I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 68

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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 68. Those Who Gather at the Demon Palace

‘That should be enough.’

Krash waited until Pendal exhausted himself fully, then timed his strike perfectly to shatter him—and only then did he remove his foot from Pendal’s chest, where the man was flushed crimson with shame.

But Pendal didn’t get up.

He seemed to prefer lying there defeated to facing the humiliation of rising.

Leaving Pendal where he lay, Krash turned to address the crowd around them.

“I am Krash of Balheim. I’ve broken Nakcheon, and I’m looking for Clearists willing to push to the eighth floor with me.”

Every eye in the area snapped toward him at once.

“Come whenever you’re ready. I’ll take anyone who knows the Demon Palace well. Anyone who wants to claim the achievement of crossing to the eighth floor alongside me.”

With that, Krash turned and walked away.

He saw Pendal’s crew rush over to help their leader to his feet, but he paid them no mind.

Instead, he found himself thinking of a woman who had watched him intently throughout the entire fight.

‘Lacradion.’

A swordmaster—perhaps the last light the Demon Palace had ever known.

If Pendal was darkness, then she was the Demon Palace’s light.

The light that every Clearist in the Demon Palace yearned for, the light they all hoped would one day clear the Demon Palace for them.

And she was the swordmaster whose name Krash had heard most often during his year spent within the Demon Palace.

Only, by the time Krash had known her, that Lacradion had already set down her blade and become a faded shadow of the master she once was.

Pendal had remained darkness, but Lacradion, because she was light, had eventually lost that brightness and shattered.

The woman who set down her sword became nothing more than a merchant running a small shop in the Demon Palace.

—Aren’t you worried he’ll throw a fit and seek revenge if you just leave him like that?

At that moment, Crimson Garden descended onto Krash’s shoulder and posed the question.

Krash gave a light laugh in response.

“That’s what I’m counting on.”
—What a nasty disposition you have.

Pendal’s skill: Liioner.

-will become an object of envy

The first condition was envy.

Ironically, this part was already satisfied by the simple fact that Krash belonged to Balheim.

-must be recognized as a worthy rival or better

The second condition was rivalry.

Pendal had to genuinely hold the conviction, in whatever form, that he and Krash were rivals.

‘Always so half-hearted with it.’

In the battle just now, Pendal’s second Dial remained unopened.

That didn’t mean the man truly acknowledged Krash in his heart.

‘There will be more chances, anyway.’

That moment when he recognized Krash as a rival or more—that moment would come again.

Krash decided to wait for it patiently.

After all, they would keep crossing paths until his business in the Demon Palace was finished.

Krash’s reason for specifically seeking out a team to descend into the Demon Palace was partly because the place was difficult to navigate alone.

But it was also to lure Pendal.

On a certain day spent in the Demon Palace.

Because of his status as Balheim, Krash had experienced something similar before.

Of course, it wasn’t Krash who ended up fighting him then.

It was none other than the Bowmaster, Anyx of Grayza, who fought Pendal.

When he heard that Belokin had obtained the Thunder Star, Anyx—that glutton wondering if there might be more spoils to grab—led the Staron group, including Krash, down to the Demon Palace.

That day, Pendal naturally picked a fight with Anyx’s side, and as a result, he was utterly crushed by Anyx’s hand.

After that, he kept throwing himself at Anyx relentlessly, holding nothing back, but was only broken again and again before fleeing the Demon Palace.

Because of all that, Krash remembered Pendal’s tendencies well—his techniques, his traits.

Remembering such things was precisely Krash’s specialty.

Thanks to that, he had defeated Pendal without much difficulty.

For someone else, it would not have been so easy.

‘Though the situation now is completely different from back then.’

Krash believed that Pendal hadn’t changed much since those days.

‘If anything, the result will only be worse.’

Of course, that result would be anything but favorable for Pendal.

Krash’s eyes gleamed quietly in the darkness.

* * *

To begin with the conclusion:

the situation had not, in fact, resolved so easily.

Krash watched Bianca, who sat beside him absorbed in a book he’d recently bought for her.

Unfortunately, none of those who appeared in Krash’s Floor Eight clearance had materialized.

