I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 109

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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 109. A Hero’s Weakness

Inside the Arena Training Ground, reduced to rubble by Kairan’s secret technique and Krash’s successive hidden moves.

Within it hung a silence that pressed against the air.

It was the aftermath of the battle between applicant Krash and Kairan, the Entrance Examination’s chief proctor.

And the result was now displaying something beyond belief.

Standing on two feet atop the training ground was none other than Krash.

Collapsed on the floor was Kairan, who had earned her name as the Pirate Empress.

An unprecedented situation: an applicant had defeated an associate professor.

Every current student at the Academy knew of the third test that Kairan had devised.

They knew it was essentially an impossible test to pass.

So its true purpose had always been to evaluate performance levels for placement in the Special Class.

And yet someone had just passed that third test.

Krash Valheim.

A direct heir of House Valheim—the boy who had turned eighteen this year and was once dismissed as a waste.

“Insane.”

One of the students watching from a distance let slip the curse without thought.

There was no other word to describe what he was witnessing.

Even when Krash had shattered the Aurora Stone, he hadn’t been this shocked.

The Aurora Stone could be dismissed—one could simply accept that he possessed an enormous natural reserve of Aura.

But defeating Kairan, who was essentially a professor in all but name?

That was a different matter entirely.

It meant a tempest had arrived—one that would shake not just Rahelern Academy, but the entire age itself.

The eyes of the watching students shifted.

Those gathered at Rahelern Academy were meant to lead their houses into the future.

What they perceived in Krash at this moment required no explanation.

Those who would change the age leave remarkable tales even from childhood.

They had just witnessed one of those tales with their own eyes.

—Why didn’t you just die outright?

Yet in contrast to that tale, Krash was being thoroughly berated by Crimson Garden.

Well, of course it was.

Kairan answered Krash with sincerity, giving everything she had.

And Krash, meeting that response head-on, had to pour out his full strength in turn.

Which meant that from start to finish, Krash had pushed the Extinguishing Flame Erosion to its absolute limit and continued using it without pause.

As a result, Kairan was the one who fell—but Krash himself was in no better shape.

All he could manage was breathing to let his overheated body cool even slightly through the Wolgeumjiché.

—Well, you kept your promise anyway, so I’ll overlook the fact that you didn’t use that technique.

Crimson Garden, referring to the promise made when arriving at the Entrance Ceremony, regarded Krash with an unsatisfied gaze.
—So, are you satisfied with the result?

Krash felt his body throbbing from the Extinguishing Flame Erosion and looked toward the spectators’ stands.

The future members of the Starry Generation had their eyes so wide they looked ready to pop out of their heads.

Those same people who had once treated him as nothing but a tool.

Yes—this was something that would satisfy anyone, no matter what they said.

“Yeah.”

So Krash answered briefly, and finally, the willpower that had kept him standing collapsed.

He never understood why the end always had to be like this.

* * *

With Kairan and then Krash falling, the second round of the examination was suspended.

It was judged that the students who had witnessed their battle would not be able to take the test in their right minds.

And that judgment was accurate.

The students were too busy talking among themselves about the previous battle.

And the current students felt the same way.

A candidate who had defeated an associate professor.

Thanks to this, stories about Krash spread like ripples across the Rahelern Academy.

As Krash’s name circulated on everyone’s lips,

the sun had already set, and a full day had passed.

Scritch—

When Krash opened his eyes, he felt the morning sunlight streaming through the window.

The distinctive sharp scent that touched his nose made him recognize that this place was a Hospital Ward.

Even though using Cheonsal-seong had raised her tolerance for Extinguishing Flame Erosion, she’d pushed it until she lost consciousness.

There was no way she could recover without being hospitalized.

‘I’m going to die.’

Not that she had any intention of actually dying, but her body ached enough to make such jokes feel appropriate.

More than that, for some reason her chest felt hollow.

Krash ran her hand across her body trying to understand why she felt this emptiness, and soon realized, stifling a hollow laugh.

