༺ Thieves Must Be Good At Hide And Seek (4) ༻
“Brother! We can’t find the children anywhere!”
“Damn it! Find them quickly! They couldn’t have gone too far, they’re just kids!”
The thieves painstakingly restored the extinguished warehouse’s illumination.
However, the children who had been bound had vanished.
All that remained in their place were the ropes that had once restricted them.
In this situation, “Brother” was greatly bewildered.
“If the boss finds out about this…”
The leader of the Alubaba Thieves.
A man who had lived his entire life as a criminal, he was a terrifying figure, even to “Brother”.
If he were to learn of this situation, “Brother” would meet his demise.
No.
It was more likely that he would face something even worse.
Thus, “Brother” desperately instructed.
“Find them! Find them quickly!”
“Understood! You all, follow me! We must search every inch of this underground sewer, even if it takes scouring every nook and cranny!”
The rugged thieves began to move along the underground sewers of the Freesia Kingdom.
Watching them from the shadows, Naru whispered softly,
“Shh, we must stay quiet, just like when we played hide-and-seek.”
“…”
Naru and Cecily immersed their bodies in the sewage system’s water.
It was uncomfortable to hide in such dirty water, but Cecily had no time to complain about such a thing.
‘If it weren’t for Naru, we would have been in big trouble…!’
Naru had thrown rocks to extinguish all the torches in the warehouse.
And in the darkness, using her butterfly knife, she had skillfully untied the ropes that had bound the children.
The fleeing children.
The pursuing adults.
One could say that this was a large-scale game of hide-and-seek.
However, Cecily remained uneasy.
The adversaries were adults.
Monstrous criminals.
Cecily believed that it was only a matter of time before they were found.
But Naru seemed to have a different perspective.
“He’ll come soon. He’ll come looking for me…! No matter where I hide, Dad always finds Naru. So, we just have to wait a little longer.”
Naru said calmly.
It was at that moment.
“Ugh!”
“Aah!”
Far in the dark distance, the men screamed.
“What’s happening? Arisen, Kobut!”
“Brother” shouted into the darkness, but there was no response.
All that could be felt was a sinister and dark presence.
“Could it be Judas!?”
Cecily cautiously shouted with a glimmer of hope.
However, Naru shook her head with a more serious expression than ever before.
“Shh… It’s not Dad…! It’s someone dangerous…!”
With those words, Naru fell silent.
Shortly after, something slowly emerged from the darkness, step by step.
Seeing that figure, Cecily was astounded.
A monster.
A demon.
The man who revealed himself from the darkness was so wicked that only such names would be fitting.
His black robe adorned with skulls was incredibly frightening.
“Le…Leader…”
“You. What is all this commotion about?”
“I, well… the children escaped…”
“Tsk. You all are clearly not prepared to carry the Alubaba’s flag. It’s alright. I’ll release a hundred of my thieves to chase the children. You’ve worked hard up until now.”
“Boss! It’s just that… we had an unexpected variable… Judas’ daughter was there! It was her doing! That brat…”
“Judas? You dare mention that name in front of me?”
Tschak—
The man addressed as the boss drew his sword and severed the neck of “Brother”.
As the person’s head rolled on the ground, Cecily’s vision turned completely white.
“…Ump…”
However, what prevented Cecily from screaming was Naru pressing her hand firmly over Cecily’s mouth.
Just as Cecily was thinking how fortunate she was, something even more astonishing occurred.
Squirm—
The headless body of the “Brother” on the ground seemed to be writhing, and then it rose to its feet.
Seeing this, the boss in the black robe said.
“Alright, now you’ve truly become a member of the infamous Alubaba Thieves of Death. We welcome your joining. Now, all of you, go. Go and find the children, including Judas’ daughter.”
━Grrrrrrr…!
Behind the boss, the thieves with blue glowing eyes opened their rotten mouths and shouted.
Hell.
Cecily thought this place was hell itself.
━Grrrrrr—
At that moment, one of the thieves with blue glowing eyes began to approach the puddle where Naru and Cecily were hiding.
Naru and Cecily took a deep breath and submerged themselves once more.
Splash—
When the cold water enveloped their entire bodies.
━Grrrrr…!!!
The terrifying roar of the monster was heard above Cecily’s head.
Cecily tightly closed her eyes and thought,
“Dad…!”
Her father, who had always protected her.
Although she couldn’t even remember his face now, Cecily’s father had been a splendid and strong man.
He had always been the one to rescue Cecily.
━Grrrr…!!!
“Daaad…!”
Finally, right as Cecily shouted loudly underwater.
Splosh—
Something inhuman grabbed Cecily’s throat and pulled her out of the water.
“Hiiiik…!”
Cecily was so frightened that she screamed and struggled, even wetting herself in embarrassment.
“Hiiiiik…! Hiiiik…!”
“Stop struggling.”
