NOVEL NEXT Chapter 498
<498 – Thief Guild vs Revolutionary Army (2)>
It wasn’t long ago that I heard the rumor about a peculiar guest visiting the Guild Headquarters.
“The Destroyer, the number one of the continent’s top ten thieves, brought a child to the Thief Headquarters?”
“Indeed. He must have brought a disciple from the Academy…”
“To dare bring a child for some shady business, what a truly thief-like fellow!”
“…But you’re also technically a thief, you know?”
Shu Churros retorted with a look of disbelief.
“I was just kidding. How can you not be tense at the thought of the heir of the Three Great Evils showing up?”
“With a grand name like ‘Lockpick Thief,’ how can you behave so rudely?”
The title of Lockpick Thief is reserved for those thieves who specialize in lock releases, but this current Lockpick Thief was unusually formidable in combat power as well.
Flying across dimensional boundaries, he ignores physical locking mechanisms and can safely retrieve objects from another dimension.
Even life is no exception.
If he wants, he can easily rescue or easily kill.
Yet, he remembers.
“Don’t make me laugh. Compared to those Three Great Evils, this is nothing at all.”
He wasn’t even the foundation’s chairman.
Just a mere scholarship student.
“Hey, kid. Do you have a moment?”
“Of course! Actually, the skill book should be fine if I just open it, but the professor has been so persistent that I was slacking off. I had a feeling a new event would pop up, and lo and behold, I was right! I’m so excited!”
“Let me tell you something for a moment.”
With a single maneuver of manipulation, the figure in front of him collapsed a building and killed an entire family in an instant.
His father’s friend and the previous Lockpick Thief, the mentor, burst through the rubble.
“His unlocking could even disable ‘Self-Cultivation.’ Just inserting a key-shaped domain into the opponent’s territory temporarily negated training for a specific duration.”
“Gulp. It’s a natural enemy for players!!”
“Players…?”
“Uh! It’s nothing!”
“It was a magnificent technique. A peaceful method that suited a mentor who disliked killing. And that’s why the mentor died. That man was strong enough to easily kill the mentor, even after losing a year.”
“Phew. Thank goodness! That was too scary.”
“Hehe. Are you empathizing with the foundation’s people, being the heir? Anyway, the disciple who witnessed that battle was taken by the Destroyer and, through his guidance, grew strong enough to reclaim the title of Lockpick Thief. And now, here I stand before you.”
“You don’t have to sign! Would you like me to do it instead? I can sign on a T-shirt if I have no paper!”
Borrowed feelings of kindness for humiliation.
He didn’t shy away from the bold provocation of the child.
“The composure shown in front of a master with a grudge against the foundation. I’ll briefly test whether you have skills worthy of that composure. Just so you know, I won’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where all the professors are absent at the same time. Resist with the intent to die.”
The Lockpick Thief advanced step by step, flying through dimensional boundaries from the front.
He had no intention of taking lives.
He just wanted to see Oknodie despair as all attacks had no effect.
‘This is an opportunity granted to me by the Destroyer. I may not be able to kill, but a bit of venting is possible.’
I will break his spirit.
I’ll engrave on him the despair that he can’t win by any means.
A vow not to leave the headquarters until the guild was saved from the raid.
How immense was the shame and rage felt over having to keep that vow because he was the heir of the foundation?
‘Even the portion of that shame and rage, I should humiliate him…’
But then, a shock hit him.
In less than a minute. No, even less than ten seconds.
“You’re a spirit-type, huh! Spirit forms are weak against divine spells that strike all overlapping phase coordinates or dimensional compression orders.”
“What are you… Did the Destroyer tell you about my abilities?”
“No? It’s just basic knowledge.”
Basic… knowledge?
No one other than the continent’s top ten thieves could land a decent counterattack against him.
Even among the Thief Guild, which operated in the extreme wasteland of the Demon Realm.
“Is it knowledge of the foundation? Or knowledge of the academy?”
This was a crucial question for him.
If the foundation had an effective countermeasure against his abilities before he even started his revenge, he might be defeated before he could reach his target.
“It’s my common sense!”
“What…?”
“Who would tell such advanced knowledge to newbies? They learn through experience!”
To take revenge on the foundation for the disaster suffered at its hands, he had vowed to instill despair in his heart.
But the bright answer made him feel ugly about himself.
“You’re just 11 years old… and you experienced it? A countermeasure against dimensional spirit abilities?”
“Of course. If I don’t know, I’ll die, right?”
“…!”
Wahyhiemhai Foundation.