The hollow feeling she had now was none other than because of Bianca.

Whenever she lay in this state, Bianca would stay pressed against her bed.

But she wasn’t here now.

The image of the white chick kept shimmering before her eyes.

The hand that usually stroked her hair so often had nowhere to go, and pressed against the mattress instead.

‘Do I miss her?’

She wondered if Bianca was learning well under her teacher Jena.

It had only been a few days since they’d been separated because of the Entrance Examination, and yet here she was already worrying like this.

Krash thought anew about how much time she’d spent with Bianca lately.

She should send her a letter soon and tell her about the Entrance Ceremony.

Just as Krash was thinking this and about to sit up—

“If you’re thinking of heading to training again like last time, stay lying down.”

At that moment Krash heard a familiar voice and lifted her head.

A chair placed in front of the bed.

There sat a woman paging through what looked like a magazine.

Hair the color of crimson evoking the sun, and a figure that didn’t match her apparent age.

Her sharp, intelligent eyes gave her an enigmatic presence.

Facing her, Krash showed a belated look of confusion.

Her senses were jumbled from overusing Extinguishing Flame Erosion, so she’d only now noticed that she was in the room.

“Astria?”
“Isn’t it irreverent to call a saint by her name so casually?”

She spoke in jest, taking her eyes off the magazine to look at Krash.

But she soon averted her gaze slightly.

“Your clothes are disheveled. I know you just woke up, but wouldn’t it be better to put them on properly?”

Words she’d heard quite often in the past came from her lips now.

Krash, now aware that his discomfort stemmed not from genuine distaste but from shame, fastened his clothes carelessly.

‘That’s strange—even with Extinguishing Flame Erosion active, my movements were better than usual.’

It seemed Astria had healed him.

But how had she come to be here?

The Holy Kingdom would never have sent her to Rahelern Academy.

“You’re wondering why I’m at Rahelern Academy, aren’t you?”
“Sharp of you.”
“In the Religious Order, perceptiveness is practically a survival skill.”

She spoke and crossed her legs as she sat.

The motion exposed her pale thighs, though she seemed entirely indifferent to it.

“I used the information you gave me. If I were to step down from my position as Saint, there would be chaos.”

It appeared Astria had followed the same trajectory as before.

The only difference was that it had happened far sooner this time.

“And I mentioned your family name a bit as well.”

She’d leveraged that too, then.

The Religious Order’s permission had been far from arbitrary, after all.

“All things considered, the result is merely attending the Academy. But my cage has loosened, at least. By the way, I’m in Theology—Special Class entrance.”

Yet Krash still harbored doubts.

“Why Rahelern Academy specifically?”

Someone like her could have gone anywhere, with or without the Academy.

At his question, she fell back into habit, her fingers winding through her hair with deliberate slowness.

“Because there’s nowhere else with as much talent concentrated in one place. My goal is to break completely free from the Religious Order. I’m gathering people to be my backing. And you should know—you’re one of them.”
“That wouldn’t be difficult, at least.”

Krash opened his eyes slightly, narrowing them with a drowsy gaze.

“Were you here the whole night?”

Astria’s hand stilled mid-twist in her hair.

Her eyes began to dart about uncertainly.

With her Saint’s Ability, healing and leaving would have sufficed.

Yet she had insisted to the others that she needed to monitor his progress, and since Krash collapsed, she had remained in this hospital ward, waiting for him to wake.

Astria shut the magazine she’d been holding with a soft motion.

“Well, you seem fine enough. I should go. And you—take care of yourself. No matter whose power it is, draining it like that will shave years off your life.”

Since Krash had caught her true feelings once before, she rambled incoherently and scrambled to her feet.

In her heart, she wanted nothing more than to talk with him longer after so much time apart, but her face burned too fiercely to bear it.

‘Why must he have to be exactly my type.’

……Though at this point, that was hardly the issue.

In the end, she fled the room as though her life depended on it.