Thud—
At the familiar voice, Cecily opened her eyes.
There, she saw the black-haired man holding Naru and Cecily’s throats in each hand.
“You… You’re Bandit Judas!”
“Dad…!”
* * *
Underground.
The Alubaba Thieves used to hide in the undergrounds of the Ordor Kingdom.
I thought the Alubaba Thieves, formed in Freesia, would be similar.
The Freesia Kingdom had excellent sewer facilities.
The city streets had sewer systems so well-designed that fish could live in them.
These sewer facilities were based underground.
“So, it’s highly likely that there are thieves underground in Freesia.”
That was the correct answer.
However, what went beyond my expectations was this.
━Grrrrrrrr…
“Undead.”
Undead.
The dead.
Creatures resurrected by the evil magic of Valdes – the Necromancer.
Minimum danger level: Bronze.
“There are at least a hundred of these things. Does he intend to start a rebellion?”
This underground waterway was a complete nest of the undead.
As Cariote had assessed, the danger level was at least Gold.
“Dad…!”
Naru clung to me tightly.
And the blonde kid whimpered.
“Judas, your help is appreciated, but the job isn’t finished yet…!”
That’s right.
The job wasn’t done yet.
But what I was going to do next might be a bit unsettling for the kids to see.
“Kids, it’s hide and seek. Close your eyes and count to 100. Then come find me. Got it? To become a great thief like me, being able to play hide and seek anytime, anywhere is essential.”
“What? Hide and seek in this situation?”
“Yeah, yeah! Naru will close her eyes! Alright, one—”
Naru began counting.
“Two—”
━Gruuuuuaaaaaah!!!
When Naru counted to two, I used the edge of my hand to strike the neck of an undead that had suddenly emerged from the side. The head of the undead fell, and its body writhed on the ground.
It was a gruesome sight.
━Grrrrrr…!
Splish—
Soon, the corpses with blue glowing eyes, where Naru and Cecily had been hiding, floated up from the water.
I stepped on the creature’s face and crushed it.
Squelch—!
“…Three!”
Now, only three had fallen.
At this rate, it would never end.
Sling—
I drew a dagger from my waist.
“I’ll aim for the mage controlling the undead.”
It seemed that the undead depended on “light” just as I had thought.
In that case, the strategy was clear.
I threw the drawn dagger straight toward the underground torch.
Thud— Thudthud—
Everything was plunged into darkness.
However, my eyes began to see even more clearly than when the lights were on.
It was thanks to the “Thief’s Eye,” which had become a C-rank skill due to my extensive training in stealing objects in the dark.
━Grrrr…
“What, what’s happening!? What’s going on!? Where’s the boss!?”
“I don’t know! Aaaah!”
“Twelve…!”
“Save meeeee…! I want to get out of here…! Let me out here…!”
“Undead!!!”
“Hyaaaak!!! I can’t see anything!!!”
“Twenty-five…!”
Flash—
With each flash of the blade in the darkness, Naru’s voice rang out clearly.
“Thirty…!”
How did it suddenly go from twenty-five to thirty?
Naru seemed to be a bit weak with numbers.
If we get out of this safely, I should teach Naru how to count at least up to a hundred.
With that thought in mind, I mechanically moved my hands.
Blood splattered.
Bones cracked, and screams filled the underground waterway.
“Seventy-two!”
As the number of corpses falling to the ground increased, my senses became sharper.
It felt like shedding the moments when I was immersed in a peaceful era.
“Seventy-seven! Seventy-eight…! Seventy-eight….”
Naru’s counting from within the darkness stopped.
I wondered what number would come after seventy-eight.
Whoooosh—
Then flames rose before my eyes.
Regaining my composure, I saw the contorted bodies writhing endlessly on the ground.
“It’s a horrific sight. Just like that day.”
Someone holding a torch spoke.
He was a man in a black robe.
His voice was horrifying, like scraping glass.
I asked.
“Are you the leader of these undead?”
“Yes, Judas. You didn’t forget about me, did you? The day the Alubaba Thieves were torn to shreds by your hands. The only survivor, me? The only one who had survived…!”
A survivor of the Alubaba Thieves incident.
I had killed about a hundred thieves a long time ago.
No.
That was a lie.
I didn’t kill a hundred.
Only 99.
I spared one.
Because he wasn’t a thief.
He was a boy who had been used by the thieves.
The Alubaba Thieves committed crimes using kids.
The 100th boy they kidnapped was a victim.
I don’t remember his name, though.
“The thieves were my family…! You took that away, Judas…! You’ll regret not killing me with them that day…!”
However.
He had been kidnapped and spared, and now he was making such remarks.
But his level of danger was real.
“No wonder the faces of these corpses looked familiar. You dug up the graves of the thieves and resurrected them.”
People who had mastered necromancy all seemed to go mad like this.
The problem was that this guy’s skills were ‘real,’ if you could call them that.
