Chapter 119: Stolen Goods (5)
Translator: bjgoofy
An evening when the sun was sinking lazily toward the horizon.
The final review was overflowing with tremendous tension.
The sun was about to set, yet Hyang was still confusing the Hour of the Dragon and the Hour of the Dog. [TL Note: 辰時 (7–9 AM) and 戌時 (7–9 PM) in the Twelve Double-Hours system.]
The characters for Dragon and Dog were clearly different, but to Hyang's eyes, they apparently looked similar.
Perhaps because both had that "lid on top" feel to them?
'Chinese characters really are brutally hard to learn. At this rate, I wonder if I'm going to break our daughter trying.'
The worry gnawed at him enough to make him wonder if Hyang might develop some kind of anxiety over it.
In his previous life, he had once heard a passing remark that for every ten English kindergartens that opened, one children's psychiatric clinic opened alongside them.
Granted, what Hyang was learning now wasn't English, and whether she truly needed a psychiatrist was impossible to say for certain.
"Okay, Hyang, you can do it. Let's try again. The Hour of the Dragon!"
Hwa-eun's warm, encouraging voice was directed at Hyang, and Grandfather, his father-in-law, and his mother-in-law all watched with bated breath, eyes fixed on where Hyang was headed.
-Tsu.... tsurur....
But Hyang couldn't find it on the first try, agonizing as expected between the Hour of the Dragon and the Hour of the Dog.
As Hyang hesitated between the two, fidgeting indecisively, Cho, apparently unable to stand it any longer, quietly tapped the Hour of the Dragon with her antenna.
-Tap....
But this was a grave mistake on Cho's part.
At Cho's help, Hyang charged toward Cho and let out a shrill, furious cry.
-Tsurur! Tsurur! Tsuroot!
The feeling pouring from Hyang was, 'I already knew that!? I already knew that!?'
When solving workbook problems or memorizing multiplication tables, if an older sibling butted in showing off what they knew, nothing was more infuriating.
Backseat solvers were out, after all.
'Come to think of it, Cho really is a backseat bug, isn't she?'
Technically, centipedes were arthropods and thus animals, but in this era they were classified as bugs, so what Cho had just done was quite literally backseat-bugging.
Cho had been staring at Hyang, who was growling at her, and then she turned her gaze toward me as if utterly bewildered, her antennae trembling.
The tiny creature was throwing a fit and charging at her, so bewilderment seemed fair.
Since a fight was likely brewing, I decided to take Cho outside for a while.
"Come on, Cho. Cho, let's go wait outside with Daddy."
-Tsuroot.
Had Cho been bored because I hadn't taught her the Twelve Double-Hours?
Or had she been hurt that the family's attention was all on Hyang?
For the time being, I stroked Cho's head after bringing her out and praised her.
"Our Cho, turns out you've memorized all the Twelve Double-Hours, haven't you? How impressive, our Cho."
-Tsu, tsuroot.
Cho shyly dipped her head at my praise.
She seemed to have already picked up all twelve time-marks just by watching from the side.
Strangely enough, learning something directly always took forever, but picking things up by watching over someone's shoulder was always quick.
"Good job, our Cho. But for now, let's just watch so your little sister can do it on her own. Okay?"
-Tsuruoot.
After lavishing plenty of praise on Cho for memorizing the Twelve Double-Hours so she wouldn't feel slighted, I sat on the stone step outside the Family Head's Hall and waited. Before long, cheers erupted from inside.
"Yes, well done, Hyang! Hyang is Mommy's pride!"
"Ho ho, the little thing memorized it in a single day, that's quite good."
"She seems just as bright as Hwa-eun was."
It seemed Hyang's preparations were complete, which meant it was time to catch a thief.
I stroked Cho's head one more time and spoke.
"Cho, as soon as the sun sets, fly up into the sky and wait for Daddy's signal. Understood?"
-Tsuruoot!
After telling Cho how to act, I dashed back inside the Family Head's Hall. Hyang was perched on Hwa-eun's shoulder, her antennae raised stiff and haughty.
The attitude of, 'I'm a centipede this smart, you know.'
She pushed her head toward me as if demanding praise from me too, so I tickled her chin and heaped it on.
"Oh my, our Cho is so amazing."
-Tsuroot!?
"Ah, no, Hyang."
A sharp little sting of displeasure jabbed into my mind for getting the name wrong.
The rivalry between the daughters was no joke.
I would need to be careful not to mix up their names from now on.
'Phew.... How did my parents in my previous life manage to raise my older sister and me?'
***
The time written on the Divine Thief's notice was after the Hour of the Dog.
