Ch. 127
“Is it going to rain?”
“Something just dripped.”
Their curiosity lasted only a moment. The two quickly forgot about the falling droplets from the clear sky, mesmerized instead by the glittering gems encrusted on the sword.
They caressed the sword with dreamy eyes.
“If the boss sees this, he might clear all our debt.”
“What? You’re planning to hand this over to the boss?”
“Do we have a choice?”
“You don’t want to keep it for ourselves?”
“Are you crazy? What if we get caught? No regular fence would dare touch something like this! Only someone like the boss could even think of dealing it!”
It was a prize so valuable that it wasn’t even easy to convert into money.
If they dismantled it to sell, the value would plummet; if they sold it as-is, they’d easily get caught.
If you got caught selling a noble’s possession, you’d be dead before you could spend the money. They had to tread carefully.
Though they pretended to ponder where to take the sword, the truth was there was only one answer—to offer it to the boss. Small fry like them didn’t have many options.
“Listen, Jack. Selling something this flashy without the boss knowing is impossible. Let’s not get greedy.”
“…Do you think the boss will pay us fairly?”
“If we’re lucky, he might give us a little extra. Cheer up! We’ve got this pouch of gold too, haven’t we?”
The scruffy blond thief named Jack looked full of lingering regret.
“It’s just a waste. If we took it to another city, we could sell it for several times more…”
“Don’t you know all the nearby cities are under the boss’s thumb? We couldn’t sell it without him knowing, and it’s a noble’s item—way out of our league. Let’s just hand it over and walk away from this life clean.”
“What if we sold the jewels one by one? Gradually paid off the debt that way?”
“How long would that take? And if word gets back to the boss, we’re dead. You know he kills people over mere disrespect!”
The boss must have been that terrifying. To these two, he was more frightening than any noble.
“Everything we steal already belongs to the boss! As long as we owe him, we’re his slaves for life!”
“Damn this filthy debt.”
Both of them owed a massive sum to a crime syndicate boss who controlled the area.
This city was overrun with crime, and noble influence here was weak. In fact, most cities in the Koran territory were like that due to their tribal nature.
The lack of centralized royal power meant noble authority was weak, creating an opening for criminal organizations.
Criminals from all over had gathered here and filled the cities.
And one man had taken over the massive city of Mielta in an instant—known simply as the Boss.
In this city, the Boss’s word was law.
“Everyone knows—you might skip other debts, but never skip the boss’s. He’ll chase you to hell.”
“He really would…”
“Is he even human?”
The law was distant, but fists were always close.
Most criminals who gathered in Mielta had nowhere else to go.
Having fled far from home, all that remained for them was this brutal jungle.
To fall out of the Boss’s favor was essentially a death sentence.
Though Jack grumbled, he eventually wrapped the sword back up with clear resignation.
If it were something smaller, they could’ve pocketed it for themselves. But today’s prize was far beyond what the two of them could handle.
“Tch. It’s not like we’re his slaves. We always do the dirty work for the Boss.”
“We were slaves all right. But look on the bright side—this might pay off our debt in one go. That’s a win for us too, right? Let’s give it to him and splurge on some drinks…”
Just as they were about to leave with the sword’s fate decided, the sharp ears of the thieves picked up on the sound of an approaching ambush.
“You hear that?”
“Shh!”
Footsteps were closing in fast.
Jack froze, and the other held his breath in panic.
He drew a dagger from his belt, eyes fixed on the direction the footsteps were coming from.
‘Could it be? Are we already being tracked?’ The thought tensed them up completely.
But then, against the light at the alley’s end, what appeared was…
“The hell is that?”
“Whose mutt is that big?”
Their caution turned out to be for nothing—it was just a huge yellow dog that appeared at the end of the alley.
“Woof!”
Its shiny fur flapped in the wind as it barked threateningly, but the thieves weren’t fazed. They figured it was just a stray.
“Never seen a dog that big.”
“What do they feed it to make it shine like that?”
“Hey, should we catch it and offer it to the boss too?”
“A dog?”
“He loves dog meat, remem—ugh!”
Landing atop Jack’s head was a human being.
“You’re gonna eat who!?”
“Aaack!”
A girl fell from the sky without warning, stomping directly onto Jack’s back. She had clearly aimed for him.
Jack, overwhelmed by the force slamming down on him, slammed chin-first into the ground and writhed in pain. The girl, golden hair whipping, seized him by the hair and began shaking his head violently.
“Give it back!”
“Augh—ugh!”
“My sword!”
“Hrk!”
“Now!”
‘Thud thud.’
