I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 32

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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 32. Rescue

While the battle between Pele and Krash raged on.

The Second Prince, Siphon Epania, seated in the Arena’s finest vantage point, was clapping his hands.

“Hahahah, what excellent preparation! Indeed, only one of that caliber deserves to be called the Night Raven!”

Siphon, who believed Krash to be the Night Raven through and through, wore a brilliant smile—clearly delighted by the tournament.

At his side sat Evelask, whom he had forcibly brought along.

Dragged to this event by the Second Prince, Evelask’s lips trembled with visible discomfort.

She had never wanted to come to a place so crowded with people.

“I offered such praise, yet you don’t even respond. What kind of behavior is that?”

In that instant, Siphon fixed a displeased glare upon Evelask, his protruding belly heaving.

“Ah, I—I was concentrating on controlling the corpse, Your Highness! I am truly honored to please you!”
“Haha, that’s right. An Imperial hound should know exactly how to behave.”

According to Sigrin’s plan, Evelask’s Heart belonged to the Second Prince.

So when she fumbled through her response, the Second Prince’s mood brightened.

“Tsk, I should have brought some champagne. What’s a delightful spectacle like this without a drink?”

Siphon let out a greedy chuckle.

If he could showcase the Night Raven’s power so thoroughly in this affair and win over the nobility, he could become Emperor.

Just as he was savoring that pleasant moment.

Footsteps suddenly echoed from the corridor connected to his private chamber.

“What—what are you doing?! This place is—!”
“Black Dragon Knights. Stand aside. Official matter.”
“B-Black Dragon?!”

Outside, the panicked voices of maids and servants rang out.

“What is this?”

At the commotion, Siphon turned his head with eyes half-lidded.

The next moment, the door burst open with a loud bang.

Standing there were knights clad entirely in black uniforms.

The Empire’s Black Dragon Knights.

Unlike the three principal knight orders of the Empire—the White Dragon, Celestial Dragon, and Yellow Dragon—they primarily handled crimes and incidents occurring throughout the realm.

One reason for their sinister reputation was their absolute refusal to let criminals live.

Their appearance at this moment meant one thing: a criminal was present in this room.

“What are you doing? Do you not know who is in this chamber?”

The Second Prince kicked back his chair and rose, fury flashing across his face.

To dare enter a room where royalty stood—kicking the door open no less—required audacity bordering on madness.

“Second Prince Siphon Epania.”

At that moment, the woman who had spoken his name stepped forward with measured grace.

She alone wore something other than the standard black uniform, and her striking figure immediately drew the eye.

So much so that Siphon’s composure slipped for just an instant, his jaw tightening slightly.

She was Mary Diana.

Though he found himself momentarily distracted by her presence, Siphon quickly regained his senses and radiating annoyance.

“How dare you address me, the Second Prince, without proper courtesy! Have you lost your mind!”
“I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Fourth Princess Sizli Epania.”
“What—what? Sizli?”

Siphon’s expression shifted to one of pure bewilderment at Mary’s declaration.

Why would he kill Sizli?

That tomboyish fool—what reason could he possibly have to murder her?

Yet the Black Dragon Knights were advancing toward him, following Mary’s command.

Seeing their expressions, Siphon’s face darkened with rage.

“Are you all insane! I killed Sizli? What nonsense is this!”
“An order document addressed to the Night Raven was discovered, commanding the murder of the Fourth Princess.”
“Absurd! Ridiculous lies! I never wrote any such order!”

Yet the Black Dragon Knights remained silent, unmoved.

“Evelask! Kill these dogs at once! How dare they attempt to arrest royalty on such baseless grounds!”
“I, um, well, that is…”

Evelask glanced around in confusion.

She felt herself waiting for something—though what, she could not quite name.

“Who’s dead?”

A mocking laugh cut through the tension.

The Black Dragon Knights and Mary froze.

Click, click—

The sharp tap of heeled footsteps echoed through the entrance as a figure emerged from the door the Knights had come through.

Her blue hair swept back as she wore a beguiling smile.

She entered alongside her attendant, Sera Betela—and she was none other than Sizli Epania herself.

Mary maintained a rigid expression, and when she faced the Black Dragon Knights, she displayed a remarkable reaction.

“Did you just say I was murdered?”

Sizli Epania ran her hands over her arms and body.

Then, looking at the Black Dragon Knights, she tilted her head quizzically.

“How strange. Sera, was I murdered?”
“No, ma’am. You’re perfectly fine. Not only that, we didn’t spot a single assassin.”
“Hmm, so Sera says otherwise. Without Sera or me even knowing, I died, apparently. Something seems very wrong here.”

She spoke those words and began to laugh slowly, then cut her laughter short.

