The other two thieves waited outside with their feet tapping impatiently at the ground with small frowns on their faces.

"What’s taking him so long?" They muttered to each other.

Usually they all broke in at the same time, but that was less ideal especially since it caused so much chaos and noise. For this job specifically, they had decided that only one person going in first was much better for stealth.

Their captain was a trained thief and even a disciple of the infamous Raven Thief, who was a criminal still at large in the Capital.

So what if the City Guards had attempted to catch people affiliated with the Raven Thief? They’d caught their captain once and let him go since he was actually cleaning the guard barracks instead of stealing... community service, basically.

He must have witnessed the sheer underhanded cunning that the Raven Thief employed and was implementing those techniques now.

This was the reason why they followed him loyally. They believed that they could transform this band of Failed Thieves into real thieves that would finally be acknowledged by the Raven Thief himself. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The door creaked open and their Captain appeared in the doorway except his face looked deathly pale with fear, and his hands were shaking.

The two thieves immediately dropped into combat stances with their weapons materializing in their hands.

Their captain jumped off the staircase, landing alongside them with his shortsword drawn as a woman walked out of the entrance and descended the stairs slowly.

"N-no way... Punch Punch Taula?" One of the thieves blinked in recognition.

She was one of the A-Rank Adventurers that lived in Galen Town... a legend among the local guild members.

She was nicknamed Punch Punch Taula because she had once punched a Tier 3 monster to death after realizing that her axe didn’t work on its armored hide.

She’d just started using her bare fists instead.

It was very well known throughout Galen that this woman was absolutely insane! So what was she doing here on her supposed big break from adventuring?

The thief on the left immediately collapsed onto his knees, raising both hands in the air in surrender.

"Ah, Lady Taula... we weren’t aware that this was your lover’s home!" He said desperately.

Why else would she be in a man’s private inn at this hour? She was obviously getting busy with him, of course!

"L-lover..." Taula froze up completely, her mind immediately conjuring the image. Just the thought of Klaus kissing her made her face turn completely red.

"N-no, you’re wrong! Klaus is really rude, why would he be my lover?!" She blurted out defensively but the moment the words left her mouth, she raised her hand to her lips, immediately regretting them.

Klaus wasn’t rude at all... He was actually really sweet. The only thing that could be considered rude was the fact that he’d thrown her a blanket and told her to sleep on the couch but then again, she was the one intruding on his privacy, so he was completely right for it.

’Klaus is nice and sweet...’ Taula thought, remembering him smiling while telling her about his likes and dislikes. It made her chest feel really warm, like when she ate those sandwiches.

Perhaps it was because he was the first person to talk to her normally after seeing all the brutality she caused in combat. Even with the way she couldn’t remember much, he still talked to her instead of gossiping behind her back.

She didn’t want to let him go.

"You three tried to steal from him." Taula said, and her eyes gained that crimson glow again, making all three thieves stiffen and scramble back into defensive stances. "You three will die tonight."

Once she was completely sure that she was off Klaus’s property and wouldn’t damage his home, Taula gathered mana into her leg muscles then she exploded forward.

The ground beneath her foot cratered from the force as she shot toward the Captain who stood in the center of the formation.

The Captain’s eyes went wide and he raised his shortsword defensively with the blade angled to intercept... but Taula’s fist crashed into the flat of his blade.

The impact rang out like a bell.

The Captain was sent flying backward like he’d been hit by a cannonball, his body rocketing through the air toward the opposite building across the street.

’No...!’ His mind raced. ’If I hit that wall at this speed...!’

At the last possible second, the Captain poured a small burst of aura into his feet, twisting his body mid-flight. His boots touched the wall and he stuck to it momentarily with the aura anchoring him in place.

He steadied himself against the vertical surface with a gasp of breath however the moment he brought his head upward to track Taula’s position...

She was already there above him.

Her fist came down like a meteor.

"Wha—"

CRACK!

Taula’s punch slammed into the top of his skull with devastating force, driving him straight down toward the pavement below.

