Chapter: 94
Huff, huff, huff…
The boy ran until he felt the air being cut off from his lungs. A ringing in his ears echoed, while his leg muscles screamed in fatigue and pain.
“Enough, enough! You need to stop running. You’re exhausted.”
His body screamed for rest, but his mind cruelly urged him to flee once more. He was being chased. He needed to escape from the wicked wizard’s grasp.
Everything had been fine until now.
Today had been quite fruitful. He hadn’t been caught by an adventurer, and in the merchant’s pocket he’d stolen, there was a silver coin. With that, he could survive for a week, even after paying off his dues.
He had even spotted the lovely young lady working at the grocery store as he passed by. It was a stroke of luck to see her; she rarely left her home due to her frail health, so meetings were rare.
Thus, today was a lucky day. The boy thought that as he decided to work just one more score. If he could make just one more silver coin, he could buy warm bread instead of the stinky jerky. Or maybe he could cover for his friends who hadn’t been able to pay up.
Then, he spotted a hooded man, almost entranced by the sight. Hooded figures were often wizards, so he needed to be cautious, but this one didn’t look very skilled.
He didn’t wield a fancy staff, nor did he wear any of the usual trinkets.
The faint glow of red eyes from beneath the hood was unsettling, but the man was too distracted by the two women beside him. It only took one bump. The man wouldn’t even know his wallet was gone.
Feigning a coincidence, the boy bumped into the man and stealthily grabbed a pouch.
“Ah, I’m so sorry! Excuse me!”
He ran off. A quick glance back showed no sign of pursuit, as the man was now checking his belongings sluggishly. Good.
If he hid now, even the wizard’s grandfather wouldn’t be able to find him.
But then…
Snap.
He heard a distinct sound, like fingers snapping, ringing in his ears. He looked around but couldn’t identify where the sound had come from.
It must be nothing. The boy thought.
That was where the nightmare began.
He ran down alleyways, turned corners, passed right three times and left once… and there should have been his hideout, a filthy, cramped place where pickpockets lay low.
However, at the end of the road, the boy found himself right back in front of the wizard.
“…?!”
“One time.”
Shocked, the boy turned and ran. What was happening? Had he gotten so excited that he lost his way? This time he would think properly as he dashed. Turn into the alley, around the corner, right three times, left once.
But at the end of the road, he met the wizard again. The wizard raised his hand, showing two fingers.
“Two times.”
He fled again.
Cold sweat began to form. Was it magic? But he had clearly… run properly. It must be the path. It had to be the path’s fault.
A lofty figure, roaming around back alleys, must have seamlessly changed the routes without him noticing due to some redevelopment or other.
He should try a different route. Climbing over walls, squeezing through dog holes – a complicated path. This time, it would work. He had checked the graffiti left on the alley wall correctly. If he could just turn the corner…
As he turned the corner…
The boy suddenly froze. That was already twice. Twice already. If he advanced again, would he not find himself before the wizard again?
“…I won’t be fooled. Not anymore!”
I’m not a fool, the boy muttered to himself as he dragged his feet. He wouldn’t fall for it a third time. He wouldn’t turn the corner.
Let’s give up on heading to the hideout. He’d just wander through the city, and once this magic or curse or whatever wicked thing it was disappeared, he would go back. He resolved.
The boy turned around.
And there was the wizard.
“Gwaahh—!!”
“Three times.”
Screaming, the boy collapsed in place.
The red eyes silently gazed down at him from the darkness. There was neither anger nor annoyance, only pure curiosity swirling about.
As if a naive child were plucking the wings off a dragonfly…
Today wasn’t a lucky day. This was a day filled with malice, luring the boy out with a bait of fortune, only to lead him to doom. Fear gripped him as thoughts of all the horrific stories he had heard from storytellers flooded his mind.
Tales of witches boiling people alive in cauldrons, dark wizards who ripped limbs off and replaced them with beastly ones.
The thought of what the wizard would punish a pickpocket with made his hands shake and breath catch in his throat. He had to flee. He had to escape this place!
With limbs that were barely functional, the boy stumbled up and ran wildly, not thinking of where he was headed, just trying to put distance between himself and the wizard.
Yet he knew the ending of this story.
He would turn the corner, and once again…
“…”
“Four times.”
There was no escape.
The boy trembled as he knelt before the wizard, bowing his head low. He laid out the stolen pouch and everything he had earned today in front of him.
“Ugh…”
He needed to apologize. That thought made him open his mouth, but all that came out were gasps. He couldn’t articulate human words. Breathless. It felt like he was being choked.
He rubbed his forehead against the ground, desperately pleading for his life.
Watching all of this calmly, the wizard knelt down, placing a hand on the boy’s head and said…
“Why is an eagle’s beak yellow?”
“?”
“The reason isn’t even in the encyclopedia.”
The wizard droned on, spouting nonsense.
===============================================================
The mad wizard and the boy sat side by side on the nearby steps, beginning a conversation.
“So, you mean to say that when choosing a pickpocket target, you first check their features?”
“Yes. If they look vacant, they’re often genuinely vacant, but if they’re vacant with dull eyes, you shouldn’t bother them; they’ll likely pull a knife on you…”
“What else should be considered?”
“Mostly how strong they are. If you’re not cautious, you’ll get sliced in half before you can even attempt to pickpocket. First, check if they’re armed, then…”
From a distance, the Tower Master Yuna and the Empire agent Yuri Lanster were watching the two chat animatedly. Yuna stood still, cradling her staff, while Yuri leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.
Yuri Lanster asked casually, “Has the mad wizard always been like this?”
“…What do you mean?”
