Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 227

Preparing for the Next Attempt (2)It wasn’t particularly surprising for guests to visit Kairus’s office. Unless Kairus had died outright, now that he had successfully survived, there were more than enough people who wanted to stop by, check on him, and make their presence known.

“Yo, you didn’t die.”

But the two guests who came this time were a little special.

“Lumis Barenza, Wesson Barenza.”

He hadn’t expected these two, the so-called Barenza siblings, to personally visit Kairus’s office. They weren’t close enough for them to come all the way here in person.

“I don’t remember us being close enough for you to come give me a congratulatory hospital discharge visit.”

At Kairus’s words, Wesson Barenza made a sorrowful expression.

“Unni, these bastards are bullying me.”

Lumis immediately pulled Wesson into her arms and patted his back as she spoke.

“It’s okay, oppa. Lumis is here with you.”

Irena’s expression gradually rotted in colorful ways as she watched the two fail to endure even a moment before openly displaying affection. Watching blood-related siblings act like that left a nasty feeling in her stomach.

“Unniii~ Hug me too!”

Nora rushed toward Irena as she spoke.

“…Sure, come here.”

Irena stared at Nora for a moment before smiling and pulling her into an embrace.

“If that’s still not enough, I can hug you too.”

Still in Irena’s arms, Nora frantically shook her head with a horrified expression. Probably meant she hated the idea. After briefly watching Nora and Irena, Kairus turned his gaze toward the Barenza siblings and spoke.

“So why did you come here? I’m not stopping you from mixing tongues, but answer first before you do.”

At Kairus’s words, the siblings—who had just been advancing from hugging to the next stage—stopped moving and opened their mouths.

“That bitch Cecilia made the first move.”

“It’s true we received help from her.”

Kairus understood perfectly well what they meant by “made the first move.”

If she hadn’t acted so quickly, there was a high chance Kairus and Irena would never have gotten another opportunity to kill the Emperor. From now on, whenever meetings were held, Kairus would generally end up taking Cecilia’s side.

“Because of that, things got a little troublesome for us, so we thought about what we should do. And the result was this.”

Lumis Barenza scratched the back of her head as she muttered that, then casually tossed a document in front of Kairus.

“What’s this?”

“Information the rest of the Operations Committee dug up while you and her were lying in hospital rooms. I think you’ll find it pretty interesting once you read it.”

Whether it was interesting or not was for Kairus to decide himself, not the Barenza siblings. Still, he couldn’t deny he was curious.

After scanning through the documents, Kairus’s eyes gleamed.

“Denver Hudson’s wife isn’t dead?”

If Cecilia had given Kairus and Irena an opportunity, then what the other members of the Operations Committee had given them was a method. They had succeeded in uncovering materials regarding Denver Hudson’s wife by mobilizing every means available to them.

“In the Empire under normal circumstances, even we wouldn’t have been able to uncover information this tightly hidden.”

But the current Empire was far from normal. Several knight captains had died or been wounded, and not long had passed since the Rebel Army had been suppressed.

On top of that, Dana Watson had also died. It was precisely because of this extreme chaos that the Operations Committee succeeded in glimpsing one of the deepest secrets hidden by the Empire.

“Liriana Hudson. I’m not even sure this condition can really be called alive.”

Liriana, the wife of Guardian of the Nation Denver Hudson, was alive.

More precisely, she remained under full-body anesthesia while time continuously rewound around her. “Sleeping princess” was the perfect expression for her condition.

“Looks like she had some kind of illness. Here, this is the medical record Donovan obtained.”

The documents stated that Liriana Hudson had been suffering from a very serious disease, but there was currently no method capable of treating her.

“I feel like I’m about to cry.”

Denver had stopped both his and his wife’s time until a method capable of curing her illness appeared. His wife probably knew nothing, peacefully resting in an anesthetized state….

Meanwhile, Denver Hudson was enduring endlessly rewinding time for the sake of curing his wife.

There was one more particularly striking detail. The question of where exactly Liriana Hudson, whose time had stopped under anesthesia, currently was.

“They threw her into the ocean? That fucking insane Emperor.”

If the information uncovered by the Operations Committee was true, Liriana was asleep somewhere beneath the sea.

Bound by chains made from rustproof metal at a depth of 300 meters underwater.

“How are they planning to retrieve her later?”

At Irena’s question, Lumis Barenza answered.

“The special alloy chain binding that woman is connected to a buoy.”

Once the moment came to fulfill the contract later on, they would only need to locate the buoy and reel up the connected chain. Throwing her into the ocean and hauling her back up when needed—it felt less like dealing with a person and more like handling a fish trap.

Listening to the story, Kairus let out a bitter laugh.

“In many ways, that’s exactly the sort of thing Philip IV would do.”

They had thrown a person with frozen time into the sea. And not some shallow coastline either, but the deep ocean, estimated to be at least 350 meters underwater.

“If, by any chance, Denver Hudson ever changed his mind, the Emperor would immediately withdraw the power he granted the Hudson couple….”

And the moment that happened, Liriana Hudson would instantly drown. There was no way Denver Hudson could ever entertain different thoughts.

“Unless we manage to find her first.”

After briefly making a troubled expression, Irena slightly raised her hand and asked the Barenza siblings a question.

“Is there still no cure?”

At Irena’s question, Wesson Barenza let out a low “Hmm” and handed over another document. The document format looked unfamiliar.

“This is information Lukas and we obtained through the Daeyeon Kingdom. There’s currently a drug in the Daeyeon Kingdom that’s preparing to enter Phase 3, second-stage clinical trials.”