“Rise, Thieves of Death. Kill everything that lives! Take away everything!”
The black-robed thief moved his hand.
Then the corpses I had just defeated began to merge into one.
It gradually twisted and transformed into a horrific creature that filled the underground passage.
Was it made by tying together corpses? A dragon? A snake?
With my limited vocabulary, there was no way to describe it.
The only thing certain was that it was “dangerous.”
According to my brain’s estimation, the danger level was at least platinum.
Whooosh—!
It moved towards me at an unthinkable speed and struck my body.
* * *
Leader Al Sahad felt the boiling power.
The blood of the sacrifices made so far filled every corner of his body with a sense of omnipotence.
Sahad’s Corpse Dragon was particularly powerful.
Minimum danger level: Platinum.
A disaster among disasters that claimed the lives of countless heroes in the war against Pandemonium.
Such a thing was soaring through the underground waterway.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“I will conquer this world and become king! Judas, your name will be mine too! Just as you took everything from me, I will take everything from you!”
Sahad shouted towards Judas, who was writhing on the ground like a worm.
Watching that nightmare-like existence struggling on the ground was strangely satisfying to him.
As expected of a Corpse Dragon.
Was even Judas powerless even in the face of such horrifying majesty?
“No, I’ve become stronger! Thanks to the effects of the sacrifices I’ve devoted myself to even after giving up on being human! I am now at least platinum grade! I am the worst and the strongest thief!”
Sahad looked at Judas, who could only run away from the Corpse Dragon, with joy and pleasure in his voice.
“Judas! Why is this happening? The ‘you’ I knew wasn’t like this, right? Perhaps those rumors about receiving a ‘curse’ were true!”
“You seem to know quite a bit about me.”
“I’ve never forgotten your name for a moment! Or maybe you lack the motivation? We can’t afford to delay any longer! I’ve also sent my undead towards your daughter!”
“Damn it.”
Judas’s muttered curse was loud enough to be heard by Sahad.
Stagger— Stagger—
Bandit Judas, who had been lying on the ground, got up after spitting out a mouthful of saliva.
He raised his thumb.
“Sorry about this. It seems she’s going to reach a hundred soon, so I should finish this now. I might get scolded by that strict Brigitte otherwise. You’re stronger than I had expected.”
Thud—
Judas forcefully thrust his thumb into his heart.
“What…?”
Why was he suddenly hurting himself?
Sahad couldn’t understand the situation.
But in that moment.
Judas disappeared before his eyes.
Swoosh—
When he regained his senses, there was something protruding from Sahad’s chest.
It was someone else’s hand that didn’t fit his chest at all.
“Kuh, ugh!”
“You have no heart? You’re no longer human. A lich?”
“Where are you?! Where!”
Sahad urgently looked around and surveyed his surroundings.
Even though he tried to share the countless pupils and field of vision of the Corpse Dragon, in the darkness lit by the torch, he saw nothing.
All he felt was silence.
That silence.
A loneliness where no one answered no matter how loudly he shouted. This fear, combined with the flashback to “that day,” sent shivers down Sahad’s body.
It was the first time he felt fear after becoming a “lich.”
Fear.
An “Undead” like Al Sahad felt fear.
‘Am I feeling fear? No way! I can’t be! Concealing one’s presence is a trick any renowned thief can do! Such a trick won’t work on someone like me!’
Swoosh—
Sahad raised his right hand.
Gooooo—
Malice gathered in his hand.
To Al Sahad, the Corpse Dragon was just a diversion tactic.
The real danger was Al Sahad himself, who had become a lich.
“Judas, you bastard! I’ll annihilate the entirety of the Freesia Kingdom!”
A terrifying aura that could obliterate the entire underground waterway along with the surface.
He was about to release it in all directions.
“What the…?”
Sahad suddenly couldn’t feel his right hand anymore.
No, it wasn’t just his right hand.
His left arm.
His legs.
He realized that they were all gone.
As if someone had stolen them.
Even Sahad, who had transcended into the realm of superhumans, couldn’t comprehend this technique.
Could this even be called a ‘technique’ in the first place?
“This is impossible!!! Judas, where did you obtain such power?!! Beyond human limits…!!!”
Even Al Sahad, who had offered countless sacrifices for his necromancy, faced an insurmountable ‘wall.’
In the eyes of Al Sahad, who had transcended through illicit means, a shadow, vaguely resembling a human form could be seen.
It was a shadow that grew darker and clearer within the frigid darkness.
It was approaching Al Sahad slowly.
“S-Stay away!!! Stay away!!!”
Amidst the anger and fear flooding Al Sahad’s mind, a rumor he had heard long ago surfaced.
A rumor that had spread like wildfire when the war ended, as the whispers echoed between the walls and the shadows.
A story that everyone had ridiculed as utterly absurd.
“No way, it can’t be…”
“Damn it!”
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