Chương 41: Chapter 39. The Heist

Oscar and Ariesa were chatting with a [Banker] about setting up their own private storage box. It was just to make them appear normal amidst the incoming chaos. However, as the [Banker] continued to talk their ears off about premium rates and all of the optional extra fees for all of their asinine offers, he couldn't help but be appalled at how expensive it was to set up an account at this bank. District Four was the wealthiest district, but at the end of the day this was still the lower city.

Ariesa, however, seemed shocked at how cheap it all was, and since he was playing the role of her husband, it was important he appeared just as wealthy. Out of the corner of his eye, Oscar saw Wail and Weep enter the bank. The two Shiftlings didn't possess the same ability to quickly swap between whole faces like Cry did, but they did change their hair and faces a bit to look different enough. From across the room, Plank was engaged in a heated argument with another [Banker].

Bruno and Gita were playing their own roles, and they were sat on a bench nearest to the door that would lead them towards the lift down into the bank's bunker. As for Cry, Sob, and Bawl… well, they'd kept their role in this a secret stating it'd be best if everyone kept their reactions genuine. For everyone besides Oscar and Gita, they most definitely caused a scene." Is that the [King]?"" Bastard decided to get his boots muddy, eh?"

"[King] Romulus? What in the name of Praxios…" The room became absolutely electric. Not a single soul in the building was able to keep their thoughts private. The whispers had become so much that the [King]—who Oscar had no doubt was Cry—had to practically shout to shut everyone up.

"Hello! It is I… [King] Romulus," Cry said in perhaps the most awkward fashion ever. Oscar had never seen the [King] before, and assuming this was an accurate recreation of him, then he most definitely looked the part of a regal figure. Romulus was a fairly tall man with dark black hair that had started to become white in some spots. He was clean shaved, which made those commanding and piercing green eyes of his all the more intimidating.

Perhaps the weakest part of the disguise was the clothes that Cry had decided to wear. They were no doubt nice among the lower city standards, but even he could tell that they weren't clothes fit for a [King]. No one else seemed to notice as they were too starstruck to say anything. And while this stunt had grabbed everyone's attention, Oscar was left to wonder where this went from here.

"I have come to personally assess this banks operating procedures," Cry said in a booming voice.

"I know me being down in these parts is strange to see, but… I wish to do better. For all of you. Because I am your [King]."

"S-Sure, your majesty. We a-appreciate you personally coming down to see us!" an old [Banker] said.

"Do you wish to see the vaults down below?"

"That'd be delightful. I love you, thank you for the offer." Next to Oscar, Ariesa was staring at the display with her mouth hanging wide open.

"What… I don't even know what to say," she said, her disbelief palpable.

"I thought you said your dad was a cruel tyrant? He just told that wrinkly old man that he loved him. I think it's you that's the evil one with the cold heart," Oscar joked. Ariesa lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"He looks close to him, but whys he speaking like that?" she whispered.

"He'd never say"I love you" and especially not to some random [Banker]! What is he thinking?"

"I think he's panicking," Oscar whispered back and pointed at Cry's left hand which had a slight shake.

"Seems like Cry spent all that time crafting the face that he forgot to research how he spoke." A [Guard] now approached Cry, his suspicion visible to see.

"My [King], is that truly you? May I take a… closer look?" Cry whirled on the [Guard] causing him to flinch.

"What is it? Can you not see that I'm busy?"

"I-I am sorry! It's just that… where is your [Royal Guard]?" At that moment, the doors to the bank flew open. Two figures stepped in, their faces concealed by a burlap sack that had eye-holes cut out. Oscar had learned that Sob had been practicing with a crossbow, so he assumed the hooded figure with the crossbow to be her. Bawl was armed with two hammers." Get down!" Bawl shouted and swung one hammer into Wail's stomach, knocking him down.

"Yeah! Get down! This is a robbery!" Sob shouted in a deep voice as she wildly aimed the crossbow around the room. Cry turned to address the two robbers.

"What is the meaning of this? Do you two seek coin so badly that you've resorted to robbing a bank with the [King] in it?"

"You're the goddamned [King]?" Bawl asked.