That meant he would sneak in after seven in the evening, and the family's warriors and elders moved to their designated positions as soon as the sun set, just as planned beforehand.
Being in the mountains, the sun dropped past the horizon once it was past six, so they had agreed to move after it grew dark.
The reason they hadn't moved while it was still light was the concern that he might notice their movements.
"Everyone, move covertly!"
"Yes, Family Head!"
"Let us move as well."
"Yes, Father."
"Understood, Grandfather."
Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, along with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, positioned themselves at the center of the estate.
The family's elders spread out evenly around the perimeter.
And with the exception of a reserve force kept for immediate response, the family's warriors hid themselves throughout Tang Family Mountain, waiting for the Divine Thief.
I, of course, was inside Yohwa's den, a shelter woven from Yohwa's warm spider silk, sitting beside her as she held bundles of thread in her grasp.
The fact that Yohwa's silk blocked infrared vision was another way of saying it boasted incredible insulation.
I had noticed it before, but Yohwa's silk was wonderfully warm.
'Lounging inside my companion spider's cozy web with my companion spider. If it weren't for catching a thief, this would be the perfect rest.'
With everyone in position, anxious waiting began, and time crawled by.
As time drifted endlessly on, drowsiness crept up on me, and the moment I closed my eyes and opened them again──
-Dong!
The faint toll of a temple bell announcing the Hour of the Rat drifted from a distant monastery. [TL Note: The Hour of the Rat (子時) is 11 PM–1 AM.]
-Hisss?
-Shaaa!
'A-are you kidding me. I slept way too soundly!?'
"Mmslurp.... Uh, y-yeah, Daddy wasn't sleeping."
Yeondu, coiled around my neck, and Yohwa both let out sounds as if scolding me for dozing off, while the temple bell continued its faint echo in the distance.
Perhaps because I was still underage, my body grew sleepy the moment it passed ten. I slapped myself awake again.
"Seriously, when is this thief going to show up? Don't tell me the worst-case scenario, three or four in the morning?"
Even during overnight guard duty in the military, three and four in the morning were the ungodly hours.
I was beginning to worry the thief might be vicious enough to come at three or four, and sure enough, just as the bell announcing the Hour of the Tiger faintly reached my ears, Yohwa immediately gave the signal. [TL Note: The Hour of the Tiger (寅時) is 3–5 AM.]
-Dong! Dong!
-Hisss!
The direction Yohwa indicated someone had appeared from was the Tang Family Mountain side, the direction of the Rat.
***
"Whew...."
Yeong-ryeon let out a deep breath to shake off the tension.
Below her lay the walls of Sichuan's Tang Family compound.
Beyond them, not a single person was in sight, and every light had been extinguished.
The feeling that they had prepared thoroughly only tightened her nerves further.
But if all of this was her master's way of testing her, then she would have to break through.
Yeong-ryeon clenched her fists, and her body shot toward the wall.
She deployed the Shadowless Soundless Movement Technique from the Tang Family Mountain side, vaulted over the wall of Sichuan's Tang Family, and had taken perhaps two steps when──
-Peeyuuuuu!
A Signal Arrow, suddenly streaking overhead.
"What!?"
There were no warriors nearby, and no one could possibly have spotted her even from a distance, yet a Signal Arrow flew above her head.
Moreover, the fact that a Signal Arrow had been fired just two steps after she cleared the wall meant they had detected her the instant she crossed over.
She widened her eyes in disbelief, and warriors sprang out from every direction, searching for her.
Something felt wrong.
Yeong-ryeon swiftly retreated back over the wall and surveyed the area.
"Did you find them!?"
"Nothing here!"
"They must be nearby! Search!"
The shouts confirmed it. They clearly hadn't seen her, yet they somehow knew she had entered the compound.
She pulled back quickly toward the mountain, scoured the area, captured two rabbits, then reappeared at a spot a short distance away.
'I need to figure out how they detected me.'
People believed the Divine Thief stole everything through speed, Movement Technique, and Qinggong alone, but that was only half the story.
Above all else, observing the sentries and studying their guard patterns to find an opening was the Divine Thief's true method.
To determine how they had detected her crossing the wall, Yeong-ryeon tossed the two rabbits over the wall. Signal Arrows launched immediately.
-Peeyuuuu!
-Peeyuuuuuu!
'How on earth are they detecting this?'
The moment she threw two rabbits over the wall, two Signal Arrows flew in response.
Needless to say, warriors appeared right after.
Whatever set foot inside the wall, no matter what it was, the instant it touched down, they seemed to know exactly where it was.
