I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 99

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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 99. Repaying a Debt

After enduring a thorough scolding from Bianca, whose eyes grew colder with each excuse he offered, Krash wiped the sweat from his brow and made his way down the temple corridor.

It was the first time she’d looked at him with such chilling detachment, and it unnerved him.

At least they’d reached a compromise—they’d tour the Freeman Holy Kingdom together afterward.

It was strange that such a simple agreement could appease her, when they spent every day bound to each other anyway.

—A reckless fool, trying to bring in yet another woman.

Crimson Garden appeared at the corridor window in that instant.

She folded her wings and regarded Krash with disdain.

—Don’t you realize what happens when a Returner toys with people’s hearts as he pleases?
“I’m not toying with anyone. I’ve never lived a dissolute life.”
—Hmph. You think it’s only dissolute if you physically toy with them? Your mind itself is rotted through with debauchery.
“The only thing dissolute here is your mouth, Crimson.”

She spoke such suggestive remarks as though they were nothing at all.

—Tsk, tsk. You’ll only come to your senses when some woman appears claiming to carry your child. And then you’ll deserve whatever blade finds you.
“That won’t happen.”

He didn’t know what she took him for.

At least until the world’s doom was averted, he had no intention of entangling himself with anyone like that.

This cursed world could collapse at any moment.

“Anyway, Crimson—do you remember what we discussed about Bianca last time?”
—I’ve already called her over to Cheong Song Manor in Balheim.

Crimson Garden exhaled a long, weary sigh.

—I know what it’s like to watch and do nothing.

There were too many times when all she could do was witness her kin die in helplessness.

Crimson Garden had evidently grown quite fond of Bianca.

One way or another, affection had accumulated between them.

“Thank you. She’ll be happy.”
—It’s better than stopping her from packing with nothing but the clothes on her back to follow you.
“Please do stop her if she tries that.”

He couldn’t bear the sight of Bianca reduced to such desperate measures.

—If you did your part well, it wouldn’t come to that.

It was Crimson Garden’s way of saying he’d better not let this happen again.

“I’ll do my best.”
—You won’t even say you won’t end up like this again, not even if it kills you.

Because Krash knew the future, he could not bring himself to give a definitive answer.

If anything, it would only be worse, never better.

-Go on and flirt with the Saint instead.

So Krash watched Crimson Garden slip out through the window with a bitter smile.

Then he knocked on the door of the room he’d reached.

“Your Holiness, it’s Krash of Balheim.”
– Ah, just a moment.

As a voice called from within, the door creaked open.

There stood Diona, a Holy Knight with deep golden hair.

As he entered through the door she’d opened, Astria turned to look at him.

“It’s good to see you again, Krash.”

Beneath her sunlit hair, Astria looked slightly different from before.

She wore different clothes and had applied makeup she didn’t usually wear, presenting a carefully composed appearance.

Krash was actually more familiar with this version of her.

The Saint, whose public activities had grown more frequent, insisted she must always present her most beautiful self, and Astria had never neglected her appearance for that reason.

In Krash’s memory, Astria always looked like this.

“Indeed. It seems you’ve prepared well for your outing. You look beautiful.”

When Krash turned on the charm, she flinched slightly, then looked away.

The Astria he always knew.

“Diona.”

As she continued avoiding his gaze, Astria addressed Diona by name.

“Yes, Astria?”
“It’s all right. I won’t leave the room.”

As a Saint, she could not be seen in public with a man.

So she had no intention of letting anyone see her alone with Krash outside these walls.

Of course, from Astria’s perspective, the moment she’d brought a man into her own room to speak with him alone, her heart had begun to race.

But she did her best to hide it.

“……Understood.”

Diona exhaled sharply and stepped back.

She glanced at Krash once, then closed the door behind her as she left.

She trusted that a man of Balheim’s direct line would not overstep his bounds.

And so Krash and Astria found themselves alone in the room.

A brief silence fell between them.

It was Krash who moved first through that silence.

She walked around to the opposite side of where Astria sat.

Astria flinched again.

At the same time, her hands beneath the table fidgeted restlessly.

Once Krash had pulled back her chair and sat down, she finally spoke.

“Thank you for arranging a moment for us to speak alone.”
“Oh, yes, yes.”
“You needn’t be so nervous. I’m not here to propose some major transaction—just to discuss matters concerning the Holy Kingdom.”

No matter how mature she seemed, Astria was still only fourteen.

When Krash offered her this kindness, Astria’s eyes widened.

“Yes?”

Astria answered somewhat dazedly.

As Krash regarded her with puzzlement, Astria’s face began to flush.

“Ah, I-I mean, of course! You’re a Direct Descendant of Balheim, so it only makes sense you might have things to say to the Saint.”

