Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 50

Same Objective

* * *

By the time I started climbing up the ladder leading from the underground chamber where I had swung my sword to demolish the partition wall and collected the documents, up into Simid Kellogg’s bedroom—

Simid Kellogg was facing a threat to his life.

“You… Who are you?!”

“My identity? Instead of worrying about that, it would be wiser to start worrying about what’s about to happen to you.”

Vivian Citrie spoke as she spun the chakram she held in both hands with her index finger.

The blades of the chakram sliced through the air, spreading a chilling whistle.

“Isn’t there anyone out there?! Anyone at all!”

“Sorry, but no one can come in. That’s the kind of item this is.”

The faint whistling sound produced by the spinning chakram swallowed Simid Kellogg’s shouts.

“If anyone wants to know what’s happening in here, they’ll have to step inside.”

Naturally, Vivian Citrie judged that there was no chance of that happening.

Her entry route had been clean, and she hadn’t been noticed.

‘Shit, what the hell is this situation now?’

But even she hadn’t anticipated one variable.

Kairus.

At that moment, he was watching and listening to everything from beneath the bed.

I tried my best to understand the situation as quickly as possible.

Someone had attacked Simid Kellogg. Judging by the voice, it was definitely a woman.

‘Vivian Citrie.’

Ever since our first encounter, I had found Vivian Citrie suspicious, so her face and name came to mind immediately.

What mattered now was that I had no intention of letting Simid Kellogg die.

When I didn’t know what he was doing with the embezzled tax money, it would have been only slightly unsettling if he died, but now it was different.

“Miss, instead of bullying the old man, why don’t you come play with me?”

I kicked out from under the bed and deflected the chakram flying toward Simid Kellogg with stained glass.

“Dominic Randolph?”

The moment she saw me holding the stained glass, Vivian instinctively realized her plan had gone awry.

Through countless training and years of experience, Vivian moved to secure an escape route on reflex.

At that moment, a flechette flew toward Vivian. It was a round I had fired from my gauntlet.

“…It’s not like you came here with good intentions either. Since we’re in the same situation, can’t you just overlook this? All I need is that old man’s life.”

It wasn’t a particularly powerful attack, but in the instant she tilted her head to evade it, I succeeded in cutting off her movement.

“Until just now, that would have been an attractive proposal, but now the situation has changed.”

If a first plan continued all the way to the end, that meant it had been perfect from the start. Generally, that never happened.

While I spoke, Vivian searched for a gap to escape through. But before she could attempt anything, I shifted position as though I already knew exactly what she would try.

And Vivian’s attempts were stopped again and again.

“To think you keep trying to run away when there’s someone standing right in front of you. That’s rather hurtful, you know.”

At Kairus’s words, Vivian answered by hurling her chakram in rapid succession.

From her perspective, the mission had already failed anyway, so she at least wanted to succeed in escaping. She had no desire to die here.

Fueled by her burning will to live, Vivian threw her chakram. With a whistling sound, the chakram devoured the sounds around it.

The chakram, gleaming faintly in the darkness, wasn’t aimed at Kairus but at Simid Kellogg.

‘That bastard intends to protect Simid Kellogg.’

Kairus clearly meant to shield Simid Kellogg. And Simid Kellogg had no experience in combat.

“Good response.”

Kairus let out a quiet murmur of admiration at Vivian’s conclusion and countermeasure formed in such a short instant.

When the chakram threatened Simid Kellogg, Kairus couldn’t leave his side.

However, that didn’t mean Kairus would allow Vivian any chance to escape.

They simply ended up in a standoff like this.

“I don’t want to die here. Won’t you just let me go?”

“I think that’s exactly what Simid Kellogg here would have wanted too. But you weren’t planning to spare this old man even if he begged, were you?”

At Kairus’s remark, Vivian clicked her tongue softly. It was clear he didn’t intend to let her walk out alive.

If she wanted to survive, she would have to succeed in slitting Kairus’s throat, no matter how difficult that might be.

‘And if I can manage to slit that bastard’s throat, I should aim for more than just getting out alive.’

She could kill Simid Kellogg as well before leaving this place.

“Looks like you’ve made up your mind.”

“I’m going to kill you and then kill that old geezer. After that, I’ll get out of here and have some good food and a nice drink.”

At Vivian’s words, Kairus tightened his grip on his sword hilt and laughed.

“You’ve got an impressive talent for dreaming while your eyes are wide open.”

It wasn’t language that nobles would normally use. But Vivian wasn’t startled by something like that.

After all, she had already considered that Kairus might not actually be Dominic Randolph.

“...”

With a soft rustle, sixteen more chakram settled onto Vivian’s wrist.

As she moved her arm slightly, the chakram hanging from her wrist instantly shifted to her index finger, spinning in place.

‘It’s not as though there’s no chance at all.’

Objectively, Kairus was the superior fighter. But if certain conditions were met, it wasn’t impossible to defeat someone stronger.

Kairus himself had pulled it off a few times, so there was no guarantee Vivian would fail either.

“Die.”

The chakram flew toward Simid Kellogg. In the span of a heartbeat, all sixteen chakram she had held sliced through the air, aiming for Simid’s life.

Vivian invested every weapon she possessed into that single attack. Any normal person would have been suspicious of her intention, and Kairus was no different.

‘She’s not just throwing them and ending it there.’

