“You’re the little thief! You were pissed off yesterday and even threatened me! So you came back later and robbed our vault!”

 

“I didn’t rob shit! Lying thief! Give me back my money and jewelry!”

 

A gas mask appeared on Oliver’s furious face, followed by a metal hard-hat on his head. The man with the crossbow pulled the trigger immediately and the bolt bounced off the helmet, ricocheting over into the wall. Then the other man rushed over with a shortsword!

 

“You’re trying to murder me?!”

 

“No, no I didn’t! Don’t lie! You’re the one that started using magic first!”

 

“Shut up, you dumbass!” Jessie went inside the house and closed, then locked the door behind her, preventing some of the anxious people outside from interfering.

 

“Don’t kill him! If he dies without passing on his Word, we’re all dead!”

 

“So you wanna steal my Curse too?!”

 

Oliver threw the small pick at the man who was hurriedly reloading his crossbow. He managed to dodge, but he dropped his bolt on the floor. Then the whole quiver on his belt was poured out onto the ground. His partner with the shortsword managed to step on one of them and slipped backwards, smacking the back of his helmet on the ground.

 

“Aaah~! My back~!” The breastplate straps finally snapped and couldn’t hold back his beer belly anymore. Then his shortsword landed on his forehead and bounced off. Sticking into the floorboards next to his exposed neck.

 

“How?!” Jessie facepalmed after watching their pathetic performance and grimaced in pain after accidentally popping a zit…

 

The boy rushed over with a sledge hammer and smashed the crossbow out of the man’s hands. Then he screamed in agony as his fingers were also broken. His right thumb was directly severed and bleeding all over the floor.

 

“Shit!” Jessie finally started panicking. She didn’t wear any fancy armor or carry any weapons. Just some green overalls that say ‘Greenstone Mining Company’ in black across the chest.

 

“Wait, this is just a misunderstanding! You didn’t steal from us, right? So we don’t have time to waste with you anymore! If we don’t get the company’s shit back, then we’re screwed, get it?! Not just us, but the whole village will be implicated!”

 

“Aaaaah~! Aaaaaaaaaaah~!”

 

“Shut up!” Oliver roared at the screaming man and pointed his sledge hammer at Jessie’s pockmarked face, “Get the hell outta my house! Now! Go!”

 

“Alright, alright, don’t yell! And will you be quiet already?! It’s just a thumb! You’re not gonna die!”

 

Jessie unlocked the door and opened it. The screaming and crying giant reached down to pick up his severed thumb, before rushing next door to the Emerald’s house. Without waiting around for his boss or friend.

 

“Ugh… I… I can’t get up…” The armored man on the ground struggled a bit, but he couldn’t even roll over properly.

 

“Damn it!” Even though he cursed and complained, Oliver still helped the overweight man off the ground and then threw his ass out the front door. He rolled across the brick walkway while screaming and making a lot of loud ‘clanking’ noises, but in the end, he was relatively unharmed.

 

“Bas-”

 

*Tang!* A big metal breastplate smacked into his helmet and knocked him onto the grass. Meanwhile, Jessie had already run away a long time ago. Regardless of legality or other issues, it was a fact that if she didn’t find the money and other valuables that were stolen, the whole village really would be held accountable.

 

“Are you okay, Ollie?!” Verna rushed over and hugged the panting boy, almost knocking him into the doorway again.

 

“I-I’m fine, Verna, I’m fine.”

“Oliver! What the hell happened?!” It wasn’t long before Peridot also came over and grabbed him, “What did those assholes do to you?!”

 

“Jonson shot me! He actually shot me in the freakin head! He tried to murder me!”

 

“What?!” Verna screamed, “How dare they?! We got robbed too, but you don’t see us running around trying to lynch people!”

 

“You guys got robbed too?!” Forest came over with Myrtle, Barilo, Irving and some of the other kids.

 

“Yeah! I saw a huge man with glowing red eyes!” Ivy shouted anxiously, “I thought I was being haunted by my Dad at first, but then I heard Ollie shouting later and realized we got robbed!”

 

“Burgled, technically. *Cough-cough~!*” Grandpa Greenstone walked over with a green cane, wearing a green-white flannel shirt and brown pants with flip flops.

 

“Burglary is when a person breaks into a building to commit a crime. Usually theft… Robbery is when someone uses violence or fear to steal-*Cough~!*”

 

“Grandpa! Whether it’s burglary or robbery, it’s still theft, right?!” Peridot shouted angrily, “I saw a short and fat guy with blue eyes! He smelled like cigarettes!”

 

“You saw someone too?” Forest complained, “We didn’t see anything at all. There weren’t even any footprints. My parents just got better and wanna get back to work, but now someone just stole our life savings! We can’t even afford to pay Uncle Klein now!”

 

“What kinda evil bastard would do that shit?!” Peridot screamed and the other kids also complained about their grievances. 

 

Of course, they weren’t the only ones. The Thief basically robbed the whole town blind… Or burgled them deaf. Either way, the biggest issue was actually the Greenstone Mining Company.

 

“Ten thousand gold. Exactly. Those bastards just happened to have ‘ten thousand gold’ worth of shit stolen a few days after they gave us a ten-thousand dollar gift card-I mean, credits?!”

 

Emerald gritted her teeth and slammed the piece of paper in her hands onto the dining table with a loud ‘smack’! Greenstone just sighed and shook his head, taking a sip of his soup. Klein frowned as he looked at another few pieces of paper.

 

“From the witness testimonies, what we’re dealing with isn’t just a single thief, but a whole group of them. Maybe even… Bandits. Or Mercenaries?”

 

“It’s definitely not random!” Emerald’s face was red from anger and shouting, but her eyes were also bloodshot from crying earlier.

 

“Not only did they ‘lose’ ten grand, nearly every household lost at least a hundred gold in savings. Verda and Oscar lost a few thousand. Oliver only lost a hundred dollars, but they also stole some jewels and jewelry worth hundreds, no, maybe over a thousand.”

 

“This is typical Outlaw Association behavior. They might give the ten thousand back to their employer, but they’ll keep the rest for themselves.” The old man coughed a few times after speaking.

 

“Probably.” Klein shrugged his shoulders, “There’s nothing we can really do about it. That’s why I warned you not to make any sketchy deals with those assholes, Emy. At least if they paid us the gold, we’d have to pay taxes on it and the State would get involved. Even if they pulled this shit anyway…”

“They’d just find another way to screw us over and get away with it!” Emerald started crying again after that.