The dragon's harem

Chapter 1542: Slick Thief

”Who are you?” The thief growled, glaring at Jack with a massive dagger in his hand. ”Scram away!”

Jack looked at the man with a passive face, slowly breaking into a gentle, faint smile. ”Brother, I would love to ask of you, and everyone else, to consider dropping this foolish act.”

He raised his hand, showing them the glistening knife in his hand. ”My fair wife is inside, and I do not wish to see any of you walk away with broken bones.”

The thieves looked at each other, then one of them stood, waving to rest. ”Iʼll get this clown out; you keep going.” He started approaching Jack with a dagger.

Jack blinked several times. Shocked at the thieves lack of manners. He expected them to recognize him. He had grown up in Alina all of his life; those thieves should know about him, even if he didnʼt know their faces.

Where would you find such a handsome gentleman with white hair and grey eyes? He was technically the only one, ignoring Gojo. But that pretty boy had blue eyes; he couldnʼt match Jackʼs style.

But that made Jack aware of one thing: those thieves arenʼt native to Alina; they are outsiders. Scums coming from other villages and cities are trying to make it big in the new growing capital.

With his older sister leaving to live her happy life with Gojo up north, the cityʼs streets remained at the mercy of every random wanna be gangster. He was both sad and disheartened at how low the thieves here had fallen. In no way would a thief worth their salt ever need to hurt anyone. If they were a mundane person, Jack could see them getting frustrated, but everyone in the world can level up and get better.

A thiefʼs skill set is geared toward doing things subtly and without getting caught. IF they got caught, thatʼs their problem, a skill issue.

It was clear to Jack why those fools would try to intimidate Eris and Zia. They probably tried to rob them and got caught red-handed. But the mere fact that their hands didnʼt turn into an actual red paste was a good thing.

Unlike them, Jack knew what kind of monsters Eris and Zia were. They could be just as scary, if not more terrifying, than his beautiful wife.

The thief reached Jack and pointed the dagger at his throat, ”Listen, you bastard, fuck off before I slit your throat open.”

Jack sighed and patted the thief on the shoulder, ”Iʼm telling you to calm down, brother.”

The thief glared at Jackʼs face for a while, then blinked, a frown crossing his face as he took a step back, holding his head in his hands. A second later, he crashed to the ground, unconscious.

Jack took a step forward, his leather boots missing the unconscious thiefʼs head by an inch as he walked over him.

At that moment, the thieves realised they werenʼt facing a normal guy, but someone who could send them all to see god with a smile on his face. Their objective immediately changed from getting back on Zia to getting rid of Jack, because he was the immediate threat.

One of them stood, pulled a throwing knife, and swung it at Jack from several meters away. The thiefʼs aim was precise and showed great skill; his knife flew right at Jackʼs throat. No normal person couldʼve avoided such a swift and deadly attack.

Jack wasnʼt at all worried; he had faced much faster and deadlier attacks. He easily took a step to the side, masterfully letting the knife miss him. But he wasnʼt going to let it keep flying. What if it hit a random person on the street?

Throwing his hand back, Jack caught the knife before it could get far away from him, making the thieves freeze for a second. Not in their whole life had they seen someone so fast.

It showed up, as they failed to notice the trickery going on. The whole catching the throwing knife thing served two purposes. To save any random person from turning into a statistic by the flying piece of steel, and to act as a distraction.

While the thieves looked at the knife, Jack had already thrown a tiny bottle with his other hand at their feet, conjuring a puff of smoke. Which, at a closer inspection, wasnʼt spoken at all, but a cloud of neurotoxin, powerful enough to paralyze and send them to the dreamland in seconds.

The thieves fell down, but will that cloud of highly dangerous toxin be a bit harmful to the local population of two-legged creatures?

The answer was simple, of course it is. While high-level adventurers will only get knocked out, a commoner at a low level can even have their lungs and heart paralyzed by just one breath, which isnʼt compatible with life at all.

Naturally, it wasnʼt on Jackʼs schedule to get lectured and eaten up by Lydia later on, so he had made sure the cloud would dissipate in the air and get diluted enough to lose all of its dangerous properties quickly.

Besides, he was a thief; killing people wasnʼt something he did, unless he needed to. And if he wanted those thieves dead, he couldʼve just kept shopping with his beautiful wife and waited for Arad to show up and rip their balls out before feeding them to the local wildlife.

Jack saved those bastardsʼ lives, and they should be thanking him. He wanted to call them ignorant fools, but he knew they had no way of knowing what kind of horror they were trying to fight.

Jack knew Arad too well; he even knew how he thought. If someoneʼs balls had grown large enough to attack his wives, they were ready to harvest. Even trying to harm his wives, not even doing it, can pretty much get anyone killed by him, no matter what their argument was.

Jack looked at the thieves, sighed in dejection, and then walked back to the streets, finding the nearest guards he could recognize. He called out to them, and they stared at him, surprised and confused.

What was he doing here? Calling the guards nonetheless.

”Jack?! Come on, turning yourself in now wonʼt do anything.” One of the guards approached him with a smile. Jack was a repeat offender, and he was infamous for escaping jail each time they threw him in.

Jack gave them a mocking salute and then pointed at the back alley, ”Got some rats back there. They probably need to be put in a cage for a while.”

The guards gave him back the same mocking salute and then took a look, ”Snitching now? Arenʼt you the rat?”

Jack giggled, ”Well, I might be a rat, but Iʼm a clean white rat.” He pointed at his hair, ”Those in the back, though, letʼs just say youʼd better catch them before Arad comes flying down and puts them down like actual rats.”

The two guards paled. Everyone knew that Jack was a part of Aradʼs party, that they were extremely close friends, and that while Jack was rarely seen with the emperor in those past days, they were certainly in contact.

”What did they do?” One of the guards gasped, and Jack thought about it for a second. He canʼt just expose Eris and Zia. Those two were clearly disguised to avoid attention.

”That shop isnʼt it owned by Merida?” He pointed, ”They were trying to break in, I donʼt know if it was for a robbery or beating someone up, but what I know is that Merida kills first and never asks questions afterward.”

He smiled, ”If they got inside, I bet you they wonʼt even get the privilege of being turned into a new article.”

As the guards rushed to arrest the thieves, Jack found a nice bench to sit on and wait for Lydia to come out. It would be best to leave the girls to shop alone, so he took a short rest, watching as the guards struggled to drag the thieves out.

The city is growing rapidly, and so are the thieves around here, they are getting too bold too quickly. He knew that Sara was taking care of the black market and the underworld, and her horny brother Abel was doing his best to make sure cheeks of all kinds are available, and the killing sphere would most likely get controlled by Eris.

One thing was left unattended, the thieves.

Sara rules the Black Market.

Abel rules the Red Light District.

Eris rules the Assassinsʼ guild.

Which only leaves an empty spot for a thievesʼ guild to rise, which he was willing to take care of, since he really wanted to settle down for a bit. He doesnʼt know what Arad would say, but he is sure someone needs to put a leash on the thieves around here.