Catching a Thief
Even if they needed the help of tools, flying through the sky wasn’t all that mysterious to modern people.
Take Da-eun, for instance. Her trips abroad had slowed considerably lately, but there had been a time when she practically came and went from overseas as if airports were her own front door.
Thanks to that, her airline account was stuffed with miles.
And yet even Da-eun had never imagined soaring through the sky with nothing but her bare body—
…Though, to be honest, every time she bought a plane ticket, she did think, If I could fly through the sky myself, I could’ve saved the fare… and imagine herself doing just that.
Still, she knew perfectly well that such a thing was impossible.
I’m not a bird. How is a person supposed to fly through the sky with nothing but their body?
That was what she thought—until the moment she was riding on Canaria’s back.
“Kyaaahhh!”
Every time the little feet kicked off the ground, Canaria—and Da-eun, clinging to her—soared into the air.
They touched the earth and then shot upward.
It would normally be called a leap, but Da-eun couldn’t possibly bring herself to use that word for this.
What kind of jump easily cleared several stories of a building?
What Canaria was doing was less a leap and more true flight.
What’s more, she would casually step off a tree branch and vault upward, or kick off empty air—things that would have horrified any physicist who witnessed them.
But Da-eun didn’t have the luxury of appreciating any of that.
Being carried through the sky on the back of a girl who was far smaller than herself was not exactly a pleasant experience.
Her body lurched every which way, and the scenery around her kept flashing past in a blur....
Just when it felt as though they were rising, they were suddenly going down; just when it felt as though they were descending, they were suddenly climbing again.
The Canaria Express delivered an extremely memorable ride, and even through the system’s dulling of her senses, it still managed to make Da-eun sick to her stomach.
Without the system, she was certain the two of them would have been reduced to a disgraceful sight—clinging to a tree or the ground and retching like crazy.
By the time her nausea had finally started to ease and she thought she might actually survive this, Canaria said, “Come on. We’re training.”
This time she was telling Da-eun to fight the mercenaries, so of course Da-eun couldn’t help but feel indignant.
But the law was far away, and fists were close at hand.
There was no way Canaria would actually swing a fist at her, but Da-eun gave up and followed her lead anyway.
Fine.... If she stepped in herself, it’d all be over in less than a minute anyway. Canaria is just putting herself through something annoying for my sake. And, well, I really have gotten stronger.
And Da-eun’s viewers loved the sight of her being toyed with by Canaria.
People watching personal broadcasts and streams usually had a mischievous streak.
Da-eun knew that, so she played along with their jokes—and sometimes she teased them right back.
But lately, she’d started to feel like her viewers were getting even more mischievous.
I don’t think they used to be this bad.
She could guess the reason.
It was probably because Canaria had spoken with her for the first time, and a huge wave of viewers had flooded in because of it.
If she had to say whether she liked it or not, the answer was obviously that she liked it.
The atmosphere of the broadcast had changed a little, but not so much that it felt alien, and it certainly hadn’t turned bad, so there was no reason to dislike it.
...Though, every now and then, they could still be annoyingly exasperating.
Still, it’s a relief they’re not taking Canaria badly.
If they’d looked down on her for being a rude child talking back to an adult, then things might have turned out very differently.
Da-eun didn’t want to see a child with a painful past being hated.
“Da-eun?”
“Huh? Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought for a second.”
Da-eun snapped out of it at Canaria’s voice, her lips still pursed as she looked at the chat window.
Right now, that wasn’t the important thing.
She swallowed.
Facing those grim, hard-featured men, she couldn’t help but gulp. According to Asie, they were the sort who had committed every crime under the sun—murder, arson, robbery, rape, theft, and worse....
Can I really beat them?
Their levels were about the same as hers, or lower.
But she knew that a lower level didn’t automatically mean victory.
“Uh, b-but who am I supposed to fight? You’re not seriously telling me to take on all seven of them, are you?”
“Of course not.”
Canaria turned into a terrifying instructor the moment training began, but she wasn’t going to ask Da-eun to do the impossible.
And in Canaria’s eyes, Da-eun taking on seven mercenaries who were used to killing people all at once was impossible unless she died, came back to life, and then tried again.
...Unless she died, came back to life?
Which meant...
That was when Da-eun, who had been watching Canaria’s face closely, said, “Canaria.”
“Yeah?”
“Just in case I’m misunderstanding, you’re not thinking something weird, are you?”
“...”
“Hello? Canaria? Why aren’t you answering?”
“I-I’m not.”
“That’s exactly the reaction of someone who was definitely thinking something weird.”
“I said I wasn’t.”
Da-eun hated pain.
Even with the system dulling her sense of pain, it didn’t make her completely numb.
Canaria didn’t want to force her to die on purpose.
Other people might get results faster if they did that....
But with Da-eun, it would only backfire.
That kind of method suited someone aggressive, like Greatsword Chick, and nobody else.
“I’ll give you a choice. Who do you want to fight?”
“There isn’t an option to choose nobody, is there?”
“So you want to fight all seven of them. Nice courage.”
“I can pick now, right?”
Da-eun solemnly swept her gaze over the mercenaries’ faces.
