I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 20

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

Episode 20. Darling’s Plan

“Hey there, hey! Honey, were you waiting for me?”
“Since when have you been my honey?”

The moment Darling bounced through the door with her usual teasing energy, Krash felt a flicker of exhaustion cross his face.

After his encounter with Ballock, his reserves were spent—he hadn’t the strength to trade banter with her.

“You look drained. Did something happen?”

Darling caught the shift in his mood and pressed the question.

Krash saw no reason to hide it, so he let out a long breath.

“Father came by.”
“Father? Don’t tell me—Ballock of House Balaheim?”

It felt wrong to call another man’s father by his bare name.

“Yes. Our father.”
“Wow, that’s incredible! I’ve been wanting to see him in person. I should’ve gotten here earlier!”

She bounced in place, playing at disappointment, her hair and earrings catching the light with each leap.

The movement drew Krash’s eye, but he only shook his head.

“It’s better you didn’t meet him.”

It only leaves your heart aching.

And truth be told, even Darling would struggle to maintain that carefree manner in Ballock’s presence.

The Empire held two Transcendent-level Powerhouses, but Starron had only one—and Ballock was that one.

In Starron, he was everyone’s ideal, occupying a place no one could ever challenge.

Only Charlotte offered hope as a rising star—maybe, someday, she might reach where Ballock stood.

“So, little one, did he come to make you the future head of House Balaheim?”
“Fat chance. You know our sister as well as I do.”

She was Charlotte’s greatest admirer, after all.

“I know. But I don’t think you’re lacking either.”

Darling’s eyes gleamed with sudden interest.

“I’m just dying to see how this stubborn little one will stand against Charlotte.”

That troublesome streak of hers was showing through.

With curiosity sparkling in her gaze, Krash flicked his finger against her ribs.

“Eek!”

As Darling twisted away with more force than he’d expected, Krash spoke.

“Stop talking nonsense. I never had any intention of becoming the head of House Balaheim anyway.”

If the world was going to be destroyed, becoming a family head meant nothing. What was the point?

As Krash spoke, Darling, hunched over and clutching her side, replied.

“I didn’t expect you to come out weak on that front. But anyway, don’t just jab at my ribs like that. Do you know how many sensitive people there are?”
“How would I know?”

Krash snorted, and Darling straightened up, her breathing finally settling.

“So what I asked for—”

As Krash spoke, Darling broke into a grin.

She opened the bag she’d brought along and pulled out a small vial from inside.

Within the vial sat a single pill, round and dough-like, smaller than a pinky fingernail.

“Done. How is it? Am I not a genius?”
“You were always a genius.”

Darling spoke playfully, and Krash responded with an obvious certainty.

Seeing his unexpected response, Darling hesitated—then Krash took the pill from her hand.

In that moment, Darling clenched and unclenched her fist, a slight flush crossing her face.

“…Hm, I didn’t expect you to call me a genius so bluntly.”
“You tell a genius they’re a genius. It’s only fitting, because that’s what suits them best.”

Geniuses each showed the most outstanding achievements in their respective fields, and because they made their names so widely known, people mistakenly thought there were many of them, becoming blind to their rarity.

But their numbers were always too few.

And Krash had spent his life in a generation overflowing with such geniuses.

Refusing to acknowledge genius only made oneself appear more worthless.

So Krash acknowledged genius.

Even though now he was in a position where he had to trample over such geniuses to climb higher.

“Surprisingly, you show an interesting side in moments like this. The more I know you, the more charming you become?”
“Don’t get fresh with a child.”
“Children wouldn’t understand such things anyway.”

Leaving Darling to her giggling, Krash tried to head toward Aliod.

But her next words stopped him in his tracks.

“There’s been word that Anix has changed recently.”

Krash’s head turned back.

Since Anix was defeated by Charlotte, he had reduced the intensity of his training.

More precisely, he had lost the meaning of training altogether.

He had concluded that no matter how hard he tried, he could never reach Charlotte’s level.

But after seeing Krash, who had been held down by Charlotte, spread his wings in the Holy Land of Stars, something in Anix’s heart shifted.

No one knew what had changed.

Yet the recent word was that he had intensified his training once more.

“Pointless effort.”

Krash made no attempt to hide his displeasure with Anix’s newfound dedication.

It was a natural reaction.

To Krash, Anix was nothing but a traitor.

More than that—he was contemptible.

‘Whatever influence I had on him, if any.’

Krash found the fact distasteful.

“Fine. Leave now.”
“That’s harsh. I came all this way, and you’re sending me off immediately?”
“There’s nothing for you to do here anyway.”
“I’d beg to differ.”

Watching Darling smile with amusement, Krash’s brow furrowed.

If he left things as they were, her pranks would only grow worse with each passing day.

He’d better set her straight now.

—What an amusing child.

In that moment, Krash froze at the voice ringing directly inside his head.