“His unpredictability, I suppose… twisting the atmosphere and leading it to his own pace.”
“Oh, yeah. He has been like that for a long time.”
His peculiar nature had greatly contributed to changing the gloomy atmosphere of the Purple Tower. The once tense and serious ambiance could flip to the complete opposite in an instant.
Without a firm stance, one would easily get swept away.
The Tower Master reminisced about the old days, recalling how he had drawn everyone into his antics.
“It’s like a genre change.”
“A genre change?”
“Sometimes you think it’s romance, but it turns out to be a thriller, or you think it’s coming-of-age but actually, it was romance….”
“That’s hard to imagine.”
“Anyway, what happened was…!”
The Tower Master prattled on enthusiastically. People who talk about their passions always light up. Yuri Lanster watched the Tower Master as she eagerly recounted tales of the mad wizard, thinking to himself.
She really likes the mad wizard.
What about me, though?
It was fun to be around. It’s not easy to meet someone with a solid aesthetic for eros, so serious discussions were possible too.
He felt a certain synergy. With the mad wizard, he felt like they could infiltrate important facilities of neighboring nations without a script or prior plan.
Thus, he thought, perhaps he had gained a friend of sorts for the first time.
Though he decided to live a life unfettered by race, he could never escape his essence. At least, that was true at the mythological level. Succubi would devour souls to gather energy, akin to how humans consume food.
Sharing a hot night in one bed falls within the realm of “let’s have a meal together.” This is why, fundamentally, the succubus couldn’t distinguish between love and friendship.
What am I, I wonder? To make a precise determination, perhaps I would need to ascend and break free from my race. For now…
I think it’s okay to feel either way, just that much.
“So what happened then… are you listening?”
“I caught about half of it.”
“…Half means you weren’t paying attention!”
Yuri Lanster turned his head away, feigning disinterest. It seemed they had chatted enough for now. What about the mad wizard and the pickpocket boy?
“Hmm.”
Indeed, they were wrapping up.
The pickpocket boy had just drawn a dagger and held it to his neck. Was he planning to end it cleanly?
I thought they might want to spare the lad, but it seemed they were planning to handle things rather decisively.
It was more severe than I expected, but then…
“Hey, I’m not doing anything like that, so stop!”
Oh no.
Yuri Lanster and the Tower Master dashed forward hurriedly. A sense of impending incident hung in the air.
===============================================================
The boy, who had been stepping on a bomb without knowing, questioned one thing. The pickpocket had survived for a decent amount of time and had his fair share of experience. So one thought puzzled him.
“There was a pink-haired girl in a suit next to me, and a small, precious, cute girl.”
“That was… right?”
“That’s a wizard hanging out with two girls. If they look that good, it implies they’ve got either money or power.”
“Right….”
“Why did you pick me?”
If I were a cautious pickpocket, I wouldn’t bother a person flanked by noticeable beauties. Certainly, he wasn’t dressed in the shabby clothing of a commoner either.
In the case of the Tower Master, it would be obvious that she wouldn’t notice, since she had laid an illusion magic to avoid being caught for sneaking into town. But Pink-Balrez was in full formal attire. She was anything but ordinary.
A puzzled expression crossed the boy’s face. He was fumbling over his words, trying to figure out why he had chosen the current target.
“Well, um, you don’t have any jewelry or a staff…”
“Yet Pink-Balrez is in stunning formal wear, and the Tower Master… no, the girl next to her was even carrying a staff?”
“…?”
The boy stammered nonsensically, and his eyes widened in realization.
That was not a good sign. At this moment, sensing something was off, I drew power and prepared for the next move. An ambush? Or maybe a suicide or self-harm?
Whooosh!
The boy drew a short dagger he’d hidden in his pants leg and aimed it at his throat. A suicide move. I reached out.
“Mental Link.”
I frantically constructed magic, slotting a line of power into the boy’s forehead. I connected, commandeering his brain and commanding stillness.
The blade’s tip rested against the boy’s neck, frozen as the illusion magic imprinted within his mind clashed with my powers.
Such types of magic weren’t uncommon. For the sake of maintaining secrecy, upon satisfying a specific trigger, they would destroy the target from within.
What had been set upon the boy wasn’t particularly complicated magic. It could be easily handled if I could isolate the tainted area by injecting my magic, and gradually dismantle the wedge inscribed in his psyche. If only I had three seconds of time.
But now, there was no time to spare.
This was a precarious maneuver I had hastily crafted. It was akin to playing tug-of-war with a flimsy handle. Even if I was a genius, it was still difficult to pull off with such a handle.
What should I do? The boy was facing death, but extracting information should be the priority, right?
At that moment, Pink-Balrez extended her hand from beside me and grasped the blade’s edge. Her magic surrounded her skin, ensuring she wouldn’t get harmed.
“I’ve got him.”
“Phew.”
I released my hold on the boy’s movements and focused on dispelling the magic embedded in his mind. If I could exploit a vulnerability in the magic’s structure, I could cut it away in 2.7 seconds.
The boy fell unconscious and collapsed on his side. The Tower Master, who had been covering her mouth with both hands to prevent herself from interrupting me, sprang up as soon as the situation resolved.
“…What just happened?!”
“This feels like someone just tried to milk me from the boy. And what’s more important is….”
“Yeah?”
“This was magic that had been cast on the pickpocket boy. It seems like it’s from the Purple Tower.”
“…Eh?!”
Suspicion began to bubble up. Throwing back to when I visited home, I recalled the Purple Tower wizard who regularly bought children from the marketplace.
This didn’t seem like a matter to end simply here. I resolved to probe deeper into this.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.