Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 44

Irena Kellogg (3)

* * *

Just moments ago, he had been playing cards with me and speaking informally.

Irena was strong enough that she couldn’t even mount proper resistance. However, the measure of strength was always relative, and in the end, it all depended on who stood in front of you. A strong person could turn into a weakling.

The thugs were powerful enough to try to rape her without hesitation, but in front of Kairus, they were so feeble that they were split clean in half in the blink of an eye.

“My sword… my sword!”

One of them shrieked when he saw that his blade had been sliced into eight neat pieces.

No one had even seen Kairus swing his sword. Yet the fragments of the blade scattering across the floor clearly proved that he had made his move.

‘Ah….’

Watching that scene, Irena completely lost her words as well. In that moment, a fierce flame of passion ignited in the way she looked at Kairus.

Irena clutched the blanket covering her body tightly with both hands, doing her utmost to capture every detail of Kairus’s movements with her eyes.

‘I have to learn from him.’

It was a flame of passion that carried a purpose quite different from the plan Spring Parsley and Kairus had originally devised.

It didn’t take Kairus long to deal with the thugs. With a clicking sound, he sheathed the sword he had drawn.

“You okay… what the hell are you doing? Did you finally go crazy?”

When Kairus turned to check on Irena’s condition, he was left speechless by what he saw.

Having already changed into clothes from the belongings she’d brought, Irena was kneeling with her forehead pressed to the floor.

“Teach me. No… I mean, please teach me.”

The moment he heard those words, only one thought flashed across Kairus’s mind.

She’s talking nonsense. The movements he had just shown weren’t something he could teach anyone.

They were just tricks he understood instinctively.

Trying to teach something like that to someone would be no different from smearing filth all over the path they would walk as a martial artist.

‘If I were to teach anything, it could only be the Swift Blade.’

But he couldn’t reveal that. To teach it, he would have to start by explaining how to use battle gear again.

More importantly, there was the risk that she might begin to suspect his identity. The Swift Blade was the swordsmanship of the destroyed House Featherwing.

Still, coldly refusing her here also weighed on his mind, since he needed to build a rapport with Irena from this point on.

“I could give you a few simple pointers. But teach you? I’m not some great guy.”

Irena replied to his words.

“To me, you are great.”

“You could just learn from the senior knights of the Scarlet Leaf Order.”

When Kairus said that, Irena lowered her gaze for a moment and hesitated before speaking with difficulty.

“They all say I won’t improve any further!”

Kairus looked at Irena for a moment and tilted his head.

‘No matter how I see it, her skills don’t seem that terrible.’

If Irena’s abilities were really hopeless, she would have already suffered irreparable physical and mental wounds from those thugs before Kairus arrived.

“When I use battle gear, my body reacts about three seconds late.”

Kairus, who had been listening as if it was nothing special, opened his mouth wide. A bit of spit even dribbled from the corner of his lips.

“You have a three-second time lag? What the hell is this lunatic woman.”

Time lag.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when someone tried to use battle gear the wrong way. When there was a gap of more than 0.5 seconds between thought and action, it was classified as a time lag.

In Irena’s case, if she thought about raising her hand, it would take three seconds for her hand to actually move.

“How did you even become an apprentice knight?”

And now, this woman kneeling before Kairus to ask for instruction had become an apprentice knight despite having learned such a flawed method that she had a three-second time lag.

‘What is this woman?’

Having a three-second time lag meant she had learned an absolutely idiotic way of using battle gear.

But the fact that she managed to be accepted into the Scarlet Leaf Order with such a moronic method meant she also had extraordinary talent.

“At first, everyone tried to help me. But as my progress slowed more and more, they started to find it strange… And when I finally told them the truth, they just shook their heads.”

Irena was now on the verge of tears.

Once you learned a way of using battle gear, it was extremely difficult to change it. And even then, the options for doing so were very limited.

‘By coincidence.’

Featherwing could make that possible. Even if you had used battle gear in a completely different way before, you could overwrite it with the Featherwing method.

Kairus sank into thought.

One thing was certain: Irena had talent.

‘If she can fight while moving three seconds late, she must be able to vaguely anticipate what will happen three seconds ahead.’

The fact that she could do that already placed her far beyond ordinary. And that prediction had to be precise enough that she passed the Order’s entry trials.

She had talent, and if she could change her method of using battle gear, she would certainly become something great.

The real problem that made Kairus hesitate was something else.

‘So what, then.’

There wasn’t a single thing in this for Kairus. What good would it do him to teach her?

‘Repaying a master’s favor? Like hell that means anything….’

The only daughter of the Treasury Chief’s family would never cooperate with Kairus, a criminal from Bennett City. Even repaying a debt had its limits.

It was obvious, even without thinking too hard about it.

What kind of disciple would follow their master to rob a bank? After pondering for a moment longer, Kairus spoke to Irena.

“There is a way.”

“Really?!”

At Kairus’s words, Irena quickly raised her head and stared at him. In her eyes, hope and suspicion flickered together.

“The problem is your method of using battle gear. So all you have to do is change it.”

Hearing that, Irena looked incredulous.

“I heard there are almost no ways to do that in the world.”

