Chapter 18
TWENTY MINUTES HAD PASSED since Julius sent his first update. Now they finally got his second.
It seems like Fuzzy Dice pulled his heist off just as expected. They put up a good fight, though. We’ve got a pretty surprising new record.
Up until that evening, Fuzzy Dice had only ever taken fifteen minutes at most to complete a heist, but this crew had held out for another five. There was nothing normal about pulling off such a heist in only twenty minutes when faced with high-level hunters, but Fuzzy Dice’s records were apparently becoming quite skewed.
“Even if those foes weren’t easy, we could’ve expected victory from Fuzzy Dice.”
The phantom thief always avoided attacking anyone head-on, instead incapacitating opponents without harming a hair on their heads. If he’d done the same this time, that was no small feat, since he’d been against foes as vexing as a group of fiend hunters.
Thinking aloud, Mira had inadvertently said as much, but she was interrupted by another update from Julius.
“It appears that no one was injured this time either. And, uh…hm…what’s this…?” As Wolf began to confirm the lack of casualties, another update came in, then another, and another.
Looking through the messages, the chief detective knit his brow, then informed the group that things were going a tad differently on this heist. According to Julius, Fuzzy Dice had found several unidentified children behind a seemingly broken door under the mansion.
“Children? If they’re unidentified, then they must not belong to anyone in the mansion, right?” Mira asked.
“That would be the case,” Wolf grimaced. Then he quietly murmured to himself, “Was that what he was after…?”
“What he was after? Chief Detective, do you know something about all this?” asked Mira. The chief detective’s implication that the children might be connected to some other incident piqued her interest.
“Oh—curious?” he asked, beaming. His smile declared just how eager he was to talk about the matter. According to him, Fuzzy Dice only showed up in places with connections to shadowy organizations that trafficked children. “Of course, I could be jumping to conclusions,” Wolf added before checking his watch. “Oh dear. Let’s hurry and get into our positions.”
The chief detective deftly wheeled himself toward the Mages’ Guild. Meanwhile, Mira and the sisters spoke briefly to the proprietor before proceeding to the third floor. There, they strapped on their masks—pretty much the official uniform of Fuzzy Dice’s fans—and stepped onto the balcony to get a look at the situation.
“Wow. It’s packed to the gills down there, huh?”
Fans crammed the streets below them. It certainly looked like a carnival.
“I mean, I’d heard stories, but I don’t think I ever expected this. We should have a pretty easy time blending in,” Nina said with a bit of an anxious laugh, staring at the crazed fans.
The sisters just needed to pretend to be Fuzzy Dice devotees so that Mira could get a clear shot at the thief without standing out. But emulating those fans would be a bit harder than it sounded, and he was still pretty far away. Just how much would all the women present lose it when he actually showed up in person?
Nina seemed to have some doubts as to whether their acting would hold up. From the way Mina and Nana scrutinized the fans, it was possible they were thinking something along those lines as well.
Uh-oh. Maybe I should lay out another backup plan. She’d thought of one while listening to the chief detective. Drawing back slightly, she opened her Item Box.
“This should probably work, right…?” Mira asked her faraway friend.
“Yes, that’ll be perfect,” the voice replied.
She was talking to Martel. From her Item Box, Mira had pulled a special piece of fruit from the loads of fruit that the progenitor spirit had given her. The translucent, pale-purple fruit was a unique foodstuff—the gold standard in granting powerful buffs once eaten. Mira decided to consume the fruit just in case she ended up needing to duke it out with Fuzzy Dice.
Martel’s special fruit was so delicious that Mira had no trouble devouring it, despite being fairly full from eating so much Bavarian cream.
This really is something special!
According to Martel, the fruit Mira had just scarfed down wouldn’t just dramatically increase her stats but also her magic resistance. Against Fuzzy Dice, who tended to inflict all kinds of status effects, that resistance effect would likely prove especially useful. That said, that fruit wouldn’t raise Mira’s stats quite as much as some other kinds would. But a person needed to be careful not to eat more than one piece of buff-granting fruit at a time, or it would cause digestive issues.
Her preparations complete, Mira held the Lock-On M Type-2 as she waited near Nina and her sisters. The girls hadn’t just gotten used to cheering but had seemingly jumped fully into the spirit of Fuzzy Dice mania. They’d whipped themselves into a frenzy that not even the real fans could outdo.
If they are acting, then they deserve awards.
Mira stared at the three, deeply impressed by how they’d nailed the part. But she simultaneously had a sinking feeling that if she just hid beside them without going wild herself, she’d definitely stand out. Unfortunately, Mira knew nothing about acting, and if she half-heartedly copied them, she felt it’d look even worse than not cheering at all.
