Chapter 19: The Crime Notice

That day, I woke up unusually early.

I was awakened by an earth-shattering noise.

“Haaaah!? No freaking way!!”

Apparently, Sylha was causing a commotion.

The fact that her voice reached my room on the first floor meant that something truly serious must have occurred.

Thud, thud, thud.

I heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.

Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.

And sure enough, my premonition was spot on.

My door was knocked on repeatedly with a resounding “dong, dong, dong.”

Ugh, it’s still too early to wake up; I just want to go back to sleep…

Dong, dong, dong.

Dong, dong, dong.

No good. With all that knocking, there’s no way I can sleep.

I gave up on going back to sleep and called out to Sylha, who was pounding on my door like Donkey Kong.

“Okaaay. What is it? What’s got you so worked up this early in the morning?”

Upon hearing my voice, Sylha flung the door open with a bang and showed me the letter she was holding.

“Ao! When I woke up this morning, I found this by my pillow! You didn’t do this, did you?!”

“A letter?”

I took the letter and read it.

And it said:

『Dearest Sylha-sama. Tonight, I shall come to claim your beloved bunny plushie. by Phantom Thief Rabbit』

～～～～

“Ohh, so that’s what happened.”

Breakfast time.

As usual, Liluria, who woke up last, said this while eating her bread.

“Wait, you didn’t wake up from all that commotion?”

“Commotion? I literally just woke up a few minutes ago.”

It seems Liluria is as oblivious as an elephant.

Even I, who was downstairs, had been jolted awake by the noise. And yet, she was in the next room and didn’t even notice. How on earth does that work?

“M-my… my bunny is going to be stolen again…”

And Sylha had been like this all morning.

Before, she even threatened to kill someone, but now that she’s actually facing a phantom thief, she’s suddenly become timid.
Apparently, her childhood has left her with quite a bit of trauma.

“Still, Sylha, you still have stuffed animals, huh?”
“…Of course I do! I mean, I’m a girl—so it wouldn’t be strange if I had one or two… or even eight stuffed animals.”

“Eight!? That means your room must be packed with them!”
“Hah, you just don’t get it, Ao. A room full of stuffed animals—that’s perfect. Even where I used to live, I was surrounded by so many; in fact, they were my only companions.”

Speaking of which, the place Liluria used to live—was that Rekuria’s castle?
I’d heard that after her magic was discovered, she was treated as if she didn’t exist, but I never imagined she’d actually go to the point of talking to stuffed animals…

No wonder she craved friends.
I almost burst into tears thinking about just how unfortunate Liluria’s life had been.

Maybe Liluria too was recalling those days, for she kept her gaze lowered in deep dejection.
If she really didn’t want to remember, she shouldn’t have brought it up.

“But how did someone manage to place that crime notice by Sylha’s pillow? The windows weren’t open or anything, right?”
“Nope, they were open. I love sleeping while gazing at the stars.”

How reckless! And yet, how romantic!
That means almost anyone could slip a letter in there, right…?

“But I’ve been trained to wake up the moment an enemy gets close while I’m asleep—normally, no one would pull a stunt like this.”

What a manga-like training! Super cool!
In my previous life, I did train a lot during the Greed Island arc of Hunter × Hunter, but I never really got the hang of it.
Maybe in this world, I could actually master those skills…?

“If someone can approach without alerting Sylha—who’s ranked ninth—they must be pretty skilled.”

And Liluria seemed to recover from her emotional shock rather quickly,
secretly gripping my hand under the table as she made that observation.
…That was definitely the kind of comeback that screamed, “I’m not alone now because Ao is here!”
I’m scared her dependence on me is only growing stronger.

“And if they say ‘Tonight, I shall come,’ then there’s no doubt the phantom thief will be coming to this house! No matter how you look at it, Ao and I are going to be dragged into this, right?”
“If we get caught up in a superhuman battle between Sylha and Phantom Thief Rabbit… I’ll probably die.”
—Liluria.

“Sorry, you two. I said I wouldn’t cause you any trouble, and now it’s come to this…”
“No, it’s fine. I’m pretty sure I already promised to help, aren’t I? And in a situation like this, Sylha wouldn’t refuse either, would she?”
Wait a minute—am I actually on the helper team?!
No matter how much I care about my friends, I don’t want to be involved in something this dangerous!
And if someone’s going to take reckless risks, I’d prefer they do it outside the house!

“Thank you, both of you. I’m so happy to have such wonderful friends.”
“F-friends…! Yeah, leave it to me! Both Ao and I—if it’s for a friend—we’d go through fire, water, grass, or even the forest!”

If it meant charging under that girl’s skirt, I’d dive in without hesitation, but anything else? Not a chance.
Sure, with my cheat ability I could probably jump into fire or dive into water and live just fine, but I wouldn’t do that of my own accord.

And Liluria… she’s just way too moved by the word “friends.”
She’s so starved for companionship that it really worries me.

“Alright then, after breakfast, let’s all come up with a strategy for taking on Phantom Thief Rabbit!”
“Ooh!”

Eh? Am I really going to be involved too…?