"I... I know where the family treasure is hidden! If you find what was stolen, it's all yours!"
On an empty street in Strange Tales City, the Old Clan Chief clung to that faint hope as he pleaded.
"Let's talk somewhere else."
Annan glanced up and down the deserted street.
"Can you... can you make her..." The Old Clan Chief watched Burnt Girl out of the corner of his eye.
Burnt Girl slipped back into Annan's shadow. Holding his blanket, Annan gave his shadow a curious look, then followed the Old Clan Chief to his hiding place: a shop that sold tools.
They passed through a room whose windows and door had been boarded shut and climbed to the shop's attic. Old tools were piled there, and the attic window had been left open just a crack. That was where the Old Clan Chief had spotted Annan.
"I stay here during the day and hide in the basement at night," the Old Clan Chief said.
"Why haven't you left?"
"I haven't found what was stolen..." His aged face was full of regret—regret over the thief, and over his own cowardice.
"What kind of family sends its Clan Chief in here to risk his life?" Annan asked, puzzled.
The Old Clan Chief explained awkwardly that the Fischer Family had been cursed by a devil. Their descendants kept dying in all kinds of accidents. He couldn't bear to put the children in danger, so he had come in place of his family.
"Fischer... the Fischer Family?" Annan suddenly remembered something. "Your family was betrayed over two hundred years ago, and the family responsible was wiped out a hundred years ago, right?"
"H-how... do you know us?"
"Yes, I do..."
Annan had never expected to meet one of Madam Puppet's descendants here. As