“Nah, screw that,” the taller bandit said. “The crab’s right. We don’t get paid enough for this.”

  “Fet it,” said the shorter ourning around and heading to the stairs. “That girl’s crazy. I shoulda stayed downstairs drinking with the others.”

  Balthazar watched, fbbergasted, as the two bandits walked toward the stairs.

  “What? You guys are leaving already?” Olivia yelled from across the room. “We were just starting to have fun!”

  The skinnier man brushed her off with a hand as he started going doweps.

  “You guys aren’t even going to tend to your boss?” the perplexed crab said, looking at the wet lump that was their boss lying on the polished floor.

  “Bah! You was right. He don’t care about us,” the stocky bandit said. “Let his ‘muse’ e help him.”

  “Byeee! Don’t fet to sign up for the Bandit Rights Association!” Suze said as the two men disappeared dowairs.

  “Don’t ence it,” Olivia told her as she walked around the knocked out bandit to join them.

  “It worked out in the end,” the street ur said as she pulled the rope around her wrists loose with her teeth.

  “Let’s not waste any more time,” the Marquessa girl said. “We’ve got one more floor to go.”

  “Do we just… leave him here?” said Balthazar, staring at the passed out Jake.

  “Do you want to carry him with us?” Olivia said.

  “Nah, you’re right. Let him stink up this room with onion.”

  The trio ran to the bottom of the stairs leading up and came to aop.

  “Oh, great, more stairs,” Suze said. “’t we just send Balthazar up through the dummy waiter again?”

  “It’s called a dumbwaiter,” the irl said. “And no, we ’t. I oking my head in to check when Jake caught me by surprise. The pulleys were removed past this floor. Seems whoever lives up there didn’t want any meals delivered.”

  “Oh, good,” said the crab. “I wasn’t looking forward to another ride in there. Way too cramped for my taste.”

  “Then how will we get him up?” the smaller human asked. “His fish brain ’t figure out how to work steps, and I’m not pushing up the stairs either.”

  “I have an idea,” Olivia said with a smirk, looking past the other twoing around them, the young ulled some curtains and tapestries aside, revealing a ed around a metal hook on the wall.

  “Here, hold this tight, please,” she told the crab.

  Slightly fused, Balthazar obliged, grasping the with both pincers. “What’s your pn?”

  “Oh, you’ll see in just a moment,” the girl said as she started releasing the from the hook.

  The mert’s frowning gaze went up, following the he was holding.

  It went up straight, past the mezzanine on the floor above, to another round hook on the ceiling. Balthazar’s eyes tinued following along the horizontal line of the , widening as he realized what it was ected to: one of the deliers hanging above the ballroom.

  “Olivia, why are you un—Ahhhh!”

  Experieng a sudden jolt of whipsh again, the crab’s feet left the floor as the unwound, pulling him upward toward the ceiling, pincers holding on for dear life as he screamed all the way there.

  On the reverse, the delier at the other end of the came crashing down onto the polished mahogany boards of the ballroom with a loud shattering, sending gss aal bits flying all across the dance floor.

  Balthazar’s eyestalks squished against the ceiling as his shell smmed onto it, making him let go of the and tumble forward, filing desperately to fall on the mezzanine instead of all the way back down to the floor below.

  “Ooow…” the crab moaned, lying upside down on the carpet of the third floor.

  “Great, you made it!” said Olivia, rushing up the stairs to meet him.

  “You didn’t even warn me!” Balthazar protested as she helped him bato his feet.

  “Would you have grabbed the if I did?”

  “No!”

  “Exactly.”

  A joyful bout of ughter came from below.

  “That was awesome!” Suze shouted from the dance floor underh. “Do me !”

  “No, that would be dangerous,” the mayor’s niece responded over the railing of the mezzanine. “Use the stairs.”

  “But you did it for Balthazar!” the little girl grumpily responded as she walked up the staircase, arms crossed and a pout on her face.

  “The kid’s right,” the crusta excimed with annoyance. “You had no s about the danger when you did it to me!”

  “Yeah, listen to Balthazar!” Suze said. “You should do it with me too!”

  The crab’s eyestalks jumped. “Hey, hold on, that’s not what I meant!”