This unfamiliar sensation was the phenomenon that occurred whenever Crimson Garden spoke to him mentally.

As Krash glanced around, Crimson Garden was already perched by the window.

He had fled immediately when Father appeared earlier, but here he was again.

—An Alchemy Star, born and raised. Starron seemed barren besides House Balaheim, yet you’ve unearthed quite the useful talent.

Krash watched Crimson Garden’s raven eyes gleam a deep crimson red.

It appeared he had seen through Darling’s gift.

—Fortune smiles.

Crimson Garden’s expression turned satisfied.

—Have that child make an Elixir for you.

An Elixir is a special medicine that enhances physical prowess and Aura when consumed.

It was naturally priceless, and the House had passed down the secret technique for its creation for generations.

To demand its creation so suddenly.

Even Darling couldn’t create an Elixir on a whim, just like that.

—The formulas, I’ve got them all down perfectly. Don’t worry. We just need a skilled alchemist.

Well, if that’s all it takes.

Krash had no reason to object.

In all his life, Elixirs had been things entirely beyond his reach.

Feeding an Elixir to the small fry wouldn’t yield any results anyway—they’d all just consume them and nothing would be left over.

—You, your body’s in shambles. Don’t you think you need to be drenched in Elixirs?

Krash didn’t deny it.

That first day when he returned with Crimson Garden.

Krash received his first training from Crimson Garden.

And what Krash heard during that training was remarkably simple.

‘You were born with nothing. Your path in swordcraft is shallow, your talent for Aura meager, your body slow.’

Crimson Garden had been flabbergasted—it was practically a miracle to lack talent to this degree.

‘And yet, stubbornly as you are, you’ve crammed yourself full of makeshift experience and underhanded techniques to compensate for what you lack. Still, in five years, when the geniuses have accumulated their own experience, you won’t be able to keep pace. Even if you’re some sort of returnee with nothing to your name, you shouldn’t be this empty.’

Krash wasn’t a returnee, but the rest was true.

Even Anix, whom Krash had subdued so easily in the Holy Land of Stars, would be beyond Krash’s reach by the time he was past twenty.

‘But that.’

That was only.

‘A matter of the raw talent you possess.’

If Crimson Garden had only looked at Krash’s talent, he would never have taken him as a disciple.

‘If I exist, talent like that means nothing. With that greedy skill of yours, I can simply steal whatever talent you need.’

Crimson Garden ascended slowly into the sky.

The crow beat its wings, rising endlessly upward into the heavens.

‘You, who crawled only upon the ground your whole life—I will make you soar. You need only flap your wings with all your might. And put everything that flies in the sky beneath you. And at the very end.’

Crimson Garden spread both wings wide, as if to eclipse even the moon above.

‘Devour even my immortality.’

That was what Crimson Garden had said on that first day.

Krash realized it was a kind of oath—Crimson Garden’s oath.

An oath to accept him as a disciple.

And this Elixir was what Crimson Garden now demanded he create.

Of course it would be a tremendous help.

From Krash’s perspective, there was no reason to hide it.

“Darling, then I’d like to ask you for something else.”
“You’re asking for a lot. I’m an expensive woman. I don’t offer my services to just anyone.”
“I’d like you to make an Elixir for me.”

Krash didn’t bat an eye at Darling’s jest.

At the mention of an Elixir, Darling tilted her head and soon let out a soft laugh.

“You want to grow stronger by taking an Elixir? Did Anix’s training give you a jolt of motivation?”
“Anix doesn’t matter. I have far too much else to occupy my mind to worry about him.”

What Krash sees extends toward a far more distant horizon.

“It’s only what I need to stand at the starting line.”

Darling studied Krash for a moment.

She doesn’t know much about him.

He simply appeared one day and offered to help with her research, asking her in return to treat an incurable disease.

The rumors of her genius in Alchemy had already spread far and wide before his arrival, so she could understand such a request.

Yet that genius was only something she could claim because she was still in her teens.

As time passed, she too might one day reach a point where the word “genius” felt distant from her grasp.

And truthfully, most people thought the same way.

They held expectations of her while refusing to truly believe in her.

Over the years, they had seen countless prodigies ultimately become ordinary.

But Krash had never once doubted her genius.

As though her brilliance were simply a given.

How could someone harbor such certainty?

And that someone was only a boy about to turn fourteen.

‘Every time I see him, he carries himself as though he’s lived through entire worlds.’

And this very quality stirred an odd fascination within Darling.

At first, her curiosity was merely a response to this rare exception of House Balaheim, so unlike Charlotte.

But gradually, she began to harbor a deeper curiosity about Krash himself—the very essence of who he was.

“Making an Elixir costs a fortune depending on the materials. Are you certain you can afford it, little one?”
“What do you take House Balaheim for?”
“House Balaheim is formidable, but I’ve also heard plenty about your position within it.”

