One of the towns governed by nobles.
A nefarious phantom thief who targets nobles night after night.
“A noble was targeted again last night! If you want to know the details, buy a news sheet, buy it now!”
Rustle rustle rustle rustle
Pyt, the boy selling news sheets.
His father died in battle during a minor conflict between nobles.
His mother passed away from grief.
Pyt, left alone, cooperates with his friends and earns money in this way.
“Hey, you there!”
“What do you mean by spreading things that sow anxiety among the populace?”
Customers and onlookers.
Those who try to get information from customers for free.
A soldier emerges from the crowd and grabs Pyt by the shoulder.
“Whoa, a soldier. This is business.”
“Your talk can wait at the guardhouse…”
Pyt cannot afford to pay a fine.
He tries to escape, but is held firmly by his shoulder and cannot get away.
Just as he hears the sound of wind cutting through the air.
A small stone flies towards the soldier’s face.
“Guh.”
“Nn.”
While shielding his face, he tries to find who threw the stone from his surroundings.
Pyt’s shoulder, which he was being held by, is freed in the process.
Now!
“Hey, wait! G-Who is throwing stones!?”
Rustle rustle rustle rustle rustle rustle
The residents who saw the whole thing shout to the soldiers, shaking their heads and denying involvement.
If they are made the culprits, it won’t just be a fine.
They’ll be sent to prison as some kind of agent.
“Damn it, that kid is gone too.”
They lose both the boy who threw stones and the one who spread scandals about nobles.
Even if they stay silent or are told to keep quiet, their superior will be informed.
The soldiers run through the town to capture the boy whose face they remember.
Pyt, from an alley’s shadow, repeatedly confirms that there are no soldiers around and finally lets out a sigh of relief.
“Yo♪”
And then, from behind, his shoulder is grabbed, and he is spoken to.
“Waaaah?! Ah, ah! Jafar, don’t startle me…”
It was his friend Jafar who startled Pyt.
Jafar apologizes for startling him and tells him that he must have been saved from the soldiers.
He reveals that it was actually Jafar who threw the small stone, the stone, at the soldier’s face.
“Thanks for saving me.”
“Well then, this is it♪”
He makes a gesture with his finger, mimicking currency, asking for a share of the news sheet sales.
“…This much should be fine, right?”
Pyt was fortunate not to have been forced to pay a fine that could have exceeded his earnings.
But since his livelihood depends on it.
Twenty percent of his sales. Jafar, acting the part of a benefactor, accepts the money, saying, “Well, that’s fine.”
After that, they move on while talking about how Jafar had been earning money.
“A puppet show? Puppets are expensive. How did you get them?”
“Heh, prepare to be amazed♪ A puppet theater’s house was damaged during the phantom thief’s capers. The puppet master got into trouble with the soldiers during that time, and got caught.”
The puppets, his business tools, were left behind in the house.
The door wasn’t locked, and there were no soldiers.
“It’s like they’re telling me to steal them♪”
“Is that safe?”
Burglary can even result in execution if discovered.
“It’s fine. How would I get caught?”
He also plans to repair the puppets and modify them so that they don’t look like they belong to the puppet theater.
“Then, it’s fine.”
“Hey, look at this♪”
Jafar stops in front of a certain house.
He hides himself from view through the window, approaches, and beckons Pyt.
“What is it?”
“Shh, just look♪”
They peek into the house.
There, they see a rather beautiful woman entwined with a man in broad daylight.
“—!!///”
“Whooo, when we get a little older, we’ll be able to hold women like that. Well, finding someone is a problem in itself♪”
Teasing Pyt, whose face has turned bright red.
Jafar stares intently at the couple having sex.
A figure wearing a suspicious robe slowly approaches the two.
The couple is startled and bumps their faces into the window.
“!!///”
“Who is it!?”
“This is bad.”
Wait, brats—!!
“Who are you!?”
“They’re chasing us! Hurry! That old man is fast!”
“I thought I’d try to make a little pocket money♪ My timing for approaching you was just bad.”
“Terribly bad!!”
“No, I’m so sorry♪”
Wait, you scoundrels!!
Hearing the commotion.
The soldiers on patrol, who were looking for Pyt, also join in.
The three of them engage in a chase throughout the town until evening.
“Haa… haa…”
“They’re not… chasing us… anymore, are they? Haaah.”
“That was good running. So, about that♪?”
The suspicious person in the robe once again offers them a proposition to make some pocket money.
And so, the next day.
“This is where that man said it would be…”
“A labyrinth. Moreover, it’s an undiscovered, shallow level. But they say it’s a vast maze.”
The two are tasked to bring back any magic tool they can find from a small room on the first floor.
The reward is five gold coins.
Magic tools are varied, for living, fighting, and display.
Five gold coins for a living tool is a reasonable price.
For a fighting tool, the price varies depending on its power; five gold coins isn’t cheap.
For a display tool, if it catches the eye of an artist, collector, or someone with a unique sensibility, five gold coins is too cheap.
However, the two have no such connections.
Five gold coins, a large sum of money.
It’s equivalent to several months of income from their news sheets and puppet shows.
For the two of them, it’s two gold coins and five hundred silver coins.
That’s still a lot of money.
It’s suspicious, but they are confident in their ability to run away.
“Let’s go in quickly and come back quickly♪”
“If we get the money, we won’t have to work for a while. Even if I give half to Mother, I’ll have one gold coin and… two hundred and fifty silver coins in my pocket.”
“All right, let’s go!”
“Yeah!”
With Jafar’s call, they enter the labyrinth.
The suspicious person, their client, watches them with a smile.
“Yes, two sacrifices acquired~~♪”
This is an easy job♪
The suspicious person enters the labyrinth without the two noticing.
What will happen to the two inside the labyrinth?
Whose request is it?
