Chapter 27: Theft

It had already been a month since Im Ha-neul left.

There was one instance of Rage Mode A, but fortunately I was able to get through it easily using 3 Holy Waters. Though it was a bit sad to use up 3 Holy Waters...

Other than that, thankfully nothing happened to me. It seemed she hadn't told anyone else, just as she said. I may not know much about international politics, but a month would have been plenty of time to send raiding parties and pursuit squads after me.

Thanks to that, I was finally able to relax. I wouldn't need to leave this comfortable cave.

The only disappointing thing was... that the magic she cast wasn't very efficient.

Illusion was what it was called, right? That's what I think it was.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about magic. Since I'm always in the forest, I rarely get to see fancy magic users.

If I had known a bit more, I could have helped Ha-neul prepare better... Though it was slightly disappointing, I decided to let it go since things turned out well.

Anyway, Illusion was quite a cumbersome skill.

It couldn't last more than half a day, and even then the caster had to stay nearby.

The good thing was that I could still charge my demon's tattoo even with the Illusion cast. Probably because it only created an illusion for the eyes.

The conditions for exposing the demon's tattoo to sunlight and air remained the same.

Stupid tattoo. Not even able to control for this kind of variable. Failing as a programmer.

Anyway, because of that, I decided to just use her whenever it was time for sunbathing.

I'd have her sit near me and cast Illusion while I sunbathed.

This way I might raise suspicions about what kind of relationship we had, but at least the tattoo wouldn't be discovered by others.

I wore a tank top during these times to be considerate of her. I only needed to expose my collarbone anyway.

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded going shirtless, but she would absolutely freak out so I had to hold back. Something about how men shouldn't show their bodies so carelessly.

...Times like these remind me just how much the world has changed.

"...Ah..."

Though even now with the tank top, she was still embarrassed.

She could barely make eye contact and her face was still red. She seemed to have particularly low immunity to "men".

I wanted to tease her a bit at times like this, but I've been holding back for now.

After all, she's holding the nuclear bomb of information about my tattoo.

Anyway, this meant I had one more visitor to my forest.

Though it seems she can't come very often, probably due to her editing work.

Of course, Yoo Chae-rin also visited regularly over the past month. I was quite glad to see her too. She usually brought at least one piece of information whenever she came.

She was faithfully keeping the promise we made before.

Of course, not everything in life can be special, so she didn't always bring high-quality information.

Most of what she brought was trivial stuff like where Otherworlders and NPCs fought, or where treasure was discovered.

Though these things didn't really concern me, they were still fun to listen to as they helped pass the boring days.

But among them, the information I heard today was quite significant.

"Listen to this, Yor!"

She excitedly tells me.

"You know that demon that was summoned recently? Andromalius."

"Right."

"His arm was stolen!"

"?"

*

It's natural to get items after successfully completing a raid.

Because if you don't, players will raise hell.

Of course, [Demons Saga] was no exception, and the defeated Andromalius did drop one item.

Specifically, Andromalius's left arm with a snake coiled around it.

Though his body spontaneously combusted and vanished upon death.

Strangely, only his left arm remained at the scene.

Of course, it didn't become a player's possession.

The only item that dropped from the raid went straight to the Empire's hands.

After all, it was the 5th Knights' Order Commander who cut him down, and they couldn't carelessly entrust a demon's item to others.

This demon's arm was to be transported to the church to be sealed away indefinitely.

Since they couldn't use such an ominous item as a demon's arm, they planned to make it so no one could use it.

But unfortunately, that attempt was destined to fail at the last moment.

During transport to the church, some mysterious assailants attacked the carriage.

Of course, this carriage was guarded by dozens of knights. There were even some Otherworlders mixed in among the guards.

Though there weren't any superhuman Knights' Order Commander-level fighters, it was still enough force that common bandits wouldn't dare even look their way.

Yet it was still attacked.

The assailants tried to steal the safe inside the carriage while they were camping.

Of course, being knights experienced with such operations, they had posted sentries.

