Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 72

Confidential Leak

If you kept walking straight, you would come to a three-way fork where a broom with a red-tipped handle lay toppled over.

He headed down the passage in the direction the broom was pointing.

Farther ahead, six passageways came into view. Among them, he chose the one with a diameter of 5.52 meters.

…And so, the man holding a small lantern proceeded through the dark, smelly, and damp underground tunnel, following the instructions written on the scrap of paper in his hand.

“Goddamn it, when is this going to end.”

Faint squeaks from rats echoed through the tunnel, and all sorts of filthy, light-averse vermin crawled about.

A black insect with grotesquely long antennae landed on his shoulder, twitching menacingly, while worms that had crept into his shoes squelched and burst, flooding him with a sensation that was both disgusting and foul.

“Shit… goddamn it!”

The stench from rotting sludge piled up on the floor was enough to give him a headache. Even so, he kept going.

There was a place he had to reach, no matter how many hours he wandered through this revolting underground maze.

If he didn’t make it there, far worse things than crawling through sewers awaited him.

“Rose Garden.”

Rose Garden was on his tail. They were tracking down the traitor, intending to deliver a fitting end.

If this foolish man wanted to survive, he had to make it to the base of the Areumdri Pawnshop.

‘At least I have this.’

He had received a note that told him which way to go underground to reach Areumdri Pawnshop’s hideout.

If he followed the directions on this note, he could be safe.

Clinging to that belief alone, the man scurried through the stinking tunnels like a sewer rat.

“Just have to make it there.”

No matter how fearsome Rose Garden was, they couldn’t invade the underground of the city—certainly not the headquarters of Areumdri Pawnshop.

His hurried footsteps, his breathing, and even his muttered words took on the shape of sound, faintly echoing through the dark, narrow tunnels.

Like the midnight of a new moon, black strands of thread quivered subtly in tune with the vibrations.

So thin that even if you placed a hundred strands across the cross-section of a hair, there would still be room for more—those fine threads trembled ever so slightly.

The trembling of the delicate threads was soon transmitted to Cecilia, the one they belonged to.

“Found him.”

At that moment, as if there was no longer any need to look, all the threads that had stretched into the underground passage retracted at once.

The pitch-black strands tangled together and transformed into a dagger with a black blade.

Cecilia returned the dagger to the sheath hidden against her thigh. A faint click rang out as the blade slid into place.

As if that sound were a signal, Cecilia’s figure vanished.

“Ugh… Aaaaah?!”

The man who had been fleeing let out a sorrowful scream as he collapsed onto the pile of filth on the floor.

“My foot—my foot!”

He hurriedly checked his left ankle, where the pain throbbed. The safety boots he wore had steel plates covering the soles and insteps.

“?!”

The leather of the boot had been sliced. But the steel plate remained intact. As he struggled to remove the shoe, his severed toes, cut along with the sock, dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

“What is… what is this…?”

The toe bones were still attached to his body without any visible damage. Only the flesh had fallen to the floor.

In truth, even the toe bones were not completely intact.

Though the bone itself showed no signs of fracture, the marrow, the periosteum, and all the soft tissues within—blood vessels and all—had been severed cleanly by something.

“Hello?”

The man writhed in agony, but the moment he heard the voice, he froze.

“Representative… Representative.”

“Just call me Cecilia. I’m not shameless enough to expect formal titles from my enemies.”

At that moment, Cecilia had decided that the man writhing in the filth before her was an enemy. And that decision would not be reversed.

“I… I can explain. Please, just give me one chance to defend myself!”

“Are your parents very ill? Or is it that your only son’s tuition is too expensive? Did you get scammed and lose a fortune?”

Cecilia took a step forward with a smile.

“If you were in trouble, you should’ve come to me first.”

At this point, it was all meaningless anyway. The man never imagined that Cecilia, the representative of Rose Garden, would come for him in person.

The moment she chose to act herself, his chance of survival had become zero.

‘I miscalculated.’

Even if he did betray them, he never once imagined that she would move personally.

She wouldn’t act directly over a mere internal informant—Rose Garden had plenty of capable operatives.

He thought the information he leaked wasn’t that important. But clearly, it was.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

Once he became certain of his death, courage surged in. He didn’t want to die like a bug, flailing atop a pile of sludge.

With that determination, the man ramped up the output of his battle gear and charged at Cecilia.

“Oh dear.”

From Cecilia’s perspective, she didn’t even need to lift a finger. The man who had charged so fiercely collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.

She approached the fallen man, black dagger still in hand. Then, as if boasting, she held the dagger up for him to see.

“Pretty, isn’t it? It’s called ‘Night Thorn.’ It’s a dagger that can turn into thousands of ultra-fine threads.”

Slowly, the tip of the dagger crept toward the man's chest.

“Please… please… I'm sorry.”

“I only forgive our own people. You know that. Unless… is there something you have that’s worth negotiating for?”

Cecilia waited briefly for a reply. But none came.

“If not, then we can’t make a deal.”

Once again, the tip of Night Thorn aimed for the man’s chest.

The man had prepared for emergencies by wearing a stab-proof vest. At the speed the dagger was moving, it should have been impossible for it to penetrate the vest he wore.

But...

As if it were only natural, the tip of Night Thorn pierced the man’s vest, drove through his skin, and punctured his lung.

