'Why did you bring this much money with you?!'
“Well...
I got some allowance from my aunt, and I wanted to have fun without worrying about money.”
He was planning to ignore the matter even if it was a matter of a few dozen or hundreds of Hercs, but a thousand Hercs was something that could not be ignored.
Damian looked around, noticed that the souvenir seller was gone, and clicked his tongue.
'Did you see the pickpocket's face?'
"I didn't see his face.
He was just a little man in a straw hat."
Upon hearing this, Damian took off running.
He issued strict instructions to Liliana,
"Liliana, stay here!
I'll be back soon!"
"Damien!
Where are you going?!"
"Where else would I go?!
To catch these bastards!"
"Hey!
Don't exaggerate!
You're tired!"
Liliana started running after Damian, who quickly shook his head.
“You also have a heart condition, Liliana!
Don’t follow me and stay there!
Don’t run!”
"but…".
Ignoring Liliana's words, Damian disappeared in an instant, running at a speed that she couldn't keep up with.
When Liliana let herself go, she looked around and saw a bike parked next to one of the street vendors.
Someone must have left it there while she bought ice cream.
She ran towards him, grabbed the bike, and quickly said to its owner:
"Excuse me, sir!
I'll borrow this for a moment!"
"What?!
You!
You?!"
The bike owner called out to Liliana in surprise, but she ignored him and rode away in the direction Damian had disappeared.
Meanwhile, after Damian searched through the crowd, he spotted the little man in the straw hat that Liliana had described.
He quickened his steps and started chasing him.
"You thief!
Stop there!"
He shouted at the man in the straw hat, who looked back and then panicked when he saw Damian running towards him with an angry expression.
He turned around and started pushing people aside as he ran.
He was very fast, as if he had years of experience in pickpocketing.
The thief used his small stature to move through the crowd, forcing Damian to move between people as he pursued him.
"Damn, this is killing me."
Damian groaned involuntarily.
This kind of running wouldn't be of any value when he was in the army, but his body wasn't in good shape, and he was already out of breath even though he hadn't run far.
But his determination to recover the Thousand Hercs went beyond his physical limits.
"Damian!"
He turned around when he heard the familiar voice from the road and was shocked.
Liliana was chasing him on a bike.
“I told you not to follow me!”
“You told me not to run, not not to ride a bike!
This way I can move faster and with less effort.”
"Don't be silly!
Where did you get that bike?!"
“I borrowed it!”
While they were fighting, the thief veered into a narrow alley.
Damian and Liliana followed him into the alley at the same time, as if they had planned this.
The narrow alley between the buildings was dark and damp even in the daytime.
It was a place that ordinary people would never enter unless they had a reason to.
But Damian and Liliana, driven by their determination to catch the thief, went deeper into the alley.
Then they stopped when they encountered a group of people, including the man in the straw hat.
Besides the little man in the straw hat, there was a large man, a muscular man who was slightly smaller than the first man, and a man who was missing half his teeth.
There were four of them in total.
The souvenir seller was nowhere to be seen.
Maybe he worked separately.
Damian wiped his sweat, took a deep breath, and said to them,
“Huff, huff... you... you bastards...”
He was short of breath and wasn't able to speak properly, but Damian slowly calmed his breathing and stared at them with wide eyes.
“Are you all in this together?”
The muscular man sneered and said:
“So what if we were?”
Even as he bent over and gasped for air, Damian extended his hand and pointed at them.
"Hand over the wallet."
The four men laughed among themselves.
"Wallet?
I don't know what wallet you're talking about."
"Maybe I was wrong about something?".
But Damian showed them a moment of generosity.
"The man with the hat stole my companion's wallet.
Please give it to me kindly.
I'm still asking."
The pickpockets laughed again, mocking Damian.
“What would a one-armed man do?
You don't deserve even a single punch.”
"Yes, what are you going to do with just one hand?
You'd better leave if you don't want to get hurt."
Damian took a deep breath, facing the men who were making fun of his disability, and motioned for Liliana to back off.
"I'll handle this.
Liliana, call the police."
"D-Damian."
"decent".
“But how can I leave you alone?”
Liliana looked terrified, looking back and forth between the pickpockets and Damian's pockets, pulling at his sleeve.
"D-Let's call the police.
Four against one!
And you're injured...
We don't need the money, do we?"
Despite Liliana's worry, Damian released her hand and took a step forward.
“How are you going to hurt me?”
Liliana was going crazy watching Damien provoke the pickpockets.
She couldn't understand what he was thinking, and he was acting rashly despite his injuries.
She clung to his arm, worried that he would get hurt.
"Calm down, Damian!
Let's calm down!"
"Liliana, it's dangerous.
Stay away."
“You are in more danger than me!”
"That's why..."
While Damian tried to calm Liliana down, the pickpockets exchanged glances.
Then suddenly, the muscle man threw a punch at Damian.
Liliana saw it too late and screamed involuntarily, but Damian quickly pulled Liliana's head down, bending down to avoid the punch himself.
The large fist flew at tremendous speed above their heads and issued a sharp sound.
"Oh?
You evaded that?"
The muscular man said amused.
Damian quickly protected Liliana and said in a calm voice,
“Can't you see we're in the middle of a conversation?”
His tone was calm, but his facial expression was the complete opposite.
Damian narrowed his eyes and took a step towards the man.
“I clearly warned you, and you attacked first.”
He cracked his neck menacingly, the cracking sound echoing.
“Huh… This bastard dodged a single punch and now he’s acting tough.”
The pickpockets laughed among themselves, and Damian muttered with a bitter smile,
“I hope you have the courage.”
“What did you say, you idiot?”
The muscle man pounced on Damian again.
But Damian dodged the punch by jumping to the side, grabbed the man from behind and kicked him in the back.
The muscular man stumbled forward, groaning.
But Damian didn't give him time to recover.
He immediately hit the back of the man's neck with his elbow, knocking him to the ground.
The muscular man fell to the ground unconscious, without saying a word.
An eerie silence filled the alley.
The pickpockets seemed unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Then, after the large man belatedly looked back and forth between his fallen comrade and Damian who was still standing, the man roared and lunged at him.
“You bastard!”
The man was twice Damian's size and looked ready to crush him.
But Damian quietly and quickly slid into the man's arms and hit him in the stomach.
"You're nothing special."
The man who only relied on his size also collapsed due to one punch from Damian, and trembled on the ground.
Liliana's voice, full of admiration, could be heard from behind.