Chapter 31
Gold, and Something Better (2)
* * *
Unlike the others, I headed straight to Saint Deville as soon as the meeting ended. So I didn’t know exactly what the plan was after that.
“We’re going to load the gold bars into the car and head to the 3rd Basilica Bridge.”
At Tanya’s words, I looked at her. There were five bridges over the Basilica River. The 3rd Basilica Bridge was one of them.
“So?”
“When we arrive, we’ll just throw the crates into the river!”
I made a complicated expression. So, they were going to throw the gold bars into the river?
“Unless our plan has changed from stealing the gold to discarding the gold, you’d better explain that in more detail.”
Gold ingots were heavy. If thrown into the river, they would naturally sink straight to the bottom. The moment you threw gold into the river, there was practically no way to retrieve it again.
Zandara, who had been listening to the conversation, gave a brief answer.
“If we tie them with chains and suspend them under the bridge, a boat is scheduled to pass underneath.”
That finally sounded a bit more reasonable. The Basilica Bridge wasn’t that far from here.
All rivers led to the sea. The Basilica River was no exception. If it connected to the sea, it could reach the Antaria Grand Canal.
The taxes squeezed out of the Empire’s subjects would enter Bennett City through the Antaria Grand Canal.
“After that, we can just divide up those charming, glittering gold pieces.”
Daniel, who had been fiddling with the train car’s locking mechanism, stepped back. At the same time, the massive door slowly opened with a creaking metallic sound.
“As expected, the Aylan Republic’s enforcers never make the wrong choice.”
There was a cynical joke that officials, except for official duties, were good at everything else. The door to the train car holding the gold bars had opened.
“Looks like we can’t just take the whole safe.”
The case storing the gold bars was like a built-in cabinet integrated into the train. To move the entire case, you’d have to take the entire train car with it.
“But maybe smashing it open could work.”
I raised my sword and swung it at the case storing the gold bars.
A harsh clanging sound rang out, but only a small scratch appeared on the case.
“Good grief, they ignored everything else and focused only on durability.”
I flicked my slightly throbbing wrist and let out a sigh of admiration. Stained Glass was a fine sword, but even with it, this thing was too tough to even dream of cutting.
It was an alloy made with the idea that they could abandon any balance of weight, strength, or ductility, as long as it was ridiculously durable.
Just as Spring Parsley suggested, melting this safe down and taking the gold bars inside seemed the fastest and most effective way.
“Is this the cargo in question? It’s not that big in size…”
Zandara asked in a somewhat disappointed tone, and I answered her.
“They’re gold bars.”
Gold was a material with an enormous weight relative to its volume. I examined the case holding the gold bars from different angles.
“If it’s gold filling a box of this size…”
It would weigh at least between 1.5 to 2 tons. It was slightly more than the amount Spring Parsley had mentioned.
However, stolen goods were hard to sell at their full price. There was no way we could get the current market rate for gold. At best, we’d be lucky to get around a third of its value.
On top of that, these were standard gold bars stamped with the certification of the Valorn Empire… but during the process of melting the storage case, the gold inside would melt along with it. That would erase the engraved certifications too.
Gold bars with melted-off certifications would drop even further in value. But despite all these factors, no one could deny that this was still an absurd amount of money.
“Then I’ll start right away.”
Without delay, Tanya pulled out the special ignition powder from the Daeyeon Kingdom that she had brought.
“Do you know how to handle that?”
At my worried question, Tanya immediately replied.
“You really do worry too much. If you entrust everything to Father, He will show you the best path to walk.”
“Praise Itera.”
I made a half-hearted gesture of crossing myself with an exasperated expression. Seeing that, Tanya carefully made the sign of the cross properly, then got right to work.
While she hummed, I listened closely and realized it was a hymn.
“To think she’s singing hymns while preparing to melt a safe… how fitting.”
Leaning against the wall and wetting my throat with water, I thought to myself. A moment later, Tanya spoke.
“Everyone, turn away. You could damage your eyes.”
At Tanya’s words, Erickson spoke in a slightly teasing tone.
“Looks like your Father isn’t going to protect you this time?”
Tanya replied to Erickson’s remark in a gentle voice.
“When we try to overcome disasters that we ourselves could have avoided, it is the same as testing my Father.”
Finishing her words, Tanya turned her gaze aside and lit the lump she had attached to the safe.
“Damn.”
In an instant, the inside of the train car was engulfed in heat. The blinding white flames let out a ferocious noise as they melted the alloy case.
With this much heat, the alloy should be able to melt thoroughly.
“Are you sure you measured the quantity correctly?”
“Medicines applied to wounded soldiers on the battlefield can have fatal consequences even from slight measurement errors.”
Tanya had spent her life treating soldiers on the front lines. For her, adjusting the precise amounts of materials was not such a difficult task.
Slowly, the flames began to subside.
“That sturdy case really is melting.”
It was enough to make me let out a sigh of admiration. Beyond the case, glowing red as it melted, I could see the gold inside also losing its shape and sagging.
“Looks like only about half the gold bars will still be worth their proper value.”
“What can you do? If you want intact gold bars, you’d have to go to the Imperial Palace and steal the keys.”
Naturally, part of the melted gold and the melted case were mixing together. Watching this, Erickson spoke with a displeased expression.
“But doesn’t this mean the alloy’s mixed in now, so it won’t be pure gold anymore?”
