I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 100. Scar

After his conversation with Astria ended.

Krash went on a date with Bianca in the Holy Kingdom Friman.

Truth be told, there wasn’t much to it.

They ate delicious food as they always did and sightsaw around the Holy Kingdom.

“There are so many people. Will you hold my hand?”

Since she asked, Krash took her hand without complaint.

Bianca looked genuinely pleased.

Finding it rather endearing, Krash gave her everything she asked for.

‘The former Saint.’

Of course, she was nowhere to be seen.

The Holy Kingdom must have taken her.

Krash didn’t feel any particular pity toward that Saint.

He’d only revealed her existence hoping Astria’s future would turn out better.

‘I always knew I couldn’t save everything.’

He could barely protect what was already in his hands.

Krash stopped worrying about it and returned to the Temple with Bianca.

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

Bianca nodded enthusiastically.

Some of the chocolate she’d eaten earlier lingered around her mouth, so Krash reached up and wiped it clean for her.

Messy thing.

“Look at you two, so close. That’s what fiancées and fiancés do, isn’t it?”

At the sound of that voice, Krash turned his head.

Standing there was none other than Astria.

The blank expression from earlier had vanished, replaced by a confident smile.

She’d made up her mind.

“You dropped the formal speech earlier, so I’ll drop it too. You don’t mind, right?”
“Go ahead. I prefer it that way.”

Krash found it more awkward to speak formally with Astria anyway.

So with a shrug, Krash withdrew his hand from Bianca’s cheek.

But Bianca promptly caught his hand and held it.

Slipping a glance in Astria’s direction, Bianca stood between them and stared directly at Astria.

Seeing this, Astria let out a small cough and spoke.

“You said to tell you if I wanted the shackles removed. I remember that exactly. Make sure you’re ready.”

She said it would come to pass soon enough, then she was gone.

As she left, she did glance back once at Bianca, but she disappeared quickly.

After Astria had departed, Bianca looked up at Krash.

“I’m your betrothed, Krash.”
“Didn’t you say that before?”

Why did she keep worrying about this?

Krash laughed in bewilderment and stroked Bianca’s hair.

Her head barely moved anymore—she must have hit a growth spurt.

The cuteness was fading, replaced by the slow bloom of adulthood.

She’d even grown taller recently.

Of course, Krash himself had grown far more, so the height difference was still pronounced.

‘Someday, when she’s fully grown, my thoughts might change. But not yet.’

For now, at thirteen, he owed it to her to respect what she wanted.

“Your betrothed will never change.”

From the moment he’d made up his mind to take responsibility for Bianca, this was something that would never alter.

As Krash spoke, Bianca gazed quietly up at him, then her eyes widened slightly.

Then she fidgeted a little, nestling her hand into his.

“Then that’s fine.”

Bianca’s face had flushed a little deeper than before.

It seemed she didn’t even realize she was smiling.

“We should head back now.”

This business had taken long enough—it was time to return.

Krash had decided to devote his remaining time entirely to training.

The Holy Kingdom Friman had Teleportation Magic Circles linked throughout its lands for emergency patient transport.

Naturally, Valheim was connected as well.

Using it, the journey back to Valheim would be swift.

Since it was getting late, Krash decided he’d finish preparations tomorrow and return then.

It was as Krash was thinking this and returning to his room that it happened.

“Krash, you have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”

Hearing the attendant’s words, Krash’s brow furrowed.

He wasn’t expecting anyone in particular.

As Krash opened the door with that question in mind, an unexpected figure stood waiting.

In response to his entrance, dark blue hair stirred gently.

When he shifted his gaze to the open doorway, the person before him was none other than Lilish Balheim.

“Krash.”

She had been the commander of this expedition.

So she’d had no choice but to conclude the work with a final report.

Because of that, unable to visit while Krash was in the Holy Kingdom Friman, she’d crossed over the moment her duties were finished, eager to see him.

Though she’d heard the diagnosis that Krash had made a full recovery, she too had been worrying constantly.

‘In any case, I’ll have to return to Balheim through the Teleportation Magic Circle eventually.’

