On that day, the infamous human trafficking gang Broken Barrel in the Rust Belt was wiped out. When their long-time clients sent people to investigate, the place had already been reduced to ashes by a massive fire.
However, the masterminds behind Broken Barrel's downfall ended up making a fortune.
"This is the Luminous Pound," Edrick said thoughtfully, looking at the thin paper bill in his hand.
In front of him were several thick stacks of bills, only £1 and £5 in denomination, as well as many stolen items such as pocket watches and pipes, and a large pile of coins.
"There's roughly 187 pounds in cash and another 100 to 300 pounds worth of loot," Edrick quickly counted. He had never seen so much cash before, feeling like a sudden millionaire. "The exact value of the loot depends on the channels for selling it and the authorities' stance. Direct sales are the most profitable, pawnshops offer decent prices, and underground channels tend to offer the lowest bids."
Add in the items stolen from the cathedral, and it should be worth around £30 to £70.
"There aren't even any £50 notes... It's less than I expected." Lacus had once been in charge of the entire finances of Stellaxis, and this amount of money wasn't even enough for her pocket money. "Isn't human trafficking very profitable?"
"It's a no-investment business, so while it's profitable, they're not the biggest beneficiaries. The protection from higher-ups, bribes to police and officials, and the shares and living expenses for gang members are all significant expenses." Edrick, being from the lower classes, understood the situation after a moment's thought. "Broken Barrel isn't a large gang; they don't get the lion's share."
"Then if we take out more gangs, can we make more money?" Lacus had been worrying about their livelihood. She had spent time in prison and lived in a slum; she wasn't asking for a luxurious life, but feeding and housing dozens of people required a significant amount of money.
Robbery was a risk-free way to make money, and with Lacus's strength, even a direct raid on Blackbeard and the Soot Street Scamps' headquarters wasn't impossible.
Edrick had actually considered this method of making money when he first arrived, but after learning more about Blackbeard and the Scamps, he realized his idea was too naive.
"No," Edrick immediately poured cold water on Lacus' idea. "Not to mention that these two gangs have been entrenched in the Rust District for many years and are deeply rooted, there's no guarantee that they don't have their own Pathseekers. More importantly, these gangs are backed by powerful forces, and they themselves are not the biggest beneficiaries.Even a small gang like Broken Barrel, with only a dozen or so members, is connected to the Church. Other gangs that dominate entire areas are even more complicated. Touching any one of them would inevitably drag others into the mix."
This is something we can't get too involved in, or we'll alert the police and Patroler, and they'll lose the upper hand.
After all, Edrick and Lacus's only advantage at the moment is exploiting the Church's reluctance to expose scandals, preventing them from conducting large-scale searches. Occasionally, Lacus can even risk using some of the Church's authority, as the lower-ranking clergy are unaware that Lacus has been imprisoned and escaped.
The Church doesn't launch large-scale searches, and Lacus doesn't expose the scandals—that's the unspoken agreement between them.
If they start openly looting everywhere now, it would give the Church and the government an excuse to deploy large forces. By then, with wanted posters plastered all over the city, they'd truly be trapped.
"Oh," Lacus sighed dejectedly. She was deeply disappointed. She had thought that escaping the dungeon would allow her to prove herself, but instead, she found herself constantly hindered. Without Edrick's strategic advice, their group would either have been captured or starved to death on the streets.
It was not her fault for being naive. After all, she owed her title of bishop to her mother's connections in the upper echelons of the church and her father's position as king. She had spent most of her 20-year life studying Ethercraft, so it was normal for her to know little about the cruel side of the world.
It was a contradiction. It was difficult to devote the same amount of time to both gaining power and studying political intrigue.
"What are you doing?" Lacus watched Edrick fiddling with the corpses and asked curiously.
"Sending a message." Edrick finally finished and arranged several corpses to spell out a word:
SIN.
One of the core tenets of the Church is original sin, and to atone for it, one must donate money to the Church to purchase indulgences.
"Once these people go missing, the Church will definitely send someone to investigate. After all, they were supposed to be sacrifices for the Church." Edrick adjusted the corpses' positions to make them look more elegant. "Such a brazen provocation—what do you think it means?"
Lacus was actually quite intelligent. After pondering for a moment, she said, "The royal family. This looks like a warning from the royal family to the Church."
"Why?" Edrick nodded with a smile.
"In Stellaxis, the only force that would dare to provoke the Holy See like this is the royal family. Of course, it's possible that we did it, but considering my personality..." Lacus said with a hint of shame, "This is not my style at all, but your existence is a mystery to the Holy See, so they would definitely suspect the royal family first."
"That's right," Edrick's strategy changed from provoking Blackbeard and the scamps to provoking the royal family and the Church. With Lacus, who was at Lv. 5, as his backup, his plan became even more reckless. "At the same time, we must also take action against the nobles in Stellaxis who are loyal to the royal family..."
As he spoke, Edrick noticed Lacus's expression change and quickly added, "Of course, our main targets are those who have committed heinous crimes. Don't worry, we won't put you in a difficult position."
