In the capital where it was bustling everywhere, the lights rarely went out even in the middle of the night.
Among them, the place that kept the darkness at bay until late night was the East Safe, operated by East Top.
The East Safe was busy day and night, with people even joking that it contained all the treasures of the empire. Even when everyone else was resting, the light in the safe never went out.
During the day, the employees dealt with aristocrats and wealthy people with friendly smiles. At night, the assigned personnel turned on the lights and deployed strict security to protect the customers’ valuable assets.
With the beauty of the stars and moon in the night sky and a safe in the city center, the East Safe has suddenly come to be regarded as a symbol of the empire’s wealth.
The marble floor of the lobby that was prepared for hospitality was as smooth as frozen ice, and the thick carpet on top was, no matter what anyone said, of the highest quality.
The walls were filled with paintings painstakingly drawn by the most expensive painter to hire in the empire, and the brightly lit chandeliers hanging from the ceiling were decorated with jewels.
The employees guarding the reception desk were neatly dressed in uniforms that revealed they belonged to East Safe, even though it was a night when few people were visiting.
There was no gap at all in their neatly standing posture.
As always, everything was perfect. There was nothing that could tarnish East Vault’s reputation.
This night was quiet.
It was the time when all nearby stores were closed. The inside of the safe was silent; even a mouse couldn’t be heard
At that time.
Thump, thump.
A dull noise from outside broke the silence.
“…Huh? Do you guys hear that?”
“Isn’t it the sound of the wind?”
When one employee reacted sensitively, another employee next to him responded harshly.
With that, the conversation ended, and silence fell again.
How many minutes have passed like that?
Thump, thump.
The sound of something falling was heard again.
Outside the window it was dark and nothing could be seen.
One of the employees asked again in an anxious voice.
“Is this really the sound of the wind?”
“Probably.”
This time, the other employees seemed unsure as well and just brushed it off weakly.
The eyes of the employees and mercenaries naturally turned towards the door.
There was a peculiar silence late at night. A silence that couldn’t help but sharpen anyone’s senses, no matter how dull they were.
Right then.
Kwaaaaang!
The door opened violently with a loud bang.
“W-what?!”
“Don’t make a fuss. If you want to live, shut up. If you scream, I will kill you.”
A gloomy voice came out of thin air. At the same time, a group of intruders who had clearly been invisible until just now suddenly appeared.
“W-what!”
The mercenaries reflexively grabbed their swords, but it was already too late. The enemy’s swords had already reached the nape of their necks.
“The invisibility scroll!”
They were quick to understand the situation.
Someone muttered something like a moan.
It was not an item that ordinary thieves could easily obtain. It was a scroll that could be used to hide all these people.
This meant that they were on a different level from other thieves.
The faces of those who realized the situation in an instant became stiff.
The inside was quickly overrun by intruders.
The person who appeared to be the leader gave the order.
“Open the safe and take out all the treasures. If you do something stupid, I won’t let you go.”
The employees’ faces turned pale.
All mercenaries had their movements blocked. It was obvious that if They took just one step, their neck would be pierced by the enemy’s sword.
“Drop your weapons.”
Gritting their teeth, the mercenaries let go of their swords.
All the weapons fell to the ground with a clanging sound, and the intruders collected them neatly. After that, they had the mercenaries and employees stand in a line on one side of the wall with both hands raised.
When that situation came to pass, the employees all began to pay attention to one person. The head of the employees easily guessed that he was the highest-ranking employee here.
“There you are.”
“…”
The young employee’s face hardened.
After a moment of hesitation, he took a long step forward.
“I am in charge.”
“Good, you seem to be quite capable. Guide me to the safe. If you don’t rebel, their lives will be spared.”
“…If it means freeing the others, then so be it.”
The employee said that with his hat pulled down.
Then the leader burst out laughing from behind the mask covering his face.
“Do you think negotiations are going to work right now?”
“….”
The employee’s eyes scanned the situation inside again. The other employees were almost on the verge of tears. It seemed impossible for the suppressed mercenaries to push back and fight.
