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Chapter 43
Rodrigo, who had been standing beside the staff member, pressed him fiercely.
“How do you explain this, Paul?”
“S-some sort of mistake must have happened. N-no, why is this suddenly happening? There’s… there’s nothing here!”
“Then why is it glowing? You’ve no reason whatsoever to be holding a magic stone.”
“M-maybe there’s a problem with the magic blueprint….”
Sweating profusely as he made excuses, the staff member suddenly noticed Lionel quietly smiling beside Rodrigo and pointed accusingly.
“That man! That man suddenly came up next to me! He must have done something. I’m sure he secretly slipped something into my back pocket!”
The staff member slowly backed away, trying desperately to distance himself from Rodrigo.
“There was an accomplice here, attempting to steal the magic stone,” Lionel said.
A murmur spread among the crowd.
“They colluded to inflate the auction price of the magic stone, then, after paying, planned to hide it away and make off with the stone itself, the payment, and even the penalty fees from the broken contract.”
Rodrigo’s employee Paul, the blueprint designer, the winning bidder, and two disguised accomplices among the spectators.
Exactly as Lionel had marked, the five exchanged glances and began edging toward where the blueprint designer stood.
Adrian also noticed their movements and tensed his body. He too was suspicious of the very ones Lionel had pointed out.
‘So he’s not completely brainless after all. At least not stupid enough to fail at reading the situation.’
Lionel, forming an evaluation that would have made Adrian flare up if he’d heard it, signaled to Adrian, Sasha, and Stefan.
Adrian and Sasha caught the signal, their eyes never leaving the designer as they shifted carefully.
The air grew taut, stretched to the breaking point by the invisible tension.
Even Jaelin, who hadn’t received Lionel’s signal, picked up on the atmosphere and began weaving through the crowd to move in that direction.
Only the slow-witted Stefan just stood there, clutching his pouch blankly.
“Huh? What are you all doing? Where’s everyone going?”
That was the trigger. The shop interior erupted into chaos.
The accomplices, who had been hesitating, all broke into a sprint toward the designer at the same time. Shoved aside by their charge, bystanders screamed and fell over.
Adrian yanked one of the stooges from the crowd and shoved him hard into the path of the auction winner who was running forward.
“Ughhh!”
“Oops. My apologies.”
Unable to withstand Adrian’s strength, the stooge crashed to the floor with the bidder in a tangled heap.
Adrian leisurely sprawled himself over them, pressing them down with his weight.
“Heave-ho.”
“Get off! What the hell are you doing?!”
“Just let me lie here a bit. I don’t have much energy. Besides, it’s filthy to lie straight on the ground.”
Dusting off his clothes, Adrian wrinkled his brow slightly as if the mere thought disgusted him.
“You lunatic! What about me?!”
“That’s not my problem.”
Meanwhile, Sasha tackled the man suspected of being bald from behind.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
The bald man fell forward, his wig flying into the air and rolling across the floor.
Sasha twisted his arms behind his back and subdued him in one motion. The man screamed beneath her.
“Argh! That hurts! It really hurts!”
“Oh dear, your wig fell off. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to.”
Still holding the man down with one hand, Sasha picked the wig up with the other and carefully placed it back on his head.
The man struggled frantically to free himself, but no amount of thrashing could break Sasha’s grip.
“You little brat! How are you this strong?!” he roared.
“Sir, you know, people get scolded for making sexist remarks these days. But since I’m a humanitarian, I’ll graciously forgive you.”
Sasha patted the wig into place with a smile.
Meanwhile, Rodrigo’s staff member had reached the designer unimpeded. No one had blocked his way.
Lionel tried to pursue, but he was met with a wall—the bodyguard who had been guarding Rodrigo all along now stepped in front of him.
Feigning to chase the employee, the bodyguard subtly blocked Lionel’s path.
‘So he’s in on it too.’
Up to this point he hadn’t moved, which was why Lionel hadn’t noticed him before.
By then, the staff member had pulled the magic stone from his pocket and slammed it into the blueprint the designer was holding.
The blueprint, absorbing the stone’s mana, immediately activated. The designer and the staff member, standing upon the blueprint, began to turn transparent from the feet upward.
It was a teleportation array. At the same time, the bodyguard who had blocked Lionel shoved aside those in his way and sprinted toward it as well.
‘I hadn’t expected preparations this thorough. I thought at most they’d use some minor combat magic to get through the crowd.’
