Chapter 245: Chapter 230

Hannah and I stood in front of the worst defended noble mansion ever. There were only six guards on this estate and none of them was particularly noteworthy as they were screened. We wore black clothing that made our affiliation very clear. A golden crown was on my back and shoulders, sewn into the fabric of my coat that blocked off any curious gazes.

Behind us stood six of the assassins Tom trained with the help of the Tarasov clan. They were deathly silent as the eight of us climbed over the fence and snuck up to the building. Usually, one would expect at least one patrol outside, but there was none. With my ears, I could pick up nothing but the sounds of the wind and the crunching of the snow beneath our feet.

Shortly afterwards, we pressed us against the wall beneath a balcony and I pointed upwards, then towards two of the assassins. They nodded immediately and brought themselves in position by folding their hands in front of them. While they stood side by side, I ran up to them, jumped onto their hands and was catapulted upwards by the strength of my legs and their arms.

My hand reached the stone railing, enabling me to swing my legs over it as well. Listening closely, I sneaked towards the door and brought my lockpicks into position. A few seconds later, the cold air entered the room as I opened the door and stepped into a deserted attic. I sneaked up to the next door as well and listened to the snoring of two of the guards.

I immediately unlocked that door as well as I heard the others breaking into the foyer down below while sneaking up towards the two guards. Completely silent, I slid both of their throats open with my two daggers and rammed them into their hearts afterwards for good measure.

Without making many sounds except maybe for their quiet rattling, they died nearly instantly. Suddenly, I heard how one of the assassins fucked up downstairs by making loud clanking noises and dashed out of the rooms, throwing two knives in different directions without even looking. One of the unsuspecting guards instantly died as the knife bore into his eye, while the other had less luck and survived the first knife as it only struck into his back. Another knife followed shortly afterwards though and bore into his head from behind. His skull cracked open by the force and he followed his comrade into purgatory before his, or the corpse of his friend even hit the ground.

After several seconds, the clamour downstairs died down as well. I closed my eyes, concentrated on what I heard and then smiled bitterly. These five trained fighters, including Hannah, had one job. And they messed up somehow. Angrily, I searched for the way downstairs and found it as Hannah, full of blood took the stairs, wearing an angry expression on her strangely unmasked face.

“Let us do this alone in the future, shall we?” She said, shaking her head in utter disappointment.

“Agreed.” If Hannah had such a low opinion of them, it would only be natural that I would have an even lower one. It wasn’t that she was good at fighting, but rather that I wanted her to feel a bit superior to the others. Emboldening her was something I still needed to do after all.

Sighing, I indicated Hannah to turn around and retrieve a bag out of her backpack. “Let´s get going then.” I said and opened the next best door I could find which led to some kind of dressing room. Smiling wryly, I stared at the amount of jewellery that the wife of this noble apparently possessed. It was way more than Mary and I had combined, which sadly didn´t mean much apparently as we were quite frugal in that regard.

As soon as we were finished with clearing the upper floor out any valuables, which ranged from jewellery to a few gems and money, we went downstairs again and handed the human failures our loot. Shortly afterwards, we were back outside, ramming a wooden pole into the ground in the front yard and securing our flag to it.

“So, what did they do?” Hannah asked once we distanced ourselves a bit from the mansion and the other assassins were only small dots in the distance, bringing their loot with a cart outside the noble district using the unknown underground tunnels. I could only hope they wouldn’t have any problems with the guards, but I didn´t think this would be an issue at all. The guards already had their hands busy extinguishing a massive fire someone else laid in the distance.

“Embezzlement of taxpayer money. They reported lower income than they actually had, and forced a heavy burden on their subjects as well. That’s the crime we are fighting right now. A crime that impacts the daily life of the people living on the lands and in the cities.” I said and took off my mask, gazing into the distance towards the three fires we laid so far. “I guess that’s our limit for now.” I said and dragged Hannah into a nearby bush as a group of guards came around a distant corner.

That night was easy. The nobles disliked a strong presence of law enforcement in their district, but after that they surely wouldn’t mind one or two guards more. Thus, Hannah and I let the last target we had on our list alone for that night and rather headed home. There was still too much to organize after all.

Around ten in the morning, Mr Astian, my head butler brought me the newspaper which I read with great interest. For once, there was the news of my arrival back in the city, but especially ‘The Crown transfers money to the poor – An act of benevolence or defiance to the real crown?’ was a rather interesting article. It stated how a bunch of criminals who called themselves ‘The Crown’ were stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor. Additionally, they wrote that we exposed the crimes of the nobles publicly, even though our claims could not be supported by evidence yet. But we didn´t need evidence. We needed to capture the hearts of everyone, and what was better than to give money to those who had nothing?

“Mr Asitan, please prepare my carriage. I will need to head to the northern slums immediately.” I stated and put down the newspaper.

“For what reason, Milady?” He said, looking at me in worry.

“To stop a disaster from happening.” I said. There was only one problem though. These people did not know how to defend themselves. Give them money, and others will try to rip it out of their hands.

