I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills

“Lirina, Lirina.”

As usual, after cleaning Aslan’s room, Lirina turned her head to the voice calling her. There stood a maid, snickering with a slightly ominous laugh.

“Someone’s looking for you outside?”

Lirina blinked her half-shut eyes. She wondered who would come looking for her.

“He was a cute boy. Since when did you enchant such a child?”

Hearing the continuation, her eyes rounded in surprise. She realized who the maid was referring to.

‘Mr. Kraush?’

Never before had he come to look for her personally. If he was here, it must be about the favor she had asked for.

‘He found out in just a few days…’

Perhaps he truly used the power of the Balheim family. Although Lirina, who had lived in Halgram for a long time, couldn’t find this person, no other explanation seemed to fit.

‘But Mr. Kraush is so shunned by his household that he hardly manages regular meals…’

It definitely wouldn’t have been easy for him to use the family’s power. And yet, he willingly accepted her request, for her sake.

Lirina fidgeted with her fingers. Her thoughts drifted inadvertently elsewhere.

She cleared her throat softly, shaking herself out of the daydream.

‘It’s just a silly crush.’

Chiding herself to snap out of it, she tapped her cheek twice and asked the maid.

“Where is he?”

“You know the back path the maids use often? He seems to be waiting there.”

“Thank you.”

Ignoring the maid’s sly grin, she headed for the back path. Having reached the garden and then to the back path, she cautiously opened the gate. Oddly, the entrance was deserted.

A tinge of disappointment surfaced on her face, as she had unwittingly anticipated seeing him.

“Was it just a misunderstanding?”

She thought maybe the maid had given her the wrong information. Just then—

“Lirina.”

She turned her head to the voice calling her. There stood a boy with dark blue hair.

A wave of pleasure surged through Lirina.

“If the maids see you alone on their usual path, they might tease you, asking if you’re someone’s boyfriend.”

Yet, for some reason, her words came out with a playful jauntiness. She didn’t understand why she kept making such comments.

“There’s no one who would joke like that other than you, Ms. Lirina.”

He adeptly received her playful jibe. Each time Lirina saw him, she found it curious.

There had never been a halt in their conversations. Perhaps that’s why she always enjoyed talking to Kraush at the park.

“So, what’s the reason you came to find me directly? If there is another meaning, I might feel slightly sorry.”

“There is an important reason I came to find you directly. It concerns the matter you asked me about.”

Lirina’s eyes widened slightly. Certainly, Kraush had found information about Dorothy, Aslan’s friend.

“You’re incredibly fast.”

“One ought to repay the value of the meals he’s been given, right?”

“I was just joking, but I never would have guessed that you’d find out so quickly.”

Lirina looked around. This was not a suitable place to talk. So, she opened the back gate slightly.

“Let’s go to the inner garden. There is a good spot to talk there.”

While there was a high chance of being scolded by the house steward, it was common to hush up something as minor as bringing in an acquaintance for a moment.

So, before attracting attention, Lirina quickly moved with Kraush to the inner garden.

The springtime garden, lush with blooming flowers and greenery, brushed by a slightly chilly wind as night fell.

Lirina stopped in her tracks, following the breeze, and looked back at Kraush with a look that meant she was now ready to talk.

Kraush caught the signal and decided to get straight to the point.

“Regarding Ms. Dorothy, first, let me say—she wasn’t human.”

“What?”

Lirina froze. Such an out-of-the-blue statement was unexpected.

“What do you mean…”

Unable to comprehend, Lirina asked for clarification, and Kraush surveyed the surroundings to ensure they were alone.

“Do you know about spirits?”

The city of Halgram wasn’t far from the forest of the Spirit King. Still, for ordinary people, knowledge about spirits wasn’t too detailed. And that included Lirina.

“Spirits, you mean erosive beings?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Lirina’s eyes trembled. She caught on why Kraush had mentioned spirits.

“Surely, Dorothy isn’t—”

“A spirit.”

“That can’t be.”

Lirina struggled to accept Kraush’s words. To her, Dorothy had always appeared indistinguishably human.

Nothing about her suggested the form of an erosive being.

“Did you know that erosive beings continue to evolve?”

“Erosive beings evolve?”

Lirina was simply a personal maid. She had little occasion to see erosive beings in her life. Naturally, she wouldn’t know such facts.

“Erosive beings steadily evolve. More precisely, it’s the world’s erosion that does. They learn, they experience, and all that is reflected in the world’s erosion.”

It’s why the world’s erosion must be destroyed immediately upon occurrence. Otherwise, it grows uncontrollable.

However, there are cases of world erosion already grown to such an extent that they can’t be touched.

Those erosive beings existed before humans took control of the world and designated forbidden areas.

