DMHS 33

His fingers touched the tassel tip.

‘Got it! Now I just need to pull it!’

But at that exact moment, Black fell forward. The boy, who had been standing still, moved in an instant in front of the servant.

The boy pushed Violet, who was hugging the servant.

Thud.

The child was so strong that Violet fell back without resistance. The boy looked down at Violet arrogantly.

“What is this? This trash bastard.”

Black was shaken by the boy’s words.

‘We are trash, but to be called trash by someone else…’

“Do you know him?”

“No. I do not know him.”

“Let’s go.”

The boy walked on without even glancing at Violet, who had fallen. The servant followed, stepping over Violet’s body.

Black, filled with rage, kicked his subordinate.

“Idiot! You cannot even distract them for a moment?”

“No! Boss. The kid was fast like lightning. When I came to my senses I was already on the ground!”

“Enough excuses. Change of plan. Pretend to be stallholders like in the night market and hold them there.”

Though resentful, Violet and Lime obeyed Black’s order.

Wearing goblin masks, they picked up wooden boards scattered in an alley. They also stole many water balloons from a stall where people played dart throwing.

They set up a makeshift stall at the edge of the night market. When Lime saw the boy and the servant walking side by side, eating fruit skewers, he raised his voice.

“Cheap water balloon throwing! Only 1 silver!”

The boy stopped in front of Lime.

“1 silver? That is quite expensive.”

Lime quickly changed his words.

“For you two, it is free!”

The boy looked at the servant.

“It seems we throw water balloons at the person behind the board. If you are bored, do you want to try?”

“Yes.”

Lime drew them in excitedly.

“Come, come! If you hit the person there with ten balloons you succeed. Think of someone who annoyed you and throw as much as you like!”

“Can I really throw as much as I want?”

“Haha! Of course! That guy can endure anything. They say he never once complained of pain in his life.”

Lime smiled broadly and sent a signal with his eyes to Black. Black, who was hiding behind the stall, sneaked behind the boy.

“If it is fine, I will try.”

The servant tossed a water balloon lightly and caught it.

He threw it at the goblin-shaped board with a hole for the face. The balloon hit the goblin mask exactly.

Smash!

Someone screamed loudly.

“Ahhh it hurts!”

“……”

“……”

“It hurts so much! I feel like I will die right now!”

People all turned their heads. Black, who had been reaching toward the boy’s back pocket, quickly hid behind the stall.

Lime coughed loudly to cover it.

“He is not usually this weak… wait a moment.”

Lime approached Violet, who was rolling on the ground.

“Pull yourself together.”

But Violet glared at him instead.

“It hurts like hell, you bastard!”

Far away, he could see Black making a throat-slitting gesture with his thumb. It meant he would kill them if they failed again.

Lime swallowed curses and pushed Violet aside.

“Forgive us. I will stand instead of him. Please throw the rest of the balloons.”

Lime propped the board back up. He stuck his face into the hole and saw the servant standing across from him.

The servant lightly tossed and caught a water balloon, then fixed his gaze on Lime.

At the moment their eyes met, chills ran down Lime’s forearm. His heart started beating fast.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

He shook his head, unable to explain the reaction, and looked forward.

‘It is only a water balloon.’

But the pounding heart would not calm down.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

‘This is crazy.’

Lime opened his eyes wide.

‘Damn.’

But when the balloon left the servant’s hand, Lime squeezed his eyes shut.

Thud!

When he regained awareness, Lime had hidden his body behind the board. Water from the exploded balloon flowed through the face hole, dripping down.

He belatedly shoved his face into the hole. Because of his foolish action, the boss once again mouthed harsh curses from afar.

But soon, Lime collapsed on the spot. His legs lost strength and he could not stand.

“Shall we end the game here?”

The servant asked in a relaxed voice. His tone made it sound as though he had only been playing along for the thieves’ sake.

“That is what I said, let’s go.”

The boy grabbed the servant’s arm and turned. Leaving Violet still sprawled on the ground and Lime whose legs had given out, the two left the place.

That night.

‘Pathetic weaklings.’

Black sat in a tavern that also served as an inn.

–The problem is not the knight or the mage. The boy and the servant are not ordinary people.

