"How much longer must we wait?!"
The jeweler's voice cracked across the chamber like a whip, his face flushed with rage.
"How can even the Royal Knights fail to catch a handful of thieves?!"
Silence fell heavy over the room.
No one answered —
Because the question, though disrespectful… struck at the heart of a growing shame.
The thefts continued.
Bold, public, defiant.
Right under the noses of elite guards.
And not a single thief caught.
At the back of the hall, among the highest-ranked knights, one man stood out.
Commander Darius Kane.
Tall. Broad. A walking monument of muscle and discipline.
His black hair tied back, his eyes just as black — and colder than steel.
A long scar ran from the base of his neck to just above his left eye.
Some say it was punishment for mercy.
Others say… mercy was never in him to begin with.
He stepped forward, removing his gloves with slow, deliberate movements.
"This is not the work of an ordinary thief,"
he said, his voice deep and thunderous.
"And it is no one among us."
A murmur rippled through the chamber.
"How can you be sure?"
asked one of the captains, uneasy.
Darius didn't reply.
Instead, he motioned toward the quiet figure beside him.
Aqua.
The Emperor's official aide — and mind-reader.
Clad in silver and blue, his pale gray eyes looked almost blind, yet missed nothing.
"I've scanned every knight's thoughts,"
Aqua said softly,
"None of them planned this. None of them lied about it."
Darius narrowed his eyes, unconvinced.
But Aqua continued.
"There was something… a flash of memory in one of the guards.
He saw a knight he didn't recognize, just before the theft. Thought he was new."
He raised a small scroll and placed it on the table.
"But for a split second… that knight's face shifted.
Not a disguise.
A mutation."
Everyone froze.
Darius clenched his jaw.
"Shapeshifting…"
His tone was darker now — the voice of a man who's been waiting for this.
"Only one place in the realm holds that curse.
The village beyond the Black Mountains."
And so the hunt began.
Not for a common thief…
But for something far more dangerous:
A creature who wore the face of honor —
And stole beneath the shadow of law.