Bavart Bank, one of the largest banks in Backlund, had vast numbers of depositors and enormous reserves of funds.
An inconspicuous black carriage was parked in an alley near one of its branches.
Inside the carriage, John Jieming looked at the leather cases before him, all packed with brand-new banknotes, and smiled wryly.
"This much money would be enough to fund the rest of my retirement."
"Unfortunately, it's all counterfeit." John sighed.
His task was to use his abilities as a Faceless to secretly swap these meticulously produced counterfeit notes into the bank's vault in batches.
Since this was a branch, security was relatively lax, and the task was not particularly difficult.
"They really did a good job... the feel of the paper, the watermark. If I hadn't known beforehand, I wouldn't have been able to tell they were fake." He picked up a one-soli note and examined it closely.
As far as he knew, although the counterfeit notes were convincing, a few flaws had deliberately been left in them.
"The serial numbers..."
John noticed that the serial numbers on these counterfeit notes followed an overly regular pattern. A careful check would also reveal many duplicates.
Even with the limited technology banks of this era used for routine oversight, once these consecutively numbered notes entered widespread circulation, their discovery would only be a matter of time.
John silently made an estimate. Given Backlund's sensitivity to financial matters, it would take less than a month for the issue to come to light on its own.
"The higher-ups spent so much on this. Surely they're after more than just swindling a little money out of the bank..."
"Forget it. Time to work."
John shook his head. As a low-level operative, he neither wanted nor dared to concern himself with the higher-ups' intentions.