PAID

Leon took the wallet back from Will.

Looking up at him, Leon noticed that the previously smug thief no longer had his bravado. His lips were pale, sweat trickled down his face, and even though his pants were loose, anyone could see that his legs were trembling slightly.

It made sense, after all—a skilled thief eager to join the Lionheart Society would never expect to one day pickpocket the leader himself.

Leon sized him up, noting how young he looked, and asked, “How old are you?”

“E-eighteen…” Will stammered.

“Tell the truth,” Nacho interrupted sternly from the side.

Will quickly corrected himself, “Seventeen! My birthday’s in two months, and then I’ll be eighteen!”

“Oh, then shouldn’t you be in school? Why’d you drop out to become a thief?”

“Brother, let me clarify: my profession isn’t *thief*.” Will replied with a straight face.

Leon raised an eyebrow, glancing down at his recently recovered wallet. “So if you’re not a thief…what are you?”

“A noble bandit!”—“Ow!” Will yelped as Nacho smacked him on the back of his head.

“You read a couple of books and suddenly you’re a noble bandit? Nice try.”

Will scratched his nose, giving an embarrassed smile. “Alright, alright, fine. My dad got me a decent job recently, so ‘bandit’ is just… okay, okay, fine, it’s a *part-time* gig.”

Nacho scoffed and pretended to kick him, though Will skillfully dodged.

Leon chuckled, amused. He’d never heard of anyone who moonlighted as a thief. People like that usually only existed in strange comic books: a struggling office worker by day who transforms into a masked hero or a vengeful villain at night.

But a part-time thief? Now that was rare.@@novelbin@@