Since no soldiers were provided, Farran demanded an exchange from Dodan, requesting the allocation of two additional rooms on the second floor within the fortress of Ainen-dor. This was granted. Farran designated the first room for the Ruby Team to use as accommodation, and the other room for Fiona and Galdur.
That night, Fiona changed her behavior from a brave female warrior to an affectionate great-granddaughter. She carried her bedding to lay down beside her great-grandfather's bed. The fear of losing him in the war still haunted her heart.
"Tonight... Great-grandpa must tell me a bedtime story," Fiona said with a clear voice while snuggling into the warmth.
"Where would I know any fairytales!?" Galdur blurted out, true to his grumpy old man habit. "I'm just a wandering old man, not a storyteller in the market!"
"Any story is fine. Or it could be the legend of the Thief of Glugamen that I heard when I was young," Fiona pleaded, her small hands pulling tight on the hem of her great-grandfather's cloak.
"Hahaha! You want me to tell the story of my father? Hasn't your father told these stories until you're bored?" Galdur laughed abruptly.
"Not at all. Father never told me anything. I only heard stories of this guy from Uncle a few times."
Those words made Galdur's eyes dim slightly. In truth, he hadn't raised this great-granddaughter from the beginning. He had only met her again at her grandfather's funeral a few years ago. During that time, her village was in crisis due to a dispute over water sources with a neighboring village, which nearly escalated into a slaughter. It was Galdur who used his wit to resolve the matter peacefully. From then on, Fiona decided to leave her old life behind and asked to follow her great-grandfather on his adventures.
"Fine then... since you want to hear about that old thief so much," Galdur shifted to lean against the headboard. "Where should I start?"
"Start from the origin of our family. I want to know where we come from."
"Then we have to go back far to the era when the universe had just passed the Great War of Ragnarok."
"Huh! Is our family that old?" Fiona's eyes went wide.
"Don't interrupt! Or I might tell it wrong," Galdur scolded, though not seriously, before continuing. "Everything started with an Old God who survived the Great War. He took in two human boys as servants... one named Galdur and the other named Galdric."
"The name Galdur... just like you, Great-grandpa?"
"Haha, yes. My name was named after that man... but my destiny and his were born to be enemies. Because when that Galdur grew up, he became a thief. He secretly stole magic tomes and magical items from the Old God before fleeing. This made the Old God furious, and he took it out on Galdric, who remained, causing him to unjustly lose his left eye."
"That Old God is really terrible! How could he punish someone who did nothing wrong?" Fiona blurted out, unable to hold back.
"But that Galdur became widely renowned because he was the first human to bring magic power to mankind, and later he became the greatest wizard in history..."
"This isn't fair at all. A bad person becomes famous just like that!"
"Haha, keep listening. The next part is the turning point of our family," Galdur smiled broadly. "When Galdric decided that he would steal magic items and flee as well."
"Is there going to be any good person in this story?" Fiona murmured.
"Galdric snuck into the Old God's private chamber. The first thing he found was a plain gold ring. He picked it up and put it on without thinking, but then he was shocked to find that it was the Cursed Ring of the Black Cat."
Galdur raised his left hand and lightly touched the gold ring on his index finger, causing Fiona to stare with suspicion.
Galdur continued, "Whoever wears this ring will see a black cat that no one else can see. This cat is a spirit of wisdom; it will whisper clever advice to the wearer and also possesses the power to 'mimic the voice' of anyone the wearer has heard at least once."
Hearing this, Fiona pointed at the ring on Galdur's left hand.
Galdur smiled back but continued the story. "After getting the ring, Galdric grabbed a Green Apple that was left on the table to hold. He remembered the Old God mentioning that it was a defective Apple of Idunn. Occasionally, an apple would appear that wasn't golden, but a strange color like green, red, or purple. The gods wouldn't eat these, considering them items that shouldn't exist in the universe. Once, the Old God found one and kept it merely as a worthless souvenir."
Fiona immediately pieced together that this defective Apple of Idunn was the magic item her great-grandfather always used to turn invisible.
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"Suddenly, the Old God returned to the room! In his panic, Galdric accidentally held his breath without realizing it... The Old God roared in fury when he saw the ring was missing. He shouted for Galdric, calling him a vile thief, and searched the entire room, never knowing that Galdric was standing right in front of him, holding the green apple!"
"Haha, so the Old God didn't know how to use this magic item either," Fiona laughed with delight.
"Correct! A secret that even the Old God didn't know. Galdric used the moment the god was distracted to slip out of the room. He managed to escape successfully, and that is the beginning of our family, the Thief Glugamen."
"Huh! So we are descendants of a thief!?" Fiona looked shocked at the family legend.
"Didn't your uncle already tell you these stories?" Galdur asked back.
"Not at all! Uncle only told me that the Thief Glugamen stole gold coins from dwarf treasuries to distribute to poor villagers, and once snuck in to steal a golden tooth from a sleeping dragon!"
"Huh! There's a story like that? I've never heard of it!" This time it was Galdur who was shocked. His eyes were full of confusion before he tilted his head back and forth, grumbling, "Stealing a dragon's tooth?"
Fiona giggled before asking with sparkling eyes, "That's right... then how did you get to know Ms. Berlynda?"