Even on a second look, they were faces that could make a person’s resolve waver.
Whether they were ugly because they’d done those things, or had done those things because they were ugly—there was a deep philosophical question there.
As she studied their levels with serious consideration, Da-eun pointed to one man.
“That one.”
He was the lowest-level mercenary among the seven.
Even if level wasn’t an absolute measure of strength, when she didn’t know their skills, it was safest to choose the weakest-looking opponent.
“Hmm. All right.”
Though Canaria let out a small sound that made it clear she was dissatisfied with something, she still respected Da-eun’s choice.
“Then the rest won’t be necessary.”
That one sentence was enough to decide the fate of the six who hadn’t been chosen.
They had the ones who’d gone ahead of them, and now they had a friend to follow after, so there was hardly any reason for resentment.
“Ah, maybe it would’ve been better to keep the leader alive.”
“...What? Why are you saying something so random all of a sudden?”
“If we captured him and brought him in, we might get a bounty.”
“If that kind of thing existed, he would’ve been caught long ago.”
“Hmm. Probably.”
In an instant, the man who had been left alone after losing all his companions looked like he’d seen a ghost.
He was fat enough to look ridiculous, but Molden’s skill was nothing to sneer at.
How many mercenaries had mocked him, plotted rebellion, and then had their heads cut off for it?
Every morning, the man looked at the heads hanging from stakes and vowed never to defy Molden.
And yet that Molden—the Expert swordsman Molden—had died without even being able to resist.
Something impossible for an Expert.
“Ma, ma, ma, Master...!”
So it was only natural that the man came to that conclusion.
“Why is a Master in a place like this!”
And more than that, the tiny girl everyone had looked down on was a Master?
“This is a dream....”
The man thought it must be a nightmare so terrible that he slapped his own cheek hard.
But all that happened was that his cheek turned red; he did not wake from the nightmare and return to reality as he’d hoped.
“Oh? He’s broken.”
The man even dropped the weapon in his hand, completely losing the will to fight.
At Canaria’s mutter, Asie couldn’t hide his astonishment.
“If you were standing in front of a Master, would you still feel like fighting?”
“If it were me, I would’ve fought.”
Dead either way. If you’re going to die anyway, why wouldn’t you fight?
At Canaria’s calm words, Asie was briefly left speechless.
People often talked a good game, but when death was right in front of them, they couldn’t always act the way they spoke.
But Canaria really would have done it—and in fact, she had lived that way all along.
That was even how her first meeting with Garid had happened.
“...Right. You would’ve. Anyway, if he didn’t want to break, he should’ve been killed later. This was entirely predictable.”
“Yeah... but.”
“But?”
“His eyes were disgusting. I’m not food.”
“...”
He kept staring like he wanted to bore a hole through her, and even licking his lips.
Canaria had already shown remarkable restraint by holding back the urge to kill him on the spot.
Asie, who had been listening in silence, placed a hand on the girl’s head.
“?”
“Good job.”
“...??”
Suddenly praising her here?
Canaria tilted her head at the praise she couldn’t make sense of, then shook it vigorously and threw his hand off.
“I was trying to give you a chance to experience real combat for once.”
The man shivered under the girl’s indifferent gaze.
“At this point, he’d be useless.”
“...Phew.”
It was a chilling thing to say about a person—depending on how you took it, downright sinister—but at least for Da-eun, it was a huge relief.
If it were a monster, maybe. But humans are still a little... ugh.
Glad I don’t have to fight.
“Should I say I’ll spare him if he wins the fight?”
“Are you really planning to spare him?”
“Depending on the situation.”
“Then don’t. If you spare him, he’ll just do the same thing again.”
“P-please spare me, and I’ll live a good life!”
“Huh? Did he catch that?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
He hadn’t understood Asie’s words, but by instinct he sensed they were talking about his fate, and he shouted desperately.
It was a miracle born of an intense will to survive.
“You’ll live a good life?”
“W-what? Y-yes, yes! I definitely will!”
“What does it mean to live a good life?”
“...I-I mean, not stealing other people’s money, and not killing anyone....”
“Isn’t that just what civilized people do?”
If Canaria had heard that, she would have said, Huh? But nobles do that all the time. Sadly, she didn’t understand their conversation and was currently running away from Da-eun’s hand as it reached to pinch her cheek.
Asie’s rebuttal left the man speechless.
Seeing how he couldn’t answer easily, Asie shook his head.
In the man’s eyes, the swaying strands of Asie’s hair looked like the scythe of the grim reaper.
“I had a feeling, and sure enough.”
“H-help poor people and—”
The man never got to finish.
A sword pierced his chest.
The hilt looked very familiar to him.
The sword that had rested in the man’s own hand and spilled so much blood now ended by drinking in its owner’s.
Thud.
Asie watched with cold eyes as the body, emptied of its soul, collapsed.
“...Well then.”
But cold didn’t necessarily mean indifferent.
His eyes, carrying a chill of anger, turned elsewhere.
Toward the tree surrounded by the mercenaries, and toward Max, who was sitting slumped against it.
“We have quite a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
Max?
“!”
Max’s heart dropped.