heavenly Mandate Cult—the same lines Lupin had once heard from a band of masked zealots shambling about like zombies.

"To tear down the false principles and the false order raised up by the stars, and to set the world right as a world of humans, for humans, by humans. That is the ultimate goal of our Heavenly Mandate Cult."

The moment Lupin heard it, she recoiled inside. Darkness's own children, the lot of them. She'd had them pegged from the moment they stamped a skull onto every point of a pentagram. Big Sis Star was such a good person—and they wanted to overthrow rule by the stars!

"Does that have something to do with the Holy Arks?"

"A Holy Ark is the source and the wellspring of the aura the stars left behind. In a land where a Holy Ark resides, the stars' blessing settles in, and nature brims with aura."

Somewhere along the way, Klein had become indistinguishable from a recruiter running an orientation for newly joined shrine maidens. Once you had caught the eyes of the job seekers who showed up, the next thing a recruiter had to do was explain the background of the enterprise. It was a somewhat dull stretch, but also the part where the explainer's skill stood out.

"An Aura User's growth is absolutely governed by the size of the spring each person forms. If you want to grow that spring, you have to absorb aura ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from nature, refine it, and store it. Every corner of the continent used to call the process something different, until the Empire unified the name. They call it the Aura Cultivation Method."

In that brief interval, the sharpness vanished from Lupin's eyes.

Bored already? Klein must have felt this wasn't working either; she pitched her voice up bright and ringing.

"Pop quiz. If a Holy Ark were to suddenly vanish, would people still be able to cultivate aura?"

"......Uh. Going by how this is headed, they couldn't, right?"

"Ding-ding-ding. Correct! You're pretty smart, aren't you?"

"Ahem. Well. I am at least this good."

Lose a Holy Ark, and the aura in nature gradually disappears. The Aura Cultivation Method becomes impossible. Put bluntly, in a country whose Holy Ark has vanished, an Aura User cannot grow. A short span of a few years might not matter much, but stretch that period out past several decades and the situation turns grave—because discovering and raising Aura Users becomes impossible in itself. In a world where a Grand Master was valued as a powerful tactical asset, the loss of a Holy Ark could only be fatal.

"Then, moving on—an advanced question. If Klein stole Rostov's Holy Ark, what would happen from the perspective of the entire Empire Alliance?"

Lupin shook her head at once, making it perfectly clear she had no wish to think about it.

Klein needled her.

"You could imagine all sorts of things, right? The Empire's three great powers throwing Rostov out of the Alliance. Rostov, just to survive, eyeing some other country's Holy Ark. Betrayal and dirty tricks running wild. Wouldn't all kinds of delightful things happen? Kyahaha!"

The ultimate purpose of stealing a Holy Ark was chaos. Chaos between the North Country and the Empire Alliance, now locked in perfect balance. Chaos inside the Empire Alliance itself, bound fast by marriage, business, and blood.

Pull one block from a Jenga tower stacked so carefully, and the tower does not fall. But give the table a gentle shake in that state, and the tower has no choice but to come down. That was the logic. There was no need to steal every Holy Ark, nor to hurl an all-out assault at every nation. It was enough to take them one by one, starting with whichever country inside the Alliance had the most gaps—using criminals busy lining their own pockets, foolish citizens, and corrupt nobles.

"This is only the beginning. In the middle of that chaos, the Cult will take every Holy Ark into its hands, one after another. And once we have them all?"

Klein traced a cube in the empty air with both hands, then—thud—slammed her palms together and bared her white teeth.

"We smash them completely."

Lupin was not a woman who startled easily, but this once the bewilderment lay naked across her face.

These crazy bastards! Destroy the Holy Arks?! Figures. The Cult really was a garbage heap all along.

Her private evaluation of the Cult hit absolute rock bottom.

"Huh? Why so shocked?"

"No, it's just—that seems pretty important to the world, and you say you're going to smash it. You're an Aura User yourself. If you break them, don't you lose your power?"

"I suppose so?"

"'I suppose so' isn't an answer. The only reason you can thrash around like this is aura in the first place. And you want to erase aura from the world?"

Klein clicked her tongue—tsk, tsk—and shook her head.

"Every human being must, in the end, become free of the stars. That is the Cult's ultimate wish. So even if we use the power of the stars to reach that end, we have to be ready to let it go someday. Everyone in the Cult is like that. Our Cheonmyeong Jiwang. The Ten Captains of the Black Dragon Corps, the Cult's strongest force. The shrine maidens, myself included."

In Klein's glittering eyes, Lupin felt a single, unwavering obsession.

Ah. This bitch's madness is the real thing. A mission deep enough that she'd abandon even the power she built herself.

On that point, Lupin counted Klein as her own kind. After all, Lupin was someone who could give up anything, so long as a treasure chest stood in front of her.

"Because of the Holy Arks and aura, this land grew asymmetric and unequal. Aura Users split off from ordinary people, and nobles appeared who clung to the Royal Blood that held the Arks. So shouldn't we seize them and destroy them? For everyone's equality. Heeheehee."