Pendal had undoubtedly been defeated by Krash.

Yet that changed nothing—Krash was still destined to leave the Demon Palace.

Pendal would not vanish from it.

So there was nowhere a Clearist would go to join Krash, who had solidly earned Pendal’s enmity.

“You’ve got something on your mouth.”

But Krash paid it little mind, gently wiping the chocolate from Bianca’s face—the chocolate he’d bought for her not long ago.

Bianca’s face shifted this way and that, following the motion of his hand.

By now, whatever Krash did for her seemed entirely familiar.

Then Bianca turned to look back at him.

“Are you going to keep waiting?”
“I suppose I am.”

Young as she was, Bianca didn’t understand what purpose drove Krash forward each time.

She was simply at his side, and so remained there.

It wasn’t so bad, though she often harbored a wish to be of use to him.

“Is there nothing I can help with?”

Krash’s eyes widened, then slowly curved into a faint smile.

“What could you possibly help me with?”

Unlike Krash, Bianca possessed no knowledge whatsoever of combat or warfare.

But curious about what manner of assistance this small creature might offer, Krash asked with genuine interest—and Bianca rose from her seat.

Then, without warning, she planted herself squarely on the center of the chair where Krash was sitting.

At the suddenness of it, Krash hesitated for a moment—and her soft hair brushed gently against his face.

“A person’s warmth eases a troubled heart, or so I’ve read.”
“…You read that in a book?”
“I did.”

A blunt answer.

Yet her mood seemed good enough—beneath the table, Bianca’s legs swayed back and forth in a slow, steady rhythm.

Krash shook his head at the sight, then lifted a hand and began stroking her head gently.

At that, Bianca’s legs moved faster, swinging with more vigor.

She looked like a dog wagging its tail.

‘Now that she’s stopped suppressing her feelings, her expressions are becoming more and more lively.’

Having spent her entire life with emotions locked away, Krash found himself oddly satisfied watching her like this.

“I…”

In that moment, a voice reached Krash’s ears.

Recognizing that the person he’d been waiting for had arrived, Krash turned his head.

There stood a woman, tall and composed.

Hair bound up in a combination of black and gold, a sword hanging at her waist.

The only one in the Demon Palace who stood as an equal to the Pendal Lord.

It was Lacradion.

It seemed she’d been training until morning.

Her clothes were covered in dust.

Yet even so, her emerald eyes shone with unmistakable clarity.

At last, the visitor he’d been waiting for had arrived.

Krash looked at her and kept his expression unchanged.

But maintaining that composure was another matter entirely—Bianca remained planted firmly in front of him.

When Krash tapped Bianca’s shoulder, she only pressed her rear deeper into her seat.

She had no intention of budging.

It looked a bit awkward, but Krash chalked it up to childish stubbornness and decided to speak anyway.

“What brings you here?”

When Krash asked, Lacradion opened her mouth carefully.

“I would like to help with the eighth-floor clearance.”

Just as he’d expected, the words he’d been waiting to hear came.

Krash’s eyes narrowed slightly at her request.

“You’d end up at odds with Pendal. Are you sure? That bastard will almost certainly try to interfere.”

After losing to Krash, and now with Krash succeeding at the eighth-floor clearance?

From Pendal’s perspective, it would be unbearable—a humiliation he couldn’t stomach.

Of course she wouldn’t simply leave it as is.

Lacradion would surely understand that much.

Yet her eyes remained unchanged.

“It doesn’t matter. Both Pendal and I are cowards, so once the Eighth Floor is cleared, we’ll just disappear into the shadows.”

Pendal and Lacradion had once cleared the Demon Palace together as teammates.

Which meant they both knew.

They knew exactly how they had been crushed by Nakcheon, that phantom-like monster on the Eighth Floor.

“And you’re a coward too. You’re saying you’ll go to the Eighth Floor with me?”
“Yes, because I want to stop being a coward.”

That was enough.

“All right. Let’s go together, Lacradion.”
“……So you did know my name.”
“And you know mine too. We’re trying to clear the Eighth Floor of the Demon Palace—would we really have such poor ears?”

Lacradion didn’t deny it.

