Pursuer and Compa.s.s
「Ryver! Someone stole my staff! Get it back right now!」Caddie yelled as soon as Ryver entered her room, bow slung across his back.「It"s those filthy Beastmen! I"m sure of it! Do they think they can fool me with that silver mask? It makes my blood boil just thinking about it. Well, they"re not fooling anyone!」
「The compa.s.s.」
「It"s in the bag! Hurry and bring it back!」
Ryver picked up a bag sitting in the corner. He dug his hand in and took out a palm-sized compa.s.s, one with no scale markings, only a needle that showed direction. The needle didn"t point at a fixed direction, but rather it swayed back forth slowly.
Looks like it really got stolen, Ryver realized.
It was already explained to him before that the compa.s.s and the Drakon Staff were a set. Ryver had no idea how it worked, but the compa.s.s always pointed to where the staff was. The staff itself had been stolen twice in the past, and Ryver retrieved it each time.
「Hurry! You"re in our party for this, right?! Go!」
「Understood.」
Caddie was already a mentally unstable girl. When the staff got stolen before, she went frantic. There was only one way to bring her back to normal: recover the staff as soon as possible.
Ryver stepped out of Caddie"s room.
「Did someone, steal the, staff again?」Batros opened the door to his room, carrying a magic lamp.
Ryver simply nodded. Caddie"s brother, Igloo, was still fast asleep.
Ryver walked briskly, yet carefully so as not to step on any bottle, and went out of the guest room. In the hallway, he found the Polar Tiger"s leader, Gotthold Kostenlos Anchor. The tiger Beastman had brought two of his party members with him.
Servants watched them uneasily from a distance. They didn"t try to get close since there were orders to clear the area of people.
「What"s with all the ruckus?」Gotthold asked.
「So you were eavesdropping.」Ryver said.
「Of course not. That was a loud scream just now. We have sharp ears, you know.」
Gotthold shot a glance inside the room and saw bottles rolling on the floor, alcohol spilling out. The man frowned.
「Lady Caddie"s staff was stolen.」Ryver closed the door behind him, as though to hide the state of the room.
「Staff?」
「She suspects you guys.」
「How dare you!」One of Gotthold"s men snapped.
「Stop.」Gotthold said, holding the man back.「You got proof? Do you think you can get away with such a blatant false accusation?」
「Whatever. We"ll know the truth soon.」
「What do you mean?」
「I"m going after the thief. Move it.」
「Wait. I"m coming with you.」
「You"ll only get in the way.」
「I won"t. You can leave me behind if you want. I"ll just follow you.」
「Hmph.」
Ryver broke into a run and reached maximum speed in a few seconds. He was an archer focused on pure strength, but he could also track people. He had a point in Power Burst, 2 on Balance, 8 on Strength, 5 on Stamina, and 2 on Natural Recovery.
A mere demi-human can"t keep up with my speed, Ryver thought. Wait, what?!
Gotthold was a few steps behind him, holding down the long sword on his waist with his left hand. Bending forward, he sprinted, his footsteps silent.
He may be rotten, but he"s still rank A, I suppose.
Ryver made it out of the mansion with Gotthold. The thief had already left the building. After urging the gatekeeper to open the gates quickly, they dashed through the moonlit streets of Leather Elka.
That"s weird.
Ryver wracked his brains as he sprinted. They were experienced adventurers chasing a mere thief, yet it felt like they couldn"t close the distance between them. That wasn"t all.
I didn"t sense anyone back then.
He activated his Detection before going to bed. No living thing was approaching their room then. Not a lot of time had pa.s.sed since the time he slept and the staff was stolen. Caddie saw the thief and screamed. If he escaped through the mansion and not the window, Ryver would"ve sensed them. But he didn"t.
Whatever. We"ll just wring it out of him once he"s captured.
The thief seemed to be running towards the edge of the city. He turned around several corners, as though trying to lose his pursuers. In other words, he was aware that people were after him.
By some stroke of good fortune, they were headed to a cliff, the steep mountain side behind the fort city.
