Aria the Grand Thief
"Little brother, I'll handle the rear."
Having sent the telepathic message to Leon, Hera turned her back to the waiting-room door.
A corridor washed in cold colors. Four side passages branched left and right, leading deeper underground, and at the far entrance the crimson fire-aura of the Hwasinjo shimmered and writhed.
Five bodies lay crumpled near that entrance, their forms crushed beyond recognition.
"……"
Sensing the presences surging up from below, Hera allowed herself a faint smile.
Moments later, Full Moon Trading Company guards poured out of all four side passages. Clad in matching formal uniforms, they filled the not-inconsiderable corridor in an instant.
Artifacts and magical tools plastered every one of them. Expert-rank auras and fourth-circle magic flickered here and there among the throng.
For private soldiers of a mere trading company, the quality was remarkably high. These were forces that had been held in reserve inside the auction house alone while the spatial-magic barrier still stood.
But for one of the capital's major trading houses, this was only proper.
Especially for a group that ran an illegal auction house trafficking in human lives.
"I never knew Full Moon was a place like this~."
Humming to herself, Hera drew a single short sword. There was no need to unsheathe both.
"What are you waiting for? Take her down!"
One of the Full Moon soldiers barked.
"Haat!"
A man at the front, short staff in hand, lunged forward. Swift-magic stored in his boots discharged as he charged.
The very next instant—
Thud!
A blade erupted from the back of his neck. The rest of the advancing force froze mid-step.
"……"
Humm—
Scarlet sword qi bloomed along the embedded edge.
With the added cutting force, the man's body simply slid apart, splitting cleanly from neck through skull.
Splat.
The corpse dropped wetly to the floor.
Hera began humming a bizarre little tune through her nose. To the Full Moon soldiers it sounded like the wail of a restless ghost.
She skipped forward with the lightness of a dancer, swaying as she swung the crimson blade wherever whim took her. Sword forms took shape roughly, guided only by the pull of her body.
That alone was more than enough.
Bodily fluids sprayed in wild arcs. Severed limbs and heads cartwheeled through the air. Screams and death-rattles tore upward.
Hera even closed her eyes, continuing her exuberant dance without missing a beat.
She danced until the screaming stopped—until only her own humming remained in her ears.
The shackled man, his entire body shattered, sank to his knees. Blood and teeth spilled from his lowered head.
"Krk… hh…"
As he exhaled, a flash of clarity filled his eyes for a single moment.
Leon met that gaze.
The shackled man was offering thanks—gratitude for ending a life that had been reduced to a puppet's existence.
"Rest."
Clang!
Leon severed the shackles still binding him. Only then did the man close his eyes in peace.
Leon offered a brief prayer for the dead, then approached the iron cage that held the children.
Zzzzzzt—
The sword qi coating his blade was more precise than it had ever been. Mana no longer scattered in every direction; it gathered, densely condensed, into a tight core.
Expert Upper rank now stood only a single step away. That was why his sword qi was transforming, drawing ever closer to Sword Thread.
With that refined qi, Leon sliced through the iron bars as cleanly as tofu.
"Come out, kids."
Rumble…
Above them, the Hwasinjo's rampage was reaching its climax. Walls and ceiling shuddered; debris rained down.
At last the flickering lights died completely, and thick darkness settled over everything.
"Hurry. We don't have time."
Only the sword qi Leon had kindled remained as a light source. Its blue glow brightly illuminated the chamber.
To the children, it felt like a lantern shining in pitch black.
The next moment, one child strode boldly toward him without a trace of fear. It was the white-haired girl who had first appeared on the auction stage.
"……"
Her gaze as she looked at Leon was clear and steady—the bearing of someone who already knew something.
A strange feeling washed over him.
So it wasn't a coincidence that our eyes met earlier.
Regardless, Leon flicked his dagger with practiced speed and cut the girl's shackles free.
Seeing that, the other children let go of their wariness and came forward one by one.
All told, they numbered a little over ten.
"Tsk."
Leon clicked his tongue when he realized the two girls he had seen on stage earlier were nowhere among them. Apparently they had been taken away the moment the bids closed.
Of course those two had already been rescued by Riel—but Leon had no way of knowing that yet.
Zap—
"Master."
Just as he finished cutting the last of the children's shackles, Aria blinked into existence beside him.
The fact that she could use Blink magic meant even the spatial-interference barrier enveloping the auction house had finally collapsed.
"I packed everything."
Aria tossed him a bundle. Leon caught it and checked the contents.
Spirit stones, spirit essence, spirit herbs, spirit fruits, spirit eggs… Vivid red medicinal materials packed the bundle to bursting. Every last one was a spiritual medicine dense with fire energy.
Leon nodded.
"Well done. I'm heading out, then."
"Please take care of yourself."
"Yeah. You too."
Whoosh—!
Leon's form shot away like a streak of light.
"……"
Left alone, Aria surveyed the children Leon had left in her care.
"Please wait here a moment," she said. "I'll take all of you out together."
The white-haired girl nodded with calm composure.
"……"
Aria's gaze lingered on the girl for a brief second.
Zap—
Then she used Blink again.
The place she arrived was a vast warehouse dozens of times larger than the room she had just left.
Bodies of Full Moon employees lay scattered across the floor in disorder—every one of them subdued by Aria's bare fists.
This was no temporary waiting room used only during auctions. This was the main warehouse, buried deeper still underground. Every treasure and every piece of gold Full Moon possessed was stored right here.
The bundle of spiritual medicines she had just delivered to Leon had come from this very place.
In short, it was the concentrated household wealth of the Full Moon Trading Company—value beyond imagination, all gathered in one location.
