Chapter 26
Playing Nobility (3)
* * *
‘How does that bastard plan to verify it? Is he going to call His Majesty or something?’
The symbol of the Renegade family was a deer. The direct line bore a deer with two heads, while the collateral branches had only one.
And Jerome carried on his person an insignia of a deer with one head. That meant he was collateral.
He could puff himself up in front of commoners, but before the direct line, he had to crawl on his belly.
Besides, the Renegade family wasn’t even such a powerful noble house.
They couldn’t dare be compared to the House Featherwing. To give an example from the Aylan Republic, it was the difference between a block Supervisor and the President.
‘If the House Featherwing hadn’t been framed and wiped out…’
A nobleman of Jerome’s standing would have had to bow deeply and ask permission even to breathe in front of Kairus.
“Well then, I’ll first report the situation through the Security Corps chain of command, and afterward I’ll grant you the relevant authority.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
After greeting him, Kairus headed to the temporary lodgings prepared inside the station. As if it were natural, Jerome followed close behind.
‘Still, that means he hasn’t entirely let go of his suspicions.’
Jerome wasn’t an idiot, so it was clear he still harbored some lingering doubts, just in case.
The problem was, when a person’s suspicion was pointed in the wrong direction, no matter how meticulously they questioned and verified, it was meaningless.
All of Jerome’s suspicions were converging on the thought, ‘He might not be a noble.’
“It happens to be mealtime. If you don’t mind, would you care to join me?”
“Thank you for the invitation. Gladly.”
Ordinarily, Jerome’s approach would have been effective enough.
If his counterpart hadn’t been Kairus, he would have performed the role of a sieve for sorting out suspicious people accurately and reliably.
But as a filter for determining whether someone was a noble, it couldn’t catch Kairus.
“The taste is excellent. I can sense His Majesty the Emperor’s care for the Security Corps, who safeguard the Empire’s peace.”
When the meal had largely concluded, Kairus spoke while eating the tea and blackberry tart served as dessert.
“For His Majesty to concern himself even with us, who do trivial work like dogs or cattle, is something we’re always grateful for.”
Jerome replied to Kairus’s remark. Even while they were eating, Jerome couldn’t find anything suspicious about Kairus.
‘Was the House Dmitri always this good at educating their descendants?’
He even thought there seemed to be things he himself ought to learn from this man.
As the meal progressed into the middle stage, Jerome instead began to pay closer attention to his own behavior, worrying whether he might commit some discourtesy.
‘There’s no room for doubt.’
In the end, Jerome let go of his suspicions about Kairus. In truth, it was inevitable.
Well, that was because Kairus was a direct descendant of the House Featherwing.
‘Even though I wasn’t the heir of the family, the amount and quality of the education I received was on a completely different level from yours.’
Kairus could easily sense that much of a change in Jerome’s thoughts.
Jerome’s line of reasoning was simple.
‘He said he received an order from His Majesty? That’s impossible unless he’s a noble. And no noble in his right mind would dare fabricate a lie about carrying the Emperor’s command.’
Therefore, once he verified that Kairus was indeed a noble, it naturally concluded the verification of Kairus’s claim about having received an imperial order.
“Well then, you must be busy starting tomorrow. Do you have a place to stay?”
“As you know, this is a matter that requires urgent action.”
What Kairus said was the truth. There wasn’t much time left before the train arrived. It must have been a close call just to get here carrying the Emperor’s mandate.
“I see. I understand. But still, you can’t just sleep anywhere, can you? It must be fate that we met like this, so please allow me to provide you with a place to rest.”
Not only had he dispelled Jerome’s suspicion, but Kairus had also secured lodging provided by the Security Corps.
‘For now, this should be enough.’
The fact that no one dared to interfere when you invoked the Emperor’s order was both the strength and the weakness of the Valorn Empire.
Since all authority and sovereignty emanated from the Emperor’s hand, if the Emperor had the will, enormous levels of change and progress were possible.
