Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 63

A Rotten City

Kairus had a lot to do today, and Irena had a goal she was determined to accomplish.

Since both of them wanted to have a hearty breakfast, their morning meal naturally stretched on a bit longer.

"Ah, I heard some bad rumors about the editor-in-chief of the Rezantin Daily."

"Yeah? What kind of bad rumors?"

Since they were already eating and had big things ahead, some light chit-chat helped ease the tension.

Kairus decided to entertain Irena's small talk for a moment.

"An editor-in-chief at a newspaper holds a lot of power, right? The power of the press and all that."

At Irena’s words, Kairus nodded. Newspapers held significant power.

Of course, the nature of that power differed slightly between the Aylan Republic and the Valorn Empire. But no one could deny the fact that they both wielded substantial influence.

"Because they can distort information according to intent."

If a newspaper processed all sorts of collected materials and turned them into articles with a particular agenda, there was virtually no way for ordinary people to notice.

"They turn defeats into victories. Say that even in drought, things are better than the neighboring country. Distort the truth into lies. Turn innocent victims into criminals who deserve to die."

If the only window to the world had an agenda, such outcomes were inevitable.

The press could check power. But what it could do and what it actually did were different things.

"Rezantin City is practically a sterile chamber with a near-zero crime rate. Doesn’t seem like a place where newspapers can really intervene."

To Kairus’s remark, Irena responded while breaking the egg yolk on her plate with a fork.

"In the past six months, the editor-in-chief has successfully painted around twenty people as criminals."

They all had one thing in common: people with no connections who suddenly came into money. He cherry-picked targets who were wealthy yet wouldn’t cause problems if touched.

Of the assets seized from those wrongfully accused, a portion was returned to the national treasury, but the rest was evenly split among the complicit power players.

"Wow, that’s some sharp business sense."

At Kairus’s comment, Irena gave him a sharp glare.

"They built their wealth through their own effort, only to lose everything under false charges. Some even get dragged off to labor correctional facilities."

"That’s just life. Misfortune sweeps you up like a car hitting you while you’re walking down the street."

It wasn’t about justice prevailing; it was just plain bad luck.

From Irena’s perspective, Kairus’s response didn’t sit well. It was wrong and needed to be corrected.

But it seemed Kairus didn’t think of the whole situation as unjust or improper.

"Are all people from Bennett City like this?"

Kairus was the only person from Bennett City that Irena had ever met.

She worried that she might be forming a negative stereotype about people from Bennett City, but in truth, Kairus actually had a relatively sound way of thinking, at least compared to others from his hometown.

While Irena was caught up in that worry, Kairus was entertaining a rather interesting train of thought himself.

Everything that had been prepared yesterday was meant for moving the corpse into the battalion commander’s residence.

"The plan only has meaning if there’s a body."

In other words, a corpse was an absolute necessity. Kairus decided to make a slight change to the plan.

"It might be better to make two corpses instead."

If there had to be one innocent casualty anyway, then it made no real difference if it became two.

Conveniently, while eating breakfast, Irena had mentioned someone quite intriguing.

"Kill the editor-in-chief and leave the corpse at the battalion commander’s residence..."

Then take care of one of the scholars from the Artifact Evaluation Committee and assume their identity. That made for a far better plan.

"If a member of the Evaluation Committee turns up dead at the residence, then after the body is recovered, the Rezantin Royal Museum’s security will surely be raised."

Of course, Kairus planned to finish his work and leave before that happened. But life didn’t always go according to plan.

"If the editor-in-chief’s corpse is found sprawled in the residence, even if they take care of it, they won’t have the capacity to worry about the Royal Museum."

That would give Kairus extra time to deal with any issues that might arise after infiltrating the vault.

"Well, and as a bonus, I’d be getting rid of a bastard."

The editor-in-chief of Rezantin City’s newspaper wasn’t going to die because he was a bad person. He was just unlucky.

He had been like a car running people over. This time, Kairus would play the role of the car running over him.

Someday, someone else would come speeding toward Kairus in order to hit him. And if he couldn’t dodge then, he’d die just as miserably and unjustly.

So—

"Justifying it by saying I’m killing a bad guy is a disgusting form of self-indulgence."

A good result didn’t purify the intent. After all, the starting point of this whole plan had been, "What’s the difference between killing one or killing two?"

"How many loaves of bread have you eaten since this morning?"

Having wrapped up his thoughts, Kairus tried to recall with mild astonishment how many pieces of bread Irena had devoured. In just a short while, she had already taken down twelve slices of bread, soaked in egg wash and grilled.

"I need to eat a lot now."

Irena let out a satisfied grunt, picked at her teeth with a toothpick, then stood up and waved her hand.

"Well, I’m off to go suffer."

After Irena disappeared first, Kairus also got up from his seat.

"The editor-in-chief must have gone to work by now. One fortunate thing is..."

Rezantin City was essentially a sterile zone thanks to the presence of the knight captain and an elite battalion.

People understood the concept of crime, but the idea that it might occur in Rezantin City didn’t even cross their minds.

The crime rate had been effectively zero for years. Since there had been no criminals all this time, they believed there wouldn’t be any today or tomorrow either.

