Ch.8989 – Thief

<89 – Thief>

April, who had fled from the chaotic garden, finished writing her report in a nearby empty room.

She doubted whether her superiors wanted to receive such a report, but then recalled that if she had been caught at the scene, her life would have been ruined.

Suddenly feeling indignant, she developed resentment toward the foundation’s upper management who enjoyed comfort in safe places while assigning difficult tasks.

‘If they don’t want this kind of report, what are they going to do about it? If they’re upset, they should try being field spies themselves.’

In the morning, cleaning with barking dog beastkin; at noon, cleaning with chirping bird beastkin; in the evening, cleaning the stable with whinnying horse beastkin.

While enduring the harsh cleaning schedule of a maid, her spy activities put her at risk of being discovered and having her life ruined.

After barely overcoming all those hardships, all she got in return was a small amount of gold coins and the harsh daily life of a cleaning maid.

‘Money was only good when I first received it. When you’re forced to continue a job where you might die before retirement, even getting paid doesn’t feel good anymore.’

Considering the effort of continuing spy activities, the superiors should accept this margin of error in information accuracy.

‘I should head back now.’

On her way back to the stable.

‘Oh right. The tail.’

April took out the cat tail from her handbag.

Having been accepted as an academy cleaning maid to earn points under the beastkin quota system, she was publicly recognized as a “cat beastkin” and needed to show her tail.

Usually, she would keep the tail in her handbag, making excuses that she hid it inside her skirt or pants, but whenever she was in public view, she had to properly wear the tail.

Of course, transformation magic was difficult.

And it would be a waste of magical power to maintain it.

So, considering cost-effectiveness, this cat tail flag was a spy disguise item provided by the foundation.

“Sigh.”

‘It feels weird on my butt when I wear it for too long.’

Despite her inner complaints, April diligently attached the cat tail flag.

* *

“This is awesome. We got the best pattern!”

After summer vacation ended.

When the first year’s second semester begins, a new chapter boss and new crisis appear at the academy.

Usually, three crises compete fiercely to determine which will become the real chapter boss, and one of those three candidates was this mandrake.

“Waaah.”

The baby mandrake splashing in the cultivation fluid with its hand-like roots.

Though cute now, when it grows, it will spread roots throughout the academy garden and become a Gigantamax Mandrake that rises up by destroying the student council building.

That thing must be about 230m tall, right?

Personally, I find it somewhat enviable.

The cause was the special cultivation fluid X-13 developed by the chemistry club.

During midterm exams in the first semester, seniors with approaching assignment deadlines raid student council clubs to supplement lacking reagents or development products.

If the chemistry club gets raided with a certain probability, there’s a follow-up event where unused chemicals get carelessly buried in the ground.

Here, the first plant to extend its roots to the problematic special cultivation fluid X-13 experiences a chaotic event.

‘Gigantamax Plant Event!’

What if a spore plant reaches it first?

The spore plant that spreads seeds with the wind will scatter giant spores throughout the academy, starting the <Giant Spore Plant Colony> event.

What if a tree reaches it first?

The <Jack and the Beanstalk> event begins with a tree growing endlessly toward the sky.

But what if a mandrake reaches it first?

‘Worst case scenario: Academy devastation, straight to unfair doom!’

When the Gigantamax Mandrake, born from coincidental circumstances without anyone’s malice, screams, thousands of students die.

Professor Warerd, who looks naturally harmonious with plants wrapped around his body, could safely resolve the situation by demonstrating the true value of a dryad.

But what if bad luck strikes in the 600 to 300 to 99 to 1 rule?

-An accident happened at a club supervised by some backwater nobody. We can’t trust that person’s abilities, so we’ll leave this matter to our Imperial professors.

The Imperial professors step forward to handle it themselves.

It’s fine if they clean up the aftermath.

The Empire does have competent professors.

The power of professors from the frontier weakens, Imperial professors become more arrogant, discrimination worsens, students suffer, and numerous conflict flags are strengthened, but…

At least we won’t die immediately, right?

…But what if bad luck strikes again?

What if an incompetent Imperial professor gets involved?

A small mistake could accidentally result in dozens or hundreds of deaths, or several professors dying.

A tempting situation that would make government officials and secret organizations from around the world, desperate to insert new assassins into the academy, drool.

Students attending lectures keep disappearing, some students experience tingling in their lower abdomen and morning sickness, and the academy atmosphere becomes a bit strange.

But it’s still okay.

At least we won’t die immediately.

…But what if a professor planted by an organization aiming for world destruction takes advantage of this opportunity?

The academy explodes that day.

There’s a 0.1% chance everything goes to hell.

To summarize:

<Theft Event>

○9.9% chance of Chemistry/Alchemy Club being selected.

Theft event – Special cultivation fluid X-13 gets buried in the ground.

<Special Cultivation Fluid X-13 Event>

○60% chance of <Giant Spore Plant Colony>

Follow-up event – Difficult journey to school

○30% chance of <Jack and the Beanstalk>

Follow-up event – Uninvited guest in the tree

○9.9% chance of <Gigantamax Doggy>

Follow-up event – Extra large guard dog

○0.1% chance of <Gigantamax Mandrake>

Follow-up event – See below!