Mira decided to position herself stealthily between Mina and Nina, keeping low to remain as inconspicuous as possible, just like they’d originally planned. That could’ve made her seem like a pervert taking advantage of the large crowds to freely cop a feel, but thanks to her current form, she simply looked like a shy young girl.
What she was on the inside, however, was another matter entirely. Aaah, yes. They smell gooood.
As Mira squeezed between them, Nina opened her cloak, using it to cover her. Mira was so small, it concealed her enough to keep her from standing out.
Mm-hmm. Now I can get a good view.
Sandwiched between two mature women, Mira was in high spirits, especially because they were in such close quarters. Still, she hadn’t forgotten what she was there to do.
Her target was expected to make his way into the Mages’ Guild from the balcony, and she needed to wait calmly for him to appear so she could line up a shot. She pretty much looked like a sniper.
Right after she’d gotten into position, the crowd roared. The street had been plenty loud before, but the cheers now were positively deafening. The phantom thief Fuzzy Dice had finally arrived, and the sound that went up from the crowd was unbelievable. Cheers and screams mixed and echoed through the night sky. It almost sounded like the fans were competing to see who could shout the loudest.
Mira instantly heard shouts from right beside her.
“Ah! He’s here! Fuzzy Diiiiice!”
“Steal me while you’re at it!”
“Fuzzy ◯✕△◇◯△△✕□!”
It was Nina and her sisters. Quickly noting how the other fans had exploded into cheers, they’d immediately done likewise.
There had been shouts simply noting his arrival, spicy and suggestive exclamations, and cries nobody could quite make out. The sisters had perfectly matched these in a way that seemed identical to the other fans around them.
The cheers crashed across the street like a great wave. Fuzzy Dice seemed to ride that wave as he dashed across the rooftops. Seeing him do so, the fans’ wild fervor peaked. And, while Mira and the sisters’ spot was rather conspicuous at first glance, they were still blending in thanks to the sisters’ acting.
“He looks exactly like he does on his card,” Mira murmured, poking her head out from Nina’s cloak to look at Fuzzy Dice.
Of course, she meant the portrait on Fuzzy Dice’s unique Legends of Asteria card. Since that portrait completely matched how he now looked in the flesh, there didn’t seem to be much chance that this was someone else.
Mira immediately peered down the Lock-On M Type-2’s scope, getting the thief into her sights.
It doesn’t seem like I’ll get a look at his face.
If she could see that, she could simply have used Inspect. If that displayed the thief’s name, she’d have been fine with letting him go right then and there. If he was a former player, he might even have been willing to discuss things with her, on account of them both coming from the same world. Finally, on the very off chance that he was Lastrada, things would’ve been even easier.
Fuzzy Dice’s mask, however, was strapped so tightly around his face that there was seemingly no chance of it slipping. Keeping a cautious eye on his surroundings, the thief prepared to enter the guild.
Mira held her breath, waiting for him to stop moving. The Lock-On M Type-2 couldn’t fire multiple shots and required ten seconds to recharge, so she needed to get this done with one shot.
She and Wolf had determined that the clearest shot would be right before Fuzzy Dice opened the balcony door, and the chief detective had apparently set up a trick to buy her time. According to him, that trick would force Fuzzy Dice to bend down.
It’s just about time…
Fuzzy Dice descended from the rooftop to the balcony, waving to acknowledge his cheering fans. At last, he stood in front of the balcony door. He’d made it this far; all he had to do was open the door and go into the guild.
So what now? Mira had Fuzzy Dice locked in her sights when, just as the chief detective had said, the thief bent over in front of the door.
Now!
Mira wasn’t sure what the chief had done, but she couldn’t let this chance slip by—this was the shot she’d been waiting for. She firmly pulled the Lock-On M Type-2’s trigger. It fired silently, without any light or sound. Amazingly, it registered Fuzzy Dice’s mana.
“Sweet! Perfect shot!”
Glancing at the magical tool’s display, Mira saw the tracking cursor pointing to Fuzzy Dice’s position. Their plan had been a total success.
With all she had to do, Mira had been rather anxious. Heaving a sigh of relief, she let Nina and the others know that their plan had worked. The sisters had apparently been nervous too; they hadn’t acted in a long time.
“Whew. Thank the gods…” they said, each letting a sigh of relief slip.
Having quietly executed their plan, they saw Fuzzy Dice stand up with a cat in his arms. Apparently, that cat was the chief detective’s “trap.” The balcony door opened outward, so Fuzzy Dice had needed to pick up the cat to open the door.
But what would they have done if the cat had wandered off before Fuzzy Dice showed up? Now that Mira knew the chief detective’s whole plan, she couldn’t help smiling in exasperation at how dubious it had been. Regardless, she chuckled to herself that all was well that ended well, watching Fuzzy Dice walk into the guild.
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