Ep.7 - The Thief's Tale
Ep.7 - The Thief's Tale
***
It was deep night,
a dark alleyway.
Riko walked down a street no one walked anymore, one that had ended along with the bright sun.
The blood that had risen to her ankles soaked her shoes,
but Riko silently endured even that unpleasant sensation as she walked.
Delin was still slung over her shoulder,
and her five former subordinates trailed timidly behind her.
"Boss... thank you. We... we were all about to die with no way out..."
"That's right! Boss, you've gotten so strong. It's incredible, really...!"
The subordinates choked up as they thanked their boss. The bandits' delight at seeing Philmark again was indescribable.
In the hours when even the moonlight rested, they gathered around and sang their leader's praises like that...
"I saved you, so now disband. The Philmark Bandit Troop ends here. Take your shares and leave. You all remember where the treasure's hidden, right? Sell one whenever you need money."
The boss declared the group's dissolution.
The greatest bandit troop that had once dominated the world began to collapse with a single word from its leader.
"B-Boss? What are you saying?"
"Aren't we getting back together? We've all gathered like this?"
The bandits could not believe their boss's sudden change of heart.
The boss who had challenged the world with guts and ambition to steal everything in it was disbanding the troop so abruptly?
"Boss, is it because we lost to those bastards...!? It was an ambush. Those bastards ambushed us cowardly...!"
"That's right! We were supposed to win that!"
The bandit women hastily defended their defeat and clung to their boss,
but their boss had no intention of leading the troop any longer.
"...So what. You're useless now, so of course I'm discarding you. Besides, how could I ever trust the bastards who tried to put a knife to my neck again? Be grateful I'm not killing you."
Philmark eventually drove a dagger into her subordinates' hearts and indifferently moved on.
"B-Bo...oss... I'm sorry... I had no choice..."
The soft-hearted youngest sniffled with tears, and the one who had acted as vice-captain called out from behind her back...
"Boss! I'll be waiting for you! I'll be waiting for you!"
Her voice trembled, but Riko did not turn around.
Those footsteps, apathetic to a fault, quickly separated Riko and Delin from the bandit gang.
In place of her footsteps, which couldn't even be heard, a few teardrops fell with a plip sound.
A woman who had lived roughly stained the cold, dark night road.
Unlike footsteps that left no trace, the tears she shed held far too many memories and dragged her down heavily.
"Idiots."
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There were those who lived in back alleys where even light couldn't properly enter.
In places where neither law nor justice applied, nauseating things happened all too often.
Someone's short life ended for no reason,
the bastard who was giggling and calling you a comrade yesterday would stab you in the back today,
swiping, stealing, beating,
killing, discarding.
Still, because it was a place where people lived, a sort of order formed, and rules were made,
but all of that lasted only until a 'new powerhouse' appeared.
A powerhouse.
The ruler of the back alleys.
Among them, Riko was unmatched.
In a den of criminals overflowing with trash and torment, she stood out from childhood.
She was ridiculously strong. By the year she turned ten, even the adults had started to tread carefully around her.
All her peers, and even the young criminals who hadn't come of age, fell under her, and an era of young scum arrived in the back alleys of Albator.
Because a gleaming jewelstone always draws everyone's attention, the groups keeping Riko in check also multiplied,
but none of those groups could match Riko.
She was the kind of woman who brazenly barged in alone,
incapacitated every enemy, and walked out as if nothing had happened.
No one could topple her,
could trample her,
could possess her,
so the entire back alley became her domain.
Everything was smooth,
everything was going well.
Until her irreplaceable comrades betrayed her.
Just months after becoming the ruler,
Riko had to flee the back alleys as though fleeing.
From wounds that even her healing ability couldn't close, blood kept gushing out. Her legs trembled and her steps were more precarious than ever.
Everyone was chasing her.
Even the old comrades who had once spoken of a future by Riko's side—all of them were chasing her.
"Kuhk, hup..."
