Chapter 728: Countdown (9)

Support Ex-Rank

Last week of December last year, the day of the closing ceremony, Goo Seulbi and Ong Gildong made an announcement saying that they’d ‘Steal the identity behind the mask.’

They even drew a crow mask just in case the Red Wall Thief wouldn’t recognize it.

The spectacular announcement had other purposes besides getting attention.

It was a declaration of war against the Red Wall Thief.

“He’s going to come to stop us now that we’ve made such a cool and fancy announcement, right?”

“Hoot, there will be a spectacular confrontation between thieves.”

The thieves planned and executed the operation under the assumption that the Red Wall Thief was disturbed.

However, the Red Wall Thief didn’t appear.

Because Jo Euishin paid them no mind.

Their operation went smoothly, but the thieves felt disappointed and bitter.

“The Red Wall Thief isn’t intervening. How come?”

“I guess he’s waiting for us to find out.”

“I see! He didn’t come to see us because he wanted us to figure it out on our own like real thieves! How come did I realize it so late!”

The attention-seekers tried to regain their spirit, but something bothered them.

Jin Jungmok.

“...Why did the Red Wall Thief not come to us but to the Black Darkness Swordsman?”

“Isn’t it because he’s not thief-like? Jin Jungmok is a swordsman concept.”

“I see. Jin Jungmok... Swordsman... Ugh, the more I hear it, the more I think that “swordsman” is a wonderful addition to a name.”

Ong Gildong was convinced.

He always introduced himself as Luis Perenne instead of his real name since he didn’t like it very much.

He thought it wasn’t “thief-like.”

It was different for Goo Seulbi though.

‘Ong Gildong sounds righteous though, so it’s still fitting for a thief.’

Goo Seulbi thought both names were cool.

Perhaps because of that, even the owner of the name looked cool.

Unaware of what Goo Seulbi was thinking, Ong Gildong spoke cheerfully.

“Anyway, we got what we wanted! Now we’ll reveal the Red Wall Thief’s identity!”

The attention-seekers safely broke through Eungwang High’s security and secured records of Jin Jungmok’s path to the school.

This was because of Hwangho and Jo Euishin’s tacit approval, but oblivious to this, the thieves were still satisfied.

“Do you remember the clues?”

“Of course!”

First, the Red Wall Thief is surely a faculty member or a student at Eungwang High.

Second, he would’ve done something big at the Christmas Eve event.

Third, he would’ve been in contact with Jin Jungmok.

Fourth, he’s someone who’s already seen them.

These were the clues that the attention seekers collected through wisdom and intuition.

In order to find someone who fit these clues, they first secured Jin Jungmok’s school records.

“He hasn’t met with many people before the match. We’ll be able to sort it out quickly.”

There weren’t many people who came into contact with Jin Jungmok other than the members of the Black Forest.

After looking at the records, three potential candidates appeared.

First is Ham Geunhyung, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-9.

Second is Hwang Myeongho, the chairman of Eungwang High.

Third was Jo Euishin, the vice president of Class 1-0.

“I don’t think it’s the chairman.”

“Why?”

“Because his negligence goes against the principle of thieves!”

“The chairman went abroad when the Christmas Eve incident broke out. I don’t think so too.”

“Right, it’s not Red Wall Thief-esque. That leaves us with two options!”

Hwangho was in Eungwang High on Christmas Eve, but they didn’t know because they made it appear like the chairman was overseas.

“I thought you wouldn’t find out because you came to me so late.”

“Geuhk! We are late!”

“It can’t be helped. We’ve been busy making the others go to school.”

Ong Gildong and Goo Seulbi said so, but they were smiling.

Are they so happy that the number of comrades in their little thief gang has increased?

“We were supposed to say thank you the next time we met. Thank you.”

“We would’ve been in great danger if we hadn’t met the Red Wall Thief at that time. Thank you.”

“Thank you for allowing us to go to school. Eungwang High is not bad. I think it would’ve been regrettable if we didn’t go.”

It was harder to hear the words of thanks with that word mixed in.

It’s good that the two decided to go to school safely, but I decided to cut them off moderately so that their words wouldn’t get long.

Then, Ong Gildong responded with the nonsense of “Humility is the virtue of a thief!” and turned his words around.

“Since Jin Jungmok came to school, are you going to attend now too?”

“Aren’t there two more people who haven’t gone to school yet? It’s only thief-like to finish what we started.”

“Yes, there are two left. We’re going to leave tomorrow.”

Jin Jungmok seems to be thinking of going to school when the academic year starts, but the attention-seekers don’t seem to want to give up until they pull the other two.

By the way, are the last two in a foreign country too?

“One of the two is in Korea. But I think it’s going to be a little hard to get them to school.”

“That’s right. They earned the approval of thieves.”

“Can I help too?”

Even if I can’t go abroad with them together, I can help with the kid who’s in Korea.

I brought it up to that effect, but the attention-seekers didn’t respond well.

“...I don’t think we can receive help from the Red Wall Thief.”

“...Yeah. The Red Wall Thief might get in the way in the end.”

“...The chairman warned not to exhaust you too much.”

The chairman?

Hwang Jiho must’ve said something to the two.

What do they mean by I would get in the way?

Are they worried that I’m going to take the attention away from them?

I don’t think something is right, but it’s hard to follow the train of thought of the attention seekers, and I decided to stop questioning whenever that word came up.

“Then how do you suggest dealing with the kid abroad?”

“It’s a difficult problem, but I’ve thought about it.”

“It seemed easy enough to send Jin Jungmok to school.”

They found it easy to send a disciple of the Black Forest who trains to kill demons to school?

What on earth are my classmates abroad doing?

Ong Gildong continued with a nervous look.

“The overseas student who refuses to go to school is said to be looking for Nightmare Insomnium. He’s collecting Nightmare Dusts scattered around the world.”

Nightmare is mentioned in an unexpected place.

It’s something that the most influential royal lineages in Korea were reluctant to deal with.

Why does that kid want to search for something so dangerous?

Whenever nightmares are mentioned in the 12-point alliance talks, I remember the nervous heads and Kim Shinrok who tortured bears using Nightmare Dust.

Following Ong Gildong, Goo Seulbi spoke.

“When I dream, I get help from my teacher Merlin because he knows me well. He told me it was dangerous, but I managed to persuade him. I’m going to send that kid to school. We’ll negotiate with some information”

Merlin is half-succubus and half-human, and he knows well about dreams.

I don’t know what information will be put on the line and how the negotiations will turn out, but if I left them alone, they might do something dangerous overseas in search of traces of Nightmare Dust.

‘I might be able to get information about nightmares through that kid. I’d better make contact.’

I decided to put a simple measure based on some information I had.

“There’s a way to call that child to Korea.”

I asked the two thieves to send a message.

“When you meet him, please tell him this; say that the head of the Sheep Clan said that Nightmare is in Korea.”

Support Ex-Rank