Chapter 22

Midnight Chase

It was nighttime in Moonstone City and most people were either sleeping in their homes or working late on their jobs. The latter was in a way true for Erin and Ryle as well, although most people would probably argue that what they were doing wasn’t work at all. The so called work that those two were doing was sit on top of a rooftop, overlooking another building while waiting for the famous Midnight Thief.

Erin had looked into the cases related to the thief in question and found something very interesting. All of the robberies carried out by him had been on officials and facilities related to the government or the military. The cases varied from the homes of high ranking individuals getting broken into, which was often followed by large amounts of cash and valuables being taken away. But what really stood out were the cases where the thief had actually broken into heavily guarded facilities that were under military control. Valuable technology, important documents and other such things would vanish upon the visit of the Midnight Thief.

Most people would think twice before even considering going after even one of these targets. However, not only had the Midnight Thief the guts to go through with such plans, but he had done so multiple times and seemed to be continuing to do so. To people upset with the government and many others, the Midnight Thief had become practically an idol to them.

But great fame and adoration often don’t come on their own, as those things are usually followed along by hatred and resentment. Many of the thief’s victims were quite furious over what had happened to them and wanted retribution, which led to an increase in the actions of the local police and military. Not only that, but there were numerous bounty hunters in the city as well, hoping to claim the reward for themselves.

Because of all these people chasing after him, the Midnight Thief had faced his fair share of encounters with them. On more than one occasion, the thief had almost been caught, but always managed to find some way to escape. Because of this, all sorts of wild rumor regarding the Midnight Thief had begun to go around. Some claimed that the thief was immortal, as they insisted on having shot him, yet he wouldn’t fall down. Others said that he was a vengeful ghost, as he was able to disappear the moment no one was looking, only to appear shortly afterwards to taunt those who were foolish enough to chase him.

Such tales piqued Erin’s interest greatly. While she had very little interest, if any at all, in the bounty placed on the thief, these strange rumors affirmed her belief that they were dealing with an exceptionally skilled individual. Such skills would be of great help for her and Ryle in their quest for revenge against Lune, at least when it came to breaking in to the military complex he was in. Not only that, but he seemed to be someone with a great dislike towards the government. If she was correct on her assumptions, the Midnight Thief could be a potential ally for them. It was at least worth trying to get into contact with him and hear his opinion on the matter.

Unfortunately, there was someone who didn’t share the redhead’s belief. That someone was Ryle, who was constantly making her opinion on the matter known.

“So let us go through this brilliant plan of yours again, okay? You intend to catch a skilled thief and then try to persuade him to join our side in attacking a heavily guarded military base?” the blonde woman asked in a mocking tone. “Are you out of your mind or have you been smoking something that shouldn’t be smoked?”

“For the last time, I’m completely serious about this!” Erin yelled back at her partner. “You saw the places that he has been hitting! No regular thief, even if skilled, would dare to make the government into their enemy! He has to be someone with a grudge against them, like ourselves! Why else would they risk their lives doing this!?”

“Good question! Maybe it’s for the sake of… Oh, I don’t know. GETTING MONEY!?” Ryle argued back angrily. “Seriously, what in the hell makes you think that a freaking thief of all people would be interested in attacking a military base!? In order to kill a general no less!”

“Look, we are in need of help and this guy seems like someone that has a similar opinion on the ones in charge as we do! If he simply wanted to get rich, there are literally dozens of safer targets for him to choose!” the redhead explained. “Besides, what harm could there be from simply asking him? If he doesn’t want to join us, we’ll just respect his decision and leave him be.”

“Wait… WHAT!? We’re just gonna let him go!?” the blonde asked. “Why don’t we at least get the bounty on him!? You said yourself that we need better equipment!”

“Because I’m not a dirty backstabber, I’m not going to do that! We are here to talk and negotiate, not to kill him!” Erin answered. “Unless he tries to attack us himself, we won’t be hostile towards him either! Have some morality, Ryle!”

“Seems to me that you’re just making this more complicated than it needs to be…”

With their argument over for now, the two ladies settled down. Erin kept watching over the building that she was certain was going to be the next target of the Midnight Thief, while Ryle simply laid down and tried her best to get comfortable.

“By the way, I forgot to ask something from you,” the blonde suddenly said, getting her partner’s attention. “Why are we watching over this place specifically? I mean, why are you so sure this will be the next target of the guy we’re looking for?”

“I looked into the places that he had attacked and I noticed something interesting. It seems our thief is a bit obsessive when it comes to his targets,” Erin began to explain. “You see, he seems to think that he needs to hit every possible target this city has, not allowing any of them to escape unharmed. These include nobles and officials simply passing through the city. Before they could leave the city, the Midnight Thief would hit them and take some of their goods for himself. That’s where the target we’re looking over comes in, as he seems to be getting ready to leave this city in order to avoid being robbed.”

