Author's note: I'm trying out changing "Big Boss" to just "Boss" cause it feels more natural to me.

Claire stormed down the crowded hall, her loud footsteps drowned out among the clamor. There were so many thoughts going through her head that she couldn't think straight, so she just continued wordlessly towards the interrogation room. Once she reached it, she slammed the door open and stood in front of the suspects, glaring at them.

"Claire-sama, I know how you're feeling, but during times like this we need to remain composed for the dignity of the royal family," Rain chided as she closed the door behind Claire.

"Times like this? Tell me exactly when, in the history of this kingdom, something like this has ever happened before!" Claire retorted aggressively, without taking her eyes off the three girls currently seated at the table before her.

Aqua, an Archpriest of the Axis Cult. Megumin, an Archiwizard of the Crimson Demon Clan. And Lalatina, a Crusader and the heiress of the esteemed Dustiness family.

These three were party members of the wanted criminal Satou Kazuma, who just last night invaded the castle with his partner, defeating knights and adventurers and stealing priceless items from Princess Iris herself. This is certainly not the first time a thief has targeted the castle, but none before had ever done so in such an audacious and flashy manner, and succeeded. And neither had anyone ever directly stolen an item off of a royal person.

This incident threatens the reputation of the royal family and its power, and the culprits must be punished.

After sorting her thoughts out, Claire stepped closer to the table. "To start with, none of you were implicit in Satou Kazuma's theft last night, nor were you aware of any plans to carry out such an operation. Is this correct?"

"Yes." x3

The lie-detecting bell that sat on the table remained silent. Claire expected as much, but she still had plenty more questions to ask.

She turned to Lalatina. "Lady Dustiness, how long have you known Satou Kazuma?"

The Crusader grimaced. "Claire, please believe me, Kazuma wouldn't do something like this without a good reason, so–"

Claire slammed the table, causing the bell to jump a bit. "This is a matter of national security! What 'good reason' could he possibly have to commit such an atrocious crime!?"

"U-Um, I might know..." Megumin raised her voice. Claire turned to her.

"Do you, now?"

"The necklace that Kazuma stole was actually a divine relic. It allows two people to temporarily exchange bodies. He must've thought it was dangerous for some reason, and decided to take it."

"If he thought so, he should've informed me or Rain directly! That said, why is this the first I'm hearing about this divine relic!? How do you even know such a thing!?"

Megumin gulped. "Well, um... when Kazuma, Iris and I were in private, we accidentally activated the relic, and we kept it a secret because we thought it would be bad if people knew about it."

Claire stumbled backwards in shock. "Iris-sama... kept a secret from me? To think that she no longer places her full trust in me... oh, Iris-sama, where did I go wrong..."

Seeing that Claire had lost her momentum, Rain stepped forward to continue the interrogation. "Still, that doesn't change the fact that a dangerous divine relic is now unaccounted for."

Aqua smiled and puffed out her chest. "You don't have to worry about that! I sealed that relic before they could escape with it! It's completely unusable now!"

Rain glanced at the bell, but it remained silent. She let out a sigh of relief. "Well, you have our thanks for that, Aqua-dono."

Aqua nodded. "Yeah, so since the dangerous item was neutralized, we can just put all this behind us, right?"

Rain shook her head.

"You must understand, even supposing that Kazuma-dono did do it for Iris-sama's sake, his methods were inexcusable. More importantly, news of this incident has already spread throughout the capital. Soon, everyone in the kingdom will know Satou Kazuma as the man who conquered the royal castle. If we were to pardon him after what he did, it would set a very dangerous precedent."

"But–"

"Stop it, Aqua." Lalatina cut off her companion. "At this point, Kazuma's not going to get out of this mess he's made. The best outcome now is for him to not be executed."

She turned to look at Rain. "If we can prove that Kazuma acted in good faith, can we spare him the death penalty?"

Rain seemed taken aback. "Um... I think you'll have to talk to our legal experts for that... but if possible, I don't really want Kazuma-dono to die either, since Iris-sama would be sad... a-anyway, one last question. Do you have any idea who Kazuma-dono's partner was? The silver-haired man that Kazuma-dono referred to as 'Boss.' It must be someone you know, right?"

