Sparing the Bandits

There were three things in the world Lupin hated most.

One was a mimic that pretended to be a treasure chest. Another was the human garbage that pretended a treasure chest was there. And the third was the absolute bastard who got in the way of opening one—that last hadn't existed at first, but after she'd spent the recent stretch cracking Secret Chests and suffering every kind of interference, it had been added all on its own.

So the wretch who bellowed and interrupted her just as she strolled up to a safe, humming, ready to pop the door, was someone who thoroughly deserved to die.

"Which son of a bitch is slamming doors and pitching a fit?"

Charisma. So much fucking charisma.

Quoting a famous line from a famous movie, Lupin abandoned the safe and bolted out into the stronghold's main hall. What she found was a hall blown open clear through to the third floor, and an absolute disaster: a smashed door, collapsed interior paneling, furniture strewn in every direction. As if that weren't enough, people were rolling around the place like decorative ornaments.

Of course, what seized her eye wasn't that wreck of a backdrop so much as—

"Hand over everything you've got!!"

Nine clones and one true body, tearing through the stronghold in a fury. Ekaterina had appeared out of nowhere and was wrecking the place. It was impossible to tell who was the bandit and who was a Round.

"Uhm... this is a problem."

No matter how much someone who interrupted the opening of a treasure chest deserved to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠punished, she couldn't just up and cut the throat of someone she knew. And if it was the person she most wanted to keep at a distance? All Lupin could do was back away.

Honestly. If it was going to be Ekaterina, she could've said something.

I'll just quietly open the safe.

But as she crept off and made a run for it, a clone came flying at the back of her head.

"Urk."

She spun at once.

Kkk-gak!

Steel met an aura-hardened body, and Ekaterina cried out in shock. The other bandits were being neutralized the instant they faced a clone, and yet here was someone holding her ground out of nowhere. Worse, she had drawn a sword and blocked in the very instant the attack should have landed clean. This was no ordinary expert.

"No. Why does this bitch look so much like Lupin..."

But Lupin didn't let on that she knew her. She quietly turned her head aside. The moment she was recognized, Ekaterina would flatten herself and start singing about being made into a slave; the nuisance was already vivid before her eyes. Panting, raving, clearly not in her right mind—there was no reason to meet those eyes. With a crazy psycho, the smallest gesture could become the seed of an obsession, so Lupin slipped quietly out of the spot.

The problem was that Ekaterina was in no different a state from Lupin, who had been hesitating over this meeting herself. The clones that had been rampaging stopped their attacks all at once, then vanished with a pop. And the true body? She had already fled outside the mountain lodge.

Run, run, run...!!

Ekaterina was, at present, a slave racing a deadline. What kind of talk would she hear if she ran into Lupin here? Her hazy memories of domination began, of their own accord, to conjure a Lupin spitting scolding.

"Th-that can't happen!"

Ekaterina grew so frantic the thought burst straight out of her mouth. The bloodstained shirt and trousers Lupin had been wearing? She couldn't even remember those now. She must have come to check whether the work was being done properly. Otherwise, popping out this suddenly made no sense.

This place won't do.

I'll have to cross the peak entirely and make for another mountainside!

Meanwhile, at the prime minister's residence in the Rostov Republic, the prime minister looked over a wire sent from the round-table chamber of the Blumang Empire and tilted one brow. Dmitri, standing beside him, asked.

"What's the matter?"

"No... look at this."

Dmitri took the page the typewriter had printed.

Come to think of it, Ekaterina hadn't attended the Golden Conference. She'd even taken a one-point demerit for it. Attendance at the Rounds' Golden Conference was not optional. It was mandatory.

"Missing, he says. Strange that she hasn't been sighted anywhere."

"Isn't it. She's the sort whose sightings turn up wherever she goes..."

Without Geburah's aura for controlling people, if she'd been pawing at women, word would certainly have come in through police channels. She was tall enough, and loud enough in everything she did, that it would have been the same even if she'd left Rostov.

"Well. If we wait, won't she turn up on her own?"

As the prime minister said, Rostov had nothing urgent. They had no Holy Ark left to protect anyway, and thanks to Lupin both the cult and the mafia had lost a great deal of their momentum. Right now, the knight order and the police alone were enough to defend the nation. The only lingering worry was the occasional news of Parmenia, and she too was presumed to still be heading south—they had passed that news to the Cheonghwa Empire just yesterday.

Dmitri shrugged and spoke to the prime minister. Having lost the Holy Ark, Rostov was busy searching for a power that could replace aura.

"Shall we finish discussing the arcane-engine development?"

"Let's."

After seeing Ekaterina off, Lupin went la-di-da, throwing herself wholeheartedly into checking treasure chests. There had been a commotion outside, but they were bandits anyway. Anyone who kills people ought to know they themselves can be killed. This would be their chance to realize just how dangerous the things they'd done really were.

Right now, Lupin was simply happy. How could she not be, when treasure chests kept coming no matter how many she opened? Who was it that said you should save the good things and eat them slowly? Spend a whole day soaked in dopamine and you don't even worry about tomorrow.

And so, when she checked her collection list, she went stiff.

"No way. I've already opened this many?"

Without even noticing, she'd opened nearly five hundred safes. Slower than when she'd been clearing Abandoned Safes, sure—but a question mark nailed to the total was always a source of anxiety. If it suddenly flipped to 500/500 (100%) and a message popped up along the lines of You've found every Secret Chest! How impressive!, Lupin might genuinely lose her mind.

