Those Who Live Without the Law Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Raid (2)

* * *

The state of Kairus’s body was visibly abnormal. Dark bruises had spread all over him, making him look like a loaf of bread covered in mold.

“To send this kind of monster just to catch a train robber… isn’t that going too far?”

At this level, he could have been called a 2nd Class Decorated Knight without any objections.

Originally, the 3rd Class and 2nd Class were entirely different. The dal was never ant to be so kind of official post. If an army was missing a company commander or a platoon leader, there would be serious problems, so if necessary, soone had to be forced into the role.

But a Decorated Knight? A Decorated Knight wasn’t essential. It wasn’t a post but more like an honorary title.

So if no one achieved distinguished service, or no one qualified to receive a dal, there was no need to forcibly appoint soone as a recipient.

Thus, among all Decorated Knights, only about 0.4% were 2nd Class or higher.

There were only a little over a hundred 1st Class Decorated Knights.

Those who had received the Grand dal numbered fewer than twenty in the entire history of the Empire.

Naturally, the difference in skill by dal rank was so vast that even those overwhelming statistics seed insignificant.

‘From 2nd Class up, it’s too hard to face them, and the chances of victory are extrely low.’

It wasn’t that he couldn’t win because Swift Blade was an inferior sword art. Kairus, in his own way, had honed himself through countless experiences and succeeded in becoming an excellent warrior.

But he still needed to grow stronger. He had the talent to do it, but there simply hadn’t been enough ti. Kairus had already wasted six years in the Carlson Labor Correctional Facility.

‘If only I hadn’t spent all that ti behind bars.’

He would have been given six more years, and if that had been the case, by now Kairus might have been able to devour even a 2nd Class Decorated Knight.

“Urgh…!”

Kairus blocked the greatsword, and a dull cracking sound ca from inside his body. The mont he realized his rib had broken, pain radiated through him.

But imagining what could have been was a pointless delusion. Kairus still wasn’t dead. Besides.

“Huuh… huuup….”

The opponent, too, was gasping raggedly, unable to breathe properly. He wasn’t in a normal state either.

In any case, all Kairus had to do was endure. His injuries were worse for now, but if just a bit more ti passed, the enemy’s condition would beco more serious than his own.

“Kraaaah!”

The opponent had stopped targeting Kairus altogether.

Like a madman who had lost all reason, he swung his greatsword wildly, the sky-blue sword light exploding against the walls of the inn in a series of desperate strikes ant only to demolish everything.

They were attacks aid at things that couldn’t move.

If Kairus didn’t feel like stepping up to get hit, there was no way those blows would connect with a living, moving target.

‘The problem is, that’s not an option for ! If the walls collapse, it’s over!’

Kairus found himself forced to block attacks he could have easily dodged head-on.

His whole body creaked, the blood vessels in his eyes burst, and a retch mixed with blood welled up from his throat.

“Huh… ugh… urgh…”

Shaking all over, Kairus was preparing to block the next attacks when he saw his opponent collapse.

He rushed straight over to the fallen man, jamd a piece of stained glass into the enemy’s throat, and wrenched it as if pulling a lever, tearing the neck out completely.

It wasn’t his mind but instinct that had driven him. Kairus himself was no longer sane.

“Evidence.”

In his dazed state, Kairus was under the illusion that he was on the battlefield.

He had killed the enemy commander, so he had to secure proof.

Kairus rummaged through the corpse with the missing neck, searching for sothing to prove the enemy’s identity, when a wave of dizziness struck him.

“dic… dic!”

Just before he lost consciousness, Kairus shouted the three magic syllables that anyone would cry out when gravely wounded on the battlefield.

Then he blacked out.

That bizarre cry calling for a dic echoed through the air. The loud shout carried beyond the shattered window…

“Hm?”

Tanya Lysand was planning to open a free ergency clinic with the funds she had secured by robbing the national tax transport convoy.

And today, she had been out shopping for dicines to stock the clinic when she faintly heard soone yelling “dic!”

It was snowing, and there was quite a distance between the inn and Tanya. Normally, it would have been hard even to hear it, and even if she had, most people would have just ignored it.

Fortunately, Tanya Lysand had spent many years as an angel of the battlefield. She had learned never to miss such faint cries.

“My goodness.”

All the people who had been inside the inn had already fled because of the sudden commotion, so Tanya Lysand was able to reach Kairus without difficulty.

Kairus was in rather serious condition, but Tanya happened to be on her way back from purchasing the necessary ergency supplies.

Most of the necessary asures could be carried out right there.

“Father.”

Tanya Lysand quietly made the sign of the cross and began performing all the steps required to treat an ergency patient.

Afterward, Kairus was transported to the clinic, and so ti later, he managed to regain consciousness.

“Thank you.”

“This is all part of fate. Oh, I extracted a little bone marrow without permission for the transfusion. Please don’t move until I say it’s okay, or you’ll start bleeding again.”

Kairus briefly checked over his own body.

When bone marrow was mixed with a solution called vür, it produced blood, allowing up to two liters to be obtained from the patient.

The number of people dying from excessive bleeding had drastically declined since vür solution was invented. Thanks to the developer giving up the patent, it had spread into common use extrely quickly.

“If you want all your ribs to heal completely…”

At Tanya’s words, Kairus answered.

“They’re already fine.”

At his response, Tanya made a pitying face.

“It’s not a wound severe enough to cause shock-induced delirium, but… how pitiful.”

“Damn it. You really don’t hold back, saying that to a patient.”

Tanya nodded calmly and replied.

“I’m a doctor. I have the right to diagnose my patients.”

“Strictly speaking, a dic isn’t exactly a doctor.”