Reaching that conclusion, Kairus raised the output of the stained glass and swung his sword into the air.

A series of high-speed slashes flickered sword trails across the empty space, and Peerless Wind churned through the room where no breeze should have existed.

The chakram that had been flying like shafts of light toward Simid were struck by the sword trails and fell to the floor.

“For god’s sake.”

Vivian’s experience wasn’t shallow enough that she wouldn’t recognize Swift Blade.

Within the winds swirling around the room, Vivian raised her hand carefully with a wary expression.

The chakram that had crashed to the floor began spinning rapidly again, lifting back into the air. As Kairus had suspected, they weren’t weapons that were finished after a single throw.

The earrings Vivian wore were battle gear that controlled all sixteen chakram.

The chakram spun with furious speed, darting about the room like enraged hornets, seeking Simid Kellogg’s life.

While the chakram threatened Simid Kellogg, Vivian kicked off her shoes, clenched her fists, and stepped in with a sudden charge toward Kairus.

“You’re insane.”

The movement of the wind occupying the room transformed into a violent downdraft that smashed everything to the floor. The only area excluded was the spot where Simid Kellogg stood.

The sudden downpour of air from above made Vivian momentarily lose her balance in the midst of her charge.

“You’re going to rush someone holding a sword with your bare hands?”

In battle, a single instant was like magic.

It could make impossible things happen and prevent the most obvious events from occurring.

The stained glass drew a massive upward slash from below. Vivian blocked the attack that threatened to split her in half with her wrist.

The dark brown bracer protecting her wrist collided with Kairus’s sword. Her wrist remained intact. But her body, unable to withstand the impact, was flung into the air.

Kairus thrust his sword. Like a harpoon fired from a whaling ship, the tip of the stained glass aimed straight for Vivian’s heart.

“Don’t make me laugh!”

A chakram flew in and shoved Vivian’s body in midair.

In an instant, her body bounced away in the air, and Kairus’s thrust pierced nothing but empty space.

“Seriously.”

While Kairus retrieved his sword after the missed strike, Vivian shifted her position in the air again and again, searching for an opening.

She was using the chakram floating in the air as footholds.

‘She’s not just using them as footholds.’

The chakram pushed Vivian’s body in the direction she wanted to move.

Calling them chakram was one thing, but it was more accurate to describe what they were doing now as functioning like the elastic band of a slingshot.

With the speed added by the chakram pushing her, Vivian repeated her high-speed movements and pressed the attack.

“Seeing you try to escape with this level of skill makes your reason all too obvious.”

Vivian shot forward like a meteor, accelerating little by little. But the one who looked anxious wasn’t Kairus, who defended with his sword.

It was Vivian herself, maintaining her offensive, who wore the nervous expression.

With skill and equipment that outstanding, why was she so desperate to run away?

“You’re on a time limit, aren’t you?”

She couldn’t sustain that state for long. Maybe it was a limitation of her own abilities, or perhaps a constraint of the battle gear itself.

What mattered was that in the end, Vivian couldn’t maintain this level of strength indefinitely and was just looking for a chance to escape.

‘I can’t kill her.’

If he hadn’t needed to guarantee Simid Kellogg’s safety, he would have already beaten her into a corpse.

“Either way, you… can’t do anything!”

Right now, Kairus was only able to defend and counterattack.

If he stopped blocking and tried to attack first, in that moment several of the sixteen chakram would fly at Simid Kellogg.

Simid wouldn’t last an instant.

‘I’ll have to let her go. There’s no point dragging this out.’

Kairus had been planning to protect Simid Kellogg while killing Vivian Citrie if possible.

But now he had no choice but to pick one.

“…”

Kairus paused slightly, creating an opening that would let Vivian escape.

Vivian, who had been waiting for a chance to flee all along, had no reason to miss it.

She immediately retrieved all her chakram and hurled herself out the window. Using the remotely controlled chakram as stepping stones, she vanished into the distance in an instant.

“Thank you. If not for you, this could have ended very badly.”

Simid Kellogg, who had been standing there staring blankly at the scene, finally came to his senses and offered Kairus his thanks.

At that moment, Kairus turned and strode toward Simid Kellogg. Instinctively stepping back, Kellogg’s back hit the wall.

“You’re planning to replace the Emperor? That’s quite a bold dream you’ve got.”

Thud!

The stained glass buried itself in the wall, less than half a centimeter from Kellogg’s cheek.

“…You read those documents.”

“You must have guessed when you saw me crawling out from under the bed. Enough with the pointless acting.”

Pulling the stained glass free from the wall, Kairus gave a crooked smile as he looked at Simid Kellogg.

“I went through the papers. Your grand plan was quite impressive.”

[Depose the current Emperor and enthrone a new one of our choosing.]

That was Simid Kellogg’s scheme. And there were already quite a number of nobles prepared to join him.

Naturally, a rebellion needed money. A staggering amount of money. Armies didn’t march on loyalty alone—they were powered by supply, and supply required funds.

That was why this old man had siphoned off such enormous sums of tax revenue while serving as Treasury Chief.

As though he were in his own home, Kairus rummaged through a cabinet and took out a bottle of liquor and two crystal glasses.

“Why don’t we have a proper talk about this?”

Enthroning a new Emperor wasn’t any concern of Kairus’s.

But deposing the current Emperor, Philip IV?

Now that was a topic Kairus couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming interest in.