I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 19

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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 19. The Unfeeling Emperor

The curse that bound Bianca.

The Eye Doll.

That curse, which had stolen her emotions since the moment of her birth, was something she had endured her entire life.

Krash needed that curse of hers to kill the madness spawned by World Erosion.

And until now, he had worked tirelessly to unlock her Dial.

A few days ago, he had finally unlocked Bianca’s first Dial.

It was an extraordinary achievement—but the second Dial posed a problem.

‘What is this.’

The second Dial that Krash discovered in Bianca left him at a loss.

[To become Bianca’s ‘most precious person.’]

Most precious person.

For some, it meant a parent; for others, a child, a friend, or a lover.

It was a word truly difficult to define.

Yet Krash’s sense of helplessness at seeing this stemmed from another reason entirely.

One could manage the title of friend easily enough.

But for Bianca, who lacked emotion, being someone’s most precious person was far more complicated than it seemed.

What was already a difficult condition became even more so when the subject was Bianca.

‘I cannot be a parent or a child.’

The two titles most easily bestowed as ‘most precious person’ were not ones he could claim.

That left the possibility of a lover—though even that seemed the only remaining hope.

And ironically, Krash had already achieved that role to some degree.

After all, he and Bianca were betrothed by their families.

Yet a betrothal and a lover’s bond were different stations.

Above all, the very concept of a lover presupposed love itself.

Love was impossible for someone devoid of emotion.

What troubled Krash most, though, was something else entirely.

To unlock the Dial, he had to seduce a twelve-year-old child. The thought sat wrong with him.

“What a headache this is.”

I remember that when I stole Bianca’s curse before, the conditions weren’t like this.

Though it made sense—the Dial’s conditions always reflected the life the person had lived.

The Bianca of then and the Bianca of now were different, after all.

I have my instincts now, so it’s manageable, but someday I’ll need her curse desperately.

The worry gnawed at me relentlessly.

Flutter-flutter!

At that moment, Krash heard the sound of wings beating outside the window.

Krash opened the window with practiced ease, and what entered was a single raven.

That raven was none other than Crimson Garden August.

She was his familiar.

“The child does seem to love me dearly. She won’t let me go easily.”

The reason she had come now was none other than Bianca.

He’d only just learned that Bianca was quite fond of animals.

Whenever she saw Crimson Garden, whom Krash had brought, she would carefully follow along, and once she realized the raven didn’t shun her, she’d grown quite attached.

So lately Krash had been thinking that Bianca followed Crimson Garden more than she followed him.

“Perhaps you’ll find it easier than me, Crimson Garden. You suit her better.”

Wouldn’t it be simpler for Crimson Garden to become the most important person to Bianca?

As he was contemplating whether he should even dress up as a raven himself, Crimson Garden fixed him with a displeased look.

“I told you not to call me that.”
“But Bianca calls you by it all the time.”
“The child knows no other name, does she?”

Well, that was true enough.

“In any case, there’s a carriage outside.”

At those words, Krash nodded in understanding.

It seemed Darling had arrived.

‘Aliod will be pleased about that.’

Still, since Darling was his exclusive butler, Krash felt a sense of pride as he left the room with Crimson Garden perched on his shoulder.

At that very moment, urgent footsteps echoed from the staircase.

The one making that sound was none other than Aliod.

Krash thought that he must have already heard about the antidote.

“Aliod—”
“Krash! Young Master Krash!”

Breaking off mid-sentence, Aliod’s voice shot up in urgency.

Krash tilted his head, noting how Aliod’s face had drained to a sickly pallor—hardly the look of someone bearing good news.

Something in his reaction felt wrong.

“What is it? What’s happened? Darling didn’t come, did he?”

Aliod shook his head violently side to side.

If not Darling, there would be no reason for him to seek Krash out.

It struck Krash that Aliod’s brow was beaded with an unusual amount of sweat.

Then came the words, and Krash’s body went rigid in tandem.

“The Patriarch! The Patriarch has arrived!”
“What?”
“The Patriarch is here!”

The words hit like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Krash froze as if struck by lightning itself.

The Patriarch. Who could that be?

There was only one person in the world whom Aliod would address by that title.

One of the Four Heavenly Sovereigns.

The Martial Emperor.

Ballock of Balhaim.

Balhaim itself had descended upon Cheong Song Manor.

As Krash slowly lifted his head, as if waking to reality, he caught sight of Aliod’s face.

No longer merely ashen, it had gone white—and the sight of it was almost pitiful.

‘Why would Father…’

Why had he come to Cheong Song Manor?

The answer was simple enough.

“…Damn it.”

The curse slipped unbidden from his lips—one he’d been trying to curtail lately.

Because.

Krash himself had demanded his father come.

Had his mother actually relayed those words to his father as they were?

As a faint headache bloomed behind his eyes, Crimson Garden descended from his shoulder in a flutter of wings.

Waddling along, the figure looked every bit like someone in flight.

