Chapter 112
Chapter 112
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: A Thief for a Cause
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Luke. Is that a good item?"
"Dunno."
"Then why do you keep trying to bid on it?"
"Because I'm bored."
I came here to see if there was anything good, since I do need a few things. But auctions are too stuffy to just watch. It's no fun at all just seeing other people call out prices for things they want to buy. So, I raised the bid out of boredom. It's not like I'm going to buy it anyway, and if someone else is, I might as well screw with them.
"For someone who's 'just bored,' do you realize all your bids so far add up to over 1,000 gold coins...?"
1,000 gold coins. Considering we could live comfortably for years on the few dozen gold coins we've earned so far, it's clear how massive that sum is. It's an amount we couldn't have saved even a quarter of, even if we'd saved every penny we've ever made. And he'd bet such a fortune just because he was bored.
"Who cares?"
"You were lucky it didn't work out, but what would you have done if you'd actually won the bid...?"
"I would've just run away."
Ever heard of a 'no-show'? You guys wouldn't know, since that word doesn't exist in this world. Seeing as they aren't handing over the items right after the bidding, it seems like they exchange everything at once after the auction ends. If I won, I'd just be a no-show.
"Besides, I was never going to win."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Liche, you've lived in the light your whole life, so you wouldn't know. Did you think it was real people raising the bids until now?"
"Then what was it? Are you saying there are Demonic Humans or demons here too?"
"Not that. There are shills."
The shadows are where all sorts of dirty business happens. For the record, I know they plant shills in auction houses to drive up prices because I read about it in a novel. In truth, if you step into the shadows, you should expect this kind of thing even if you don't know for sure. That's just how the shadows work.
Not that I knew exactly when the shill would stop bidding; that part was pure luck. I was just thinking, 'So what if I win?' If I did, like I said, I would've been a no-show.
"Someone like you, Liche, who's spent her entire life in the light, couldn't possibly imagine what goes on in the shadows."
There's a reason people divide the world into shadows and light. Whatever evil you can imagine, something worse exists in the shadows. It's like an onion; you peel one layer, and there's always another. And it only gets worse the deeper you go. Hell, somewhere out there, there's probably some lunatic killing people to make chimeras.
"Hearing you say that while wearing that mask... it's strangely convincing."
"What's wrong with my mask? It's the symbol of a true man."
Honestly, if you've seen that anime, you'd know you can pass on a horse mask, but you can't resist a boar mask.
"So, did you find anything worth buying?"
"No. There's nothing for me to buy here today."
"Then why did we come...?"
"To find an item, of course."
"But you just said there's nothing to buy."
"Yeah. Nothing to *buy*."
Because I'm not buying.
"I'm going to steal it."
The three of them questioned me in unison.
"Huh...?"
"What...?"
"Whaaat...?"
***
That night.
Of course, the auction house also closes for the night. Nothing in this world is open 24/7. So, we waited at our inn until evening, then left again after midnight. The reason? Just as I'd said this morning, to steal something.
For the record, we left Yui behind at the inn. Stealing requires stealth. But the slow-moving Yui wouldn't be much help, so I told her to stay, and she was thrilled. Typical shut-in.
We left the inn and followed the path I had memorized this morning. Of course, Luna was our guide, since I had long since forgotten the way. On the way to the auction house, Luna asked a question, her voice filled with curiosity.
"Um... Sir Luke. Do you happen to remember when you caught that pickpocket?"
"I don't. How would I remember some extra?"
"...The person who said stealing was wrong and broke all the thief's fingers so he could never steal again."
I said I don't know, didn't I? Who even remembers a pickpocket? Do you have that little to memorize?
"So what about it?"
"Didn't you tell me back then that stealing is wrong?"
"That's right. Stealing is wrong."
"But isn't what you're about to do... stealing?"
What I'm about to do is stealing, and that is wrong. That's what Luna is trying to say.
But.
"Luna. Do you know what the opposite of justice is?"
"What? Isn't it evil?"
"No."
Most people think the opposite of justice is evil. But that's one of the common misconceptions. It's being reinterpreted these days, but the opposite of justice is...