“Zenkal, Vice-Commander of the Black Dragon Knights.”

The moment she singled out one of the Black Dragon Knights, Sera vanished from her side.

“Bring him in.”

Crack!

“Ugh!?”

With a harsh crashing sound of a fist, the vice-commander crumpled to the ground.

Sera Betela had once belonged to the Yellow Dragon Knights as their vice-commander.

In terms of raw ability, she held the advantage, and so he—caught off guard by Sizli Epania’s sudden appearance when he’d believed her dead—had no chance to react.

And he was none other than a chess piece that Mary and Sigrin had planted within the Black Dragon Knights.

‘How!?’

Mary reeled inwardly, maintaining as much composure as she could.

Mary could make no sense of the current situation whatsoever.

She had killed Sera with her own hands, or so she believed.

And Evelask should have turned her into a corpse and severed Sizli Epania’s throat.

Yet both Sizli Epania and Sera stood before her without a scratch.

It was an endless succession of incomprehensible events.

In that instant, Sizli Epania’s eyes met Mary’s.

A brief snort.

Sizli Epania let out a short, contemptuous laugh.

Mary understood what that meant.

The Fourth Princess knew everything.

The one blessed with a brilliant mind beyond all others.

This was why Sigrin had sought to eliminate Sizli Epania beforehand.

If she had known about this entire plan and acted accordingly, she would undoubtedly become a major obstacle moving forward.

More than that, it meant she had failed to carry out Sigrin’s orders.

As a knight serving Sigrin, she had to obey her lord’s command without exception.

‘She has to die.’

Mary Diana’s eyes flashed with resolve.

But not by her own hand.

Then what?

‘The traitor.’

Regardless of how Sera Betela had survived, it was clearly Evelask’s doing.

She would use Evelask—the woman who dared betray Sigrin.

In that instant, Mary Diana clenched Evelask’s Heart in her pocket with crushing force.

“Ugh—gasp?!”

Evelask’s eyes snapped open wide, her hands clutching at her chest.

Mary Diana was embedding a command directly into her Heart.

“No, please—”

Evelask’s face drained of all color.

As crushing agony seized her, cold sweat poured down her features, and control over her own body began to slip away.

Krash had only activated the Black Hood at the time—he hadn’t actually used it.

If her Heart vanished, both Mary Diana and Sizli Epania would certainly sense something was wrong.

So her Heart remained in Mary Diana’s possession still.

Mary Diana clearly meant to use her to kill Sizli Epania here, and then use Evelask’s own hands to kill her as well.

“Gasp—gasp! K-Krash!”

She thrashed against the command, desperate to break free.

But the mandate carved into her Heart could not be resisted.

“Shrieeeeeeeek!”

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

The Black Dragon Knights drew their blades in belated alarm, and as Siphon Epania staggered back in shock, corpses rose from beneath her feet.

Mary Diana’s eyes blazed.

It was finished.

“What—what is this! Evelask! What are you doing!”
“A monster! Kill it! Protect the prince and princess!”

The Black Dragon Knights cried out as they rushed toward the cascade of corpses.

Thud!

The torrent of bodies that had been pouring out suddenly froze in place.

The Black Dragon Knights, who had been about to swing their blades, stopped in turn.

“What?”

A note of bewilderment escaped Mary’s lips.

When she looked up, Evelask lay crumpled on the ground before her.

The woman who had been weeping, tears streaming down her face, now wore a slack expression as the pain vanished.

Mary had carved a command into her Heart—kill Sizli.

But it had stopped?

Mary’s hand shot toward her pocket to seize the Heart again.

Only then did she realize her pocket was empty.

‘The Heart—it’s gone?!’

The Heart that had been in her grasp just moments before had vanished.

Confronted with the impossible, Mary’s eyes widened.

And her mind accelerated.

Sizli assassination failed.

Siphon’s downfall failed.

Evelask’s Heart lost.

As those three cascading failures collided, her thoughts reeled.

And that moment gave way to her most dangerous habit.

The habit of acting first when things went wrong.

That habit now demanded only one thing: killing Sizli, her first priority.

Sera was occupied bringing down the Black Dragon Knights’ vice-commander. Sizli was alone.

Even Sera could not have stopped her.

The fragile Sizli could not possibly stand against her.

Bang!

With her strike unleashed, her form blurred into motion.

At the same moment, an explosive aura poured out from her in torrents.

Her leg strike, called the mightiest spear, shattered the ground beneath and sent her hurtling forward in an instant.

‘Accel.’

Her body accelerated once more.

The world’s highest speed, layered atop her leg strike.

In a heartbeat, the world seemed to slow before her eyes.

Sizli caught on too late, her body already trying to dodge, but her reaction seemed slower than a worm crawling to Mary.

