After the Sun | Chrollo [M]

Chapter 1

BOLD

"What do you mean your necklace was stolen?" Pakunoda eyed Chrollo carefully as he sat behind his desk at his penthouse, looking over the magnificent, illuminating lights of Yorknew City, while she stood in front of him.

"It just was stolen," he deadpanned.

Pakunoda clicked her tongue. There was no way someone could steal from Chrollo—a bandit himself, and a good one at that.

She thought to herself for a moment. 'Is he planning to steal the poor girl's hatsu?'

Once, he had charmed the pants off of a girl who could write fortunes and stole her ability. Despite his obvious antics, he wasn't found out, thanks to the girl's inexperience. But when he managed to get a hold of how it should be done, he started doing it again and again.

Pakunoda didn't complain. Chrollo's Bandit's Secret was a trump card, not only for him, but for the rest of the group. When Chrollo noticed the drastic advantage the 'strategy' gave him, he started using it more often. To him, it felt like a shortcut.

And who would expect someone so sophisticated and pretty-boy looking?

She sighed and put the folder down on his desk.

Chrollo had asked Pakunoda to find the girl who had stolen his necklace. He remained vague about it, but knowing Chrollo, it might be something extremely important.

He looked over the files, silently reading their contents, taking them in just as he consumed knowledge from his ancient books. His fingers traced the letters of the name written in bold on one of the pages.

ASTRA BEATRIZ GERBER

Pakunoda gazed at him with suspicion. Meddling with this girl could endanger the nature of the group. She was nowhere near a simple girl, alright. The girl spelled trouble.

She was the illegitimate child of an acknowledged former lawyer, Martin Gerber, before he took over the Gerber family dynasty.

This information wasn't exactly kept a secret. It was silent gossip within the small circle of socialites and elites. Illegitimate children weren't news to the circle. Three out of five families in the circle had a case of their own. But it so happened that the Gerber family was known to be conservative—faithful to their betrothed, or as painted by the media.

Nevertheless, it only took that mistake to have the head of the family, Rod Gerber, wavering in his trust in Martin. To his dismay, this almost cost him the whole dynasty. Fortunately, Rod was a good man, unlike his son. To secure his position in becoming the next successor as the eldest, Martin had to keep the child and take her as his own.

It shamed Martin to do so, keeping an illegitimate of his own accord. Though his wife was noticeably against it, she had to agree if she wanted to be the wife of the very powerful man. Cleverly, she argued that it would bring discomfort to her family if the child were to live in the same house as them. Rod then agreed that Martin would just have to sustain the needs of the child in the mother's care.

Chrollo took all of the information in, almost feeling bad for the girl, if it weren't for his own experiences.

The same thought as Pakunoda had crossed his mind. Her father had connections in law. If Chrollo, say for example, met the girl's father and he decided to look deeper into Chrollo and his background, it wouldn't really be a problem. The group knew how to cut their ties. They eliminated those who had seen them. But if worse came to worst, this could have blown the group's cover.

The Phantom Troupe weren't regular thieves. They were thieves with intellect that calculated their every movement. Before they acted on anything, Chrollo, who had a personal philosophy of theological dualism - the balance between good and evil - that influenced his decisions, would first weigh his options. His actions were always calculated.