"Hm? Who-"

However, the problem was that the assailants were extremely skilled.

Slash-!

With a chilling sound, the heads of two knights flew through the air.

Two assailants had struck with a single sword strike each, severing the sentries' necks.

Though both victims were knights, the assailants' blades were faster than their reflexes.

Fortunately, they were at least able to raise the alarm.

Thud-

The sound of bodies hitting the ground echoed all around. And in the night, that sound was enough.

"Who goes there!"

At one knight's shout, everyone who had been sleeping in the tents woke up.

Seeing this, the assailants exchanged words.

"Ah, that's why I said to handle it quietly."

"Sorry... we couldn't do anything about the sound of them falling."

There were 6 assailants in total.

Five holding swords, and one empty-handed.

From the feeling, that unarmed one seemed to be the highest ranked.

However, they were all wearing masks so their faces couldn't be identified.

Soon the unarmed assailant gave an order.

"This won't do. Let's run."

With that, the assailants fled with the item. An unexpected midnight chase began.

For the knights, the theft of the item was a matter that their careers depended on, so they had to be desperate.

Thanks to that, they were even able to catch one of the assailants.

But no matter how hard they chased, they fell slightly short of recovering the stolen item.

The assailants' feet were simply too fast.

Still, one knight managed to reach the leader at the front with desperate steps.

"Hyaah!"

Finally reaching them, the knight swung his sword with a battle cry. However, that sword would never reach its target.

Because magic manifested from the hand of the unarmed assailant.

Crackle-Crackle-

Brilliant and intense sparks bloomed like fireworks.

The sight was like watching fireworks just before they explode.

Then she launched the fireworks at her opponent.

"Argh!"

That was the end.

Hundreds of sparks flew from her opponent's body before snuffing out the knight's life.

Watching the knight fall, charred black, that assailant spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry. But this item is practically a sacred relic to our sect."

Perhaps because that scene was so intense, the footsteps of the pursuers momentarily stopped.

With that sight as the finale, the assailants smoothly escaped.

*

"No, this was posted on the forums a few days ago. At first I thought it was just fiction since it was only text?"

But apparently rumors started spreading here a few days later.

Rumors that Andromalius's left arm had been stolen.

"Wow, that's when I knew. It was a story from an Otherworlder who participated in that quest. If only they'd taken some pictures instead of just posting text."

"Hmm..."

I nodded. It seemed like something else I didn't know about was about to unfold.

Why did the assailants steal the item? At least it didn't seem like they were planning to sell it. From what Chae-rin said, strange words like 'sect' and 'sacred relic' had come up.

With skills to one-shot a knight, they were clearly no ordinary fighters.

Though even this didn't really concern me much, so I didn't think too deeply about it.

During this, a question suddenly crossed my mind.

Come to think of it, didn't they say they caught one assailant? They should be able to get information from that person.

Just who were these assailants?

So I asked her about what happened to the captured assailant and.

"Ah, that."

Soon got this answer.

"They escaped."

*

"Damn it, catch them!"

"Don't let them escape!"

The heavens helped.

Thanks to the guard stupidly putting the key in his back pocket, she could easily steal it.

Stupid fool, he probably didn't expect someone's arm could stretch that far.

"Huff... huff..."

Thanks to that, she was able to easily snatch the key, slit the guard's throat, and escape.

Though this would put an Empire warrant on her head, it didn't matter much since she was about to face harsh interrogation anyway.

'A pursuit squad will be coming...'

After escaping the prison, she thought as she watched people becoming organized with military precision.

'I'll need to hide for a while.'

Now that her face had been exposed, she'd clearly need to avoid attention wherever she went.

The Empire dogs wanting information from her would be searching with burning eyes too.

She needed a hiding place to conceal herself until she could establish contact with the sect.

As she fled for a while, she discovered a certain forest.

The 'Forbidden Forest', a dangerous area full of dangerous monsters.

Though it was dangerous... with her level of skill, she could certainly hide until contacting the sect.

Tap-!

With that thought, she fled into the forest.