Through the crack in the door, her guardian knight Diona offered a brief nod in Krash’s direction before taking her leave.

Unexpected as the encounter was, Astria’s arrival at this place was far from unwelcome news.

It meant that even if he pushed his body hard, recovery was assured.

He had forgotten all about the earlier talk of shortening his lifespan when he turned to leave the ward—or so he thought.

Just then, Krash heard something rather commotion in the hospital corridor.

Turning his head at the sound, he saw two people approaching, each carrying a tray of water and a towel.

Both wore the uniform of a maidservant.

One was Alisha, who had accompanied him as his attendant.

The other was someone he had not expected at all.

“……Lirina?”

Aslan’s personal lady’s maid—Lirina herself.

Bewildered as to why she was coming along with Alisha, he tilted his head in question, and only then did the two of them notice him.

“Ah, Lord Krash, you’re awake at last.”

Beside Alisha, who still spoke with excessive formality, Lirina drew her characteristic smile—nothing more than a slight lift at the corners of her mouth.

“First you collapse, and now when we meet again, you’re still collapsed. You must be a sleeping prince, Lord Krash.”

Her usual sharp tongue, unchanged as ever.

“What brings you here, Lirina?”
“Well, when Alisha heard that you’d lost consciousness, she panicked terribly and didn’t know what to do. So I came along to help.”

Ah, that made sense.

Though Alisha had received instruction from Aliod, she was still unaccustomed to sudden emergencies.

She must have been quite shaken to hear that her master had collapsed.

He owed them a debt of gratitude.

“But you seem far more intact than expected. Might you repay my worry with some consideration?”
“Should I compensate you with money?”
“Please, be generous with the rate.”
“No, no, it is not about debt! I shall bear the expense myself!”

It was Alisha who was flustered by her jest.

Lirina told the hurrying Alisha that it was only a joke as she reached for her coin purse.

“What about Aslan?”
“He finished his magic examination and has been assigned a dormitory room. He also said he wanted to see you again soon. When you go to the dormitory later, please pay him a visit.”
“Of course. Alisha, my dormitory assignment must have come through as well?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve already moved in all your belongings.”

A dormitory assignment meant passage, plain and simple.

It was hardly surprising, given that he’d bested Kairan, the chief examiner.

“You have that look about you—as if passing were inevitable. Rather presumptuous, don’t you think?”

Lirina had noticed the expression on Krash’s face.

“One must have confidence in oneself, mustn’t one?”
“Really, has the innocent Krash I knew disappeared while we were apart? How disappointing.”

With that, Lirina stepped closer to Krash’s side and tilted her head up slightly.

He hadn’t been this tall before.

Among children his age, Krash had always grown unusually fast, and now there was a considerable height difference between him and Lirina.

“Still, it’s nice to see you’ve become so impressive. Not quite to Aslan’s level, but you’ll certainly break some hearts wandering about like that.”
“I don’t think I’ve broken anyone’s heart in particular—”

But as he said it, Krash thought of Bianca.

The more he reflected on it, the more he realized he’d caused her no small amount of distress.

“You’re thinking of your fiancée right now, aren’t you?”

Lirina narrowed her eyes with a knowing look.

“Even shamelessness has its limits, you know.”

But the person who came to mind was simply her.

Lirina huffed with a deliberately sullen expression.

“I’ll return to Aslan now. Here—take this.”

She thrust the towel she’d brought into Krash’s hand and left without another word.

She was, in every way, a force of nature.

As she was Aslan’s personal attendant, he’d likely see quite a bit of her going forward.

“Alisha, when is the Entrance Ceremony?”
“It is scheduled for tomorrow, sir.”

At least he’d regained consciousness before then—a small mercy.

As Krash turned his gaze toward the window, he saw a raven from Crimson Garden perched on the sill.

Through the glass, she gazed at him intently before sending her thoughts across.

—A hero’s weakness for beauty.

For Krash, it was a truly vexing observation.

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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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