They knew they were dangerous, but was this organization so cruel it could do this to an 11-year-old child?
His narrowed view of the enemy finally widened.
The being in front of him wasn’t the heir of the foundation deserving of revenge.
He was just a poor child who barely survived under near-abusive training from the foundation, threatened with death.
“Wait. Didn’t you just say ‘newbies’? Even if I don’t know what it means, in context, it must refer to kids like you.”
“Correct! You have good comprehension~”
“Are there many kids like you in the foundation?”
“Hmmm~ Well, considering the pathetic Jaku, I don’t think there are many… ah, I shouldn’t be looking this way.”
“This way?”
“The newbies in ‘that’ other context? They usually die before making it this far. They just ran out of luck and died.”
“!!!”
“Newbies who entered around the same time as me probably all died?”
It was confirmed.
This child wasn’t just an ordinary pitiful child.
He was unbelievably, extraordinarily pitiful!
“I’m sincerely sorry for treating the poor child to a trial after all you’ve been through!”
He dropped everything about humiliation and flopped down to offer a deep apology.
“Ah?! If you suddenly bow down, I have no choice but to counter with a Grenzel move!!”
And just like that, Oknodie began to perform a handstand apology out of desperation!
Not about to lose, he quickly reciprocated with a handstand, and thus, an inexplicable apology battle began.
Shu Churros, realizing the contact too late, rushed over.
“What on earth are you doing to that child?!”
“O-oh, it’s a misunderstanding. I was just apologizing…”
“How could you let the shirt slip so low, exposing the girl’s belly button in such a shameful manner?!”
No way, I thought it was just a simple way to apologize!
Genuinely terrified of the foundation’s terrifying apology technique that could socially obliterate someone if not received promptly.
*
“You fool.”
Looking into the mirror at the current and past appearances of the Lockpick Thief, the Mirror Thief scoffed.
If he completely confiscated the body’s power or obscured his appearance to prevent even an attempt at social annihilation, he wouldn’t have to deal with any perverse assumptions or troublesome situations.
“And cunning.”
Looking at the Lockpick Thief with a clueless expression receiving scolding, the heir of the foundation, Oknodie, smiled brightly as she was fed something.
She showed only the minimum necessary skill and threatened the opponent’s social standing to halt the match.
“Skilled in human emotions, perfectly utilizing how he appears to others.”
Observation, understanding, acting.
A feat impossible without being a top-tier thief.
It’s clear why the Destroyer took him on as a disciple.
So there’s no need to worry about that child.
He’ll find his own way to survive.
Therefore, as the one tasked with preventing the intruders at the gate, he only needed to concentrate on this place.
“Why can’t they open the gate! Can’t you see the lord’s seal here?”
“You gatekeeper, who took bribes somewhere! You’re running an underground flesh-eating tavern without the lord knowing?!”
“It’s a misunderstanding! We have no association with any such dreadful organization!”
“If you don’t want to be misunderstood, open the door!”
The gatekeeper from the Thief Guild had held out long enough.
The Mirror Thief sent a telepathic message to the gatekeeper.
-Close your eyes. I’m opening the mirror.
“!!”
As the startled gatekeeper closed his eyes, a bright light reflected on the surface.
“Ugh, what is this?”
“Is it sunlight reflecting off the water?”
“Damn, it’s so bright, I can’t see anything!”
“Somebody do something!”
“Wait! A magical reaction is being detected from the surface! And it’s getting stronger and faster…!”
Fear spread across the faces of the revolutionary army gathering at the gate as the wizard spoke.
A flash.
Then an explosive sound.
As the surrounding noise faded, the gatekeeper opened his eyes and found someone’s hand grasping his arm.
The owner of the hand was nowhere to be seen.
The force of the revolutionary army that had congregated before him had instantly evaporated.
“Am I… alive?”
“No, you’re dead.”
Thwak━.
With a sound like a joint snapping, the relieved gatekeeper’s body caught fire.
“The fish that bites the bait must be reeled in. From this point, I’m initiating the hunt against the continent’s top ten thieves that will obstruct the revolutionary army’s advance.”
Wessker, the double agent of the foundation and spy of the revolutionary army.
At her declaration, the magicians of the Red Magic Tower’s Jangryeol School began to reveal themselves one by one from the gathering crowd.
No hesitation for those who had sold their strength for money.
“The stage is Kanelle City. The hostages are all the citizens. If needed, we’ll annihilate an entire city to kill every last one of the continent’s top ten thieves affiliated with the Thief Guild!”
A war began to set the city ablaze.