Thieves in the Night
The vagrants nodded at Bafoi's question.
There had been times when he got hit by the guards while passing by, but he had managed to get roughly the information he wanted.
"Except for the mercenaries on patrol, there are almost no people inside."
It turned out that there was only one servant managing the estate and a few artisans.
Even those artisans were locked away in the back rooms and didn't come out, so in fact, he was managing the two-story mansion alone.
"Manages the estate alone? Is he that skilled?"
"No, you should have seen him before. Until recently, he was on patrol near the main gate."
A few of the vagrants nodded, as if they knew who he was.
For years, he had been at the same spot every day, but recently he had disappeared, and it was a weak-looking low-rank mercenary.
"Then, if we only go inside the building, that should be fine?"
"Yeah. Sneak in quietly and steal only the warehouse, no one will know."
It was common for servants of wealthy families to be awake even at midnight.
But Joseph hadn't hired additional staff yet, so when night came, there was no one guarding the inside.
"Really? There's a mage here too......"
At that moment, one of the guys with a big black spot on his face asked with a skeptical expression.
He looked at Bafoi, then rolled his eyes around.
"Why? Do you think going to the mage right now to complain would be safer?"
Thud!
Suddenly, the guy who was watching the situation swung his club at the spotted-faced guy without hesitation.
Because he had embedded small metal pieces in the hard wood, the guy who got hit on the head immediately rolled his eyes and fell like a log.
The guy extended his club towards the other vagrants who were startled.
"Listen well. If you roll your eyes clumsily, you'll be thrown to the dogs like this guy."
The other guys swallowed their saliva quietly.
The guy wasn't that strong in power, but when it came to stopping others, he had no hesitation.
So no one would take his words lightly.
"This is all to live together. No? Think about it. I could have just taken Bafoi and a few others with me, but I told you guys too. Right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Yeah. Then you guys think carefully too. Is it better to sneak back here and tell the mage 'there are thieves aiming for the estate' and get some coins, or go with me and make a big score?"
"......"
After hearing that far, some of the remaining vagrants had the corners of their mouths slightly raised.
In their minds, they were already imagining playing with the mage's wealth.
The guy smiled broadly and turned his gaze back to Bafoi.
Bafoi was staring at the blueprints with a blank face again.
"Since there's a plan, the ones who will follow will stay, and the rest get lost."
And naturally, among the remaining guys, no one moved their feet.
* * *
And two days later.
The same darkness descended on the great coastal city as usual.
No matter how lively a merchant city it was, at this time it was always quiet as if the mice were dead.
Especially Joseph's estate, which was far from the lodging of peddlers or mercenaries, was even more so.
The only thing was that the torch lights illuminating the estates were slightly flickering.
And in the place where even those lights didn't reach, a group of vagrants were huddled together.
Bafoi, the guy, and the slimy guys following him.
They were quietly looking up at Joseph's estate from a place between the large mansion and the narrow back alley that was hard to call between mansions.
"It's really quiet."
As Bafoi said, Joseph's estate had unusually little light compared to others.
Precisely, there were many torches outside the building, but no light was shining from inside the building.
If there was a servant, they would have been walking around with a candle, but they could tell that there was none.
"Is the mage a miser?"
"I don't know, those monsters' heads are like that."
"Anyway, we're lucky."
Bafoi was quietly looking at the sky despite the surrounding chatter.
It was to confirm the moon's movement.
Then, after some time, he saw the torches outside the estate flickering.
It seemed like the mercenaries were changing shifts.
"Go."
Soon, the guy gave instructions to a few small vagrants.
These were guys who had been abandoned in the city as children, and because they didn't eat properly, they were hard to distinguish from children from a distance.
They took out the small liquor bottles they were holding and gulped them down in one go.
It seemed they had secretly brought them to loosen up.
"Later, you'll divide it for us too?"
"Ah, I get it. I've said it several times."
Then they slowly left the alley and moved to the main road.
Then, swaying like drunks, they entered under the light.
"Who's there!"
Naturally, their appearance was noticed by the eyes of the mercenaries on patrol.
Including the mercenaries who were about to change shifts.
And in that gap, the remaining personnel quickly moved.
They headed towards the wall at the back of the estate while the consciousness of the patrol mercenaries was focused frontally.
The wall was quite high, but they couldn't jump over it.
Bafoi, the only one without hands, was helped by the others to climb over.
And soon, they headed to the nearby window.
Unlike modern times, windows in this world were mostly made of wood.
And of course, there was no proper security function.
The guy took out a thin long wooden rod and opened the latch in one go.
"Let's go."
The vagrants jumped through the window and entered the interior in one go.
One of them quietly approached the opposite window.
The ones who were drawing attention soon disappeared, and the mercenaries were seen changing shifts slowly.
They held their breath until the mercenaries disappeared into the first floor's residence for a while.
"Let's go."