“I guess that makes sense… But how do you know he’ll strike tonight?” Ryle asked. “I might be willing to stay here a couple of nights at most, but if this turns into a week long thing, you can forget about me spending that much time here. I’ve got better things to do.”

“No you don’t. As for the answer to your question, our thief seems to be keeping up a rather tight schedule,” the redhead answered. “If you look at all the cases that he is involved with, you’ll notice that he has taken time off for a week at most, before striking again. Luckily for us, it has been exactly a week since he was last active.”

“Guess luck hasn’t completely forsaken us then, huh?” the blonde mused. “Anyways, I’m going to take a nap. Wake me up if our little thief appears.”

“...I’m happy that you’re willing to help me, but could you take this a bit more seriously?”

Time went on as Erin kept watching over the building belonging to a wealthy government official and Ryle kept snoring. There were a couple of times that the redhead felt like waking up her partner in order to stop her loud snoring, but she held back such desires. She didn’t want to get the blonde anymore upset than she already was.

However, Erin was slowly starting to have her own doubts about her idea now. While she was confident in her own investigation, there was always the chance that she had missed something. Not to mention, there was also the chance that the Midnight Thief had either retired or gotten killed. After all, no one knew what he looked like, so his death could go unreported without evidence tying him to the crimes being discovered.

Just as the redhead was about to put away her binoculars and give up for the night, she noticed movement near the building. Upon a closer look, she saw that it was a person wearing dark clothing that had their identity hidden underneath a mask and a hood.

The Midnight Thief had arrived.

“Ryle! Ryle, wake up!” Erin called out to her partner in a whisper as she shook her. “He’s here! The Midnight Thief is actually here!”

“Wha-? Are you serious!?” Ryle asked as she got up. “You mean to tell me that your idea actually worked!?”

“I’m going to ignore that last part for now, but yes! Just look for yourself!” the redhead said as she handed the binoculars to the blonde. “Just look at the right side of the outer wall! There he is!”

Ryle did as she was told and soon spotted the thief in question. The building that they had been watching over was very large and had been built properly, unlike the buildings around it. It was a stylish mansion with three floors, a wide yard and a tall wall with electrical barbed wire on top of it. The Midnight thief was currently sneaking alongside the wall and moving towards the front gate, which had a control panel on it for people to insert a code in order to enter. There were no guards outside the wall and were instead patrolling the yard or the inside of the mansion. The yard itself was filled with all sorts of statues and other such “art pieces”, which made most people question the owner’s sanity.

“Hey, you’re right! He really is there!” Ryle said in an excited tone after noticing the sneaking thief. “Although… Are we sure it’s him?”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Erin asked.

“Well, I hate to be all judgmental over someone’s appearance, but isn’t he a bit short?” the blonde asked in return as she handed the binoculars back to her partner. “I mean, just take a look for yourself.”

Erin took the binoculars back and took a closer look the Midnight Thief. It was then that she noticed what Ryle had just pointed out. The thief in question was honestly quite short. While he wasn’t the size of a kobold or a goblin, he was on the smaller size. It wasn’t even a case where the person in question was a dwarf, since his body would have been more bulkier in that case.

“Well, that is a bit… strange,” the redhead said. “However, you know what they say about beggars not being choosers, right? Besides, we’ve come this far already, so we might as well meet up with him.”

“Fine. But if they’re not worth the trouble, I’m claiming the bounty, got it?” Ryle said with a frustrated sigh.

Erin simply nodded in response as the two of them got ready to meet their thief. For now, they were just going to observe how he would perform his burglary and then come in when it seemed like it was safe. After all, their main priority was to talk with him, nothing else.

The redhead watched through her binoculars as the Midnight Thief approached the front gate. She was expecting him to hack into the console that controlled it, but was surprised by what she saw. The thief simply held up his hand towards the console and a pale, silver light came out of his hand and entered the machine. This was soon followed by the gate unlocking and opening slightly. Enough for a person to go through, but not enough to be visible in the dark of the night.

“What the-!? How did he open the gate so fast!?” Ryle asked with wide eyes, as she saw the thief get inside in practically no time at all. “Even the best hackers out there need some time in order to do their job!”

“I saw something. He had this pale light come out of his hand as he held it towards the console,” Erin said. “I think it was magic.”

“Magic? That’s a rarity around the Western Continent,” the blonde said thoughtfully. “I think I’ve heard of people that can use magical abilities in order to control machinery, but I never thought it was actually real.”

