There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 17

A trickle of blood ran down Mother’s white forehead.

Just like that final day.

“Mom, Mom, does it hurt?”

Mother didn’t answer.

“Dad! Help, Dad! Mom, Mom is…!”

I called out for Dad at the top of my lungs, but he didn’t appear either.

“No, this can’t happen. It can’t…!”

It was when I reached out to wipe Mother’s blood away, sobbing uncontrollably, that—

The world turned upside down.

I was no longer lying on a comfortable bed.

The secret space beneath the floor.

I had returned to that cramped, dark place.

Through the gaps between the shabby wooden floorboards, I could see my family.

And beside them stood Benedict Wickers, holding a sword.

“Mom! Dad! Lucas!”

As I cried while clutching the necklace Dad had given me with both hands, Mother shouted to me until the very end.

“…Run to _____, baby! The crow knows everything!”

 

 

*****

 

“Gasp!”

I woke up drenched in cold sweat, sitting at the desk in my room.

I had only meant to rest my head for a moment because I was exhausted from running all over Nox Castle all day.

When I checked the time, it was already time for the night shift.

I went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. Water dripped down my short blond hair.

I had fallen asleep without even taking off my necklace.

Fortunately, there was still plenty of mana left in it.

“Haah, damn it.”

Looking at the necklace around my neck reminded me of the nightmare I’d just had.

I hadn’t thought about it in a long time.

I gave a hollow laugh as I looked at my fingertips, which were still trembling slightly.

“To be this shaken just because I had a nightmare. I really have been living comfortably all this time.”

Back when I was with Wickers, I had dreams like that almost every other day.

“Though today’s one was a little different.”

I couldn’t understand the last thing Mother had shouted in my dream.

The crow was watching.

Why a crow all of a sudden?

I wiped the remaining water from my hands on my clothes and shook off the uneasy feeling.

“This is all because of that bastard, Killian Knox.”

I had tried not to think about him on purpose, but could I really control what came to mind?

There were only three days left until the deadline Killian Knox had given me.

At this rate, I was going to have only three days left to live.

After leaving Deacon’s office, I had spent the entire morning poking around here and there, but I hadn’t gained anything useful.

The head maid of the laundry, who had supposedly worked at Knox the longest, and the stableman who had supposedly looked after the stables for several generations were no different.

They had only repeated stories similar to what my fellow operatives had told me at the guard post.

On top of that, wherever I went, I could feel unpleasant eyes following me.

“So that’s why I had that stupid dream about some crow.”

I didn’t know who it was, but whoever was watching me was quite skilled at hiding their presence.

I was just better.

Since I hadn’t let them realize I’d noticed, they’d probably follow me again today.

“That could be a problem.”

 

*****

 

 

 

“Uuugh, Seniorrrr…”

“What? Ruki, are you sick?!”

Even after the night shift had started, I hadn’t shown up for work. When Jake came looking for me in my room, he recoiled in horror the moment he saw my face.

“I’m sorrry. My stomach feels so bad… Ugh!”

I covered my mouth and pretended to gag, and even Jake’s face, which was notoriously weak to anything gross, turned pale.

“What the hell did you eat to end up like that?!”

“I don’t know. They say there’s some kind of stomach bug going around these days… I must’ve caught it somewhere. Ugh.”

“Hey! Don’t come any closer! Get back in your room! We can talk from there!”

Jake waved his hands and pushed me back over the threshold, then let out a deep sigh.

“Can’t be helped. I’ll mark you down as sick leave, so stay right here and rest today.”

“Is that really okay…?”

“If you force yourself to work and spread it to everyone else, we’ll really be in trouble! If you’re still feeling bad tomorrow morning, go ahead and get admitted to the infirmary. Don’t let it get worse!”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Don’t take your senior lightly! Don’t you dare come out of your room!”

I gave Jake a weak farewell and closed the door.

Thump, thump, thump.

After confirming that Jake’s footsteps had faded away, I immediately changed clothes.

“It’s been a while.”

Except for the blue eyes left exposed, I was dressed entirely in black, and the sight felt strangely unfamiliar.

There had been a time when I was so used to this outfit, specially made for infiltrating places at night, that it felt like a second skin.

After tucking my necklace deep inside my clothes, I quietly opened the window and checked outside.

The sky happened to be cloudy, and the moon was completely hidden behind the clouds.

“Then, shall we get moving?”

Whoosh.

I landed silently on a thick tree branch and quietly frowned.

‘Should I be happy about this or not?’

