Chapter 1
Tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
Late at night, the peace of the deserted museum was broken by the hurried footsteps of two people.
"Stop right there!"
"Yes!"
"……."
"Did you think I'd stop?"
That's right. I'm being chased. By a man who, like a set line, always shouts, "Stop right there!"
So, is the man chasing me a bad guy? No, that's not it. Strictly speaking, I'm the bad one. I'm running away after stealing jewels.
"There she is!"
As soon as I escaped the jewel exhibition room, avoiding the man, I rushed towards the stairs before me and stopped short.
"Stop right there!"
It was because uniformed officers were swarming up from the bottom of the stairs like an ant colony.
'If that's the case, I can't go down!'
Then I have no choice but to go up.
I leaped up the stairs, two steps at a time, listening to the echo of the footsteps chasing me. I had to gauge the distance of the officers.
'It's a close call?'
The officers coming up from below had become distantly far away, but only one person was catching up to me closely. The man who had been chasing me from the start.
I quickly turned the stair landing and glanced down. The man was only three steps behind me.
'What kind of exercise is that guy doing these days? To catch up to someone with Speed Boots +5.'
Panting, I looked up.
'Just one more floor.'
I wouldn't have come up without a plan. My pre-secured escape route was on the rooftop of this 5-story building.
'Ha, I'm almost there.'
As soon as I reached the rooftop floor, I sprinted towards the metal door in the wall.
Click.
If I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, the door I had already picked open for my escape route would swing wide open…
"Huh?"
It was supposed to open, but it didn't budge.
Click, click.
As if hearing me frantically turning the doorknob, the man from below let out a short snort.
'It's that guy's doing.'
He had re-locked the door I had picked.
He wouldn't have known I was coming to this building, so when did he prepare this? He's ruthless.
'But what's the point of locking it? I have this.'
I paused as I was about to take out my Universal Lockpick.
'Wait. If that's the case, perhaps officers are waiting behind this door, shaking their silver handcuffs?'
Jingle.
The man behind me was also waiting, shaking his handcuffs.
"It's been 3 years since I started chasing you. Now I finally have a chance to introduce myself."
A deep voice, husky from ragged breaths, echoed on the stairs.
The moment I turned around, what caught my eye was a black three-piece suit and a long trench coat.
A tall man, who screamed 'I'm an investigator' with just his appearance, slowly ascended the stairs towards me.
"My name is Raven Hunt. I'm the Inspector in charge of the Eden City Police Department Special Investigation Unit."
Huh? My name is Co…
For a moment, I almost felt a sense of déjà vu. Shaking my head to clear it, the man narrowed his eyes as if my actions were suspicious.
"Lady, it's only polite to introduce yourself after I've introduced myself."
"Was this a blind date?"
He might not have understood the word 'blind date,' but he seemed to grasp the meaning from my sarcastic tone. The man sighed in resignation and took another step closer.
"Since you won't tell me your name, I have no choice but to call you this. Miss Thieving Crow, please give up and surrender peacefully."
I can't give up. No, I mustn't.
With every step he took up the stairs, I instinctively pressed myself tightly against the locked door.
"If you cooperate with your arrest, I'll try to ask the judge for leniency."
Even so, the moment I go to jail, it's a bad ending. No one knows what ending I'll face when this character meets a bad ending.
It might be a dead end.
"Rather than that…"
With my mind made up, I pulled my hood down over my head and took a step.
"I'd rather damage public property!"
Excuse me. Are you public property? The man, thinking I was charging at him, put his hand inside his suit jacket. He was gripping the pistol in his holster.
That's not it.
Tap tap!
It was true that I ran straight towards him, but the moment I was within clear sight of his eyes, I kicked off the floor with the heel of my boot.
Thwack!
"Hah!"
My body sprang upwards as if I had springs attached. That's because I was wearing Spring Boots.
After leaping over the tall man in one go, I straightened my crouched body and pressed my arms to my sides.
Whoosh-.
My body, now agile like a missile, flew through the air above the stairs and soared towards the stair landing.
"Y-you can fly now too?"
The other officers, who had scrambled up in a hurry, stared up at me, who was inexplicably flying, with their mouths agape.
I might look foolish to them, but how much more so to my superior.
"What are you doing!"
Inspector Hunt shouted angrily at his bewildered subordinates as he descended the stairs, chasing me.
"Catch her!"
'I can't let her get away.'
I crouched in mid-air, turning my back towards the large glass window on the stair landing.
"What are you doing…!"
CRASH!
The moment I charged into the window, the glass shattered, and my body was flung out of the museum.
"Hey. If you fall from here, you'll at least die… Ha!"
The man's worried voice turned into an incredulous snort.
At that moment, I landed calmly on a statue of an angel, which stood higher than my head, on the outer ledge of the window.
"Sorry."
Kicking off the statue's head, I leaped high into the night sky, illuminated by the full moon.
Flap.
Like a phantom thief, I waved the hem of my cape and shouted inwardly.
'Inventory!'
The inventory window opened before my eyes. I quickly grabbed the black umbrella from the first slot and held it.
Pop!
My falling body floated upwards the moment I opened the umbrella. This was a Levitation Umbrella, after all.
'Phew, escape successful.'
But it wasn't mission success.
I turned my body around to complete the final condition of the mission. As I pushed back the hood that was covering my eyes, I saw the man below.
Raven Hunt.
Normally, he would slick back a strand of his black hair with pomade, without a single strand out of place. It was almost obsessive.
That perfectly styled hair was now disheveled, falling onto his forehead.
'It's because of me, hehe.'
Beneath his hair, which hung as heavily as his frustration, his two pupils blazed like deep blue flames within his cool gaze.
The fact that I could see his face meant Hunt could also see my face. My bare face, without a mask.
I reveal my face openly, of course, because I have something to rely on.
It's a common trope in phantom thief stories.
Facial Recognition Disorder.
It's an area-of-effect ability that activates only during missions. While this effect is active, no one can recognize or remember my face.
Now, let's finish admiring this living sculpture and complete the mission.
"Everything that glitters is mine."
The character's basic line.
Mwah.
My trademark farewell kiss.
These two things were the final conditions for the mission.
'Huh?'
Tonight, after blowing Hunt a kiss, I was bewildered. The mission clear notification should have appeared by now, but it wasn't.
Just as I thought something was wrong, something grabbed my ankle.
"Gotcha."
It was Hunt. I wondered how he caught me floating in the air, but by now, he was standing on the angel statue above the ledge, not on the ledge itself.
"Hey! Are you crazy!"
If you slip here, you'll die! It's game over! You don't care about NPCs, do you!
I'm jealous.
"Let go!"
"If you surrender peacefully."
"Not a chance!"
The man pulled my ankle. He was so strong that even the incredibly effective Levitation Umbrella couldn't overcome him.
'Are we both going to fall and die like this?'
I stopped struggling to avoid being pulled down and relaxed my body. I was pulled downwards. One side of the man's mouth curved upwards.
He must think I've given up and am surrendering. But that's not it.
"Hah!"
I just thought of a way for both of us to live.
Whoosh!
"Oof!"