Clicking his tongue, Lionel caught up with the bodyguard and knocked him unconscious with a precise blow to a vital point.
He then dashed toward the glowing array, but the staff member and designer were disappearing too fast. It seemed he might not make it in time.
Then, suddenly rolling out from somewhere, Jaelin surged forward, summoned her mana, and erased a portion of the glowing array’s formula.
Though it was only part of the blueprint, the flow of mana was disrupted, and the array collapsed.
The teleportation ceased, and the bodies of the staff member and designer, which had almost completely vanished, reformed in place.
Just as they returned fully, Lionel reached them.
The backlash of disrupted mana overwhelmed them, leaving them sprawled helpless on the ground.
Lionel recovered the magic stone that had fallen from the staff member’s hand.
“Uwaaaah! Guys, thank you so, so much. I’ll never forget this debt for as long as I live. Our Panteago family never—never!—forgets a favor once given!”
Adrian brushed off Stefan’s gushing thanks and jerked his chin toward the pouch Stefan held.
“What’s in there that you’re so worked up about?”
“I’ll… I’ll show you another time. When I get the chance.”
With a gloomy face, Stefan fiddled with the pouch in his hand before tucking it away into his clothes.
Seeing his slumped posture, with brows and shoulders drooping as if touching the ground, Sasha jabbed him in the ribs.
“Why are you acting so out of character?”
“Huh? What do you mean, out of character?”
“Well… you’re usually just all bright and reckless without a thought.”
“What the heck! I’m not thoughtless, you know. I’m not stupid. I do think!”
“Sure, sure. Now that’s the Stefan I know. And I never said you were stupid.”
Sasha chuckled, teasing him. Stefan’s face flushed red with embarrassment.
At a loss for words, he waved his hands.
“Ah, whatever. Anyway, I’m really, really thankful, everyone. From now on I’ll do my best. Waaah.”
Overcome with emotion, Stefan tried to hug his friends one by one, but Adrian pushed him away before he could touch him, and Lionel, smiling awkwardly, offered only a handshake.
In the end, only Sasha and Jaelin accepted his embrace.
The three linked arms, spinning around and hopping about together until Adrian shouted angrily.
“Cut it out already! You’re driving me crazy. Can’t we just live quietly for once? Stop causing trouble!”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Don’t worry. I’ll live quietly like I don’t even exist from now on.”
“Who said I was worried? I wasn’t worried at all!”
Adrian grumbled irritably, but Stefan paid no mind, bouncing again with Sasha and Jaelin, cheering silently.
“Anyway, what should we do about this?”
Lionel shook the small box in his hand. Inside was a magic stone, given as a reward by Rodrigo himself for catching the thieves.
Rodrigo had apologized, saying it wasn’t a particularly good stone, but still—a magic stone was a magic stone. For Jaelin, it was far too valuable even to covet.
She wanted it, but couldn’t bring herself to speak up. After all, the reward had been earned through everyone’s efforts, and she couldn’t just claim it.
There were three stones in total. But with five people here, two of them would go without.
Jaelin fidgeted with her fingers, sneaking glances at the box holding the stones.
Stefan raised his hand, face lighting up with a sudden idea.
“Me, me, me! I’ve got a great idea! Let’s sell them and buy something delicious!”
Grinning widely, Stefan suddenly yelped and jumped as if launched into the air.
“Yowch!”
Looking down at his tormentor, he found Sasha pinching his side hard.
He whipped his head up to complain furiously at her.
“Why are you doing this to me? Seriously!”
Sasha ignored his whining and smiled.
“I don’t need a magic stone anyway. I’m not in the magic design department. Stefan, you don’t need one either, right? For you, magic stones are practically lying around everywhere.”
She smiled at him knowingly.
“Me? No way. The more stones, the better!”
Rolling her eyes, Sasha grabbed his collar and whispered in his ear.
“Then why don’t you hand over that pouch you’ve been hiding?”
“Ah… well… right. You’re right. I’ve got more than enough magic stones already. I really don’t need any more.”
Sweating nervously, Stefan admitted defeat. Adrian, ruffling his hair, added carelessly,
“I don’t need one either. Just give them to whoever does.”
Lionel turned to Jaelin.
“Jaelin, do you want them? After all, magic stones are essential for magic designers. I don’t really need them myself.”
“R-really? Is it really okay for me to take them?”