And soon, the guy started leading the vagrants again.
They quickly moved through the corridors.
All of them had several layers of worn cloth on their feet so that the sound of footsteps was 'almost' not heard.
Soon, the guys slowly headed to the warehouse.
It wasn't hard to find because there was a faint sour smell near a specific door.
It was the smell of monster byproducts that hadn't been sold yet.
After the extermination, they had handled it primarily, but they couldn't hide the unique smell from the monster's corpse.
Squeak—
Soon, the guy opened the worn door again.
The faint sour smell became stronger.
The vagrants' mouths went up to their ears.
'Good. Good......'
The guy and the vagrants didn't think to cover the laughter coming out, and soon started putting the byproducts in their pockets.
Moth shells, snake leather, spider legs, etc...
These were things the vagrants could never get their hands on.
If they took these and handed them to the back alley merchants, they could get at least a few months without begging even if they didn't get the fair price.
But at that moment.
Grung.
An eerie sound came from somewhere.
The vagrants' movements all stopped at the sound that seemed to crush their intestines.
"......"
The vagrants quickly scanned the surroundings.
But in the thick darkness.
There was nothing properly visible.
Only one thing.
Except for the sharp eyes faintly glowing above their heads.
"Eh......?"
At the moment someone made a stupid voice.
Thud!
A short sound of something jumping up was heard.
And.
Creak!
The neck of the guy in front turned with a creepy sound.
Swoosh!
The guy's neck turned backwards and was crushed, blood spreading from the crushed neck.
"Aaaah!!"
A vagrant's scream burst out.
"What, what!"
"Run!"
The vagrants, forgetting even that they had secretly entered, moved their bodies in a fluster.
But the situation didn't flow as they thought.
"Move!"
"Damn! Who put a bag here!"
There were many people and only one exit.
Because greedy guys had squeezed into the not very wide warehouse, they started getting tangled and falling all over.
"Aaah!"
And in the darkness, the shadows quickly tore and ripped the vagrants' skin one by one.
Swoosh!
Soon, more blood than before spurted up.
The pungent smell of the vagrants' bad excrement was covered with a pungent blood smell.
"Who the hell!!"
And at the same time, humans holding torches appeared from the opposite side of the corridor.
The mercenaries who were guarding outside the building.
"You bastards!"
The mercenaries spat out curses and drew weapons in one go.
Their faces reflecting the light looked like other monsters.
"Save, save me!"
The guys who came out of the warehouse didn't even try to run, but asked for help towards the mercenaries.
When the vagrant whose face was covered in blood rushed in, the mercenaries swung their swords.
"Guh!"
The chest of the guy who came out first was slashed deeply, and then the remaining guys came to their senses.
But they couldn't do either.
From inside the warehouse, the creepy sound of grinding was still heard.
Soon, the sour smell mixed with the smell of urine.
No one understood the sudden situation.
"What the hell is going on!"
And at that time, blue orbs appeared from the stairs.
Before the torches lighting the corridor, the blue orbs rose high on the ceiling and illuminated the surroundings.
"M, mage...!"
The faces of the mercenaries blocking the vagrants soon turned pale.
The mage who had woken up was coming down with his retainers, frowning his brows.
The retainers were holding a shield and an axe without wearing armor, standing in front of Joseph.
Of course, they were bewildered faces because they didn't understand the situation either.
"What is it?"
"What, that. It seems like thieves have broken in."
The mercenary stammered.
Naturally, he was a body hired for patrol.
He had no choice but to confess failure in patrol honestly.
"Aaaah!!"
At that time, a scream burst out again from inside the warehouse.
Soon, it seemed like a throat clearing sound, but suddenly it cut off.
"......Thieves?"
"Ah, no. We haven't confirmed that yet."
The mercenaries answered in a voice as if crawling in.
Soon, Joseph waved his hand, and the mana orb on the ceiling slowly moved towards the warehouse.
And at the same time, something was slowly walking out from inside.
"......"
"......"
In the faint light, a white beast covered in blood all over its body appeared.
The people in the place all closed their mouths at that sight.
It was an overly unrealistic sight, and the appearance of the beast in front was too scary.
The beast looked around with its eyes wide open.
It seemed like it was about to pounce on someone else and tear their neck at any moment.
"Rophen."
Joseph called the name quietly, and the beast's head turned towards him.
Rophen, who had been looking at Joseph for a moment.
Grung—
He made a small growl, then slowly went to the wall of the corridor and sat down.
Then he turned back with a leisurely face as if it was the same guy from before.
Rophen soon started licking the blood on his fur with his tongue.
It seemed he didn't care about the surrounding gazes.
"......"
Joseph, who had been staring at Rophen for a moment, sighed and swept his hand over his face.
The sound was so loud that everyone in the corridor flinched.
"First, check what happened."
The voice was as if all energy had drained, but at that word, everyone hurriedly moved.