We're Broke

Although Astur had been gone for a week, the events that led to her sudden wealth only happened in the last couple of days. Initially, Astur had brought Kretea and Ystur with her, telling them they were going to scout out the enemy and perform some espionage. But in reality, the three of them ended up on a four day vacation. As for the last three days, the events of those days were definitely not what someone would do for a vacation.

Moving back two days, Astur and the others are sitting around a park bench in the Capital of the neighbouring County, not only an hour away from the military base the crusaders are stationed at.

"What do we do… we're out of money," Astur mumbles with a dead expression.

"You spent all your money on tobacco and lost the remains at the casino," Kretea says.

"How are we supposed to get home without any money? The car broke down yesterday and we have no money to fix it. Hmm… isn't Kretea like super lucky, why don't we have her use her own money to win some more for us at the casino?" Ystur says.

"Not possible. I already lent my money to Lady Astur. It was supposed to be for repairing the car, but it got lost at the casino. As such, I no longer have any more money."

"What in the world were you thinking… never mind, you probably weren't thinking of anything at the time," Ystur says.

"More importantly, I'm hungry, Ystur, can you go buy me something to eat?" Kretea asks.

"I don't have any money either! I lost it all at the casino!"

As Kretea is looking at Ystur with a face full of pity, Astur overhears a conversation from a couple of passer-by's.

"Did you hear the news this morning?"

"About the bank heist, I heard the culprits still haven't been caught. They made off with several billion."

As the two passer-by's walk away, inspiration hit Astur like a rocket.

"I've got it! I know the best way to get some quick cash. Let's rob a bank," Astur announces.

"You're joking, right?" Ystur asks.

"Look at her face, I think she's serious," Kretea says.

"Oh and I'm not talking about the International Bank, I mean we should rob the County Treasury."

"That's not any better! And is this something we should even be discussing in a public park?" Ystur asks.

"Well… no one is here but us right now," Astur says, looking around the park.

Following Astur's actions, Ystur and Kretea look around and find that they really are the only people in the park right now.

"Ok, but robbing the County Treasury isn't much better than robbing the International Bank," Ystur says.

"No, no, no, just think about it. I still want to work with the bank, so it's a bad idea to rob their stuff, even if their wealth is extremely tempting. But the County Treasury is an extension of the Kingdom's Treasury. The Kingdom is our enemy, thus this could be considered the sabotage of enemy resources," Astur explains.

"You're going through a ton of hoops to justify your need to steal because we're broke," Ystur says.

"Ooh, a sabotage operation. It seems you were telling the truth when we first left. I'll get started on drawing up an infiltration plan. First off we need to discern the location of the Treasury. Normally, it would either be located near the Capitol Building or within it. Let's head over there and see if we can find anything."

Kretea one-sidedly talks about the heist plans as she drags Astur and Ystur away with each of her hands.

As the day concludes, Astur, Kretea, and Ystur have returned to their room. Their room being their broken down car in a parking lot near the park.

"So we've learned that the Treasury is located in a detached building on the same grounds as the Capitol Building. Within it are a mix of old antiques, gold and silver bars, paper cash, and an assortment of jewels. The estimated total value of everything inside is around 900 million," Kretea says.

"But we're missing the ever important patrol schedule of the guards. And how are we supposed to get inside? Not just anyone can enter the Capitol Building, we need a special ID… wait, how did you even find out what's inside the Treasury?" Ystur asks.

*Thunk*

"... Is there something in the trunk?" Ystur asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about, why would there be someone in the trunk?" Astur asks.

"Mom… what did you do?"

"Don't call me that, and what makes you think I did anything?"

"You were the one who initially responded to my question. Your facial expressions didn't change in the slightest, so you're probably hiding something. I'm going to open the trunk."

As Ystur gets out of the car and opens the trunk, the sight that greets her eyes could be said to be the most unexpected and least expected sight. Within the trunk of their car are three people in suits, their limbs are tied up in a tight rope and they have a gag stuffed into their mouths as well as a dark blindfold covering their eyes. Without a word, Ystur closes the trunk and returns to the car.

A minute passes before Ystur finally breaks the silence, "Are you fucking kidding me? Let me guess, you kidnapped three employees from the Capitol Building. Tied, gagged, and blindfolded them and then you two proceeded to interrogate them to find out about the contents of the County Treasury and its location."

"Actually it wasn't that complicated, that information is publicly available on the official website of the Eisen County. Apparently, Count Eisen likes to brag about the wealth of his territory since it's higher than its neighbours. So this kind of stuff is publicly available due to the Count's narcissism. We kidnapped those three so we could use their Employee ID to sneak into the Capitol Building," Astur explains.

"Yeah, you're overthinking it," Kretea say.

Ignoring them, Ystur pulls a blanket over her face, "I'm going to sleep."