The Bank Robbers

Arriving at the hotel where the robbers are supposedly staying, Astur can't help but complain inwardly about the low-quality place the robbers chose. In truth, the hotel isn't bad. While not a top of the line hotel meant for VIPs, the hotel is clean and well furnished with decent decorative plants and paintings. Its staff are well dressed and the building itself has twenty floors to accommodate a large number of guests. In Ystur's mind as a relatively normal person, this hotel is very high quality and believes it to have good ratings as a place for tourists to stay.

Getting a room wasn't difficult since there aren't as many people as there usually is due to the war. With the hotel only having around 10% of its rooms full they were very happy to have a guest like Astur show up, someone who is willing to throw around money likes it nothing.

Moving into the elevator, Ystur sighs, "Why couldn't getting the car repaired be as easy as getting a hotel room…"

"What are you talking about? It was easy," Astur says.

"I mean… yeah, strictly speaking, it was easy. But you spent more than half that money we have. 1.6 million, gone, all in the span of an hour," Ystur complains.

"Even after paying for the best available room here, we still have a bit over a million left. I fail to see an issue here," Astur says.

"That's right. So long as things move according to plan, then we'll be getting more money soon," Kretea says.

"Do you even know what the plan is?" Ystur asks.

Both Astur and Kretea instantly reply, "No."

"I was asking Kretea, why in the world do you not even know? I thought you actually had a plan!"

"Don't sweat the small stuff," Astur says as the elevator's chime rings as it comes to a stop on the top floor, "Let's check out our room first, then we get started with that other stuff."

Unlike the floors below, the top floor of the hotel consists of suites that are both larger in size and of a higher quality compared to those beneath them. While they don't meet Astur's standards for high quality, it's more than enough for the average person.

After taking a quick look around the suite, Astur jumps onto the large bed, "I'ma take a nap. The two of you can go look into those robbers or think about the Treasury."

And within seconds Astur quickly fell asleep.

"I'm gonna take a nap too. Kretea, I'll leave the matter Mom mentioned to you. Just thinking about the ill preparations gives me a headache and I need to rest," Ystur says as she finds a space next to Astur and quickly falls asleep.

Watching the actions of this Mother and Daughter pair, Kretea doesn't have much to say, having long gotten used to them. After Locking the door to the suite and checking the windows for any security flaws, she takes a seat in the recliner near the bed.

Taking out her phone, Kretea sends a message to one of the Warbands intelligence officers. "Look into the detail regarding the robbers who had been robbing the International Bank and send me the findings later." Turning the sound up all the way, Kretea put her phone on the nearby nightstand, before leaning back and following in the footsteps of Astur and Ystur.

Meanwhile, at the corner of the ceiling in the suite, a small black spider can be seen spinning a web. Watching from afar, Illsrvati can't help but wonder if Astur's group feel any sense of urgency or danger at all.

…

Several hours later the Astur is awoken by the sound of Kretea's phone vibrating on the nightstand coupled with the loud notification sound.

"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep here!" Astur shouts, jolting up from the bed and pushing Ystur off as her face slams into the floor. "Oops," Astur gets out from the bed and helps Ystur up.

At the same time, Kretea gets up from the chair and stretches out her body, "The information regarding the robbers has arrived."

"Huh… oh yeah. Now that you mention it, I did ask you two to deal with that."

Rubbing her forehead, Ystur asks, "Why was I on the ground?"

"Dunno. You probably moved closer to the edge of the bed while sleeping and Kretea's phone caused you to fall while trying to get up. Yeah, that seems reasonable," Astur says.

Naturally, Ystur thinks that's bogus, but she can't find any fault on Astur's face and Kretea wasn't paying attention so there's no way to prove Astur isn't lying. Of course, Ystur also didn't hear Astur's mumbling when she first fell.

To turn attention away from her previous actions, Astur asks about the information Kretea received.

"A group of five people, consisting of three Humans and two Beastfolk. They've been identified as Karl Rex, Louise Agata, Bianca Felis, Walter Helsper, and Joseph Gareth. The latter, Joseph, is the one we killed in the sewers. It has been confirmed that they had used the confusion from the beginning of the Crusade around the areas closest to Dawn and Hadrow to rob the local branches of the banks. They apparently had a device that could shield them from surveillance, but it seemingly failed during their most recent theft as they were leaving. It was this that exposed them. It has been publicly announced that they have stolen 12 billion VD, however, the Warband's informants in the Land of Fortune say that this number is exaggerated for the sake of publicity and the actual amount stolen is around 2 billion," Kretea says, reading aloud from her phone.

"Even if it isn't as high as the media reports, the amount stolen is still in the billions. This isn't an amount that can be ignored. Getting the money from them is the highest priority right now. We can deal with the Treasury after," Astur says.

"Really?" Ystur asks.

"Yeah, having that much money is significantly more important. Having more money means more resources for my experiments," Astur says. But inwardly she's thinking, "More money to scam the players with."

"Then I'll continue," Kretea says.

As Kretea continues, she tells Astur and Ystur more about the robbers themselves. Walter and Bianca are both Beastfolk, a Dog Beastfolk and Cat Beastfolk respectively. The two of them are both magitech engineers and used to be researchers along with Lousie, together the three of them were a part of a private research institute focused on magitech development. But the institute was forcibly dissolved due to inhumane experiments with the lead scientists and his assistants being arrested, these being Louise, Walter, and Bianca.

Karl Rex is the supposed leader of this gang of thieves. The Rex family used to be a member of the Virpal Nobility, but the family's status fell amidst the power struggle for the throne and was a sacrificial pawn used by the faction supporting the current King's late younger brother. Although the family still had some wealth saved up and could still live in relative comfort, but it wasn't anything like their previous lavish life as a Noble. Karl himself was one of the people who had been funding the research institute under Louise and this is supposedly how they all met.

As for Joseph, Kretea passed over him since he is already dead, so she didn't place any importance on him.

The remaining information Kretea received regarding the robbers is mostly speculative. But it is safe to assume the equipment used to enter the banks undetected was developed by Lousie, Walter, and Bianca. If not because of their misfortune with their equipment malfunctioning, they probably could have continued to steal from the various branches of the bank without anyone ever figuring out their identity.

"I'm not really interested in their motives or backgrounds. Although it is good to know that they have some unique machinery. But what I want to know is where they are," Astur says.

"I know, but that is not in the information I received," Kretea says.

Astur nods, "Yeah, I figured that was the case. I wasn't really expecting to find this anyways. But I did learn some unexpected good news, in addition to the money I need to confiscate their equipment and research material as well. So, good job."

"All in a day's work," Kretea says.

Watching the exchange between the two, Ystur can't help but ask, "But wasn't it someone else that actually obtained and organised the information?"

"..."

*Cough*

"Putting that aside, you up there in the corner, you deal with information so how about it? Wanna trade?" Astur looks up to the corner where the spider is spinning its web.

Once again, Astur and Illsrvati engage in conversation. Initially, Illsrvati was going to decline, after all, all the money Astur currently has is something that should have belonged to her. But Illsrvati quickly changed her stance after Astur explained and offered to give one of her Grand Evolution Elixirs in exchange for Illsrvati finding the location of the robbers in the hotel. Due to its effects and the way it's made, the Grand Evolution Elixir can easily be considered a priceless item. For Illsrvati this is an incredible deal and can be accomplished both quickly and easily, so she instantly accepts the job and gets to work.