I’ll Steal Everything and Escape - Chapter 14

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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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14.
[Louise, get back here! If you let your guard down—]
[Shut up, you rock!]
While the fools were too busy fending off King Reotodeu, Elodie was crawling stealthily along the base of the hill. This was the cracked swamp where the toad the size of a house had burst out. The silver necklace had been tucked away quite carefully, right nearby.
‘Maybe I really do have a knack for lying?’
Having fooled the two of them without a trace, Elodie fastened the silver chain with its clear crystal around her neck. Four days and a bit of food. If this was the price for such a magic tool, she should have been thanking the heavens on her knees.
[Sorry, Elodie. Next time something good turns up, it’s yours.]
Silvia’s face flickered before her, brows drooping apologetically.
‘Next time, next time, always next time.’
Of course, nothing had ever landed in Elodie’s hands, not once in all her life. Her amethyst eyes rippled with something hard to name.
“Extra life. I’ll take it.”
It was the necklace Silvia had worn every single day. A trinket she wore just because it looked pretty, without knowing what it was. No one had known. That in the Magic Kingdom, this was treated as a sacred relic.
[The necklace… it turned black!]
[No way. Silvia? Silvia!]
The reason Silvia, who had nothing but healing ability, managed to survive until day 517. It was simple. She had once tried to ascend to the heavens and then changed her mind.
‘…Lucky, too.’
The crystal on the necklace pressed into her palm. The Pendant of Life. A relic said to cancel out its wearer’s death once every hundred years. Elodie pressed her forehead against Red’s egg and leaned into it.
“Well, at least I’ve bought myself one life.”
Her thin lips, which had been murmuring, slowly curled upward.
The things she needed to steal were beginning to take shape. Stamina, mana, mobility. And that ‘place’ she absolutely had to find before the final day came.
Now that she had some breathing room, she could afford to be a little more aggressive, right?
* * *
Violet slime dripped steadily from the heavy greatsword. Kamil Beltier ran the blade across the collapsed demonic beast’s hide, over and over. His sharp green eyes narrowed like a sated lion’s.
It had been a long time since he’d felt this alive. There were plenty of fights, and the quality of the demonic beasts charging at him was not bad at all. For once, he could really put his body to proper use.
‘I hope something even bigger shows up next.’
Kamil tilted the corner of his mouth as he maintained the greatsword. Training his swordsmanship by cutting down demonic beasts was enjoyable. Only…
His pupils, which had been burning, contracted in an instant.
‘Breathing.’
Someone nearby was running. Followed by the familiar cry of the toad demonic beast… and the stir of mana. A battle. Kamil Beltier moved without a sound to check for survivors. He completely suppressed his presence, since running into the Academy’s people would only be a nuisance.
After a moment, what reflected in his vivid green eyes was—
‘That woman.’
So she was still alive.
“Hurry, hurry!”
…Something felt off. Kamil furrowed his brow. Wasn’t she the woman who had no abilities at all?
“What if it’s gone? No, that place was still intact after this…”
Hair the color of lemon sherbet gradually drifted away. His eyes, gleaming like a beast’s, lingered long on the back of the blonde woman.
‘…Magic.’
White frost clung to every footprint. Kamil Beltier glared at the ground for a long while.
How?
“Gurgle.”
The toad that leaped nearby burst apart at a single flick of her hand. His thick brows twitched upward.
[Gulp.]
That woman had made a similar sound, if I remember right.
‘Poison Scorpion. That was a pathetic creature.’
And the blond one beside it, always in the way. A fragile body that looked like it might shatter if you so much as poked it. Emaciated, without a single scrap of food.
‘Something weak.’
Only then did Kamil Beltier blink, pausing for a moment.
He remembered that blonde.
‘…Why?’
Weak things never stayed in his memory. They weren’t worth fighting. Whether demonic beasts or people, things not worth clashing with had always been like drifting smoke.
And yet.
“….”
Was it because of those strange eyes, like a poisonous mushroom?
Kamil Beltier’s brow creased.
[Don’t just eat whatever you find on the ground!]
She’d been wobbling around as if she were about to die.
“So she had something to rely on after all.”
Before long, the black-haired figure vanished among the trees of the damp marsh. The white frost soon sank away without a trace. Yet the golden afterimage of Elodie Pontaine seemed to have stirred something that had been calm.
* * *
Day 28 since falling onto the island. Robert Bayern held his breath, a deep dark circle under his eyes. The mood among the party was utterly gloomy.