The employee finally let out a low sigh.
“Follow me.”
When the leader nodded, his subordinates came forward. Five masked people immediately surrounded the employee.
The leader ordered again.
“Take everything inside out.”
“…”
The employee nodded with a stern expression, turned and walked inside.
The leader gave a brief tsk and clicked his tongue.
“It’s too easy.”
“Still, you must not let down your guard.”
“I know.”
This was the cornerstone for achieving a great cause. It wasn’t not over until it was for sure, so it was a no-no to take things lightly and then mess things up in the end.
He scanned the frightened people with an indifferent gaze.
“Don’t be too upset; I’m going to use these items to create a better world. It would be meaningless to fill the treasures of rotten nobles with gold and silver.”
Furthermore…
He tightened his grip on the sword.
‘That item is here too.’
If they get their hands on it, there will be nothing that can stop them.
Just then, someone shouted from inside.
“Can you please have a few more people come this way? I don’t have enough hands!”
“What?”
The leader’s brow furrowed.
But even for a moment, he winked at the remaining people. Then, some quick-witted people went inside.
It was a burdensome task, but it seemed like the right answer was to bring a large number of people. The number of mercenaries was greater than expected, and their level of armament was also quite high.
‘If we hadn’t pushed back with numbers, we wouldn’t have been able to subdue them so easily.’
At that time.
Coooooo!
The noise coming from inside got his attention.
He shouted with a frown on his face, “what’s going on!”
“I need you to come here for a moment! There’s a problem! We need a few more people!”
The answer came immediately from inside. It was the same voice that asked for an increase in personnel earlier.
The leader sneered in irritation.
“You idiot. Are you saying you can’t even move things properly?”
“S-sorry!”
The urgent voice was heard again. It seemed clear that something was wrong.
He had no choice but to gesture towards the others. A few people stepped forward.
“You guys watch these guys from here.”
“Yes!”
A loud reply came back.
He unconsciously counted the number of subordinates guarding the lobby.
About half of those initially brought in remained. The number was similar to the number of mercenaries gathered near the wall.
He nodded and walked inside the safe where his pathetic subordinates were waiting.
There was nothing to worry about. After all, they were people that high-level mercenaries could never deal with. Moreover, all of those mercenaries had been stripped of their weapons.
His calculation was not wrong.
But there was just one thing he didn’t expect.
What if those who were currently threatened at the point of a sword were not ‘high-level mercenaries’?
A group of men, including the captain, entered the reception desk. As soon as they were completely out of sight, the mercenaries who had lowered their heads smiled.
“Uh?”
They were distracted for a moment, but they realized the discomfort a beat later. When they turned to face the hostages, their hardened fists were already sinking into the masked faces.
“What is this…”
His legs, which had been busy moving, became stiff.
As soon as they entered the safe, what they saw was their colleagues stretched out on the floor.
It seemed as if they had been knocked down by a single blow, and were spread out all over the hallway without having even made a groan.
The leader’s gaze naturally fell inward. A silver-haired young man dressed as an employee gently waved his hand at him.
“Hey, boss. You’re too late.”
The hat he had been wearing a moment ago was dangling in his hand.
The leader made a dumb noise without realizing it.
“What… ?”
“You came running like this just because I called you, so I don’t know what to say.”
On either side of the young man, knights wearing the uniforms of the imperial knighthood flashed fiercely. There were so many that they filled the hallway leading to the vault.
Only then did the leader, who had been dumbfounded, understand the situation.
The sound of teeth grinding came out from between his mouth.
“This bastard…!”
The voice of the employee who first guided the subordinates inside, and then the voice of the subordinate who guided him this way.
It was all the same person.
At that time, screams began to erupt from outside.
Boom, boom!
The sound of someone being beaten up was a bonus.
The leader’s highly distorted face gradually became pale.
“Ugh! These guys are not mercenaries!”
“Damn it, it’s a trap!”
The sound of subordinates yelling was heard outside.
