Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 4

A Sinful City

* * *

Several days had passed since then. But the question that had struck Kairus’s mind like a hammer was still lingering in his head even after all those days. Even now, as he was running along the road, it wouldn’t leave him.

Who am I supposed to learn from.

House Featherwing had been annihilated. There was no one left who could teach Kairus the sword.

Even if, by some stroke of ridiculous luck, there was a survivor, it would only be someone from a collateral branch.

Aside from that, the only other people who knew Featherwing’s swordsmanship were outsiders who had come to the house and received instruction.

‘I have nothing to learn from a collateral branch or outsiders.’

It wasn’t because of some petty pride as a direct descendant. Sadly, there really was nothing left to learn.

The sword technique of Featherwing, called Swift Blade, which even collateral branches and outsiders had been permitted to learn, was something Kairus had already completed.

‘Even if I had to go to prison, why did it have to be then!’

The timing of when Kairus was dragged into the labor correctional facility was downright abominable.

They called it studying abroad, but in truth, he had been dragged to a foreign battlefield at the young age of thirteen and spent three years crawling through hell to complete Swift Blade.

After that, Kairus had planned to return to the house and receive the teachings of Cloud Seizing Art.

But before he could even begin learning Cloud Seizing Art, the house was falsely accused of treason and wiped out, and Kairus was thrown into the labor correctional facility.

“At the very least.”

If he could even find the books the house had kept, he could have tried to teach himself.

It would have been an even harder and harsher road with no one to guide him, but he didn’t care.

‘Father completed Swift Blade at twenty.’

In fact, Kairus had completed Swift Blade faster than his eldest brother, the heir to the house.

The problem of not having a teacher was something he might somehow overcome with the talent he was born with.

“But damn it, if I have nothing, I can’t even try. In the first place, it’s not that the collateral branches or outsiders wouldn’t teach Cloud Seizing Art, it’s that they couldn’t.”

Kairus muttered with a twisted expression as he sped up to close the distance with the car ahead.

The driver of the car, watching Kairus through the rearview mirror, was horrified.

‘He’s not human. He’s a monster! What kind of person runs behind a car for five hours straight?!’

Anyone would question whether what he was doing was something a human could do.

He was running after a moving car, and even after hours, he hadn’t fallen behind. Watching this sight, the driver murmured.

“If he can do that, why do cars and drivers even exist?”

The very reason this violent, outrageous feat of Kairus was possible was also why collateral branches or outsiders could never learn Cloud Seizing Art.

The direct descendants of House Featherwing, from the moment they were born, had five unique organs implanted through a procedure.

[Death Sac, Energy Sac, Rear Node, Layered Valve, Early Sense]

These five organs matured and developed along with the child’s growth.

They were a prerequisite for mastering Cloud Seizing Art. Even if outsiders or collateral branches wanted to teach it, they simply couldn’t if they hadn’t undergone the procedure.

It would have been wonderful if they could transplant all of them, but the materials needed for the procedure didn’t just come out of the ground. That was why the direct line was always the highest priority.

Anyway, the reason Kairus could chase a moving car for hours without exhaustion was thanks to what he had gained through that procedure specifically, the Energy Sac and the Layered Valve.

The Energy Sac was an organ that applied and refined the respiratory system of birds.

It created two sacs connected to the lungs and airways. By utilizing them, he could breathe in a way that allowed 100% exchange of the air in his lungs, granting him overwhelming endurance and efficiency.

Moreover, as his respiratory system transformed in this process, his circulatory system like his blood vessels and heart was also reinforced to function far more effectively.

On top of that came the Layered Valve.

Because of it, the people of House Featherwing developed an additional kneecap in each knee, unlike ordinary humans.

It was similar to the principle that allowed ostriches to run at high speeds for long periods.

In addition, to match the new kneecap, all the ligaments and cartilage throughout his body were strengthened, and the joints adapted so that synovial fluid could work more efficiently.

“Hoo….”

After working up a good sweat, Kairus swung himself back into the car in one motion.

“Is the station still far?”

At Kairus’s question, the driver flinched hard once and then replied.