「Did they really go this way?」Gotthold asked, his voice filled with doubt. The man knew the path led to a dead end.
「Yes. Up ahead.」
The needles pointed at a corner up ahead. About a hundred meters ahead was a dead end.
They both turned the corner simultaneously and came onto a path five meters wide. No one lived around here; only warehouses filled the area. There were no other routes on both sides, only a warehouse"s backdoors.
A cliff, ten meters high, loomed before them. A few huge rocks lay strewn below it. It was the reason why no one lived here.
「He"s behind that rock.」
Ryver put his compa.s.s away in his pocket, grabbed his bow and nocked an arrow to the string. While not fit for rapid firing, Ryver believed he"d be able to keep up even if the enemy launched a surprise attack.
Noting Ryver"s mood change, Gotthold drew his sword. A first-cla.s.s weapon, it was bluish in color, most likely made with mithril.
They glanced at every warehouse backdoor which seemed to have barely been used, cobwebs all over the locks.
So they"re behind the rock. Since they"re not moving, they must"ve noticed us.
Ryver"s mind was as calm as a windless surface of a lake. But just like earlier, his Detection didn"t pick up anything. He had heard of items imbued with high-level Stealth that Life Detection couldn"t sense, but it was his first time encountering one.
The huge rock, three meters long, occupied the middle of the road. Ryver gestured at Gotthold with his chin to go left, while he went right. Now there was no escape for the thief.
Slowly, they rounded the rock. The light of the moon didn"t reach behind it. The moment Ryver reached the other side, a sword flashed. He quickly fired his arrow.
「Whoa! You idiot! It"s me!」
The arrow clinked as Gotthold deflected it with his sword.
「What?」Ryver was confused.
「There"s no one here.」
No one was behind the rock. Not even a trace of someone hiding there.
「How…?」Ryver dug into his pocket for the compa.s.s.「What the…」
The needle spun around, as though it didn"t know which direction to point to.
Man, that was close. Hikaru glanced behind at the blind alley before turning a corner. Ryver and Gotthold should be checking behind the rock right about now.
The shrill peal of a whistle rang out, a signal that an enemy had appeared. The authorities had already received word of a thief breaking into the royal family"s mansion and were setting up a perimeter.
I should be fine if that thing"s useless.
Hikaru was empty-handed. He had kept track of his pursuers using Mana Detection. He set his job cla.s.s to Stealth G.o.d and activated all his Obfuscation skills, but he suspected it might not be enough to conceal the mana released by the Drakon Staff. His pursuers chased after him as though he was striking cymbals while running around, giving away his location.
Ryver must"ve used some sort of a magic item.
Ryver didn"t have powerful Detection skills. If he did, Hikaru would"ve been busted this afternoon when he eavesdropped on the meeting. There was no doubt that he was using an item that could detect the Drakon Staff, or perhaps any mana as strong as the one released by the staff.
Hikaru turned several corners, but he couldn"t lose his pursuers. That"s when he realized the Drakon Staff was marked. He knew he couldn"t outrun them, and he wasn"t familiar with the local geography either.
He could"ve destroyed the staff, but he planned to return it later. So he tried something.
Thank G.o.d for this.
Hikaru patted his chest. Under his clothes was the Dimension Dragon Box, just big enough for the staff"s...o...b..to fit through. As soon as he put the staff inside, the mana vanished. Then he simply waited in the shadows.
Hikaru chose a blind alley for a reason. He believed Ryver would wield his weapon when there was a straight path ahead, swapping out the compa.s.s. Hikaru couldn"t detect mana from the staff anymore, but if a sliver of it even slipped, one he couldn"t sense, he"d be in trouble. So he created a situation where Ryver wouldn"t look at the compa.s.s.
Hikaru hid behind a warehouse"s set of stairs. He planned to get past them once his pursuers were occupied. Activating his Mana Detection, he found Ryver and Gotthold frozen in place, confused. They had lost track of the Drakon Staff.
I"ll examine the staff once I"m away from here.
Hikaru hurried down the streets and returned to the inn.