It was doubtful whether House Balaheim would fund such an enormous sum for Krash, who was known as the half-coin of House Balaheim.

“Don’t worry. He has a plan.”

Extracting a sum of money wasn’t difficult at all.

Even if he’d shut out the rumors circulating outside, he couldn’t help but hear the ones spreading within House Balaheim.

Krash knew well the major incidents that had occurred within House Balaheim.

And he also knew those incidents would bring in a considerable sum.

“Since you’re so confident about it, I’ll trust you. So which Elixir do you want to make?”
“That would be…”

As Krash glanced toward the window, Crimson Garden opened his mouth.

—Tell her exactly what I say.

And Krash relayed everything Crimson Garden had said to Darling.

As Darling listened quietly to the explanation, her face gradually hardened.

Because the Elixir combination formula Krash had described was something she herself had never once conceived of.

“Wait… if you do it this way… does it actually work?”

She turned the combination formula over in her mind, her expression dazed.

Watching her vacant expression, Krash—an outsider to Alchemy—glanced back at Crimson Garden to ask what exactly he’d just explained, but she merely shrugged her wings.

“Wow, how on earth do you know something like this, kid?”
“…It’s a formula passed down within House Balaheim.”

Krash gave a vague answer.

“House Balaheim really does have everything under the sun.”

She actually believed it.

Relieved to see Darling convinced, Krash looked at her and asked if she could attempt it.

Her eyes gleamed at that.

“All right. I’m absolutely eager to take on this challenge. I want to make it. But there are a few ingredients I can’t obtain. Especially the Baekseol Yeolyang Bacteria and the Geum Yong Cho—I can’t get those either.”
“The Baekseol Yeolyang Bacteria grows in the Hadenhartz region, doesn’t it?”
“Right, the mountains there are so treacherous and there’s so much World Erosion that distribution is poor and there aren’t many herb merchants carrying it.”
“I can obtain that.”

Hearing that, Darling belatedly recalled his fiancée.

“Ah, that’s right. You’d definitely be able to.”

But she quickly found a different problem.

“But the Geum Yong Cho is another matter.”
“It’s an Empire product.”
“Right, the Empire controls it directly, so there’s essentially nothing for sale domestically. You might dig up something through black market dealers, but if the Empire catches you, it’ll become a hassle.”
“But that doesn’t mean there’s no other way.”

Just as Krash was about to consider rummaging through black market dealers, Darling raised a finger and poked his cheek.

When Krash turned to ask what on earth Darling was doing, she flashed him a grin.

“I’ll teach you an easy way to get Geum Yong Cho, little one.”
“There’s a way to do that?”
“The Empire is holding two Martial Arts Tournaments very soon. One for adults, the other for boys fifteen and under. But the Empire’s real aim is the second tournament—the prizes there are much better.”

Krash understood immediately.

“So you’re saying I should go fight?”
“Place in the top three and you’ll get Geum Yong Cho. Not a bad prospect, is it?”

Not a bad prospect my foot.

Krash knew precisely why the Empire was holding this tournament.

The reason was simple.

The Empire meant to use the tournament to expand the talent pool of candidates for Rahelern Academy.

‘Rahelern Academy is nominally a place of harmony between the kingdoms and the Empire.’

But in truth, political factional struggle came first.

The more people from their own ranks they could place in Rahelern Academy, the greater their power grew.

So through the tournament, they’d become patrons to these young talents and secure their faction’s foothold within Rahelern Academy.

‘The kingdoms are probably preparing something similar.’

The Empire didn’t live up to its name for nothing.

They were promoting the Martial Arts Tournament on such a massive scale that word had spread to neighboring lands.

“…Did you forget? I’m House Balaheim. If I enter an Empire tournament, it’ll be a disaster.”
“I remember that perfectly. But the Empire’s official rules state that anyone can participate, regardless of background.”
“You’re an idiot. That’s just formality.”
“Hmph. You just called me a genius a moment ago.”

Krash wrapped his head in his hands and let out a long sigh.

When he thought about it, he was the one who needed the Elixir in the first place, and Darling was simply showing him how to gather its ingredients.

Knowing it was wrong to be angry at her, Krash looked at Darling instead.

“If you’re proposing this, you must have a way to make it work.”

Darling’s eyes lit up at once.

“Hehehehe, just as I thought—you’re sharp, little one. I like that.”

Seeing her smile in that unpleasant way made Krash feel deeply uneasy.

But since he couldn’t see any other way to obtain Geum Yong Cho, he watched as Darling quickly produced a vial from her breast pocket.

“Behold—a potion that turns you into a girl…!”

Crash!

Krash immediately swung his fist and shattered the vial.

She had no intention of catering to his taste.

“So what’s next?”

Krash smiled with a hollow edge, and Darling carefully wiped the shattered medicine away with her handkerchief.

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