  “Oh, shush, you two,” said Olivia, rolling her eyes and walking to the double doors of the third floor. “He has a hard shell, you don’t. I knew he’d be fine. Probably. Let’s keep going. We’re almost to the master bedroom we saw on the floor pns. It should be just across a corridor through the guest wing of the house.”

  “Don’t think I didn’t notice that ‘probably’ there, miss,” Balthazar muttered as he begrudgingly followed her.

  The young ressed down owo handles and pushed the doors open, revealing a long corridor.

  Its mood was gloomy, despite the plentiful lighting from an unreasonable amount of lit dles spread over the many pieces of dark wood furniture.

  The floor was covered on its entire length by a l with straterns woven into it, simir to the ones oapestries hanging over the walls.

  “Whoever decorated this pce really liked these ugly patterns,” Balthazar ented as they stepped into the hallway.

  Olivia ran a hand through the fabric of one of the tapestries. “Oooh, I get it now. Damask Manor.”

  Suze let out an impressed whistle. “Check out these curtains. So smooth.”

  The young girl was rubbing the silky and plushy fibers of a pair of bck curtains on the opposite wall while noddily in approval.

  “So smooth. I never felt anything like it. Is this what you rich people call satin?”

  Olivia came closer to ihe curtains too.

  “No, that’s not satin. I think it’s—”

  The sound of a door closing at the other end of the corridor made the trio turn their heads—and shell.

  A tall man in uniform had just stepped out of the master bedroom, helmet on his head, cape draped behind his back, and a fierce gaze peering through his visor.

  “The ander of the guard,” Olivia muttered.

  “What’s he doing here?” asked Suze, wiping her hands on the curtains before letting them go.

  Balthazar frowned. “He was the ohat ordered my arrest the other day. He’s under her influeoo. That’s why all those guards are doing her bidding.”

  The ander grabbed a thick wooden baton with a set of metal spikes lining the end of it from his waist and poi straight at the crab.

  “You,” he said, “will go no further.”

  “Huh… did y any more flower pots from downstairs?” Balthazar whispered to Olivia.

  “No,” she responded. “And he’s also wearing a helmet, so I’m all out of ideas.”

  “You really o diversify your moveset,” Suze chimed in.

  The aook a heavy step forward, making the floorboards vibrate uhe weight of his armor.

  “You will not reach her,” the man said in a gravelly tone as he pulled a rge round shield from his back. “I won’t let you. I will protect her. I will keep her safe. I’m the only one who . She told me so herself. I will do my duty.”

  “Oh, alright, this guy has lost his marbles,” said the crab.

  “We noticed,” the street ur said. “But what do we do about it? He doesn’t look like he wants to talk.”

  “I don’t know, I usually just wing it at this point, but I’m not really seeing a way around this right now!” Olivia said with a note of growing in her voice as the guardsma heading toward them.

  “You’d better think of something fast, Balthazar,” Suze warned. “Because he’s ing fast and he looks really mad at you.”

  The mert looked around, searg for a solution he couldn’t find. “Ah, crabapples! Why does everyone want a piee tely?!”

  “Must be your natural charm!” Olivia excimed as she grabbed a dlestick from a nearby dresser and held it up like a on.

  “She’s mine, you hear?” the ander yelled while breaking into a sprint, his baton held high in one hand, the shield held up in front of him as he charged forward. “I won’t let you hurt her!”

  “Hurt her? I just wahe mangoes so I could get some dires, you lunatic!” Balthazar excimed as he hurriedly pulled his backpack down and reached into it. “I was trying to save this, but I guess I gotta try it now.”

  Pulling his cw out of the magical pack, the crab revealed an ingot of solid iron, the same one he had gotten from Captain Leander when they first met.

  “Oh, great, yonna toss that at his head?” Olivia said.

  “ly.”

  Sliding the system text into his view as the armuard kept charging at him, Balthazar selected his chosen skill.

  This better do what I think it should, or I’m about to turn into crab pulp!

  [Imbuing activated: Iron Ingot absorbed]

  He looked down at his pincer with anticipation, but a sharp sting came from within his shell instead.

  “Ow! What is going on?!” the crusta groaned as a strange feeling took over his body.

  The ander roared as he reached the crab, bringing his spiked baton down on him with furious force.