Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 2 - Chapter 15

Still, if she's this uncomfortable with my hand-made clothes, we should push going to a clothing store up higher on our to-do list before she ends up hating clothes even more. Hopefully a proper pair will be more comfortable.

"Aside from that," Yua continued. "Mana, since we're alone, you should call your special place a puss...!"

Thankful that she stopped, Mana and I turned to see what made her pause. Her ears were standing on edge.

"Alex, hurry, he's here."

I shot to my feet.

"He? Not they?"

"Yes. Look," she pointed down into the crowd. "There. The one walking towards the knights."

Scanning the crowd for our target, I found that one of the ants was indeed walking towards the knights, but he wasn't exactly alone. At least six more people were walking in that general direction before turning off side-streets or stopping by one shop or another.

Straining my eyes the best I could, I eventually managed to focus on one that continued in a straight line towards the guard, but that's the best I could do. Everyone was just too small.

"Who is it? Tillmann?"

"No. It's Arthur. And he's alone."

"Why the hell would he be alone?"

Looking again, I saw that he was without a cart.

"Do you think he got spooked after seeing the knights and left the crystals somewhere else?"

Yua paused, considering the question without taking her emerald eyes off of him. She shook her head.

"I don't think so. The way he's walking tells me he's calm. Maybe even confident. At least, he walks like he's healed his injuries."

"Or maybe he's drunk enough to not feel them."

Knowing that Yua had been taught to observe the differences in how people walked thanks to her time living with a bunch of former thieves in the slave house, I knew I could trust her judgement on this, but what did it mean? How could someone with the Thief tag not be at least a little worried? One small slip up, one check on a scrying orb and he's done, arrested.

For him to blatantly ignore that risk, he's either drunk, or he knew they'd be there.

"Tch... Yua, are you ready to listen in on them?"

"Yup."

Focusing on the spot we agreed on earlier, I opened a small portal to a narrow alley along the wall a good distance away from where Sir Astore was posted. Thanks to the way the wall was shaped, the portal's light shouldn't cause us any issues. And as long as she kept herself quiet, Sir Astore wouldn't notice her.

"Alright!"

Pumping herself up, Yua knelt in front of the portal and stuck her head through so easily, she might as well have forgotten the affle's demonstration earlier. She then pressed the back of her skirt down before I could see anything.

Taking this as her way of saying she didn't trust me not to look, I accepted the blow to my pride and looked away. I didn't need to see the portal to keep it open.

Keeping my attention on the other end of the portal, I did what I could to keep a bird's-eye view on Yua just in case someone spotted her. After that, all we could do was wait until Yua could let us in on what happened.