"There have to be at least 32,768 Secret Chests, Bro Taechang..."

Five hundred in three months. Over a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠year, that came to two thousand. Assuming a maximum of thirty thousand, she could hold out another fifteen years. Surely within that time she'd find a dimensional portal, or gather the full power of the Holy Arks and cross to another world herself, or something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that sort would happen.

It has to be possible. It has to!

At this rate Elysium's going under!

With that, Lupin shut the lid of the last chest she'd opened and let out a long sigh. That was when she sensed someone behind her. She turned her head, and there stood the stronghold chief who had given her the gold token. He offered a fist-and-palm salute and bowed deeply at the waist.

"Thank you. I'm alive because of you."

"...Huh?"

She'd looted the safes, yes, but she hadn't particularly helped anyone, so all she could do was tilt her head. The chief, however, had clearly seen her block a clone's sword and drive Ekaterina off with nothing but a look. How could he not be grateful for help from a hidden master capable of facing a Round? He even called a little bandit over to offer thanks as well.

"Young master, you ought to thank our benefactor."

Young master? What young master? Lupin's head tilted even farther sideways than before.

"Th... thank you. I'm alive because you drove the Round off."

A pretty boy, about a head shorter than Lupin, with mysterious blue eyes. His voice, though, was far too thin to call a boy's. Now and then it cracked, and something like a chick's peep seemed to slip out. The curiosity lasted only a moment. Lupin was not someone who took any great interest in people.

"Nah. I don't think I did anything worth being thanked for..."

It wasn't courtesy. By Lupin's standards she truly hadn't done anything, and that was simply the reaction that came out. That innocent response naturally stirred the other's puzzlement. Someone great enough to drive off a Round was lusting after treasure. Even a child who didn't know much couldn't let it pass without asking.

"By any chance... are you a Divine Thief, big sis?"

Someone who disguised herself as all sorts of people and stole all sorts of things. Too strong, too fast, and too dazzling to be called a mere thief—the gallant wanderer of Cheonghwa. That was a Divine Thief. When Lupin, not understanding, frowned, the chief caught the look and added an explanation.

"A wondrous thief who appears without a sound, takes whatever she wants, and vanishes. Only, what she steals isn't ordinary treasure. As a rule she only touches things that are a problem. An object tangled up in some vast conspiracy, say..."

Listening to it, that was exactly a phantom thief, wasn't it? Lupin knew of one phantom thief with absolutely broken specs who used to fly around with a white cape streaming behind her. But if you asked whether Lupin, who went around doing similar things, was a phantom thief—well. The biggest reason lay in the killing she committed as if it were nothing.

Even in long-running detective comics, there is a law that nobody dies in a case where a phantom thief appears. A phantom thief is, by nature, a person far from death. Even a criminal who has killed someone always lives to wear the handcuffs. It was a tradition handed down from the grand senior of the trade, Arsène Lupin himself.

But Lupin dragged death with her everywhere she went. She'd thought she suited a detective better—so much so that even in Ryavolsk she'd jokingly called herself one.

Right. I'm not fit to be called a phantom thief.

Having once again taken a firm, objective look at herself, Lupin smiled and patted the little young master's head.

"If I were a Divine Thief, I wouldn't have killed so many bugs. You can take it that I'm not."

The chief had understood her intent, so of course he would feel that she was telling the truth honestly while still being considerate of a young master who was still a child. Young and strong, and a good, upright person besides—truly a connection worth keeping for a long time. Except for one thing: an abnormally intense interest in treasure chests.

"So. Are you going to the Grand Stronghold Chief now?"

Lupin nodded. The chief had cleared the road and told her to go; not going would have been rude.

"I do have to go, don't I? There are this many treasure chests there too, right? But it's gotten pretty late today, so I was going to sleep a bit and loot them tomorrow."

Hearing that, the chief let out a deep sigh—the sigh of a man wondering what someone this stupid could possibly manage to do right. The 108 Green Forest Strongholds were not packed tight along a single mountain range. They were scattered across all of Cheonghwa, and this place was the border between Cheonghwa and Rostov. Naturally, charging in where the main camp stood would take a long while.

"Getting to where the Grand Stronghold Chief is will take more than two weeks from here."

"Two whole weeks?!"

Crossing half of Rostov hadn't even taken a week on a direct train. Lupin had taken the size of a country called Cheonghwa far too lightly. But going straight back to where her master was—her dopamine sensors were shot, and the craving was running wild. She was at the point where she'd need to hunt treasure chests for at least another thirty minutes before she calmed down.

And if she opened a treasure chest, wouldn't the dopamine just surge again? Fortunately, there was no need to worry about that. Even with safes, Lupin had her own standards. Unless it was an incredible safe like the one just now, the surge would settle.

"Then it can't be helped. I'll look in on Let's-Go-On-Strike later... Are there any other bandits nearby? I'll have to loot those, at least."

The people of Cheonghwa place boundless trust in the strong. And if that strong person is frank and big-hearted besides, they score even higher. Taking Lupin for that sort of person, the chief gladly told her of another bandit den.

"Cross the peak you can see over there and head down to the east, and there are more strongholds. Two or three, at least."

"Oh, nice!"