“But I’m only at the entrance of the Demon Palace. The Demon Palace is rife with traps, and I don’t think you alone can disarm all of them.”
“I have an acquaintance who’s a specialist in that area.”

Krash let out a low chuckle at how quickly she’d caught on.

Truth be told, this wasn’t Krash’s first time at the Demon Palace’s entrance either, though he admittedly didn’t know every trap there.

“Good. I’m counting on you both, then.”

The preparations were complete.

Now came the actual clearance.

It was time to defeat Nakcheon and claim the Thunder Star.

And while they were at it, to obtain Pendal’s skill as well.

＊ ＊ ＊

Word that the Light of the Demon Palace, Lacradion, had gone with a direct member of Balhime spread like wildfire.

And for good reason—Krash had always waited in the Clearist coalition, and Lacradion had now appeared before him in person.

After Nakcheon had destroyed Icarus, the team that had once included Lacradion and Pendal.

Since then, Lacradion had not ventured into the Demon Palace, devoting herself solely to honing her sword.

Everyone had believed she would enter the Demon Palace someday, but she never did.

Just as Lacradion’s renown was gradually fading away.

She had decided to enter the Demon Palace with a direct member of Balhime themselves.

“Pendal lost to Krash’s direct lineage?”
“Is Krash’s lineage really that impressive? Then in the end, didn’t Lacradion just get beaten and now she’s clinging to him to gain fame?”

Some dismissed Lacradion with such words.

Yet those who knew the power Lacradion had displayed in the Demon Palace long ago, and what kind of monster Nakcheon was, all shook their heads in unison.

If that alone were reason enough for Lacradion to return to the Demon Palace, she would have entered it long before.

Lacradion had glimpsed something new and brilliant through her clash with Krash’s direct lineage.

That was what everyone believed.

Crash!

And Pendal, upon hearing the news, brought his fist down hard upon the desk before him.

Before blackout curtains sealed against the daylight, Pendal stood grinding his teeth, a bandage plastered across his jaw.

“That bitch Lacradion—she saw what happened to me and still threw herself at Krash?”

Pendal felt betrayed by Lacradion.

After she’d been shattered before Nakcheon just as he had, the moment she saw him broken, she clung to Krash.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

Pendal harbored a quiet inferiority complex toward Lacradion.

Unlike him—treated as darkness itself for his endless wickedness—Lacradion had always wielded her sword like bright light incarnate.

Even now, after both had been broken, the way she grasped her blade again was foolish in one sense, yet in another it terrified him.

If she rose again, having fallen alongside him, then Pendal would plummet into utter shame.

And now she was entering the Demon Palace once more.

With Krash’s direct lineage—the very one who had brought him to this humiliation.

Grit!

Pendal’s teeth clenched again as he raised his fist.

Then, without warning, he struck his own face with a heavy blow.

“Damn it.”

That was enough of being consumed by inferiority.

What happened at the hands of Krash’s lineage didn’t matter.

“…Did you think I’d just sit still?”

There was one goal he had always pursued.

He had built the Pendal Lord organization itself, lived for nothing but the day he would bring down Nakcheon.

He wouldn’t allow Nakcheon to be defeated by another’s hand.

‘Today, my hesitation ends.’

Ironically, the news that Lacradion and Krash were challenging Nakcheon reignited Pendal’s resolve, his eyes gleaming with renewed determination.

Passing the shattered desk, he flung the door open with a bang.

The Pendal Lord members clustered before him flinched, hurrying to get out of his way.

“……We’re going into the Demon Palace.”

At those words from Pendal, his followers began turning to look at him one by one.

He had formed the Pendal Lord to challenge Nakcheon, yet remained frozen in hesitation until now—and at last, he had spoken those words.

The eyes of every Pendal Lord member shifted.

“Captain, you’ve finally made your decision.”
“Ha! So we’re taking back what was stolen from us.”
“Our captain’s no beauty, but he’s got guts—I’ll give him that!”

As the Pendal Lord’s morale surged, Pendal swallowed a dry laugh and glared forward.

“That’s right. We’ll bring down Nakcheon before those bastards do, and claim the Thunder Star.”

The entire Demon Palace began to move.

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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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