“We’re almost there. We’ll arrive soon.”

From the driver’s perspective, he wanted to spend as little time as possible with a monstrous man who had turned a pack of wolves into ground meat in an instant and then ran after a car to catch it.

If a monster was sitting in the passenger seat, anyone would be in a hurry. So the driver was doing his best to rush.

How long had the car been driving? At last, beyond the road, the outskirts of the city came into view.

“This is Jaksen.”

“I hope we won’t have any more business with each other. I’m sure you’d feel the same.”

The driver had done his job, and Kairus got out without a word. The moment Kairus stepped down, the driver sped away with the car.

“….”

Seeing how many factories there were in the city, the smoke billowing thick and heavy from the factory chimneys looked suffocating even just to watch.

“Dizzying.”

Kairus looked at the people moving around and felt a little light-headed.

The acrid air and all the noise of the city children hawking newspapers among them made his head spin. In just this short time, he had seen more people than he had in the last six years put together.

If he hadn’t felt dizzy, that would have been even stranger.

Somehow, Kairus managed to arrive at the train station and headed for the ticket counter.

“One ticket to Bennett City.”

At Kairus’s words, the person behind the counter looked him up and down.

“If you’re going to Bennett City, please present your identification.”

It seemed they only checked IDs for people bound for Bennett City. At that, Kairus obediently handed over his ID.

The clerk compared the photo with Kairus’s face and then spoke.

“It’s 85 Pyint, and it arrives in three hours.”

“Aren’t you going to tell me the seat and the carriage?”

At Kairus’s question, the clerk replied in a tone full of annoyance.

“What do you think you’re reserving in third class? Just get on however you can.”

Kairus didn’t understand what that “however you can” was supposed to mean until the train actually arrived.

“Damn it.”

If you managed to get on, you could ride the train to Bennett City. If you failed, you simply couldn’t. That was the true meaning behind the clerk’s “however you can.”

People surged forward like a wave, desperately shoving their bodies into the train.

Quick and strong, Kairus somehow managed to use his skills in the middle of this sudden chaos and squeeze himself inside.

The train felt as if it were a giant tin can.

Stuffed into that can like preserved meat, Kairus fervently wished the moving train would arrive at its destination quickly.

Unfortunately, that wish of Kairus’s could never be granted.

“Somebody save me. No, just kill me instead.”

After about eighty hours, Kairus was finally freed from the hell known as the train.

He hadn’t slept, eaten, or drunk anything.

On top of that, he had to endure the stench a noxious mixture of people’s body odor and the reek of their waste when those who couldn’t hold it any longer relieved themselves where they stood. The smell made him want to rip his nose off.

“It’s just barely better than the solitary cell at the correctional facility.”

Everything else was pretty much the same. But the solitary cells at Carlson Labor Correctional Facility added a cold so bitter it wouldn’t have been strange to get frostbite.

“Thanks to that, there weren’t any lice or bedbugs.”

The solitary cells were so cold that even those insects couldn’t survive and froze to death. But this was different.

Barely managing to step off the train, Kairus stifled a deep itch and let out a small sigh.

It wasn’t over yet.

Just when he thought he had escaped the train and was about to leave the station, Kairus faced a new obstacle.

The security checkpoint.

“What the hell is with this line.”

Crowds of people wanting to enter Bennett City were packed together, but the inspectors didn’t look like they had any intention of letting anyone through quickly.

Worse still, there wasn’t just one checkpoint to pass. There were two.

One of the checkpoints was operated by the Valorn Empire’s Security Corps, while the other was run by the Aylan Republic Police Department.

Was this the kind of scene you’d find inside the colon of someone who had been suffering from a severe and dreadful constipation for a month?

“….”

Waiting was something Kairus was well accustomed to. Back in Carlson Labor Correctional Facility, it wasn’t uncommon to have to wait several days just to use some trivial item like a nail clipper.

But that had been a patience made possible because he was inside a cell.

You woke up in the morning, and it was the cell. You went to sleep at night, and when you opened your eyes again, it was still prison. If you couldn’t clip your nails today, you could do it tomorrow. There was no reason to be in a hurry.

