“Ugh, gasp, ugh…”

 

The boy ran until he was out of breath. A ringing sound echoed in his ears, and his leg muscles were screaming in pain that went beyond fatigue.

 

Stop, you have to stop running. You’re exhausted.

 

His body screamed, but his mind savagely ordered him to run again. Because the boy was being chased. He had to escape. He had to escape from the clutches of the evil wizard.

 

Everything had been fine.

 

Today’s harvest had been good. He hadn’t been caught and beaten by adventurers, and the merchant he had stolen from had a silver coin in his pocket. With this, he could pay his dues and live for a week.

 

He had also seen a pretty girl working at a grocery store on his way. He was lucky to see her. She was not in good health and didn’t often leave her house, so he only saw her occasionally.

 

So.

 

Today is the day. The boy thought so.

 

Let’s just do one more job and go home. If I can earn one more silver coin, I’ll be able to buy warm bread instead of smelly jerky. Or maybe I can pay for my friends who can’t pay their dues.

 

A man with his hood pulled back caught his eye. He had to be careful because the hooded men were likely wizards, but he didn’t seem to be that good of a wizard.

 

He didn’t have a fancy staff or any of those common trinkets.

 

The red eyes that glowed faintly in the shadows of the hood were eerie, but he was distracted by the women on either side of him. All he had to do was bump into him once. He wouldn’t even notice his wallet was gone.

 

He bumped into the man, pretending it was an accident, and stole a pocket from his pocket.

 

“Oops, sorry! Excuse me!”

 

He ran off. He glanced back, but there was no sign of him chasing him, and he was now slowly checking his belongings. That’s it.

 

If I hide like this, even the wizard’s grandfather won’t be able to find me.

 

Then.

 

Snap.

 

He heard the sound of fingers snapping, as if it were coming from his ear. The boy looked around, but he couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from.

 

It’s nothing. The boy thought so.

 

That was the beginning of the nightmare.

 

Run down the alley, turn the corner, three times to the right, once to the left… The hideout should be there. A dirty, cramped place where pickpockets sleep.

 

But at the end of the road, the boy was somehow back in front of the wizard.

 

“…..?!”

 

“Once.”

 

The boy was startled and ran away. What’s going on, did I get so excited that I lost my way? Let’s think properly and run this time. Go into the alley, turn the corner, three times to the right, once to the left .

 

But at the end of the road, the boy met the wizard. He raised his hand lightly and spread two fingers.

 

“Twice.”

 

He ran away.

 

Cold sweat began to flow. Was I hit by magic? But I clearly… I ran properly. The road is the problem. The road must be the problem.

 

The high-ranking person who was doing this and that in the back alley must have changed the road without the boy knowing, saying something like redevelopment.

 

Let’s take a different path. It’s a complicated path that goes over walls and through holes. This time, it was for sure. I even checked the graffiti on the alley wall. This way, this way, turn the corner.

 

When you turn the corner…

 

The boy stopped abruptly. It’s already twice. I’ve been through this twice. If I go forward this time, won’t I be in front of the wizard again?

 

“Don’t… fool me, no more…”

 

I’m not an idiot. The boy muttered and dragged his feet. I won’t be fooled three times. I won’t turn the corner.

 

Let’s give up on going to the hideout. Let’s wander around the city and go back when this evil thing, whether it’s magic or a curse, disappears. He made up his mind.

 

The boy turned around.

 

And there was the wizard in front of him.

 

“aaah──!!”

 

“Three times.”The male screamed and collapsed in place.

 

Red eyes quietly looked down at the male in the darkness. There was no anger or frustration there. She was just brimming with pure interest.

 

It’s like she’s an innocent child ripping off a dragonfly’s wings.

 

Today was not a lucky day. It was a nasty day that gently lured men with the bait of luck, ultimately leading to their destruction. The man was seized with fear. All the terrible stories I heard from the storyteller flashed through my mind.

 

A story about a witch who boils her alive in a boiling cauldron, a story about a warlock who rips off her limbs and dangles the front and hind legs of a beast.

