I Thought You Looked Dumb

"Aetherium!" Joshua peaked inside the crates and saw a lot of Aetherium. The only place that had that many were the Rinidan mines.

Both he and Leo looked inside every crate. All of them had Aetherium. They even placed some random stuff above to cover it, presumably to avoid the inspection.

It was at that moment that they heard some commotion outside the room. The 'real' Philip came, and they all knew something was amiss. Didn't Philip enter the ship a few moments ago?

Joshua quickly assessed the situation as 'they found us.' He did not know how or when, but they did.

"Leo," Joshua pointed towards a small window inside the storage room, "you're thin as a skeleton. Jump off using that window and go."

"But what about you?" Leo did not want to leave his friend behind in that mess.

"I'll be all right. I'm using a disguise. But you? Your invisibility spell will runoff."

"Leave this place. Don't tell a thing to Khali or Aurora yet. They will surely try to rescue me, and we will lose your ride to the capital." Leo was unwilling to leave Joshua behind, but he did it. Leo trusted that Joshua had the skill to leave that place alive and without them knowing his identity. He, on the other hand, would only screw things up.

~~~~

Joshua was alone after Leo escaped through the small window. Things were not on Joshua's side. He did not leave with Leo due to the guards outside. It worked for Leo because he was invisible. The only thing they saw was a disturbance in the water.

"What was that?" one of the guards said.

"It's a fish, you idiot."

A plan formed inside Joshua's mind, and he hoped it would work. He went to the same window Leo used. With one hand, Joshua tore apart a piece of his clothing. He placed it near the window to act as a decoy. Then, one of the crates turned into his hiding spot.

A huge slam. The storage room's door got opened. Philip entered inside with his companions.

"Search for anything out of the ordinary," Philip said. All of them could only obey his command.

They opened a few crates to see if their contents were intact. And apparently, nothing was missing.

"Hey, boss, look," a skinny guy said.

"What?" Philip got closer to see what the man saw. A piece of cloth.

"He fled through the window. Damn it. Who is watching outside?" Philip grabbed the piece of cloth and clenched his fist. These people received money to watch the ship, and they did their only job poorly.

"Frederick will know about this." Philip and his companions scanned the room to see if they missed something. In the end, they left with only one clue, a piece of cloth.

Philip hoped that whoever was watching outside saw or heard something.

"Hey, you two!" both guards were shocked to see their boss showing up out of the blue. They answered everything Philip wanted to know.

"Did you guys hear something strange? Or saw something?" Philip said.

One of the guards noticed that the situation seemed severe, and he quickly answered to save his butt.

"I heard something in the water. The guy here," the man pointed to the other person. "He said it was only a fish. I'm new here, so I just listened. He was the one experienced in this sort of thing."

"Is that so?" Philip looked, and the man was shaking.

"I— I."

"You have experience with this kind of business, and yet out of laziness, you did not check the unusual noise?" Philip waved his hand, and they captured the man.

"You, I like you. From this on, you are my assistant." The man could not believe it.

~~~~

While all of that was happening, Joshua left the ship without problems. There was still a guard outside of the storage room. Joshua knocked out the poor guy.

"They hired some weak people to defend this precious Aetherium. Maybe that's the reason they are treating Khali so well." Joshua thought.

The inn was not far. Leo was waiting outside of it. He decided not to enter and maybe wake them up. It was best if he waited for Joshua to return before doing so.

"Damn, you are already here?" Leo said in a loud tone.

"Shh, keep your voice down, you boney." Joshua filled up Leo with everything that happened.

"An intelligent plan. I always thought you looked dumb." That was Leo's attempt to praise Joshua.

Both of them sneaked inside the room without waking anyone up. Joshua and Leo went to the balcony to talk about another plan.

"Hey, Joshua. This plan of yours seems dangerous." "Leo, imagine this. Stealing all of that Aetherium would make us rich, but it is impossible. But, getting our hands in one or maybe two crates isn't a big deal." "They will probably only count everything inside the capital. There is enough time for us to steal." Joshua said.

"But what if they find us?" Leo said.

"They won't. The strongest person guarding the ship is our friend Khali. To make this work, we must steal the crates before arriving at the capital."

"One crate of it will help us greatly. Remember that we need money to restore the Crows Nest." Joshua used the thing that was important to Leo.

"All right, all right. We are stealing for the greater good of our secret order, right?" "Yeah, yeah, of course."

~~~~

Getting one crate of it would help them greatly with money. But Joshua had another thing inside his mind. He would try his best to investigate everything behind that shipment. Joshua was almost sure that this came from Rinidan, which was attacked. This was a serious situation, and maybe the future of the entire country could shift.

They all woke up refreshed the next day, but they knew that another trip came their way. At least, this time, they were in the right direction.