Krash hadn’t expected Lilish to come ahead.

“You look well. That’s a relief.”

Lilish examined Krash’s condition with her eyes and let out a short breath of relief.

Seeing her now, Krash felt just how different Lilish had become from his memories before the regression.

The Lilish in his memory was always taciturn and prone to ignoring family matters.

‘Perhaps.’

That Lilish too might have changed like this, had she possessed just one such catalyst.

‘Is it strange how relationships can become something entirely different from such trivial things?’

Krash gazed at Lilish.

She was, without doubt, an older sister looking after her younger brother—albeit late in coming.

“I’ll stay with Crimson Garden.”

Bianca tactfully excused herself for a moment.

She had gracefully given the siblings space to be alone together.

And so Krash found himself alone with Lilish.

A brief silence fell between the two of them.

Two people who had never conversed with family before.

And so, faced with each other, neither knew quite what to talk about.

“…Would you like some candy?”

Lilish suddenly produced a piece of candy.

The same candy she had given to Bianca.

When she had last met Krash, he had been just a small child.

So it was that in her memory, Krash remained fixed as a little boy.

For all that they were family, the distance between Krash and Lilish was vast.

Based on that memory, Lilish had heard that candy worked wonders with children, and so she carried it with her always.

Perhaps when she finally met her younger brother again, a piece of candy might bridge the gap between them.

Of course, the Krash who stood before her now was nearly a young man, far removed from a child who would delight in sweets.

“Yes, well.”

And Krash took the candy with an awkward expression.

Lilish felt a small measure of satisfaction watching him.

Though Krash himself was already thinking he would give it to Bianca later.

“This business—you accomplished something extraordinary. The elders will hear of it, and so will Father.”

As she spoke, Lilish brought up the matter at hand.

It seemed she had reported the facts truthfully to Balheim’s superiors.

Would they truly believe that a fourteen-year-old had distinguished himself in World Erosion?

Since he had slipped into the Blue Sea Knights without permission, he couldn’t be sure how Balheim’s upper ranks would interpret it.

“Only the superiors need to know. The rest remain ignorant, so it should be fine.”

Understanding that Krash had wished to conceal his identity, she tactfully made no effort to spread the matter.

The fact that no commotion had arisen from the Holy Kingdom Friman over Balheim’s appearance was proof of that.

The Holy Kingdom did know that Krash had fought Agaresh.

But that was merely interpreted as assistance to Lilish of Balheim.

That Krash had defeated Agaresh—the Holy Kingdom remained unaware of that.

Instead, within the Holy Kingdom, the judgment ran thus:

A fourteen-year-old Direct Descendant of Balheim, driven by pride and rashness, had followed Lilish and nearly perished.

Of course, a boy of fourteen venturing into the Demon Realm made little sense to begin with, yet the place Krash belonged was Balheim.

‘There’s Charlotte’s precedent, after all.’

There was already a monster named Charlotte who’d roamed the Forbidden Area before Krash ever did.

So it was far more likely that the youngest of Balheim’s brood had simply been acting out of youthful impulse, wanting to emulate his sister.

From Krash’s perspective, that was excellent news.

He could honor his bargain with the First Prince.

“The members of the Jucheong Knights asked me to pass along their thanks as well.”

They were comrades he’d fought alongside, in a manner of speaking.

Krash had pulled them from the jaws of death several times over, and they’d thanked him for it.

“They all did their part.”

This wasn’t something one person’s effort alone could have accomplished.

Krash had given due credit to the other order’s contributions as well.

Without them, he never would have captured Agaresh.

That was the balance Krash had struck—never neglecting his own growth, yet never forgetting those around him.

After that, his conversation with Lilish continued in soft, meandering turns.

But it didn’t last long.

They’d been apart too long—Lilish and Krash both—for ease to come naturally.

Once they’d exhausted the business at hand, neither knew what to say next.

Family felt stranger than strangers ever could.

“There’s nothing more to discuss. You should rest now.”

It was Lilish who rose first.

Her eyes held a flicker of reluctance, though her wish for him to rest was genuine.

Part of her wanted to tell him not to push himself anymore.