"Yes, can you not tell from how royal I am? Listen, leave—" a cry of pain escaped his lips, cutting him off. His hands clutched at his side which now had a small crossbow bolt lodged there. Everyone was stunned into a deep silence as they watched their [King] collapse to the ground. Even Oscar and the others in his group were taken aback by the sudden attack from Sob. As the panic wore off, it was quickly replaced by anger. This story has been stolen from Royal Road.

If you read it on Amazon, please report it All of the [Guards] in the room—which totaled around five—drew their weapons.

"Look! The door down to the lift has been left open. Looks like Bruno and Gita have gone in already," Oscar said quietly to Ariesa. Plank was creeping his way towards the door himself. Slowly, Oscar and Ariesa crept their way around the edges of the room. The [Guards] were now encircling Sob and Bawl, while all of the [Bankers] were cowering behind their desks. As Oscar reached the door that led deeper into the restricted area of the bank, he saw one elderly [Banker] knocked out.

"Wait, what do we do about them?" Ariesa asked, referring to the Lamenters.

"Don't worry about them. This is all part of their insane script… I hope," Oscar said and stepped through the door.

"They said they've been planning this for awhile now, so just focus on our role."

"Sure, but it looks pretty bad for them. By now at least one of those [Guards] should have sent off a magic message for reinforcements."

"What? Can all [Guards] do that?"

"No, not all, but at least one of them stationed to this bank should." That gave Oscar pause. Given how rare [Guards] were in the lower city, he wondered if Cry and the others were aware of this knowledge. As much as he liked the Lamenters… it felt likely that this little detail might've escape them.

"How long do we have before reinforcements come?"

"Oscar… we're hardly that far from the upper cities walls." Plank, Bruno, and Gita were up ahead at the lift, gesturing for them to hurry up. Once Oscar and Ariesa were on the lift, he let them know about the potential problem.

"Eh? That's fine, I've already accounted for that," Plank said dismissively.

"Our escape is secured. We just need to quickly find all that we're looking for." The lift was a fairly crude creation, but impressive given the world. According to Ariesa, this lift was amongst one of the earliest creations of the prodigy [Architect], Veo Vintly. The lift he'd created for the upper city was supposed to be much more sophisticated in design with glyphs being used alongside it's mechanical parts and something called a mana conductor. The ride down was short.

Upon reaching the bottom, the lift shook briefly before its doors creaked open. Lying ahead of them was a massive chamber with three branching paths. The left path had what looked to be huge vaults that were composed of some dense looking metal. The right path had tons and tons of smaller vaults. Straight ahead led into a circular room which looked to have a lift in the center.

"Pray to whatever god you want that whatever you're looking for isn't in there," Plank said, gesturing to the circular room.

"It'd take far too long to search all of those. It's about four-stories high and littered with hundreds—if not close to a thousand—of small security boxes."

"We split up then," Oscar proposed.

"The only thing is those vaults on the left. How do we get through those?"

"Most likely that those vaults are fully lined with magara," Bruno said, evoking the memory of being in that magara cell back during the dungeon.

"I don't know how much they used, but I'd imagine it'd be quite the bitch for you to use [Erasure] to gain access. I don't expect Janine to have such a luxurious vault in her name, so be vigilant in checking the other rooms." Plank flashed a strange, round contraption at the group.

"You're right about the magara, but it's not as dense around the locking mechanism. This device that I have right here in my hands is called a magiheat breaching charge. It'll heat up via a blaze-glyph and burn straight through the thick metal before detonating in a small explosion. If it works as promised, then we should be able to get into any of those vaults." Bruno whistled in admiration.

"Gods, how much did that cost?"

"A lot," Plank said simply.

"I only have two of them, so be sure that the vault we pick is the best one."

"I can help tackle the smaller vaults," Oscar offered.

"Those look to be much less secure. I'm sure [Erasure] won't have any problems busting any of those doors open." Gita decided to join Oscar, stating she'd be able to help bust down any vaults that offered more resistance. Ariesa was going to tackle the circular room on her own for now while Bruno assisted Plank. Should neither groups find a plate with the name Janine Azlow on it, then they'd all go and help Ariesa.

Finding Janine's memory quartz was the most important goal, but everyone was keeping their eyes peeled for a juicy target to rob as well. Oscar and Gita ran down the hallway reading the nameplates. Neither him or Gita spotted Janine. What they did manage to find was a plaque that stood out due to its fancy engraving around the edges. The name stated it belonged to an adventuring group named the Craven Ravens. Despite the name of their group, he was led to believe this was quite the successful group.

