Chapter 19
I wanted to pry out just the gem and toss the ring away for show, but there wasn’t enough time. As I turned to leave, the man shouted,
“Don’t be ashamed, my love!”
“Does this look like the face of someone who’s ashamed to you?”
It was the face of someone who was disgusted.
The man crawled across the floor toward me on all fours. By now, he no longer looked human—he looked like an insect.
“Ugh, get away from me.”
The man who had been crawling toward me seemed to finally come to his senses and tried to push himself up from the floor.
If this goes on, he’ll follow me outside.
I dashed to the wall and pulled down the installed lever.
Thwack!
A net hanging from the ceiling dropped and covered the man. With him struggling in the net, now was my chance to escape.
But then…
“What’s going on here?”
Just as I grabbed the doorknob, the door swung wide open. The guard who had been dozing outside the door just moments ago saw me and gaped in shock.
Damn it.
“Would you mind stepping aside?”
“A—a thief…!”
“If you can’t, then I have no choice.”
As the guard shouted for his comrades and swung his baton at me, I lightly kicked him with my boots.
Crash!
The spring boots sent the guard flying, smashing through the door and into the room across the hall.
“Sorry! Send the medical bill to Mr. Hopeless—he’s the one who woke you up!”
I sprinted down the corridor in a rush. By then, Hopeless had freed himself from the net and chased after me, crying desperately,
“Wait! My Cinderella, don’t go!”
Wow. He really looks like he needs immediate psychiatric care.
I thought all the rumors surrounding this diamond were nonsense. But it turned out the one about people going mad under its curse was true—Hopeless was proof.
“Tell me your name! Everyone else will call you Mrs. Hopeless from now on, but I alone will call you by your name!”
Sappy words poured nonstop from his mouth as he chased me. Where the hell does he even come up with this stuff?
‘Did he graduate from some kind of Failed Flirting Academy?’
But no—it turned out he belonged to something else entirely.
“Everything that sparkles belongs to meee!”
He was a member of a crazy fan club. The lunatic even pulled a membership card from his wallet and waved it while charging up the stairs.
“I’m a founding member—first generation! I’ve loved you longer than anyone else! Marry me!”
“What on earth…?”
The madman’s roaring voice woke the sleeping lions. Police who had been idly wandering on the first floor began gathering at the commotion.
“What’s going on, Mr. Hopeless—eh?! It’s the thief crow!”
“Catch her!”
So much for my plan to slip out quietly. Police swarmed like ants from every direction, sealing off every exit on the first floor.
With no choice, I kept dashing up the stairs, a pack of officers thundering behind me.
At some point, the deranged stalker must have been shoved aside by the police, because I no longer heard his terrible flirting lines.
“Stop right there!”
“Fourth floor! What are you doing? The suspect is escaping!”
Instead, the angry shouts of pursuers only grew louder.
Second floor, third floor, fourth floor. With each higher level, more patrolling officers joined the chase, swelling the number of pursuers.
Beep-beep… Beep-beep-beep…
The sound of my spring boots wearing down stretched longer and longer.
Ugh, what a waste.
Even my heart was weeping bloody tears.
Finally, the fifth floor. Just before the last flight, I looked up and saw a guard blocking the stairway. The staircase was wide enough for three people side by side, yet he stood there alone.
Everyone, get over here now!”
The guard shouted urgently for his dazed colleagues still recovering from earlier.
Hearing the sound of them fumbling closer, I kicked off the step I’d been climbing.
“Take this!”
Whoosh!
I leapt into the air, kicked off the railing’s edge, and jumped again.
As I flipped through the air, the officers reached upward, straining to grab me, but not even a fingertip managed to touch me.
Thud!
I vaulted cleanly over the human wall rushing at me and landed lightly on the fifth floor.
“Got—”
Smack!
Not a chance.
The officers surged in immediately, leaving me no time to catch my breath—I had to jump again.
Beep-beep-beep.
Ughhh, my precious boots. Just hold out until that window, at least.
At the end of the fifth-floor hallway, a huge window was wide open. Judging by the ashtray piled high with cigarette butts on the sill, one of the guards must have opened it for a smoke.
‘Whoever it was—thanks!’
That ventilation window was now my escape route.
“Stop right there!”
“Haah…”
What good is seeing the exit when every jump drains my boots’ durability, and with it my jump strength? My speed slowed, and the gap between me and the chasing officers shrank to barely five steps.
At this rate, I’ll be caught right in front of the window.
“Ah, seriously… I really didn’t want to use this, but sorry!”
I opened my inventory and searched for the mousetrap box. The moment I pressed the glowing Install button on the bottom of the box, pop!—they appeared on the floor between me and the officers.
What appeared?
Three hundred mousetraps, each topped with a piece of yellow cheese.
“Don’t step on those!”
Snap!
If only they’d listen. Ignoring my warning, one officer rushed forward and inevitably stepped on a trap.
“Argh!”
Crying out, the officer clutched his foot, hopping on the other while stumbling into more traps. That was the beginning of the mousetrap domino effect.
Snap! Snap-snap-snap-snap!
The traps slammed shut in a chain reaction, springing into the air like popcorn.
Caught in the chaos, other officers couldn’t dodge in time and were swept up, yelping as traps clamped onto noses, fingers, and more.
“Aaagh!”
“Get this thing off me!”
The narrow hallway was completely blocked, trapping the guards who were rushing up from behind.
Meanwhile, I strolled casually to the window, turned back, and left them with parting words:
“Everything that sparkles belongs to me.”
Smooch.
Huh. Strange. Hunt isn’t here today?
It was a shame, but I blew a kiss to the bunch of fools tangled up in the hallway and pulled a levitating umbrella from my inventory.
All I had to do now was escape from here, and the mission success alarm would pop up. I stepped onto the window sill, about to leap outside and open the umbrella into the darkness that had already fallen.
“Gasp…”
Out of the darkness, a hand shot out and clamped tightly around my wrist. Right after came the flash of handcuffs—and the face of Raven Hunt.
‘Ha… of course.’
No wonder he hadn’t shown up during all this chaos. That was impossible.
His expression was calm. Hunt looked exactly like someone who had known all along that I would come this way.
‘So the reason Hunt never appeared until now… was because all of this was a trap.’
Only after being distracted and exhausted by Hopeless’s madness, only after being caught, did I realize it.
‘Even leaving only this one window open was part of the plan.’
It was almost enough to make me think Hopeless’s insane proposal had been part of Hunt’s scheme too.
“So many people trying to put something on my hands today. Get in line behind Mr. Hopeless, Hunt.”
Standing at the edge of the roof beyond the window, Hunt didn’t rise to my sarcasm. He only clasped the open cuff around my wrist and declared in a businesslike tone,
“I hereby arrest you for stealing the Hopeless Diamond in the act.”
Arrest? Yeah right. The bad ending notification hasn’t popped up yet.
“Take this!”
I yanked my hand back before he could fasten the cuff. Of course Hunt didn’t let go. That was exactly what I expected.
Whoosh!
While his eyes flicked briefly to my wrist, I jabbed the tip of the umbrella right between his brows.
“Urgh…”
Maybe he thought I was aiming for his eyes, because Hunt reflexively squeezed them shut and jerked his head aside.
I didn’t miss the moment his grip loosened—I slipped my wrist free. Hunt had no choice but to let go. Otherwise, he risked losing balance and toppling right off the roof.
As Hunt clutched the window pillar to steady himself, I slipped outside, ducking behind the pillar opposite him and snapping open the umbrella.
Clack.
‘Ugh, not again!’
