In Oukiwa, there was a law that the heads of convicted thieves were as worthy as the heads of a C-Class monster. Since that law was passed by the council, robberies have decreased stratospherically.
"I'm not letting go of all that money!" shouted Luke.
Even knowing the strict law against thieves, the half-wolf knew that everything in the bag was the best profit they had made in months.
"Why don't you want to let go? Nothing is worth our lives." Matthew shouted too.
Luke hesitated to say the reason loudly.
'Maybe because I have a cursed item with me and many trinkets of value?'
At that moment, the young half-wolf believed that the tiara was one of the items which Matthew had already told about, and it could be potentially valuable.
The three Class E adventurers running along the parallel street to the right made the trio of children think of jumping to the other street on the left, but there were two warehouse guards there.
The three children knew that this conglomeration of buildings would end up at the City Market Plaza, and the city guards would be there, making the escape impossible.
Knowing this, Luke braked and said:
"Stop, we're heading to the guards."
"And what do you wanna do?" Meredith said breathlessly. She was desperate. "We have no other option."
The half-wolf, without saying anything, stretched out the large bag to The Fearless and The Sagacious.
"W-what? We-we're not leaving you behind!" Meredith exclaimed.
At this moment, Matthew as leader understood what Luke wanted to do and took the bag, which weighed down on the thin boy's shoulders.
"Meredith, Aunt Yoelona didn't nickname me as ' The Dark One' for nothing. You know that." Luke wasn't going to sacrifice himself; he was going to free his friends.
Meredith, whose red hair was short, looked down and nodded. "Find us in the usual alley."
"Now go fast! Run without looking back!" Luke spoke after looking at the fire-haired girl with confidence.
The Fearless and Sagacious started to run in the direction they came from, but Luke continued to run in the direction of the plaza.
The Guards and the Adventurers thought about turning around to follow the other children too. However, when the half-wolf raised his fist with the tiara and the sun's glare hit the blue jewel, the radiance turned the whole area blue for a few seconds.
The greed of the three adventurers and the two guards warned them that the tiara was worth more than anything that might be in the bag the other children carried, or even more than any reward that might be paid by some thieves.
Getting what he wanted, Luke stopped running and jumped into one of the alleys between the buildings. Although he knew he could escape if he threw the tiara among the pursuers, Luke wasn't willing to do that yet.
Confident as he was, Luke jumped from the 20-foot height and fell into a large trash container. When he raised his head, he already saw the pursuers running toward him, with extremely frowning eyebrows.
"Drop it, brat!" One of the adventurers shouted.
"No! Throw it to me! I'll let you go!" One of the guards shouted, with a fake smile on his face.
Neither group would let Luke get away with this, and he knew it.
The half-wolf waited for them to come closer and used the limited space in the alley to his advantage. Also, taking advantage that the guards were fewer in number and unarmed than the adventurers, he propelled himself up the wall and leaped over them.
The adventurers, rushing forward, pushed the guards, who fell to the ground.
However, when Luke thought he had just gotten rid of two pursuers, he was faced with two other guards from the warehouse, who started running towards him at the moment appeared on the street.
The half-wolf kept the tiara in his pocket to stop it from glowing and propelled himself upward, aiming to reach the sill of a second-story window. He made it, but that gave the other guards time to get up. Now there were seven pursuers after him in total. Climbing with the maximum pro-efficiency he could, he reached the rooftops again within a few seconds.
'Shit... if it was only three, I could try to wound their feet and run away afterward, but against seven it's impossible.'
Luke was also already getting his chest aching from fatigue, making his situation even more difficult. He knew that his only chance to escape with the tiara would be in the middle of the City Market crowd. For this reason, he ran all the way there through the roof.
Near the streets of the Market, the pursuers were slowed down by wagons transiting and carrying merchandise, and this allowed Luke to jump off the rooftops into a dark alley again.
Since he was wearing a hood during his escape, Luke believed that his face wouldn't be recognized if he removed his cloak.
The City Market Plaza was crowded with adventurers going after the Quest Board.
On this board, anyone could offer rewards in exchange for the adventurers' service, but first, they needed the Guild's approval to do it. In other words, this wasn't the best of places for a thief to be, there were so many adventurers, but it was still better than fighting seven men.
As he saw the beautiful giant fountain in the middle of the plaza, and the huge amount of stalls and tents, Luke knew he arrived in the City Market. There was no sign of the pursuers, he believed he had managed to escape, took off his hood, and sighed with relief.
"Uff!" The half-wolf's chest hurt so much; he could have sworn he ran for hours.
Blending in with the crowd of merchants, adventurers, and various kinds of people, Luke actually managed to escape without getting hurt, because the adventurers were late arriving at the plaza.
"Aaah! Did he run here?"
"I don't know, that little brat was fast."
"It was a boy, no?"
"No, I think it was a girl. The body was pretty."
"Urgghh! You're sick man, it was a kid."
It took a few minutes before Luke finally made it to the poor part of Oukiwa, a place called Lower Town.
Nevertheless, two streets before he made his way to the combined alley, the half-wolf sensed that stares were peeking at him. Although it was afternoon, the streets were too empty for normal, and he was already finding the atmosphere strange.
Everything was so quiet that he could hear his footsteps; this was not normal even for the suburbs.
Not wanting to compromise his four friends, Luke braked and spoke up:
"Your people would just rather silence our groans of hunger, than let me get away with a little money"
From the shadows of an alley, a large man stepped out.
His armor glistened against the sun and turned a color similar to his orange cloak.
"I am alone, I just want the tiara. If you give it to me, everything will be fine."
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