"But... won't this drag more innocent people into it?" Lacus was worried. Her previous conflict with the Church was partly because she had fiercely opposed the Church's encroachment on royal authority, as she knew that once the conflict between the two sides escalated completely, it could easily lead to war.
Edrick didn't know much about the international situation, but he could guess that the struggle between the royal family and the Church had reached a fever pitch. Otherwise, the Pureblood Order wouldn't have come from another country, and the Holy See wouldn't have done something as absurd as imprisoning its own bishop.
"On the contrary, our plan is to prevent war," said Edrick. "Although disrupting both sides' plans will provoke conflict, it will prevent them from mobilizing for war."
War is no child's play; it cannot be launched by a few people slamming their fists on the table, not even by a king. It requires the coordination of an entire interest group.
"Dissolve these interest groups, create internal conflicts among them—not just between the royal family and the Church, but also within the royal family, within the government, and within the Church. We must exploit all these conflicts. As long as they cannot unite internally, they cannot wage war!"
Coming from Edrick, a mere dockworker, these words sounded absurd, but for some reason, Lacus found them incredibly convincing.
At this moment, Edrick actually had a premonition that war was inevitable. He and Lacus, a Level 5 Pathseeker, would do their best, but all they could do was delay the war. This was determined by social contradictions and could not be changed by individual will.
The two agreed and, before Lacus' cooling spell wore off, they took the children they had rescued from Broken Barrel back to the laundry room's mezzanine.
He then spent 125 pounds, using a mix of persuasion, threats, and bribery, to buy the small laundry room from its original owner. The laundry room had one steam-powered washing machine.
After all, most of them were young women or disabled children who couldn't do heavy labor. Considering their future livelihood, they needed a means of support.
Coincidentally, Hannah and Miryam had worked here before, and Edrick was familiar with the place, so he decided to buy it outright.
Over a hundred pounds was a price the Croft family had never dared to imagine, and spending it all at once left Edrick feeling a bit regretful.
It was a small, three-story building that was dilapidated but well-equipped. In the middle was a neat mezzanine with equipment, including a £30 steam generator with three large Steamsprites. Although it was old, it was still in good working order.
The building was a two-story structure with gray brick walls that were weathered and dull in color, with stains and moss on the surface.
The roof is made of brown tiles, with some areas damaged. The eaves extend outward by half a meter and show signs of wear. The entrance is a wooden door with scratches and dents on the door panels, peeling paint on the door frame, and an iron door handle and latch, both showing rust stains.
Above the door is a small semicircular window, with the wooden window frame showing some cracks. The windows are primarily concentrated on the front and sides, with wooden frames. Some of the window panes have cracks, and the frames show signs of wear and peeling paint.
The building appears old and dilapidated but structurally sound. It stands quietly at the corner of the street, with the third floor housing over a dozen bunk beds, barely accommodating the thirty or so people who live there.
Most of the young women could work as laundry workers, but this was far from enough. After all, the women who had been working here couldn't be fired outright, as that would deal a devastating blow to their families.
So the remaining people had no choice but to seek other jobs.
What troubled Edrick most was how to explain everything that had happened to Hannah and Miryam. Just three days ago, they had been forced to move out of their dilapidated house they had lived in for ten years due to financial difficulties, relocating from a poor neighborhood to an even more run-down slum. Suddenly, they had become the owners of a laundry!
All of this felt like a dream come true for the Croft sisters.
After careful consideration, Edrick declared that he had actually accepted the oracle of the god and become a messenger of the deity, albeit a heretical one.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain the changes in his personality and knowledge.
Fortunately, the Croft family weren't particularly devout believers, and humans have a remarkable ability to accept changes that benefit them. Edrick was confident that his two sisters would keep this secret, as Hannah had always been steady and level-headed, while Miryam, despite her young age, possessed an unusual wisdom for her years.
Hannah might need some time to digest it, but Miryam seemed to accept everything calmly, as if nothing had happened, and proclaimed herself the holy maiden of this pagan deity.
After much deliberation, Edrick decided not to tell Lacus about this for the time being, because he wasn't sure if there was really an explanation for it in the Ethercraft-related subjects.
After all, being a pagan was one thing, since Lacus was now no different from an apostate, but his identity as a transmigrator absolutely could not be revealed!
He decided to wait until he had learned the basics at university before discussing it with Lacus.
With Edrick's permission, the Aridian child Idrar struggled back to the dock and called the six Fogport Ravens who had stayed behind to the laundry room.
"Starting today, this is our home." The children looked at the sign on the door and smiled happily.
Snow-White Raven Laundry.
It was time to give these children a new home.
Most of the children rescued from the Church and human traffickers were orphans, with only a few still having family. However, in this era, helping them find their way back home was no easy task, even with the assistance of three cats and Griff. Additionally, ensuring their safety and maintaining their secrecy after returning was another major challenge.
With the start-up capital, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but no one expected that this smooth sailing would only last until the early morning of the third day.
"Edrick Croft, you're under arrest." The person who came to arrest him was not the police, but someone Edrick could never resist—the Golden-ranked Hero, Ms. Adrian Gray!