Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: Hassan and the Nine-Headed Thief #5
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I'd vaguely suspected from the moment she started leaping across other people's rooftops that she wasn't quite right in the head, and sure enough, this sand girl Dorothea seemed to be suffering from one of those peculiar neuroses unique to people in this world.
"You're the only one left! You can take down those eight bosses and steal the leader's seat!"
I had no idea what she was talking about—something about killing and stealing—but the way she was shaking my arm back and forth was downright scary.
"Who's there!"
Just then, a shout from the alley gave away our presence. The guard, who had been half-asleep on duty moments ago, started heading our way.
"...Ugh, this isn't a good spot. Let's go to my hideout! I'll explain everything there. It's a place I never let anyone into, but no choice now. Nowhere's as secret as that."
Thud, flap, thump, patter-patter.
Dorothea began scaling the wall again at an astonishing speed. She soon reached the rooftop completely, and I followed her up, dodging the guard's eyes.
The first time climbing a roof had felt awkward and tough, but the second was no big deal.
I'd climbed plenty of mountains gathering herbs or catching snakes back home, and with my dexterity and strength added in, I was pretty good at this climbing business.
"That's weird. I swear I heard something. Was it a dream?"
The guard shone his lantern around the spot where we'd been, looking puzzled. Only after he finally left did we start moving across the rooftops.
The place we ended up was surprisingly close to Luna's house—a street of warehouses and sheds. Memories of messing around with Hippolyte in this neighborhood flooded back, sending blood rushing to my face and lower body.
Once night fell, a man's skin started craving a woman's touch. If I hadn't known the taste, it might not have mattered, but now that I did, I couldn't stop wanting it.
As I was lost in those thoughts, Dorothea handed me a small cloth. I snapped out of it in surprise.
"What's this?"
"Cover your eyes with it."
"Oh, alright then." What a weird request.
I took the cloth from her palm. As our hands brushed, letters popped up with a ding.
『Name: Fatima lv. 14
Status: Hay Fever, Back Pain, Dry Skin』
Oh. Clean status items, no question marks. Did that mean she was lower level than me?
Still, level 14 was pretty high for folks in this world.
She could easily make a living as a bronze-tier adventurer without stealing. But her name was Fatima. So Dorothea was an alias?
The status had never lied before. Fatima must be her real name, and Dorothea her code name for thieving or dancing gigs.
I'd thought she matched her name with Dorgo as Dor-, but no. Did Dorgo have another name too?
Well, even I wasn't Hassan but Ha-san. Aliases weren't rare, so nothing strange.
"What're you staring at?"
"Nothing, ma'am."
Swish-swish.
I blindfolded Dorothea with the cloth she'd given me.
"...What the hell are you doing?"
"You said to cover your eyes."
"Not mine, yours! I didn't want you knowing exactly where my hideout is. I meant blindfold yourself."
"Oh, damn. My bad."
Blindfolding for SM play was a major kink even among the minors, so I'd assumed she had some naughty desire to have her eyes covered.
"Should've said so sooner."
I roughly blindfolded myself, then grabbed her wrist and navigated between the warehouses.
Just from not being able to see, everything felt like it might trip me up or smack me in the face—kinda unnerving and scary.
What kind of world did blind people live in? It made me feel sorry for them and a bit respectful.
Gotta be grateful for my two good eyes.
Halt.
Our steps stopped.
Clank, clunk.
There was a noisy rattle of a lock or some unknown latch. Then Dorothea led me into a cool space.
Whoosh.
A small fire crackled to life, and Dorothea spoke.
"You can take it off now."
I removed the cloth from my face. What appeared was a small hut lit by a flickering lantern. And filling it were statues.
The statues were made of everything from wood to iron to marble, shaped like animals, birds, people—sizes all jumbled.
"Whoa—."
Seeing them all gathered under the lantern light was pretty impressive; my mouth fell open on its own.
"Cool, right? My collection from two years of gathering."
"You stole all of them?"
"Obviously. Every last one!"
She puffed out her chest and shoulders like it was some grand achievement.
Proud of admitting to theft? Our ways of thinking were just fundamentally different. Rotten thief bitch—maybe I could turn her in for a reward? The thought crossed my mind.
But nah, better to use her to take down the whole thief guild network connected to her, not just her.
Keep regenerating those Hydra's nine heads.
And lop them all off at once.
"This one's from 4th Street north—I stole it from there. That one's a wooden statue from the baron's place by the east gate. This one..."
But this idiot sand girl dancer, oblivious to my scheming heart, started proudly explaining where she'd swiped each piece from.
People in this world loved bragging about anything at the drop of a hat.
If they had nothing to brag about, they'd boast about how much they'd suffered and endured a painful life.
Of course, I had no intention of indulging her weird bragging session. If we talked too long, she might get suspicious. Better to get the info quick and head back to Luna's.
So, I subtly praised her spoils to broach the topic.
"Impressive trophies. Like Pluto's treasure vault. So, just outta curiosity..."
"Curiosity?"
Swish.
The sand girl Dorothea perked up her ears mid-ramble about her boring statues. I slipped in casually.
"You said the execs are meeting tomorrow for a big score. Mind telling me where and what they're stealing?"
Swish.
Dorothea, who'd been yapping indifferently about statues, shut her mouth at my question and scanned the surroundings.
She busily turned her head, peering through the wooden slats of the shed and around, confirming no one was nearby before whispering.
"Tomorrow, we're stealing this city's hope."
"The city's hope?"