“That’s for the idiots who buy it to sort out themselves.”
None of us here knew how to separate mixed gold back into pure form. But there was certainly a way.
“Let’s leave the complaints at that.”
The tracks were blocked because of the train cars I had detached. It would take the pursuers a long time to get here, but that didn’t change the fact that we were working under a time limit.
“It’d be great if we had a way to cool the molten gold quickly.”
At Tanya’s words, Zandara tapped her and jerked her chin toward the train car connected directly to the engine room.
“Ah, right.”
Directly behind the engine room was the tender car loaded with coal and water. Of course, it held a large quantity of water. We could use that to cool the melted gold quickly.
“What about the gold stuck to the case?”
At Erickson’s question, I swung my sword lightly as an answer.
“If it were the alloy from before, maybe, but slicing through gold is nothing.”
Gold was a naturally soft metal, so if I swung Stained Glass, it would split cleanly in an instant.
I turned to look at Daniel.
“Can you unlock that too?”
Daniel looked over the tender’s locking mechanism and nodded.
“Child’s play. Just wait a moment.”
With a thud, he attached his tools and started picking the lock.
“Can’t you just swing your sword at it?”
At Erickson’s remark, Tanya shook her head and spoke firmly.
“Think about the water tank’s pressure.”
Getting hit by water might sound amusing, but once you experienced it, you wouldn’t be laughing anymore.
You’d either have something broken, or you’d be dead. We had no choice but to wait for Daniel to finish opening it.
“There. Maybe because it’s only storing coal and water, the lock’s nothing special.”
Daniel succeeded in opening the door in no time. Right after, I and the rest of the crew began scooping water and pouring it over the place where the molten gold and alloy were flowing together.
With a sizzling sound, the water turned into steam.
I let out a long breath and fanned my hand to cool off.
“This place is basically a sauna now.”
The train car was already heated up from the fire, and on top of that, pouring water onto the molten metal made it feel like a wet sauna.
“Using heated gold for a sauna… even the Emperor of the Empire has probably never tried that.”
At Erickson’s words, the others chuckled quietly. Through the billowing steam, I could see the yellow lumps of gold, solidified while still keeping their melted shapes.
“A golden waterfall.”
The lumps of gold, frozen mid-flow, looked like a small cascade of gold.
There was certainly a kind of magic in the glow that these yellow metal lumps gave off, something that mesmerized people.
With the mindset of a miner who had just struck a gold vein or perhaps a farmer harvesting fully ripened grain—I swung my sword and began cutting the lumps free.
“God—damn—this is ridiculously heavy!”
The waterfall of severed gold naturally weighed every bit as much as its brilliance suggested.
We busily carried the gold ingots over to the car.
“So… is this thing actually going to move?”
Even estimating roughly, the weight had to be over a ton.
The volume was small enough to fit, but I wasn’t sure the car could withstand the weight and still drive down an unpaved road.
“It’ll work out somehow. The 3rd Basilica Bridge isn’t that far. But considering the weight, everyone except the driver should look after themselves.”
Erickson would be driving. In other words, he planned to drive the car to the bridge alone. Everyone first turned their eyes to Erickson, then to me.
No one could deny that, judging by everything that had happened, I was effectively the commander of this operation.
“There’s no other option. We’ll leave handling the gold to you. The rest of you, scatter and find your own way back to Bennett City.”
But I agreed with Erickson’s suggestion without much hesitation.
“…Are you sure about that?”
At Daniel’s dubious question, I replied calmly.
“No problem. I already secured the guarantee from the Rose Garden.”
“Yeah, yeah. Do you think I’d screw up a guaranteed deal unless I’d lost my mind?”
Erickson immediately agreed with my words. Having roughly settled what needed to be done, I gave the side of the car a light slap and spoke.
“Go.”
“…Huh? But if you’re getting in the car—”
I shook my head at Erickson’s words.
“No need to worry. Just drive alone. I’ll follow you on foot.”
Right after leaving the labor correctional facility, I’d once managed to catch up to a moving car by running. I’d done it once, so there was no reason I couldn’t do it again.
Everyone’s expression turned strange when they heard me say that.
“Are you insane?”
Even Tanya asked me if I was crazy.
“You’re the last person I’d want to hear that question from.”
But before I could answer, Tanya spoke again immediately.
“Ah… Father, please forgive me. Your daughter has uttered a word she never should have spoken.”
Even for someone who considered herself the daughter of a god, hearing me say I would run after a moving car sounded like nonsense.
“Just go. I’ll handle the rest.”
Hearing me, Erickson finally shifted the car into gear. I was the one claiming I could keep up, so it wasn’t as if Erickson was doing anything wrong.
“Unbelievable.”
And so, everyone witnessed the bizarre sight of a man chasing a speeding car.
Next to the vehicle, which roared forward with its engine rumbling, I was running.
“Eyes on the road.”
Obviously, Erickson’s gaze kept darting between the road ahead and me.
“What kind of bastard is this?”
A man who could keep up with a moving car on foot.
With his memories and feelings for the lover I had killed now mostly faded, Erickson could hardly believe he’d once harbored any hostility toward this monster.
What the hell had he been thinking when he decided to pick a fight with me? Even inside the violently jolting car bouncing over the dirt path, Erickson didn’t have the time to feel carsick or notice the pain in his backside.
“We’re almost there, I think.”
Far in the distance, the massive iron bridge came into view.