But for the same reason, if you succeeded in deceiving people by claiming to bear the Emperor’s command, no one could challenge you afterward.
It didn’t matter if it was the Chief of Security Corps who controlled this city, or the Commander of the Knights. In the end, the single phrase that it was an order from the Emperor made everyone tuck their tails and step back.
“The National Tax Service, huh.”
Having secured access to the train that transported national taxes while ensuring his personal safety, Kairus looked out the window of his lodging, sinking into thought.
The rumors Jerome had mentioned were not directly related to the immediate task Kairus had to accomplish.
At least until just moments ago, Kairus had come to that conclusion.
He hadn’t had any room to worry about anything else while overcoming the situation in front of him. But now, things had become much more relaxed.
Someone, whose identity was unknown, had used the Rose Garden as an intermediary to commission Spring Parsley, and as success payment, they had staked the taxes being transported.
‘They asked me to rob the train carrying national taxes, yet they have no interest in the taxes themselves, which would be the most certain profit?’
Then just what profit would that ‘client’ gain if the train was raided?
Kairus thought that if he had any time left after the heist, while the other criminals were busy focusing on the gold bars, he might as well use the opportunity to do a bit of snooping on the side.
‘Sometimes a single scrap of paper can be worth more than dozens of carts of gold bars.’
Stealing gold was all well and good, but a piece of paper that could be used to extort a mountain of gold from others was even better.
It was much lighter, and far easier to carry in secret. Besides, in the end, it wasn’t the gold itself that Kairus was after.
‘I need information.’
Areumdri Pawnshop was a fence organization of considerable scale even in Bennett City. They liked gold well enough, but there were surely other things they preferred even more.
Kairus’s goal wasn’t to become suddenly rich, but to reclaim the legacy of the vanished family, and achieving that goal didn’t necessarily require any gold bars.
After thinking for a moment longer, Kairus checked the time and took a shower.
The train carrying the national taxes would arrive tomorrow. Since he now had a comfortable place to rest, he intended to take full advantage of it.
Once he’d finished showering, Kairus changed into the comfortable clothes provided for guests, then lay down on the bed.
“Today I’m a nobleman, tomorrow I’ll be cleaning the engine room of the train. Quite the violent change of identity.”
At this rate, he might even have to impersonate royalty someday. With that thought, Kairus drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, as soon as he woke up, Kairus ate a hearty meal that had been provided, prepared himself to go out, and stepped through the doorway.
“Ah, Mr. Ralof Dmitry. The company commander said he’d very much like to meet you. He has ties with the House Dmitri.”
It seemed Jerome had been waiting for Kairus. And what Jerome said as soon as Ralof approached him struck Kairus’s mind like a bolt of lightning.
The company commander of this Security Corps had ties to the House Dmitri? From the break of dawn, Kairus’s thoughts began spinning at high speed to deal with this imminent crisis.
‘Damn it all. Even when luck sticks to me, does it have to stick in such a shitty way?’
His instincts told him with absolute clarity that there was nothing good about meeting this man.
No matter how perfectly Kairus could play the part of a nobleman, it only worked because he was doing it in front of nobles who knew nothing about the actual family.
Jerome right in front of him was a prime example.
But if it was another noble who already had connections with the House Dmitri, there was almost no way Kairus could fool him with mere acting.
‘In other words, I’ll be exposed.’
“Is that so? I’m very grateful for the opportunity. However, first I should confirm when the train will arrive.”
Kairus spoke to Jerome, his mind racing at full speed.
“It’s scheduled to arrive in about an hour. That leaves more than enough time to have a short conversation with the company commander…”
There was no one else around. The train would be arriving in roughly an hour.
As soon as he heard that answer, Kairus immediately covered Jerome’s mouth and drove the sword at Jerome’s waist straight into his neck.
“It’s come to this, Jerome Renegade. I’m sorry.”
Either Kairus would die, or Jerome would.
It was a fork in the road. Fortunately, at least the choice was Kairus’s to make.
If Jerome’s death wasn’t discovered within the next hour, Kairus would be able to board the train.
