Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 215

An Unexpected Variable (2)Several hours later, after finishing their flight and arriving at San Paluche, Kairus and Irena found themselves facing a rather strange situation.

“Are you perhaps the people accompanying Dr. Cherenkov?”

The guard they encountered immediately upon entering greeted Kairus and Irena with a weary expression, but after confirming their identities, his eyes widened as he stared at them.

‘That’s Tanya’s alias.’

Irena and Kairus quietly exchanged glances. Why did the Security Corps know her alias?

“That’s correct.”

Preparing himself for things to become slightly complicated, Kairus answered the officer.

“That’s truly a relief. So there really were additional personnel.”

What exactly was relieving about that? Did he mean it was fortunate that they had come to rob the pharmaceutical facility in their city?

Thinking that, Kairus glanced at Irena, but from a single look he could tell she was thinking something similar as well.

“They are currently inside the pharmaceutical facility providing necessary medicine to the city’s citizens.”

Kairus blankly stared at him. So in other words, they had entered without bloodshed?

“Excuse me. Um, what was it… If the rumors we heard before departing were true, we heard this city wasn’t exactly friendly toward medical workers like us.”

Were the rumors wrong? But that made no sense. Bennett City’s information network was no joke.

“Ah, originally that was true. If you know that much, then you must also know how many patients there are in this city.”

“That’s true.”

The countless substances discharged during the production of pharmaceuticals polluted the rivers and sea, ruining the bodies of the people who consumed things caught there.

“To keep their symptoms from worsening, they need regular prescriptions. But because of those evil Rebel Army bastards….”

“So medical personnel were drafted away for suppression operations.”

Roughly, Kairus could tell how the current situation had unfolded. The patients needed medicine. And Tanya was not the kind of person who could simply ignore patients and walk past them.

“That’s correct. At first, everyone in the city was hostile toward Dr. Cherenkov and Dr. Orleans… but Dr. Cherenkov examined the conditions of the gathered citizens and prescribed the medicines necessary to ease their symptoms.”

Ordinary Imperial citizens would not know much about the medicines they needed. It seemed Tanya had helped them.

According to the explanation that continued afterward, Nora had apparently displayed the ingenuity expected of a Lunaseeker.

“She said she would enter the pharmaceutical facility and look for more necessary medicine… honestly, how could we possibly stop her?”

The Security Corps members also had families. And if they had families in this city, that meant they had sick family members.

If they could receive medicine for their families in exchange for allowing the pharmaceutical facility — abandoned by all the medical professionals — to be used, there was no reason to refuse.

“Still, it would be better to keep the pharmaceutical facility operating.”

“It is operating.”

It was only that all the specialists capable of prescribing the medicine had been drafted away. Just because someone worked at a factory producing anesthetics did not mean that worker could inject anesthetics into patients.

No, forget administering anesthetic injections — most of them were illiterate and could not even read. It was impossible for them to look at the labels on medicine bottles and identify which medicine they needed.

“Well, damn.”

Kairus felt conflicted. He still wondered why Nora and Tanya had failed to receive the telegram, but now that everything had happened, it turned out that not receiving it had actually been the shortcut to resolving things.

“Well, whatever. Good things are good things.”

After lightly poking Kairus in the side, Irena looked at the Security Corps officer.

“Please guide us.”

The officer obediently led the way.

The pharmaceutical facility was still operating, and the Security Corps members were continuing to carry out their duties. However, when the officer escorting Irena and Kairus explained the situation, the doors were immediately thrown wide open.

“What’s this line?”

“People waiting to receive medicine.”

People stood waiting along the long line. It seemed Tanya Lysand intended to faithfully carry out her duty even here.

“Patient number 67! Go in!”

They had even gone so far as to distribute numbered tickets with the cooperation of the Security Corps, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

‘At this rate.’

What Kairus needed to worry about was whether Tanya would obediently finish inspecting the samples and return to Bennett.

“Ah, you’ve arrived?”

As they entered the pharmaceutical facility, they saw Tanya busily moving around.

“You take them twice a day, and among them, you won’t need the yellow pill anymore once you stop coughing. The rest are antibiotics, and you absolutely must finish the entire amount I gave you.”

The old man who received the medicine let out a thoughtful hum.

“Wouldn’t it be better to stop taking them once I feel a bit better? Well, what was it… I heard antibiotics stop working later because resistance develops or something.”

Smiling at the old man’s words, Tanya answered,

“It’s the bacteria that develop resistance, not the human body. Even if your body feels better, the bacteria still remain inside you. If you stop taking antibiotics midway, the bacteria that survive instead of dying might develop resistance.”

That was roughly the kind of conversation taking place. Before long, the consultation ended, and there was a brief moment before the next patient entered.

“You didn’t come here just to work as a doctor.”

It was admirable that she was still treating and caring for people even here, but this was not the situation Kairus wanted.

“The samples are being analyzed. The results should come out in a few hours… but could we stay two more days?”

According to the Security Corps, it would take about three days before the drafted doctors returned.

