‘I lost to a player in a place where a druid’s greatness is at its height. What a breakdown…!’
Anger washed over Goo Seulbi the moment she saw Phantom Thief Neon’s grand announcement.
Why didn’t she think of it first?
The great Druidess, who will make history after Merlin, should not be pushed back by an unidentified thief.
‘No, the thief hasn’t stolen what he’s aiming for yet!’
She made the mistake of not sending a notice, but the game was far from over.
The thief has yet to achieve the purpose that he mentioned in his announcement.
Though the same is true for Merlin’s disciple, who still hasn’t fulfilled her assignment yet.
‘I wonder why Master Merlin gave me this task.’
It’s not rare for Merlin to give a task whose reason is difficult to determine.
And she just can’t figure this one out.
‘A search instead of a recapture…’
Merlin’s task for Goo Seulbi was to search for the Tuatha Dé Danann treasure in the hands of the Fomorians.
Not a recapture.
Merlin appeared in her dream and showed her the location of the castle, as well as what the treasure looked like.
— Search the auction house for this treasure.
— Shall I bring you the treasure? Alright, I will—
— No, no need for that. You don’t have to push yourself to retrieve it.
Merlin waved his robe and made the image of the treasure disappear.
His face wasn’t well visible because it was covered by his hood, but Goo Seulbi was almost sure that he was smiling.
— They’ve built a nice castle in a beautiful place. You can go get some fresh air and look for the treasure.
Merlin gave him such an odd yet simple task.
But Goo Seulbi has no intention of stopping there.
‘He didn’t say I can’t bring it back, so I’ll take it as soon as I find it! Master has ties to Tuatha Dé Danann too, so I bet he’ll be happy to regain this treasure.’
Goo Seulbi didn’t say it out loud, but Merlin knew that she wanted to do something reckless.
Though he didn’t intend to stop her either.
Instead, Merlin gave her a piece of advice.
— If something happens, you don’t have to avoid it through dreams. There are less cumbersome and safer ways than running into a dream.
— There is a place safer than a dream?
— Only in certain situations.
While Goo Seulbi was trying to recall Merlin’s advice, she couldn’t help but hear Phantom Thief Neon muttering next to her.
Phantom Thief Neon, who had spent the last few minutes expressing his inner suffering through a desperate monologue, looked determined.
And his long monologue ended with words that seemed to hypnotize him.
“…Yeah, this is one of the trials I need to overcome to become a true thief. I can do this!”
A true thief? A trial?
Goo Seulbi couldn’t understand him at all.
‘Someone that I, the great and wonderful druidess, cannot understand… This guy’s weird indeed!’
She tried to seriously listen to Phantom Thief Neon’s words, but it wasn’t easy at all.
The hardest thing for Goo Seulbi was that he gave his empty monologue in full Korean.
“What the heck are you saying? You’re talking in Korean, but I don’t understand it at all. Are you pretending to be Korean? Do you hate Korea?”
Anti-fans sometimes go undercover, pretending to be the very thing that they hate.
Goo Seulbi thought that perhaps Phantom Thief Neon wasn’t Korean, but her expectation was crushed.
“I am Korean. I’m sure it’s because of your lack of linguistic skills that you cannot understand my Korean. I see it’s not only elegance that you lack.”
“You’re a national disgrace, so just speak English like you were doing before.”
Whether he wanted to avoid being identified or he really just listened to Goo Seulbi, Phantom Thief Neon began to speak in English again.
“…There’s something I want to ask.”
“What?”
Phantom Thief Neon took one step closer to Goo Seulbi.
He was dressed as elegant as one would imagine a ‘phantom thief’ would be.
The jewel-like swan mask and the Traje de luces embroidered in silver thread and crystal beads were dazzling.
Phantom Thief Neon and Goo Seulbi made eye contact.
Behind his mask, Phantom Thief Neon’s eyes looked melancholic.
“Why do you have firewood on your face?”
Phantom Thief Neon’s gaze fell on the oakwood mask worn by Goo Seulbi.
The eyes that Goo Seulbi thought were full of melancholy actually were just eyes full of pity.
Goo Seulbi snapped.
“What do you mean firewood?! This is my mask for the party. Even the hole for the eye part is cut out!”
“My goodness… So it’s not a bark that you picked up between piles of firewood, but a mask that you made yourself?”
Goo Seulbi felt her anger rise, not because she doesn’t understand what he said.
If her mask and the swan mask of Phantom Thief Neon were put side-by-side, that sentiment would be of the majority.
Still, Goo Seulbi spoke confidently, unashamed of her mask.
“This mask is an oak mask. It’s a mask that fits me as a druidess. Because ‘druid’ means ‘one who knows the oak tree’!”
“I think the problem isn’t the material, but the way you processed it…”
“True greatness isn’t in outer appearance, so it doesn’t matter.”
Neon took another step closer.
Before they knew it, they were close enough to touch.