Acknowledging someone as your own kind did not make them an ally.

This is pure 'romance when I do it, cheating when you do it'—an earring on me, a nose ring on you. The way they operate is exactly like...

An unbalanced social structure was nothing new to Lupin. Would someone who had done the work of three people at a cutthroat company—field, office, and sales, all by herself—really fail to recognize it? She wasn't fond of the entrenched powers either. She agonized over her vote every single time, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still had never once seen a promised policy actually kept.

But she also hated the sort who wanted the establishment dead to the last and preached that the existing order was absolutely, irredeemably wrong. Wherever people like that went, a wind of blood followed. The Cult was precisely the latter kind. Not even a scam religion that told moderate lies and skimmed off the money—no, they were an armed Islamist terror group outright.

It was obvious that every future entanglement with them would be nothing but a headache. Right. I shouldn't have anything to do with them at all. What a waste of time.

Lupin stole a glance at the prime minister sprawled at Klein's feet. Blood was still seeping from his brow. If we're going to enter the Holy Ark, he needs to be all right...

"Something just occurred to me, so I'll ask. If all you need is the Holy Ark, why kidnap His Excellency the Prime Minister?"

"Separating a Holy Ark rooted in the earth requires Royal Blood."

Klein wiped, with her fingers, the blood slowly welling from the prime minister's forehead.

"So we're taking him along! You have to pour in one person's worth of blood before the bond between the Holy Ark and the earth—"

KAGAK—!

In the space of a blink, the Lightning Sword flew in and bit deeper than before. It still could not pass the coils of the Serpent Coil Sword to reach Klein, but over the course of their long talk, Lupin had grown at least a little accustomed to the movements of this bewitching serpent.

"Aww. Klein told you everything, so why is Lupin attacking Klein?"

"From the Ark's—no. You're trying to kill His Excellency. And I'm supposed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just let that happen?"

"Hmm? But Lupin. Since when did you treasure human life so much? You go around killing people however you please, too."

"......"

"Hundreds of Cult people are already dead because of Lupin. But Klein is only going to kill one prime minister, so no matter how you look at it, isn't Lupin worse? Klein really doesn't get it!"

A logical strike that cut straight in on the preciousness of life. An ordinary person would surely have fallen into anguish in that moment. Their first murder. A guilt impossible to overcome. What was right, and what was wrong? Could their justice truly be said to serve people? Can evil be defined by an individual—and is it just to kill an evildoer so defined?

But Lupin was not that person.

She was a Dimensional Drifter. A perfect outsider, not born of this world at all. To her, every nation's justice was different. When A said to kill B and B said to kill A, whose side was she supposed to take? And in the first place, who decided the standard—what was right, and what was wrong?

And so, in the first year of her possession, Lupin had made a resolution. She could not match herself to everyone, so she simply would not match herself to anyone. Even now, her justice took treasure chests as its measure. It was only that the decent ones usually didn't trick her or torment her with treasure chests—and so, without so much as an evil-deed counter, she had until now been lucky enough to keep from cutting the good, and to slip past them instead.

At any rate, for a tangle of reasons, Lupin had no choice but to treat Klein as an enemy.

"And besides, does comparing yourself to me somehow make you not a bad person? Isn't that an incredibly naive, ridiculous idea? Even if we grant that you and I are both pitch-black, that little mindset of yours—trying to slip out of it all by yourself—is what I can't stand."

Even the seasoned Klein was beginning to find Lupin's true feelings hard to read.

...Hadn't the mood been good just now?

To the flustered Klein, Lupin drove the nail in for certain.

"Enough. Leave His Excellency there and get lost. Your story isn't worth hearing any further."

Well, one way or another, persuasion had failed. With things as they were, there was nothing for it but the final plan: show how tremendous she was, and lure Cheonmyeong Jiwang out into the open.

"Heehee. But even if you say that, Klein can't just hand it over, you know? If you want it, beat Klein and take it! Rostov's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Holy Ark is one Klein already called dibs on!"

That popped the valve on Lupin's rage, which had been holding by a thread.

Villains, every time. They never listen unless you raise a blade.

Abandoned Chests. Secret Chests. Holy Arks. All of them were Lupin's. It had been settled that way from the very beginning.

"Who are you to play the owner?"

Lupin flicked her fingers.

Pigeons beyond counting poured out, flaunting feathers in every gaudy color.

Klein cried out in wonder and readjusted her grip on the Serpent Coil Sword.

"Whoa... Klein's never seen it in person before, but there are way more than she thought?"

The flying pigeons became a single enormous typhoon. Trapped inside it, Klein's Serpent Coil Sword shuddered like an enraged snake, a thin electric shiver running the length of it. Grrrk. Grrrrk. A cooing rolled out, loud enough that even a lover of pigeons would have taken fright and run.

It was time to begin the pigeon hunt.

"Pigeons. Let's eat."