The Captain’s body cratered into the stone street with spiderweb cracks spreading outward from the impact point. His head bounced once against the ground and blood spattered.

He lay there twitching while Taula landed lightly beside him, tilting her head left and right while thinking about what to do next then an idea struck her, and joy lit up her eyes.

’If these people tried to steal from us, then it’s only right that we steal from them!’ She thought with perfect logic.

She reached for the Captain’s coin pouch.

His eyes widened in panic and he tried to move but...

WHAM!

Taula pounded his head into the pavement again, very sure to hold back just enough so that she didn’t actually kill him.

If these were thieves, then they had to have bounties on their heads. No matter how small the bounty was, coin was coin.

She hummed cheerfully while finally pulling out the pouch. It was a bit full, which was promising.

Taula opened it and peered inside but it was all copper coins with just a few silvers mixed in.

’This guy is really poor...’ She thought with disappointment.

With his skill level, he should at least choose to be an adventurer and be somewhat successful at it, the pay would be better.

Behind her, the other two thieves saw their captain get absolutely demolished.

They turned and ran.

"You better fight!" Taula called out, turning to face them. Her voice carried a cheerful warning. "If you don’t, when I catch you, I’ll kill you instead!"

To emphasize her point, she casually kicked the Captain’s unconscious body.

His form rocketed through the air and slammed into the another building with a sickening thud, then crumpled to the ground.

Taula refocused on the fleeing pair.

The woman thief skidded to a stop and spun around, raising both hands up. She made an elaborate hand-sign even though she didn’t technically need to for the spell.

"Poison Gas!" She yelled out desperately.

Purple toxic gas erupted from her palms, spreading outward in a thick cloud that filled the entire street.

The woman turned to run into the concealing smoke... but Taula’s hand wrapped around her throat from behind.

The woman’s eyes bulged in shock. ’How...?!’

Taula had moved straight through the poison gas without even slowing down, inhaling it directly. But it wasn’t affecting her at all... her physical stats and natural constitution were too high for this weak poison.

"Nice try." Taula said.

While holding the woman up by the neck with one hand, Taula’s other hand began patting down her body, searching for valuables.

The third thief, the one who’d been on the left saw his chance.

He rushed Taula from behind, unsheathing his sword and slashing directly at her exposed neck but Taula turned her head slightly and bit the blade.

Her teeth clamped down on the steel sword.

CRUNCH!

The blade shattered into pieces with the metal fragments falling uselessly to the ground and the thief stood there frozen in horror while holding just the hilt.

Taula spat some of the metal fragments directly onto his face.

He screamed and fell backward, clutching his eyes as the sharp metal shards cut into his skin.

"MY EYES! MY EYES!"

Meanwhile, Taula’s searching hand finally found what she was looking for on the woman’s belt. It was a coin pouch.

She pulled it free, hearing the satisfying jingle of coins inside. Opening it with one hand, she saw several silver coins gleaming inside.

"Good." Taula said with satisfaction.

She palmed her fist... the one holding the pouch and delivered a devastating punch straight into the woman thief’s stomach.

"Guhk!" The woman coughed out saliva and bile.

Taula threw her backward casually. The woman’s body flew through the air and landed directly on top of the Captain’s unconscious form with a meaty thump.

Next, Taula walked over to the last thief, who was still on the ground clutching his face. She stood over him.

The thief, realizing he was completely outmatched, desperately held out his coin pouch with a shaking hand.

Taula took it and looked inside.

Alongside a few bronze and silver coins, he even had one gold coin.

"Wow." Taula’s eyes widened. "You’re the richest one!"

Then she stomped her foot down into his stomach.

CRACK!

The thief coughed out blood then Taula kicked him across the street. His body tumbled through the air and crashed into the pile where the other two thieves lay groaning.

She looked at the three coin pouches in her hands, weighing them.

"Klaus will be so happ..."

Creak!

The door to Klaus’s inn opened.