<Gigantamax Mandrake Event>

○60% chance of Professor Warerd resolving the situation.

Follow-up event – Special nature magic education week for all students

○30% chance of Imperial professors resolving the situation.

Follow-up event – Frontier discrimination

○9.9% chance of Imperial professors causing a major accident.

Follow-up event – Joint funeral. Suspicious new professors.

○0.1% chance of spy professor blowing up the academy.

Follow-up event – None. Life is over!

‘Whew, terrible!’

All the events that branch out like a spider web ended today.

I eliminated the prototype special cultivation fluid X-1, and kidnapped the mandrake in case any samples remained that could lead to the recreation of special cultivation fluid X-13.

It’s been long verified that X-1 doesn’t cause rapid growth when consumed by a mandrake!

“Still, I hope you grow quickly!”

When grown in soil, mandrakes scream when pulled out but become valuable elixirs.

When grown in water, they don’t kill people and grow docilely, but lose their elixir effect.

Instead, the water in which the mandrake grows becomes the elixir.

“Hehe. You prefer water attribute over earth attribute too, right?”

“Waaah.”

I’ve got a plant friend for my dormitory.

* *

The mandrake was missing.

Orcatch, the head of the Plant Club, felt the blood vessels in the back of his neck constrict and his blood boil.

Unless it got up and moved away on its own, an intruder must have stolen it.

“Club president. No plants were stolen from the greenhouse.”

“It seems only the plants in your private security booth were stolen.”

“What rare plant were you growing that thieves came even before early evening?”

“You don’t need to know.”

The mandrake was a super rare plant, top-tier even among the rare plants cultivated by the Plant Club.

He was certain that if club members discovered he was growing a mandrake, they would be the first to grab shovels and storm the security booth.

“Be honest. Did you steal it?”

“How could we steal something when we don’t even know what’s inside?”

Though his club members were untrustworthy, none were this brazen.

‘There are two traces.’

One set of footprints at the entrance, keeping watch.

Another set at the scene of the crime.

The strange thing was that both sets of footprints were so peculiar that he couldn’t determine the shoe size.

“President, the Alchemy Club guys look suspicious.”

“Right. Those jerks take our fertilizer production requests but don’t deliver the special cultivation fluid on time.”

“Oh right. Wasn’t today the day they were supposed to give us the cultivation fluid?”

“They said they gave it to us?”

“I looked but couldn’t find it.”

“…These bastards, they must have claimed they delivered cultivation fluid they never made after hearing about the theft!”

The club members bickered among themselves before storming off to the Alchemy Club.

Orcatch, feeling empty after losing the mandrake, stood alone in the garden, looking up at the sky.

‘This isn’t the work of an ordinary club thief.’

Orcatch went to find the personal research room of Professor Bronze, renowned worldwide for his thieving skills.

“Excuse me. Are you there, Professor?”

“Come in.”

Following the calm voice from inside, he opened the door.

Was she thinking of sleeping since it was early evening?

The professor was lying on the sofa.

However, even sleeping on a sofa looked picturesque when done by a stylish beauty.

With her white suit jacket hanging on the chair back, she reclined in her dress shirt and suit pants.

Not only was her pose chic—lifting her silk hat covering her face with one finger—but her chest, fully visible through the dress shirt, caught his eye.

“You’re not one of my students.”

At this attention-drawing remark, Orcatch belatedly shifted his gaze from her chest to her face.

With the professor’s skill level, she must have read his gaze.

He was grateful she didn’t reprimand him.

“I came for advice.”

“I’ll hear you out.”

“Just now, an ultra-rare plant I was growing in the deepest part of the Plant Club was stolen.”

“Security?”

“I used nodding grass, vine traps, vampiric parasitic vines, and a mana board lock. The thief avoided the first three and smashed the last one with a rock.”

“…With a rock?”

“It was quite a large boulder. It must be an upperclassman who knew the location of my most precious plant, infiltrated the scene, and had the boldness to break the lock with a rock.”

“An upperclassman.”

“I believe it’s a habitual thief. Otherwise, they couldn’t have escaped within the 20 seconds it took for club members to arrive at the scene.”

Professor Bronze gave a meaningful smile.

After nodding along while listening, Professor Bronze suddenly fell silent.

No response came.

Was she not interested?

The longer the silence stretched, the more anxious he felt.

“I’ll look into it separately.”

“Phew.”

Professor Bronze silently signaled for him to leave.

“Thank you. Um, about the stolen item…”

The silence lengthened.

It was a more ominous silence than before.

Seeing the smile forming on the professor’s lips, he could guess her intentions.

Of course.

A thief wouldn’t simply hand over stolen goods when asked.

“Professor, you’re a noble thief, aren’t you?”

Trying to appeal to her conscience, he made one last comment.

The professor countered with style.

“You were looking at my chest, weren’t you?”

With a bright red face, Orcatch shouted “I apologize!” and fled.

It was too overwhelming for a virgin male student to handle.

Bronze’s eyes lit up brightly, not following Orcatch fleeing into the dark corridor, but envisioning the face of a certain child.

“Hmph.”

Making Oknodie her personal disciple.

The opportunity to achieve that goal had come earlier than expected.