What kinda abstract crap was that?
I'd hoped for something concrete like a major vault or a giant gold statue of a god.
Her vagueness made me frown.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"The city's hope. Guardian of humanity and the middle world. There's only one. We're ambushing a gold-tier adventurer and taking them down."
"Fuck, for real!? Ambushing a gold-tier!?"
"Shh, quiet!"
The bombshell had me genuinely shocked. Ambushing a gold-tier? Now "stealing hope" made sense.
In this harsh world with monsters and cultists running wild everywhere, people could only stretch out and sleep easy because of the army, sure—but gold-tier adventurers hailed as heroes were indispensable too.
- Cultists appeared!
The gold-tiers'll handle it.
- A beast attacked the city!
The gold-tiers'll sort it.
That's how it felt. Even I was counting on Hippolyte big-time for tomorrow's thief guild subjugation.
"Gold-tier—Hippolyte or Actaeon?"
Sodomora only had two gold-tiers right now.
An ambush meant one of them.
But Dorothea shook her head at my question.
"We don't know either. Only the eighth-gen leader knows the execution details. We just follow orders. That's the rule..."
"But is that even possible? Taking down a gold-tier?"
"Head-on? Tough. But the leader's got plans and strategy, apparently. Still risky. We might all die. And honestly, this isn't thief guild business."
That's when I got why this sand thief Dorothea wanted me to take down their leader.
Success or failure, ambushing a gold-tier meant sacrifices. No sane person would sign up for that.
"Tomorrow, seven PM. Come to the spot marked here. With the three execs' approval, we'll crown you our new leader."
"Hmm—."
"Then you duel the current eighth-gen leader fair and square and steal his seat. Win, and you become the Thief King ruling Sodomora's underworld."
Thief King?
Thief King Hassan.
I rolled the name around in my head.
Sounded kinda cool, but ultimately, head of criminals? Their end was always miserable and scary.
* * *
"Can I open my eyes now?"
...
No answer to my question for a while. No presence at all. When I took off the blindfold, thief guild exec Dorothea was nowhere in sight.
When'd she go?
She was cat-like in erasing her presence. Like she had padded paws.
Anyway, Luna's hut was nearby, so I decided to head straight back home where she was waiting.
She'd said something about making potions with Paranoya? Should be fine to go in now.
But Luna's hut was pitch black, no sign of life.
Worried something was wrong, I went in and saw Luna and Paranoya asleep upstairs under the same blanket.
The two tiny women curled toward each other—it was kinda cute.
"C-can-dy... yummy..."
Too late; she wasn't waiting up, just asleep.
So I crashed downstairs.
Tomorrow'd be busy and demanding strength-wise. Needed deep sleep. I was out cold.
Poke—tap-tap-tap.
Something nudged my body gently. Like tapping my chest.
What the.
Strange sense of familiarity made me crack an eye. Crimson eyes stared down at me in the dark.
"Master Hassan. Master Hassan! Wake up...!"
The quiet but insistent waking had me flashing back to night duty in the army. Horrifying.
"What? What's up."
"S-something urgent... b-big trouble...!"
"What? What's the big trouble?"
Fresh from sleep, head fuzzy, I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Not a fire or anything.
"Why'd you wake me?"
"T-tried waking Luna, but she wouldn't budge no matter what, s-so I had to get you..."
"Ah, Luna sleeps like the dead—you could carry her and she wouldn't know. So what's up?"
"T-toi-let..."
"What?"
"Wanna go to the toilet... Been holding it forever. Gonna burst—big trouble...!"
"No, wait."
I couldn't process what I was hearing.
"Just go then."
"W-want to, but... it's too dark outside, scary...!"
"Oh."
This little stream water nymph was scared to go out alone in the unfamiliar dark. Fair enough. A soft-hearted girl could feel that way. Kinda cute.
But this one shouldn't be.
She was a cultist serving the dark underworld god Pluto. A cultist scared of the dark?
Fashion cultist, huh.
"C-could you come with...?"
Paranoya squirmed like she was desperate, clutching my arm—looked precarious.
"Eeeek, hnnngh...."
If I left her, she'd wet the floor. I'd been cleaning the hut, so that'd be a nightmare.
"Damn it, fine. Let's go."
What the fuck was I doing in the middle of the night? Reminded me of my elementary-school little sis, terrified after a horror flick way back.
She had her cute side then. Turned tyrannosaurus in high school, though.
Anyway, I headed to the outhouse. Calling it that was generous—just a crude shed.
Pretty filthy, so Luna sometimes went back to the dungeon or borrowed the bakery's with the oven.
But dawn now—no bakery open, and I wasn't dragging my sleepy ass around hunting clean spots. Shoved the little nymph in and yawned.
"Haaah, hurry up and pee."
"H-hnnngh, hnnngh...."
Come to think of it, this girl always got tangled in weird shit like this.
"...M-Master Hassan."
A voice from inside the shed.
"Master Hassan, you out there, right...? Master Hassan! Master Hassan!!!"
"What now?"
"T-too pitch black and scary...!"
"I'm right here—finish quick."
"N-nymphs always gotta be cautious... Won't do it unless it's safe...!"
Her words made me imagine nymphs getting ambushed mid-pee.
Eating, sleeping, shitting.
Those three were when humans let their guard down most—prime targets. Nymphs had it rough.
"Master Hassan.."
"What now? Done?"
"...Um, really embarrassing request... C-could you hold my legs...? F-feels like something'll pop out from below...!"
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