Thus, humans distinguished zones inhabited by people from the forbidden areas. Rather than providing them with learning opportunities, it was better to cut off the source and manage it consistently.

“Ms. Dorothy is a new spirit born from the forest of the Spirit King. She resembled a human more than any spirit.”

A spirit born absorbing the data of a Chaos Spirit that lived among humans.

That was Dorothy.

Lirina looked even more baffled. It was a natural reaction, considering Aslan’s friend was revealed to be a spirit.

“And still, do you wish to find Ms. Dorothy?”

The current situation was far from ordinary. The fact that a spirit was attached to Aslan, a direct descendant of the Igrit family, would raise many rumors.

Not searching for Dorothy might, in fact, be better for Aslan.

Lirina was Aslan’s personal maid.

Her role was to assist him in the best possible direction.

“Yes.”

However, she answered without hesitation.

“Even if everyone points fingers at me, I am a maid who follows Mr. Aslan. Right now, Mr. Aslan needs Ms. Dorothy.”

Even if she might regret this decision someday, Dorothy was a necessity for Aslan.

Hearing her words, Kraush slowly nodded.

“Then there’s something I must ask of you.”

“I’ll do anything. Just say the word.”

“Please introduce me to Mr. Aslan.”

It was an unexpected request. Nonetheless, Lirina realized that Kraush had something to say directly to Aslan.

“So, my role ends there.”

“On the contrary, thank you for going this far.”

Lirina clenched her hands on her skirt and gave Kraush a slight bow.

“Mr. Kraush, I’ll make sure you won’t worry about meals from now on. So, please take good care of Mr. Aslan.”

Indeed, such a request was very like her.

***

Aslan Igrit.

Now 15 years old and a grown adult, Aslan only opened his eyes as evening approached. With long red hair and pale skin marked by dark circles due to activity only at night, he glanced briefly at the blackout curtains. They remained closed, showing no intention of opening—curtains that would have been opened furtively by a visitor in the past.

“Aslan, sleeping in again? I came straight after finishing at the academy. You should have been waiting for me.”

Her voice was still vividly clear in his mind.

‘Dorothy.’

Each time he realized this fact, Aslan’s countenance darkened.

She had been his sole salvation, and now, she was no longer of this world.

Only the memory of her last smile amidst the flames remained.

At that moment, there was a knock—

Knock knock—

Suddenly, someone knocked from beyond the window, startling Aslan and drawing his gaze to it.

A wave of confusion swept over him, accompanied by the start of a pounding heart.

“Ugh.”

As Aslan hurriedly rose from his seat, the pain in his throat where he had been choked made him swallow his words.

The pain from when he had been hanged still lingered.

Struggling with it, he staggered to his feet and whipped open the blackout curtains. For the first time, he saw the face of an unfamiliar boy.

With black hair and a crow on his shoulder, the young boy might have been younger than him.

The boy knocked on the window once again, as if asking for it to be opened.

Despite his uncertainties, Aslan was compelled to open the window, reminded of how Dorothy often knocked on his window like this.

“You are…”

“Aslan.”

Under the moonlit sky, the boy called his name as if he knew him.

The boy’s blue eyes held a certain charm that compelled attention.

“Do you want to revive Dorothy?”

The boy abruptly threw the question.

Startled by such an unexpected query, Aslan’s eyes snapped open.

The boy knew Dorothy’s name and even seemed to know about Dorothy’s current state.

“…I want to revive her.”

It was as if Aslan answered under a spell.

He wanted to revive her.

His feelings remained unchanged.

At that moment, the crow on the boy’s shoulder spread its wings and flew off.

As black feathers scattered, the boy underneath wore a profound smile.

“Good. Let’s make a deal.”

The odd boy initiated a deal to revive Dorothy.

Hearing the word ‘deal’, Aslan dumbly inquired.

“Are you a devil…?”

There was talk of demons that negotiated deals, enticing people—certainly, there were such monsters amongst the erosive beings.

That careless remark prompted a look of disbelief on the boy’s face.

“Devil, my ass. Devils don’t make these kinds of deals. They would chop off your limbs, then offer to reattach them in exchange for a price.”

He was visibly annoyed, recalling an unpleasant memory while being compared to such devilish beings.

Aslan, meanwhile, wore a helpless expression, followed by subtly touching his eyes and then slowly opening them.

The dullness that had clouded his vision was gone.

In its place returned Aslan’s keen eyes, well-known to Kraush.

“I’d like to hear more about it.”

That’s when Kraush finally allowed a smile.

Fortunately, this was indeed the Aslan he knew.

***

For Kraush, it was a memory from the past, before his regression.