Grand Thief Aria opened the mouths of three or four subspace pouches.
"……"
Whooooosh—!
Streams of mana unfurled like grasping hands and began sweeping every item into the void.
At the same hour, Billy was walking slowly through the Fourth District.
Rumble—
His hands gently pushed an iron wheelchair. Seated in it was a girl who looked a year or two younger than him.
Her name was Nia Cainthel—Billy's blood sister.
She shared his golden hair and striking looks, yet her eyes alone seemed to have inherited the other parent's blood: green rather than blue.
The blanket draped over her knees hid legs that had never once moved in her entire life, thin and frail as kindling.
Nia spoke in a bright voice.
"I'm really looking forward to this, brother."
"Is that so."
Looking down at her excitement, the corner of Billy's mouth lifted ever so slightly.
It was a change of expression that would have made anyone who knew him rub their eyes in disbelief.
The mere fact that he was pushing the wheelchair himself—when a servant stood right there—made plain how deeply he cherished his sister.
Even the coldest man in the world has something he holds dear.
The closer they drew to their destination, the thicker the crowds became. Curious glances poured toward the handsome young man and the beautiful girl from every side.
Annoyed by the attention, Billy raised a faint aura barrier and let his thoughts drift back to the conversation he had had that afternoon.
Only a few hours earlier.
As he had been about to leave, Leon had suddenly approached him.
"Billy. Are you planning to watch the Sacred Flame Festival later? In the Fourth District."
"I am, yes."
Leon had nodded with a look that said I thought as much, then continued.
"Don't go there… This is a ticket to a really good play they're putting on in the Second District. I happened to have a spare. How about taking your sister to see this instead?"
Leon had rattled off a string of reasons: the Sacred Flame Festival would draw massive crowds that would make bringing a sister difficult; the festival itself wasn't all that impressive once you got there; they would see plenty of sacred flame later when they went to meet the Saintess…
Every argument sounded plausible and tempting. The point about how hard it would be to look after a sister with limited mobility weighed heaviest of all.
To think he was a man with such deep consideration.
Sudden as the offer was, Leon's goodwill had touched something in Billy's chest.
"I'll take it gratefully. I owe you one."
"Come on, what's a little thing like this between us?"
……And yet.
"I'm afraid the troupe is closed today."
"We're terribly sorry. One of our lead actors came down with a fever."
When it rains, it pours. The theater company had canceled, and Billy met the familiar face of misfortune once again.
"Can't be helped."
In the end he turned his steps back toward the original plan—taking his sister to the Sacred Flame Festival she had so wanted to see.
The Sacred Flame Festival commemorated the day Laigis, Goddess of Abundance, had bestowed her grace upon the continent.
At its heart was a grand parade centered on the white flame that was Laigis's symbol—the Sacred Flame itself.
In ordinary times the Sacred Flame was kept under strict guard in the church's main temple, the Three Gods Temple. It was a flame composed of pure divine power, densely saturated with Laigis's own divinity.
And the place where the festival's procession of that Sacred Flame reached its climax was exactly where Billy and Nia had now arrived: the Plaza of Abundance.
A roar of noise stabbed at the sky. The Plaza of Abundance had become a sea of people.
Laigis, goddess of abundance and prosperity, was beloved by every social class.
From humble farmers to wealthy merchants—no one disliked abundance or prosperity.
That was why even the relatively sparsely populated Fourth District had produced a crowd of this staggering size.
Surveying the packed plaza, Billy spoke.
"Nia, we won't see a thing like this. I'll carry you."
With everyone else standing, sitting alone in a wheelchair left no hope of a view.
He hoisted Nia onto his back, wrapped the blanket snugly around them both, and pushed into the throng.
Billy's height did the rest; a modest advance was enough. The plaza opened clearly before them.
Before long, from far down the main avenue that led into the Plaza of Abundance, the sacred hymns of the church choir began to drift faintly through the air.
The parade that had circled the lower districts one by one was at last entering the middle city.
Festival officials hurried ahead to control the crowds and clear a path for the procession.
A magnificent column in brilliantly colored vestments slowly revealed itself.
Excited, Nia tapped Billy's shoulder.
"Brother, look—they're coming."
"……"
"……Brother?"
Billy did not hear her. His gaze was steadily sinking.
His instincts felt wrong. Something was off—dangerously off.
Trusting that gut feeling, he refined his sensory detection and spread it with meticulous care.
Then he felt it: a vibration, extremely faint and fine.
"……"
Billy's eyes turned quietly to the ground.
The tremor was rising from beneath the earth itself.
And it was growing larger by the second.
"Damn."
The single word left his lips.
Rumble-rumble-rumble……!
Something was coming up. A vast, ominous power was surging from below.
Billy's eyes snapped across the plaza.
The wide-open center of the square. The countless citizens ringing its edges. The Sacred Flame procession advancing along the avenue.
Magic lights illuminating the darkened world. Bustling shops. The great full moon overhead.
Music. Laughter. Beer. Anticipation and excitement. The blazing sacred flame.
Like the shutter of a camera, the entire scene stamped itself onto his retina in a single frozen instant.
That instant passed.
……And the floor of the plaza bulged upward.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The earth itself flipped over. The entire district drowned in crimson light. Stone and debris blasted into the heavens while a scorching wind howled outward in every direction.
—A sun had erupted from beneath the ground.
There was no other way to describe the shocking sight.
The newly risen sun swept the darkness of the night sky away in a single stroke. Scattering colossal heat and brilliant red radiance, it climbed high into the air.
Then—
———!!!
With a roar that seemed to tear the very atmosphere apart, the sun spread two vast wings wide.