–We are sorry, boss. We will drop out of this job.

The subordinates, who had disliked this plan from the beginning, slipped away and ran. Now only Black remained.

‘How long will I keep picking pockets of worthless humans?’

Black clicked his tongue and tipped his glass. To make tonight’s job work, the glass held water instead of alcohol.

‘A chance like this does not come often.’

It was late, and Black was the only customer left in the tavern. He set down the glass on the table with a loud sound and gave a signal with his eyes to the innkeeper at the counter.

The innkeeper nodded and carefully went up the wooden stairs. When he came back down, he placed a key on Black’s table.

Black grabbed the key quickly, left gold coins on the spot, and stood. The innkeeper whispered to him.

‘It has been more than two hours since the lights went out.’

The boy and the servant were staying in the same room. The innkeeper, who guessed from the boy’s air that he was a high ranking noble, had urged him several times to take a separate room, but he had refused every time.

They were not even a couple on a honeymoon…

In any case, for Black, stealing from a sleeping guest’s room was nothing.

“……”

Black quietly went up to the second floor. Until he stood before the guest room, not even the sound of footsteps or breath came out. When he carefully put the key into the hole, nothing seemed different.

The problem came when he tried to turn the key.

‘…?’

His body suddenly would not move, as though weighted down by something heavy. He could not even twitch his fingers.

Without turning the key he had inserted, Black slowly collapsed in front of the door.

‘What is happening…’

His mind was clear, but not being able to move his body was unbearably frustrating. Black blinked and stared at the closed door.

After a while,

Click.

The door in front of Black opened. From the opening stepped out that same boy.

Shining blond hair, soft green eyes that looked like they could made you melt. The boy’s appearance was the same as when he had watched from afar, but the atmosphere around him felt unfamiliar.

When the boy’s indifferent eyes swept over him, Black felt his frozen body stiffen even more.

‘I am going to die.’

He had no strength to question why the thought came. In an instant his head filled with a single sentence.

‘I die here.’

The boy threw something in front of Black’s eyes.

Thud.

It was the subspace pouch.

“Take it.”

He heard the voice directly into his head, not through his ears.

“Take it, if you can.”

The arrogance in that voice made Black come back to his senses.

‘Who says I can’t?!’

He had lived in a thieves’ den since before he could read numbers. His hands, faster than eyes, had kept him alive until now.

Black clenched his teeth and put strength in his hand. His fingers, filled with stubbornness and willpower, began to move little by little.

‘Just a little more.’

The blood vessels in his eyes burst, and blood trickled from his tightly pressed lips.

‘A little more.’

Black stretched his trembling fingers forward. At last, just when his fingertip seemed about to touch the pouch.

‘Ah…’

That was as far as his will went. Black lost consciousness.

Lucien looked down at the man who had fainted.

Even after his mate had let him go several times, he had kept following, so Lucien had come out, and it was just as he thought. Black’s hand had fallen helplessly right in front of the pouch.

‘You should not covet what you cannot take even when given.’

Lucien folded his arms and was lost in thought.

‘What should I do with him?’

To be honest, Lucien had no feelings for humans. Unless it was someone like Walter who had cared for him. To Lucien, humans were like stones scattered on the roadside.

Look closely and you could see differences, some kind, some smart, some talkative, some quiet. But it was the same with stones. In the world there were no stones that looked exactly alike.

‘If tomorrow morning a man is found collapsed at the door, my mate will be concerned.’

Lucien remembered the wedding procession.

When the crowd of people was pushed and tossed like stones, Kian had turned pale and restless. He had gone so far as to load people into a carriage to evacuate them, and even handled the cleanup before returning.

When Lucien had complained about that, what had Kian answered?

–Because that is the only way I can atone.

Atonement… ridiculous word.

Was there any human who apologized for kicking a stone on the street, for the ants or small animals stepped on without thought every day?

Explaining that guilt grew faint when it was a different species did not apply to Kian. Kian was not human anyway.

‘But I must not do what my mate dislikes.’

If Kian were to learn Lucien had knocked the man out, he would not be pleased.

‘If I pour cold water on him, he will wake up.’