Apparently, the treatment had the drawback of requiring injections every single day, but the effectiveness itself seemed certain.

The Phase 2 clinical trials had already confirmed the injection was effective and determined the appropriate dosage range, while the first Phase 3 clinical trial had reportedly produced very positive results.

“How did you even get this information? Even if Lukas has connections in the Daeyeon Kingdom, this isn’t the kind of material that’s easy to uncover.”

This was information regarding a new drug still under development. It wasn’t something that could be obtained easily. At Kairus’s question, Lumis Barenza smiled.

“New drug development requires test subjects. And we supply people.”

The Barenza siblings were people who had risen to the top of the city through human trafficking. Not only in the Daeyeon Kingdom, but also in new drug testing processes taking place all over, they supplied people “whose deaths wouldn’t matter.”

That naturally meant they had easier access to information regarding new drug development.

“Anyway, this is a little ambiguous. It’s not exactly the kind of story that would tempt Denver Hudson.”

Even if it was already in Phase 3, it still meant the drug was under testing. A proposal along the lines of letting Liriana Hudson become a subject in the current clinical trials would never work on him.

“Why not? She can volunteer as a test subject. If it passed into Phase 3 clinical trials, that means the effectiveness is certain.”

“Denver Hudson has plenty of time.”

His wife’s time was completely frozen, meaning it did not flow at all. In other words, she wasn’t in a state where her life was fading away by the second.

He could wait until the clinical trials were completely finished and the new drug officially entered the market. And that would also be the far safer and more reliable way of obtaining a treatment.

“…You’re right. I guess he wouldn’t find an offer like that very appealing.”

After hearing the explanation, Irena readily agreed.

“Finding and securing Liriana comes first. Then we threaten him.”

At Kairus’s words, Irena let out a bitter smile.

“Yeah, in the end, threats are more reliable than persuasion or negotiation.”

It was also the method most familiar to the people of Bennett. Nora let out a thoughtful hum.

“Oppa, everything sounds good, but… how are we supposed to find her? The ocean’s huge, and the buoy’s tiny. Are we really going to search the entire sea?”

“I actually can do that.”

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t impossible for Kairus. Maintaining altitude while sweeping across the sea wasn’t difficult for him.

Besides. The search area couldn’t really be called the entire ocean in the first place.

“She’s definitely inside Imperial territorial waters.”

If the buoy and Liriana drifted outside Imperial territorial waters, then even if someone discovered and retrieved the buoy, the Empire would no longer be able to claim her as its property.

Liriana, who could practically be called Denver Hudson’s leash, was also an important figure to the Emperor. Naturally, if he wanted to prevent something like that from happening, the buoy had to remain within Imperial waters.

“Besides, they’ll inspect it periodically.”

Since she had been tightly bound in heavy chains and connected to the buoy, she wouldn’t drift away easily, but even so, periodic inspections would still be necessary.

“True. Typhoons or massive waves could change Liriana’s location.”

“Couldn’t the chain break? It’s seawater, so rust and things like that could happen.”

At Irena’s question, Kairus shook his head.

“The chains were made from a special alloy you’d normally only use for crafting top-grade battle gear.”

Even after Philip IV died and his grandson became Emperor, the chains would probably still remain intact when they checked the buoy.

“Securing Liriana is the top priority. Once we have her, the Guardian of the Nation will have no choice but to obey us.”

If Kairus successfully found and secured Liriana, then the threat that followed afterward was already decided.

“Not somewhere ambiguous like Imperial territorial waters either. We’ll tell him we’re throwing her far out into the ocean, somewhere known to exceed a depth of one thousand meters, tied up tightly in chains.”

If he didn’t step aside on the path leading to the Emperor, then his wife would sink into the deep sea and die with one hundred percent certainty.

But if he did step aside, then his wife would become a test subject for the new drug currently undergoing clinical trials. A new drug whose clinical trials had, up to now, been proceeding quite successfully.

“If you were him, what would you choose?”

There wasn’t even any need to choose. The beauty of threats was forcing someone while pretending to offer options. Irena shrugged her shoulders and spoke.

“To love someone enough to stop time for them. His wife really was blessed.”

How many people in the world could go that far for someone else?

In any case, the documents handed over by the city’s Operations Committee, led by the Barenza siblings, were unquestionably valuable.

“What do you want?”

Since he had received something he liked, now came the moment to pay the price. Lumis twirled her hair around her index finger as she answered.

“Fundamentally, it’s the same proposal that insurance-selling bitch made. The only difference is that we want you to maintain neutrality during meetings.”

Continue remaining as a member of the city’s Operations Committee, and if the Aylan Republic tried to exploit the opportunity and pull something funny, actively cooperate and contribute to the city’s survival.

That was roughly the summary of it. On top of that, they also requested that he avoid carelessly taking someone’s side during the regularly held meetings.

“I think that much is possible. Though my head’s inevitably going to lean somewhat toward Cecilia’s side. You’ll have to tolerate that.”

Cecilia moved quickly, so it was only natural that she gained the greatest benefits.

At Kairus’s words, Wesson Barenza crossed his arms and nodded.

“Fine. Then that settles things.”

The Barenza siblings immediately left the office afterward.

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

The time was approaching for them to do what truly mattered now. Irena had declared that she would use Angelene’s Answer.

Now it was time to keep that promise. The two had already been discharged from the hospital, and Irena’s physical condition was perfectly fine.