Chapter 177 – Snow White
The place we arrived at after Daedalus was a huge vault deep in the auction house.
And as if the stolen item wasn’t just the Philosopher’s Stone, Nidavellir’s soldiers were busily roaming around the safe with the smashed entrance.
However, when no one showed interest even though we, the outsiders, came in, Daedalus, who was paying attention, spoke to the Dwarf in charge as the representative.
“Manager, we have brought people who are willing to cooperate with the investigation.”
Then the old dwarf, who had a cigar in his mouth, shouted in anger.
“You idiot! You didn’t even tell me to! Are you going to talk about the shame of our auction house all over town!”
Then, the dwarf who brought us here, Daedalus, hails! He shrugged and shrugged his shoulders.
While watching the situation from the sidelines, I intervened.
“Well, good is good, so why don’t you get help first? The members gathered here will be of great help.”
Then the old dwarf said, “What bullshit is that?”
“Go, Gabriel-sama?”
“Gyahaha, long time no see. Ishmael old man. He still has a fiery personality.”
Perhaps the two of them were old friends.
The old dwarf showed a cringing attitude as he hurriedly rubbed the cigar in his mouth.
“What kind of business did the noble one attend today?”
“Ah, I just came here for sightseeing. This is the guy I picked up as my companion.”
Gabriel said that and abruptly crossed his arms at me.
Mungle!
The softness felt across his forearm was truly heavenly.
I was almost stunned for a moment, but I remembered her past and hurriedly shook it off, clearing my throat and explaining.
“All three people here, including me, are master mages of 6th tier or higher.
“The Grand Mage!”
Ishmael makes a surprised expression.
It wasn’t strange.
This is because the number of great mages confirmed so far in the entire western continent did not exceed twenty.
Even at this moment, a new great mage might be being born somewhere on the continent, but when it reached the 7th tier, it was safe to say that it was actually a wizard that would fit within ten fingers on the continent.
There are two such people in this place right now.
“If you don’t mind, may I ask your name?”
I nodded and revealed my identity.
“They’re called Patrasche. These are called Dorothea and Glinda.”
The old dwarf sighed when he heard our names.
Even so, Glinda, who usually seems to have very little outside activity, seems to know because Dorothea and I were notorious because we were active in the Demon Lord’s Army.
“A disaster that walks with the demon lord’s guard dog, I couldn’t recognize it because I had such a great number of people in front of me.”
“I understand. We don’t wear names on our faces.”
I finally felt like we were able to communicate a bit, so when I said that and shuddered with humility, a dwarf named Ishmael burst into exclamation, Ohhh.
This is why people seem to have to succeed.
The person who didn’t seem interested in me just a moment ago is now paying attention to every word I say.
“By the way, if you’ll excuse me, can you tell me why Patrasche is trying to help with this case?”
“I heard that the Philosopher’s Stone, which I won the bid for today, was stolen. I can’t get it anywhere even if I pay money, so shouldn’t I find it somehow?”
“Ah, such a pitiful situation…”
“Anyway, can I see the crime scene?”
“Sure.”
Ishmael said so and he opened the way himself.
We follow his little back into a huge safe with a broken door.
***
The safe was cluttered with items as if a storm had passed.
It is a chaotic landscape, as if looking at the warehouse of the demon castle that I entered in the past.
Less!
At first glance, it looks like junk, but since it was in the safe, it must be worth quite a bit.
I carefully passed the objects at my feet and looked for the remains of the culprit.
Footprints strewn about inside the safe.
Its size was markedly different from the average human foot size.
I crouched down and looked at the footprints on the floor.
“Are these dwarf footprints?”
Then Ishmael shook his head resolutely.
“Dwarves are short, not short feet. If the owner of these footprints is a dwarf, it makes no sense to say that a kid who didn’t smell like wet milk robbed our safe.”
Neither human footprints nor dwarf footprints, there was only one conclusion drawn.
