I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 128

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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 128. Eve of the Storm

“Since I’ve spent my life only in the Imperial Palace, I become terribly curious whenever famous people come up in conversation. I suppose my nosiness gets the better of me.”

The Snake Brothers standing behind her nodded in unison to Sigrin’s words.

“It’s not nosiness at all. You’re simply kind-hearted.”
“Exactly. You go out of your way to speak to people first, after all.”

As they spoke, both brothers turned their gaze toward Krash and Dorma with a look of unmistakable displeasure.

Krash was Charlotte’s brother—and Sigrin’s rival.

Knowing this full well, Dorma had approached Krash regardless.

No wonder the two brothers found her presence irritating.

Dorma shrank under their sharp stares, her shoulders hunching inward.

She had always been vulnerable to piercing gazes like these.

Krash shifted his weight lightly, positioning himself between Dorma and the brothers’ scrutiny.

“This was something I asked for on my end, so I’d rather you didn’t blame Dorma too harshly for it.”
“K-Krash.”

Dorma’s voice came out flustered from behind him.

After all, she had been the one to approach him first outside the classroom.

But Krash raised a hand to quiet her, his eyes fixed on Sigrin.

After their gazes locked for a moment, Sigrin let out a short, measured laugh.

“Of course. If anything, I’m grateful to Dorma for arranging this conversation. I’ve heard the rumors—you brought down an Invasive Species that was nearly Seven Star Grade in your last mission. As a fellow student, I find that truly impressive.”

She offered him praise in a smooth, practiced manner, her smile carrying an air of aristocratic composure.

Unlike Karandis, who simply overwhelmed people with physical intimacy, Sigrin possessed a far more refined method of making others hers.

With the prestige of the imperial house at her back and beauty to match, when Sigrin lavished praise upon someone—

countless hearts would fall into her orbit without a second thought.

But there existed those for whom such tactics held no sway.

“No, it was all thanks to my sister. I didn’t do much of anything, really.”

Sigrin’s shoulders tensed visibly.

“Your sister—you mean Charlotte, correct?”
“Yes. I owe her a great deal, in every way.”

Krash understood perfectly what suspicion Sigrin harbored.

She suspected Charlotte of being a Returner as well.

So he drove another nail deeper into her suspicion.

“Just like at the entrance ceremony—you two siblings seem to get along quite well.”
“We have a decent relationship.”
“I envy that. My family and I don’t get along very well, I’m afraid. It’s a shame, really. I haven’t even seen my younger sister’s face since she enrolled this term.”

That sister was none other than the Fourth Princess, Sizzli Epania.

“My sister nearly died, and I wasn’t even there for her. The fact that things have turned out this way with my family is entirely my fault.”

Absolutely sickening.

“Oh, I’ve taken up so much of your time already. I’m terribly sorry. Please make sure Dorma doesn’t cause you any trouble, Krash. This has been such a pleasant conversation. Thank you.”
“The pleasure was mutual. I’m glad to confirm that you’re a good person, Sigrin.”
-Murderous, absolutely murderous.

To those ignorant of the truth, it would seem like an ordinary exchange.

But those who knew better felt the lethal edge beneath every word.

“Well then, perhaps next time.”

Sigrin decided to end the conversation.

Yet she left behind one more loaded remark.

“Oh, and now that I think of it—the midterm evaluation is coming up soon. Since it’s the Rahelern Academy’s first evaluation, I do hope you’ll perform well, Krash.”

How infuriating.

“Thank you for the kind words.”

Krash masked his true feelings and offered his gratitude.

Sigrin laughed softly and departed without further ceremony.

She left the Special Studies Classroom, drawing eyes as always.

The moment she was gone, the classroom door swung open and someone rushed in urgently.

“Krash.”

It was Haring.

Though her secondary focus was Special Studies, her primary field was Martial Arts.

She must have come from training.

She’d apparently just heard about Sigrin’s visit, for she glanced nervously toward the door as she approached him.

“You alright?”

Her expression betrayed concern—whether something had happened.

“What could happen? Just had a conversation, that’s all.”

When Krash answered matter-of-factly, Haring exhaled sharply.

“I thought you’d get into a fight.”
“…Am I really that much of a brawler?”

Haring didn’t answer, merely fixing Krash with a steady gaze.

“My, my, Krash—constantly bringing women into my room. What exactly are you up to?”

Darling appeared without warning, her words brimming with barely suppressed laughter.

Of course she’d already figured out what was happening beforehand.

It was oddly irritating.

