Chapter 62 Thief

The rain kept getting heavier.

What had begun as a soft drizzle, fine as threads, gradually thickened into a dense curtain.

Deep within the heavy leaden clouds, low thunder rumbled as if gathering strength.

Xia Nan and Alton walked back toward the inn.

Neither had brought anything for the rain, so whenever possible, they kept beneath the eaves jutting out over the roadside.

When there was no shelter, they didn’t bother hurrying.

They simply walked through it.

Xia Nan was already soaked anyway.

His armor and equipment would need careful maintenance before bed regardless, so another few steps in the rain made little difference.

With eight points of Constitution, a little rain wasn’t going to make him sick unless someone hit him with something like Disease Curse or Aura of Weakness.

As for Alton…

Xia Nan only wished the halfling would stop splashing through puddles so close to him.

Mud was one thing he didn’t need any more of.

“By the way.”

Watching Alton enjoy the cool rain with obvious delight, Xia Nan remembered what he’d said outside the tavern.

“That sister of the Goddess of Fortune you mentioned… is she-”

Alton abruptly turned around and raised a finger to his lips.

“Shh.”

His smile remained, but his voice dropped.

“Don’t talk about her too much. She’s nowhere near as easygoing as the Lady.”

Xia Nan’s heart tightened.

He promptly shut his mouth.

This continent was so vast that an ordinary person could spend an entire lifetime without ever seeing its boundaries.

Across it existed countless deities, drawn from different pantheons and races.

Their divine power varied. So did the authorities and domains they governed.

But they all had one thing in common.

They lived for an absurdly long time, long enough for a single existence to span nearly the entire history of a race.

Over such unimaginable lifespans, the relationships between gods had become tangled beyond measure.

Even the most experienced historian would struggle to say what an ancient deity had lived through, much less which other gods they had feuded with, allied with, betrayed, or otherwise become entangled with over the ages.

As a result, only the simplest and least sensitive details of divine relationships had spread widely among mortals.

One famous example was the Sisters of Fate.

The Smiling Lady, Tymora, governed good fortune.

Her sister, the Maiden of Misfortune, Beshaba, embodied ill fortune.

Unlike the easygoing Tymora, who could even seem somewhat childlike, Beshaba was infamous among mortals for being petty, spiteful, and temperamental.

So much so that during most formal occasions in the Kingdom of Servia, whenever a speaker offered thanks to the gods or other higher beings, Beshaba was usually included.

Leaving her out was asking for trouble.

She might decide she had been disrespected and casually spread misfortune over everyone present.

Xia Nan had only wanted to learn a little more about the gods of this world.

He had absolutely no desire to attract the attention of a malicious deity who wielded power over fate.

“Hahaha, you don’t have to look that serious.”

Seeing his expression, Alton laughed.

“Think about it. So many people pray to her every day that she doesn’t even answer every devoted zealot.”

“You didn’t even say her divine name. Relax. She won’t notice you.”

Then he proudly tossed his Lucky Coin.

“Besides, you’ve got me!”

Xia Nan relaxed a little.

Only a little.

Because from what he knew about Tymora and Beshaba’s relationship, if he somehow offended Beshaba while standing next to one of Tymora’s believers…

Wouldn’t that make the divine punishment even worse?

Whoosh.

A flash of silver crossed the edge of his vision.

Xia Nan looked up.

A silver-white robin swept through the rain beneath the dark clouds, beating its wings as it vanished into the distance.

He was still wondering about it when hurried footsteps sounded ahead.

A small, thin figure came rushing toward them, hunched over as if trying to hide from the rain.

A hood concealed the person’s face.

All Xia Nan could see beneath the oversized coarse-cloth coat were two slender, scrawny legs.

Assuming it was just another passerby trying to get out of the weather, Xia Nan instinctively shifted aside.

The figure didn’t.

Instead, it barreled straight into Alton.

The halfling was short, but his race gave him agility beyond that of an ordinary person.

He turned lightly with the impact, bleeding away the force with ease.

He even reached out to steady the stranger so they wouldn’t fall.

That apparently wasn’t what the other person had expected.

They had thrown their weight against Alton after the collision, and when he failed to stumble, their balance suddenly gave way.

For a moment, the hood shifted.

Xia Nan caught sight of a young, gaunt face.

And something else.

A hand reaching straight for the empty money pouch at Alton’s waist.

“A thief?”

Xia Nan reacted instantly.

His right hand went to the hilt of the Decapitating Longsword on his back.

Alton was faster.

The moment he realized the stranger wasn’t an ordinary passerby but a pickpocket targeting him, the hand supporting the thief’s arm snapped shut.

His right leg hooked forward.

His arm pulled.

Thud!

The thief hit the muddy ground hard.

Dirty water splashed in every direction.

“Well, that’s bold. He actually tried to rob me to my face.”

Xia Nan shifted the two longswords on his back, genuinely puzzled.

Forget Alton for a moment.

Just looking at Xia Nan, anyone should have been able to tell he was an adventurer traveling with the halfling.

And the thief didn’t seem to possess any actual Rogue techniques.

Was he really that reckless?

Or was something else going on?

Xia Nan drew his sword and stepped forward.

The thief reacted in a way he hadn’t expected.

After being tripped and exposed, he didn’t try to fight back at all.

He used Alton’s momentum to roll twice through the mud, soaking his coarse clothes from head to toe.

Then he scrambled upright and bolted.

Xia Nan wasn’t about to let a pickpocket get away that easily.

He surged forward two steps.

Then stopped.

Not because he’d noticed anything suspicious.

A huge hand had suddenly reached around the corner at the end of the street.

It caught the fleeing thief by the back of his collar in a single motion.

His feet left the ground.

The scrawny young man was lifted into the air like a chick caught by the scruff of its neck.

A blond man in a sheriff’s uniform stepped into view behind him.

“Joey!”

The low shout carried through the rain, anger held on a tight leash.

“What did you do this time!?”