"Another justice."
In my past life, there were professions called defense attorneys and prosecutors. To some, the attorney is justice; to others, the prosecutor is. Would the attorney and prosecutor consider each other evil? No. They are people who work according to their own justice. If the thievery I commit has a reason it must be done, then it's not evil, but another justice.
"...Isn't that just attaching a justification to your own actions?"
"To be honest, that's what I think too."
That was all a lie, of course. My thoughts aren't much different from Luna's.
"But Luna. Did you forget? I'm no hero."
In fact, I don't even need to come up with a plausible reason. Why? Because a villain can commit evil acts without any reason. If I just do it and someone says, 'How could you do something so atrocious...!' all I have to do is say, 'Because I'm a villain,' and everyone will accept it.
No one would even try to understand a villain's way of thinking in the first place. Trying to understand a villain's mindset would mean that person is trying to become a villain themselves.
"...I suppose I had forgotten for a moment."
"It's fine as long as you remember now."
As we were chatting, we arrived at the building. Just like this morning, we went down to the basement, pushed the bookshelf, walked through the sewer, passed the barrier, and arrived at the changing room. We didn't need to change clothes this time; we stopped in the changing room because I had something to give them.
"Here, take this."
"What's this? A bracelet?"
"An invisibility artifact."
"Is this the one you used during the survival event?"
"So you remember?"
"Someone was relentlessly beating up only Arthur. How could I not know?"
That wasn't 'beating up.' It was just a prank. If I had been serious, Arthur would be dead by now.
"But weren't you supposed to return this after it was over?"
"Of course, I secretly swiped it."
"..."
In all that chaos, do you think they'd go around looking to retrieve one cheap artifact? They obviously forgot, so I took the chance to slip it into my inventory. By the time they remembered, I would have already quit my teaching position.
"Anyway, Luna, didn't you say you could conceal yourself using some kind of barrier?"
After the last Mirror Event, we reviewed what we'd learned. Yui said she'd eliminated the queen persona and made its power her own. And Luna mentioned something about a barrier that grants her complete concealment within it. If so, wouldn't it be better to just use the barrier instead of wearing this bracelet?
"If I use the barrier, everything inside it goes dark, which would actually make us more likely to be discovered."
"You should've made it better."
Why'd you make it so half-assed?
"...That was the best I could do."
"Well, can't be helped then."
I put on the bracelet, and Luna did the same. Liche seemed a little startled by our sudden disappearance, but she soon sensed our presence and put on her bracelet as well.
"So this is what it feels like..."
"Just be careful not to get too close, or you'll be discovered."
"If getting close reveals you, why didn't Arthur notice even while getting hit so much?"
"Why else? Because he's an idiot."
This is why people shouldn't get emotional. I was right in front of his face; he could've noticed if he'd just focused a little, but he was too busy fuming.
"Anyway, let's get going."
"Ah, okay."
"Yes."
We opened the changing room door and descended the spiral staircase. This time, instead of a guard checking tickets at the entrance like this morning, armed guards holding torches were patrolling the entire area.
We could be caught if we got too close, so we carefully slipped past them into the auction hall. The inside of the hall was also being patrolled by guards. We kept our distance and moved through the building. We were looking for the storage room, where items up for auction and unsold goods were kept. With no map of the interior, we wandered for a while.
"Avoiding only our target with such precision is a talent in its own way."
"Are you always this bad with directions...?"
Honestly, I have an excuse this time. Shouldn't a storage room have a thick iron door or something? All the doors inside the auction house looked exactly the same, making it impossible to know which room was which without checking every single one.
I suppose this is a form of camouflage. A thick iron door would be no different from advertising, 'Valuable items in here!' So they made it look like all the other rooms to confuse people. I guess you could call it a strategy. If we were lucky, we might have found it at once, but we just happened to be unlucky this time.
"Whatever. Let's just hurry up and get this over with. I'm sleepy."
Wanting to finish quickly and go to sleep, I flung open a door.
"W-who's there?!"
