Chapter 21
Our Father in Heaven
* * *
“Here’s my business card.”
Next to Kairus’s coffee cup, which was still steaming, a business card was placed.
“You can call me Daniel.”
The first to introduce himself was the middle-aged man who had just argued over rights and wrongs.
On the card he handed to Kairus, the word [Dattamacta] was written alongside a picture of a padlock. It was immediately clear what he did for a living.
“So you’re in charge of opening doors?”
He looked exactly like a locksmith. To Kairus’s remark, the middle-aged man answered briefly.
“When I was young in the Aylan Republic, I had an exclusive contract with the court enforcement officers.”
Enforcement officers of the Aylan Republic.
They were government officials who confiscated the property of debtors who couldn’t repay their debts, sold it off to raise cash, and distributed the money to creditors.
Given the nature of the work, they often had to force open doors or safes. When someone came to seize everything you owned, no fool would just open the door politely.
“I’m different from those other petty locksmiths in the quantity and quality of locks I’ve broken.”
You think he got picked just because of connections?
Enforcement officers took a commission from the sale of seized assets and served five-year terms.
On top of that, it was customary for court officials who completed their term as enforcement officers to retire honorably. What that custom meant was obvious.
[You’ve worked hard all this time. Before you retire, go ahead and rake in one big haul as an enforcement officer.]
In other words, to the enforcement officer, it was a job that could make or break their retirement fund.
There was no way they would bring along someone unreliable for something this important.
Having been under contract with enforcement officers, Daniel’s skill at opening locks was beyond question.
“Even after coming to Bennett City, I’ve opened about twenty major locks.”
“A locksmith who comes uninvited to open locks. Touching.”
It was no different from a restaurant that brought you food you didn’t order and demanded payment for it. There was a word for that kind of crime: coercive sales.
“I’m Erickson. The lover of the woman you killed.”
His words, laced with menace, tickled Kairus’s ear.
“Not your lover. She was your lover. She’s dead now.”
Kairus replied to Erickson’s introduction, drawing his thumb across his neck in a slitting gesture.
From inside Erickson’s mouth, there came a faint grinding sound. He didn’t seem pleased with Kairus’s answer.
With a sharp bang, Kairus’s figure vanished for an instant, then reappeared right in front of Erickson’s nose.
“If you want to drape your arm around your dead ex and burn in hell together, come at me.”
Kairus spoke in a low voice, aiming the tip of his blade at Erickson’s Adam’s apple.
“I’ll kill you so you won’t even know you’re dead.”
Silence fell again.
“Still, it’d be a bit of a waste for you to die right now. How about trying to live a little longer? Life has a way of changing when you least expect it.”
While the others were reeling in shock at Kairus’s sudden movement, his gaze was fixed on Erickson’s hand.
Erickson had managed to grab a pair of awls hidden up his sleeve. But with his level of skill, that was as far as he could get.
“Shut up.”
Before Erickson could finish speaking, Kairus slapped him hard across the face.
“If you’re weaker than me, don’t give orders. I have no intention of listening.”
In this society, there was a quaint custom of answering unpleasant words from someone weaker than you with a punch.
Erickson didn’t have the skills to stand against a distinguished knight, but against the other knights in the tax transport unit, he would be more than capable.
If Kairus had insisted on using that shabby battle gear, whatever it was, instead of Stained Glass, he would have had a good chance of losing.
Cecilia hadn’t quoted that price for nothing.
Just getting hold of one good piece of battle gear changed so many things.
That was why, whenever word spread that a quality battle gear was on the market, everyone lost their minds and pounced by any means necessary.
Next to introduce herself was a woman with dark brown bobbed hair, wearing a gray coat over a black dress.
“I’m Tanya Lysand. May this meeting be blessed.”
Tanya abruptly stretched out both hands, and Kairus instinctively stepped back.
“I was going to offer you a laying-on of hands prayer. You don’t often get this kind of chance.”
Seeing Kairus’s reaction, Tanya snapped back with a slightly irritated look.
Kairus prided himself on having been through every kind of situation, but in this moment, he couldn’t help being bewildered.
A laying-on of hands prayer? Was that the thing church priests sometimes did?
— She believes she is the only daughter of Itera, born into a human body.
Itera.
The god worshipped by the Ascension Church, the state religion of the Valorn Empire and the most popular faith in the Aylan Republic.
Hearing an explanation about Tanya Lysand over the receiver, Kairus closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath.
A person who believed herself to be Itera’s daughter.
“I don’t know since when raiding the Valorn Empire’s tax convoys became child’s play.”
At Kairus’s remark, Spring Parsley hastily replied.
— I know what you’re trying to say… But she did serve as an army medic before she was discharged, and afterward she worked as a team leader in the Platinum Mercy Brigade. Her main base of operations was in the Sarief conflict zone.
The Platinum Mercy Brigade was a medical volunteer organization. They mainly treated patients in war zones and conflict areas, without regard for nationality, status, or past deeds.
She wasn’t just a volunteer if she had been a team leader, that meant her skills and experience in medicine, especially emergency care, were top tier.
When Kairus looked anew at Tanya, she clasped her hands and spoke.
“Father, I earnestly ask that you allow me to save just one more soul.”
No sooner had she finished her short prayer than Tanya Lysand took issue with Spring Parsley’s earlier remark.
“Miss Spring Parsley, please watch your words. I am indeed Father’s daughter. Salvation does not come to those who lack faith.”
Hearing that claim, Kairus asked a question.
“So you’re saying the daughter of Itera, who’s also a former army medic and a Platinum Mercy Brigade team leader, plans to commit a crime?”