It was a city so lacking in caution toward crime that people didn’t even lock their doors, to the point locksmiths had gone out of business.

"Time to give these folks a little crisis."

Just how easily their sense of security about this city could be shattered.

The knight captain was unlikely to move. He only took action when reports came in.

"Dana Watson isn’t the kind of person to neglect her duties."

But she wasn’t the type to go looking for tasks that weren’t hers either. The knight captain moved when there were reports.

If no one reported anything, she wouldn’t go poking around on her own.

"If nothing gets exposed at the newspaper, the knight captain won’t make a move."

And if the editor-in-chief’s corpse was found at the residence, the battalion commander wouldn’t report it to the knight captain.

So then, was it difficult to kill and smuggle the editor-in-chief out of the newspaper building? Not at all.

The widespread ignorance about crime in this city was incredibly helpful.

"They’re way too soft."

Exaggerating only a little, this city felt like the kind of place where you could carry around a corpse in a cello case for over a week and no one would find it odd.

Wasn’t this what they called the paradox of cleanliness? Or greenhouse immunity?

After gathering his stained glass and adjusting his outfit, Kairus left the garrison.

"Sir!"

It seemed the battalion commander had already spread the word during a morning meeting or something, because neither soldiers nor officers questioned Kairus as he wandered freely around the garrison.

After leaving the garrison and entering the city, Kairus asked people for directions and arrived in front of the newspaper office.

Even when he randomly stopped passersby and spoke to them, not a single person was suspicious.

"They’re all so naive."

People left their bags at the table and went to the restroom in the middle of a meal. To Kairus’s eyes, it looked like they were begging to have their belongings stolen.

Apparently, people marked their seat by placing something on their chair. According to Kairus’s logic, that meant they’d lose their seat, their things, and get branded an idiot—making them a prime target for crime.

Children screamed and threw tantrums in the restaurant. If kids acted like that in Bennett City, they’d be sprawled out on the pavement with a broken nose ten minutes later.

From battlefields where people killed and were killed, to labor correctional facilities filled with the vilest criminals, and then to Bennett City—

Having lived a life seeing only the essence of how depraved and hideous humans could become, Kairus found this city to be utterly bizarre.

"Do they not have any sense of danger?"

After purchasing a large wreath from a shop and completing his disguise to hide his identity, Kairus was able to enter the newspaper office building.

"Who are you?"

As expected, he was questioned as soon as he stepped inside, but Kairus simply held up the flower basket and replied.

"I'm here to deliver flowers. I was told to give them to the editor-in-chief."

In Kairus's understanding of common sense, when such a gift arrived, it was standard for staff to say they would deliver it themselves, inspect the flowers, and send the courier on his way.

"Is that so? Wonder who sent it."

But this city did not operate by Kairus’s standards of common sense. The staff member just scratched their head and mumbled.

"Um, I’m a bit busy, so could we hurry this along?"

"Oh, sure. Go ahead."

The response to Kairus’s excuse was immediate and kind.

In Bennett City, if you said, "I’m kind of busy, so can we speed this up?" the reply would be something like, "Who the hell isn’t busy, you idiot?"

But here, it worked. Hiding his bafflement, Kairus proceeded with the wreath in hand.

There was not even the slightest assumption that a suspicious person might disguise himself as a delivery man and hide a blade inside the flowers.

"How is it possible they don’t even consider that?"

With that thought, Kairus easily reached the editor-in-chief’s office.

"What the hell is with all these flower baskets lately? Just put it there."

The editor-in-chief, skimming through documents, tilted his head upon seeing Kairus with the wreath.

Then, he lost interest and returned to his papers. Normally, if a suspicious person entered, one would stay alert until they left.

"People say common sense is relative. Fine, let’s toss it out."

Apparently, this was the city’s version of common sense. Kairus took the stained glass hidden within the large wreath and jabbed it between the editor-in-chief’s cervical vertebrae.

The blade slid between the vertebrae as if it had been soaked in, instantly cutting off the editor-in-chief’s breath.

Just like that, the editor-in-chief died without even managing a scream.

"In this situation..."

There was no need to go to great lengths to hide the body. Scanning the room, Kairus shoved the corpse into a cabinet.

Next to it was a cart loaded with several boxes of documents. The kind of cart commonly referred to as a dolly.

"Now then..."

After a brief moment of thought, Kairus rummaged through the table, found a piece of paper, and wrote in large letters:

[DISPOSAL]

"This should be enough."

He taped the paper to the cabinet, then hoisted the cabinet onto the dolly, secured it with a strap, and rolled it down a built-in ramp to the first floor.

"..."

A few people seemed curious about him moving the cabinet with the dolly, but upon seeing the large "DISPOSAL" note, they lost interest.

No one suspected there was a corpse inside. In fact, no one even wondered who Kairus was, despite the fact he was the one hauling it.

"Better hurry."

He still needed one more body. This one was just bait to draw the military’s attention. To assume a new identity, Kairus needed to eliminate one more person.

"I can probably just toss this at a nearby trash collection point."

By this point, Kairus was confident that even if he dumped this cabinet at a collection site, not a single person would care.