“And this little lady too. You were like this with Bianca as well—so your taste actually runs to small children?”

Darling covered her mouth as if she’d witnessed something deeply embarrassing.

Through the gap in her covered mouth, the curl of her smile was visible to Krash’s eyes, though Dorma’s shorter frame left her oblivious to it.

The result was Dorma’s face flushing crimson, her expression one of complete bewilderment.

“N-no! I came here to talk about curse-related matters!”
“Is that what you’re using to flirt now? Really, you’re too much. I’m wounded. So it’s cute little ones you’re after? When will you accept me as your girlfriend?”
“Y-yes? G-girlfriend? But Krash, you’re supposed to have a fiancée…”
“Having a fiancée doesn’t mean I don’t have a girlfriend. So all Krash wanted from me was my body and technique. What do you want from this adorable one? Her innocence? You’re like a lustful wolf.”

Dorma looked bewildered by Darling’s words, clearly at a loss.

And Krash watched Darling with eyes grown weary.

“That’s enough.”

When he warned that he’d get angry if she continued, Darling grinned with her eyes crinkling and laughed loudly before reaching over to ruffle Dorma’s disheveled hair.

“I’m joking. Krash is absolutely smitten with his fiancée. There’s no room for me in that picture.”
“I-is that so?”

Perhaps because of the rumors that had circulated, Dorma gazed at Krash with eyes still tinged with unease.

“Yeah, she opens her mouth and lies pour out. You can ignore everything she says.”

Krash spoke as though dismissing baseless worry.

But Darling wasn’t finished.

“The last thing I said was true, though, right? That you only want my body and technique.”
“Choose your words carefully. That’s because we need your alchemy.”
“Semantics.”

Darling remained constantly occupied with teasing people.

With Darling going on like that, Krash decided to introduce the two women to Dorma.

“Dorma, this is Darling Danpelion—she’s the one who helped you compile that list you saw. That one is Haring Lagran; as I mentioned, she’ll be helping us combine curses and poison.”

Haring drew away slightly from Dorma, as if maintaining distance from someone she’d only just met, and moved closer to Krash.

With Darling, it seemed she’d been so quick to close the gap that Haring had never found the chance to create distance.

But Dorma, lacking that kind of disposition, naturally maintained her space.

“Krash.”

Haring approached Krash’s side and tugged insistently at his collar.

When Krash turned to face her, she leaned in and whispered near his ear.

“There are people within the Empire Faction who don’t welcome you.”

Upon hearing this, Krash glanced at Haring.

“You’re part of the same faction yourself—are you fine with it?”

The Lagran Family belonged to the Empire Faction.

Naturally, Haring too was affiliated with the Empire Faction.

When he asked if she was fine with it, she tilted her head slightly.

“I’d rather you be safe than worry about strangers.”

Perhaps it was because they had grown quite close during the mission.

She was the sort who gave him much thought.

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Krash said so and flicked a finger at Darling’s forehead—a light punishment for still teasing Dorma.

Then he turned his gaze quietly toward the window outside.

Empire Faction members who didn’t welcome him.

He had a rough idea of who they might be.

‘The Midterm Evaluation. This should be interesting.’

If they proved half as troublesome as what he’d dealt with before, he figured he could repay them tenfold.

＊ ＊ ＊

Clip-clop, clip-clop—

The sound of shoe heels echoed through the hallway.

The owner of those heels was Sigrin, walking with her sea-blue hair streaming behind her.

Her eyes as she moved were half-lidded.

It was the expression of someone thoroughly displeased with the situation.

‘Krash has already forged a connection with Beltuah Lackroad?’

The world’s finest Arcane Sage.

Beltuah Lackroad.

Even she couldn’t yet determine where such a person was located.

When in the world had Krash met someone like that?

‘Did Charlotte know that much information?’

Her mind worked quickly through the possibilities.

Yet all that became clear was how lacking her information truly was.

And facing Krash there before her, she felt it acutely.

He had grown far stronger than she had anticipated.

‘A Cursed One suddenly emerging as a variable like this.’

Sigrin bit her lip lightly, brushing her bangs back from her forehead.

‘Meri won’t be enough.’

Her plan had been to use Meri to break Krash down, to make him feel the limits of his talent, and then

extend her own hand to turn things around. But it seemed destined to fail.

Meri had essentially outlived her usefulness.

‘She was never particularly helpful beyond being sturdy anyway.’

But watching Krash, her thoughts began to shift.

‘It almost feels wasteful to use her only in the role of a Cursed One.’

Her eyes gleamed with calculation.

