Chapter 40
“Hey, you guys.”
He spat on the temple floor and held a cup out toward me.
“What are you doing? Not pouring the juice?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The guy had avoided coming to the serving table all this time just to act tough.
I shrugged and poured a generous amount of juice into his cup. The liquid splashed with a soft gurgle.
Eat up and take a long nap.
One by one, I handed out juice to all of them. Then, the guy standing next to the boss distributed the mystical powder.
With everything prepared, the boss stepped forward. He looked each thief over, sitting in line, before speaking.
“Let’s begin.”
“Let’s finish this quickly!”
“Of all days, it had to happen when the hero is here… tsk. Let’s finish fast and go find him!”
The thieves swallowed both the juice and the mystical powder at the same time.
Kaizen and I, however, just took a similar-looking flour instead of the mystical powder and pretended to collapse, subtly scanning our surroundings.
Oh…
As Ariel had described, the moment the thieves ingested the mystical powder, their bodies began to melt away.
At the same time, like the villagers we’d seen at the mine, the souls trapped inside round bubbles floated out of their bodies. All of them with eyes closed.
Even their souls are completely asleep.
Above the thieves’ heads appeared icons of sleeping faces, their noses gently rising and falling. I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.
“B-Boss… something’s wrong.”
A thief who hadn’t swallowed the powder yet spoke in a trembling voice. I squinted and counted the remaining conscious thieves.
Including the boss, there are fourteen in total.
I hadn’t expected to knock them all out at once, so I had a special plan ready for those still standing.
This should take care of them in no time.
“Why aren’t you moving? Hey! Get back in your bodies!”
“Wait… could it be…!”
Our eyes met—the boss’s and mine. He saw me smiling, then his eyes widened.
“That’s him! That’s the hero! Catch him!”
“What are you talking about? I’m not the hero.”
I sprang to my feet and drew the steel axe hidden under my robe. The thieves flinched and stepped back.
“What? You stole someone else’s body and yet you’re scared?”
“Being brazen after stealing a body just means you lack intelligence.”
Kaizen, now at my side, clicked his tongue lowly.
Then, in that moment, Kaizen began reverting to his original form. His plain brown hair shimmered into silver, his common green eyes turned the deep bluish-gray I loved most. As the transformation potion’s effect faded, his height and muscular build grew more imposing.
I looked up at him, wide-eyed.
This face… of course.
If Kaizen had returned to his original form, so had I. My rough, calloused hands were smoothing out, becoming clean and pale.
“He’s… the hero!”
“What have you done to us, hero?”
The thieves drew their swords. I feigned swinging the steel axe with one hand.
One of them, the thief I’d beaten at the mine, shouted in surprise.
“Watch out for that crazy woman!”
But the axe was a fake, idiots. I grabbed a handful of flour from my pocket and threw it at their faces.
“What did you do?”
“…!”
“This—this is what I did.”
The fine powder slowly enveloped their faces, drifting into their nostrils. The thieves…
“Ahhh! What the hell, X!”
“Ugh! What cowardly trick is this!”
Immediately, they collapsed… and after a moment, their souls began escaping from their bodies, the sleeping icons floating above their heads. I raised my hands, shrugged, and Kaizen chuckled beside me.
“I didn’t expect you to use that method.”
“Well, how else? We had to subdue them without a scratch.”
“Thanks to that, only a few remain.”
It would have been easier to end them all at once, but a few perceptive ones had survived.
“D-Damn it! What’s happening? Is this a sleeping potion?”
“My body doesn’t respond to sedatives!”
The boss and the four around him covered their noses and stepped back. The lesser thieves gave me an expression of realization.
“A… witch! She’s a witch!”
“Geez. First, you said ‘hero’.”
“Leave the rear to me.”
Kaizen strode toward the remaining five thieves without drawing a weapon. He quickly and cleanly subdued them without unnecessary movements.
They say if something looks easy when someone else does it, it’s because that person is skilled.
I watched in admiration as he took them down: one, two, three… after the third fell, I moved.
Now it’s my turn.
As I crouched, shoving flour into the noses of the fallen thieves, a sharp object grazed the back of my neck. The cold touch made me turn slightly, and the blade cut into my skin. Hot blood trickled down my collarbone.
“Romi!”
Kaizen’s face froze.
He pulled a sword from the last fallen thief and twisted his body, ready to strike.
“If you come closer, I’ll kill this woman.”
The boss pressed close to my back, shouting at Kaizen. Kaizen paused, staring at him coldly.
“Drop your weapon and raise both hands.”
“….”
Kaizen didn’t hesitate. He dropped the sword and raised both hands.
“Good. Now kneel.”
What? No!
But Kaizen didn’t hesitate. Just before his knees touched the ground, I quickly spoke to the boss.
“Hey. Back off and aim properly, you shameless bastard.”
Who does he think he is, making someone kneel?
“…What? What…!”
“And how much do you think you can intimidate me with that pathetic blade?”
The tip of his sword wavered slightly in surprise. I twisted my heel back and struck his solar plexus.
Sorry, Ariel. Just this once.
Clang! The blade hit the ground.
“Ugh!”
I kicked it away and turned to grab the boss.
“Crazy woman, indeed. Your reputation is deserved. But this won’t be easy.”
Despite using another person’s body, he moved nimbly to escape.
Kaizen, who had been stiff with surprise, visibly relaxed and let out a deep sigh, scolding me lightly.
“You are strong, yes, but don’t act recklessly. What if you get hurt…!”
Then, Kaizen’s eyes widened and he yanked me with great force.
Plunk—landing against him, a long sharp iron grille slammed into the ground where I had been standing.
The whole temple echoed with the crash. The stone floor cracked, smoke rising.
“Whoa, that was close.”
“Are you okay?”
“Mm. If it weren’t for you, maybe not…”
Where did that even come from?
I muttered, holding my chest, when I heard the boss’s voice from a short distance away.
“You still have the presence of mind to speak?”
As the smoke cleared, I saw the boss standing far away, holding something in his hand, shaking it in front of us with a sneer.
What is that?