Astria hastily changed the subject in embarrassment.

Krash, watching her intently, wore an expression of sudden realization.

“… Did you perhaps think I was actually asking you out on a date?”

Astria’s lips pressed shut.

With her face flushed entirely red, she looked unmistakably like someone caught in her true feelings.

Witnessing this, Krash belatedly realized her own blunder.

‘Perhaps the Astria of this time was less cunning than I remembered.’

Krash had first met Astria at the Rahelern Academy graduation ceremony.

‘That Astria had been more developed than she is now.’

Krash scratched the back of her head for a moment.

Then a sudden question occurred to her.

‘Then why did she accept the date?’

If she’d truly believed it was a date, she should have naturally refused.

Especially since she’d just let slip such an impertinent remark as a date proposal to a Saint.

A man with a pale complexion and rude manners asking for a date.

Even as a direct descendant of Balheim, a Saint could refuse readily enough.

So why, then, had she accepted?

“…Saint, surely you find my face off-putting? Sharp-looking, you might say. Unbecoming.”
“Oh, no?”

At Krash’s question, she answered without thinking, embarrassed by her own misunderstanding.

“Well, actually, I think you’re rather handsome…”

Then, consumed by shame and unable to maintain her usual composure for even a moment, she blurted out the truth.

Realizing what she’d just said, her eyes began to dart wildly.

The embarrassment was so acute she wanted to vanish into the earth itself, and tears were beginning to prick her eyes.

She had never laid bare her inner thoughts like this to another soul.

In that moment, Krash froze at her words.

‘Her words have changed so much since then?’

Seeing Astria in a state of maximum embarrassment, those words had to be genuine.

Could tastes really shift so radically in just a few years?

‘Or…’

Perhaps they had never changed at all.

Understanding belatedly, Krash began to recall her old memories one by one.

The various things Astria had said—what they had truly meant.

He’d thought it was affection borne of familiarity that made her speak that way.

Astria had harbored feelings for him from the beginning.

Every harsh word she’d occasionally let slip had been meant to hide her embarrassment.

And he’d only just come to realize it now.

Krash swallowed back a bitter laugh.

Back then, Astria had controlled herself so thoroughly that even someone as perceptive as Krash hadn’t noticed.

A Saint couldn’t harbor romantic feelings, so she’d disciplined herself rigorously.

Until finally, at the very end, she’d broken and revealed her true heart.

And Krash had answered that confession by refusing to go on a date with her.

Krash slowly dragged his hand down his face.

‘I’m scum.’

Though it was partly because of that idiot Shin-chang’s foolishness, he’d done something deeply disrespectful to Astria.

‘Now there’s nothing left to apologize for.’

Krash watched Astria, whose gaze still hadn’t lifted from the floor.

“Saint, are you aware of the false Saint?”

He decided to move to the main topic, partly to ease her embarrassment.

At that, Astria seemed to regain her composure.

“A false Saint, you say……?”
“I’m referring to the Saint who has recently appeared in the Holy Kingdom.”

Astria’s head tilted slightly.

“But what if that Saint isn’t actually false?”

And Astria’s expression changed at once.

She had finally returned to her usual self.

She’d begun to focus on Krash’s words rather than her own embarrassment.

“Truth be told, this may be a story you’d prefer not to hear, from your position as Saint.”

What Krash was about to reveal was nothing less than a profound secret of the faith.

So even he found himself hesitating as the moment to speak drew near.

“It sounds like you have something very important to tell me.”

Astria, as always, bore a smile as bright as the sun.

“Please, tell me. I don’t wish to remain ignorant of matters that concern me.”

Those words suited the title of Saint perfectly.

And so Krash let the truth spill from his lips.

“The one called the false Saint is a Saint recorded to have died three hundred years ago.”
“What?”

Astria’s smile froze at this wholly unexpected answer.

This was something she’d never heard before.

“And she is your future self as well.”

Bang!

In that instant, the door burst open violently.

Standing there was none other than Diona.

She had been listening quietly from outside, and the moment she heard Krash’s words, she rushed in.

“Diona.”

Astria’s eyes turned colder than they had ever been.

It was a clear intention: do not interrupt what was happening here.

“Astria!”

Diona’s eyes trembled.

She looked at Krash.

How could a boy of Balheim’s Direct Descendant line possibly know such a thing?

It was knowledge held by only a handful within the Holy Kingdom itself.

“It’s all right. Please, continue.”
“A Saint is, in essence, half an Immortal Being.”

The body of a Saint, saturated with Holy Power, approaches a state of eternal youth and deathlessness.

The aging flesh does not decay at the cellular level because it is flooded with the Holy Power within.

Perhaps the Saint was the closest thing to Crimson Garden among all living things.

Yet there was one thing.