As Yeong-ryeon activated her Eye Power from beyond the wall to examine the interior, she noticed something.
A river flowed near Tang Family Mountain, and past the Hour of the Tiger, mist had begun to rise from its surface. In the moonlight, the interior of the compound was revealed.
From the ground to the rooftops of every hall, something white and glittering covered every surface.
'Th-that's!?'
She activated Hundred-Li Eyes to examine the glittering substance, and it turned out to be fine threads.
They had caught the dew and begun to shimmer, which was how they had entered her field of vision.
Threads were meticulously laid across every path and over the roof of every building.
Threads so fine they would go unnoticed in the dark.
Yeong-ryeon smiled at the sight.
'As expected of Sichuan's Tang Family, what an ingenious method!'
Her competitive spirit set her heart racing.
She calmed her pounding chest, then vaulted over the wall once more.
If threads had been strung across the paths and buildings, she simply needed to use Grass Skimming Flight.
Stepping on blades of grass and stones, Yeong-ryeon slipped into the compound and barely managed to break through the outer perimeter──
When a strange sound came from above her head.
-Tsurururur!
Something above her let out a sound different from a Signal Arrow, and then warriors began converging once again.
"Over there! That way!"
'What is this now!?'
She was using the Shadowless Soundless Movement Technique, so neither her sound nor her form should have been detectable, yet the warriors had pinpointed her location.
As the sound continued overhead, she looked up at the sky.
What she saw floating above her in the night sky was──
'A dragon!?'
At first, seeing something blue gliding beneath the moonlight, she thought it might be the legendary Azure Dragon.
But as she stared up with stunned eyes, it was not a dragon but a centipede.
A centipede flying through the sky, trailing her and making sounds.
'Y-you can't be serious. The Tang Family has a Spiritual Creature!?'
The intelligence she had received from the Beggar's Gang contained no mention of a Spiritual Creature, yet here one was, circling above and broadcasting her position.
The one silver lining was that it wasn't particularly fast.
The sudden appearance of the Spiritual Creature had startled her, but if it was only following her, she just needed to shake it.
The ultimate technique of the Shadowless Soundless Movement Technique, Gale, erupted from Yeong-ryeon's body, and her form stretched out like a streak toward one direction before vanishing entirely from Sichuan's Tang Family compound.
***
"She got away!?"
The message Cho had sent was clear: she had been following the Divine Thief, but then the intruder suddenly accelerated and disappeared.
It seemed the thief had noticed Yohwa's threads too.
The intruder had definitely slipped inside the compound, yet no one had been able to confirm the Divine Thief's location.
The greatest thief in the Central Plains, they called him, and indeed, a formidable thief he was.
"Yohwa, just in case, let's head to where the Golden-Furred King Bee's hive is."
Following the plan, I clung to Yohwa's back and urged her toward the Golden-Furred King Bee's hive. Yohwa leapt and landed before the old tree at the Training Grounds in a single bound.
I slid off Yohwa's back, sprinted into the hollow of the old tree, and called out to Snow and Ice, who had been waiting at the Training Grounds.
"I'm counting on you two. Snow, Ice, don't push yourselves too hard! Got it?"
-Kkukku!
-Kkyuu!
With Snow and Ice entrusted with defense as the last line, I slipped inside the beehive. The sound of buzzing wings filled my ears.
-Bzzz!
"It's me, guys."
Having been informed in advance, the bees hadn't been guarding the Training Grounds itself, but when I entered the hive, they let out a warning hum. The moment I announced my arrival, the alarm faded.
After calming them down, I waited inside the old tree. The commotion outside continued on and on, and just as the first light of dawn began to brighten the sky, my Seol noona appeared at the entrance to the Training Grounds and called out to me.
"Soryong, we caught them!"
It seemed they had caught the Divine Thief.
I dashed out of the hive and hurried toward her, asking as I went.
"Really? Seol noona?"
"Yep. They've been caught and dragged off to the Family Head's Hall. Let's go!"
"I'm curious what this thief looks like. Let's go!"
I stepped out of the Training Grounds and came to stand before my nonna.
That was when it happened.
Her face suddenly shifted into that of a woman I had never seen before, and a chilling voice reached my ears.
"Caught you."
A prickling sting at the back of my neck.
And then my legs gave out.
It seemed she had seized my acupoints. As the woman, toppling backward, grabbed my wrist, Yeondu shot out and sank her fangs mercilessly into the back of the woman's hand.
-Shaaaaaa!
'Got you too!'
I fell flat on my back, and the woman crumpled on top of me.
*****
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