She recalled dimly how Krash had ended up staying beside Arthur.

Crisis. In such moments, the help of another could forge that person into one’s own — a true opportunity.

Sigrin remembered how Krash had shown interest in curses when talking with Dorma.

With the right touch, couldn’t she guide him toward her?

“Mm.”

She exhaled softly through her nose, and her step grew lighter than before.

Perhaps she could devise quite a decent plan after all.

* * *

Inside Krash’s room.

Sitting on the floor with his eyes closed, Krash was concentrating on the power of the Nox dwelling within him.

He was practicing based on the memory of how he had imprinted Cheonsal-seong onto the Nox when facing Decarabia.

“Ugh!”

In that instant, Krash swallowed a groan and slowly opened his eyes.

His body was drenched in cold sweat.

The murderous intent swirling through Cheonsal-seong gradually began to subside through the Eye Doll, which had only just awakened.

After catching his breath, Krash swept back the hair from his forehead.

‘It was almost miraculous.’

Back then, driven by the thought that he’d been pushed to his limits, he’d wielded Cheonsal-seong with desperate intensity.

But using it again now, he couldn’t help but realize just how reckless that had been.

His control was still clumsy. He wasn’t ready to wield Cheonsal-seong properly.

“You’re right. I need more training.”

The fact that he’d been able to harness the full extent of Cheonsal-seong against Decarabia could only be attributed to pure luck.

‘Though if I’d been lucky, I wouldn’t have ended up in that situation in the first place.’

Freely wielding Cheonsal-seong was still beyond his current reach.

Yet the path forward was becoming clearer with each attempt.

Thanks to Nox, he could benefit from Moon-Sound Body even during daylight hours without much difficulty.

‘After lunch, I’ll head to the Martial Arts Training Ground.’

Having spent the morning on personal training, Krash had decided to participate in martial arts training for the rest of the day.

“Ah, are you finished with your training, sir?”

The moment Krash opened the door, Alisha, who had been waiting in the chair, rushed toward him.

She handed him a wet cloth, and he wiped his face clean with it.

“Where’s Lirina today?”
“She’s attending to Lord Aslan’s chambers at the moment, sir.”

Though Lirina often spoke with him in this room, she hadn’t forgotten her duties as Aslan’s personal attendant.

“Alisha, I’m going to have lunch and then head to the training grounds.”
“Very well, sir. I shall tidy up the room while you’re away.”
“Thanks.”

With Alisha’s farewell, Krash made his way straight to the Dormitory Cafeteria to eat lunch.

‘The Instant Enhancement Elixir seems to be progressing well on its own.’

Lately, Darling and Dorma had been practically living in the Alchemy Lab.

It made sense—Darling had been continuously working on papers related to Curse Nullification, and Dorma was a specialist in curses, so they worked well together.

Thanks to their efforts, research on the Instant Enhancement Elixir was progressing steadily.

According to them, a first prototype would likely be ready soon.

‘Sigrin, though—there’s been no movement from her side.’

Quite some time had passed since he’d met Sigrin, yet she remained quiet.

He seemed to have something scheming on his mind, but showed no immediate intention of acting on it.

‘Besides, Charlotte hasn’t arrived yet either.’

Charlotte and several other First Generation Students were still in the midst of completing their missions.

Because of this, the Academy grounds were relatively quiet overall.

With the First Generation Students absent, only the sounds of Second Generation Students training echoed through the halls each day.

Krash felt, for some reason, as though the calm before a storm was settling in.

‘What happened around this time?’

The world had changed so much that events no longer unfolded quite as they once had.

Still, Krash found himself pondering whether he could at least infer the general shape of things to come.

By the time these thoughts had run their course, he’d arrived at the cafeteria without quite noticing.

He pushed open the cafeteria door and stepped inside, greeted by the sight of students placing food orders.

It was right around lunch hour, so the place was crowded.

“Oh, look there.”
“It’s Krash Valheim.”

And thanks to the crowd, Krash immediately felt eyes turning toward him.

Had there been others around, it might’ve been different—but standing alone, the attention felt even more concentrated.

‘I’ll just grab something and eat it outside.’

His feet were already moving toward the sandwich station when he caught sight of a familiar shade of hair.

Krash slowly turned his head.

She’d been looking his way too, but at the sight of him, her body stiffened slightly before she quickly averted her gaze.

“Astria?”

At his call, she looked back at him, her expression turning somewhat sullen.

“You seem to be doing just fine.”

Astria Stigma Freeman.

The Holy Maiden herself.

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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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