“Then it must be a gnome.”
“I think so too. The thin-eared gnomes make a lot of thievery for a living.”
“How do you think these guys broke in?”
“That’s our question as well. The entrance to this warehouse is made of an incredibly thick Orichalcon alloy, so it shouldn’t get scratched with moderate impact, but we took it off cleanly.”
After listening to his explanation, I focused my magic on my eyes.
It is the ‘eye to read the flow’ passed down from Master.
I could see at a glance where the wind was coming in and where it was going out.
And the place where my gaze was directed was the ventilation in the ceiling.
It was probably made to ventilate the inside of the safe, but from what I saw, it was a fatal mistake.
I lifted my finger and pointed to the unscrewed vent.
“The criminals seem to have broken in from over there.”
“Yes? What is that…”
Ishmael turned his gaze to my fingertips with a look of disbelief, but in this space that was no different from a completely closed room, there was only one passage through which life could come and go.
When I lightly snap my fingers, the loosely inserted screw loosens, and the vent filter attached to the ceiling falls to the floor.
I wrapped the wind around the soles of my feet and stuck my head into the vent in the ceiling.
As expected, the culprits must have crawled into the safe by crawling inside the vent, and their short, golden-brown hair fell off.
As I was about to pick up a piece of hair to show Ishmael as evidence, I noticed something odd.
As if it were honey, a black card was stuck in the gap between the vents.
‘Did the culprits leave it there on purpose?’
I took it with me and came down to the ground again.
Ishmael, who was waiting impatiently, looked at the card in my hand and asked.
“What is it?”
“It was placed in the air vent. The criminals probably left it there.”
When I handed over the golden brown hair along with the card, Ishmael read the contents of the card with a wrinkled expression.
“Perhaps the thief Snow White came with 7 subordinates to punish the capitalist pigs who were full?”
“Oh, that’s tricky.”
As Dorothea muttered, Sophia, who was next to her, spoke.
“Criminals seem to have a bit of a show off. Usually, they don’t like being caught, so they won’t leave any traces.”
Perhaps because it was a statement from a former phantom thief, it had credibility.
“But you even sent a notice.”
Then Sophia replied as if it were very natural.
“Because I was confident that I wouldn’t get caught even if I did that.”
“…Uh, yes.”
How can I stop a guy who’s definitely a hero when he steals every night?
If it wasn’t for someone like me, I would have been helpless.
While we were exchanging opinions like that, Ishmael, whose face turned red and angry, crumpled the black card in his hand with force.
“These bastards dare…”
Oh, i’m so mad
He looked at us with a venomous face that looked like his eyes would shoot fire.
“Patrasch-sama, would you like to make a deal with me?”
“What if it’s a deal?”
“Please bring the criminals who robbed the safe alive. If you do that, I will buy the item I won today with my own money and give it to you for free.”
“!!!”
My eyes widened at the unexpected suggestion.
How big of a dwarf is this dwarf to just give me something worth 70 million gold.
I glanced at the other group.
“Keuheum. I want to listen to it, but it’s because I’m not alone.”
They said they would give out free money, but honestly, there was no reason not to.
But somehow I felt like I could get a little more money.
And, as if this prediction was correct, Ishmael nodded his head and said.
“Of course, I plan to pay enough for other people as well. You can’t hire people who are at the level of great mages for free. What will Gabriel-nim do?”
“Hmm. I’ll help you. I think it’ll be fun.”
I looked at the most obscure relationship for the last time, Glinda.
Then Glinda replied with a slight smile, as if telling her not to worry.
“I was planning to cooperate from the beginning. The Philosopher’s Stone must not fall into the wrong hands.”
When the party’s opinions were unified, Ishmael nodded with a cool face and said,
“Then it’s confirmed. Please take good care of me this time.”
Temporarily hired by Ishmael, we set out to find a guy named Snow White, who is presumed to be the culprit of this case and the leader of the safecrackers.
