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They watched as the light of the guard who had picked up the coin vanished behind a warehouse.

「Umm, I’ll provide the next one, alright?」

Sasori took out two silver coins from her pouch with shaky hands and handed them to Mira as she spoke in a kind voice. Mira nodded softly in reply.

Sasori looked around to make sure no other guards were around, then placed one coin below the lamp.

Now they only had to raise the attention of someone inside the warehouse before the next patrol passed there. When whoever opened the door saw the coin, they would go pick it up and Mira’s group would enter the building. They had already verified the effectiveness of that method with the guard that passed earlier.

Sasori walked to the door and looked around one last time. Listening more closely, she could hear lively voices coming from inside the warehouse, they were too muffled to really understand words, but they sounded quite entertained.

「Alright… I’ll knock then! I’m going to knock okay!」

Sasori raised her knuckles ready to knock and spoke to Mira, who stood still staring at the coin under the light. Somehow she had still not fully processed what had happened.

「Miraa, heyy, I’m gonna knock~」

With no other options left, Sasori gently shook Mira’s shoulder and spoke directly into her ear. That seemed to finally bring Mira back as she slowly turned around and nodded, though her face still looked sullen.

With no guards in sight, Sasori momentarily stepped out of the protection of Complete Suppression and knocked twice on the door.
There was an almost immediate response. The voices inside went quiet, which prompted Sasori to knock again, this time slower but more loudly.

「Who was that? Is someone out there?」

A curious voice rang from inside the building. The first step of the plan had worked perfectly. Hearing that, Sasori quickly returned to the concealing area and the three waited on the sides of the door.

「Go look.」
「Nah, that sounds like pain, you check who it is.」

The four guards inside began discussing who should open the door. At the same time, a soft glow appeared from one corner of the building. That meant another patrol was getting closer.

(They’re supposed to be guards but they don’t seem worried in the least!)

Usually careless guards were a godsend for Mira when infiltrating somewhere, but this time it became her strongest foe. Knowing the second coin might get taken as well, she started feeling restless.

But then 「You’re the closest to the door, you go」 came from inside, the guards deciding who was checking. The incoming guard was getting dangerously close and would turn the corner soon.

「Huh, there’s no one here.」

The door opened in time and a guard looked outside. Now they had to wait from a distance until he noticed the coin. Considering how close the patrol was, if it took a second too much everything would fall apart as both would notice it at the same time.

The man stuck his head out from a gap in the door and looked to the sides, looking straight at Mira and Sasori who were next to the door, but he did not notice them as they were hidden under Worthramble’s magic.

「Ohh?」

The guard raised his voice and opened the door wide, trotting out towards the street lamp. He had spotted the coin faster than the patrol.

「Now’s our chance, let’s go.」
「Yeah!」

Not wasting a moment, Mira and Sasori quickly passed through the door, successfully infiltrating the warehouse.

「Ugh, it’s so bright here.」

The building had a stone floor, and the center had a rectangular hole with stairs leading underground. Just like they had guessed, there was nothing inside that resembled a warehouse, but even then it had three more guards stationed inside.
On top of that, even though it was late at night, the entire place was as bright as during daytime.

「Hey, what are you doing?」

Everyone turned around hearing the voice outside, the patrol was talking to the warehouse guard.

He was probably wondering why the guard had left the building.

The response was truthful, he had seen a coin on the ground. Hearing that, the patrol put his hand inside his pocket pretending to look for something.

「Ahh, thanks for finding it. I lost it a while back.」

Saying that, he half forcefully took the silver coin from the other guard’s hand. Walking away, he muttered 「tonight’s been fruitful」 under his breath.

「Don’t lie you little weasel! That was mine!」
「I’m pretty sure I provided that coin…」

Knowing she could abuse Complete Suppression, Mira yelled angrily at the patrol, then Sasori corrected her in a low voice.

Meanwhile the guard stared at the patrol in annoyance. Since he was patrolling that area it was possible he had dropped the coin, but the guard knew that that specific patrol was a big gambler, and had lost everything he had a while back, so it was very unlikely he possessed a silver coin, not to mention a 100 Rils.

But the guard could not really complain, given he was outranked.

「Hahh, I swear. Anyway, there was no one out here, maybe it was just the wind or some stupid bird.」

The guard returned into the building, slamming the door behind him in a foul mood and locking it while clicking his tongue.

「Well, that happens sometimes. Still, that was pretty sad out there.」

The other guards had heard the whole exchange, so one of them tried to sympathize with him, the other two said similar things in half mocking tones.

「I wish that stupid gambler would become homeless already.」

The guard said in displeasure and threw himself onto a chair in a corner of the room. 「Hopefully yeah」 the others said as they returned to their own posts.

There were chairs in each of the corners of the building, where the guards would sit and pass the time reading books and looking bored. They seemed hungry for any type of distraction to pass the time.

None of them had noticed the intruders at all. Mira looked satisfied at that, and then noticed a spherical object hung from the center of the ceiling. At first glance it looked like a simple light emitting orb.

(I can sense a light spirit’s power inside that thing.)

The entire warehouse was illuminated without a single spot shrouded in shadows. Mira had seen something similar in a light spirit’s power, so she stared at the orb that replicated it. But she also realized she was more convinced about a spirit’s presence than usual.

The circumstantial evidence pointed to a spirit of light, but something in her mind told her about its presence the instant she lay eyes on the orb. It was an ambiguous feeling like intuition, but somehow Mira’s mind firmly believed in it.

This was the first time Mira was feeling like this, as if a sixth sense had awoken inside her. And she knew it was a sense specific for spirits.

(For some reason I feel much closer to spirits than before… I wonder if the Spirit King’s blessing had anything to do with this?)