Klaus stepped out, rubbing his eyes with one hand. Several swords floated in the air around him protectively, catching the moonlight.

"What happened?" He asked with a sleepy voice.

...

After Taula explained that these three had tried to rob him, Klaus brought out some makeshift rope he’d crafted from iron scraps earlier and bound all three thieves to each other tightly.

Just as he finished, a patrolling town guard arrived with a spear at his side.

"What’s the commotion abou..." The guard paused, looking at the bound criminals. "Oh, it’s these three."

He sighed.

"They’re known as the Failed Thieves, and they always get caught. They never really manage to steal anything successfully, and they’re actually honest workers when they’re not trying this nonsense, so we don’t imprison them. Just fine them and put them on cleanup duty."

With that, the guard lifted all three thieves over his shoulder with surprising ease.

"We’ll deal with them. Thank you, and goodnight." The guard nodded professionally and walked back off in the direction where he came from.

Klaus and Taula both let out deep breaths as the street fell quiet again.

"Haah, how stressful." Klaus said, running a hand through his hair. He turned to Taula. "Thank you for helping me out there."

He probably would have been able to take them out with Magnetic Field and his swords, but Taula was a much better fighter than him... that much was obvious. He’d actually been made aware of the intrusion the moment they deactivated the barrier, since an alarm had gone off in his room.

"We’re friends, It’s only natural." Taula said simply, grabbing his arm and dragging him back inside then she closed the door behind them.

Klaus would reactivate the barrier once he was upstairs.

"I guess... goodnight." Taula said, starting to walk over to the couch.

Klaus cleared his throat.

"You know, if you want, then you can join me on the bed." He suggested.

Taula turned around to face him with her face turning pink.

She at least earned the right to sleep in a comfortable place after saving him... Not that he minded that much. How hard would it be to sleep next to another person? It was just Taula.

"Really?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

Then she stretched her arms up and ran over to him, grabbing his hand and dragging him toward the stairs.

"Come on... let’s sleep..."

...

Klaus woke up to a very strange sensation.

First of all, one of Taula’s legs was draped over both of his, and no matter how hard he tried to budge, he couldn’t move them.

Two of her arms were wrapped around his sides like iron bands, and her face was pressed against his chest.

’What kind of person sleeps like this?’ Klaus thought in mild panic.

If she decided to move suddenly without remembering he was there, she might accidentally tear his head away from his body with her ridiculous strength so essentially, he had to wait for her to wake up before he could move again.

However, the familiar gacha screen popped up in front of his face.

「Would you like to roll the gacha wheel?」

「Y / N」

「Current Tickets: 1」

’Okay...’ Klaus thought, mentally selecting Y.

The gacha wheel materialized in front of his face.

Using just his mind since his hands were pinned, he placed the ticket in the slot. That was pretty difficult, but finally the wheel began spinning with the familiar whirling sound.

He genuinely didn’t even pray this time because he was going to let the gacha gods take control.

Finally, the spin came to an end.

「Congratulations! You have pulled: Tier 2 Spell - Iron Skin」

「Skill Description: This spell transmutes one chosen body part into solid iron, granting high physical defense and attack power. The transformed part becomes heavy and loses all sensation. The user cannot transform multiple parts simultaneously.」

「Mana Cost: 24 mana per activation」

’Oh...’ Klaus blinked then his eyes widened as realization hit him.

’I actually got a good skill?!’

That called for celebration... That called for praise of the highest order... That called for—

"Ummph~" Taula’s face turned toward him, her eyes fluttering open. She looked at him sleepily, a bit of saliva trailing from her mouth.

She’d been drooling on his chest the entire night.

"Ah~ Morning, Klaus."

"Morning to you as well." He told her flatly. "Are you going to keep drooling on me, or are you going to get off?"

Taula looked down and saw the wet spot on his shirt where she’d been drooling.

She pulled her face back instantly, blushing furiously as she turned away and hid her face in her hands.

"Uh... it’s not what it looks like."