Volume 5, Chapter 27 – Truth about the Phantom Thief

Volume 5, Chapter 27 - Truth about the Phantom Thief

Translator: Yuki

“Damn! Catch that thief!” The now bald moustached man shouted. The samurais no longer cared about their hair and swarmed toward the black shadow. A few ropes suddenly snapped up between the trees and trapped the group, and on those ropes were several talismans. They exploded in a conflagration sending the group flying with severe wounds.

“Barbarian! You dare use such vile methods? Catch him! No matter what, catch him!” The samurais howled in fury.

“Brother Arashige, hurry, attack, brother Arash......” mustache samurai finally saw Arashige’s unconscious loincloth state and the wretched appearances of the samurai who had gotten blown up by the talismans.

Apparently, when that shadow flitted around the forest, it was planting down talisman traps. The entire security group and Nobutoshi were both angry and helpless, they could only curse in resentment as the shadow fled away.

“Could it be... that no one can catch that thief? Even brother Arashige was unable... does that thief never fail?”

A scent of orchids swept past, Lily’s yukata skirt flapped as she took long quick steps and rushed after the shadow.

“What!?”

“That, that woman?”

The bearded samurai watched Lily’s footwork and speed, he couldn’t see through her realm, only now did he find out that this woman he had laughed at, was a real expert.

The shadow jumped through the trees above the branches at a high speed while Lily chased at an equal speed on the ground. The shadow noticed Lily and was taken aback, with a leap, it traveled up toward the surrounding pavilions. Lily hopped up to a branch and followed onto the pavilion in pursuit.

The dark clouds dispersed allowing Lily to clearly see the shadow. The shadow had a short humanoid shape, wearing a large cloak and holding a box with the tea set within. Under the silver moon, two shadows dashed past building after building, one chasing the other.

“Stop!” Lily felt the distance was being narrowed, her agility was equal to the thief and since she was taller with longer legs, her speed was superior!

“Mid-stage Spirit Jade realm, no wonder this guy dares to play around with those fools. With such strength, why steal?” Lily pondered while chasing.

Her eyes tracked the shadow as the distance slowly closed, suddenly the shadow threw the cloak at Lily, in an instant the fluttering cloak blocked Lily’s sight.

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How could sight blocking work on a Spirit Jade expert? Lily drew her blade.

“Clang!” Lily easily deflected the hidden dagger behind the cloak.

With that the thief was finally revealed, landing on the rooftop in front. The thief had yellow-white fluttering sleeves and hair tied up in a mature style, a young girl who looked slightly older than her. Only, the young girl had two fluffy yellow-white cat ears and two swinging tails. The girl not only had cat ears and cat tails, but her posture was catlike, with both hands curled up into cat claws, she looked fast and agile.

“Bakeneko!?” Lily steadied herself through the shock.

“Since you dared to tear my clothes, then what’s wrong with spanking you?”

The bakeneko couldn’t help but back up, her petite body drenched with sweat, “You perverted woman, s?l?u?t?!”

“You dare say that? Who tore my clothes?”

“Fine! You’re capable, I won’t mess with you anymore. It’s not like that tea set is Fuji-san, I’ll let you have it! You just wait!” The bakeneko turned and ran.

“Wait!” Lily had already snatched the tea set but still chased.

Though the tea set was a precious treasure, Lily thought it too low quality, she planned on returning it to Nobutoshi for a favor. She wanted to learn the intricacies of tea ceremonies from him. However Lily had a phantom thief to catch first, she couldn’t allow her to escape.

While running, the bakeneko morphed into a little yellow black cat with white spots. Though similar, this wasn’t the cat attendant Lily had met at the monster bar. This bakeneko and that cat who could walk on two legs had completely different natures.

Morphing into a small cat made it easier to climb trees and escape, but Lily still chased, if a narrow path was encountered, she would grab her blade and directly create a path.

“Meow! This violent big-breasted woman!”

Lily trapped the bakeneko behind a high wall, though she could jump up, Lily could attack during that interval.

The bakeneko morphed back to her human form, she looked up at the powerful, big-breasted, queen-like Lily and resentfully griped, “You forced me, you forced me! I don’t like this ugly form! But......”

“Wait, what did you just mean? Why did you mention the tea set Fuji-san?”

The moment the bakeneko heard the name Fuji-san, her eyes filled with sadness and hatred, “None of your business!”

‘Boom!’ Thick clouds of eldritch dispersed, in the cloud a several meters long, two-tailed cat emerged with a hideous face and tiger-like claws. The monster radiated the aura of a mid-staged permanence expert.

Cat monsters are a type of extremely strong and savage monsters. A one-tailed cat monster is an early-staged permanence, three-tailed would be a late-staged permanence, and a four-tailed would be a throne-staged archdemon, just like the one in Lily’s Record of One Hundred Demons.

The one in front of her eyes was a two-tailed cat monster. She had the same colors as the small cat, but had turned into a beast-type archdemon.

“Middle-staged Permanence, you’re very strong! Only, I don’t want to kill you.” Lily coldly said.

But the morphed bakeneko had nothing to say to Lily, only savage killing intent. She jumped high into the clouds, descending with tiger claws slashing toward Lily.

Lily evaded that claw, her upper clothes completely destroyed by the sharpness of the claw pressure. Lily’s only had the celestial maiden inner garment left, not a garment a cat monster could destroy. However the claw attack of a mid-staged permanence savage cat monster was enough to endanger Lily,

Suddenly the cat monster swiftly bit down at Lily, those fangs were more terrifying than a tiger’s. Lily blocked with her scabbard, but this ordinary seventh-grade scabbard was destroyed in one bite. The cat monster sent Lily flying with one swipe, sending her smashing through an old willow tree on the roadside.