It seemed Tanya wanted to fill that gap herself.

“It’ll be dangerous.”

Remaining for another two days under false identities carried considerable risk. Kairus also believed what Tanya was doing was right.

But that righteous act was also an act of charity that carried significant danger.

“I’m asking you.”

Kairus quietly stared at Tanya for a moment before nodding. It was a decision he made after giving it considerable thought.

“Oppa, will this really be okay?”

Watching the conversation between the two from the side, Nora quietly whispered to Kairus.

“We sent you a telegram. We warned you not to let the people in this city discover your false identities because they don’t look kindly on medical workers.”

At Kairus’s words, Nora flinched.

“We never received any telegram like that. Come to think of it….”

What flashed through Nora’s mind was the fierce storm that had not suited the spring sea at all.

“If you sent the telegram around that time, then of course we wouldn’t have received it.”

“And now look at the result.”

A smooth entry made possible because they never received the telegram. Tanya claimed to be Itera’s daughter. Maybe she was simply unbelievably lucky, or maybe she really was the daughter of Itera.

The important thing was that no matter what she did, the outcome always turned every situation in her favor rather than against her.

“But that only benefits unni.”

“Think about it carefully.”

Kairus, Irena, and Nora — the three currently present here — possessed monstrous strength. For Tanya’s luck to work positively for her, it also had to benefit those three.

Because if the three of them were placed in danger, it would become extremely difficult for Tanya herself to remain safe.

“…So in the end, this will also bring us a favorable outcome?”

“That’s how I’m thinking about it for now. And if the situation worsens even a little, we’ll forcibly stop Tanya’s medical work and pull out.”

Kairus possessed the strength to do exactly that.

“That’s true enough.”

Kairus could personally create and control storms like the one Tanya encountered at sea without much difficulty. There was almost no possible way for Tanya to remain safe while Kairus suffered harm because of her.

“Ah, I really don’t like this kind of thing.”

Even as Nora said that, she could not help but accept Kairus’s reasoning. After all, there were already too many things they had seen, heard, and personally experienced.

“I think it’s fine.”

Irena also agreed with Kairus’s opinion. To be honest, part of her was curious about how exactly this decision would affect things.

“Only two days. I’d rather you not insist on staying any longer than that.”

Kairus agreed to limit the medical volunteering to two days.

“Could you perhaps help as well?”

“I’m not a doctor.”

At Kairus’s response, Tanya answered,

“All three of you can read, can’t you? Just bringing me the medicines I request would already be a huge help.”

That much they could do. All three nodded in agreement.

“After spending years doing nothing but bad things, I’ve suddenly ended up doing volunteer work that doesn’t suit me at all.”

At Kairus’s words, Irena let out a light laugh.

In any case, the four of them spent their time assisting Tanya with her medical volunteering.

Several hours later, Tanya announced that the blood sample analysis had been completed.

“How is it?”

“They were detected. But… these drugs aren’t substances that cause short-term memory loss.”

The detected drugs were used to suppress the central nervous system.

“Things like muscle spasms, motor disorders, or akathisia would make sense, but these medicines aren’t related to short-term memory loss.”

And yet, every single owner of those blood samples had suffered from short-term memory loss. Furthermore, the same drugs had been detected in every sample.

This had been administered intentionally. After thinking for a moment, Kairus opened his mouth.

“The other side possesses Sopor.”

There was no reason for them not to make use of it. Kairus explained the power possessed by Sopor to Tanya and waited for her opinion.

“I’m sorry. Even so, I’m not knowledgeable enough in that field to offer a proper deduction.”

Tanya could not provide any clear answer either. In truth, asking an emergency physician a question like this was rather vague to begin with.

You could not just say, ‘You’re a medical worker anyway, so shouldn’t you know this?’ Specializations existed for a reason.

It was similar to how Kairus could not use a whip as skillfully as he used a sword. If told to fight with one, it was not impossible, but compared to someone who specialized exclusively in whips, he had many shortcomings.

And so, without finding any particularly sharp answer, the morning of the second day they had promised Tanya arrived.

“This is a telegram from the Imperial Capital… but I thought it would be best to show it to all of you as well.”

While they were in the middle of preparing and prescribing medicine for patients, the Security Captain personally came to them and held something out.

“…What is this?”

“An order came down instructing us to separately store certain quantities of these medicines among the produced stock. It’s apparently quite urgent, and they told us to prepare them as quickly as possible.”

The specialists capable of identifying these medicines would only arrive in the city tomorrow. And at the same time, orders had arrived via telegram demanding preparations be completed as quickly as possible.

Because of those two facts, the Security Captain shared the contents of the telegram with the four of them, including Kairus.

‘This is.’

The four quickly exchanged glances. The four medicines that had been ordered to be stored separately were—

an exact match for the drugs detected in the blood samples. The smell of something extremely suspicious hung in the air.

The people gathered here were not idiots who would simply laugh it off with, ‘Wow, what an amusing coincidence that these match.’

“Understood. We’ll begin sorting them immediately.”

“We’d appreciate it.”