Divine Spear.

As if to prove the epithet she had once been called.

‘Die, Sizli Epania.’

With the flash gathering from her spear, the shaft rushed toward Sizli’s throat.

Tap!

Clang!

Thick dust whirled through the storm-like impact that followed.

Through the haze, bewilderment clouded Mary’s eyes beneath her streaming black hair.

What she felt from her spear was not the sensation of tearing flesh.

Instead, the sound that rang out was steel striking steel.

Mary’s eyes wavered.

Though her technique had degraded since those days of old, this was the spear that had even slain her Master.

Yet someone had blocked it at point-blank range.

A boy exhaling pitch-black flames from his sword.

That narrow-eyed boy was none other than the corpse being puppeteered by Evelask.

In that moment, the boy’s mouth opened slowly.

“Whether past or present.”

He gazed at Mary before him, his smile dripping with contempt.

“That simple head of yours hasn’t changed one bit.”

Yet despite the boy’s composed appearance, his body trembled violently.

Evidence of the strain from blocking her spear.

It was the instant when Mary, momentarily stunned, withdrew her spear to deliver the next blow.

“What are you doing? Seize this woman at once!”

Sizli’s sharp rebuke cut through the air relentlessly.

In that same breath, Sera—already deep in her Berserk Form—launched herself forward with predatory speed.

The Black Dragon Knights surged in behind her, a tide of iron.

Trapped in the closing net within seconds, Mary bit down hard on her lip.

A mistake.

She should have withdrawn—plan exposed or not.

But panic had narrowed her mind to a pinhole.

The thought flickered: kill them all. Just as quickly, she knew it for madness.

Even if she cut down every one of them, the Empire’s swordsmen would hunt her to the ends of the earth.

Later, perhaps, she might stand against them—but now, at her current strength, they would own her death.

‘Flight, then.’

That too was impossible.

If she ran, the Academy itself would bar its doors to her.

This incident—she could slip through it, if she played carefully.

But if she fled now, she would never set foot in the Empire or the Academy again. Never.

So she surrendered. Her spear fell slack to the ground with a hollow sound.

The Black Dragon Knights moved swiftly, binding her where she stood.

‘Sigrin. Arthur.’

Head hanging, Mary was dragged away by the Knights, her mind already far ahead.

Her teeth ground together with the force of her rage.

‘Evelask. Sizli Epania.’

Those two women would die by her hand. No mercy, no redemption—they would die.

‘Fool of a woman.’

Krash watched her being hauled away, tongue clicking against his teeth.

She’d never guessed his true nature; she’d pour all her hatred into Evelask and no one else.

‘Of course.’

She had no inkling that he’d been the one to return in Arthur’s stead.

Long ago, she’d already erased him from her mind entirely.

In her memory, he existed only as a thief—a tool for stealing curses.

“Are you all right!”

In that moment, Sizli cried out to Krash.

Seeing her expression, Krash exhaled softly.

“Damn, it hurts.”

Both of Krash’s arms were in terrible shape.

That reckless woman had shattered his arms even while channeling the full power of the Extreme Blood Needle Poison.

Simply by blocking.

And his favored sword had bent as well.

Truly, the Divine Spear.

A fitting epithet.

Had she targeted him from the start instead of Sizli, he would surely be dead.

It meant he was still far from her level.

“What possessed you to do something so reckless!”

Sizli scolded Krash, her startled heart slowly steadying.

“I was wearing a Protective Amulet passed down through the imperial family!”

Krash only now noticed the amulet fastened around Sizli’s neck.

So that’s what she’d been doing in secret—she’d obtained that.

‘Thorough as always.’

Evelask vanished in an instant, and seeing her go, Mary Diana’s expression turned dumbfounded.

“What in the world was that supposed to mean……?”

He had spoken words that even her sharp mind could not fathom, then simply departed.

He could have at least offered something befitting a farewell.

Sizli Epania drew a long breath and lifted her head.

Beside her stood Sera Betela, her expression etched with guilt.

It was only natural—as her attendant, Sera had failed to shield her from Mary Diana’s spear.

“Sera.”

Seeing her like that, Sizli gazed out through the window.

“It seems I shall need to enroll at Rahelrn Academy.”
“I shall make the arrangements.”

Though Krash had not spoken, she had understood his intent to head for Rahelrn Academy, and for the first time in a long while, she smiled—a slow, genuine smile that was entirely her own.

“Besides, I am wounded. You ought to tend to that, shouldn’t you?”

With those words, she turned and began to walk, her heart already fixed on the day she would see Krash again.

“W-what? Evelask? What on earth is happening!?”

Only Siphon Epania’s cry rang out alone, the sole voice who understood nothing of what had just transpired.

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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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