Vol 7 Chapter 45

'Ah, I can go inside that alley over there.'

"Thank you. Come again~! This is Korokoro Shop, satisfaction guaranteed!"

Leaving the greeting merchant behind, Kapros joined the crowd again and headed toward the alley between shabby shops he had targeted.

But before he could go far, there was suddenly a commotion from behind, followed by shouts of "Move!! Kid! Can't you hear me saying move!" as someone forcefully pushed past him and ran.

"Ugh!"

Clang! Crash!

After barely steadying himself from almost hitting the wall, Kapros blankly stared at the potions that had helplessly flown from his hand and were now broken and spilling, then turned to look around.

"Kyaa!"

"Someone catch that bastard! Thief!"

Through the people panicking in surprise, the man who seemed to be the culprit who had pushed Kapros was running away in the distance, with several people chasing after him.

'A thief?'

Kapros looked back and forth between his ruined potions and the man again.

Normally, whether a thief did something or not would have been none of his business, but not at this moment.

'This bastard...'

What would be the best way to teach him a lesson? The moment he thought that, he remembered the guy who had tried to pickpocket his potions when he went to Bistale before and got beaten badly by Aerial Servant.

'That's it.'

He immediately chanted the spell quietly so those around couldn't hear.

"Aerial Servant!"

Instantly, an unnaturally weak whirlwind swept through with a swoosh sound, making his robe flutter.

"Oops! What's this wind?"

Whether the surrounding merchants and passersby were surprised or not, Kapros lightly tested controlling the Aerial Servant that had appeared immediately in response to his call as his vision split, then raised his head and fixed his gaze straight at the thief running away in the distance.

'Chase him!'

Responding as if to his intense will, Aerial Servant flew without hesitation and quickly caught up to the panting thief, beginning to circle around him. Since the man had already run too far to be in Kapros's actual field of vision, he closed his eyes completely and focused only on Aerial Servant's vision while doing his best at imaging. Though to others it might have looked like he had stopped in the middle of walking and was dozing off, he had no choice.

While watching for an opportunity with Aerial Servant circling the man, Kapros caught the moment the thief jumped high to leap over a street vendor and gave the order.

'Trip his ankle.'

"Ack!"

Bang! The moment Aerial Servant hit the running man's legs with all its might, his ankle twisted and he lost balance, falling face-first onto a street vendor's mat.

Crash!

"What the hell! Tch!"

"Aack! My items! What are you going to do about this?"

"Ah-tch! Get lost!"

After spitting out an irritated retort at the wailing vendor, the man looked back at his pursuers and prepared to flee again in the blink of an eye.

'Can't let that happen.'

"Beat him up."

The moment Kapros muttered this, the man blinked with his head turned from getting hit in the jaw.

"Ugh! Huh...?"

It was natural for him to be surprised realizing something invisible had struck him. The man briefly rubbed his jaw with an expression suggesting he couldn't tell if this was dream or reality, then started running away again despite staggering.

'A guy with unnecessary persistence.'

Aerial Servant's inherent strength was only enough to lift small stones. That meant even when hitting people, its power was not much different from a level 1 novice.

'But that changes depending on which body part is hit.'

For Kapros, who had already built knowledge about those body parts through his previous experience in Bistale, everything until now had just been testing to regain his feel for control.

He waited until the man reached a wider street to avoid harming others before beginning his real strikes.

'Aerial Servant. Turn right and hit his eyes.'

Thwack!

"Argh! Wh-what is this?!"

As the man rolled around clutching his eyes, Aerial Servant's punishment continued to rain down. Every time it heavily struck his joints and solar plexus, he writhed in terror while curled up in a ball. But curling up his body was useless against Aerial Servant with its wind attribute.

"Ugh! Argh! Ack, ack! Wh-what is this! Help!!"

Through Aerial Servant's vision, Kapros could see both the thief being hit and ordinary people around all being surprised without understanding what was happening.

"What's that? What's wrong with that person?"

"Is he getting hit by someone using an invisibility skill?"

"H-help!"

Though the thief screamed, naturally no one helped him. While more and more people gathered around the thief to watch this strange phenomenon, Kapros saw his pursuers arrive.

"There you are! You rat bastard, pay for my goods!"

Watching the crowd of spectators disperse one by one saying "What? He was a thief?" as if losing interest, Kapros thought this was enough and withdrew Aerial Servant.

'That's enough now. Disappear.'

But at that moment, he felt as if Aerial Servant's vision had directly met someone's gaze in the crowd.

'Hmm?'

But it happened so briefly he could barely even identify who it was, and he soon forgot that feeling as he quietly exhaled and opened his eyes.

"Isn't it noisy over there?"

"Did something happen? Let's go see."

Seeing everyone rushing over while murmuring as if sensing something was wrong about the disturbance not far away, Kapros thought the thief would probably get his just deserts while receiving the gazes of numerous onlookers.

'...Still, I'll have to buy new potions.'

After glumly looking once more at the potion remains that could never be restored even though the thief was caught, Kapros turned his body away from the wall he had been leaning against to go buy new potions.

"Hmm. I felt some strange energy and followed it to its source... Well well."