I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 39

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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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Episode 39. The Hundred Ghosts’ Past, Now Gone

‘If you poured out your feelings like that, at least the world wouldn’t look ashen to you.’

She had said that to him at the annulment ceremony, meeting him face to face because of the incident that had occurred in Haden Hartz.

When Krash heard those words back then, he’d felt utterly exasperated.

‘What kind of nonsense is that? I’d rather have no feelings at all. You have any idea how useless they are?’

What good was freely expressing your emotions?

There was no use for them except cursing what a miserable world this was.

‘Is that so.’
‘Is that so, my ass.’

Krash clicked his tongue.

Then he regarded Bianca with a look of displeasure.

‘You should be the one upset, not me. This annulment ceremony—even I can see it’s unfair. What happened to your house wasn’t your fault. If it were me, I’d be so furious I’d lose my mind.’

The incident that had taken place in Haden Hartz not long ago.

It was an incident in which Douglakan, the patriarch of Haden Hartz, had gone mad.

He’d suddenly lost his mind and beaten the household servants to death with a club, and then

he’d killed his eldest son and Jenika, his second child, with his own hands.

The sole survivor was Bianca alone.

She had lived because her sister Jenika had hidden her in the cellar and drawn his attention away.

After enduring such a thing, what followed was the annulment.

From Balheim’s perspective, there was no reason to accept a ruined Bianca from the broken house of Haden Hartz.

‘In any case, those rotten bastards from that cursed house. They piled up engagements and such like they were collecting every bond in the world, and the moment something goes wrong, here we are.’

It annoyed Krash to see it unfold that way.

From the start, there were more than a few suspicious aspects about Douglakan going mad.

Balheim knew as much but cut ties with Bianca anyway once Haden Hartz was finished.

Bianca slowly fussed with the teacup of hot black tea in her hands.

‘Drink it if you want.’

Upon hearing that, Bianca shook her head slowly.

‘I can’t drink hot things. I have a cat’s tongue.’

That was right.

Krash had never been particularly interested in Bianca, so he let it pass.

‘……But then, what if I were to gain emotions and experience them firsthand? Wouldn’t I be able to tell which is more unbearable?’

In that moment, Bianca turned the proposal back on him.

It was an absurd suggestion.

‘If you recover your feelings there, you’ll lose your mind, bite your own tongue, and die.’

So Krash furrowed his brow and warned her.

He had no particular affection for her, but it was the bare minimum he could offer as her former betrothed.

But Bianca tilted her head.

‘You don’t care whether I live or die anyway, do you? We’re strangers now.’

In an instant, irritation flared.

He recognized that she was deliberately provoking him.

‘I’m simply curious. Which is more painful.’

Bianca spoke these words while remaining expressionless.

‘Tsk.’

Hearing this, Krash raised his hand.

‘If you’re so determined to know, then experience it yourself.’

She said she wanted to feel it directly, after all.

Krash stole Bianca’s Eye Doll through Black Hood.

Since she had offered to hand it over, he could easily steal her Curse without a dial.

Though the Eye Doll Curse that came into Krash’s possession was immediately negated by other Curses.

A mid-tier Curse like the Eye Doll was nothing but food for the countless transcendent Curses Krash possessed.

‘How does it feel?’
‘…….’

Krash still remembers that day with perfect clarity.

And he remembers too that he should have held her back then.

‘The world is truly cruel.’

That was the day she became one of the Hundred Ghosts.

Three years after she became one of the Hundred Ghosts.

The Poison King, one of the Top Ten Masters, fell by her hand.

The news spread across the entire world, and the full circumstances of the incident in Haden Hartz were revealed.

It was the Empire’s plan to annihilate Haden Hartz.

‘Damn it, what a fool this is…….’

When Krash heard the news, he pressed his face in his hands.

The reason was simple enough.

Second Prince Siphon, who had fled to Haden Hartz, had released a piece of information so damaging it could shake the very foundations of the Empire.

As a result, the Empire had swiftly sent in a single operative to silence both Haden Hartz and the second prince.

One who could wield every poison.

A Master of the Top Ten.

The Poison King.

The poison he had deployed against Douglakan, the lord of Haden Hartz, was a refined strain of Guangtian Poison of his own creation.

The Guangtian Poison made his household and family appear as monsters before Douglakan’s eyes.

Terrorized by these phantoms, Douglakan had killed every member of his household and family with his own hands—all save Bianca.

And when the poison’s effects finally wore clean away.

He could not bear what he had done, and took his own life by the noose.

That was the tragic and complete account of what had befallen Haden Hartz.

When the truth came to light, relations between the Empire and Staron plummeted to their nadir.

The result was war—inevitable, born of the Empire’s outrages—and in its course countless lives were lost.

Within that war.

Krash too had inevitably been drawn into the conflict.

