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「Ten, nine, eight, seven..!」 Shortly after the detective wrapped up, the crowd in the street started chanting.

「Hm? Ah… It’s already time.」 For a moment, Mira felt like she had been teleported to a new year’s celebration, but quickly figured out what was happening by looking at the clock.

There were only a few seconds left before 6pm, and the crowd outside were counting down the time before Fuzzy Dice would begin his heist. The moment they reached zero, the cheering in the street became even louder.

「They seem to be having a great time out there.」

Their voices were so loud that they were clearly audible inside the shop. That made Nina stand up and go look out of the window, and was left a bit taken aback by what she saw.

Considering everything the detective had just told them, the fans out there had been idolizing Fuzzy Dice the longest, so there’s a certain cohesion to their frenzy. Their cheering is surprisingly rhythmical, even though at first sight they just look like a crowd of crazy fangirls.

「We’ll really have to work hard then.」
「So this is how loud they get… I wasn’t expecting that.」

Nina and her sisters had to act like the other fans to blend in with them. Essentially, they had to behave the same way as the most devoted fans. And when Mina and Nana also looked out of the window, their faces turned sour, not having expected things to be so heated, and dreading having to act like that.

While all of them observed the fans outside, the sound of a bell rang in the shop. That was a notification on the device the detective was carrying.

「He has appeared.」 The detective muttered that, reading the message relayed by Julius all the way from the Doles Company’s mansion. As usual, Fuzzy Dice had arrived by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

「I wonder how many minutes it’ll take this time.」 Saying that, he took out a watch from his pocket and waited. He wanted to see how long it would take Fuzzy Dice to defeat the Doles Company, only wondering about the time, as he had full confidence that the heist would be successful. Then again, his whole plan revolved around the heist going without a hitch, which also showed how much he believed in the thief’s abilities.

「How long does he usually take?」 Mira also did not doubt the thief’s success after all the stories she had heard. So she also got curious about the time, and asked that after taking one last bite of bavarois.

「Hmm, let me see, on average I’d say he takes around ten minutes. And I’ve never seen him take longer than fifteen.」 The detective skimmed through his notepad as he replied. He had written down most of the times he had seen there.

(Less than fifteen minutes, huh… Somehow that’s more than I expected.)

Mira recalled how fortified she had seen the mansion. The guards were all heavily armed, but there had not been anyone who looked capable of resisting the sleep induced by Fuzzy Dice. And even if some of them had prepared tools or medicine to stay awake, she knew Fuzzy Dice would have a backup plan or two.

She herself felt like she could defeat all the guards in less than five minutes when directly confronting them, and it should take even less by making them sleep, making it almost instantaneous.

While Mira continued thinking about it by using herself as a comparison, the detective seemed to read her thoughts, smiling a bit before raising his voice.

「By the way, this time is how long it takes him to do everything at the mansion. The process of knocking everyone out is much faster.」

He had been unable to glean that Mira felt like she could do it faster, but he had still cleared up the biggest doubt in her mind. And after a short pause, he spoke in more detail about it.

Most of the fifteen minutes were not spent in fending off the guards and rendering them powerless, but in searching for the evidence and bringing it out. That initial step only took three minutes at most, and after that he had to crack safes, search for hidden rooms, and so on.

「I see, that makes more sense.」

Three minutes made a lot more sense for Mira too, as no matter how tight the defenses were, they all would be unable to do anything against the sleeping mist. The detective had fallen into his talkative mood again, so he just went on with more details.

The guards all knew about the sleeping mist by now, so it was common for them to prepare all sorts of potions, Magic Wares, equipment with enchantments to resist sleep, and so on. But somehow Fuzzy Dice seemed to always know all of that beforehand and would have a way to deal with everything.

One time they obtained clothes that would keep the wearer awake no matter what from the Dinowal store, but somehow by the time they were worn, their contents had been swapped with somniferous materials, leading to the opposite result they were hoping for. And every time someone tried to raise their sleep resistance through magic, it would not be enough and they would get knocked out all the same, with the only difference that they would wake up faster.

Many had tried all sorts of Magic Wares too, but most of them ended up being useless. When it came to enchanted equipment, however, things were a bit different.

「That ended up in a disaster though…」 The detective recalled that time with a sour look, then after a shrug, he briefly summed up what had happened. In short, everyone there was left buck naked, regardless of their age or gender.

At first, they had believed their equipment had kept them awake through Fuzzy Dice’s mist, but before they realized, all their clothes and equipment began to decay and break down.

「I’ve heard of Sacred Beasts with the ability to erode away clothes and metals, but I don’t know if that can be recreated through Forbidden Arts. Still, I’m convinced that the mist that day had that effect added on top of the sleep inducing one.」