That was what every day looked like for a prisoner sentenced to life.

“But now isn’t the same.”

He had to find Veil of Plumed Mist and track down the lost books of the house. If he succeeded in finding the books, he needed to study them as quickly as possible and make their contents his own.

He had to enter Bennett City. The sooner, the better.

For the first time in six years, Kairus succeeded in feeling the thought, I need to hurry, and he clearly sensed once more the freedom he now possessed.

In the meantime, the sun had fully set, and night had fallen. An Imperial Security Corps soldier checked his watch and shouted toward the crowd still waiting.

“That’s it for today! Anyone who hasn’t passed through will wait until tomorrow morning!”

At that announcement, disappointed sighs erupted from the people’s mouths.

“Damn it, so it comes to this in the end.”

One of the people, as if resigned, began to rummage for something and then approached the soldiers who were hurrying to wrap up for the day. Kairus silently watched.

A bribe. If you wanted to dress it up in more refined language, it was like a magical lubricant that gently moistened and soothed the parched hearts of those who had suffered so much.

“Fine.”

The security corps soldier took the bribe without hesitation, regardless of all the eyes watching, and let the man pass.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of shame he ought to have felt as an imperial official drawing the Empire’s pay, nor any fear that he might be caught.

Such brazen bribery wasn’t even easy to see back in the correctional facility where Kairus had stayed.

If he could pluck the coarse hairs growing from his conscience and transplant them onto his bald scalp, that soldier could probably boast a lush head of hair instantly.

The man who had passed through the checkpoint repeated exactly the same procedure with the Republic police. In just three minutes, he had succeeded in securing passage through the territory of both nations.

“I’m getting more and more curious what this city is going to look like.”

Even just the entrance process was impressive enough to inspire admiration. What kind of hellscape might be unfolding inside?

“Damn it all! Why the hell are they just letting that bastard through?!”

And apparently, there was someone who wasn’t willing to accept this situation.

The security corps soldier’s face twisted into a scowl as he was confronted.

“If you don’t like it, you pay up too.”

If you wanted to pass through quickly, you had to pay. To a security corps soldier who had worked in Bennett City for a long time, this was simply common sense. In fact, it was almost laughable that anyone would dare raise an objection over it.

“Does this even make any damn sense? You call yourselves the Security Corps sworn to protect the Empire’s safety, but you’re standing here shamelessly stuffing your faces with bribes! You pack of jackals…”

The man who kept protesting never finished his sentence.

The soldier’s baton swung without warning and smashed into the man’s face.

“Gah!”

That strike was not any sort of measured action to subdue a disturbance. It was immediately followed by kicks and blows raining down on the man as he collapsed.

“You worthless bastard, who do you think you’re screeching at? You think I’m standing here to make things easy for scum like you?! Huh?!”

The man lay crumpled on the ground, taking the beating with nothing but his body. His cries and groans of pain quickly faded.

Broken teeth rolled across the floor, and the sound of bones snapping rang out. The security corps soldier didn’t care in the slightest whether the man lived or died. No, he was beating him with the clear intent to kill.

In the end, the man was reduced to a state where he couldn’t so much as twitch a finger.

“Disgusting piece of shit.”

Spitting on the floor, the soldier turned to the waiting crowd and spoke.

“If you don’t have money, come back tomorrow. That’s it.”

No one answered him. Instead, all eyes turned to the man lying motionless on the ground.

It wasn’t out of any kind-hearted worry for his life.

“Move it, bastard! I grabbed this first it’s mine!”

A mass of people shoved forward, arguing that the man’s belongings were theirs because they’d laid hands on them first.

The man, unconscious and sprawled on the floor, was soon stripped nearly naked. Anything that looked like it had even a scrap of value was stolen without hesitation.

제풍 = Swift Blade Swift Blade

섭운 = Cloud Seizing Art Cloud Seizing Art

사낭 = Sanang Death Sac

기낭 = Ginang Energy Sac

후조 = Hujoh Rear Node

겹슬 = Gyopseul Layered Valve

조감 = Jogam Early Sense

작센 = Jaksen

파인트 = Pyint