I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills

After Bianca had swept through like a storm and went for her training,

Kraush headed to his own room.

“Alicia, stop and go see Aliod.”

“Ah.”

Alicia, Kraush’s personal maid, hesitated the moment she heard that.

Aliod, the butler of the Green Pine Mansion, was her father.

After Kraush arrived at the Green Pine Mansion, the two had greeted each other briefly.

But while Aliod remained composed, Alicia continued to follow him with her eyes.

She probably wanted to talk to her father, whom she had not seen in a long time.

“I appreciate your consideration, but I am currently in a position where I must attend to you, Sir Kraush. The same applies even at the Green Pine Mansion.”

When Alicia politely refused, Kraush smiled lightly.

“Then it’s an order. I also need some time alone anyway.”

“…An order, you say?”

When Kraush spoke of giving her a direct order, Alicia wavered.

However, upon seeing that Kraush had no intention of withdrawing it, she eventually gave in.

“Thank you. I will be back soon.”

With that, Alicia bowed deeply and exited in a well-mannered fashion.

Yet she seemed unable to hide her excitement; the sound of her footsteps racing down the corridor was noticeably quick.

She was still young, and there must have been much she wished to discuss with her father.

‘It’s true I really did need some alone time anyway.’

Once Kraush locked the door, he noticed Crimson Garden’s crow that had followed him inside.

When she saw him, she gave a small nod and perched gently on the doorknob.

She used magic to seal the doorknob.

Confirming this, Kraush then took a dead rat out of his pocket.

“Ebelasque.”

The moment he called out, the corpse rat sprang up and settled on the floor.

Right then, a shadow beneath the rat’s feet began shifting and rose upward in a sudden surge.

From that swiftly ascending darkness emerged a woman with long black hair and a conspicuously prominent upper body.

As always, the dark circles under her eyes showed exactly how much of a recluse she was.

Ebelasque Benapochi.

A World Eroder and the only necromancer in the world.

“You’re actually dressed normally for once.”

Unlike her usual single oversized T-shirt, she wore a black dress today. The top drew attention to her figure, and the skirt clung to her waist. Long black gloves stretched all the way to her wrists, exuding a mysterious allure. РἈ𐌽օ₿Εs̩

“It’s common sense that what you wear at home and what you wear outside are different, isn’t it?”

Ebelasque spoke in a slightly brusque tone today.

Strictly speaking, it was perfectly common sense, but Kraush knew well that she usually wore little else when going out.

Maybe she was going through some sort of change of heart. He decided to just let it go.

“Where’s Mad Sword Emperor?”

“I’ll bring him out now.”

Compliant as ever, Ebelasque tapped the floor lightly with the heel of her shoe.

Just like with Ebelasque’s appearance, black shadows welled up in a swirl.

“Puhak!”

Rising from within them was a man with blood-red hair.

Kraush recognized him immediately, having seen him not long ago, and lifted his hand in greeting.

“Mad Sword Emperor.”

“Cough, ugh, you!”

The moment Mad Sword Emperor saw Kraush, he tried to shout.

But before he could, his voice was cut off.

Because Ebelasque held control over him.

Though he was resurrected through Crimson Garden, his heart was in Ebelasque’s hands.

Therefore, he could no longer show the rebellious nature he once did.

Kraush walked slowly toward Mad Sword Emperor, whose teeth were clenched in frustration.

He leaned in, wearing a relaxed smile.

“I’m sure a survival-driven guy like you already knows this: no matter what you do right now, your life is hanging by a thread.”

Unable to speak, Mad Sword Emperor could only grind his teeth.

“All your escape routes are blocked from the start, so forget it. If I feel like it, that one over there can control your every move.”

Humiliation filled his expression.

But he was quick to see reality for what it was.

“What do you want to know?”

As he was desperate to survive, Mad Sword Emperor began by accepting the situation instead of fighting it.

He was exactly the kind of person Kraush deemed worth reviving.

Anyway, unlike the other Ixion members, he had never been particularly loyal to Ixion in the first place.

“Who currently belongs to Ixion?”

He already knew Ixion’s objective.

What Kraush needed was to find out which World Eroders were part of Ixion right now. And also—

“Why did you steal the Poison Blood Codex, and who did you deal with after stealing it? Tell me everything.”

He had to learn about the hidden side that might involve the imperial family, too.

* * *

Now that he was effectively a corpse, Mad Sword Emperor had no choice in the matter.

From the moment he started talking, Kraush listened meticulously to everything.

Thanks to that, Kraush could roughly grasp which World Eroders were currently affiliated with Ixion.

‘They’ve joined up faster than I expected, and some of them are truly dangerous.’

He identified a total of fourteen World Eroders.

Among them, four—including the Black Witch—were ones Kraush deemed truly threatening.

“If you count their servants as well, their numbers will swell even more.”

Kraush folded his arms and tapped one with his index finger.

Was this some kind of butterfly effect from what Sigrid Ephania and he had done?

Or was it caused by some unknown undercurrent beyond his awareness? He couldn’t be sure.

But one question stood out.

“The ‘Hell Fairy’?”

It was a name he had never heard.

Even Kraush did not know every World Eroder in existence.

He only had knowledge of Ixion members and the ones he had clashed with in the war against the World Eroders.

