Stigma Effect

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“I don’t know what you lost, but if you want to find it, you better move quickly. They jumped in even after seeing my knights, so he’s not working alone, he must have an owner. Go quickly before the stolen items are passed on to someone else.”

The Princess said while assigning her knights. Two people came up and approached Yuriel.

While explaining the situation, the child disappeared somewhere. If they didn’t hurry, they would have a hard time finding the child.

With Yuriel’s ability, it was possible to find where the monster core that the child stole is, but it is difficult. Monster cores are used in most buildings and objects in the Imperial Capital, and to find one among them…?

It was better to hurry up and run at the child than to do such a difficult job.

Yuriel said, turning her eyes in the direction the child disappeared.

“Yes, thank you for your help. Miss Ithaca.”

After Yuriel said goodbye, she and Baraha headed to the place where the child disappeared.

The Princess, who looked at Yuriel running away without looking back, said with a bored expression.

“Without Yuriel and Baraha, I don’t feel like going to the festival. You go around looking for something useful, and if you find a craftsman who makes good things, report it right away. And, you follow me.”

The Princess smiled arrogantly as she laid her hand on the body of the knight near her.

“You should try not to make me bored until Yuriel returns.”

The knight who received the Princess’s hand nodded his head as if it was natural.

＊＊＊

It wasn’t as difficult as she thought to follow the kid who had pickpocketed her and ran away. Even if she didn’t detect the monster core, she was able to follow it.

The child made a commotion by bumping into the bodies of passersby as if leaving a trace on purpose.

Complaints erupted wherever the child passed.

“That way!”

“Is something not strange about this… ?”

Baraha, who was running after Yuriel, said in a suspicious tone. It was because he thought it was strange that the kid, who was quick enough to break through the knights, couldn’t get out of the crowd and made a fuss.

“Strange what, there is no time to think! Even if it’s strange we can’t help but pursue it.”

“That is true….”

Baraha said, squinting his eyes. As he was thinking, his pace that was running after Yuriel slowed down.

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“It is said that beginners run away leaving traces like this. He seemed skillful to dig in and disappear at once. When he ran away, he wouldn’t leave a trace.”

“Baraha, don’t mumble alone, follow me!”

Yuriel ran out with the knights and shouted. Baraha, who saw Yuriel quickly moved away, moved his body quickly.

Before he could catch up with Yuriel, Yuriel spoke out loud as if she had found the child.

“Huh? There he is!”

“Miss Yuriel, you must not move alone!”

Unlike the knight who was wearing light armor, Yuriel’s outfit was light. Yuriel, with a slender body, moved freely even in the crowded streets.

Yuriel, who was not tired even after running for a long time, went ahead and said.

“Oh, he ran away again. I’ll go first, so follow me, knights!”

“Miss Yuriel, it’s dangerous to pursue him alone… !”

It was a voice that could be heard in Baraha’s ears. It seemed that the child Yuriel was pursuing had also heard the voice and started running away again.

Yuriel looked at the knights who could not pursue her, and passed by the people. Yuriel’s body, draped in robes, disappeared among the passersby.

The knights who missed Yuriel were bewildered. They tried to follow where Yuriel had easily passed, but their bodies were blocked by passersby.

“Get out of the way!”

The knights following Yuriel shouted sharply. It felt as if the passersby were deliberately blocking them.

As they barely passed the passersby, tall men greeted the knights with their eyes wide open.

“What? Are you yelling at us to get out of here now?”

“Why are you ordering me to move away when you could just wait and walk by!”

Men with harsh impressions surrounded them. Seeing those who were arguing awkwardly with a theatrical tone, Baraha narrowed his eyes and looked at them.

Were they with the kid who ran away?

When watched from a distance, he could clearly see that the men were deliberately coming out and blocking the road. Their awkward appearance, as if they were trying to blackmail for the first time, also reinforced Baraha’s suspicion that they were one with the kid.

“Stand back.”

“Go ahead and walk by yourself!”

Because he was away from the knights, Baraha did not receive any interference. As spectators gathered around and surrounded them, the knights were unable to move from the center.

Instead of helping the knights in trouble, Baraha left them without any regrets and followed Yuriel.

When he thought that the pickpocket kid was clumsy, that seems to be the purpose.

‘Were they trying to get Yuriel to go alone?’

Frowning his forehead, he looked for Yuriel.

＊＊＊

Following the child into a dark alleyway, Yuriel looked around, seeing the child no longer running away.