At Kairus’s remark, Tanya confidently pulled out a dical license. It was an official license from the Aylan Republic.

“Ergency dicine specialist? How old are you, anyway?”

At Kairus’s question, Tanya openly showed a sullen expression.

“I’m thirty-one this year. I earned my specialist license when I was twenty-nine.”

“…No matter how ssed up a country is, they’re really selling specialist licenses for bribes? The Aylan Republic is unbelievable.”

At his reaction, Tanya Lysand retorted, her expression tinged with indignation.

“I worked as a dic for five years starting at twenty-one, then applied for the national exam through a special track.”

Apparently, this special track had been established under an ergency law enacted during the height of the war.

After passing the national exam through the special track and obtaining a general dical license, she went back to the battlefield for another three years of volunteer dical service. That experience substituted for the usual requirents to sit for the specialist exam, which she then passed to earn her qualification.

In this way, Tanya had twisted herself through every imaginable loophole until she finally beca a specialist at twenty-nine.

What surprised Kairus as he listened to her story wasn’t the fact that she’d beco a specialist by twenty-nine.

“Eight years on the battlefield.”

Even if her mind was a little odd, Tanya Lysand was a beautiful woman. And beyond that, she didn’t even know how to fight.

A pretty woman who didn’t know how to fight had road around the battlefields for eight years. Kairus knew very well what happened in war zones.

From his perspective, the re fact that Tanya Lysand was still alive felt like a miracle.

“Is God really watching over you or sothing.”

“I’ve told you many tis. Father loves . And I love all of you.”

Tanya Lysand spoke in a relaxed voice.

“And patients are supposed to listen to their doctors.”

“I told you my ribs are fine. You can check if you want.”

At Kairus’s words, Tanya snorted and pressed her hands over his ribs, only to look genuinely surprised.

“Father has granted you the gift of healing. He really didn’t need to go that far.”

“That’s not it.”

Direct descendants of the House Featherwing naturally recovered quickly because of treatnts they had received.

If the broken ribs had punctured his lungs, that would have been different, but since they were rely fractured, it took only about two or three hours to heal.

There were still a few minor injuries lingering, but most of the serious wounds that could have hindered his movent had already closed.

“Thank you for your help.”

Kairus sincerely thanked Tanya. He had managed to kill his opponent, but right after that, he had almost followed the dead man into the grave.

Kairus knew very well what happened to soone who collapsed unconscious in the middle of the street in Bennett City.

“Not at all. This is all a connection Father prepared for .”

Having co back from the brink of death, he didn’t feel like arguing with words like that.

And Kairus was the sort of person who believed that when you received help from soone, you should repay it with more than just empty words—so material gesture of gratitude was proper.

It was the sa when he was the one receiving the help.

Saying “thank you” alone was sothing you could only get away with before you hit puberty.

‘I should have enough money.’

It felt odd to say they’d robbed it together, but either way, Tanya had also co into a fortune when the raid on the national tax convoy succeeded.

That was why she could set up a free ergency clinic—a kind of relief facility you’d never expect to find in Bennett City.

“If you need anything, tell . As long as it’s within my ability, I’ll do my best.”

At Kairus’s words, Tanya gave him a smile that seed sohow amused.

“So this is why we were ant to et.”

Tanya closed her eyes and offered a short prayer, then took out a letter and held it out to Kairus.

“A warning letter?”

“It’s from the organization controlling this area. They presented with two conditions. If I refuse either one, they said they’d shut down the clinic.”

The conditions were simple.

First, she had to pay them protection money. Tanya didn’t seem particularly upset about this. After all, Bennett City wasn’t a place where you could do anything without paying protection fees.

The problem was the second condition.

“That I must not accept as patients anyone who is hostile to them.”

At Kairus’s words, Tanya answered firmly.

“I don’t pick and choose who I treat. If soone is sick or in pain and needs help, I will give them what they need.”

Kairus felt a flicker of curiosity at her reply.

“What if it’s so serial killer who murdered people and dismbered them to decorate an Itera statue of the Ascension Cult?”

The question was whether she’d treat such a person too.

“That’s… a very specific example.”

Tanya gave an awkward laugh at Kairus’s words, then made a small sign of the cross.

“Let’s say a lion on the plains tore apart a newborn gazelle and ate it in front of its mother.”

“Look, we’re not—”

Kairus started to reply, but Tanya shushed him and continued.

“Then let’s say that sa lion tore apart a human infant in front of its mother.”

Kairus looked at her for a mont. He had so idea where she was going with this.

“To us, the death of the newborn gazelle seems like the law of nature. But the death of the baby is reason enough to kill the lion.”

Tanya kept smiling as she spoke.

“The only difference is what it ate. Why do you think there’s a difference?”

“Because we’re people.”

At Kairus’s answer, Tanya nodded.

“If I’m a veterinarian, all of you are animals. A veterinarian doesn’t care what cris an injured animal committed against other animals in the past.”

He understood what she was saying.

Unless a criminal tried to harm her personally, she would treat them if they needed it.

According to her way of thinking, a criminal attacking her was like an animal attacking a person.

Then it wouldn’t be treatnt but euthanasia.

“You’ve got a complicated way of seeing the world.”

“Do I?”

In any case, that wasn’t the important part. What mattered was that the organization ruling this area was pushing Tanya with that second condition, and it was clearly sothing that bothered her.

She’d danced around it with words, but in the end, Tanya ant she would never turn away a patient.

Kairus might have mocked her, but as a physician, it was a rather admirable attitude.

“Do you want to take care of it?”

“If I’ve been of help to you, and if you feel inclined to help in return—yes, I think I would appreciate it.”