#16 - The Phantom Thief Who Seized Her Chance Escapes and Completes the Job
Once I'd decided to escape, I decided I'd do it fast.
Thankfully, the escape itself didn't look all that difficult. I already had the whole method worked out in my head.
After climaxing who knew how many times, after being beaten until my body seemed to have forgotten its own senses, I still had a few more tricks left over from Master's teachings.
One of them was escaping from ropes.
Careful not to wake the goblins, I began working loose the ropes that bound me, little by little.
They seemed tied decently tight, but these goblins had plainly underestimated me — the knots were far sloppier than they looked. Maybe they'd bound me in that lewd, haphazard way on purpose, just to keep my chest bared. Either way, the important thing was…
— Sslik… shup… shuuup…
…the ropes had come off my body. And with almost insulting ease.
All that remained was the collar — and thankfully, it was the sort that came right off as long as my hands were in working order.
— Clack! Thud!
The clatter of the collar hitting the ground made me jump, but mercifully, not one of the goblins noticed I was free. They were all snoring away, dead drunk.
"Hoooohhh…."
Either way, everything that had held me captive was gone now.
I eased myself up from where I lay, then gathered my hat and staff, which the goblins had apparently stashed away as their little "trophies." I turned them over every which way, and thankfully nothing strange had gotten on them. Even if something had, a blast of Clean magic would have wiped it away in a heartbeat — but still, better not to need it at all, no?
Rising onto the balls of my feet, I began creeping toward the way out, as slowly and carefully as I could manage.
— Thud… thud… thud… thud…
Every footfall echoed through the cave, yet the goblins, drunk and snoring on, showed no sign whatsoever of stirring.
Truly, a blessing and a half.
Carefully. More carefully still.
As I crept along, the exit began to come into view.
Even with it in sight, I kept my cautious pace right up to the mouth of the cave. Slow and sluggish, one careful step at a time.
It was such a short distance — why did it feel so impossibly long?
Every complaint I had bubbled up inside me, but walk I must.
And walk I did, until at last I arrived.
At the cave's entrance.
"Hoooooohhh…."
I let out a small sigh.
It had been an utterly horrific stretch of time, and one I never wanted to live through again.
From now on, I'd need far more countermeasures against monsters. Magic tools especially — I'd have to give those some serious thought.
Magic tools cost a fortune, of course, but when it came to my own safety, I figured they'd be worth every last coin.
The moment I stepped outside — the moment I no longer had to worry about sound carrying into the cave — I swept my eyes over my surroundings.
And as I looked around, only a single thought filled my head.
The upper reaches of that river. The very stretch I'd started from.
So the upstream had been the goblins' lair all along — I only had to pass the few trees standing right in front of me before the river's upper reaches opened up before my eyes.
Well then. I would simply have to be extra careful, sealing the silver plate so close to their den.
When I made my way back to the spot where the goblins had toyed with me and hauled me off, the silver plate was lying there, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Even with my concealment magic worn off, they must have decided I was worth more as I was. Should I call that a mercy? Or should the very thought turn my stomach?
With the plate recovered, I was about to set about sealing it when…
…hold on. Did I actually need to leave those goblins alive?
Master always said a phantom thief must never take a human life — that killing was not our way. And on that, I agreed with him completely.
But these were monsters. Goblins, at that. Goblins who had brutally violated me.
There they lay, sleeping so peacefully, sprawled out without a care in the world… did I truly have to spare them??
No — I didn't think so. I was a phantom thief, and I did not take human lives.
But that rule… had never applied to monsters.
I called the cave back to mind one more time.
The place where I'd been held was its deepest chamber — the very back. And on my way out, had there been any other entrance? Any other way in or out?
No. Not that I remembered. Nothing of the sort had existed.
Which meant…
I began gathering up the dry grass scattered around me, the stalks untouched by the water. Only the ones that would blaze the fiercest — and only the ones that would belch up the thickest smoke once they caught.
Once I'd gathered my fill, I piled every last blade of it at the mouth of the cave.
— Fss-fss-fss!
— Fwoosh!
Flame took hold.
It looked far too feeble to kill anyone. But fire, however small, is a remarkably effective thing when the goal is simply to do harm.
— Fwoooorrrrrsh…!
The instant the flame touched the dry grass, the whole pile went up in a blazing torch. That noxious smoke began rolling into the cave, and once I'd confirmed it was pouring inside, I turned my eyes to the ceiling.
Sure enough, thin cracks webbed across it, and I fished out the small firecrackers I carried and wedged them into the fissures.
— Shunk!
With a handful of crackers seated snugly in place, only one task remained.
— Fwoooorrrsh!
Lighting them.
They were mere distraction-grade firecrackers, but a firecracker was a firecracker all the same — more than enough to wrench the cracks in a flimsy ceiling like this one wide open.
— BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!!!!!
