Chapter 1683: The Store

Chapter 1683: The Store



Umad Tyves, the merchant, lived on the third floor of a massive four story building where the first two floors were filled with all sorts of shops.

All of the shops belonged to him, and sold everything from food, to clothes, to jewelry. Even as night fell, only a few of the shops closed down, with most of the other ones remaining active all throughout.

There were guards all over the stores, so stealing anything was pretty much impossible.

Ning needed to work hard here.

He walked out of the store after having bought a large cake for himself and made his way back to the tavern. He went up to his room where Shara was training with the spear, learning the stances.

She stopped when she saw Ning come in. "Done for the day?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "But I might have a new job now."

"What job?" she asked curiously. "And what's that?"

"Cake," Ning said, placing it down. "And the job is that I need to steal something."

Shara paused for a moment. "Stealing? Do we not have the money to buy it?" she asked.

"I'm not stealing it for me," Ning said. "I'm stealing it for a Spirit. The person who owns the hairpin that I need to steal is a rich man. I just came from where he lives, and doing anything by myself is impossible. I will need you."

Shara froze for a bit. "You... want me to help you steal things?"

Ning nodded. "You can make it in and out of the place without being noticed. I can make us invisible. Together, it should be easy."

"Okay... but stealing? Really?" she asked.

"We're doing something good. Don't worry," Ning said. "That bastard stole the hairpin first, so it works."

"Okay..." Shara said. "Do we leave right away?"

"No point in waiting."

'What do I do?' he thought. He had only wanted to find one, but there were too many of them. He couldn't just leave with one. He needed to take them all.

'Shit!' Ning thought and decided to take them all instead. There was no other choice. Taking the hairpins out of the glass cases they were in was simple. Shara would simply reach in, grab the hairpin, and pull it out. If she did it slowly enough, she could change which parts of her body she wanted to remain tangible and which parts she wanted intangible.

She handed them over to Ning, and Ning placed them all into the inventory, where they disappeared into the small box that he had emptied out for this exact reason.

Once Ning had all of the hairpins gathered, he left the jewelry shop with Shara, walking back out. The noise that was distant while inside the shop became louder all of a sudden.

They could now whisper without getting caught.

'What now? Did we find it?' Shara asked.

Ning shook his head. 'I don't know if we did,' he answered.

'Well, what does it look like?' she asked.

'I don't know. It's just a golden hairpin,' Ning said. 'I have no idea what it looks like. The old man didn't tell me anything.'

'Well, then how would we know we did it?' Shara asked. 'Someone has to know what it looks like, right? We can't go around stealing all hairpins.'

Ning nodded. There was also the issue of the hairpin having been sold or gifted to someone

else.

'If there is anyone alive who knows what the hairpin looks like, then it's definitely him,' Ning said, looking at the stairway to the third floor. 'Come on. Let's go meet the nobleman.'

That was Ning's plan initially all along until he realized there was a jewelry store anyway. Ning and Shara walked up the stairway, moving past the guards while completely intangible. Ning still didn't understand why they didn't fall right through the ceiling as they walked while completely intangible, but he feared he never would know.

They made it up to the third floor, where a thick wooden door met them right after the stairway. Ning and Shara passed right through, arriving at the other side.

They were immediately met with a warm room with a running hearth on the other side. Decorative furniture filled the room, and a sweet aroma filled the air, as though something was being cooked in one of the many rooms within the house.

Ning searched for people but there weren't any in the living room. 'Alright, let's go find the

hairpin.'