The young girl who was stronger than anyone but still had an unexpectedly naive side was pushed to the brink of death for the simple reason that she didn't suit a title like [Ruler of the Back Alleys].
There was no one who did not fear her, unprecedentedly strong as she was,
and therefore, there was no one who did not wish for her death.
Her comrades, especially, were like that.
Her comrades feared her, far stronger than they were.
Her comrades excluded Riko, who might threaten them at any time.
"Heuk... f-fuck..."
Riko wasn't stupid.
In the utterly vile back alleys, things like betrayal were as routine as anything, and Riko knew that.
Even so, she had believed in her comrades.
She had believed they were the first people in the back alleys with whom she had built true friendship and trust.
Perhaps they were the ones who could not believe in Riko.
Years passed,
and when Riko returned to the back alleys, which had turned back into a lawless zone,
a horrendous wind of bloodshed blew like never before.
Riko absolutely never forgave the traitors who had dared to point their blades at her.
Things like the friendship and loyalty in fairy tales did not exist in the back alleys.
Riko finally realized it.
That the world was a vile and disgusting place.
That was why Riko left the back alleys.
After erasing almost everyone who knew her,
and even changing her name,
she began to use her power to torment the filthy, infuriating world.
There was nothing she could not steal.
In a filthy and infuriating world, the only things that never betrayed her were precious treasures.
Those who had their treasures stolen ground their teeth and chased after her, but Philmark was never caught.
In her hideout, the priceless treasures she had stolen from all over the world only piled up.
No one could stop her, no one could block her.
She was the wind.
Around the time Philmark's notoriety only kept growing,
people who wanted to follow that wind appeared.
Philmark no longer tried to trust people,
but she did not reject those who kept following her and begged to be taken as disciples.
She could have threatened them and driven them far away,
or quietly shaken them off without anyone knowing,
but for some reason, Philmark did not reject them and began to live together with them.
She herself could not properly understand her own heart.
At first, Philmark was annoyed, but gradually she opened her heart to them.
They were like family. After discarding their original names, everyone used the names Philmark gave them, and they followed her like a teacher and mother.
As time passed, Philmark and her members became people who genuinely cared for and cherished each other.
She had already seen countless betrayals in the back alleys,
and had even experienced them firsthand,
but Philmark thought this time would be different.
Together they shook the world and became one.
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Riko's heavy footsteps halted in front of an alley so dark it seemed to swallow everything.
For a moment, she recalled old times.
"..."
Recalling the tragedies of her young days, she walked into the alley.
A musty, fishy stench stung her nose.
"Cough, cough..."
The smell brought Delin back to his senses too...
"Ugh, uugh..."
"..."
Riko glanced at the small man she carried on her shoulder, then continued deeper into the alley.
Perhaps because she had killed all of the Raven gang, not even a shadow of a person could be seen in the gloomy back alley,
so it was just the two of them here.
"...Hey, you know something?"
Riko opened her mouth with difficulty.
"This world is a really fucking shitty place. It makes you get caught up in shit that pisses you off every chance it gets, and keeps spinning things toward more unhappiness."
Her voice trembled.
The feelings she had locked away were leaking out little by little.
"The only thing you can believe in is me. You get that? Even if you treat other bastards well, all you get in the end is betrayal."
Riko slowly set Delin down.
He staggered as his feet touched the ground of the back alley.
"Eut, heu-eut..."
Delin had no strength to stand alone.
So he collapsed into Riko's arms as if falling.
Within the narrow sensory space of the back alley, Riko gazed up at the dark sky for a moment,
closed her eyes and let out a sigh,
then opened her mouth again.
"You're the same. You're the same, you know."
You evil bastard.
Why don't you ever only look at me?
I have no one but you.
Why are you always trying to go to those other bitches,
and trying to get away from me?
Now my treasure is
only you.
After that,
a long, deep kiss followed for a time.
That kiss, neither passionate nor rough,
lingered on and on, yearning for Delin as if begging for comfort.