Seiko asks the captured one, "Why were you stealing? Didn't you sense that we have someone who is a Captain-tier?"
"We sensed.", said and lowered his voice.
"Then?"
"We were paid to search for the Eye in your stuff."
"Eye? Don't you see I have two eyes? How will my eyes be in the stuff?"
"Because It is not an actual eye."
"Then what is it"
With a little annoying tone, he said, "Don't pretend you don't know! You know it."
"If I knew, do you think I would ask what is it rather than who sent you?"
He is startled but his face also confides that Seiko is right. But still, to justify his arrogance he says, "Then, how is this teenager a captain tier? Not even a Nobel can not reach this level at his age!"
Rachid becomes a little angry and says, "This is the result of my hard work and you are suspecting it? Do you want to die?"
Seiko with an adequate voice says, "Rachid, control your anger. It will burn your wood." He looks at the thief and says, "Now tell me what is it?"
Because they have no choice. So being a little vacillating the thief says, "The person with the Eye has a tremendous amount of mana. But it is hard to control it. So, he might use a small proportion of its mana. That is what we know."
"So, that's why you assumed that Rachid has it?"
"Yes."
"Ok. By the way, how do you recognize who has it?"
"Some of us can sense it but ... it is very indistinguishable. We have a device that can tell who has it."
"Can you use that in front of us?"
The thief says, "Will you untie my rope?"
"Ya, Sure." Seiko looks at Rachid and says, "Untie the rope but freeze their leg."
After Rachid froze their leg, the leader withdraws something from his porch. A compass look-alike which looked old yet new.
Seeing it, Seiko says, "Does it say where the Eye is?"
"No. It will say who was in contact with the Eye for a longer time."
"So, why isn't it moving?"
"Because for it to work I need to add little mana in it."
Rachid says, "Instead of talking why don't you work?"
The leader starts the compass look-alike device. It points to Seiko.
Everyone is in shock!
Smiling a little the leader says, "From the moment I saw you I knew you were fishy. Looks like you have the Eye. That's why he said to search in your bag."
Rachid leaves a breath and says, "Thank God! I don't have it."
He looked at Seiko with a suspicious gaze.
Seiko becomes a little nervous and says, "Why are you looking at me?"
Rachid whispers to Belkhir, "This guy is super suspicious."
"I'm here. I can hear from you."
A thought knocked Belkhir. He says, "Don't you think it's quite unusual for a thief to behave like this."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you think they are saying everything very easily, that's quite suspicious?"
"Now that you have mentioned it. They are also quite unprofessional."
Seiko says, "If it is said by an ex-professional thief, then it must be true."
"Says an ex-professional thief"
"Stop fighting with yourself." looks at the leader and says, "Is there any backstory or anything you want to say?"
"Yes. We aren't professional. We are doing this for money."
Seiko says, "You guys look healthy. Why do you need to steal when you can get money by working hard."
"We wouldn't dare to do this, But ... the situation is so bad that we had to do it." guilt was visible in their face and their tone.
Rachid, "We were children so we didn't have any choice. But what could happen to you that as an adult you have to choose this path?"
They are hesitating. Seiko noticed it and said, "Rest assured. We can help you. If you tell us the reason. Don't worry." With a grin, he made them feel comfortable. They started to whisper in themselves. In the end, they decided to tell him.
They started to talk. But there is still some scepticism.
"I'm Patricio Petit. We live in a small village named Morel. We could hardly pay for the tax. But we somehow managed to pay tax. We could not eat properly, but we were happy. There were some problems. But in the end, it was not that big of a deal. Recently, our tax collector teamed up with some burglars. They said we need to pay more because they will give us protection. Isn't the kingdom taking tax for that?"
"True, but I don't think that is enough information. Tell us everything. You are hiding a lot of information, aren't you"
He is surprised, being a little guilty, he says, "Yes."
"Will you tell me what it is?"
"They… They have threatened us. Saying that they will take our children and women." He starts to cry.
"They are Soldier-level burglars. What could we possibly do to them?"
Seiko jumps into the conversation and says, "I understand everything, but can you tell me about the Eye? I mean, who is the person who said that he will pay you?"
"I don't know. One of his, men came and asked us to search the Eye in your bags."
Belkhir says, "For this, they will pay you?"
"Yes,"
Rachid says, "How are you so sure that they are saying the truth, Belkhir? You know, I have been a thief for my entire life. I have seen a lot of crazy people who lie as if they are saying the truth."
"I fully understand you."
Seiko says, "Don't worry. He looks confident. Rachid, you know trust is the most valuable thing after death and love. Let's trust him. If they lie, we will find a way out."
Seiko looks at them and says, "How much will they pay?"
"1 gold coin."
Rachid and Belkhir are shocked.
Seiko being the outsider didn't understand the value of one gold, "What happened? Is that too much?"
Belkhir says, "For this work, yes."
"Wow. That thing must be really important. So, how many months of tax you can pay with that?"
"Half of the year. If you include the burglars' tax too."
"Nice! I will also give you one gold coin but first, let's go to your village."
Rachid is angry and surprised. He shouts, "Are you mad?! Why are you helping those burglars by giving them money?"