Chapter 1
Tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Late at night, the peace of the empty museum was shattered by two sets of hurried footsteps.
“Stop right there!”
“Yes, sir!”
“……”
“Did you really think I’d stop if you said that?”
That’s right. I’m being chased. By the man who, like it’s a rehearsed line, always shouts, “Stop right there!”
So does that mean the guy chasing me is the bad one?
Not at all. Strictly speaking, the bad one here is me.
Because I’m running away after stealing a jewel.
“There she is!”
The moment I slipped out of the jewel exhibit to escape the man and ran toward the staircase in front of me, I came to a sudden halt.
“Stop!”
That’s because, from the bottom of the stairs, uniformed officers were swarming up like an army of ants.
‘Well, it’s going down!’
That left me no choice but up.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I perked my ears to the pounding echoes of footsteps behind me. I had to judge how far away they were.
‘That’s cutting it close…’
The officers climbing up from below had fallen far behind, but one man stayed hot on my heels. The same man who had been chasing me from the very beginning.
As I swung around the landing, I glanced down. The man was barely three steps behind me.
‘What the hell has he been training in lately? To keep up with boots that give +5 movement speed?’
Panting hard, I lifted my eyes upward.
‘Just one more floor.’
I hadn’t come this far without a plan. My escape route had already been secured—on the rooftop of this five-story building.
‘Almost there.’
The moment I reached the top floor, I broke into a sprint straight for the iron door set into the wall.
Clack.
I seized the handle and twisted it. The door, which I had unlocked in advance to secure my getaway, should have swung wide open…
“…Huh?”
But it didn’t budge.
Rattle, rattle.
I twisted the handle frantically, and from the stairs below came a short, mocking laugh.
‘That bastard.’
He’d relocked the door I had already prepared. He couldn’t have known I’d run into this building, so when had he planned this far ahead? Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless.
‘Not that it matters. Lock it all you want—I’ve got this.’
I reached for my universal lockpick—then froze.
‘Wait. What if behind this door… there’s a bunch of officers rattling silver handcuffs, just waiting for me?’
Jingle.
Even now, behind me, the man was shaking his cuffs.
The low, husky voice echoed through the stairwell, roughened by heavy breaths.
As I turned, the first thing I saw was a black three-piece suit, a long trench coat draped over it.
Tall, broad-shouldered, and without saying a word, his very appearance declared: I’m a detective. Step by steady step, he climbed toward me.
“My name is Raven Hunt. Inspector of Eden City Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit.”
…Huh? My name is Co—
I almost felt a jolt of déjà vu. Shaking my head quickly, I brushed it off, but he narrowed his eyes as though my reaction were suspicious.
“Lady, since I’ve introduced myself, it’s only proper for you to do the same.”
“Proper? What is this, a blind date?”
Even if he didn’t understand the term, my sarcastic tone must have carried the meaning. He sighed in resignation, then stepped closer.
“If you won’t give me your name, I’ll just have to call you this. Miss Thieving Crow. Give it up, and surrender quietly.”
Give up? I can’t. No—I mustn’t.
Each step he climbed, I pressed myself harder against the locked door.
“I’ll even request leniency from the judge in light of your cooperation.”
As if. The moment I end up in prison, that’s the bad ending. And if this character hits a bad ending, who knows what kind of ending I’ll meet?
It could just as well be a dead end.
“In that case… I’d rather…”
Resolute, I yanked my hood low over my head and stepped forward.
“…go for property damage!”
Excuse me? You think you’re public property? The man, thinking I was about to charge him, slid a hand inside his jacket. His fingers closed around the pistol at his side.
Not even close.
Tap-tap-tap!
I did charge him—but the moment I was close enough to see his eyes clearly, I slammed the heel of my boot down hard on the floor.
Thud!
“Hyah!”
My body shot upward as if it had springs attached. Because, well… my boots did have springs.
I soared right over the tall man’s head. Straightening mid-air, arms tucked tight, I became a missile.
Whoosh—
My streamlined body cut through the air, flying across the stairwell to the landing above.
“She—she can fly now?!”
The other officers, scrambling up after him, froze mid-step, jaws dropping as they watched me soar.
If I thought they looked dumb, how much worse must it seem in their superior’s eyes?
“What are you idiots doing!”
Hunt’s furious voice cracked across the stairwell as he stormed down after me.
“Catch her!”
‘Not today.’
Curling my body mid-flight, I spun, back aimed at the massive glass window of the landing.
“What the hell are you—!”
Crash!
Glass shattered as I hurled myself straight through, bursting out of the museum and into the open night.
“You fall from there and you’ll at least—die—ha!”
His voice shifted from worried to a disbelieving, almost amused scoff.
In that instant, I landed lightly on the stone railing outside the window—on an angel statue that rose taller than my own height.
“Pardon me.”
I kicked off from the statue’s head and leapt high into the moonlit night sky.
Whoosh.
Like a true phantom thief, my cape flared dramatically behind me as I shouted inwardly:
Inventory!
A glowing screen unfolded before my eyes. Without hesitation, I snatched the black umbrella from the very first slot.
Pop!
The moment I opened it, my body—plummeting downward just a heartbeat ago—rose gracefully into the air. It wasn’t just any umbrella. It was a levitating umbrella.
‘Whew… escape successful.’
But that didn’t mean the mission was complete.
To fulfill the final condition, I twisted my body midair and pulled back the hood that had shadowed my face. Below me stood Raven Hunt.
Normally, his jet-black hair was slicked back with pomade, not a strand out of place. Obsessively neat. But now, thanks to me, that immaculate style had unraveled, stray strands tumbling across his forehead.
‘All my fault. Heh.’
Beneath that disheveled fringe, his eyes burned like dark blue flames, sharp and cold enough to pierce through me.
And if I could see his face so clearly, it meant he could see mine. No mask, no disguise—just my bare face.
Of course, I dared to show it only because I had my ace in the hole: the classic trope of every phantom thief story—prosopagnosia.
A wide-area effect triggered only during missions. With it active, no one could recognize or even remember my face.
Alright then. Enough sightseeing. Time to finish the mission.
“Everything that sparkles belongs to me.”
The character’s signature line.
Smooch.
And a farewell blown kiss—the trademark gesture. These two were the last conditions for mission clear.
‘Huh?’
I blew Raven a kiss, same as always, but no mission-clear notification popped up.
I barely had time to wonder what went wrong before something clamped tightly around my ankle.
“Got you.”
It was Hunt. Somehow, impossibly, he’d reached me—standing not on the railing, but balanced atop the angel statue itself.
“Are you insane?!”
Slip from there and you’ll die! Game over! NPC or not, doesn’t he value his own life?
…I envy that.
“Let go!”
“If you cooperate with your arrest—”
“Not a chance!”
He yanked on my ankle. His grip was so strong that even the high-grade levitation umbrella couldn’t lift me free of him.
‘At this rate, we’ll both fall to our deaths!’
Desperate, I stopped resisting and suddenly let my body drop. My weight pulled me down hard, and Hunt’s lips curved into a faint smirk.
He thought I’d given up. That I’d surrendered. But no.
“Haah!”
I’d simply thought of a way for us both to survive.
Whish!
“Ugh!”
***
