Klein conjured another white bird mask and walked over towards the shield-wall with a new black cane in his hand. The closer he got, the more Rufus coughed, sneezed, choked and vomited… Aside from the torn open eye that was bleeding everywhere, his other eye was also crying blood. Along with both his ears.

“You… Blech~! It-you! *Cough~! Hack~!* Plague!”

Rufus couldn’t even breathe properly, not to mention speaking coherently. Klein reached out with his cane and pulled down one of the wooden shields that was in the way. Those tinted goggles were impossible to see through in the daytime, not to mention the middle of the night. The lights from people’s porches, windows and flashlights or lanterns reflected off the shiny silver armor, but the Plague Doctor’s pitch black robe cloaked him in darkness.

“I’m not happy. You disgusting piece of shit. I’m pissed off because I was so damn stupid and naive.”

He pulled out a bottle of alcohol and started pouring it all over the heavily armored Bodyguard again. This time Rufus couldn’t even control his bowels and bladder, so he obviously had no strength to fight back or struggle anymore. Klein tossed another bedsheet, then another, finally he even threw a whole quilt covered in rubbing alcohol onto the collapsed ‘knight’. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a lit match onto the pile.

“Aaaaaaaah~!” With his last breath, all Rufus could do was scream in agony for a few seconds.

“Klein! Uncle Klein! Help! My Mom! Please!”

“Alright! Don’t move her body! Keep pressure on the wound and don’t take the arrow out! I’m coming up!”

Klein didn’t have time to savor his ‘victory’ for even a moment, because he had patients to treat. Not only was Forest’s mother on the verge of death and in need of emergency attention, one of the twins that were delivered not long ago had gotten a mild fever, then he had to help someone who fell down the stairs from panicking earlier… In a village of less than a hundred people, he still struggled so much. Thankfully he had Ivy as an apprentice and she could still handle a lot of the simpler treatments.

***

While the village was a little chaotic, a black-cloaked figure climbed up to Oliver’s open bedroom window and slipped inside easily. However, they stopped suddenly and trembled, looking down at the familiar scene on the bed. Those bright green eyes behind the black mask saw the statue of a tall, skinny girl laying next to a significantly shorter but wider boy. No, he looked like a full grown man now.

Even with all the screaming, dogs barking and other noises outside, the two people on the bed were able to sleep peacefully. The thief quietly sneaked out of the bedroom and closed the door silently. Then they went across the hallway to the old master bedroom… Unfortunately, the bronze knob wouldn’t twist. So they had to pull out some small tools and start lockpicking. It only took a few seconds before they unlocked the door and sneaked inside.

Those bright green eyes widened in shock when they saw a few fist-sized crystals in a glass display case near one wall, there were also entire shelves covered in gold nuggets of various sizes! There were three windows in this large bedroom. One facing the town square to the west, one that could basically only see the side of Emerald’s house on the south and to the east, there was actually one that directly faced the backyard.

However, the reason why the thief didn’t try to break into any of them was because they were all close and locked. When they saw the tripwires and other boobytraps on the inside, they breathed a sigh of relief for their wise decision. Ignoring all that, they looked at the big metal chest at the foot of the bed. Then they crouched down and bent over, looking under the bed… They almost let out an audible exclamation when they saw so many gold and silver bars! They were all pretty small, but still, the sheer quantity was incredible!

There was still a closet with a few big bags of gold coins, some random boxes that were also filled with coins, a tin can that was packed with fine gold and a few small pouches of gold coins. When the thief saw everything, they felt pretty overwhelmed… After all, there was literally too much for them to steal!

“Vardon.” A cute feminine voice whispered into his ear as the tip of a blade pressed up against his lower back, “I warned you.”

“Heh-heh-umm, Dotty, I know the rules.”

“I don’t give a shit about any rules. I told you that if you brought your stinky ass into my house, I’d stab you in the kidney. Did you think I was joking?”

“Come on, Dotty, don’t be like that… I’m your Uncle…”

“Really? All I see is a sneaky Thief that broke into ‘my’ house.”

The knife tip pressed in harder and almost broke the skin, “Wait, wait, stop… Little Dot, please, we need to talk, it’s an emergency!”

“Shh~! Don’t wake up Ollie and Jade. What the hell do you want?” 

Peridot finally took a step back and allowed then taller man to stand up off the ground. When he turned around, Vardon saw the skinny teenage girl wearing a very similar outfit to himself. A shadowy black cloak, a similar mask covering her face, except that there was a long and scary hunting knife in her right hand. The knife was also matte black and difficult to see with the light coming in through the windows.

“Rufus is dead.”

“No shit.”

“Don’t you get it? Rufus is dead.” Vardon took off his mask and looked at her with an anxious expression on his face, “Crazy bastard murdered five Wordless and died without passing on his Curse…”

“Is Klein in trouble?” Peridot’s mask vanished and revealed her frowning face under the dark hood, “I saw the whole fight. Rufus went nuts and eventually died from the Plague. If Klein wasn’t there, who knows what that scumbag would’ve done?”

“Klein will be fine. He’ll just have to go to Kale Town to explain shit… But without him and Rufus in town, what the hell do you think’s gonna happen?”

“Are they crazy? Even without Klein and Rufus-”

“What? You think they care about our little Verde Gang? You never leave the village. You don’t understand what it’s like out there…”

“I understand that if they screw with us, they’re gonna die.”

“All I’m sayin is that you gotta prepare for the worst, Dotty. Everyone knows Ollie is loaded, but this shit is even more ridiculous than anyone imagined…” Vardon smiled wryly, “Even I’m a little tempted-”

“You steal from me, I’ll just steal it back. What’s the point?”

“Exactly, heheh~! *Cough-cough~!* Eh, sorry… Haven’t smoked in a few hours. *Cough~!*” After calming his breathing a bit, he warned the little girl: “You can’t keep this shit out in the open like this. No, I wouldn’t even keep it in your house. Haven’t you guys ever thought about… You know, getting a bank account?”

“I’m a Thief!”

“Yeah, ‘you’, not Oliver. When are you brats getting married anyway? Don’t let that stone bitch steal your man-”

“Vardon, shut your mouth. Now get the hell outta my house.”