I’ll Steal Everything and Escape - Chapter 20

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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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20.
She sensed it at once.
‘Kamil Beltier knew.’
[So you’re the one who fell from the sky?]
He hadn’t come racing straight for Elodie. He had torn through an unknown island just to confirm whether his younger brother was alive.
‘To have let this slip.’
His violet eyes darkened. For a full year, Kamil had roamed the island, hunting monsters like rats, alone and utterly reckless. Because of him, they had lost their greatest source of strength.
A sharp tug pulled at the back of her head.
“No, you could just say it! What good is that mouth of yours!”
“Ah! Yes, you’re right. I was wrong to try to sneak in…”
Oops.
“No, no. Sorry for suddenly raising my voice.”
Elodie brushed back her golden hair and exchanged the rest of her farewells with her juniors. Amelie thumped her chest with easy confidence.
“Don’t worry about where you’ll sleep from now on! We can hide you so, so safely!”
“I-I can craft a bed too!”
Sparkling eyes turned toward Elodie.
“The way you aimed your mana so precisely! You’re a true senior, no, a true master, and we’ll follow you!”
“No, it’s nothing. I just had no choice if I wanted to survive here.”
Elodie forced the corners of her mouth upward.
‘I trained every single day, fuming over Kamil.’
Marcel and Amelie, as if they had been waiting for the chance, began asking about everything that had happened in the meantime. Gathering whatever scraps of social grace she had left, she tried to relay, roughly at least, what had become of the other survivors.
“…So Robert’s group probably headed south, and Kamil went north.”
Hah, someone drew a breath at the front.
“Lady Elodie! No, what is this!”
Marcel Beltier lunged forward, his head darting toward her in alarm.
“Isn’t there magic enchanted onto your equipment!”
Elodie had been about to shrink back, but the memory came back to her. Right. He’d said he wanted to become a Magic Tool crafter.
“Haah, this necklace. It’s something special! I can’t say exactly, but it has an incredibly powerful aura…”
“Yes. That’s right.”
She nodded as he rattled off technical terms one after another. Truly, bloodline and personality had nothing to do with each other.
Her violet eyes swept over the newly hatched chicks gathered around her.
‘Now, how on earth am I supposed to get these kids back home?’
* * *
Something feels off.
Elodie murmured to herself, feeling Amelie’s hands combing through her hair.
‘What’s the problem?’
Her juniors show no sign of wanting to leave.
“How’s this? The comb Marcel made this time is pretty useful, don’t you think?”
“Heh, hehe.”
[Would it be all right if we came along too?]
[Um, aren’t you worried about Stefan?]
Amelie Bernard. Deep golden hair and dark eyes.
‘They look so alike, yet how can they be so different.’
She was blood-related to that insufferable Stefan. Although she had drifted apart at the Academy for being a bastard child, I’d assumed she would naturally join Robert’s group.
[…Stefan? I just wish he’d drop dead on the spot.]
Looks like I’ve poked a sore spot.
[Didn’t you say you rushed in because you were worried about Kamil?]
[Br-brother will be fine. He’ll come through unharmed.]
Marcel fidgeted, sweat beading on his brow.
[Just travel with us for a few days and think it over!]
[Y-yes, yes!]
Swept along by Amelie’s momentum, there was no way out, and they ended up leading them all the way to the cave.
[Hah, a dragon!]
[Such a cozy place! As expected of our Mast-er!]
…Well, they’d be found out before long anyway. Elodie Pontaine blinked as she ate the breakfast her juniors had prepared.
‘Right. The north where Kamil went is too dangerous to bring the kids.’
I’ll come back down in a month, so maybe I’ll think about it then.
“There’s dessert too.”
Marcel heaped fruit into a wooden bowl and handed it over. Red had climbed onto Amelie’s head and was gnawing at her golden hair this way and that.
“Ahah! Look at her. Isn’t she just adorable?”
“…Huh. Are you okay?”
“No problem, Ma, mas, Master!”
The real problem was how quickly Elodie was adapting to this combination.
‘Not bad, actually.’