 

When he thought about what kind of punishment this wizard would give the pickpocket, his hands and feet were shaking and he was so scared that he could not breathe properly. He must run away. He had to run away. Here!

 

The male got up on her limbs, which were not able to support her strength properly, and started to run uncontrollably around her, staggering around. He didn’t think about where he was going, just to increase the distance.

 

But the male knew the ending of this story.

 

Around the corner, again.

 

“….”

 

“Four times.”

 

Can’t escape.

 

The male trembled and knelt in front of the wizard and bowed her head. Her pockets and everything she had earned stolen today were lined up in front of her.

 

“Uh, ah…”

 

You have to pray that you were wrong. With that in mind, she opened her mouth, but only gasping sounds came out and she could not utter human language. I was out of breath. It felt like she was being strangled.

 

She hit her forehead on the ground and rubbed it. It was a desperate struggle for her to please stop harming herself.

 

The wizard who was watching this quietly got down on one knee, lowered his posture, his hand on the male’s head, and…

 

“Why is the eagle’s beak yellow?”

 

“?”

 

“The reason isn’t even in the encyclopedia.”

 

He babbled nonsense.

 

—- —- —- — —-

 

The crazy wizard and the male squatted side by side on the nearby stairs and started talking.

 

“So, when you choose a pickpocket target, you first look at their physiognomy?”

 

“Yes. If you look stupid, there are many cases where you actually are stupid. If you have cloudy eyes, you shouldn’t touch someone who is stupid. In all likelihood, the knife will come out first…”

 

“Anything else to consider?”

 

“I wonder how strong it is. If you make a mistake, it will cut you in half before you can even pick it up. First, check your armament. Also…”

 

The magic tower lord Yuna and the imperial agent Yuri Lanster were looking at the two people talking about something. Yuna stood still, holding her staff in her arms, while Yuri Lanster crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall.

 

Yuri Lanster asked vaguely.

 

“Has the crazy wizard been like that since long ago?”

 

“…What does it mean?”

 

“Should I say it’s whimsy… Twisting the atmosphere and taking you at your own pace?”

 

“Ah, yes. It’s been like that since long ago.”

 

His personality at his own pace played a big part in changing the gloomy atmosphere of the Purple Magic Tower. Even though the atmosphere was tense and serious, when I came to my senses, it would quickly change to the opposite side.

 

If you don’t have a pulpit, you’ll get caught up.

 

Mabju recalled his old memories. How did he get people around him involved?

 

“It feels like something that changes the genre.”

 

From Noble mtl dot com

 

“Genre.”

 

“I thought it was a romance, I thought it was a thriller, I thought it was a youth drama, but there was also a time when it was a romance…”

 

“It’s hard to imagine that.”

 

“So what happened…!”

 

Mabju chattered. When people talk about things they like, their eyes sparkle. Yuri Lanster thought as he watched the magic tower lord telling various stories about the crazy wizard.

 

This person really likes crazy wizards.

 

If so, what about me?

 

It was fun to be together. It’s not easy to meet someone with a strong aesthetic about Eros, so we were able to have a fairly serious discussion.I also felt that we worked well together. I felt like I could infiltrate an important facility in a neighboring country without a script or a plan if it was just the crazy wizard and I.

 

So, I thought it might be the first time I had made something like a friend.

 

Even though I had decided to live a life not bound by race, I could not escape my own nature. At least that was the case in the fable stage. Succubi absorb in order to obtain energy sources, which was similar to the context of human meals.

 

Sharing a hot night in the same bed also falls into the category of “let’s eat a meal.” That’s why succubi inherently couldn’t distinguish between love and friendship.

 

Which side am I on? To determine that exactly, I would have to ascend to sublimation and break away from my race. So for now, I can only guess vaguely…

 

I think either side is fine.

 

“So what happened then… Are you listening?”

 

“I heard half of it.”

 

“That means you missed half of it!”