The crackers erupted in a deafening racket, and the cracks split apart in an instant.
— Rrrrrrumble!!
— Crash! Crash! CRRAAASHH!!!
The entrance sealed itself shut in moments, and all that slipped through the gaps now was the acrid smoke my fire had churned out.
"…."
Had the goblins inside woken by now?
I didn't know. Truthfully, I didn't want to.
The one thing certain was that every last one of them was going to die — if what I'd seen held true.
It was my first time. Taking a life.
Did it feel satisfying? Calling it otherwise would be a lie. They had violated me. Even as I begged them to stop, even as I sobbed and pleaded for them to spare me, they kept raping me, degrading me, over and over.
And yet — here I stood, feeling this cleansed. Feeling vindicated, even though I'd snuffed out countless lives in a single breath, goblins though they may have been.
It felt… just the faintest bit strange. Like I barely recognized myself.
What would Master say, seeing me now? Would he tell me I'd done well? Or that he understood?
I didn't know. The Master who might have told me was no longer at my side.
— Krehk… kek… kehhk…
I thought I could hear the goblins from inside. It might have been nothing but my brain playing tricks on me, but they sounded like they were in terrible agony.
Any longer and I felt my mind would start to come apart, so I turned my back on the cave then and there and headed for the river's upper reaches. And I never — not once — looked back.
When I returned to the river's upper reaches, I made for the Eye of the Shoal I'd discovered before.
The waves were churning, but by letting them sweep me along bit by bit as I pushed inward, I could slip into the Eye of the Shoal itself — the pocket where the current all but died.
Silver plate in hand, I entered the river, tossed this way and that by the waves, until the moment I reached it.
— Glint!
The silver plate began to shine.
And at the same instant, light stirred beneath the water as well.
Its source was an ornament shaped something like an altar — and one look was enough to tell me it was practically crying out, place it here.
I took a quick dive, sank down beneath the surface, and carefully set the silver plate atop the altar.
— Glint!
The instant the plate settled into place, it flashed once—
— Ssssssshhhhh…
—and the sound of the waves that had been rolling in from far off suddenly vanished.
The plate had bonded fast to the altar, impossible to lift now, and I had no choice but to wriggle free of it alone and check on the outside world.
And then I understood.
"The waves… they've stopped…."
The waves. The shoal itself. Had gone utterly still.
I couldn't begin to guess how it worked — but Master had been brilliant not only as a phantom thief, but as a mage in his own right. Coming from someone like him, I supposed even this was possible.
"Haaaaaaah…."
Strength drained out of my entire body.
I'd sealed a single relic. Yes — a grand total of one.
And there were still eight to go. If I failed to seal even one of them, everything came crashing down.
"Isn't this difficulty a little much…?"
It was the sort of difficulty that made me want to whine out loud — not that I had anyone left to whine at.
Out of the river at last, I picked up the pace, putting distance between myself and the water — and the forest that now held nothing but horrific memories.
— Tatatatat-tat!
And as I ran, one thought circled round my head.
I'd been abducted at night. That much was certain. And it was night now, too.
I'd faded in and out of consciousness the whole time, so I had no real grasp of how much time had passed — but surely it hadn't been more than two days? Right? …Right?
Hoping against hope, I made for the village beside the forest — the one the coachman had pointed out to me. I'd changed into fresh clothes, naturally, scrubbed every last trace of goblin seed away in the river, and undone the color-shifting magic on my hair and eyes.
And then it hit me.
"Sat…ur…day?"
Right. It was Saturday.
I'd filed for a two-day survey — Tuesday and Wednesday — extendable by a single day depending on circumstances. Even granting that extension, I'd gone and skipped an entire day of classes on Friday without leave. And on top of that, I'd missed Friday's roll call, too.
Which meant exactly one thing.
"Gerhardt Lobel…."
Gerhardt Lobel. I was going to have to answer to that pervert of a dormitory-overseer professor.
Absolutely the worst.
And sure enough — that Sunday night, when I returned to the academy and the hour of roll call came due—
— Grab!
— Hyaaaahhh!
"Haaahhhn♡"
"A full day past your leave, no word, no excuse — have you been out selling that wretched little body of yours?"
"N-no… that's… not… the survey…"
— Hyaaaaahhh!!
"…ran loooongghh♡"
There stood Professor Gerhardt Lobel, openly kneading and squeezing my ass right there at roll call, toying with me for all to see.
"Once Monday's lectures are over, come to the Disciplinary Office. I'll have to punish you properly, won't I — for making this school's morals so utterly obscene."
"Nnh… hnnnghhh…♡"
— Hyaaaahhh!
"Haaahhhn♡"
"Answer."
Pressed for an answer like that, there was only ever one thing I could say.
"Y… yessth…♡"
Being toyed with like this while Line watched — right in front of her — was, as ever, mortifying beyond all shame.