But she had no right to say such things.

She’d failed to look after her own family, just as he had.

Lilish turned toward the door.

Krash watched her departing silhouette in silence, his teeth barely grazing his lower lip.

There was something she’d deliberately chosen not to ask.

And it was something Krash would have preferred to keep hidden.

“Sister.”

Krash called out to Lilish, and she turned back.

“There’s more you wanted to ask, isn’t there?”

It meant that Krash was using Velokin’s Ignis.

Lilish had interpreted it in a conveniently pragmatic way.

But the truth was far more gruesome.

Still, she genuinely wanted to mend her relationship with Krash.

So if Krash meant to reciprocate her sincerity, he had no choice but to voice this uncomfortable truth.

He could have chosen not to tell her—that much was certain.

By now the whole thing was already buried, and he might have kept it hidden for the rest of his life.

But in this moment.

He couldn’t dismiss Lilish’s sincerity—her genuine effort to rebuild their bond—as foolishness.

Back when Agaresh came.

Krash had seen with his own eyes how Lilish trusted him.

“Krash.”

She broke the silence.

“Before I came here, I looked into Velokin and heard he caused you tremendous suffering.”

Lilish had sensed Krash’s theft of Ignis through her Intuitive Perception.

For that reason, she too had made her own inquiries into the relationship between Velokin and Krash.

What she found was a mess.

The House of Balheim had never treated them as blood family.

They pushed and pushed each to the brink until, at last, they drew swords against one another.

That was what the House of Balheim was.

And yet Krash had taken Velokin’s Ignis.

Could two people with such a toxic relationship truly have reformed at the very end, united their strength, and defeated the Cheonan Curse so admirably?

Lilish, though reluctant, had to shake her head.

So she too had harbored doubts about what happened with the Cheonan Curse, but she had stayed silent for Krash’s sake.

And now Krash himself had brought it up.

He had opened his heart first.

“Could you tell me more?”

Hearing her request, Krash hesitated once more.

He couldn’t know whether Lilish would rage at her brother for killing their family, or despise him.

But in the battle against Agaresh, he had glimpsed her true heart.

So Krash slowly opened his mouth, which had been shut tight with weight.

“……I killed Velokin with these hands.”

Wanting to answer Lilish’s sincerity, Krash spoke the truth aloud for the first time.

Krash’s story stretched on at length.

The countless incidents and events entangled with Velokin.

He laid bare everything as objectively as he could, removing his subjective thoughts as much as possible.

Lilish showed neither anger nor contempt.

She simply listened with equanimity as Krash’s older sister to the story of her other younger brother, Velokin.

Seeing this, Krash became certain of one truth.

Lilish was not the sort to place importance on who shared more of the same blood with her.

To her, both siblings—whether they shared blood or not—were simply her brothers.

Rather, she could only lament her own helplessness in the face of the terrible bond that had accumulated between her two brothers.

For the first time, Krash felt he truly understood Lilish.

A family member he had not known, more than an acquaintance beside him.

When all the stories had finished.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t look after either of you at all.”

Lilish’s apology came, her face etched with anguish.

“Would it be all right if I held you, just once?”

When Lilish asked gently, Krash nodded in return.

Lilish approached and drew him into an embrace.

Though Lilish had always been taciturn, her arms were warm.

Warm enough that, if only for this moment, he could forget the bitter neglect and torment he had endured from family and house.

Her embrace was tender.

Even as people age, they struggle beneath the weight of pain endured in childhood.

For Krash, who had weathered countless trials, this was no different.

A scar left deep can be bandaged out of sight, but it never truly vanishes.

Because of that, he had to know.

That there were those who would see such scars and worry for him.

For some reason, Krash felt as though he had stepped back into childhood, if only for a moment.

Velokin, who had been a scar upon Krash.

That scar, and the long, bitter history bound to it.

It was the first moment Krash had ever shown it to his family.

Beyond the window’s glass.

Hydrangeas heavy with summer rain were in bloom.

The hydrangeas that shifted color with the soil seemed, perhaps, not unlike himself.

Krash sat in quiet reflection.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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