My butler nodded and left the room shortly afterwards. After reading an amusing article about what may happen to me as I was captured, I stood up and strolled out of the room a few letters in hand. A few minutes later, I was already in my carriage, alone, and with nothing to do but to read. Despite the short timeframe, Hannah apparently found a seamstress who would make a dress for me, Tom did his daily report and stated he got in contact with the explosives guy again, which was fantastic news, and Mary sent her greetings out of Eastminster, stating she didn´t want to come back to see our mansion as a pile of rubble. Even though I promised her it wouldn’t be our mansion burning down …

In any case, travelling to the northern slums was a challenge in itself. The streets were once again filled with carts, walking humans and carriages. Bored, I could only look out of the window after finishing replying to Mary´s letter, drew an idea I had for a rather costly dress. After a few hours though, we finally arrived where I needed to be. There was already quite the clamour outside the city gates and that increased severalfold after I stepped out of the unmarked carriage.

It wasn’t the first time I was in this part of the city and most here knew about my reputation, so I was immediately swamped with requests.

“My Saint, the city guards are going through the slums and confiscating every bit of money they can find!” Terrible news, but not exactly unexpected. It was stolen money after all, and the guards were simply tasked with retrieving it. They were only abiding by the law, but they missed how much of a wedge they were driving in between the nobles and the rest of the populace this way. The Crown had stolen from the worst tax offenders in a single night, satisfying the citizens within the commoner district who knew how it was to live under heavy taxes and the beggars who couldn’t afford to pay taxes in the first place which got richer by our handouts. This way, everyone had something from it … except for the nobles who worried about their own wealth.

But that wasn’t my problem.

Talking to quite a few people, I managed to find out where the guards currently were and a few of the beggars led me there. Still surrounded by the mob which refused to even touch me, it must have looked quite threateningly for the guards as we walked up towards them. As the hundred people in front of me parted ways as they didn´t want to stand between me and my target, the guards had their weapons drawn.

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“Please, seethe your weapons. Nobody should be hurt today.” I said while I held my hands soothingly in front of me.

“Your holiness.” The leader of the troop went on his knee, followed by everyone else behind him.

“Please, rise. We have other pressing matters to attend. I assume you aren’t the only group with retrieving the stolen goods?” I asked in apparent worry.

“No, we are not.”

“Hmm … then let me ask you this one group at a time. Are you sure you are retrieving money stolen from the nobles?” I asked, raising my eyebrow slightly. Theoretically, nobody should be able to trace the money back through the auctions of the D’Antonio crime family towards our robbing. I mean, the money we spent that day on the beggars in the north wasn´t even from our robberies during the previous night.

“Milady, it is not hard to do so. In the previous night, several noble mansions have been raided by ‘The Crown’ and they spread a bit of their wealth here.

“So you do not have definite proof?” I said and frowned slightly.

“Where else should this money come from?” He said and held up a small bag full of coins.

“In doubt for the accused. The truth is that we cannot differentiate between savings and stolen money … what you are currently doing is robbing these people of everything they have. Imagine if they would all spend this money on education or to improve their living standards. This money in your hands means the world for them. For them, this is an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty.” I explained calmly and noticed how the others around me nodded in approval.

“Your holiness, as much as I agree with your viewpoint, I fear my orders are absolute.” So the king ordered this. Interesting, but not entirely unexpected.

“… Mr Astian, my purse please.” I said and noticed how my butler pushed himself through the crowd. He handed me my small white purse, which I opened immediately and picked up three gold coins, or rather everything inside.

“I don’t know where this money comes from. Maybe it is from taxation, maybe a thief gave it to me. Do you want to take my money as well?” I asked and held the coins up in the air.

“I wouldn’t dare.” He said, looking at me in a pinch.

“Why not?” I asked.

“You are the saint, your holiness.” He stated.

“But I am still a citizen of this kingdom. These people here enjoy the same basic rights as I do. The right to own money for example. I´m trying to help those who are desperately in need. Our latest success was to hire a few of them as lumberjacks. They earn a few copper coins a day. It´s not much, but it is honest work. And you are taking that away.” I claimed and walked towards him.

“This is not our intention, your holiness.” He said as I put my coins inside his open bag.

“Then why are there copper coins in that bag … please, I understand your position as well, but please have a heart and don’t take everything away from them.” Well, well, what did he want? An open riot or more trouble in the future?

“… as you wish.” He said, bowing down towards me.

“Please give relay my words to your colleagues. Thank you for your service.” I curtsied and turned around on my heels. With that, everyone was slightly displeased, but it was still an overall success. The guards could reclaim part of the lost money and the people here would earn all the copper coins we had. Interestingly enough, the D’Antonio crime family asked for payments with at least a proportion of ninety per cent copper coins … as if they knew the guards would sack everything more valuable than copper coins.

The king would find out eventually, no doubt about that. But until then, we could act as the saviours of the slums … until the royals would eventually decide to raid it completely.

“Please, do not resist them and hand them over every silver and gold coins you have in your possession. I will talk with the king about this immediately.” I said and went back to my carriage, only followed by a few very devout on my way back who told me what they had to experience thanks to the guards … not that I cared at all.

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