I’ll Steal Everything and Escape - Chapter 9

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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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9.
“My daughter! Is there still no word about my daughter? Do you have any idea how rare Sylvia’s ability is? It’s Recovery, the kind of magic you lot won’t even see in your whole lives!”
“Oh, come now! Is this how you treat the most distinguished Spirit Mages in the Empire?”
“Ahhh, my son!”
It is pure chaos.
The moment the accident occurred, the Dean bowed his head and apologized, but nothing had been resolved. The staff sensed that Dean Bartelli’s tenure wouldn’t survive the week. If he weren’t connected to the Imperial Family, his head would have already rolled.
“When exactly will the rescue begin?”
“What do you mean you can’t estimate the coordinates?!”
“L-Louise. Our Louise needs to eat meat three times a day.”
The parents of the victims are all high-ranking nobles. No, even members of the royal family are among them.
“We are currently investigating, still investigating. The Empire is sparing no support, so I truly apologize, but—”
“…Dean. A messenger from the Imperial Palace.”
Dean Bartelli’s face went twice as pale.
“Is he coming, or am I being summoned?”
“Pardon?”
“Whether they’re coming down here, or I’m being called up there.”
“…Only a letter has arrived. We’ll need to confirm it.”
The Dean left the parents’ clamor behind and walked out. The door shut firmly behind him.
“Stop right there! Are you deaf?!”
“These are the Imperial Family’s orders.”
Marquis Brunet looked on the verge of losing his mind. Even as the guards tried to hold him back, he only foamed at the mouth harder.
“Our Sylvia! Who knows what hardships she’s enduring out there!”
Even the staff stole uneasy glances at Marquis Brunet.
Sylvia, who had barely inherited the Recovery magic that was nearly lost to history, had gone missing. It was no wonder the Marquisate was frantic.
‘But isn’t the one who suffers most over there?’
Madame Perrier, the matron of the girls’ dormitory, let her gaze drift to the far corner of the long table. Her eyes kept snagging on the Pontaine Baron and his wife, frozen and white as wax, blinking and nothing more. Looking closely, she could see their clasped hands resting on their knees trembling violently.
“Clarisa, it’ll be fine. Elodie will—”
“Lucas…”
Pale golden hair and amethyst eyes wet with tears.
Clarisa Lafayette. No, Clarisa Pontaine now.
The princess of a small, peaceful kingdom beyond the sea had married a Baron of the Bayern Empire for love twenty years ago. Every young man in Bayern had been busy envying the Baron who had won the princess. And then, a year later.
[Your Majesty, please help us! Gods, send us back! Please!]
The Lafayette Kingdom was submerged beneath the waters and drowned. Clarisa became the sole survivor of the fallen nation. Stripped of every source of support, the princess was left adrift. Afterward, it seemed they had settled into a quiet life as Baron and Baroness, but—
‘…Their only daughter, finally.’
At the sight of the parents hanging their heads low, Madame Perrier squeezed her eyes shut.
[Student Elodie, are you in the library until this late again?]
[…Please, just this once.]
Elodie Pontaine. The guileless face of the young model student flashed before Madame Perrier’s eyes.
“Please, let her be safe.”
* * *
Days Until Death, D-508
Remembering everything doesn’t mean you can prepare for everything. Elodie was reminded of this once again.
On the day she brought Red along, Robert picked a huge fight with the monsters. The Crown Prince’s Flame Pillar drew their attention, and the party wandered the roads for a whole month, suffering greatly, but…
Elodie had been among them at the time, so she didn’t fully grasp the aftermath. How badly Robert’s flames had startled the monsters.
“Ah, damn it. We’re screwed.”
Watching the dust cloud rushing in from the west, Elodie briefly ended her reminiscing.
Dudu-dudu-dudu…
The tremor grew steadily closer.
“If you knew, you should’ve moved somewhere else!”
She never imagined the mud rhinoceroses, spooked by the fire, would come marching straight toward them.
“Red!”
Elodie hastily clutched the reddish-brown egg to her chest and dove beneath the roots.
Mud rhinoceros. If you hear it, you’ll understand, but this name was also Robert’s doing. Monsters that inhabit the Western Marsh to the southwest, where the party was presumably wandering now. They’re massive, and once they start rampaging, they’re hard to stop.