"No idea." x2

"..."

Rain turned to the one that didn't answer. "Lalatina-sama? Do you know who the silver-haired man might be?"

"... I... do not know any silver-haired men..."

While her nervousness made Rain suspicious, the bell didn't ring.

"... well, let's leave it at that then. I think that's all for today. Anything else, Claire-sama?"

"Iris-sama... I can do better, Iris-sama, I promise..."

"Yes, we'll take our leave now. You ladies are free to go, but please stay within the capital for the time being."

Rain bowed her head, then grabbed the despondent Claire's wrist and dragged her away, leaving the door unlocked behind her.

Megumin leaned back in her chair. "You know... Kazuma was extremely cool last night. Maybe being a chivalrous thief suits him better than being an adventurer. What do you think, Darkness?"

Lalatina, or Darkness as she prefers to be called, groaned. "Cool or not, this is a nightmare. What could have happened that made him do something so drastic?"

Aqua pouted. "I just can't believe he would leave us out of the loop like that. What happened to us being a team!? Well, I say good riddance! I'm not going to miss him at all!"

Ring

"Boss, are we there yet? My feet hurt. I'm hungry."

"Geez, why're you being such a pain? What happened to that resolve from last night?"

"Well you said all those cool words about fighting from the shadows, but we've just been walking nonstop since then, and now it's almost noon."

"It can't be helped. The capital is completely locked down, no teleportation or carriages, so the only way out is on foot. We've still got a long way to go until we reach Axel, you know, and if we go too slow, a search party might catch up to us."

"Yeah, but can't we just take a break? I swear I'm gonna collapse soon."

"... fine. Let's sit under that tree and eat."

I collapsed to the ground as soon as I entered the shade. It's not that I'm in bad shape, you know. It's just that I haven't slept in over 24 hours now. Sure, I've done all-nighters on my MMO's back in Japan, but it's different if you're telling me to run a marathon after staying up all night.

"Boss is the weird one for not being tired..."

"Ah, that's because I slept during the day yesterday. It's best to be fully rested for a night raid, you know?"

"... so you're saying my NEET lifestyle of gaming all night and then sleeping all day has prepared me for this life."

"It feels like I'll lose something important if I agree with you on that. Here, eat up."

Chris handed me some dried meat from her pack. It's standard fare for adventurers that want to travel light. It's not the most appetizing, but it's all we have at the moment. Normally adventurers would supplement it with anything they could hunt or forage, but we don't have the time for that right now.

We need to reach Axel so we can gather supplies before we start looking for a base to hide out in. I'm sure knights from the castle have already teleported to Axel and raided my mansion, but I have a couple secret stashes they might not have found, and Chris says she has some stuff hidden away too.

Oh yeah, speaking of valuables...

I rooted around in my pocket and pulled out a small object. "Say, Boss, do you know what this ring is? I ended up with it when I used Steal on Iris."

Chris swallowed another bite of food and leaned in close to study the ring. Actually, she was leaning in really close...

"Hmmm... it seems valuable, but I don't sense any magic. Maybe it's an important keepsake for the princess... mm? What's wrong, Assistant-kun?"

"N-Nothing." I turned away and started chewing on my own rations. I didn't realize Chris was this nonchalant when it comes to personal space.

I tried focusing on my food instead. The taste wasn't terrible... at least, compared to the beef jerky I ate back on Earth. But after all the delicious fresh food I've been able to eat since coming to this world, this dried, salted meat was practically flavorless in comparison. I let out a sigh.

"Man, being a wanted criminal blows. Forget the royal palace's food, I won't even be able to eat those fried frog legs at the tavern anymore."

Chris grinned. "Trust me, you can get anything if you know where to look. That includes good food."

After finishing off her food, Chris stood up and stretched.

"Welp, ready to get going again? The sooner we get there, the sooner we can stop living like goblins."

I groaned as I pulled myself to my feet. "You'd better get me the fanciest bed they have on the black market."