For it was the Changgong Generation that had moved to end the war between Empire and Staron.

The Changgong Generation sided with neither Empire nor Staron.

So they had begun to use force to suppress them both, and collision followed.

The Changgong Generation, which ought to be standing against World Erosion, was instead employing force against humans.

It was a situation beyond absurdity.

And naturally, the Changgong Generation too could not remain safe in this war.

‘Damn these blockheads! Doesn’t someone have to stay behind and guard the supply lines?!’

Krash, who held the position of quartermaster for the Changgong Generation, shouted as he sprinted through the snow-laden forest.

He was passing through a burned-out Haden Hartz, his body covered in wounds.

Haden Hartz, closest to the Empire, had become a full front line.

Most notably, the Poison King had fallen by Bianca’s hand.

After killing the Poison King, Bianca had remained at the Northern Sea Ice Palace, the main seat of Haden Hartz.

Because of this, the Empire attacked not only Staron but also the Northern Sea Ice Palace with relentless ferocity.

‘The Northern Sea Ice Palace…….’

In that moment, Krash caught sight of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, half-collapsed in the distance.

‘There!’
‘He’s one of the Changgong Generation! Don’t let your guard down — kill him!’

The voices of the Empire’s knights who pursued him rang out across the battlefield.

Krash ground his teeth and bolted toward the Northern Sea Ice Palace.

Arriving at the frost-locked doors of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, Krash pounded against them with his bare hands.

‘Hey! Bianca! Are you in there?’

No answer came to his cry.

Damn it. What kind of shamelessness was this, at a time like this?

Krash clenched his fists and made to turn away.

But the knights were faster.

They had already closed in behind him without his noticing.

The killing intent burning in their eyes was barely contained.

At this rate, there was no telling human from World Erosion anymore.

Krash clicked his tongue and rolled up his sleeves.

There was no choice.

He would have to use Curse to break free, at least.

As for what came after, he’d find some way to ask the Saint for help.

That was the moment the thought crossed his mind.

Screeeech!

‘Aaaarrgh?!’
‘Gah, hack!’

The incoming spikes pierced through their bodies in an instant.

Even protected by their Auras, they couldn’t stop it.

Standing dazed before the sight, Krash’s gaze fell upon the open doors of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.

He stepped inside and pushed the doors shut behind him.

Looking around, he saw the interior of the Northern Sea Ice Palace—everything locked in ice.

Krash moved forward, feeling the cold seep into his bones.

‘Bianca.’

He called her name, but no voice answered.

With no other choice, Krash decided to venture deeper inside.

After wandering through the Northern Sea Ice Palace for some time, Krash came to a halt before one of the chambers.

Inside the shattered doorway.

There stood a woman with a sword driven through her heart, her two legs frozen solid beneath her.

Drip.

A drop of blood fell from the blade.

Krash’s eyes began to widen slowly as he witnessed it.

‘…Bianca.’

It was Bianca, unmistakably.

‘…It has been a long time, Krash.’

In that moment, Bianca’s voice reached him.

Hearing her barely audible words, Krash understood that she had little time left.

‘You rampaged until you came to this state—why did it have to end like this?’

He recognized the sword embedded in her chest.

The poison oozing thickly from the blade.

It was the poison of the Poison Phoenix, the Poison King’s daughter.

It seemed she had come all the way from the Empire to this place seeking vengeance for her father.

And it was clear that the sword had been lodged there for quite some time.

The poison had spread so deep throughout her body that now even a saint could not reverse it.

‘I suppose so. How did it come to this?’

Though she must have regained her emotions, her expression remained utterly blank.

As if she no longer remembered how to make a face.

Krash bit his lip at the sight.

Only long after the Engagement Annulment did Krash learn the truth of her circumstances.

And so, overwhelmed by frustration, Krash cried out to her.

‘Why didn’t you just say it then? That it was the Poison King and the Empire who were responsible, that your family bore no fault.’

Bianca must have known even at the time of the Engagement Annulment that the deed belonged to the Empire and the Poison King.

But she had not told Krash the truth.

‘If I had spoken, would anything have changed?’

And to that, Krash found he had nothing to say.

Telling him would have changed nothing.

He was nothing more than a wretch clinging to the Changgong Generation, stealing what scraps of Curses he could.

Krash had no power to transform Bianca’s life.

Bianca began to laugh softly.

Then her eyes drifted to memories of the past.

‘Now that I think of it, we once spoke of which was more painful—feeling nothing, or feeling everything.’

Blood spilled from Bianca’s lips as she recalled the conversation from three years ago, when her engagement had been annulled.

Krash felt her vitality draining away, nearly gone.

‘What do you say? Won’t you hear my answer now?’

This was the last.

This would be the last conversation they could have.

‘……Say it.’

Bianca had saved his life once.

Listening to her words now was the least he could do.

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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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