Chapter 80: Thief
After cursing him out some more and threatening to chop off his balls, the woman ran past Zayn and disappeared into the crowd.
‘That was a bit excessive…’
A familiar voice spoke beside him.
“Bro, what did you do to her?”
“I bumped into her…”
Maks pulled his head back as his left eye twitched and the corner of his mouth lifted.
“What…? Never mind that, I guess. It’s a good thing I found you. Amaya and Lucas think they found it.”
Zayn tilted his head slightly.
“The graveyard?”
“Mhm.”
“Where is it?”
Maks scratched his cheek.
“Well, you see, that’s the problem.”
“…?”
“It’s kind of outside… the town.”
Zayn raised an eyebrow.
“I expected as much. What’s the issue with that?”
The monsters were an obvious problem, but the look in Maks’ eyes suggested something else was wrong.
“We can’t leave. The barrier only allows natives to come and go. We’re stuck inside until it falls. Plus… there’d still be a slight problem even if we could.”
“What would that be?”
“I take it you haven’t gone up on the walls?”
Zayn shook his head.
“I didn’t know we could.”
“Well, we can. The monster horde is clearly visible from up there. They’re all sitting as still as statues, waiting for the barrier to fall. Let me tell you… there are a lot of them. Far more than we could ever hope to defeat on the offensive.”
“Oh, I see… You’re suggesting the only way to reach the graveyard would be with a distraction?”
“Precisely. And as you may have guessed, there’s really only one distraction available to us…”
Zayn finished Maks’ sentence.
“The town.”
The only way to reach the graveyard was to wait for the barrier to fall and use the town as a distraction when the horde attacked.
‘If the graveyard truly holds the answer, we’ll have to figure everything out on the fly.’
Worse, they’d have to defend the town while carrying out the mission.
‘It’s like the Goblin King siege all over again.’
But Zayn had zero clue who’d be part of the crew tackling the offensive side of things.
And it seemed like that was precisely what they wished to discuss.
Sighing, Zayn began to walk toward the inn when Maks suddenly stopped him.
“I think you dropped something.”
“Oh?”
Zayn turned to see three silver coins at his feet.
‘Must have happened when I ran into that woman.’
Bending down, he picked them up.
‘Even if they aren’t mine, money is money.’
Zayn reached into his pocket. Suddenly, his face twisted in horror as his eyes widened.
Maks jolted slightly, then stepped toward Zayn and asked:
“What’s wrong?!”
Zayn’s hand frantically searched his pocket.
“My money… my coin pouch is gone.”
‘That thief!’
Had there even been someone the woman was looking for, or had her anger merely been a distraction?!
Maybe it was a little hasty to label her the culprit, but all the evidence pointed to her.
Furthermore, she’d probably targeted him after noticing him walking around with his eyes closed. Maybe she had even heard his vertigo excuse and decided he was easy pickings.
His despondent air of loneliness and sadness vanished, replaced by the fury of someone who’d lived the past year in near destitution.
‘Where did she go?!’
Maks breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, phew. I thought something just happened with your Task. Like you identified a new one or one died… or something.”
Zayn felt like he could cry. No… he was crying. His poverty-scarred soul was crying.
“Don’t… don’t downplay the severity of this grievance against my soul!”
Maks clapped.
“Woah… poetic! Nice one. But uh, let’s get going. People are staring.”
‘Get… going. Yeah…’
“Let’s go find that harlot.”
Maks shook his head.
“That’s not an insult you hear often… But, buddy, don’t go around calling people that after they rob you. At least pin them for the right crime. Anyway, it’s not something to get worked up over. Come on, let’s return to the inn.”
Zayn ignored Maks as he began stomping off toward where she’d disappeared.
‘The only thing I’m returning is payback.’
An eye for an eye, a Euro for a Euro. Zayn wanted his coin back.
No, not just back.
He wanted compensation for his emotional distress.
How dare someone rob him when he was already at his lowest.
Seeing Zayn walk off, Maks sighed and pointed at the falx.
“Whatever… just… if you find her, please keep that thing sheathed.”
Zayn raised an open hand in acknowledgment.
Before heading in the opposite direction, Maks called out:
“I’ll tell you the plan when you get back to the inn. See you then, I guess.”
Then, in a voice Zayn seemingly wasn’t meant to hear, Maks whispered:
“I’m glad he could make a face like that.”
Zayn stopped and turned, but Maks was already walking away, his back to Zayn.
‘Ah… What face have I been making recently?’
Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t pleasant.
For the next few hours, Zayn looked high and low for the woman he’d bumped into, but couldn’t find her.
Finally, he returned to the inn near the tail end of Camelot’s discussion, which had grown into quite the scene as the entirety of the newly formed guild had piled inside.
‘There are far more members than I thought there’d be.’
Plus, Jade was there.
When she noticed him, she awkwardly looked away.
Still, his heart longed to correct her misunderstanding.
‘Tch.’
And yet again, his heart was ignored by his guilty mind.
In any case, Camelot had reached nearly the same conclusion as Zayn earlier. An elite team would head to the graveyard and investigate while the rest of the town distracted the main horde.
However, it was clear that Camelot alone, numbering around twenty-five at present, would never be enough. The plan required the cooperation of the entire summoned populace.
To rally the summoned, Lucas planned to invite each of the top nascent guilds to a ’round table’ meeting. The invitations would go out tomorrow.
Then, the meeting would take place the day after.