“Where are we now? We’re close to the beach, right?”
“No idea. I’m starving.”
The red-haired man leading the way in silence keeps trudging downward. It isn’t sorrow. For the first time in his life, Robert Bayern is consumed by a rage so intense it borders on the unbearable.
‘Why.’
Why should he be trapped on this wretched island? No matter how coldly I think about it, the Empire would never abandon Robert. And yet.
‘…How dare they.’
His golden eyes twisted violently.
No rescue has come, while demonic beasts keep appearing without end. There is never enough time to sleep, or to eat.
‘Me? Am I supposed to run away from demonic beasts?’
What on earth is this absurd island, anyway?
The prince gritted his teeth and scanned his surroundings.
Rustle.
Every time he sensed the faintest movement, his fingertips went cold.
I don’t have the confidence.
If I survive this one, what then? Can I win the next one? The one after that?
Robert Bayern halted and raised his sword.
“What is it now, another demonic beast?”
Stefan’s and Silvia’s faces crumpled.
“Maybe we should’ve gone a bit further west?”
“You know I hate that direction, my feet sink into the mud every step.”
“Enough, already.”
A vein bulged on his forehead. Are they still not grasping the situation? Honestly, they…
Just as he pressed his throbbing temple and was about to lay into them,
“Y-Your Highness! Are you there!”
Everyone’s eyes went wide. Tearing through the undergrowth came Tristan Plant and Louise Charmant.
‘Wasn’t it a demonic beast?’
He let out a breath of relief and lowered his sword.
“Whoa, look at the state of you.”
“Robert! Are you unharmed!”
Five of the seven who had fallen here at first had come together. Though they had lost one of their number…
‘Good, at least our fighting strength has grown.’
Robert pressed his temple and greeted them.
“It’s good to see you. I thought you might still be alive.”
“Waaah, Louise!”
Sylvia Brunet scattered tears as she ran toward Louise, then tripped and went sprawling.
“Ugh, gross.”
“Lou, Louise-eeee!”
Perhaps it was the sight of survivors, but the gloom on the group’s faces finally lifted a little.
“…Wait. So you came from that filthy marsh?”
Stefan shook his head in horror.
“If it weren’t for my Clean Magic, you’d have had a rough time of it.”
Ho-ho-ho, Louise covered her mouth and laughed. The prince’s golden eyes slid past the noblewoman and settled on his loyal knight.
“How did you find us?”
And then came a name he hadn’t expected.
“Well. I met Elodie Pontaine.”
The three of them froze without thinking.
“E-Elodie?”
“She’s alive? No way, how?”
“….”
Robert’s dry lips parted slightly.
Elodie Pontaine, not dead?
* * *
Days Until Death, 487
At Dragon’s Grave, carelessness is out of the question.
“I-I don’t think I’m ready to grab the belt yet. I was just a few steps away from having my throat slit. I nearly lost a life for nothing, you know.”
Elodie hugged the red egg tightly and chewed on a banana.
[Alright. I earned a life, so why not try stealing something more boldly?]
I put on a bold front and tried, but a tiny bit of courage doesn’t swell up that fast. Elodie, having returned from the brief journey, shuddered violently.
“…Maybe it’s because I’ve died once. Resolving to face death seems even harder now.”
It hurt, it hurt so much. Her violet eyes slid slowly downward.
The only one to talk to is Red, and Red never answers. It sounds pitiful put that way, but I’ve read that survivors of famous shipwrecks and expeditions kept their sanity this same way. Well, Elodie could replay her memories whenever she liked, so she wasn’t as lonely as she might have been… but still.
[Elodie Pontaine, are you spacing out again?!]
[What’s with her lately?]
That wasn’t good for the mind, either. Elodie fidgeted with her fingers, which were starting to grow calluses.
“So what should we fetch next? I was thinking we could go higher up this time. What do you think, Red?”
Yes, that would probably be best. She nodded.
“Right. And the sweet potatoes will need harvesting soon. My bag’s running out of room, too.”
The red egg puffed out mana in a series of little thumps, as if answering her.
“Then let’s head out to the Lava Basin today.”
A few hours later.
Elodie Pontaine bitterly regretted her earlier decision.
Her slender nape trembled. The distance was so slight that one step forward would have pressed her nose right into him. The shoulder caught in that noble hand flinched before she could stop it.
“…Ro, Robert.”

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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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