Baraha and the knights were nowhere to be seen.

In the alley that looked dangerous, Yuriel confronted the child nervously. The child was glaring at Yuriel with the core in his hand.

Unlike the main road, it was a dark and filthy street. Yuriel opened her brow, which was frowning due to the stench that stung her nose, and spoke.

“I won’t punish you, so give me what you took.”

“… No.”

“If you return it before the knights arrive, I will let you go. If someone else comes, won’t you go to jail?”

The child murmured as he looked to be a very nervous and withdrawn child.

“No….Not yet, the appointment time…..”

Appointment? As the Princess said, was it a child with a master?

She thought he was so frightened that he would be punished if he didn’t pay the dues. At Yuriel’s thought that the boy was forced to work as a pickpocket, the boy looked pitiful.

Yuriel bent over and spoke to the child in a calm tone.

“I’ll give you the money you owe today, so give it back. You really don’t want to go to jail, do you?”

“Uh, who… ?”

She heard footsteps behind her. Yuriel, who had bent her knees, saw the child’s surprised expression and stiffened his body. The child gasped as he looked at the owner of the footsteps.

The child clearly looked perplexed by the approaching person.

“Who are you, isn’t that what we should ask?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen that face, has there ever been a person like that in our district?”

“Hey, who do you belong to?”

The sound of footsteps dragging the shoes was heard, followed by a voice that Yuriel had never heard before. They were talking to the child.

They approached with a grunt and threatened the child.

Before Yuriel could look back, she was hit in the head and fell to the ground.

The sound of men talking was faintly heard.

“… I don’t know, but let’s… .”

“What about that kid?”

“Take him and find out who he belongs to… .”

＊＊＊

Yuriel disappeared.

Seeing the bloodstains left in the alley, Baraha groped his clothes wildly.

A piece of paper caught in his hand as he grumbled abusively and fumbled for his clothes. After grabbing the crumpled paper and swearing a couple more times, Baraha unfolded the paper.

It was a piece of paper that he was going to throw away, but in the end he couldn’t.

As he unfolded the paper, the knights who had barely escaped from the crowd approached him.

“Sir Baraha?”

“I kept worrying about it, and it was because they were involved…. Those punks….”

“… Yes?”

“It’s noisy, so shut up.”

“… Are you talking to us?”

“F*ck…. If you want to give a revelation, give it accurately. Every time, making a buzzing noise…!”

A voice so harsh that they thought it might be from someone else, came out of Baraha’s mouth. The Knights frowned upon hearing the insulting remarks.

Baraha exclaimed in annoyance, and the Knights couldn’t even complain about the insult. The Knights turned to each other and shut their mouths.

Baraha was seriously agitated.

There was nothing good about going against Baraha, whom the Princess cherishes. For now, the priority was to help him find Yuriel.

Looking at the traces left on the street, it was clear that Yuriel had suffered something unpleasant. If they didn’t find Yuriel before something bad happens, the Princess would be very angry.

Baraha was gasping for breath and examining the paper. The Knights squinted to read the writing on the paper, but it was difficult to see what was written because of the excessively bad handwriting.

On the paper Baraha looked at, there were cluttered letters that he couldn’t even recognize.

Baraha carefully read the text. Even though he wrote it himself, he didn’t quite understand the content.

It was evident that it was not written by Baraha’s own will.

Without realizing it, he wrote it unknowingly as if he had received a revelation. When he lived a vagrant life and wandered the streets he often had such experiences.

He would feel engulfed by another power that controlled him and he unwittingly left a bunch of strange writings on pieces of paper.

At that time, the writings that Baraha had written were now kept in the temple as a prophecy.

It was funny to see them worshiping a completely different person as a saint, but he didn’t want to tell anyone that what he wanted was wrong.

There could be nothing more pleasing to him than to watch the collapse of Albraka, the Temple and this city from the closest distance.

A strange feeling he would never want to experience again, it stopped when Baraha headed to the Mogris Estate, as described in the last chapter of the prophecy.

Whether the world was destroyed or not, he went to the Mogris Estate to kill the prophecy’s protagonists.

The harsh swear words he had not used for a while constantly leaked out of Baraha’s mouth. It was because of the memories of his childhood.

“F*ck….”

It was the same back then as now. He took a piece of paper with the prophecy written on it in his hand and set out to find Yuriel.

It happened long ago, in winter.