Ch 15

Lan looked around in wonder at the various foreign imports that were hung up on the street stall.

"Den! Den! Look at this! Look at this mask! Isn't it funny?"

The mask Lan pointed out was probably a mask used in sorcery by a tribe in the remote south of the continent for human sacrifice.

"Hmm, shall we get one?”

As far as I knew, that tribe had been destroyed by the conquest war of the Fairy tribe. As far as I could remember, it was said that this mask was now a traditional artifact that had lost its magical meaning and was now made and sold by the descendants of the tribe just to make ends meet. To be honest, it was unpleasant to look at, but it was also meaningful as a magician to trace the remnants of the sorcery contained within it. The mask was crazily expensive because it came from across the water, but I was too lazy to bargain. After I made my purchase, the other street vendors surrounded me, showing off their various imports.

"Sir! How about this? This is a precious item from the West!"

"Hey! Forget that, look at this! It's from the New World beyond the sea route!"

"Isn't this amazing? If you touch here, the doll inside the glass bead moves!"

Oh no, I’m trapped.

Their greedy looks left me flustered.

"No, wait! Let's take a look slowly!"

I calmed down the street vendors and looked at their wares carefully, as if I were appraising them. Most of the items were garbage that had nothing to do with magic, but some of them were useful.

"I'll buy this, this, this, and this. I don't need the rest."

I pointed to an introduction to basic magic in the Galand language of the Central Continent, a dagger and bracelet, likely found in some ruins, with magic formula inscription that was all but erased, and two small magic wands that were about the length of two hands. When I went my way, announcing to the crowd that I would not buy any more, the merchants who could not sell me the goods walked off disappointedly and went back to soliciting others.

"What are you going to do with all that?" Lan asked while eating the handful of hot dogs he had gotten started on while I was distracted.

"Gifts for my group."

I planned to renovate the magic wands and give them to Arwen and Hillis. Their magic wands were so distinctive and conspicuous, and they needed something more simple to use in regular situations. I was going to restore the magic in the necklace and dagger and give them to Arietta and Caesar, respectively. Apparently, there was originally a fairly useful defensive magic engraved on them, but they had worn down and gotten erased over time. I didn’t think they would really need it much, but it was better than nothing.

‘Oh, I didn't buy one for Tristan. I think I'll buy a bottle of alcohol on the way.’

Tristan couldn’t get drunk due to his body, but I had heard he still drank every once in a while, so I figured it was probably not a bad option.

"Let's go and have dinner before sunset."

"Gulp! Yes! Okay!"

Lan took a bite of the last hot dog and shook the crumbs off of his hands. For a moment, I wondered if he would be able to have dinner if he ate like that, but then I recalled that the basic metabolism of the Crows was different from ordinary people. As I set off to leave the market and head to Cain's house, a kid wearing a hat passed between me and Lan.

"Hey, kid.”

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Lancelot looked at me as if he was wondering what was going on when I suddenly stopped and called out to the kid.

"You have a pretty good hand."

When the kid passed by, he had taken my wallet out of my coat pocket and casually put it in his bag. For a moment, I was purely amazed by his fast and accurate hand movements, that even I had nearly missed. This kind of talent made me want to develop in areas other than magic. Of course, once I noticed it, I used my own pickpocketing skills to take back my wallet from the kid's bag and the wallets of others he had pickpocketed.

‘There’s always someone better than you, and you’re just underneath me, kid.’

The little boy heard me and began to run away, crossing through the crowd without hesitation.

"Phew~! He's fast. He’s a natural pickpocket."

I whistled, checking the other people's wallets. I figured the kid must have a good eye for people, because he had only snatched wallets full of high-value currency.

‘What a greedy kid. Should I catch him and teach him?’

"Huh? Pickpocket?"

Then Lan searched his body busily and said with a pale face, "D-Den. I-it’s gone!"

"What is?"

"The thing you ordered me to do here, and my wallet!"

I turned pale too.

‘Did he use that god-like skill with both hands?!’

I hadn’t even noticed him picking Lan’s pocket, I had been too focused on the hand in my pocket, going for my wallet.

"F**k! Get that kid!"

Lancelot and I chased after the kid, in the direction he had ran. What I asked Lan to do next was for the sake of insurance. In a normal situation, if I didn’t have any set plans, I would have seen losing my wallet as a minor inconvenience. However, things had changed after I had encountered Uncle Hermes. Now, the possibility of me needing some insurance had risen, and time was too short to prepare it again. The kid was already out of our sight, but I needed to find him.

“Lan! Can you track him?”

“Yea! This way!"

Lan began to track the smell of the kid at the entrance of the market, where all kinds of miscellaneous smells were mixed. If the Blade family had an absolute instinct, then the Everden family had a superhuman sense of smell that even my perception-disrupting magic couldn’t deceive. Of course, excellent instinct and smell were universally possessed by all Crows, but some families were particularly strong in their specific abilities. I moved some of the chirps scattered throughout the city to search ahead in the direction Lan pointed towards.

"From here to here!"

Lan zigzagged up the stairs through the three-story building. Then he ran from roof to roof, until he finally jumped from the roof of a four-story building down into a narrow alley.

"Lan! Is this the right direction? This is not the kind of path an ordinary kid would take!"

"I'm sure! The smell in the air is getting thicker little by little!"

Lan took the lead and ran without hesitation through the narrow alleyway. When I checked this area from the sky with a chirp, it was not easy to identify people because the road was narrow and tents had been set up across it. In addition, there were too many children wearing clothes similar to what the kid had been wearing.

