They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 81 The Magician's Apprentice

"It looks pretty good. Did you make it yourself?"

Ria looked at the cookies on the plate: "How much?"

“Two Schwarzs can buy a pack, sir.”

The boy wiped his face with the back of his hand. His face was dirty, but his hands were clean and his nails were neatly trimmed, as if he was afraid of leaving a bad impression on the guests.

"Then, I'll buy two packs of cookies."

With one hand holding his cane, Ria took four Swaals from his pocket and handed them to the boy. The boy took the money and left. As he turned his back to Ria, he heard him politely thank him.

hiss--

The boy's laughter was almost contorted.

He not only had four Schwarzs in his hand, but also a wallet he had stolen while Ria wasn't looking. No one saw when he did it. If such a method could be seen clearly, then he wouldn't deserve to be called a thief.

The boy hurried to the back of a nearby house and showed off his spoils to a group of children.

"Look, I stole the wallet of a pretentious fool. People these days are so stupid, they don't even realize their wallets are missing."

You wouldn't believe it, but when I gave him the wrapped-up expired food just now, he actually thanked me! Hahaha, it was absolutely hilarious.

How can someone pay money and then thank others?

The boy continued to laugh, unaware that his companions were looking at him with increasingly strange expressions.

Finally, a chubby boy stepped forward, veins bulging on his forehead: "Bart, why are you holding my wallet?!"

"What?" Bart was stunned. He looked at the wallet in his hand and found that it did look unfamiliar. But his fat companion said that he had just stolen it and then it disappeared in the blink of an eye. Now it was in Bart's hand.

"You stole my new wallet!"

"impossible!"

Bart shook his head repeatedly, his brow furrowed so deeply it could trap a fly. "I stole the wallet of the man with the monocle. I'm certain I took it from his pocket."

"You dare to lie?" The fat boy raised his fist to hit him, but Bart couldn't beat him and quickly gave up.

"I'll give your wallet back, please don't hit me!"

“It’s too late!!!”

Just as the chubby boy's fist was about to smash into his face, Bart quickly reacted—

"Could it be that he stole your wallet? Yes, that must be it. I helped you find your wallet, and they can all testify that I didn't even come near you over there. You have no reason to keep hitting me."

"Really?" The chubby boy stopped punching and turned to look at the other children. The other children nodded, but one child with freckles hesitated to look up.

After a long pause, he stammered, "I stole this wallet."

The child next to him touched his pocket, and an extreme panic welled up inside him: "This wallet seems to be... mine."

"Wait, where's the wallet I stole?"

"My...my wallet too!?"

"..."

Four or five children reported that their wallets were missing, and that the wallets looked somewhat like the one they had stolen.

Now, everyone fell into an eerie silence.

"What on earth is going on? Have we seen a ghost?"

Bart unconsciously started biting his nails, making them even shorter than they were to begin with.

An absurd thought popped into his mind.

Could all of this have been done by that man… that man in the top hat with the cane? He watched as a thief snatched a wallet, then approached the thief and stole the wallet, putting it in someone else's pocket, watching as the next thief would strike that person, stealing his wallet, and so on.

"But why would he do that? It doesn't make sense."

"And it's simply impossible to do; even Bianca, the best thief among us, couldn't do it."

Bart comforted himself, telling himself not to overthink things, that maybe the wallets everyone stole just looked the same.

No, it's no longer a question of whether they look alike or not.

The key point is that their actions have been discovered, and that person is manipulating them like a cat watching mice.

"We can't steal anymore today, let's run! This situation is definitely not normal, it's haunted."

“But if we only steal this one wallet, John will definitely punish us and not give us anything to eat.”

"You'd better not call him that in front of him, and besides, there are still cookies here, aren't there?"

Bart pointed to the iron plate in his arms. The fat boy grabbed a handful, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed. Soon, he spat it all onto the ground with a "pui pui pui" sound.

"This is awful. I'd rather eat dirt than eat this."

"If you're new here and don't like it, there's nothing I can do." Bart ignored the fat boy's anger, looked at the dark mountains in the distance, and felt a sense of apprehension.

This group actually wanted to leave Grani and approach Mount Gekoso, even though those who rode steam monsters to the other side of the mountain had never returned.

John the Dead said that the children's idea of ​​running away from him into the mountains was a complete joke.

Monsters roam the mountains and will kill people mercilessly.

It swallowed up train after train, and Bart couldn't understand why people would still go near it.

They were all orphans.

They only need to steal some good things for Dead John every day to have enough to eat and a place to live, while the children who can't steal anything will go hungry and be beaten.

The child who steals the most gets a reward: a few Swarths to buy whatever they like. Bart himself was lucky enough to buy a fish.

The fish from Granny's fishmonger was known for its delicious taste, but unfortunately, before he could even eat it, Dead John snatched it away, saying that an unwanted child like him didn't deserve to eat meat, and he cooked soup for himself.

"My only hope is that the old man dies," Bart thought to himself with a gloomy face. At that moment, the surroundings suddenly fell silent, eerily quiet.

This is unusual for his usually chatty friends.

Bart felt something poke his back. He turned around and saw the man who had bought the cookies earlier standing in front of him, slowly putting down his cane and smiling.

Excuse me, is today's train delayed? Why hasn't it arrived yet?

The cold wind blew across all their exposed skin, and at that moment, everyone knew that their skin must be covered in goosebumps.

Bart reacted the most; he yelled "Monster!" and ran away, scattering the cookies from the metal tray all over the floor.

As Liya watched his figure with a puzzled expression, she casually grabbed his arm.

"Would asking for the time really scare people like this now?"

"You...you stay away! This is a place sheltered by the sun. I don't know how you managed to steal their wallets again. I was forced into it. If you want revenge, go find John, don't come after us!"

"John?"

Ria released her grip, trying to keep her expression harmless: "You've misunderstood, this was all part of our game."

"As you can see, I am an apprentice magician who is currently looking for people to perform magic tricks. I really didn't mean to scare you."

Today is actually little Swarth's birthday! Let's pluck a hair to celebrate!

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(End of this chapter)