"I'll add it to the list."

Several days later, at 3 in the morning

Using my Farsight skill, I carefully observed my mansion. Although, I assume it isn't legally my mansion anymore. Most likely, knights from the capital have already taken the teleport service here and searched the place.

"I don't see anyone around, but we're too far away for Enemy Detection."

Chris nodded. "So, what are we getting? You said you had a stash of something here?"

"Two stashes. One of them is my emergency cash, and the other is... some special items. They're both hidden in my bedroom."

Hopefully they haven't been found yet. I'm actually pretty confident in how I hid them, but you never know.

The money isn't a very large amount, but it's better than nothing. More importantly, I must stop my special items... my prototype inventions, from being found at any cost. Aside from the fact that someone else might develop and profit from them, there are a few that are... well, let's just say that they would tarnish the reputation of the chivalrous thieves.

Oh yeah, speaking of money, I'll need to figure out a way to contact Vanir. If our business deal is still valid, then I won't have any money problems at all in the near future. But that comes later.

I pointed at my bedroom window. "It's up there, on the second floor."

Chris nodded as she donned her mask. "Make it quick. I'll keep watch from back here. If you run into trouble, just call."

"Got it."

Using my Lurk skill, I blended into the shadows being cast across the ground by the clouds and silently moved to the mansion's front door. I tested the key I still had on me. Luckily, it doesn't seem that they've sent a locksmith here yet.

... or maybe that's what they want me to think. Before I opened the door, I used Detect Traps just in case. Sure enough, something was set to trigger the moment the door was pulled open.

"Tch, these guys were thorough. They probably got the other doors too."

I stepped back and looked at my bedroom window. I looked as hard as I could, but it still seemed dark and unoccupied.

"I guess I'll have to go in that way."

I took out my bow and shot a grapple arrow up to the roof, then climbed up to my window. I used Enemy Detection and Detect Traps, but thankfully it seemed the room was clear. The window was locked, naturally, so I used a combo of Freeze and then Tinder to break the glass, then let myself in.

I looked around. It was only for a few months that I called this room my own, but it feels like a lifetime already.

And now I'll have to say goodbye.

Letting out a sigh, I started moving towards my money stash—

SLAM

The bedroom door flew open, and a white-suited female knight burst in, sword in hand.

"So you've shown yourself, Kazuma!"

She immediately threw a magic item behind her, and it linked with two other items that were hidden in the room, forming a triangular barrier that encased us both.

Dammit, so Claire was here. I'm curious how she fooled my detection skills, but I've got bigger things to worry about right now.

Claire narrowed her eyes. "We didn't find anything significant when we searched this room, but since you came here there must be something important here after all. Is that right?"

I didn't respond to Claire, and instead donned my mask as I worked out my next move.

Claire tightened her grip on her sword in response. "Listen up. This barrier was created by the Crimson Demon Clan and is completely impervious to attacks, and it can last up to a month! You can't escape, but if you come in quietly and convince your accomplice to do the same, you *might not be executed, so just give yourself up now!"

Who in their right mind would accept that condition? That aside, Chris's presence doesn't seem to have been discovered yet, so I'll need to be strategic about calling for her help or she'll lose the element of surprise.

Also, something doesn't add up here.

"You said this barrier was impervious, but you weren't planning to stay in here with me for a month, were you?"

Claire averted her eyes, but she didn't respond to my question. I'm guessing there is a way to break this barrier, and she'll use it after subduing me. Come to think of it, Sylvia had a barrier killer magic item, didn't she? It wouldn't surprise me if the royal castle had access to something similar.

In that case–

"STEAL!"

"You– hyaa!?"

... white today, too. I doubt this will be able to break any barriers, but I think I'll hold on to it anyway.

Now that I think about it, Claire would know I have Steal, so she wouldn't bring a barrier killing item in here where I could reach it. She probably has someone else on the outside holding it.

"Y-You fiend... kuh, this is nothing! You're not going to leave this barrier until I subdue you!"

Claire's figure suddenly blurred as she lunged at me.