Then again, if it were his father, he might see through Crimson Garden’s true nature in an instant—so it was only natural.

“…Where is the Patriarch?”
“He’s in the drawing room for now, sir.”

Krash straightened his necktie properly.

Then he checked his appearance thoroughly.

Nothing to find fault with.

Once satisfied, Krash looked to Aliod.

Aliod’s head nodded in acknowledgment.

“Never mind tea and refreshments. The Patriarch won’t touch them anyway. Tell the servants not to come near the drawing room.”
“Yes, understood.”

Krash set out, leaving Aliod to carry out his orders faithfully.

His destination was naturally the drawing room where Ballock would be.

With each step, tension thrummed through him.

He thought that in his younger days he might have already fled, and stood before the drawing room door.

For some reason, the room felt unusually vast today.

Knock, knock.

“Patriarch, it is Krash of Balhaim.”
“Come in.”

The moment Krash spoke, a reply came from within.

He must have sensed his presence long ago.

Krash carefully took hold of the door handle and pushed it open.

Light spilled in, and beneath it he saw black hair identical to his own.

Between bangs that fell to his brow, eyes shimmered with blue starlight, their gaze fixed quietly upon the table.

In the next moment, those eyes slowly lifted.

That alone sent prickling sensation across Krash’s skin.

There was a mountain there.

A distant, unreachable mountain no matter how high one lifted one’s head.

In that moment, Krash viscerally understood what overwhelming presence meant.

A being who had transcended human limits and reached the threshold of semi-divinity.

Ballock Balhaim.

He grasped what it meant to stand before such an existence.

And how far the meager strength he possessed still had to go.

‘A monster, no matter how many times I see it.’

Krash swallowed hard and straightened his posture with effort.

“I am honored to meet you, Patriarch of Balhaim.”

Since returning to the past, this was the first time he’d faced the man directly.

As Krash felt his mouth go dry, Ballock spoke.

“Sit.”

Krash immediately corrected his posture and sat in the chair before him.

Being able to face the Patriarch directly was a privilege reserved only for the direct bloodline.

But as Krash, who still hadn’t grown accustomed to such privilege, forced himself to meet Ballock’s gaze, the man’s lips opened slowly.

“I heard you went to the World Erosion for the first time.”

He had been in the Golden Realm—so how had he heard that Krash was in the World Erosion?

Whether it was his mother or someone else, Krash answered immediately.

“Yes, I returned recently.”
“How was it?”

How was it, he asks.

He’d confirmed Belokin’s ugliness anew, seized an Immortal as a trophy in his hands, and for the first time in his life, stolen a skill.

From Krash’s perspective, it was nothing short of a victory march.

But what if he told Ballock all that?

He’d trapped his brother in a snare, killed him with his true face exposed, and dressed it up as though the one who died was his noble sacrifice.

Moreover, he’d stolen his brother’s skill and then shook hands with an Erosion Eater.

Krash marveled at it.

How his actions could receive starkly opposite judgments depending on who was assessing them.

Krash didn’t know how far Ballock could see through.

After all, Ballock was a Semi-divine being who had even awakened the Divine Eye.

So he decided to speak his feelings honestly.

“It wasn’t as frightening as I expected.”

As Belokin’s death drew near, Krash now realized it hadn’t been much at all.

Belokin, who had tormented him so bitterly and stood as the symbol of his fear, turned out to be nothing but a criminal crushed beneath the weight of Charlotte.

So when he saw him again, he was pathetic if anything—but hardly frightening.

Even the very thought of killing him.

“I see.”

Ballock’s answer was remarkably brief.

They say that once one becomes a semi-divine being, they drift quite far from the emotions that bind humans.

Perhaps that was why, despite being spared the curse that afflicted Bianca, his expression remained rigidly distant.

“That settles it.”

And with that, Ballock abruptly rose from his seat.

Seeing this, Krash scrambled to his feet in alarm, following suit.

“You came merely to speak of this?”
“Yes. That’s all. I know enough now.”

What exactly had he gleaned from that brief exchange?

Krash stood bewildered, but Ballock appeared to have already made his decision.

“I’m returning to the Golden Realm.”

He spoke of the Golden Realm as casually as one might mention a stroll.

Yet there was no stopping a patriarch on his way.

All Krash could do was bow his head to the departing Ballock.

And Ballock truly did depart for the Golden Realm.

He didn’t even stop at the main estate, or so it’s said.

One might wonder if such a thing were wise, but within Balhaim, no one dared oppose the patriarch’s will.

As the driven storm faded, Krash swept back his bangs with a weary motion.

Good heavens, it feels as though my life span has just shrunk considerably.

As he sat with the bewildering sense that he had no idea why Ballock had come at all, another carriage became visible beyond the window.

Upon recognizing the Danfelion insignia emblazoned on that carriage, Krash let out a belated sigh.

“He could have arrived a bit sooner.”

He found himself taking out his frustration on Darling, who would soon arrive anyway.

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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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