Naturally, he couldn’t have known them all, especially the ones hidden away.

But what was certain was that he’d never heard of a World Eroder going by the moniker “Hell Fairy.”

“That’s the one.”

Then Mad Sword Emperor continued.

“It was that person who asked me to steal the Poison Blood Codex.”

So it wasn’t the Black Witch but rather some other figure called the Hell Fairy who requested that Mad Sword Emperor steal the Poison Blood Codex.

At those words, Kraush’s face twisted in displeasure.

“So you’re telling me you don’t know what they did with it after you handed it over?”

“Why would I? I just fulfilled my end of the deal.”

Mad Sword Emperor snorted, indicating he truly had no idea.

When Kraush looked over at Ebelasque, she nodded.

Everything the Mad Sword Emperor was saying at that moment was the honest truth.

“What did you get in return?”

“Blood Demonic Sword.”

But his next words puzzled Kraush.

Blood Demonic Sword, one of the Ten Heavenly Swords that Mad Sword Emperor had favored.

It was odd to learn that he had only come into possession of it relatively recently.

“Weren’t you originally carrying Blood Demonic Sword?”

“I had a blade I brought from my world, but during battle it got old and dull. That’s when I was approached with the deal.”

If that was the case, it meant the Hell Fairy existed in his original world as well.

Kraush felt a headache coming on.

He was beginning to sense how insufficient information was creeping in bit by bit.

“Crimson Garden, do you know anything about this Hell Fairy?”

“For the most part, yes.”

The raven perched on the doorknob answered Kraush’s question.

“In my experience, the Hell Fairy was a relatively new World Eroder who’d only recently gained their moniker. I did see them once when I was in Ixion.”

“What were they like?”

“They gave me an eerie feeling—more disturbing than the Black Witch. Their affinity for fire-based magic was quite formidable, and above all, they never left an opening.”

At those words, Kraush narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Fire magic?”

“Yes, the Hell Fairy mainly uses fire magic, with a brilliant blue hue.”

Blue flames.

‘Not the person I’m thinking of, then.’

Kraush briefly recalled Abella, the Red Witch, who was a master of fire magic so different from the Flame Emperor Aslan.

She’d vanished without a trace, so he’d thought of her for a moment, but quickly shook his head.

‘The timing doesn’t match up.’

The Hell Fairy made the deal with the Mad Sword Emperor when Kraush was just four years old.

Kraush’s return in time happened at age thirteen.

Abella also returned to a point where she would have been twelve—just one year younger than Kraush.

Meaning, when the Hell Fairy was active, Abella was only three, which didn’t line up.

“Mad Sword Emperor, is Ixion connected to the imperial family?”

As soon as Kraush posed his next question, the Mad Sword Emperor answered readily.

“Likely, since I heard that Hell Fairy is acting as an inside agent for the imperial family.”

So, the Poison Blood Codex incident definitely involved the imperial family.

And the Hell Fairy was also working with them.

‘These situations are getting more tangled than I thought.’

Kraush knew the imperial family’s secret.

He had seen the empire tumble into ruin and its imperial family lose its authority as a result of that secret.

‘Hadenhartz also ended up destroyed by the Poison King when the Second Prince revealed the empire’s secret as payment.’

Perhaps that no longer applies, but in any case, the empire’s hidden secret was the starting point for everything.

‘Though it’s no surprise Ixion and the imperial family are linked.’

What bothered him was that the Hell Fairy—someone he’d never heard of—was the one bridging them.

Hearing all this information somehow made Kraush’s thoughts all the more muddled, and he sighed.

“Enough. This isn’t a situation where thinking alone will solve anything.”

He reorganized his thoughts before they could overwhelm him. Then he reached one conclusion.

“I’ll just have to meet them in person.”

If there was something he didn’t know, he could figure it out by confronting it directly.

That was why he had gone to the trouble of bringing back the Mad Sword Emperor.

Their eyes locked.

Seeing Mad Sword Emperor’s expression, which asked what new scheme Kraush had in mind, Kraush’s lips curled into a slight smile.

“Mad Sword Emperor, it’s time for you to play your next role.”

“What? There’s more?”

Mad Sword Emperor muttered sarcastically, as if simply giving information wasn’t enough.

Kraush ignored him.

“You’ll be attending Ixion’s upcoming meeting in person.”

Mad Sword Emperor’s face went rigid at once.

“Wait, wait! There’s a pretty high chance I’ll be exposed!”

When he asked how he was supposed to avoid being found out, Kraush shrugged.

“That’s up to you. Don’t worry. As long as you act like you usually do, it’ll be fine.”

“F-Fuck, how could I possibly not be noticed when a dead man’s walking around again?!”

“Well, figuring that out is your problem…”

A sinister smile appeared on Kraush’s lips.

“Not mine, is it?”

Mad Sword Emperor glared at Kraush, clearly on the brink of cursing him outright.

But he didn’t want to lose his resurrected life again.

Even if he was nothing more than a puppet, preserving his own life was his top priority.

“I really should’ve killed you properly back then.”

Watching Mad Sword Emperor grit his teeth, Kraush patted his shoulder.

“I’m counting on you, Mad Sword Emperor.”

We might just become the best of friends.

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