Flushing Out The Vermin

"What do you think you're doing, villain?"

Kies watched as the thief scrambled away to safety. There was no point in chasing. He knew that he wasn't going to catch the thief as long as this person was standing in his way. Kies turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw a female soldier dressed in fancy uniform walking towards him, though he really didn't need to. He recognized the voice.

In fact, everyone here recognized the voice. There was no mistaking it, especially looking face to face with the soldier now. The person standing in front of him was Rui, the royal guard of the queen. "Speak, criminal. Why were you chasing an innocent child?"

"What if I told you that the 'child' I was just chasing is actually one of the notorious criminals that have been giving the guards trouble all this time?" Kies asked her.

"You have to come up with a better lie than that."

"It's the truth though."

"Really?" Rui didn't sound sarcastic, but rather intrigued by what Kies said. "Can you prove it?" While waiting for Kies to explain himself, the rest of the guards surrounded him. It was a shame that none of them were Nell or her guards since this would save him a lot of trouble.

But since they weren't here, Kies had to tell them everything from the start. He tried his best to explain to Rui the identity of the thief and even asked her to have Nell vouch for him if needed. By the time he finished explaining all of this, Iris and Wompa broke through the crowd and found him.

"Hoodie!"

"Please stay back," the guards stopped the two girls from getting any closer.

"No, let them in," Rui waved the guards off.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

The guard obeyed Rui's orders and let the two girls in. "What happened- Oh..." Iris spotted Rui and the two sisters immediately stopped in their tracks. Sirks warned them to not get close to any of the royal guards since they would capture the two on sight. Kies muttered a curse to himself. He gripped his sword tightly, prepared to fight their way out if necessary.

"Who are you two?" Rui asked the two girls, causing Kies to raise an eyebrow in confusion. Did she not know how the two princesses look like? She served the queen, so shouldn't know? Well, it was better that she didn't since it meant that they wouldn't get into trouble.

"We're... Um-"

"The thief got away," Kies interrupted the two, explaining to them what happened and taking the attention off of them.

"The thief?"

"Yes. The thief got away."

"That short man was a thief?"

Kies looked at Wompa and gestured for her to explain to her sister. She did so by nodding her head yes, confirming that what Kies said was true.

"What!?"

"Huh..." Rui walked over to Kies and picked up her sword. She spun it around and wiped off the sand on the tip before sheathing it. "Interesting. So you weren't kidding," she said while handing Kies a piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"I sent a message to central asking them to confirm it. Turns out that the person you were chasing really is one of them."

"You did? When?" Kies didn't see her do anything of the sort. He had his eyes on her the entire time and she had her eyes on him. There was no way that he wouldn't have caught her doing something like that.

"A while ago." Rui spun her finger and a snowflake appeared. With a snap of her wrists, the snowflake disappeared and a piece of paper appeared in its place. "Just like that."

"Wow!" The little magic trick impressed the two sisters. Kies wasn't very taken away by it since this wasn't his first time seeing something like this. But regardless, it was rare to see a human do this.

"Impressive," he complimented the royal guard.

"Anyway, I'm sorry for interrupting your chases. If it wasn't for me, you should've caught him," Rui bowed apologetically to Kies, realizing her mistake of stopping him.

"It's fine." Kies waved for Rui to get up. The royal guard got up from the ground and apologized again.

"Like I said, it's fine." While Kies was a bit mad that he couldn't catch the thief, he always had the chance to do so if another opportunity arrives.

"Is that so? But I could've saved a lot of lives if you caught him here." Rui was still blaming herself for letting the thief get away but Kies assured her that it wasn't her fault.

"Unless you knew who he was beforehand, anyone else would've thought the same thing," he reasoned.

"Yes... That is true... Anyway, may I ask which division you're in? Oh wait, you said you work for sergeant Rui, didn't you?"

"Not exactly. It's a temporary thing until she fills in the holes in her squad," Kies explained to her.

"I see... But until then, you are part of her squad, right? Temporary or not."

"I guess."

"Alright, good. I require your help with something."

"My help?"

"Yes." Rui took out another piece of folded paper and handed it to Kies. He took it only to have it snatched away from his fingers by Iris.

"..."

Iris unfolded the paper and read it out loud for Kies and Wompa to hear. "Urgent! A group of smugglers has been identified inside of the city. You are to locate and apprehend them. They were last seen at this location." And after that, there was a rough drawing of a section of the city where the smugglers were last seen along with a big black circle around the vicinity of where they had been.

"What?" Kies took the map from Iris' hand to get a better look at it.

"Hey! Don't just take it so suddenly like that. You could've ripped it!"

"..."

"Is there something wrong?" Rui asked Kies, not understanding why his reaction was the way that it was.

"Yes." Kies handed the map over to Wompa for her to look at it. "Does this remind you of anything?" he asked her.

Wompa took the map and tilted her head a couple of times to figure out what Kies was talking about, and then she saw it. Her eyes widen and he nods her head.

"What are you two talking about?" Iris didn't like being left out and asked the two what they were nodding their heads about.

"Yes, please explain it to me as well." Rui also wanted to know.

Kies reached into his pockets and pulled out another folded piece of paper that Nell's father gave him before he left. It contained the locations of all the potential locations for the thief's hideout. Keis handed it to Rui without any context and she took a look at it and saw all the X's on it. "By any chance..."

"Yes."

"What is it?" Iris tippy-toed and tried to get a look at the map as well from the side and noticed that one of the places marked on Kies' map was the same as the one that Rui had. "Oh!" She pointed it out, which wasn't really necessary as everyone else already figured it out.

"So... I guess we know what our next course of action is..."

***

"Sh*t! Just my luck!" Mesh barged through the door cursing at the top of his lungs, attracting the attention of everyone inside.

"What's wrong, pipsqueak? Did a tall person accidentally step on you?" someone joked.

"F*ck off, will you!?"

"Hey, I don't like the attitude you're giving me." The person who made the rude comment to Mesh jumped down from his perch atop a small plank of wood attached near the ceiling and walked over to the tiny thief. He was almost three times his height and looked like a colossus compared to him.

But despite the height difference, Mesh showed no signs of fear or backing down. "Then maybe you should watch your mouth, Yatch," the short thief angrily told off the giant.

The two faced off for a minute, and the tension in the room grew so thick that the temperature could be felt dropping. Everyone watched the two, expecting a fight to break out, but that wasn't what happened. Instead, the tall thief backed away and doubled over laughing. "Ahh... This never gets old. I can never take you seriously with your height. You gotta do something about it, Mesh."

"And what do you suppose that I do to fix my height? I've been this short for years now!" Mesh asked the annoying thief.

"Don't know... But what I do know is that you brought some company back."

"What are you talking about-" A loud noise that sounded like the door being broken down interrupted him and everyone turned to look at the entrance.

"Surrender now and you will not be harmed!" Tens of soldiers flooded into the room, all armed with weapons and armor.

"So, do you have anything to say about this?" Yatch asked Mesh.

"When!?" Mesh asked out loud, dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events.

"When indeed..." Yatch smiled amusingly. While the other thieves were on their feet with their weapons drawn and getting ready for a fight, Yatch was the only one who was still laughing and smiling seemingly without a care in the world.

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