Even though this wasn't the large luxury vaults, assuming these adventures were successful, there could easily be a ton of relics inside.

"We'll come back to this later if no one else finds a better vault to break into," Oscar said and ran off to help Ariesa search her room. As Oscar ran past Plank and Bruno, he noted the pair looked quite excited about something. Time was in limited supply, so he didn't stop and ask. He briefly wondered how things were going up above.

Cry stood up, his hand still clutching the side that he'd been shot. Even though it had been planned, he hadn't expected it to hurt so bad. Which sounded dumb because Sob had truly shot him. Once he'd dropped to the ground, he'd eaten a restoration pellet. It was some kind of new [Alchemist's] invention for a cheaper alternative to healing potions. Still experimental, but it had potential. The [Alchemist] was some weak-willed man named Hezzalam, a friend of Oz's who gave him a handful of the pellets to test.

Due to them being a cheaper alternative to healing potions, the trade-off was that they were less effective. How it all exactly worked… Cry had no idea. All he knew was that they were the test-subjects for this trial run of a concoction. What mattered was that his wound was small enough that the pellet was more than capable of mending him. Despite being healed, it was important to maintain the facade of being these people's injured [King].

All they needed to do was buy time for Oscar and the others to steal what they needed to. So long as no one escaped from the building, then no reinforcements would be called for.

"[Guards] lay down your weapons. Please allow me to diffuse the situation," Cry rasped, and he turned to address Sob and Bawl.

"I know that times are tough for you all… and I apologize for failing you. However, I am still your [King] and you have attacked me. For that, I must retaliate… unless you leave this place now." Sob cackled and aimed her crossbow at Cry.

"Fat chance of that, you greedy tyrant!" Bawl twirled his hammers with a flourish.

"We want gold. And lots of it. You weren't supposed to be here, but since you are… that's a bigger pay—" From behind, a hand gripped Bawl's skull and slammed him face-first down into the ground. Bawl cried out in pain and crumpled, unmoving. Cry flinched backwards from the surprise attack and let out a curse from under his breath once he saw who had done the deed.

"That's not the [King]. Must be a putrid Shiftling trying to impersonate him and cause a scene." It was a well-dressed man that spoke. Cry was confused until he saw the whirlpool pin on his suit. More men in the same outfit filled the room, although they looked to lack the same confidence this man had.

"I-I am most certainly the [King]!" Cry protested.

"Leave the negotiations to me! Don't harm the girl!"

"And how do you know this one is a girl?" The man said, pointing at Sob. With their faces concealed, it was impossible to tell which one was Sob and which was Bawl. Sob was lacking in the breasts area, so it had only been her crossbow that'd given her away.

"Ah, right… F uck! Wail, do something!" Cry screamed and reached for the strap underneath his socks which held the knife he always kept on him. Wail was behind the Depth's agents, but rather than distract them, he was inching towards the door. Since he was dressed in common civilian garb, they weren't looking at him. Weep was back on the ground after trying to sneakily take out one of the men. Cry knew Wail escaping was the right call, but still… it hurt to watch.

This hadn't ever once been a scenario that crossed their mind during all those nights of planning for a job that they'd never do. Bhenna, he didn't even know how they were alerted. A magical message was the only answer, but those [Guards] were just boring, basic [Guards]. Or at least, that's what they'd always assumed. There was no way out unless Oscar and his group emerged right now. Which isn't what happened.

"[Blinkstep]," the man that had been talking before said, and appeared right next to Cry. Before Cry could even attempt to stab the agent, the man swept at his feet, knocking the false [King] to the ground. He tried to stand up, but something sharp pierced through the back of his thigh. Sob let out a brief shriek at the same time he did before seemingly being neutralized herself. The last thing that Cry heard before fading was, "Adjutant Aurelia, we've neutralized four of the targets.

It's likely that more sneaked down into the vaults amidst the chaos."

"Good work, [Agent] Kibo. Leave and make sure there are [Guards] blocking off all routes to the bank," [Adjutant] Aurelia said.

"I want three of you to stay behind and dispose of the witnesses. Everyone else to go down to the vaults and smoke out the rest. Just don't forget to fulfill your purpose or else. I want to have my fun, too, you know?"