‘But before, in my previous life, this area was perfectly intact. There were no signs of the Trees of Rest being trampled by mud rhinoceroses…’
Ah.
Holding her breath, Elodie quickly reached a conclusion.
‘Kamil must have moved too fast.’
If Kamil had stayed in the southwest as he originally did, he would have been much closer to the rhinoceroses. Then the rhinoceroses would have met Kamil Beltier before reaching this far. The stampede would have been halted there.
‘Damn it, of all times!’
Elodie ground her teeth and hunched her body. The sound of the enormous trees being trampled pounded mercilessly against her ears.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
When a herd of panicked rhinos stampedes through, there’s hardly anything left standing. The thought of the strawberry field she had finally found being reduced to ruins made her eyes sting, but no, no, that’s not it.
Right now, what matters is praying.
‘Gods, please. Just spare the roots.’
Snapped trunks, I can live with. The real problem is if the roots get trampled. The soil around the roots is soft enough that your feet sink right in, and if they stomp straight through there, Elodie and the egg that’s going to be Red, hidden beneath it, would be…
Her plump cheeks drained of color in an instant.
Elodie hugged the egg tight, like the last flicker of a candle, and murmured.
‘Please, please. Just leave this spot alone. I’m begging you.’
The sound of trees being flattened grew louder and louder. If she lifted her head, she might catch sight of the rhinos, they were that close. Her heart pounded. No, it was more like it was churning hotly from side to side, over and over.
“……?”
Side to side?
Elodie glanced down. She wasn’t imagining it.
The egg she held so close was warmer than before. A moment ago, it had felt like an ordinary lump of stone.
“……Red?”
A faint throbbing came through the lumpy shell. It shouldn’t be time to hatch yet. Elodie pressed her ear to the egg’s pulse, which beat right against her heart, and listened quietly.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
The world around her was filled with the sound of everything being trampled, yet the strange sensation in her arms seized control of her mind.
‘It’s moving.’
Maybe it was her imagination, but Red’s warmth seemed to be shifting. She could barely sense what was happening outside anymore. Every drop of blood in her body pressed against Red began to heat up. Something rising from the egg was pointing her in a direction.
“Ah.”
The novice mage soon realized what it was: mana.
Elodie’s mana had surged enormously after she consumed the Essence of Enlightenment. The mana that had been drifting through her whole body was now greedily following the warmth of Red.
‘It’s responding to the dragon’s pulse.’
As she clutched the reddish-brown egg tight, mana churned in her amethyst eyes. Elodie forgot her eyes, her nose, and her mouth. Only the movement of Red and the mana remained, and she could only
remember
it.
“Haah.”
The temperature around her dropped exponentially. White mist poured from her breath. Elodie’s thin lips trembled as she spoke.
“Ice, protect my nest.”
The blood vessels across her body howled. The tree roots turned pure white in an instant, and an Ice Wall spread over her golden head.
‘This is… real magic…!’
Elodie looked up at the thick ceiling of ice. The glittering frost made her eyes shine like crystal orbs.
“You, even before you were born, are already saving me.”
In her second life, Elodie held Red’s egg, which filled her arms, even tighter. She would
remember
this day forever: the day she first truly handled mana.
* * *
Having mastered Ice Freezing Magic, Elodie left the Tree of Rest. The roots, protected by the Ice Wall, had been a stable shelter, but for a thief who had learned magic, better plans were everywhere.
“A cave! Something Red will feel more at home in.”
Elodie chose a warm, cozy cave as her next hideout. Because it sat close to the Lava Basin, she had to push deep into the humid jungle to reach it. Sweat beaded on her smooth forehead.
“Wait, didn’t Tristan find this place too?”
The entrance was so narrow it was barely big enough to crawl through, and it had stayed hidden, but one kick from Tristan opened the way.
[Elodie Pontaine. You’re slower than a grub. How long until we rendezvous with Lord Robert at this rate!]
Bang!
As the grub Elodie Pontaine would have it, the muscle gorilla kicked the wall in a fit of temper, and a new entrance was blasted open.

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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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