She was crouched furtively in the shadow beside the shelves, her gaze darting like a thief's toward the liquor display on the upper shelf before quickly scanning the area to see if anyone was watching.
Her fingers crept stealthily and painfully slowly toward a bottle of beautifully packaged whiskey. Her fingertips touched the cold glass.
With lightning speed, she snatched up the bottle and stuffed it into the pocket of her oversized school uniform jacket!
Her movements were a little stiff with nerves, but the whole process was remarkably "practiced." After succeeding, she subconsciously patted her pocket, as if making sure her "loot" was safe.
Lin Mu: "...?"
His brow lifted almost imperceptibly, and a host of questions sprang into his mind.
Wait, man... no, classmate. Hadn't the academy just given out a hundred thousand points?
There were plenty of free daily necessities in the supermarket. Surely things couldn't be so bad that she had to resort to stealing?
Besides, the law explicitly forbade stores from selling alcohol to minors. This convenience store did have alcohol on its shelves—possibly for the faculty, since convenience stores generally didn't keep liquor in stock otherwise.
But surely they'd check your age at checkout. Students couldn't buy it.
The girl looked perfectly fine. Her eyes were darting around, but she didn't seem like someone who drank or even liked alcohol.
So why steal it? Just for the thrill? To experience something "forbidden"? Or did she have some other unusual fetish?
(Confused, but respectful.)
He really couldn't understand how some people's minds worked, Lin Mu grumbled to himself.
By the supreme rule of doing nothing, "Don't meddle in other people's business or invite trouble," he should have picked up his bags and left, pretending he hadn't seen a thing.
But... deep down, the sound moral principles he'd been taught since childhood, and that hadn't faded even after his rebirth, made it impossible for him to stand by and watch someone his own age—especially a girl—make a mistake right in front of him. And this was a mistake that could lead to serious trouble.
If she got caught stealing at this school, with its strict rules, who knew how many personal points she'd lose? It might even affect her class's evaluation or leave a disciplinary record.
What a hassle.
Lin Mu sighed inwardly. He weighed his options quickly: just give her a warning. One warning. Whether she listened was her business.
You couldn't reason with someone hell-bent on getting into trouble. If she refused to listen or even turned on him, he could immediately let go of his "need to help" and respect her choices.
After all, his time was precious. He still had a stall to set up and his grand "fortune-telling for effortless money" plan to launch. He had no time to waste here.
Having made up his mind, Lin Mu picked up his several large bags, looking a little awkward, and walked slowly toward the purple-haired girl.
She was still crouched beside the shelves, apparently psyching herself up or scouting her next "target."
Lin Mu stopped behind her. To avoid startling her—and to keep her from overreacting and smashing the bottle, a common manga trope—he gently tapped her shoulder first, then said in a quiet, even voice:
"Classmate, stealing is wrong, you know."
"Eek!"
Kamuro Masumi jolted violently, like a cat with its fur standing on end, and nearly sprang straight up from the floor.
The bottle of sake she had just touched clattered back onto the shelf. Luckily, it didn't break.
She spun around in a panic, instinctively shielding the pocket holding the whiskey. The color drained from her face, and her eyes were filled with alarm and wariness.
When she saw who was behind her, a brief, unmistakable flash of admiration flickered through her alarm.
White hair, a handsome face with sharp, defined features, a tall figure—his looks were strikingly good.
But his expression... he seemed languid and aloof, as if nothing interested him very much, and he even had a lollipop sticking out of his mouth.
That contrast made him all the more striking.
However, her brief admiration lasted less than a moment before being replaced by the much stronger embarrassment and defensiveness of being caught in the act.
She quickly hid her panic and forced herself to straighten her back, which had begun to ache from crouching. She lifted her chin slightly and tried to look calm.
But her eyes couldn't help darting away, and her voice took on its usual haughty, stubborn tone:
"P-please! Who are you? What are you talking about? I-I didn't steal anything!
I just... just picked it up to look at it! Are customers not allowed to pick things up and look at them in a convenience store?"
The louder she spoke, the more her voice seemed to suggest that volume alone could make her right. But she clearly wasn't confident.
Lin Mu found it a little amusing that she was so obviously panicking while still pretending to be in the right. His face, however, remained languid and expressionless.
He didn't directly point out the bottle of whiskey in her pocket. Instead, he explained methodically:
"First, both the law and school rules explicitly forbid underage students from drinking.
"Second, you should know that the checkout system at the academy convenience store won't let students ring up alcohol.
"So I doubt you're interested in that bottle just to 'look at it,' are you?"
He paused, watching Kamuro Masumi's eyes widen slightly and her cheeks begin to redden as his words hit home, then continued:
"Maybe I'm mistaken, and you really are just 'looking.'
"But if you actually take it outside, whatever your reason, the moment you're found out—believe me, the chances of being caught at this school may be higher than you think—you'll have a very real weakness someone can use against you.
"Then who knows what they might threaten you into doing?"
He shifted the bags in his hands. His voice remained even, but there was a seriousness to it that was impossible to ignore. "I've said what I needed to say.
"Just think of me as a well-meaning passerby who talks too much.
"Next time... you might not be so lucky as to run into someone like me who only warns you instead of doing something else."
He hadn't spoken harshly, but his words were like cold needles, piercing straight into Kamuro Masumi's most sensitive nerves.
The calm she'd been forcing fell apart instantly, replaced by a mix of embarrassment, anger, lingering fear, and the discomfort of being seen through.
She really had acted on impulse, driven by a rebellious urge and a desire for excitement. She hadn't thought about the consequences at all.
(Prison Sister really did crave excitement, but in the original, someone caught her and threatened her the moment she got her hands on the bottle.)
Now this stranger—an annoyingly handsome boy—had pointed it out, and she finally realized how foolish and potentially dangerous her actions were.
She was angry that she'd been caught so easily and then lectured;
She was afraid that, just as he'd said, someone might get leverage over her. What would that mean for her standing in Class A...?
She clenched the hem of her jacket, digging her nails almost into her palms. Her cheeks flushed bright red, and frustration swelled inside her with nowhere to go.
Yet she couldn't refute a single thing he'd said. All she could do was passively endure the "warning," which infuriated her.
Her thoughts were a mess. She wondered to herself whether she really ought to break herself of this bad habit of seeking thrills, which came over her from time to time. But no matter what, she refused to back down aloud.
Before you continue