After that, it didn’t matter if the body was found.
By then, the train would have departed, and Kairus would already be aboard a moving train.
‘What I need to do now.’
A reason why someone impersonating a noble would kill Jerome.
He had to fabricate it convincingly.
He needed to make them believe he had taken something from Jerome and then fled, not boarded the train.
Otherwise, once Jerome’s death was discovered, a telegram would be sent from Saint Deville Station to inform the next station where the tax train was scheduled to arrive.
The train itself might not be stopped, but soldiers would be dispatched both to the station expecting the train and from Saint Deville.
It was already going to be a headache to deal with the transport detachment’s troops. He had to avoid creating a situation where reinforcements would join the fight.
“...”
Kairus quickly stole from Jerome’s corpse the Renegade family’s insignia, his wallet, and lastly his Security Corps identification and personal notebook.
“Once the body’s found, they’ll realize I was impersonating a noble anyway.”
When they saw the items missing from Jerome’s corpse, everyone would assume Kairus had killed Jerome to steal his identity.
Instead of sending a telegram to the next train station where the national tax transport was arriving, they’d contact the Renegade family.
And a crime like impersonating a noble was not a matter for the military but was entirely under the Security Corps’ jurisdiction, so naturally, the Security Corps would have no reason to report it to the army.
In other words, while Kairus and his collaborators were raiding the train, no reinforcements would be coming.
“The body…”
First, it couldn’t be visible. For now, the sword embedded in the neck meant the bleeding wasn’t too severe. If he pulled it out, the blood would surely gush everywhere.
Kairus stripped Jerome’s upper garments, then picked up a blanket from inside the lodging.
Kairus wrapped the blanket tightly around Jerome’s head, where the sword was embedded, and tied it in place with the upper garment, then shoved the corpse into the wardrobe.
“I don’t know how long this will hold.”
At the very least, it would stop the blood from seeping out of the wardrobe and pooling on the floor.
Once he finished dealing with the body, Kairus immediately checked his clothes and face for any stains, then left the lodging.
Now all he had to do was kill time out of sight until he could board the train.
“Easier said than done.”
Hiding in the Security Corps’ command center for two hours without being discovered was a challenge of an entirely different level from a child’s game of hide-and-seek.
If he let himself underestimate the situation, he might have come to the naive conclusion to just hole up in a restroom for two hours.
But Kairus had no intention of doing that.
“Too dangerous.”
The company commander was already looking for him. If Kairus completely vanished from sight, of course the Security Corps members would start searching for him everywhere.
And the first place they’d check was obvious.
‘My lodging.’
And inside the wardrobe of that lodging, Jerome Renegade was now in an endless sleep he would never awaken from.
He’d managed to hide the body in a rush, but if the Security Corps came into the room?
It wouldn’t take long for them to discover Jerome was dead. After all, the wardrobe wasn’t some vault with a locking mechanism.
The real priority right now wasn’t Kairus disappearing from view but keeping the fact of Jerome’s death concealed.
“Guess I’ll have to go eat.”
Kairus had already eaten breakfast. But he decided to eat again.
Naturally, the Security Corps had designated spaces inside the station where they ate meals together.
Ordinary Security Corps members would gather by squad and eat with the senior petty officer in charge of them.
Squad leaders and officers of equivalent rank would visit the mess hall individually, while the company commander took his meals separately.
Of course, the menu differed accordingly. But that wasn’t what mattered.
‘The point is that nobody comes to the mess hall twice.’
The Security Corps members or officers who’d already seen Kairus during breakfast wouldn’t be returning to the mess hall again.
Meaning, everyone who’d see Kairus in the mess hall now would be seeing him there for the first time.
‘Besides, the company commander doesn’t even eat in the mess hall.’
Even if the company commander came looking for Kairus, once he heard a report that Kairus was having a meal, he’d be willing to wait a little while.
It was considered quite rude to abruptly summon a noble who was sitting down to breakfast simply to have a chat.