Upon hearing her partner mention magical abilities, the redhead remembered something. Back when Five Realms had just been a game that she played, Devin had told her about a special skill that you could obtain. Apparently, there was a way to use magical abilities on machinery, which could be used to get past hacking and to shut down enemy machinery. If her guess was correct, the Midnight Thief was someone with such an ability.

Erin immediately became more interested in joining forces with this person.

“He seems to have some really good stealth skills as well,” the redhead commented as she watched the Midnight Thief sneak around the yard, using the numerous statues for cover to get past the guards patrolling the area. “We could use such skills in our plans.”

“That’s for sure,” Ryle said in agreement, before frowning. “By the way, mind giving me the binoculars again? I want to take a look, too.”

“This isn’t a zoo. You don’t need to watch this so closely,” Erin responded as she rolled her eyes. “Besides, if you wanted to use binoculars, you should have just brought your own.”

“Don’t be stingy! Let me have a look, too!” the blonde whined as she tried to take the binoculars from the redhead. The two of them ended up wrestling each other for the control of the item like a duo of bickering children.

While the two were arguing, they failed to watch over the Midnight Thief as he managed to get into the mansion and come out a bit later. This was soon followed by the sound of an alarm, as the guards tried their best to scramble after the intruder. It was only at that point that Erin and Ryle stopped their arguing just in time to see the thief run through the front gate, followed by a large group of guards.

“Oh goddammit! He’s getting away!” Erin cursed as she got up and started to chase after the thief herself. “Come on! We must not let him get away!”

“Sure, I’m right behind you!” Ryle said as she ran after her partner. As she was running, she gave a big smile as she looked down at the binoculars she had managed to snatch from the redhead, before whispering to herself, “Victory!”

As the guards were running after the thief through the streets, Erin and Ryle did the same by using the rooftops and bridges connecting the surrounding buildings. By doing this, they were able to easily keep up with their target, as they didn’t have to worry about all the obstacles on the ground level.

Looking down, Erin noticed that the guards were starting to get closer to the Midnight Thief. While she was fairly certain that he had a way to get away by himself, it was a good idea to make sure he wouldn’t get captured. Besides, it would be a good opportunity to show him that they weren’t a threat themselves.

“Hey, we’re dropping down. Get ready for a fight,” Erin called out to Ryle, who grinned and nodded in response.

Back on the ground, one of the guards leading the group was grinning as he was almost with reach of the famous Midnight Thief. He was starting to imagine all the fun he was going to have with the reward he was surely going to receive after bringing in the intruder.

Unfortunately for said guard, those dreams were quickly crushed, as the sole of a boot came crashing down on his head, knocking him out. His companions were about to retaliate against the people that suddenly attacked them out of nowhere, but they were soon all knocked out by the combined efforts of Erin and Ryle.

With the guards taken out, Erin felt like it was the perfect opportunity for them to talk with the Midnight Thief himself. She turned around to see said thief standing still, completely dumbstruck by what had just happened.

“Alright then. You’re the famous Midnight Thief, correct?” Erin spoke to the masked thief, who seemed to flinch upon hearing his name. “We have something that we’d like to discuss with you. I assure you that we mean no harm. We just-”

The redhead was cut off as the thief turned around and started running away again, except this time he was moving faster than before. The two ladies that had just helped him were left to stare after him with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

“...Well that was rude,” Ryle said, breaking the silence.

“Don’t just stand there! Go after him!” Erin yelled angrily as she began to chase after the thief, followed behind by her partner.

The two pursuers ran after the thief, who was putting his all into running away. Despite his best efforts, Erin and Ryle were getting closer and closer, no matter what he did. The thief would knock down trash cans, climb over fences and even dropped shards of broken glass on the ground, but it didn’t deter his pursuers at all.

“I hate to say this, but this guy is really starting to get on my nerves!” Ryle said while jumping over another trash can that was used as a makeshift obstacle. “Even if we do catch up to him, I fear I might kill him just to relieve some of the stress!”

“I get that you’re angry, but control yourself!” Erin said back to the blonde. “Doing that won’t help us in the long run! Besides, this just shows how resourceful he is!”

Suddenly, the Midnight Thief took a sharp turn behind a corner. The two ladies followed after him, but were shocked to find the alleyway completely empty. Not a single living thing was anywhere in sight.

“What the-!? WHERE THE HELL DID HE GO!?” Erin yelled in shock while furiously looking around. “We were right behind him! Where the hell could he have gone!?”

“...He didn’t go far. In fact, he’s still here,” Ryle said as she seemed to sniff the air a bit. “Oh yeah. He’s still alright.”

“Huh? But… Where is he then?” Erin asked. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

“That’s the thing. You need to use something other than your eyes,” the blonde answered. “Let me show you what I mean exactly.”

