Chapter 4. Andso their story begins.(4)

Whats this?

The Sword Saint seems conflicted over hitting a boy thatdeserves to be smacked inthe face. She then looked like she was about to hit him butthen she didnt.

-Ur alive?

[No idea.]

-How lucky.

I tried to slowly move backwards whileclosely observing the conflicted Sword Saint.

Take this.

A thrown weapon?! was what I thought, butit was just an envelope. Hmm, the paper used onit looks pretty expensive.

Whats this?

The Sword Saint takes a look atme whenI ask this question Woah, Im getting the chills from her eyes. Shes not looking atme with murderous intent, butmy instincts are still screaming forsome reason!

The first thing thatcame into my eyes whenI opened the envelope was a needlessly fancy font thatseemed somewhat familiar to me.

Now, lets read.

Congrats!

Congratulations foryou losing your job!

Whydid you choose such an unstable job inthe first place?

Butdont worry, the job Karuan is extremely stable, andis just waiting foryou to take it!

Sojust come here quietly, yeah? BeforeI chain you andput you to work!

Its from my last boss.

Hohoho, wtf?

I thought I was being secretive enough, butlooks like I got found out. She evenknows thatI lost my job. Oh, whois this boss, you ask? Well, ifI were to describe her, she is a very powerful, andwise princess of the empire, whothe emperor loves to no end.

Thatwas actually a lie!

This damned princess is someone whopossesses a disgusting personality. Her guts of steel allows her to get into an argument with the Sword Saint over there, her extreme talent allows her to process the countless tasks thatthe empire handles every day, andher dirty personality allows her to hand over those tasks to her subordinates to show them true hell.

Well, the job Karuan is indeed very stable. I mean, it is a job inthe empire, afterall. Ifa job inthe palace wasnt stable, whereelse would you work?! Butthats it. It may be stable, butits extremely tiresome.

Countless geniuses are produced inthe lands of the empire. These geniuses all do whatever they can to work inthe imperial palace. Those wholanded a job inthe imperial palace work frantically to advance to the top. Those thatare already atthe top? They work frantically do not go down.

Working frantically does indeed bring profits occasionally, but the way these geniuses work is truly dirty.

Poison, assassination, bullying the list just goes onandon.

To give an example of how bad things get, there was a time whenthe organization infiltrated the imperial palace with 120 members to attain a legendary metal known asMistein. 4 people intotal got found out, anddied. 25 died ina political battle. 50 sided with the wrong political party, anddied fortreason.

Andafter counting deaths by assassination andpoison andthe likes, only 17 came back

Asforthat legendary metal Mistein, it was said thatthe infamous thief known asAcle stole it thats what everyone thinks, butin reality, I split it with the princess andthe dwarves by 3:2:5. I was supposed to take 3, andthe princess was supposed to take 4, butthe dwarves took a part from each of us asa price forforging the metal.

Andlo, the weapon thatwas forged out of my 2 andthe dwarves 5 was the metal bat.

Well, lets talk more about thatsome other time inany case, the imperial palace is unfit fora human. Kids whoare full of dreams andhopes might like the place, butforan old man like me, I cannot live inthat hellish environment!

The imperial palace is the place whereyou can get all sorts of privileges ifyou become a demonic king, butit is also a place whereyou become the kings slave ifyou fail to be king! I dont want to be a slave, damn it! I just want to enjoy my retirement ina rural village!

Butthat chain part atthe end of the letter scares me. Is she actually thinking about sticking me ina prison?

What did your last boss say?

The Sword Saint asked me this ina bored tone.

What shall I say

A congratulatory letter forme losing my job?

WhenI said this with a slight frown, the Sword Saint grinned injoy forwhatever reason, andwent down the secret passage with the children. Mm is she gone? Shes gone, right? Shes not gonna suddenly climb up andgo chop chop, is she?

Aftera few seconds, I heard Reins scream, andnodded. Yup, Im safe. I guess Ill go back to opening the safe. Whyam I safe, you ask? Well, you see, thatscream probably resulted from one of two things. Either the Sword Saint got mad andbegan to beat up the kid, orone of the traps thatI set up inthe passage like giant boulders orarrow walls activated.

I wondered whytraps were made like thatwhenI saw them incomics a long time ago, butthen I found out they were actually easy to make, andwere also very reliable. Its not like you can create a field of magma, orcreate a pit full of sharks. Honestly, its better to stick to traditional methods.

Anyway, I still activated several barricades to fully ensure my safety, andbegan to pour the contents of the safe into a bag I prepared beforehand.

So this is it.

Lets not forget putting inthat lily heirlo actually, Im not thatgood with flowers, solets just use this flower heirloom. Its probably a lily, right? Its not a rose oranything?

Well, whatever. Its not like I have any other flower heirlooms other thanthis anyway I guess Ill take these other heirlooms aswell? Andthen

-Uwah soevil

[Im a villain, afterall.]

What am I doing? Fabricating false evidence, of course!

Howling never stole anything like family heirlooms. Whywould they, whenthey can always fabricate one thatlooks just like the real thing? Andthe families thatget their heirlooms stolen go absolutely crazy over trying to take it back. Its just not worth stealing it.

Butits not like there actually isnt any value instealing it. Family heirlooms are made of super expensive materials, meaning theyre super expensive. Butthe part of the heirlooms thatmatter are the stamp bits thatare created out of magic-refined wood. Thats whyIm making it look like the organization used the heirlooms forsome strange purpose. Afterall, Id be killed inan instant ifpeople found out I was the one whostole the heirlooms.

[Is there any fake evidence we can come up with?]

-Mm I only know what you know, soitll be hard to come up with something too good mm ah! How about money laundering? They already used fake heirlooms to do that, soit should work out just fine.

[Oh, pretty good.]

With this, Howling has one more crime inits crime list! Oh boy, theyre inbig trouble now, arent they!

I should run now, too.

I stuffed the heirlooms inmy pockets. The documents inthis room havent gotten their ink dry, soIll just leave it here SinceI was the one whotook care of them all inthe first place, no one should get too suspicious. Mm maybe it is a bit suspicious?

Whatever. IfI try to escape through the path the kids went through the imperial army would of course be waiting, soIll run off ina different path. I opened one of the drawers below the closet, andunlocked the secret mechanism.

Clack!

This is escape route 11, my ultimate escape path! I had thought putting an escape path ina closet was far too obvious, soI thought about putting it ina drawer below the closet. Afterpushing my body into the tiny hole forcefully, I lit the candles, closed the drawer, andlocked the secret mechanism.

-Super complicated?

[Better thandying.]

Afterdoing that, I walked through the dark cave

[Whoa, creepy. Feels like a ghost would pop up.]

Dont say something like tha

Oh good, you did actually come this way.

Oh deary me. Can I just get a ghost instead?