With a gurgling sound from his mouth, the man stared at his own chest. The vest showed no sign of being pierced.

“What… what is this…?”

“Curious? I’m not telling.”

Cecilia had stabbed his lung with uncanny precision using Night Thorn.

The man would writhe in pain for a long time, suffering as his lung filled with his own blood.

For now, Cecilia retrieved the note the man had been clutching so tightly.

It was a note that led to one of the Areumdri Pawnshop’s branches. Cecilia already knew the location of that particular branch.

“A new route.”

However, the path described in the note was unlike anything she had seen before. It seemed the Areumdri Pawnshop had discovered a new route.

Curiously, the city’s underground continued to yield new paths even now.

It had been quite some time since the Areumdri Pawnshop established its base underground, yet they were still discovering previously unknown routes.

“No wonder people unfamiliar with the layout get stranded and starve down here.”

Rose Garden also knew of a few exits to the surface. Cecilia glanced at the man lying on the floor, gurgling in pain, and smiled.

“Don’t worry, you’re not dead yet. If you die here, I lose out.”

Letting him die here would be a waste of time with no gain. Naturally, Cecilia had no intention of ending it like that. This man’s end would only come once she had extracted full value from him.

After shoving the coughing, blood-spewing man into a large burlap sack, Cecilia made her way to the exit.

“Representative! Let me carry that!”

As soon as Cecilia emerged at the exit, the operatives flinched at the sight of her carrying the burlap sack.

“Send it to the place we agreed on.”

After setting the sack down, Cecilia nudged it with the toe of her shoe.

“Yes, we’ll deliver it without any issues. And what should we do about that archaeologist who’s currently traveling by train?”

Melvin Istovan. If any information had leaked, it was only natural that Areumdri Pawnshop would want to secure him as well.

He was effectively the only guide who could lead someone to the shelter. As Cecilia wiped her face with a damp towel, she responded.

"Stop the locomotive Melvin Istovan is on at the station and surround him with our operatives."

The words came out of Cecilia’s mouth as casually as if she were commenting on the weather.

Of course, locomotives sometimes experienced delays due to various reasons, but it was rare for one to be stopped on purpose by someone with a hidden agenda.

“How long should we keep it stopped?”

“Until Kairus arrives at the station where Melvin Istovan is staying.”

Kairus was quite capable, and Melvin Istovan’s survival was directly tied to his own.

He would be proactive in protecting him.

“What about our identities…?”

“Make sure Melvin Istovan doesn’t find out.”

Cecilia was concerned about how Melvin Istovan would react if he realized a criminal organization was watching him.

The usual reaction was to panic and run. And protecting someone who doesn’t cooperate is one of the most difficult security jobs imaginable.

“Get in touch with Kairus and brief him on the situation.”

“Understood.”

Cecilia’s instructions reached Kairus just as he boarded the train to Bennett City, after finishing his communication with Simid Kellogg about the vault inventory.

“…How is anyone supposed to live like this.”

Inside one of the dinner rolls provided with the meal was a note.

“Whoa, what’s that now? Are you getting secret missions or something?”

Irena immediately showed interest. Kairus hesitated for a moment about whether it was okay to read it in front of her, but he quickly decided to open the note.

‘There’s no way Rose Garden would handle this sloppily.’

It was something Irena could see—it had been passed to him at this specific time, hidden in bread, because there was no issue if she saw it.

“I see.”

After reading the note, Kairus calmly chewed and swallowed it along with the dinner roll.

“Ugh, recent studies say eating paper like that is bad for your health.”

“Great. It’s not like living long makes life any better.”

Besides, anything harmful in the ink or paper would be filtered out by the energy sac.

“If you’ve got time to worry about stuff like that, why don’t you focus on your tissue training?”

At Kairus’s words, there was a sudden crack as something in Irena’s hand snapped into place.

“I am trying, okay?!”

“I know you’re trying. You’re just not talented.”

“You bastard…”

Irena muttered as she shoved another chunk of bread into her mouth, chewing it viciously while glaring at Kairus.

As if that bread were a piece of Kairus’s flesh.

“Chew thoroughly. You’ll choke.”

His words were full of mockery, but Kairus was earnestly doing his part to teach Irena.

At the same time, he kept reflecting daily on the new insight he had received from Dana Watson.

‘She’s an extraordinary person.’

It had been a brief lesson given as an apology, yet even that simple guidance gave Kairus enough to ponder for days.

‘So we’ll move after joining up with Melvin Istovan.’

If Irena kept pushing herself a little more, she would reach her goal. Kairus, on the other hand, still needed more time to fully absorb what he had learned from Dana Watson.

For now, the most important thing was for the two of them to meet up with Melvin Istovan at one of the stations the train would stop at, and then protect him as they headed to Bennett City.

“That softie—if he finds out what’s going on, he might just piss himself.”

“What are you babbling about? If you’re going to talk to yourself, do it in your head.”

Kairus paused to think.

‘It’s probably better she knows.’

What he was about to do had nothing to do with the Kellogg family. Even if Irena found out, it wouldn’t cause any problems.

In fact, there was a higher chance he’d need her help.

“I’ll tell you.”

“Oh-ho.”

When Kairus said he’d explain the situation, Irena immediately perked up.