One thing that even Holy Power could not preserve.

The mind.

The body endures forever, but the Saint’s mind deteriorates irreversibly—on average, by the time two hundred and fifty years have passed.

A Saint lives only to heal others within the Holy Kingdom, generation after generation.

Most eventually lose all will to live and succumb to spiritual collapse.

Astria would certainly have known about the Holy Grail by now.

But she likely hadn’t known the process by which it was made.

And that was only natural.

She’d learned of this matter only after Diona here had allied with the Anti-Saint Succession Faction.

After she’d died confronting the Holy Kingdom head-on.

And it was that very moment which had become her impetus to join the Starry Generation.

Backed by the Starry Generation—successors from each kingdom and empire—she’d levied threats against the Holy Royal Family and the Holy Temple.

Either expose her existence to the world and shake the very foundations of the Holy Kingdom,

or grant her freedom.

The answer had been simple.

She had formally joined the Starry Generation as a Saint, lending her support to their cause.

Carrying forward the will of Diona, who had worked so hard to free her from her shackles.

Astria, who had been silent until now, turned to look at Diona.

“Diona, you didn’t tell me this outright because you were thinking of me, weren’t you?”
“I…”

Diona couldn’t finish her words, and looked at Astria with troubled eyes.

She must have hoped that Astria wouldn’t be tormented by learning such a truth.

But Astria was strong.

‘If only—truly if only—I could go back to that time. I would make sure Diona didn’t die because of me.’

And Krash remembered those words she had spoken.

That was precisely why he had told her this today.

“That concludes what I wished to tell you.”

Astria turned to look at Krash.

She couldn’t understand why he had shared such a story with her.

From Krash’s position, it was a tale disadvantageous in every conceivable way.

Had he kept such knowledge close, it could have become a card to play against the Holy Kingdom whenever trouble arose in the future.

But if it spread instead, he risked becoming a target of the Holy Kingdom itself.

He had revealed this fact directly to the Saint—the very pillar upon which the Holy Kingdom rested.

No matter how she looked at it, this was hardly information to share out of mere impulse.

“Krash… why did you…?”
“You’re asking why I told her.”

Astria fell silent.

Krash smiled faintly at the sight.

“I’m the sort who can’t help but repay a kindness.”

It was the moment when the vanguard of the Starry Generation had departed.

The most terrible attack had erupted from the rear guard.

Caught in the carnage, both Krash and Astria had faced certain death.

Both suffered grievous wounds, but since Astria was a Saint, her injuries were the kind that could somehow be healed.

Krash, by contrast, was in far worse condition—beyond what even Astria’s recovery abilities could mend.

A Curse that had accumulated over long years was raging alongside his wounds, devouring his body.

What Astria did in that place was simple.

‘Don’t die. Not like this. Not on my watch.’

Just as she had with the Holy Grail for the Saint Succession.

She poured every ounce of her Holy Power into Krash.

All of it, for him alone.

When Krash’s eyes opened at last.

‘…Astria?’

Astria was no longer in this world.

Though her own wounds had not fully healed, there remained only her corpse—drained of all Holy Power, given entirely to him.

That day, Krash received a debt of gratitude.

And because of it, he could survive.

The Holy Power dwelling in Krash’s body was, in essence, Astria’s will.

Unless his wounds were instantly fatal—throat severed, heart pierced—her power endlessly restored him.

And so Krash lived on, dragging an immortal body, bearing countless Curses within him, clawing his way through existence.

To die would be to face her with shame.

And now, at last, it was time for Krash to repay that debt.

Of course, he did not voice this aloud.

“My life was preserved by your grace, Your Holiness. So helping you choose a path of your own desire is nothing but the proper way to repay that debt.”
“That’s merely the natural reward of heroic sacrifice. It was simply what I, as a Saint, was obliged to do for one who faced an eight-tier Erosion Species.”

But Krash shook his head.

Instead, he spoke with quiet certainty.

“Before I’m a Saint, it was you—Astria—who saved me.”

Astria’s expression shifted, caught off guard.

It was something she had never heard in all her life.

No one had ever thanked Astria herself—not the Saint, but Astria—directly, not once.

“Someone told me once to look after myself first.”

She had heard it so often that it sometimes felt like nagging.

“I think if Astria gave it some thought, it wouldn’t be bad advice at all.”

Krash finished speaking and rose from his seat.

He offered one last words to Astria, who stood dazed before him.

“I’m going to get much stronger than I look now.”

For the first time today, Krash’s face—colored with playful amusement—looked his actual age.

“If the shackles get annoying, tell me. I’ll cut them off for you.”

Those final words were spoken not to the Saint, but to Astria.

Krash walked out of the room, leaving Astria standing speechless behind him.

Astria could only watch his retreating figure, still dazed.

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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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