“And I happen to know one. It’s what I learned. And I can teach it to you too. But there’s a condition.”

At Kairus’s words, Irena swallowed hard, then hesitated for a long while before speaking with an extremely serious expression.

“Um… should I take my clothes off?”

“What the hell are you talking about.”

Kairus looked at her in utter disbelief. Did she really think she could pay for the Featherwing method with just her body?

“I thought about that really seriously…”

At Kairus’s reaction, Irena looked genuinely wounded.

“The way of using battle gear I’m going to teach you works by creating a rule for yourself and then strictly adhering to it.”

You had to judge for yourself whether you had ever violated that rule, and you had to be absolutely convinced that you hadn’t.

That certainty was essential to successfully connect with the battle gear.

“In other words, from this moment on, if you break that rule even once…”

Kairus declared firmly in response to Irena’s words.

“You will never again be able to connect with the battle gear in the way I’ve taught you.”

After all, you couldn’t shoot an arrow without a bow.

“There’s no need to confess it to anyone. It’s enough that you yourself know you broke the rule.”

There was no point in making excuses. If you broke the rule without realizing it, you would still be able to use the battle gear until you became aware of what you’d done.

If you truly committed a mistake unknowingly, it wouldn’t matter until you recognized it yourself.

“You will be the one to judge whether you have upheld the rule.”

Throwing tantrums, making excuses, or rationalizing wouldn’t work. From the start, if you didn’t even realize you’d done something wrong, you wouldn’t try to justify or deny it.

In other words, the moment you tried to justify or deny it, it already meant you were aware you had violated the rule.

“What’s the rule?”

At Irena’s question, Kairus fell silent for a moment before replying. The direct line of the Featherwing family set their own rules themselves.

In Kairus’s case, he had chosen the rule: “I do my utmost to keep any promise I make.”

But outsiders were not granted the right to decide their own rules.

“You must never be the first to harm those who have helped you.”

This was the condition Kairus required Irena to agree to in order for him to teach her the method of using battle gear.

Naturally, those who had helped her included Kairus himself.

He didn’t expect her to repay the favor, but at the very least, he didn’t intend to raise some scum who would be the first to betray someone who had aided them.

“If you don’t agree, I won’t teach you anything.”

But if she did agree, he was even willing to teach her not only the battle gear method but also the Swift Blade.

The condition of observing the rule was absolute.

The moment she violated the rule she had committed to upholding, she would never again be able to use battle gear.

In fact, discovering what rule someone observed and luring them into breaking it was the fastest way to destroy a Featherwing practitioner.

That was why the direct line of the Featherwing family never revealed to anyone what rule they had chosen to follow.

It was also the reason Kairus’s father, the head of the Featherwing family, had been destroyed despite possessing unparalleled strength.

‘Originally, even the Empire should have staked its fate to take them down.’

Kairus wore a briefly bitter expression, then spoke to Irena.

“Decide before the train reaches its destination.”

He had no intention of deceiving Irena. He planned to give her plenty of time to consider the offer carefully.

‘Well, in any case.’

He had already achieved his objective.

Irena had no reason to oppose him now, and she would probably see to it that nothing interfered with him while he moved about the mansion.

Whether he would end up teaching her swordsmanship would depend entirely on her decision later.

“What’s the price for teaching me?”

Kairus answered her question.

“As long as you don’t repay kindness with treachery, I don’t care. If you have talent and the passion to learn, that’s enough.”

The Featherwing family had never demanded payment in return for teaching anyone.

‘And to be honest, that rule itself is rather reassuring.’

Since he knew the rule that the student would have to observe, it would be easy to prevent them from using their battle gear if the need ever arose.

A few days later, after much deliberation, Irena came to find Kairus.

“I want to learn. There’s no way forward like this.”

Kairus nodded.

“Obviously, just because I teach you doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.”

It would still take effort to master it. At his words, Irena took a deep breath.

“I know.”

“You’ll have to prepare at the mansion. Whether you succeed or fail, I’ll have to stay to see it through to the end. So after the party is over, make sure you’re able to keep me at Kellogg’s mansion.”

Irena nodded firmly.

“Anything else you need?”

Kairus shook his head. Irena took a deep breath and bowed her head.

“Thank you. Even though you said you wouldn’t take any payment, I’ll repay you someday.”

“I’m not expecting it, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Most people, once enough time passed, forgot debts and resentments like these.

Kairus thought Irena would be no exception.

‘After all, I’m planning to rob Kellogg’s mansion.’

Irena was now in the absurd situation of expressing her gratitude to the thief who planned to steal from her own house.

And in truth, he had already secured his reward in a way. He had needed to finish his task at Kellogg’s mansion before the party ended, but thanks to Irena, he now had almost no time limit.

‘At the very least, I’ll need about a month.’

He would be able to stay at the mansion for at least a month. If he couldn’t find evidence in that long, it wouldn’t be because the security was too tight—it would be because the thief was incompetent.

“I will keep my word.”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

Irena felt quite annoyed that the man before her wasn’t taking her words seriously.

But she wasn’t in a position to get angry, so she simply glared at him and looked a little hurt.