Wary, Goo Seulbi tried to take a step back, but she came in contact with the wall.
She grabbed a cane made of oak wood that Merlin made himself.
“What, if you want to fight, I’ll take you on.”
“A thief doesn’t hurt people, and he doesn’t fight for no reason.”
Fwak!
A brilliant energy wave burst from Phantom Thief Neon’s fingertip.
While the small firework distracted Goo Seulbi, Neon quickly pulled out a bunch of trump cards.
He moved like a magician.
‘The trump cards have energy waves. They’re not normal cards, they’re weapon item cards!’
Phantom Thief Neon’s weapon is in the form of trump cards.
Although he declared that he doesn’t hurt people or fight for no reason, Goo Seulbi doesn’t trust him.
Those words were the same thing her parents would tell her after all.
They’d say they wouldn’t hurt her if she was nice, but they end up picking on the littlest thing that she did, and she’d end up beaten.
Goo Seulbi immediately raised her guard as soon as she saw Phantom Thief Neon take out his weapon.
If he dared to do anything harsh, she would attack him too.
Whirl!
Phantom Thief Neon shuffled the trump cards with his gloved hands.
He quickly shuffled the cards in the air and produced a trump card between his index and middle finger with a grand hand movement.
“Greatness and wonder shine more when decorated properly.”
Fwaa!
She was briefly distracted by his card skills when the ace of spades suddenly exploded before her eyes.
The exploded card had turned into a pure white rose.
Neon inserted the white rose in the gap of the oak mask worn by Goo Seulbi.
“I, unfortunately, don’t have an oak flower, but it looks much better now!”
Everything he said and did was quite cheesy, but Goo Seulbi admits that the sudden magic show and the white rose were a little cool.
She would’ve said it out loud if not for his last remark.
“You can only be a true thief when both your inside and outside are beautiful.”
His thief talks again.
Tired of his nonsense, Goo Seulbi snapped.
“I told you I’m not a thief!”
“You don’t need to deny it. You can be a great thief like me!”
Grrr…!
An enemy approached while the two were having a meaningless exchange.
It seemed to have approached them because it sensed energy waves from Phantom Thief Neon.
“See, now enemies are coming because you used energy waves. Why the hell did you pull off this sudden magic show for a white rose?!”
“A thief’s infiltration must be stealthy, but I just had to teach you elegance and style.”
“I’m not a thief! I’m a great and wonderful druidess!”
A few more enemies continued to approach while the two bickered.
Its rarity didn’t seem to be very high, but it wasn’t small.
Even so, the two didn’t look flustered.
They were confident enough to infiltrate the Demon Race’s castle, this was something they know they can handle.
“I’ll show you how great of a druidess I am.”
Goo Seulbi wielded her oak stick.
Energy waves spurted as Goo Seulbi drew a magic circle on the floor with the stick.
At the center of the magic circle, Goo Seulbi stood as she endured the pressure from the energy waves.
“I’ll show you a magic that your petty card tricks can’t compare to!”
In Goo Seulbi’s mind, the spells taught by Merlin himself were developing rapidly.
The basic process of casting a magic circle has three stages.
First, understanding mana.
Second, use a rod or a cane as the medium to materialize that mana.
Third, changing the flow of mana using energy waves.
At the end of this casting process, it was common for the wizard to shout a spell, but the magic of druids and druidesses was different.
“No spell? There’s magic like that?!”
Phantom Thief Neon shouted in shock.
While the skills of druids and druidesses are said to be handed down exclusively through oral tradition, the completion of a magic spell required the creation of sophisticated lines, not verbal spells.
Their magic was powerful yet difficult to master.
Fwaaa..!
A huge tree appeared with a fierce light in the magic circle created by Goo Seulbi.
When the enemies grazed the seeds of light from the tree, they gradually melted away.
The seeds of light felt warm on Goo Seulbi and Neon’s skin, but it didn’t cause them any damage.
Phantom Thief Neon admired the skill as he witnessed the enemies melting away with not even a single scream.
“So this is the magic of druids…! Amazing, but it’s not enough to be a thief.”
“How many times do I have to tell you — I’m not a thief! I showed you the great magic of a druidess and you’re still saying that?”
“I’ll take care of the next enemy myself. I’ll show you the power of a real card magic show.”
“Are you just pretending you don’t understand? You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you?”
While Phantom Thief Neon and Goo Seulbi continued bickering…
They suddenly felt a chill.
They felt a heavy pressure comparable to the feeling when one enters an otherworld.
“What is this…?!”
“Something’s coming. Stay on guard.”
Goo Seulbi prepared to cast the most powerful magic spell she knows, and Phantom Thief Neon wielded a card in his hand.
Meanwhile, the pressure continued to grow when…
Screech!
In a moment, the wall began to move.
Looking at the source of the sound, they saw a pulley lifting the wall with a roar.
Each time the wall was lifted, the pressure on them increased.
“Cover your eyes!”
Someone wearing a crow mask blocked the two people.
