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Having walked all around the city, Mira fell asleep in an instant. The next morning, the day on which Fuzzy Dice had scheduled his heist, she woke up feeling refreshed, and quickly got ready.

She had agreed to meet with the detective at 6pm, so she still had around ten hours.

She completed her morning routine faster than usual before going out to the streets, ready to carry out the plan she had in her mind…

「What’s… happening here…」

…Only to freeze in shock the moment she saw the state of the streets.

It was like the whole city had changed, with almost all stores offering large discounts, fans crowding the streets, and overall showing Fuzzy Dice’s popularity even more. It was no exaggeration to say it was like a local festival.

Everything Mira had experienced so far had only been a prelude to the true magnitude of things, like they were only rehearsing for the main day.

She began walking along the street, flabbergasted by how different things were.

Every shop she saw was welcoming Fuzzy Dice with sales and discounts. And that went for the numerous street food carts as well. But more noticeable were the droves of fans crowding everywhere she lay her eyes on.

Their excitement for Fuzzy Dice’s arrival was palpable.

「He really has an immense amount of influence.」 Mira muttered that as she watched the state of the streets, feeling like it was a bit excessive.

The thief’s current target owned a trading company with a lot of influence in the city. That meant there were many stores with ties to it too, so its downfall would lead to losses for many.

But somehow everyone seemed to welcome the thief, so Mira began to question if the Doles Company really was as influential as she had heard.

As she pondered about that, she spotted a familiar face amongst the crowd in the street.

「Thank you for your service.」

Mira ran up to him and greeted the soldier leader she had met at Haxthausen’s main gate before. He was accompanied with his unit, and they were all patrolling the streets, as trouble often sparked amongst large crowds like that.

「Ohh, if it isn’t the Spirit Queen. How are you liking the city?」

The soldier leader turned around and his face quickly softened into a smile the moment he recognized Mira. The soldiers following him also did the same, pleased to see Mira.

「It’s quite nice here.」

Mira replied, and then added, 「By the way,」 and asked about the detail she had noticed with the shops. In response, the soldier leader went 「Ahh, that…」 and then grimaced a little before replying. Apparently that was a common occurrence when Fuzzy Dice got involved as of late.

His arrival had started being heralded by such a festival for a few years already. But before that, even if there were fans gathering in the cities, not many businesses got involved.

That was until a certain high profile company became the target of Fuzzy Dice.

That company already had a pretty bad reputation, and when it became known that they received a letter from Fuzzy Dice, the bad rumors became even more commonplace.

And then, another company that stood as a rival, took that opportunity to create a big event with sales and discounts to welcome the thief.

The company being targeted did not take that sitting down, sending the stores under its wing to protest and deny the accusations.

But in the end, just as the rumors expected, that company was revealed to be embroiled in all sorts of corruption and crimes, followed by swift action by the authorities, and they were wiped from the city.

The main company was not the only one suffering that time, as many other stores and people who protested against the events welcoming the thief were also found to be guilty, and fell together with the big one.

And so it became known that any person or business that spoke against the thief had something to hide.

Word of that spread through the entire country, leading to even more people being investigated, and surely enough they were guilty as well, and they were taken away.

At the same time, the business that did participate in the event to welcome the thief became more established and flourished.

That precedent was combined with the fact that Fuzzy Dice only targeted evil people, so now whenever the thief sent out a letter, everyone tried to display their support and welcomed him as a way to demonstrate that they were not related to the target.

「But well, that’s the gist of it. Though there’s still plenty of people who are genuinely welcoming him. Either way, it always gets crowded and festive like this, and stores get a chance to sell a lot more.」

After explaining that much, the soldier added with a troubled look, 「Though sometimes businesses simply don’t want to offer discounts, and then they’re immediately branded as criminals so it gets a bit extreme.」

「I see… That does sound rather troublesome.」 Mira was a bit shocked to learn the story behind the festival unfolding in front of her, but also baffled by how much influence Fuzzy Dice had.

It was true that everyone Fuzzy Dice had targeted was rotten to the core, but there was always the possibility that there were still honest people with ties to them.

But in the end, the evidence would reveal who was corrupt and who was not, and if Fuzzy Dice would prompt everyone to discount prices, then that was something Mira would benefit from a lot.

With all that being said, Mira thanked the soldier leader for telling her all of that, and then she went back on her way, walking around the city to get everything ready.

Before long she began to feel hungry, so she went into a nearby restaurant that was also participating in the festival, and she ordered a special lunch set at a discount, which consisted of a large piece of high quality meat, Danish pastry, potage, a varied salad, and a fancy cake for dessert.

「Thank you for the meal, Fuzzy Dice!」

Such a menu could only be found in a fancy restaurant, and the taste was far superior than the price tag of 1000 Rils would suggest. Mira knew that the restaurant was serving that at a huge loss, but she still stuffed her cheeks with the cake unbothered, and left satisfied with her lunch.

With a full stomach, she was able to focus on getting things ready again, which went smoothly until around 3pm, and she had everything in place.

There were three hours left before her meeting with the detective, and four hours left before the heist.

「Well then… I might as well give it a test run.」 She wanted to verify whether the plan she had thought up the day before would work, so she decided to give it a test.

Her plan consisted on placing various lookouts all over the city, which were the Valkyrie and Korpokkur Sisters, Cait Sith, Worthramble, Undine, Gnomid, and Sylphid.

The last three elemental spirits could not speak, but they could pass on information through the Spirit King, who was joined by Martel, both of whom were excited to be part of the plan and would not lose sight of the thief.