The Villain Wants to Quit

The Gems (6)

"It was a complete failure," Marc said as he entered the room where Theo was waiting. "I tried to be so diplomatic; I explained the whole Dullahan situation, and the king had none of it."

"He was awful," Marie agreed, following just a step behind Marc. She flopped onto a sitting chair and started immediately petting Scourge.

"So, I'll need to steal the bracelet?" Theo asked.

Marc confirmed with a nod before adding, "But we'll need to give it about a week."

"Right," Theo said. They had already discussed what to do if the king of Reinlia refused to let them bargain for the bracelet. Marc and Marie would travel to a town about a week's journey away to create an alibi for plausible deniability for formalities sake while Theo would steal the bracelet. Since others could corroborate that they had had similar jewelry stolen by Theo of Dullahan, Reinlia wouldn't be able to take an overly punitive stance even if they didn't believe Marc wasn't involved in the theft.

Marc and Marie helped Theo pour over some maps outlining all the information Ascia had on Reinlia's palace. It was helpful, but the bracelet could be hidden in two possible places. That meant Theo would have to be extra careful not to get caught since he would need extra time to search.

"Whatever you do, don't summon anything," Marie reminded Theo. "We don't want Dullahan to realize you're alive because of a stupid mistake."

"I'm going to prioritize stealth," Theo said. "Half the time I used to be 'caught' was because I was trying to alert my victims to something – or Dullahan had ordered me to cause a scene."

"Mortal Theo, does that not mean you were caught half the time without meaning to be?" Scourge asked, blinking.

"Well..." Theo rubbed the back of his neck. "I will be extra careful."

And true to his promise, Theo was extremely cautious when he snuck into the Reinlia Royal Palace later that week. It was almost suspicious how well the theft was going. Theo had already thoroughly searched one treasury and was moving to the next. The most imminent problem was that one of the guards he had knocked out would be discovered or wake up while he was in the other treasury. Because of that, Theo had taken a few prominent items. Hopefully, that would trick the guards into thinking he had already found what he was looking for – and it might distract the king from noticing that Theo had taken the bracelet Marc had recently harassed him about.

Naturally, they didn't have faith that any of this would fool the Reinlian king, but appearances and plausible deniability were crucial in politics.

Theo took Stabby with him and left Scourge and Carrot at a rendezvous point just outside the city. Stabby had been threatened into staying silent since stealth was the goal of this mission.

When Theo entered the other treasury, Theo frowned. This treasury was even more extensive than the last one. Still, there was only one thing to do: methodically go through the junk, one by one.

About a half-hour into his search, Theo heard guards approaching, so he hid in a shadow. Sure enough, the door to the treasury was flung open, and knights thoroughly searched the treasury. One was within a foot of Theo, but they couldn't spot him when he used his magic like this. It took a full thirty minutes before they decided he was not in the treasury and left.

Theo stepped out of the shadow and resumed his search. It took him another hour, but he found what he sought. Theo slipped the bracelet into his pocket, using gloves so he wouldn't be distracted by the screeching.

When he went to the door, he cursed. The knights had locked the door. Theo was good at picking locks by manipulating shadows, but it would be significantly more difficult from the opposite side of the door. Nevertheless, Theo had no other options. He eventually managed to open the door, only to come face-to-face with four guards. He started to pull his mana into a dagger-like shape before remembering that he didn't want to use any of his normal magic. Instead, Theo pulled Stabby from a sheath at his side.