The watcher who had annoyingly followed me everywhere all day didn’t seem to have considered that I might fake an illness and escape through the window.

I had changed my route several times on the way here to make sure, but there was no sign of anyone following me.

Looking at it positively, I was free from the annoying surveillance.

Looking at it negatively, it meant my watcher had underestimated me that much.

I had left marks only I could recognize on the door and window in case the watcher came into my room to investigate.

At this point, I didn’t think there was any need to check.

So I spent some time hiding on the tree branch, cursing whoever had decided I didn’t need to be watched more carefully.

Ding— Ding—

The bell from the direction of Knox Castle’s main gate rang softly, announcing midnight.

I opened my eyes, which had been closed for a moment.

Midnight.

The time when all of Knox was deepest in sleep.

Unlike the operatives guarding the outer gates, the main building’s guards worked in three shifts, which meant this was also when they would be busy handing over their duties.

 

****

 

 

 

Whoosh.

Without hesitation, I stepped on the branch and leaped, landing on the building’s windowsill.

Even with my sensitive hearing, I couldn’t hear any footsteps.

‘I’m not someone whose skills would get rusty after only a year.’

I arrived at none other than Deacon Gold’s office with a proud smile.

‘They actually planted a tree this close to the window, with so many branches and leaves.’

This was practically landscaping designed to welcome intruders.

It was especially problematic that Deacon Gold’s office had been built this way, considering he was in charge of the finances of both the merchant guild and all of Knox.

‘I should leave him a note before I escape later.’

It wasn’t as though Knox didn’t know enough to secure the place.

Breaking into Knox was already insane enough, but robbing an executive’s office?

The moment I was caught, it would be straight to hell.

No, the underground dungeon.

It was a miserable life when I had to do something dangerous enough to die just to avoid dying…

‘Ah, that aide is hopeless.’

Standing before the closed window, I raised one eyebrow crookedly.

Deacon Gold’s claim that he was a useless freeloader wasn’t wrong in the slightest.

Just look at that lock on the window in the far corner, half-hidden behind the bookshelf.

It was wide open.

Securing the doors and windows was the most basic duty of an aide.

He deserved to be cursed a hundred times over.

I had assumed it would obviously be locked, so much so that I felt embarrassed when I pulled out the tool I’d been using since my days with Wickers.

‘I should add a line to the letter telling them to fire the current aide.’

The tea he made wasn’t even good enough to be worth sacrificing security for.

After slipping inside without making even the slightest sound from my clothes, I pulled the curtains shut first.

The room became completely dark.

But deep darkness had never gotten in my way.

‘My eyesight is fine, too.’

Though my vision was somewhat more limited than in bright light, I never had much trouble seeing in darkness.

It was a trait passed down through the Morton family.

This ability, inherited from my father, Dr. Franz Morton, had ironically been one of the reasons I was able to build a reputation as an assassin while working for Wickers.

‘Let’s see.’

The first place I reached for was the cabinet I’d noticed earlier while having tea.

Ever since I heard the secrets surrounding the previous Duke and Duchess, this was the first place I’d thought of searching.

Deacon Gold’s office.

After all, the answers were bound to be where the money flowed.

There were several powerful vassal families serving the House of Knox, but Deacon Gold was the only one among the seven executives to inherit his position from the previous generation.

Apparently, he had also been close with his predecessor and mother, Agnes Gold, and had inherited the office she used as it was.

‘Though there’s a chance they moved the old ledgers somewhere else.’

The Duke’s complicated family history was still something they were secretive enough to hide.

I’d bet all six of the cookies I had left that Deacon Gold still kept the related documents somewhere close and personally guarded them.

Unfortunately, the first cabinet I opened was a dead end.

‘If I were Deacon Gold…’

The desk?

No.

Too obvious.

I slowly looked around the office, darkened by the night, then started walking.

The place where Deacon Gold had been lying while his body was weakened by the mana-blocking punishment.

The place he had instinctively tried to protect even while weakened.

Click.

‘Just as I thought.’

There was a hidden compartment beneath the couch where he’d been lying, drenched in cold sweat.

I applied a little force, and a heavy drawer slid out.

It was packed with documents that clearly looked important.

I took out the papers one by one, starting from the front, and quietly let out a hollow laugh.

‘Well, well?’

The documents Deacon Gold had carefully hidden were Knox’s secret financial ledgers.

And the person recorded as receiving the largest budget allocation over the past eight years was—

[Dupont Clancher]

The name of Killian Knox’s closest aide was written in Deacon Gold’s elegant handwriting.