Laius, who was standing next to Arendt, shouted sharply.
“Suppress your enemies!”
With that as a signal, the knights all drew their swords and began charging toward the masked men.
The intruders, who suddenly came to their senses, also responded.
The leader’s composure broke.
“The emperor’s dogs are playing dirty tricks! Kill them all!”
“Die!”
A melee broke out in an instant. Arendt watched the scene leisurely beside Laius with his arms crossed.
“It’s as simple as this.”
“….”
Laius’ gaze turned to Arendt.
The enemies were being steadily suppressed.
It was natural. The knights had an overwhelming advantage in terms of the number of people in ambush as well as their individual skills.
The enemies were quite numerous and quite strong, but they were not enough to smoothly deal with this number of knights.
Arendt, who had been watching the two fighting forces intently, raised his head. He noticed that Laius was looking at him.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“…If things continue like this, we will be able to subdue them without any injuries.”
“I guess so.”
Arendt responded crookedly.
That was a good thing. Of course, it’s a bit… There was a little problem though.
“Even if there was a need to not arouse their suspicion, it was dangerous to involve civilians.”
“What do you think? It’s not about dying, it’s about protecting their property. Moreover, they were people who would not have survived if the safe had been stolen anyway.”
“…”
“And if you can’t protect even a few civilians who cooperated, doesn’t that mean you’ll be deprived of your knighthood? The seniors will be able to figure out that much.”
Laius groaned at Arendt’s shameless addition.
He remembered what their leader had shouted earlier.
The emperor’s dogs are playing dirty tricks… did he say that?
The knights’ actions may not have been as dirty as the sword-wielding robbers, but Laius could not deny that they were mean-spirited.
It was a strategy that took advantage of the fact that the inside of the safe was larger than the lobby.
It was simple to put into words.
They used the entire safe as a trap to get rid of all the enemies.
All the mercenaries were replaced with knights, but the staff were all real except Arendt.
The reason was simple.
“It’s okay to imitate a mercenary, but if the seniors pretend to be employees, they’ll definitely get caught. If you are confident that you could act scared and tremble in front of thieves… Well, I won’t bother to stop you.”
Since he wasn’t wrong, they had no choice but to accept it.
Once the enemies entered the safe without any suspicion, the operation could begin.
Laius’ face hardened slightly as he remembered what Arendt had said in front of the knights.
‘To put it the other way.’
It could be said that Arendt was the one who very easily succeeded in separating the large number of enemies into the lobby and the safe.
‘What a ridiculous thing this guy did.’
Laius again recalled what Arendt had said during the strategy meeting.
“It’s hard to tell who is who at first glance as they shout out in panic. We can probably fool them without much trouble.”
Even so, was this possible?
Arendt, who pretended to be an employee wearing a hat and then led the enemies towards him with realistic shouts, seemed as if he had several faces and replaced them as necessary.
The inside of the safe was a complete mess.
The knights, who pretended to be mercenaries and threw their swords to the ground, were beating up their enemies with their bare hands.
In the aftermath, the once sparkling interior of the safe became a mess.
The statue fell and broke, and the carpet was trampled on.
Pow!
The body of the masked man, who was thrown by the knight against the wall, was harpooned by one of the glass craft ornaments.
Since East Safe used all the best products, the damage would not have been merely a penny or two.
‘Originally, this was an issue that required at least some compensation from our side.’
Because damage was caused during the suppression process.
Laius’ gaze upon Arendt was uneasy.
His side profile watching his seniors subdue the thieves was expressionless, not showing any of his thoughts.
‘Snake-like guy.’
Laius turned his head to look back inside the vault.
Kendrick and Diana, who had come to observe the situation from a place untouched by the aftermath of the battle, looked at them in bewilderment.
In addition, there was one more person.
A middle-aged man with a good appearance was hiding behind the two people.
He stuck his head out over Kendrick and Diana’s shoulders and stared at Arendt with a face full of admiration, as if Arendt was some kind of hero.
It was the store manager of East Safe.