Star, Please Let Me Be a Righteous Thief Again Today

Lupin put on a look of perfect innocence and let her eyes shine.

"So. When do I get the Fragment of the Stars? I'll hold my breath right here until you hand it over! Hup!"

The white star groaned for a long while, as if the agony of deciding would never end. Destiny's Star drifted up beside him and whispered something Lupin was not meant to hear. A moment later, the white star snorted.

"Fair enough. We have all lived apart far too long. I, too, am curious what the others think."

"Right? Let's just call this a gathering. I'll slip out at a tactful moment."

"Even if I come with you, the persuading will still fall to you and that child. Don't even think of ducking out."

"You trust the Lupin you met today quite a lot, don't you?"

"There is a foolish side to her, but that very purity is what makes me believe her. What I cannot help lamenting is that a wandering star, dragged here by the madwoman who ran away from home, forces us into dealings with the Qliphoth."

Destiny's Star's next words were nothing but barbs.

"Qliphah, Sephira—weren't the ones who drew the line and shut the door the elders who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carried on as if their ears were stuffed? Honestly, I think you ought to be thanking me for bringing a wandering star all the way here."

"If we are keeping score, we are handing over the very last Fragment we have left so the wandering star can be bound. Shouldn't the thanks be coming our way?"

"...Keep this up and I'll just leave. This is hardly the time to fuss over cold rice and hot rice, is it? Honestly, you old things only know how to be stubborn. You won't even try to adapt."

Listening in, Lupin felt distinctly strange. It was as if Star Big Sis had picked up her way of talking in the worst possible fashion, and was now jabbing, with perfect aim, at every spot guaranteed to sour an elder's mood. Whether or not that last line had been the killing blow, the conversation snapped off dead.

...Then what about the Fragment of the Stars?

Lupin was watching their moods and shifting anxiously from foot to foot when the answer came.

"I am not refusing. I am only slow. Every Sephira will already be feeling that the world has changed."

The white star's clustered light swelled, then split into many strands and scattered in every direction. A perfectly spherical black stone, hidden until now within the light, revealed itself. Caught by the sight, Lupin raised both hands toward the sky without thinking and held them out. The black stone settled lightly into them, split along fine seams, and sank into her skin one piece after another.

"I, Camael of Geburah, belong to the Qliphoth from this moment on."

It was the moment Lupin's long journey toward her first Holy Ark came to an end.

It was a saying that everyone who worshipped the Holy Ark and aura had to carve into their hearts and live by for the rest of their lives. On the day the light was loosed from the earth and returned to the sky, the land once blessed by aura would, in the distant future, become a wasteland.

Disaster arrived without a sound.

The nobles evacuating the prime minister's residence looked up at the sky—and from the direction of the cathedral, white light was surging wildly heavenward.

"My God..."

"The cult bastards actually went and—!!"

Starlight was slipping free of the earth's bonds and escaping into the sky. It meant the starlight over the land of Rostov was dying out.

Another armful of gifts poured down on Lupin. Star Big Sis was like that, and so were the other stars. Truly, they were stars who gave without holding anything back.

Lupin bent deep at the waist and offered her thanks to the white star, already gone.

"Thank you!!"

No answer came. By the time she came to her senses, she was already outside the Holy Ark. Unlike before, the Ark flashed and flashed with white light. Taking it for the white star's way of saying farewell in place of words, Lupin bowed toward the Ark once more.

It had been a truly mystical experience—mystical enough that she was glad she had erased the memories of a few other treasure chests.

"Honestly, this really is the greatest of every treasure chest I've found so far."

It had been empty, like the heart of that cosmos she had crossed to meet Star Big Sis, and yet gravity had still been there. Less a tomb than a universe someone had made by hand. Well, Lupin's hunches were not right every time, so she shrugged and let it pass.

What mattered was that she had gained another aura!

"A nobody with one aura is one thing. Me, with two auras. A hybrid... what was the word again."

In the game called Elysium, aura took the place of the exclusive weapon slot used in other games, so every character could wield only a single aura. The Arbor Day special of the Aura Blade Emelin had shown off, for instance, or the spinning-top edition of the Sabok Sword Klein had displayed before she surrendered. The aura decided the signature art and the bundle of lesser arts beneath it.

And Lupin had two? When everyone else spent one finishing move, she got to spend two. She called up her aura window.

A perfect ten out of ten, if only for being a legendary, gold-grade aura. Better still, she could use it at once, without even passing through a temporary release. All that hard work raiding Secret Safes had paid off.

Soon, just as when she had obtained Pigeon Magic, information came flooding in.

"Hrk."

The trouble was that there was even more of it than with Pigeon Magic. It felt as if tentacles were rifling through her brain. Maybe her head was already packed tight with treasure chests, and this was the cost of making room.

"Ugh... right... At one star, the magic can only be cast on a single person..."

The one she branded had to be paid for the privilege of being used as a puppet. The payment was Holy Blood, which Lupin knew as a growth currency.

It was the currency spent to raise an aura's rank. She had used it only on Pigeon Magic, so of course she had barely touched the store. She had more than enough. That, at least, was no problem.

"The target has to be nearly drained of aura... and ready to follow an aura-user...?"

Why did it have to be so abstract? Ready to follow? It seemed to mean that, at the very least, they could not mean to be hostile. The fortunate part—if one could call it fortunate—was that a convenient test subject was right under her nose.

"Hey. Get up."

Tap, tap. Clap, clap. Thud, thud. She rapped Klein's head in three rising stages, and Klein woke at once with a birdlike squawk.

"Eep?!"