The Earth Spirit had weak offense, but its defense and detection were outstanding. In just three days, Marcel had transformed the shabby cave into something like a campsite.
‘His trap crafting is top-notch, too.’
Now she could see how he’d survived more than three months in that dangerous forest.
‘If I raise it well, it might be a big help for the escape plan…’
No, no. Elodie shook her head. Don’t expect anything. Get attached, and it’ll only hurt more.
“Um, Elodie.”
Her golden hair jerked up. Marcel cautiously fiddled with the bowl.
“Actually, something’s been bugging me since last night. What if we put up a fence around the vegetable patch? I saw rabbits the size of deer hopping around out there…”
“…Would you do that?”
“Me too! I’ll help, too!”
Well, it should be fine for a little while.
Elodie drifted off to sleep with an easy mind for once. The entrance was sealed with thick earth, and they took turns on watch. It had been ages since she’d slept on a night when her nerves weren’t stretched taut.
But the next day.
“Elodie! Um, look!”
Marcel, who had gone out to build the fence, came running back in a panic.
“It’s right next door. Why are you running?”
“It’s not that, it’s…”
His green eyes wavered. Marcel Beltier pointed toward the far side. East, just past the edge of the vegetable patch.
“The earth spirit keeps saying there’s something over there. Amelie sent a gnome to check, and it found a round egg.”
“…An egg?”
Fine fur bristled up along her arms in an instant.
“And?”
“Amelie said maybe it’s a Dragon Egg too… or else we could just cook it and eat it. Then she went off to pick it up. It’s pretty far, so the gnome can’t reach it. She said to tell the senior.”
“East?”
“Yeah. She says she feels some kind of vibration. She said she’d be back within an hour, but I’m a little worried…”
East, then.
Her amethyst eyes quickly counted the days. Eighty-six days since she’d fallen. Today was June… the twentieth.
“Ugh, seriously.”
Elodie tossed the bag she’d been holding aside and ran.
‘June, east, eggs.’
She had moved toward the Lava Basin, so she’d thought she’d never have reason to come back here.
“E-Elodie!”
“Don’t follow me! Stay inside.”
In mid-June, the Terradon turtles come ashore on the southeast beach. A memory surged up without warning
memory
and clouded her vision.
[Hey, what’s that?]
[What’s all that smoke?]
[Hmm. Must be dust, surely.]
Then came a rumbling crash as trees toppled one after another, the sound rolling across the Eastern Beach.
The party had no idea what was coming when they met that hellish scene. Demonic Beasts that might have lived for hundreds, or even thousands, of years charged toward the beach all at once to lay their eggs. Each one was the size of the cave where Elodie lived.
“Terradon.”
According to the Imperial Monster Encyclopedia, it’s a special-grade creature. It’s said you’d be lucky to encounter one even once in a thousand years…
Here, dozens of them were storming in.
‘Today the Eastern Beach will be nothing but ruins!’
Her thighs were already trembling. Elodie gritted her teeth and ran.
‘Amelie Bernard, just you wait!’
The cold morning air brushed against her face. Far off, birds burst into the sky all at once, like a black cloud.
Kkirururuk!
Why is it that bad feelings always come true?
* * *
“Hmm, hmm-hm.”
Amelie Bernard hummed cheerfully as she pushed through the damp undergrowth.
“Almost there, Gnome?”
Hmmmm. A faint tremor ran through the ground. Little clods of earth kept popping up along Amelie’s path.
“If it’s a Dragon Egg, great! And if it’s not, I get to eat a big egg, which is great too~”
Those pitch-black eyes sweep over the dim jungle. Going any farther might be a bit much.
*Hmm-hmm, hooo.*
“Oh, now we can carry them!”
*Kwong. Kwong. Kwong.*
Three gnomes come trudging back, each hugging an egg that fills their arms. Their slender limbs tremble under the weight, and it looks like quite a load.
‘Huh.’
A yellow head tilts sideways, puzzled.
“Wait. Three?”
There was only one a moment ago. The Spirit Mage’s eyes go wide as she looks down at the ground.
*Kuguguguguggu…*
A tremor rolls through the ground. Even Amelie, a human, can feel it.

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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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