‘That pickpocket kid, did he wear that outfit on purpose, too?’

Lancelot, who was wandering in the alley, stopped and looked at a manhole, leading into the sewer.

"In here. Ugh! The smell! I think it'll be hard to track him by smell now."

I grinned at Lan's words. "He’s in here? Then it'll be easier to catch him."

I guided the chirps flying through this city one by one into the sewer entrances and manipulated them head in our direction. I didn't know how complicated the sewer system was, but I knew it wouldn’t be hard to catch him if I searched from each of the sewer holes towards the center.

"Found you, damn kid!" I called one chirp towards me, put it on Lan and said, "You go in from another hole and go to the other side."

"It's a hunt! All right!"

For Lan, who had a good sense of smell, a place like the sewer must have smelled like pure poison, but he moved according to my instructions without showing any negativity. I took a deep breath, held it, and lowered myself into the sewer. Although it was not as strong as Lan’s, my sense of smell still exceeded that of ordinary people, so the sewer was a bad place for me too. Even if it was purified by magic, it would only be okay for a few seconds, and the smell couldn’t be removed completely, so it was best for me to just hold my breath for as long as possible. I lit up the sewer with magic and chased after the pickpocketing kid.

"Ah!"

The kid hadn’t gone too far, so it surprised him when I caught up with him. He tried to run away again, but stopped when he saw Lan approaching him from the opposite direction.

"There is no place to run, kid."

The kid smiled and said, "Do you think I ran away because I was afraid of you guys? I don't know how you found me, but I just ran away to be considerate to both of you, who gratefully shared your money. I didn’t want you to get hurt for no reason."

I looked at the kid smiling playfully and took out the wallets I had stolen from him.

"By sharing, are you talking about these things?"

Looking at the wallets in my hand, the kid panicked and began to search through his bag.

"Oh?! How!?"

I got a good laugh out of watching him panic.

"If there are people that run this world, then there are people that fly above them too. There’s always someone better than you out there, and that is especially true for a toddler who just learned to walk."

The little boy blushed as if his pride had been hurt by my words.

"Ugh...! You could’ve just taken your wallet back! Why did you follow me?!"

"You didn’t just take my wallet. What you stole from my friend is more important. So there will be a short inspection."

The kid held his small fist up and quite adeptly got in a combat position.

"Hmph! I told you! I ran away on purpose for your sake!"

"Cooperate before you get beaten. We’re scary people."

In response, the kid emitted martial aura. This was not the kind of martial aura that a normal kid could make.

“Forget about the wallet now! I don't like to take money from people I’ve already pickpocketed, but I'll make you pay for ignoring me!"

When the kid ran at me, Lan pulled out a sword and swung for the kid's back mercilessly.

"Argh!"

The kid rolled on the floor, avoiding Lan's blade.

"Oh, how can you show your back to the enemy and fight? You don't even have the basics down." I chuckled and sneered at the kid, sending him into a rage.

"Who doesn’t even have the basics down?! Argh!"

The kid tried to fight back against Lan by pulling out a dagger, but he couldn't overcome the difference in physique and weapon length. Ultimately, all he could do was scream and try hard to avoid Lan’s strikes.

‘His physical ability isn’t like that of a child. His footwork and magic is from the martial arts of the Crow tribe.’

The kid hadn’t noticed when he had passed by us because we had been hiding under a hat, but Lan moved violently, sending the hat falling to the ground and revealing his black hair.

"Huh!? There’s no way!"

The kid was flustered, barely avoiding Lan’s next swing. It was not unreasonable for him to be flustered. He usually easily overpowered his opponents, even if it was an adult with a sword. Using my hometown as the standard, the kid was still at the level of a child, but he seemed a step up from his peers. The kid couldn't afford to pay attention anywhere else as he tried to avoid Lan’s attacks, so I took an open opportunity to hit him on the back of the head.

"Argh!"

"That’s why I said don't show your back to the enemy." Looking at the child in pain, clutching his head, I asked, "Kid, what are your parents' names?"

"Ugh...! What's the point of knowing it? You're gonna tell on me... Ugh!"

The kid was furious, but when Lan put a sword on his neck, he closed his mouth.

"Answer the questions. If you resist, I’ll kill you," said Lancelot coldly.

I smirked and said, "Don't be too harsh. This kid is probably my cousin."

"Cousin?" asked Lancelot.

I nodded and looked at the kid.

"So, kid, your father's name is Hermes Blade, and your mother's name is Aquila Dezarion, right?"

As far as I knew, among all the Crows in the Republic, only my uncle and aunt had a child with them.

"I didn't know because I only saw you when you were a baby, but you've grown a lot, Perseus Dezarion."

The Blade family name was customarily inherited only by the children of the chief. Therefore, the branch family that failed to achieve that title usually gave the surname of their marriage partner to their children. Of course, this was not regulated by law, so Aunt Talaria had given the surname ‘Blade’ to her adopted daughter. The Blade surname could be passed down in the branch families, if they wished.

In Milpia’s case, she was not a Crow, so they did not force the custom onto her. They likely also did that because Aunt Talaria was single. When I called Perseus by his name, he asked in surprise, "Uh… Who are you?"

"Me? Your older cousin, Denburg Blade."

Perseus thought for a moment, then clapped his hands as if he had remembered.

"Ah! That person who ran away from home! Argh!"

I hit him on the back of the head again and thought, ‘This guy, I can take advantage of him.’