The instant Klein saw Lupin, she hunched into herself, face tight with fear. The sight stirred no particular sympathy in Lupin. This was how villains ended. While they ruled the world they raged as if they had lost their minds, and the moment their own lifeline wavered they crawled and begged to live. Now and then there were madmen who lived ready to die. Among the villains Lupin had met so far, though, those who quietly owned their crimes could be counted on one hand.

"Now. Look me straight in the eye."

Klein could no longer get a word out. Meekly, she did as she was told and followed Lupin's lead. Meeting her gaze seemed to give her real trouble; every so often she flinched and looked away on reflex. In the meantime Lupin swept Klein's bangs aside with a finger and sketched a lowercase i across her forehead. Branding—the essential step of Puppet Magic.

"Then, shall we have a little talk? I'll admit it, even I thought slave was too far. So instead of slave, that word you like... uh... uh..."

Tch. Wouldn't you know it. The word refused to stick to her tongue the moment it actually mattered. After several attempts at the name Klein so loved to call her, Lupin finally got it out.

"Big sis, yeah? How about you come with me from now on? I'll treat you right. I'll show you how much fun life is outside the cult. What do you say?"

Klein swallowed hard. Tempting her with talk like that at this point—only a fool would fall for it. But she knew what a refusal would bring. Death, most likely, and nothing else. Even so, even with her life on the line, to abandon the Heavenly Mandate King and belong to Lupin? It was no different from betraying the parent who had raised her, fed her, given her a bed, and brought her up.

"I can't..."

Bang! Lupin's hand slammed into the wall of the Holy Ark vault. A sound like a bomb detonating rang out, and the entire cathedral shuddered.

"Eek."

Klein swallowed a scream like any ordinary girl. She only acts like a child at times like this, just so I'm the bad guy. Lupin sighed and took two steps back.

"I'm only saying we should travel together. Or do you hate the idea because you'd have nothing to do? Want me to find you some kind of work? If that's it, I'll hear you out. What would suit you?"

Klein did not answer. Irritation began, slowly, to climb up Lupin's throat.

"You. You know ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I might just use these if you don't answer?"

From inside her harness belt, Lupin produced five hidden vials with a rattle and lined them up. A comprehensive gift set of poisons, in the truest sense—the final present left behind by Parmenia, now a proper married woman (?). The moment Klein saw them, she flinched.

"Those are..."

"Parmenia's probably enjoying a happy married life ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around now. I introduced her to a fine match."

Klein's mind went blank. So that was it. That was why everything had come apart. The reason production of test subjects and the Black Dragon Assault Corps had slowed. The reason the supply of veils for shrine maidens had been delayed. The reason the brewing of every kind of poison had been put off. Even the leaking of the Rostov assault plan, and the annihilation of the forces stationed there—on this last point, there was a slight misunderstanding.

Don't tell me... she even knew Klein would come charging in...?

Had it begun back in Ryabolsk, when a pigeon caught Klein's interest? Had Lupin wished for the cult's destruction from the very start?

For what possible purpose...?

At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that moment, something entered Klein's sight: the Holy Ark, blazing with white light.

"...Ah?"

When a Holy Ark lost its Fragment of the Stars, the starlight it had held returned to the sky. That was the symbol that the Heavenly Mandate Cult had achieved its aim, and a line Klein had heard from the Heavenly Mandate King until she was sick of it. The Holy Ark was losing its starlight, because the Fragment inside it was gone. And right before Klein's eyes stood an Apostle of the Calamity Star.

"Lupin. Did you... lay a hand on the Fragment inside the Holy Ark?"

"I did. Why?"

The cluttered information in Klein's head assembled itself into order. The result was a single, finished conclusion. To Lupin, the cult was bait and camouflage. She meant to use the foul reputation of a cult the continent had cast out, and aim for nothing but the Fragments of the Stars within the Holy Arks. Her fixation on the Heavenly Mandate King, too, was surely so she could seize the cult and make a puppet of it.

It was planned from the very beginning...

If an Apostle of the Calamity Star had set her heart on it from the start, the cult's ruin could not be avoided—whether Klein accepted Lupin's offer or refused it. The shrine maidens, like mothers. The Black Dragon Corps, like uncles. The Heavenly Sovereign, like a father. Everyone in the cult would try to resist Lupin, and die.

No. Then... rather...

Klein changed her mind. She would sacrifice her one body and save them all. She would remain at Lupin's side and stop, at the very least, a direct clash between her and the cult. The cult might be used, yes—but once the Holy Ark lost its power, wouldn't the cult be using Lupin in turn?

"K-Klein changed her mind."

"Hah. As expected of a shrine maiden from a cult of purest evil. You turn your words even faster than a bartender."

"I-I'm sorry for changing my mind.... But it wasn't an easy decision for Klein, either. Y-you'll understand, won't you?"

And so, as a result, Klein was ready to follow Lupin. As if to announce that Puppet Magic stood prepared, a violet brand surfaced upon Klein's forehead. Lupin flicked a finger toward her.

"Red Sun."

Afraid a pigeon might burst out, Klein tucked in her neck and screwed up her face.

Had it taken properly? Curious, Lupin looked Klein over from every angle. Klein kept shrinking and glancing at her mood, so sight alone told her nothing. She would have to give an order, then.

"Klein. Take His Excellency the Prime Minister to the hospital, then report to police headquarters and turn yourself in."

"Th-that's—hk, wait, ngh, ack."

Klein's body gave a violent start, and then she moved, crisp and obedient. Something cracked and popped in her joints, and yet she walked perfectly well. ...She whined that it hurt, and the whole thing was an act?

Lupin spoke as she chased after Klein, who sprinted out of the cathedral with the prime minister gathered in her arms.

"Whoa. A shrine maiden who saves an imperial and even turns herself in?!"

"N-no! My body's just moving however it wants...!"