For Fiona, Berlynda was the model of a capable and powerful woman, the greatest she had ever seen. She wanted to know so badly how her great-grandfather and the legendary former Valkyrie came to cross paths.
"Oh... I met Berlynda because of this old, torn wizard robe." Galdur said, pinching the collar of his turquoise robe to show his great-granddaughter.
"How so!?"
"As I told you, I was born to be the enemy of that Wizard Galdur. My father named me Galdur because he wanted me to remember this name and exact revenge on him. But... when I grew up, I found that he had been dead for a long time!"
"Ah... he was dead? Then what did you do?" Fiona asked in suspense.
"That wizard was dead, true, but he still had a legacy left behind... which is this Wizard's Robe of Transformation!" Galdur smiled slyly. "Therefore, as the current Thief Glugamen, I had to steal the enemy's wizard robe—that's all."
"So... you are the real Thief Glugamen too?"
"If one day I die, perhaps you will be the next Thief Glugamen."
"I ask not to be... can't I?" Fiona hurriedly refused before realizing something. "But in everything you've told me, there isn't a part where you met Ms. Berlynda yet."
"Oh! I forgot to tell you... Berlynda was actually someone who wanted this transformation robe as well. I met her at an auction. We talked, and she said she would bid up to five thousand gold coins for it."
"This torn robe... had a price of up to five thousand gold coins?" Fiona exclaimed, staring at the old robe wide-eyed.
"Heh heh, not really..." Galdur laughed abruptly. "Because once I stole it and went to sell it to her... she told me flatly that she would buy it for only one thousand gold coins!"
"Ms. Berlynda is truly brilliant!" Fiona instantly felt satisfied that the woman she respected was so clever.
"Brilliant, my foot! She almost killed me and snatched the wizard robe away," Galdur made a face of dread recalling the past.
"Huh! So you two were enemies?"
"Who would want to be enemies with her..." Galdur sighed. "Finally, to preserve my life and our friendship, I had to agree to give her a magic sword... that short sword she carries with her all the time."
"Isn't that a famous magic sword?"
"I stole it from the tomb of a Dragon Slayer dwarf clan. It might possibly be the sword Rauebrandr, reforged."
"What sword? I've never heard that name before."
"It's not strange that a human like you isn't familiar with the name. But for dwarves, it might have a value of up to five thousand gold coins." Galdur seemed particularly obsessed with the value of 5,000 gold coins.
"Five thousand gold coins!!" Fiona repeated the exclamation.
"Therefore... if one day you become the next Thief Glugamen, one of the targets you must achieve is to steal that sword back from Berlynda to return it as our family's treasure, understand?"
"Hah!! You gave it to her, and you still hope to steal it back from Ms. Berlynda?" Fiona looked like she was about to cry, thinking her fate as a thief's descendant was truly unfortunate.
"How do you think our village, Unglagim, was established? Mostly it was me selling magic items and then stealing them back!"
"Great-grandpa... you're joking, right?"
"What do you understand the name of our village to mean?" Galdur asked back.
"Unglagim... doesn't it mean 'Rule of the Young'?" Fiona assumed that when the village was built, the young generation of her family had done it themselves.
Galdur sighed deeply, disappointed in his descendants. "Those people never told you the true legend... The name of the village Unglagim [????????] is actually an anagram of the word Glugamen [????????], which is the name of our family's thief! And that word Glugamen is actually derived from the word Manglugi [? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?], which means 'Black Market' or 'Thieves' Market'!"
Fiona was stunned for a long while. "Oh... so we really are a purebred thief family."
"Hahaha! Even though you see me wearing a robe like a wizard... my true essence is a genuine thief! Hahaha!" Galdur laughed heartily, proud of his own trickery.
"I'm afraid this story is not something to be proud of in the slightest, Great-grandpa," Fiona said softly, imagining herself having to steal a dragon's tooth for real in the future.
"Whatever others see us as, let them be. As long as you know in your heart what kind of person you are... that is enough," Galdur shifted his tone to be slightly more mature.
"But... how can I be proud? Since we are a family of thieves, how can I face anyone?"
"Haha, I suspect you really don't have the qualifications to inherit the position of Thief Glugamen from me, Fiona!" Galdur, seeing her dislike, teased her even more.
"You can go back to the village and choose someone else, Great-grandpa. I pass!"
"It's a pity, though... if the next Thief Glugamen were a lady with a bright face like yours, no one would be able to predict the plans for sure," Galdur remarked with regret.
"Enough! I'm sleepy now!" Fiona cut the conversation short before pulling the thick blanket over her head to escape the headache-inducing topic.
"Oh... wasn't it you who begged me to tell the story? Hahaha!" Galdur gently adjusted the blanket for his great-granddaughter, his eyes looking at her with affection. "Fiona... you cannot escape the destiny of the thief family. Believe me."
That night, Fiona dreamed that she was about to get married, but in the end, the groom refused to marry her because he found out the secret that she was the Thief Glugamen. She murmured in her sleep, "I am not a thief... I am not a thief... Don't leave me like this... Farran."
Galdur doesn’t feel too overpowered to the point where everyone else feels like a background character.