If you sat on someone’s back and shook their head from behind, their forehead would slam into the ground. Most people would pass out from that.
Caught completely off guard, Jack couldn’t process what was happening and soon lost consciousness.
The other thief, watching the sudden attack, quickly grabbed the sword Jack dropped and made a run for it.
He bolted in the opposite direction from where the dog stood guard. He was confident in his getaway speed—he was a thief, after all.
“Undaine!”
But just before he could escape, a jet of water burst from the ground and blocked his path.
A wall of water had appeared in front of him. No matter how much he punched it, it simply absorbed all the impact and rebounded everything.
It looked passable, but not even a finger could go through. It was too tall to climb over.
Backed into a corner, the thief looked up and saw a massive blue fish passing in the sky. That’s when realization struck him.
‘Ah. I messed with the wrong person.’
“Eek!”
‘A mage?’
Terrified, he turned to look behind him—only to find the blonde girl charging toward him with the dog.
Realizing who she was, the thief scrambled to the side.
The sword’s rightful owner.
“Let me be nice—give it back.”
She brushed her flowing golden hair out of her face with a snarl. Her eyes were ferocious—like an angry tiger.
And her voice sounded like she’d bash his head in at any moment.
“When were you ever nice…?”
‘You just turned Jack into a pulp…’
“That’s just a figure of speech, idiot!”
“Gah!”
“When I say I’ll be nice, that means give it back!”
“Woof!”
“What did you just bark at me for?”
The dog had dodged her kick and backed away, only to trot back like nothing happened.
Then it looked at the thief with an unbelievably disappointed gaze, like it couldn’t believe how pathetic he was.
The thief thought no dog should be capable of such an expression, but the look still irritated him.
Still, he didn’t dare show it. The girl’s temperament was too dangerous.
With the girl steadily closing in, the thief clung to the sword, panicked.
“D-Do you know who we are!”
“I don’t care about thieves.”
“You must’ve heard of us! We’re—Blood Wing!”
That was the name of the group that controlled the region.
In Koran, there were few places where that name didn’t strike fear. With their numbers and brutality, even nobles rarely dared cross them.
And they especially hated nobles.
“Blood Wing…”
“You know what happens when you mess with Blood Wing…”
“Chicken! That name makes me crave fried chicken.”
Threats clearly didn’t work.
The girl seemed like the type who feared nothing. One look at her eyes and it was obvious.
She had no concept of fear.
“So what, does your gang have two lives each?”
“Eeeek!”
“You touched my stuff.”
The girl smiled brightly—completely out of place with the menace in her voice—and the thief suddenly felt his body being pulled into the water wall behind him.
His head was fully submerged, his back and legs completely immobilized.
As far as he knew, water wasn’t supposed to do this. The parts of his body trapped inside felt like they were going to burst under the pressure.
Sweat streamed down his face as the overwhelming weight crushed him.
“W-Water… is heavy…”
“If I increase the pressure, you’ll pop.”
Pinned by unfamiliar water pressure, his arms flailed wide open against his will, and the sword fell limply from his grasp.
He couldn’t move a muscle other than his face. He felt like a trophy deer head mounted on a wall.
“P-Please spare me!”
“One more word, and I’ll drown you.”
“…”
“My sword! You’re safe! How dare they try to steal something like this! These demonic bastards!”
‘Who are you calling a demon…?’
“Woof!”
Somehow, the dog sounded like it voiced exactly what he wanted to say.
The girl unwrapped the cloth, checked the sword, and, looking satisfied, started rummaging around the thief’s waist.
The water yielded only to her touch.
She plunged her hand deep into the water, retrieved her coin pouch from his belt, and counted the coins while making threats.
“For every missing shilling, you get one punch.”
She clearly meant it. And for some reason, she also took the thief’s own small coin pouch while she was at it.
‘Seriously? She’s robbing a pickpocket?’
“Huh? You’ve got some decent stuff, don’t you?”
“…That’s…”
What caught her eye next was the thief’s well-maintained dagger—a clean, freshly sharpened weapon he cherished.
It was practically brand new.
“What? Can’t even give me this?”
“W-What are we to each other…?”
“You’re the criminal. I’m the victim. This is compensation. Compensation.”
‘What kind of victim smacks the criminal across the face with their own weapon…?’
The thief had many things to say but held them back, just praying she didn’t stab him with that dagger.
Helplessly trapped in water, he was more terrified of the girl than anything else.
The fierce blonde looked like she was capable of anything—even robbing the robber.
“Got anything else? Huh? Hand it all over.”
(T/N: What a brute. HAHAHAHA)