Tanya answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I don’t commit crimes. In fact, I cannot.”
“What are you talking about?”
Tanya bent her waist slightly, touching the ground with her left hand, and answered.
“Every action I take of my own will is, in fact, the will of the Holy Father. Therefore, it cannot be a sin.”
She meant that her acts of robbery were permitted by God, so it was fine.
By the same logic, if she killed someone, she’d say it was a murder sanctioned by the High God, so that was also fine.
Kairus finally reached that conclusion and clicked his tongue.
“You’re completely insane.”
At Kairus’s remark, Tanya touched each of her eyebrows once with her right index finger, then brushed her lips with her thumb.
“I have forgiven his words. Father, please do not hold his sin against him.”
“This is so delightful already I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.”
Muttering that, Kairus turned to look at the last person. She was wearing a hood pulled low.
“Zandara.”
It was a woman’s voice. Kairus seemed to think for a moment, then spoke.
“Dutel tribe accent?”
They were the indigenous people who had lived in this area since ancient times.
During the escalation of territorial disputes between the Empire and the Republic, nearly all of them had been forcibly relocated to protected zones, save for a few exceptions.
Since studying history was part of any Imperial noble’s education, it would have been stranger if Kairus didn’t know about the Dutel.
“Are you mixed-blood?”
Kairus asked Zandara. Most of the few who left the protected zones were of mixed blood with Imperial or Republican lineage.
Zandara, still wearing her hood, lifted it just enough to reveal her forehead and met Kairus’s gaze.
Purple irises and brown skin came into view. Hallmarks of the Dutel tribe.
“You know much, but you are not wise.”
“Is that so? You, who make so many judgments from such a brief look, can’t be wise either.”
For a moment, the two of them locked eyes. Kairus looked at Zandara briefly, then spoke.
“Seems this will turn into a long conversation. Should we replace it with blood?”
It was a proverb representing the Dutel tribe’s belligerent culture. It meant, if you still had something more to say, draw your weapon.
Because of that temperament, a tradition of speaking as briefly as possible had taken hold, leading to their blunt manner of speech.
Zandara turned her gaze aside. It meant she wouldn’t fight.
“Anyway, is this everyone? Only five people?”
For a group gathered to raid the Empire’s tax transport convoy, the scale seemed far too small.
— Six people. Why are you leaving me out?
Spring Parsley immediately corrected Kairus’s remark. Kairus thought he finally understood why other criminals didn’t much care for architects.
When someone who didn’t risk themselves on the ground still demanded their share, it naturally grated on those who did the work.
“With our one honored member, it’s six. The Father is always with me, watching over our great undertaking. All who stand with me are truly blessed.”
At Tanya’s words, Kairus’s expression turned sullen again.
“You… You’re not seriously asking for two shares, are you?”
At his question, Zandara turned to Tanya and spoke in a rather menacing tone.
“If you say something like that, I’ll split you in two myself and make you into two people.”
Despite Zandara’s threat, Tanya just smiled as though nothing were amiss and replied.
“The Father has no interest in anything of this world apart from me, His only daughter. So one share is enough for me.”
“God isn’t interested in us? That’s not what I heard from the sermons of the church priests.”
At Erickson’s objection, Tanya wore a look of pity.
“In truth, it isn’t the Father who pities you all. It’s me. Because I care about you, the Father sometimes shows you His attention.”
Hearing Tanya’s words, everyone felt a headache coming on, but no one bothered to argue.
What was clear was that the reason Tanya Lysand had come to Bennett City must have something to do with the Ascension Church’s Inquisitors.
“Anyway, the point is that the ones working on site are just five people.”
Fortunately, everything Kairus had seen and experienced over the years helped him pinpoint the essence even in this chaotic situation.
— When there are more people, everyone’s share shrinks. And five are enough, so only five were gathered.
Spring Parsley wouldn’t say something so confidently without a solid plan. She continued speaking over the receiver.
— From the start, train robbery isn’t something you succeed at just by throwing numbers at it.
Even though they were planning to raid the Valorn Empire’s national tax convoy, the transport of taxes their group was after would all take place by train anyway.
— The procedure for looting a train is already fairly established.
You check the train schedule check the route pick the most deserted stretch of track — destroy the tracks before the train arrives.
Finally…
You kill anyone who resists, grab everything of value, and escape.
— The main difference from ordinary train robberies is you don’t have to go car by car extorting money from passengers.
At Spring Parsley’s words, Daniel immediately replied.
“That’s true. The moment they see the tracks wrecked, every Valorn Imperial soldier waiting inside the train will go on full alert.”
There would be no need to hunt down passengers. They would all be coming for them, weapons in hand.
Whether that was a good thing, honestly, none of the five gathered here were sure.
The Imperial Army had a mindset like: “If the enemy is worth a hundred, throw in a hundred soldiers. If they’re worth a thousand, throw in a thousand more!”
But that also meant that even if the soldiers Kairus and his collaborators had to face were individually unimpressive, their numbers would be absurd.
And in the end, the real threat they would encounter during the raid wouldn’t be the Imperial soldiers at all.
“Valorn Empire knights don’t rely on sheer numbers.”
They’d throw the soldiers in as meat shields, and in that time, knights in battle gear would sweep the battlefield and seize victory. That was the basic principle of Valorn Empire strategy.
Therefore, the Imperial knights possessed skill worthy of their station.
In general, the combat power and morale of soldiers were considered much higher in the Aylan Republic’s forces.
But evaluations of the knight orders were different.
“The Imperial knights are usually considered superior in skill compared to the Republic’s.”