Ryle then proceeded to sniff the air a bit more, before walking up to a nearby wall. She then suddenly slammed her fist against it, causing the metal to dent. The blonde seemed to stare down at someone before her, even though Erin couldn’t see anything.

“How about you quit hiding already?” Ryle said in a threatening tone. “I’ve had enough of these freaking games.”

It was then that the figure of the Midnight Thief seemed to appear out of thin air in front of Ryle with his back against the wall. The small thief seemed to be terrified of the woman before him, as his whole body seemed to be trembling.

“So that’s where he was! He used an invisibility spell to hide himself!” Erin exclaimed as she realized what had happened. “But how did you know!?”

“It’s rather simple really. I already had some suspicions when we heard some of the rumors surrounding him, like the ones about him being able to disappear suddenly. The thought of him using spells to hide himself only grew once we actually saw him use magic. There are a lot of thieves and other such people who like to use items or spells to turn invisible in their line of work, since it greatly helps. But while such methods can fool eyes, they can’t fool other senses,” Ryle explained with a grin before lightly tapping her nose. “The nose knows.”

The redhead let out a satisfied sigh, as the whole case seemed to have been solved. However, she noticed that the Midnight Thief was still trembling terribly, most likely thinking that the two of them were bounty hunters chasing after him for the reward. She realized that she needed to quickly explain the situation, so that there would be no misunderstandings.

“Hey now, no need to be worried, okay?” Erin said in a calm tone, hoping that it would show that she and her partner weren’t a threat. “All we want is to simply talk with you. That’s it. I believe that we share a mutual interest with you. Would you listen to us?”

The Midnight Thief didn’t respond at all and simply remained silent.

“Hey, she asked you a question, pal! Are you deaf or something!?” Ryle yelled angrily, irritated by the thief’s lack of response. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and lifted him up against the wall as a show of force, causing him to reflexively grab her arms in turn. “Now you better start talking and fast or else I’m gonna-!”

The blonde’s threat was cut off, as electricity suddenly shit from the Midnight Thief’s hands, shocking her and causing her to scream from pain. The electric shock was strong enough to cause Ryle to let go of thief and fall on her backside, allowing him to make a hasty escape and run away.

“Ryle! Are you okay!?” Erin asked as she quickly ran up to her partner, more worried about her well-being than their target escaping.

“Yeah, I’m fine! It hurt like hell, but I’ll live,” Ryle said as she got back up. “Little bastard had more tricks up his sleeves than I thought! That was the shock grasp spell!”

“Dammit! He’s getting away!” the redhead said as she looked back at the Midnight Thief and saw him running a good distance away from them. “At this rate, we won’t be able to catch up to him!”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got an idea,” the blonde said with anger practically dripping from her voice. “It’s a technique that ensures we’ll catch up to him right away.”

“Really!? What is-!?”

Erin’s question was cut off by Ryle grabbing her by the shirt and throwing the redhead’s body with as much power as she could muster. Erin screamed as she flew through the air like a missile and straight towards the thief they had been chasing. The Midnight Thief was only able to look behind him at the last second to notice the human projectile coming at him, before they both crashed down to the ground rather painfully.

With her target down, Ryle whistled to herself happily as she skipped over to her partner and target, both laying on the ground in a heap.

“Hey, you okay, Erin?” the blonde asked innocently, upon reaching the two. “Get up already. We don’t have the luxury of sleeping while on a job, you know?”

“WHAT THE HELL, RYLE!?” Erin yelled as she stood up, still feeling sore all over her body from the rough treatment she just received. “What’s the big idea of throwing me like that!?”

“Hey, we managed to stop him, didn’t we?” Ryle said defensively. “The way I see it, you should be more grateful to me.”

“Oh, trust me… Once we get the chance, I’ll show you just how grateful I am,” the redhead muttered before turning her attention to the Midnight Thief. “It seems that you managed to knock him out. Let’s take him with us to our motel room. Once he wakes up, we can-”

It was then that Erin noticed that the thief’s hood had fallen down, revealing a pair of cat ears on top of silver hair. Not only were the ears and hair of the Midnight Thief now visible, but the lack of hood also showed the upper half of his face. Upon seeing this, the redhead knelt down to remove the mask that covered the lower half of his face. What she saw made her eyes go wide.

“Hey, something wrong?” Ryle asked. “You suddenly went completely quiet.”

“Yeah, I’m okay, but I’m no longer sure about us joining up with this guy,” Erin replied.

“Huh!? After all the trouble we went through!?” the blonde asked. “Why!?”

“Well, just look for yourself,” the redhead said.

Ryle looked down at the unconscious thief and was shocked by the revelation as much as her partner was. They now understood why the famous Midnight Thief had seemed so short, as he was only a young catfolk boy.