"Huh!? Who goes there!?"
The man snarled at the source of the interruption, his face contorted with rage.
Beside him, the Pallum girl was equally puzzled—who was this adventurer with time to spare, causing a scene in such a dingy corner early in the morning?
As the two of them turned their gazes, a yellow figure and a blue one came into view.
"It's your grandma, that's who!"
Sushang's face burned with indignation. "What do you think you're doing!? Not only are you throwing your weight around against a girl, you're trying to snatch her things! Even if she didn't come by them honestly, that's no excuse for you to act like a villain!"
Are these the same two from yesterday? How are they still in one piece?
Lili, the Pallum girl, wore a mask of surprise beneath her hood.
It wasn't that she assumed they had died, for even a party of four Level 1 adventurers would be unlikely to suffer a total wipeout—let alone these two, who were clearly not your average run-of-the-mill adventurers. But surviving was one thing; emerging completely unscathed was another.
The shock quickly faded, however, replaced by a more pressing mystery. Was their presence here purely coincidental? Or was it...
"Hah! A couple of pampered young ladies playing hero? Don't make me laugh."
Compared to Lili, the man was far calmer, even letting out a scoff. He eyed their appearance and attire, adding, "If you've got nothing better to do, get lost! This is internal Familia business!"
Internal Familia business? They belong to the same Familia?
The revelation left the two girls stunned.
The man had no intention of hearing them out. Having secured his coin, he had no reason to linger. He tucked the money pouch away and began to stride right past them.
However, neither Sushang nor Furina were about to let him walk away just like that.
Setting aside the high probability that the pouch contained the proceeds from the magic stones stolen from them yesterday, the very act of robbery was something neither of them—regardless of whether they were in the same Familia—would stand for in the name of justice.
Without a moment's hesitation, Sushang's blade was at the man's throat before he could even react. The icy chill of the steel forced him to freeze, cold sweat beading on his temple.
"Put it down. If you don't, I won't let you leave!" Sushang's expression was uncharacteristically serious.
"If I weren't currently without the authority of the Cloud Knights here, I'd have dragged you to jail myself."
Though the man had no idea what a "Cloud Knight" was, the implication was clear enough from the context: it sounded like some kind of law enforcement agency. He was greedy, but he wasn't a fool.
He didn't feel like spouting threats at these promising newcomers; after all, they couldn't possibly bump into him every single day. It was just a day's worth of "extra income" lost—he'd just make it up later.
"Hmph!"
With a sharp snort, he tossed the money pouch behind him and grumbled, his face dark, "Are you satisfied now?"
"Don't let me catch you doing this again!"
Sushang was naturally far from satisfied, but their Familia was still in its infancy; they lacked the authority to detain anyone, so she had to swallow her irritation for now.
She had made a mental note of the man, however, and would add him to the list for a reckoning later.
Neither side held any affection for the other. The man couldn't care less about Sushang's warning; he simply curled his lip and stalked off into the distance.
Sushang and Furina turned toward the Pallum girl, their hearts feeling somewhat heavy.
While they had considered the possibility of an underlying reason or hardship, seeing the scene unfold in person left them with no joy in catching a petty thief.
"Are you alright?"
They approached the girl kneeling on the ground. Sushang picked up the money pouch, but didn't hand it back immediately.
"...Thank you for saving Lili."
Watching Sushang's movements, Lili knew that sympathy wouldn't be enough to let her off the hook for what she had done before. But she didn't panic; she had dealt with this many times before.
After a moment to compose herself, Lili removed her hood, revealing the cat ears of the Demi-human race.
With her messy, wavy brown hair and an expression that was at once cute, naive, and etched with a faint hint of pain, she looked utterly pitiful.
"A Demi-human?"
Furina paused, a strange thought creeping into her mind: Is she not the one we were looking for?
"Big sisters... thank you for helping Lili get her money back..."
"It's okay..." Furina replied instinctively, but Sushang cut in.
"This is the money from the magic stones you stole from us yesterday, isn't it?"
"Sushang?" The silver-haired girl looked at her in confusion before the realization struck—Sushang's senses were never wrong.
If she said so, then the girl was hiding something. Was it a Skill? Or perhaps Magic?
Lili's well-rehearsed mask finally cracked. Even though she tried her best to hide it, a skill that might fool an ordinary person couldn't slip past the sharp eyes of Furina and Sushang.
"Lili... doesn't understand what you mean..." the Pallum girl attempted to play dumb.
"I can sense a person's aura. Changing your outward appearance isn't enough to hide it from me." Sushang didn't bother to keep her secrets, laying her ability out on the table.
Sensing a person's aura!? What kind of skill is that!? The compatibility was just too poor!
"...Yes, it was Lili who took those two adventurers' belongings... Lili apologizes!"
There was no way around it. Realizing these two weren't easy marks, Lili had no choice but to be honest.
She bowed low, making herself look as humble as possible, and tried to negotiate: "The money from yesterday... it was almost all stolen away. Please, give Lili some time! I will definitely scrape together the money to pay you back!"
Almost all stolen?
Given the girl's refusal to admit the truth until backed into a corner, Furina remained skeptical. But she understood the principle of innocent until proven guilty.
Besides, looking at the situation, even if that wasn't entirely true, it was likely that this girl was frequently targeted by other adventurers herself.
Recalling what Lydi had said about the plight of Supporters—a situation so common it barely counted as intel—this was likely the status quo.
If that were the case, the relationship between adventurers and Supporters was nothing short of a living hell. Perhaps this girl's behavior was born of hatred, a desperate retaliation after being victimized herself.
But... it was too early to get hung up on the roots of this cycle of abuse and retaliation.
Furina had witnessed countless crimes and dissected the psyches of countless criminals.
Motives, hardships, environmental factors, hatred—often, crime was not merely a means of profit, but a tragedy where one couldn't convince themselves to keep living without taking that path.
Taking a deep breath, Furina spoke up.
"How exactly do you plan to pay us back?"
"By continuing like this? By stealing the loot of other adventurers?"
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL