「I don’t know how to thank you, Lord Jade…!」
“Don’t worry about it.”
Albedo, whose health had greatly improved, was about to leave when suddenly…
“Huaaah!?”
“Hmm?”
Lilitina, the dog-eared girl who had passed out foaming at the mouth and wet herself, suddenly came back to life.
And then…
“You monster! Get away from Lady Albedo!”
“Hmm?”
With a sharp slash of her claws, she aimed for my stomach. A normal human would have their guts spilled with that kind of attack.
But well…
“That doesn’t work on me.”
“Grrrr…!?”
Instead, it was Lilitina’s claws that cracked.
Oh, that was close. If I hadn’t softened my ‘Dragon Skin’ a bit, her whole arm might have shattered.
“You alright?”
“Ugh… Get away from Lady Albedo!”
Oh, I see. She doesn’t care about herself at all.
Even though she’s trembling and panicked with fear, she’s still trying to protect Albedo.
“Did you see that, Albedo? She’s desperately trying to protect you.”
“…Yes, I saw it. Even though I tried to kill her.”
Albedo walked over to the dog-eared girl and gently embraced her.
“Lady Albedo…?”
“Thank you, Lilitina. I’m fine now.”
“U-uhhh…!”
With those words, it seemed like Lilitina’s tension melted away.
She collapsed into Albedo’s arms, crying, “It was so scary…!”
“Lady Albedo! I’ll keep trying my best, so please don’t abandon me…!”
“I know. You risked your life to protect me. How could I ever discard a loyal servant like you?”
Looks like everything’s okay now.
Albedo had been merciless before, but that was likely because her body had weakened and she was at her mental limit. It’s just human nature.
But now there’s no problem. Her eye disease and old injuries are gone, and this silly but loyal Lilitina showed the courage to face a monster like me.
I wouldn’t acknowledge a woman who would throw someone like that away so easily.
“Lady Albedo, your eyes… the cloudiness is gone!”
“Yes, Lord Jade healed them. Thanks to him, I can see your face clearly now.”
“Is that so!? I didn’t know… Lord Jade, I’m so sorry for being so rude…!”
Lilitina bowed deeply, her droopy dog ears looking adorably helpless.
“It’s fine. You were half unconscious. But more importantly, you should change your underwear.”
“Huh? W-whaaa!? I wet myself!? How embarrassing!”
“Haha.”
There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Even though your beastman instincts told you how outmatched you were, you still faced me head-on.
Lilitina, you’re the one I’m most impressed with today.
“I-I’m going to change my underwear real quick! …Wait, what!? I’m not wearing any!?”
“Are you some kind of exhibitionist?”
“N-no! Lady Albedo made sure I put them on this morning, but… wait, where did they go!?”
She held down her skirt, looking flustered, while Albedo, blushing, cried out, “Lilitina!?”
Looks like her habit of saying unnecessary things hasn’t changed.
“Albedo, you’re spoiling her too much. No wonder she adores you.”
“I-It was just an act to win her favor! But more importantly…”
“Yeah. There’s only one person who could make her underwear disappear out of nowhere.”
The mystery of the missing, wet underwear reminded me why I was here. I had come to meet a certain man.
“Show yourself, one of the Seven Great Special Forces of Humanity—’Phantom Thief Rodan.'”
As soon as I called out, a ridiculous high-pitched laugh echoed through the room: “Hahahahahaha!”
And then, the man made a pointless entrance from the window.
“What a coincidence to meet you here, my dear friend Jade!”
“We’re not friends.”
The man, wearing a classic thief’s costume and an eye mask, had a rather handsome face but gave off an idiotic vibe. His lack of intelligence was obvious. And to top it off, he was holding a pair of soaking wet ‘bear-patterned panties.’
Lilitina screamed upon seeing them.
“Ahhh! Rodan, give those back! Lady Albedo spent two hours picking those for me!”
“Lilitina!?”
There she goes, saying unnecessary things again.
Albedo, seriously, after spending all that time picking, why choose bear-patterned panties…?
Rodan, on the other hand, looked quite satisfied.
“Hahahaha! Rest easy, Lady Albedo! Though the taste is questionable, in the world of panties, there is no rank or status!”
“Don’t say my taste is questionable!”
“All panties hold the value of gold! Especially these, which literally have gold embellishments!”
“Die!”
Wow… Rodan is as creepy as ever. The absolute bane of women.
“Well, I’ll savor these later.”
“No, you won’t.”
“So, what brings you here, my friend Jade?”
“We’re not friends…”
This guy is always at his own pace. Talking to him makes me feel like I’m getting dumber, so I should just cut to the chase.
“I’ve got intel. There’s an organization planning to kill all of you, the Seven Great Special Forces.”
“Ohho!”
Rodan grinned confidently. How can he laugh when his life is being threatened?
“Well, there are certainly many who would loathe us! It’s no surprise given how freely we live! The ‘Royalists’ in the Holy City must despise us!”
“That’s for sure.”
“Just recently, I stole a town girl’s panties, and it turns out she was a ‘Stealth Knight.’ I almost got half-killed!”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Stealth Knights… in my previous life, they’d be like the Nazi secret police.
They’re powerful agents sent from the royal castle, tasked with rooting out potential traitors while hiding their true identities.
“Rodan, so that’s why you moved away from the city of Tristain?”
“Indeed! And especially here, where improved hygiene has made women’s panties so much purer!”
“You were happy with Lilitina’s wetting accident panties, weren’t you?”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! My friend Jade, you’re wrong! Panties soiled by a filthy woman remain filthy, but those soiled by a pure-hearted woman who had an ‘accident’ are like natural diamonds!”
“That makes no sense!”
It seems even the perverted Panty Thief has his own twisted sense of aesthetics.
The vile dragon manages to confuse me… Impressive, but I still don’t respect him.
“Let’s get back to the topic. While the details are unclear, the organization targeting you guys isn’t just some ordinary group. They may be even more dangerous than the Royalists, who are made up of the superior High Humans.”
“Oh?”
After all, they’re said to be a ‘group of monsters who can take human form.’ It wouldn’t be surprising if there were a few dragon species mixed in.
“The organization is called the Kokuboukyoudan—The Dark Mourning Sect. That’s all I know.”
I’m not going to mention the part about the monsters capable of taking human form just yet.
Imagine if word spread that there were monsters who could do such a thing. People would start panicking, suspecting that ‘there might be monsters hiding in the city’ or ‘that shady guy must be a monster,’ and it’d quickly devolve into witch-hunting madness.
“It’s about the year 1500 now… I have no desire to see history repeat itself in the form of another Dark Age.”
That’s why I choose who and when to tell, for my own sake as well.
“Hmm! There’s more to this, but I trust you, my friend Jade! I won’t pry further!”
“Thanks for that. So yeah, just be on alert. You may be creepy, but it’d be a bit lonely if you died.”
“!?!!? That’s true friendship!”
“No, it’s not.”
It’s more like how it’d feel strange if the annoying croaking of the frogs in the countryside suddenly stopped.
“Tell the other top-class members as well. I couldn’t ask Anemone since we’re not close.”
“Nor am I!”
“Get some social skills already…”
Looks like I’ll have to do the rounds myself. How annoying.
“I appreciate it, my friend! Now let me give you some info in return! I’ve heard that one of the top-class beings, the ‘Ominous Aoi,’ is traveling in the eastern region!”
“Oh?”
Aoi, huh? I’ve heard rumors. She’s supposedly the youngest person ever to be granted top-class recognition, just a few years ago in the Holy City.
“Wait, isn’t the east on the opposite side, beyond the Holy City? I wish someone closer, like you, were around instead.”
“!?!!? Friendship, is it!?”
“No, it’s not.”
I just prefer things that require less effort.
“Hahaha! Well then, I’ll take my leave! The maidens are starting to scare me!”
Rodan glanced to the side, where Albedo and Lilitina were closing in with knives and claws ready.
“Give back the panties!”
“You pervert!”
The two were just about to pounce, but…
“I shall keep the wetting accident panties! Farewell!”
In an instant, the Phantom Thief Rodan disappeared.
“Did he use an EX Skill?”
It wasn’t a skill to hide his presence. The sheer absurdity of it was clear from the dazed expressions on Albedo and Lilitina.
“…What were we doing just now?”
“Weren’t we thanking Jade-san? But… huh?”
Both of them looked confused, unable to make sense of the situation.
This is Rodan’s forbidden art—World Law: The Star Where Only I Am Absent, his EX skill that creates another realm.
Once it’s activated, it’s over. While using this ability, he doesn’t just disappear; he erases himself from people’s memories as well.
“—Wait, no! Rodan got away!”
“Oh, he released the ability.”
Once it’s deactivated, everything goes back to normal. But by then, he’s long gone.
“He even left behind some money.”
Where Rodan had been standing, a platinum coin was rolling around.
One of those is worth a million gold. That’s more than the cost of a hundred pairs of panties.
“Nooo! A pervert stole my panties! Albedo-sama spent two hours agonizing over picking out that pair with the little bear design!”
“Li-Lilitina, there’s no need to mention how long I agonized over it…!”
“But still!”
Lilitina started sobbing, so I reassured her.
“Hey, Lilitina?”
“J-Jade-san?”
“I’m not letting anyone get away with inappropriate behavior in front of me. —Skill Storage Space Item Box, open.”
I opened a void, and a leather pouch dropped out.
I handed it to Lilitina.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the panties that were stolen.”
“Wh-what!? Oh, they really are!?”
When she opened the pouch, there they were: the bear panties (with gold embellishments).
“Whaaat!? When did you get them back!?”
“With a little third-class adventurer power.”
“Seriously!?”
Sorry, Rodan, but your forbidden art doesn’t work on me.
As a vile dragon, my soul, capable of burning all existence, can perceive all concepts. If you disappear, I simply recognize the ‘void left by your disappearance’ and track your existence from there.
After that, I just took them back on my way out. At three times the speed of sound.
“Well, I’ve gotten used to it. If the crime scene is nearby, I can casually take back the goods.”
“Really!? Thanks so much, Jade-san! Yay, and we even made a million gold from it!”
“Yeah, call it compensation from the pervert. Go ahead and keep it.”
Now this matter is truly resolved. Next, I should head to the eastern region that Rodan mentioned… or maybe later, since it sounds like a hassle.
“Jade-san! Jade-san!”
What now?
“By the way, why does that pervert Rodan call you his friend? Since you keep taking back the panties, shouldn’t he consider you his enemy?”
“Oh, that?”
It’s simple.
“That guy is actually just a lonely attention-seeker. He was sulking, hiding in his own world with no one chasing after him, so I grabbed his arm and said, ‘Caught you.'”
Upon hearing this, both Lilitina and Albedo looked at each other, blushing.
What the heck?
“…Albedo-sama, doesn’t that sound like an incredibly romantic episode!? This guy’s totally unfair!”
“Yes, Jade-sama really is an unfair person…!”
What are you two going on about now!?