 

Yuri Rantester turned his head away, grumbling. It seemed like they had made quite a fuss, but were the crazy wizard and the boy pickpocket finished?

 

“Hmm.”

 

It was definitely coming to an end.

 

The boy pickpocket pulled out a dagger and tried to stab himself in the neck. Was he going to spare him or was he going to go through with it?

 

The level of punishment was higher than I thought, but at this level, what…

 

“Don’t stop me from doing this!”

 

Oh no.

 

Yuri Rantester and Matopju rushed over. They had a premonition of an incident.

 

—- —-

 

I stepped on a bomb that I didn’t know was there because I had one question. The boy was a pickpocket who had survived for quite a long time and had his own know-how. But there was one thing that was strange.

 

“There was a pink-haired man in a suit and a small, precious, and cute girl next to me.”

 

“There was… right?”

 

“A wizard with two women, if the women are not beautiful, it doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t it mean that they have either money or power?”

 

“That’s… right.”

 

“Why did you choose me?”

 

If I were a careful pickpocket, I wouldn’t touch someone with two beautiful women. He wasn’t even wearing cheap clothes that civilians wear.

 

In the case of Matopju, it was natural that he didn’t notice because he had put down a magic spell of perceptual disorder because he would be scolded if he was caught entering the capital without permission, but Pinkbarez was a full-fledged suit . No matter how you look at it, he’s not an ordinary person.

 

The boy’s expression was covered in question marks. The boy pickpocket rolled his head and came up with a reason why he targeted me.

 

“Well, because you don’t have any accessories or a staff…”

 

“Pink Bales was wearing a conspicuous suit, and Matop… no, the girl next to you even had a staff?”

 

“……”

 

The boy stuttered, uttering words like, “That, uh, that,” and then his pupils dilated.

 

It wasn’t a good sign. At this point, I sensed that something was going to happen, so I pulled up my magic power and prepared for the next move. An ambush? Or, self-destruction or suicide?

 

Swish-!

 

The boy pulled out a short dagger hidden in his pants and tried to stab himself in the neck. Suicide, huh? I reached out my hand.

 

“‘Mental Connection’.”

 

I improvised the magic and inserted a line made of magic power into the boy pickpocket’s forehead. It was connected. I occupied his brain and ordered him to stop moving.

 

The tip of the blade was stuck shallowly in the boy’s neck and hardened. The illusion magic planted in the boy’s brain was clashing with my illusion magic.

 

Of course, there was. In order to keep secrets, there was a kind of magic that would destroy from the inside if a certain trigger was met.

 

The magic that was cast on the boy wasn’t that advanced. If I infiltrate magic power, isolate the contaminated area, and slowly decompose the wedge carved into the mind, I can handle it easily. If you give me 3 seconds.

 

But now, I didn’t have the time.

 

It was close because I had caught him with magic that I had made up on the spot. It felt like I was playing tug-of-war with a filial son. No matter how much of a genius I am, it’s difficult with a filial son.

 

What should I do? The boy will die, but is it a priority to extract information as soon as possible?Then, the hand of the pink ballet shoes reached out from the side and grabbed the dagger blade. Magic was wrapped around the skin, so it didn’t cut.

 

“I stopped it.”

 

“Phew.”

 

I stopped controlling the boy’s movements and focused on blowing away the magic implanted in the brain. If I dig into the security vulnerability and cut it off, that’s it. It took 2.7 seconds.

 

The boy lost consciousness and fell sideways. The master of the magic tower, who had been covering his mouth with both hands in case he interfered with my concentration, spoke as if he had sprung up like a spring as soon as the situation was over.

 

“…What happened?!”

 

“This, who… It feels like I’ve left myself for once. Using a boy. And there’s something more important than that…”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“This is the magic that was on the boy of the pickpocket. I think it’s probably a purple magic tower.”

 

“…Ugh?!”

 

Suspicions bloomed. I thought of the purple magic tower magician who had regularly bought children when I visited my hometown, as I had learned from my father.

 

It didn’t seem like something that could be finished here. I made up my mind to dig a little deeper.