"Oh, for fuck's sake."
There were people inside, and a curse escaped my lips before I could stop it. Then again, it would be weirder if a place this important had no guards. There were four of them in total. Seeing no one in the open doorway, the guards drew their weapons and scanned their surroundings warily.
"Sir Luke. What should we do?"
"In times like these, don't panic."
"Kill them."
"Understood."
It's better to kill them all, as it's obvious they'd just wake up and scream later. Luna's adaptability is remarkable. After seeing me kill a few people during our travels, she now acts without a moment's hesitation whenever I order her to kill someone. Others would be reluctant or feel guilty, but she doesn't, which makes her easy to have around.
"Ghk... Gkhh...!"
"Gack, kegh...!"
As Luna moved, thin lines instantly appeared on the four guards' necks. They sprayed fountains of blood, gasping for air just like before, and then died. We moved the bodies to one side and began to examine the items in the room.
There was just one problem: I didn't recognize any of the items here. So how was I supposed to tell the real from the fake? I figured it out after touching a few things.
◈ Item Information
Name: Mask of Many Faces
Grade: A
Description: An artifact of unknown origin. When worn, it can perfectly replicate the face of another person. The voice changes, but the body does not, so caution is advised. Can only transform into subjects known to the user.
"Jesus Christ, you scared me."
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing."
The information window popped up out of nowhere, telling me the mask-like object I was holding was an artifact. Why is it that in other novels, the info window makes a 'ding!' sound, but mine just silently shoves a blue screen in my face? I bet this is all the author's doing. If I ever meet him, I swear I won't let him get away with it.
Anyway, now that I knew how to tell real items from fakes, I stored the Mask of Many Faces, which seemed useful in many ways, in my inventory. Now I just had to find the item I needed.
'Tsk. I was wondering why the security was so lax. It's because everything in here is fake.'
At first, I wondered why there were only four guards in the storage room. I thought the auction house owner was just an idiot. But now I see it's because there's nothing worth protecting; it's practically an invitation to steal. So far, the only item that's triggered an information window was the Mask of Many Faces. I was tossing junk around, searching for my target.
◈ Item Information
Name: Anillo Fuego
Grade: A+
Description: An artifact of unknown origin. Enhances the power of the wearer's fire-attribute magic.
"Found it."
"You found it?"
"Yeah."
I'd found the artifact I was looking for. A simple red ring with no unique features or special patterns. This was the artifact that gets gifted to Liche, one of the heroines. As the description said, it was the perfect item for Liche, a heroine who uses fire magic. Naturally, I slipped the ring onto Liche's finger.
"Uh, uh...?"
Liche's face turned red. It's not that I don't know what that reaction means, but this is a fantasy novel, so it can't be helped. In fantasy novels, gifts for the heroine are always in the form of a ring. It either has to be worn on the ring finger to work, or it's put on a chain and worn as a necklace. Then the heroine misunderstands and blushes. It's all a tired, old cliché, but what can I do when the item looks like this?
'Sigh...'
Leaving Liche to gently stroke the ring, I headed over to Luna, who had been quiet for a while, to see if she'd found anything good.
"Find anything good?"
"Ah, Sir Luke."
Looking over her shoulder, I saw a green, metal-like object in Luna's hand. When I held it, no information window appeared. I couldn't tell if it was because it was a material or just a worthless item, so I decided to put it away for now and ask the old man about it later.
We'd pretty much grabbed everything we needed. Just as I was about to say we should head back, a loud shout came from the door we'd entered through.
"Intruders!!!"
A guard standing at the entrance had spotted us and raised the alarm. We should have been invisible, but the reason he could be so sure there were intruders was simple. The guards lying in the corner. And, from his perspective, items floating in mid-air. Of course, he would assume there were intruders.
"Did we leave the door unlocked?"
"This room didn't have a lock."
"Ah."
As the guard shouted, the doorway was swarmed with more guards in less than a minute. Looking at them, I realized we wouldn't be able to make a clean getaway.
"Ah. Don't worry. I'm a thief of necessity... no, a thief of salvation."