Chapter 1: The Girl and the Thieves

Hey, over here! A little lower! Sorry that I’m so small and difficult to see. I’m the apple that just rolled into a huge building through the cracks of the door. In my past life, I was called Daisuke Furutsu, but I was reincarnated into a different world and turned into a fruit. I’m what people call a “nonhuman reincarnator.” I get called a lot of names in this world: “Furutsu-san,” “Furutsu,” “Apple-san,” and so on. You can call me whatever you like...except “Dai-chan.” That’s what my uncle called me and it feels weird.

So why am I in the men’s dorms for the Adventurers’ Guild? Well, to steal valuables, of course. Hehe, this is what I do best.

“Furutsu! Why do you sound like some master thief?” Grida said.

Hey now, don’t make me sound like the bad guy here. This time around, the owner personally requested it. This is charity work! There’s nothing in it for me. Wait, hold on. Ever since I reincarnated, I feel like all I’ve done is help others. Isn’t a selfless protagonist kinda cool?

“I get that you’re cool, Furutsu. We should explain properly though. We might really get mistaken for thieves!”

Okay, okay. First, I’ll introduce my partner. The owner of the cute voice you’ve been hearing is Grida, and she’s in my storage card. Do you wanna say hi?

“Yeah! Um, my name is Grida! I’m a staff made from the World Tree!”

Before I reincarnated, I drew a special “storage card,” which gave me access to a special storage space filled with items left by the card’s previous owners. That’s where I found Grida.

“It seems like every world is supported by its own World Tree.”

But two or more different World Trees can’t take root in a single world. Should Grida come out of storage, this world and its neighbors would likely get destroyed without a trace—but I wanna get her out of that card anyway.

“Furutsu...”

So I’m stealing stuff to think of a method.

“Furutsu?!”

Y’know, now that I think about it, shouldn’t they just read volume one? Who starts reading a series from the second volume anyways?

“Did you have to say that?! We should try a little harder!”

Ugh, fine. Just a little more then, okay? Uhhh, right, so we’re here to collect Holmer’s belongings. Going on a journey requires a lot of money, and one of his old items, the Dragon’s Tear, might be a key item that would connect us to the World Tree. How’s that?

“There you go! It got a bit sloppy, but I thought it was pretty good.”

I’m honored to receive such high praise from you, milady. All right then, could you lead the way?

She giggled. “Leave it to me! Um, turn right there!”

You’re a big help. Last time I came here, I was inside Fresa’s pouch. You may have been able to see, but I was practically blindfolded.

***

I rolled down a dimly lit hallway. Datil used to live in a pretty nice place.

“Wait, Furutsu! Someone’s coming!”

Whoa, that’s a close one. Who’s wandering the halls in the middle of the night? Oh, it’s a guard. I swiftly rolled out of sight.

“Phew, that was close!”

Yeah. We barely made it. But even if I do get caught, I’m just an apple, so I don’t think I’d raise too much suspicion. Wait, I look super delicious though. Someone might try to eat me, yikes. I should probably not get caught then.

“Furutsu, it’s that door.”

So this is Datil’s old room—the room of the man formerly known as Holmer. All right then, we just need to use that wind magic to cut open a small hole...

“Okay! Will do!”

Hold your horses! I just need to make an opening small enough for me to pass through. Even one percent of your strength could cut this building in two!

“Oh, you’re right! We have to be all secret about how we’re stealing stuff!”

Hey, you’re calling it “stealing” now too? Well, I’ll explain just in case. The guildmaster of this city, Pastèque, had allowed Datil to take Holmer’s belongings as a little bonus. Of course, there’d be no problem if a man went to collect his own things. However, we’ve claimed that Datil is a different person from Holmer. From an outsider’s perspective, it just looks like we’re stealing the late Holmer’s belongings. Since Datil himself asked us to do this, though, this is more of an errand than thievery.

“Huh? Furutsu, someone else is coming. Two people.”

That’s odd. The guildmaster said that he would decrease security around this area.

“Should we put them to sleep?”

No, we can’t use that spell here.

“Huh? Why not?”

We got that spell from demons, meaning if we use it, it’s going to look like some demon snuck into the dorms. People will panic—or at least, that’s what Datil told me. If someone sniffs out signs of human thieves, the guards might simply need to up their security, but if we leave traces of demons, we might be making a big headache for Pastèque. He’s doing us a favor, so we can’t cause a fuss. We should hide again and... Huh?

“Furutsu, look. They’re dressed in all black and look a little different from the guard before.”

Grida, they’re clearly not guards. What security guard hides their face with a mask?

“You’re right! Their faces do look weird! Could they be...?”

Yeah, they’re in the same trade as us.

Grida giggled. “Are you sure you don’t think that you’re a thief?”

Whoops, you’re right. My bad. We should hide for now though.

“Heh heh, is this the room, boss?” one of the masked figures said.

“That’s right. If my info’s correct, this should be that Rank A guy’s old room—Holmer, the one who died in the Chasm of Catastrophe.”

“Hey, don’t the Rank A guys make a lot of money?”

“That’s right. From today onward, we’re rich.”

I didn’t think actual thieves would show up. This is so cliché. Are we sure we’re not being pranked or something? At any rate, though, this is perfect. We can just shift the blame onto these guys.

“Furutsu, you’re evil!” Grida said.

What are you talking about? I’m just here to run an errand. These guys should get punished for being in my way.

“Boss, I knew it! It’s locked real tight!”

“Heh, watch and learn. This is where I shine!”

The duo whispered to each other as they proceeded to pick the lock. I hadn’t planned on opening the door like this from the start, but I figured I might as well let them take care of it.

“Hey, give me the number three and number five picks!”

“Yessir!”

I’d never picked a lock before, but that thin twisted thing the “boss” was using must have been a lockpick.

“Oh, there’s another lock here? No matter, this is like child’s play for me.”

“I knew I could count on you, boss!”

They seemed very experienced. Their mannerisms were cliché and they reeked of side character, but they did actually seem to be pretty good at this. A satisfying clunk echoed through the halls as the lock opened.

“Heh, see? Easy pickings.”

“You’re amazing! I’m with you to the end, boss!” The door quietly opened, and after some delighted whispering, they entered the room.

“Ack, Furutsu! If we don’t hurry, they’ll take everything!” Grida said.

No, that’s fine. Let’s have them take whatever they can.

“Huh? Why?!”

Heh, we’ll let them run and then take everything back. If everything goes well, we might find their base, and we could reap bonus rewards! This little apple’s finally old enough to handle his first errand—these guys have gotta pay!

She laughed. “I think you’re much more evil then!”

No, I’m just here to punish the evil!

“Idiot, close and lock the door!” the boss said.

“Ack! Sorry about that, boss!”

Oh shoot! We should hurry and make our way in! I quietly rolled through the gap.

“That was close!” Grida exclaimed.