Underneath the scorched Red Tower.

Holding a sense of desolation, Aslan took a drag on his cigarette.

He had just finished his grandfather, the Flame Emperor’s funeral.

The Red Tower burned down due to a war with world erosive beings, and his grandfather was dead.

But the emotion etched on Aslan’s face was not one of sorrow.

He had always held a grudge against his grandfather, the Flame Emperor.

The problem was that there was nowhere left to direct that grudge.

“Aslan.”

Exhaling the smoke slowly from his cigarette, Aslan’s voice was laced with a sense of loss.

“What’s your reason for saving the world?”

Although typically the symbol of composure, for just that day, it seemed Aslan couldn’t maintain it, closing his eyes.

“I… I really don’t know anymore.”

Only 32 days remained until his death.

‘I really don’t know, huh.’

Briefly reminiscing, Kraush walked through the garden.

With a lean frame, red hair, and a complexion transparent as the symbol of Lunar Body, Kraush saw Aslan’s true face for the first time today.

In Kraush’s memories, Aslan had always been a dying figure, his entire body bandaged, covered in burn scars.

But Aslan was the same then as he is now.

[ Break Aslan’s ‘stubbornness’ ]

The line that would appear when using the Black Hood on Aslan’s Lunar Body.

The prompt related to the Lunar Body had not changed whether in the past or now.

‘Stubborn as always, huh.’

Aslan, no doubt, wanted to shed his Lunar Body long ago.

But it wasn’t something that could be done by someone else.

He wanted to overcome his Lunar Body through his own willpower.

Indeed, whether past or present, he’s a stubborn one.

Yet, because of this, Kraush acknowledged him.

That stubbornness alone allowed Aslan to rise to Flame Emperor after incinerating his own Lunar Body.

‘But this time, it’ll be different.’

He was here now, something absent before.

He would revive the only being capable of breaking Aslan’s stubbornness.

After the death of the Flame Emperor, Aslan had no longer known why he should protect the world.

So this time, Kraush was determined to forcibly plant a reason to live in him.

‘You’ll need to be my stepping stone.’

Kraush resolved to push him until he broke down in tears.

He intended to fully claim the dues for his hardships.

“Mr. Kraush.”

At that moment, Lirina, waiting at the end of the garden, called out to him.

Her half-shut eyes bore various thoughts.

On the day Aslan died, she had cried bitterly.

Kraush still vividly remembered those tears, having consoled her as well.

“Did you settle the matter successfully?”

When Lirina inquired, Kraush cast a brief glance at Aslan’s mansion.

“Yes, the conversation with Aslan is over. He’s agreed to the method to revive Dorothy.”

Kraush had made sure to inform him unequivocally about the way to bring Dorothy back.

The news had left Aslan in shock.

“How could you know such a method…?”

Desperately seeking hope, Aslan scoured for information about spirits.

Even the Igrit family, which managed the forest of the Spirit King, lacked such knowledge.

Naturally, Aslan could hardly believe Kraush possessed such information.

“Does how I found out the method matter much to you?”

Kraush had no intention to share all the details.

Aslan didn’t probe Kraush deeply either.

Aslan and Kraush had a transactional relationship.

As long as the deal could be struck, neither of them had reservations about the means.

In that respect, they were alike, indifferent to the methods employed.

“Let’s make a deal. Tell me what terms you want.”

Afterward, even though Aslan was taken aback upon hearing that Kraush desired the Lunar Body, he firmly agreed to the trade.

He knew this method was the only way to save Dorothy.

Before establishing such a deal, there was a necessary precondition.

And it wasn’t something Kraush could do alone.

“That’s why I have a favor to ask of you, Ms. Lirina.”

“Me? Are you asking me?”

Narrowing her eyes slightly before rectifying her stance, Lirina prepared to do whatever she could.

Kraush was the only person who could save Dorothy, Aslan’s dear friend.

“Please, instruct me. Should I become Mr. Kraush’s girlfriend? The romance between a maid and a noble has its charm, right?”

Lirina playfully lifted her skirt and curtsied like an obedient maid awaiting orders.

“…”

As Kraush remained silent and observing her, Lirina cleared her throat.

“Just a joke to lighten the mood a bit. Please don’t look at me with such eyes.”

Feeling more embarrassed herself, Lirina fanned her face with her hand.

But Kraush had paused for a different reason.

‘…Arthur, it’s really irritating, but I think I’m starting to sympathize with you a bit.’

Hearing the overlapping lines with the past, Kraush inadvertently stroked his brow.

A bit of nostalgia crept in and irked him.

Despite trying to ignore it, damn it.

‘I, too, am a fool, huh.’

They say a man never forgets his first love.

It was precisely the case.

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