There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 21

Killian set down the glass he was holding on the desk in his office.

“Crows.”

The golden eyes looking at me were as sharp as a sharpened blade.

I couldn’t back down here.

I clasped my hands behind my back and tightened the muscles in my lower back.

“Explain properly.”

“More precisely, the ‘Crow Tower.’”

“Is there some problem with the way Knox sends and receives letters?”

Killian asked as he poured hard liquor into his half-empty glass.

He looked completely relaxed.

And the fact that he had regained his composure was not a good sign for me.

But I had come this far. There was no turning back.

“There’s no problem. As long as you do something about that candle sitting there so openly.”

The decisive clue that allowed me to connect all the scattered pieces into a single picture.

It was the candle provided in the Crow Tower.

“Candles that produce a milky, cloudy white flame around the wick are mainly used by poor commoners. They’re cheap and burn for a long time. I checked, and all the candles distributed throughout Knox, including those in the messenger towers, are the same kind. Those low-quality candles have one useful characteristic.”

I looked at the candle quietly burning on Killian Knox’s desk.

Its flame flickered bright red and pure, without a trace of white.

“When they cool and harden, they can be peeled off easily. For commoners, that makes it easy to collect spilled wax and use it to make new candles. And for Knox’s real intelligence department, which opens every letter sent through the messenger birds and checks its contents, it means there won’t be any signs that the envelopes were opened.”

The moment I mentioned the ‘real intelligence department,’ blue veins writhed across the back of Killian Knox’s hand as he set down the bottle.

He was surprised.

At least I had landed one blow.

“Of course, it seems the people of Knox simply think it’s meant to reduce costs, so you don’t need to replace all the candles. And the time it takes for letters to be delivered is also useful for giving the real intelligence department enough time to open the sealed letters and gather their contents.”

It was advice I had given quite sincerely.

They were nothing more than tiny clues that even I had nearly overlooked.

But Killian Knox seemed rather offended.

“You keep saying strange things. ‘The real intelligence department,’ you say.”

His mocking laugh was cold.

Even the glass in his large hand looked like a threatening weapon.

I was glad I had taken the hands-behind-my-back position earlier.

At least he couldn’t see my trembling hands.

“That is the darkest secret of Knox that I discovered. Not the intelligence department on the surface, led by Grayer Knox, but the real intelligence department that exists somewhere within Knox.”

“So according to you, even though Knox already has a perfectly functioning intelligence department, they are nothing more than puppets?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

Because I had personally dealt with Grayer Knox’s intelligence department.

Hundreds of letters passed through the Crow Tower every day.

They simply didn’t have the ability to handle information that vast and unprocessed.

Valuable or useful information doesn’t come waving a bright red flag from the start.

Just as I had almost been led down a side path by the secrets of the previous Duke and Duchess, refining randomly obtained information and connecting it to other clues was not something just anyone could do.

‘If Knox’s intelligence department had that ability, they would have been much harder to deal with.’

My mouth felt bitter as I stood before Killian Knox and chose what to say.

No wonder it had collapsed so easily.

Disabling Knox’s intelligence department was one of the accomplishments I took some pride in.

But the real one had been somewhere else all along.

“I’m truly sorry to say this to Your Grace, but the reputation of Knox’s intelligence department as incompetent is no secret. Even someone as low-ranking as me has heard it. Not only Grayer Knox, but even the loyal retainer who has devoted his entire life to the ducal family……”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“Cough. Anyway, I believe the person leading the real intelligence department must be someone far more capable than Grayer Knox. Someone like Duke DuPont Clancher, Your Grace’s closest confidant.”

For a moment, something resembling amusement flickered in Killian Knox’s eyes.

“Did you discover that information by sneaking into Deacon Gold’s office?”

“Th-that’s not exactly……”

“You shouldn’t lie.”

His tone was gentle, almost as if he were soothing a child, but the warning was unmistakably chilling.

“……I confirmed that a huge amount of money is allocated every year under the name of DuPont Clancher.”

“Looks like Deacon didn’t lock his office properly.”

In fact, the problem was his aide, not Deacon Gold.

I wasn’t loyal enough to defend Deacon Gold even in front of Killian Knox.

Then I suddenly realized something, and a chill ran down my spine.

I had definitely shaken off the person following me before moving.

“Th-then, how did you know I had been to Deacon Gold’s office……”

“I believe I told you that I can know wherever you go.”

Killian Knox answered casually.

But to me, those words were no different from a death sentence.

He had said something about me being a dragon’s kin, but I had assumed it was like a compass that pointed toward me.

A long leash meant to keep me from running too far away.

But he could even detect my movements inside Knox Castle?

The more despair spread across my face, the more pleased Killian Knox looked.

“Not bad.”

Judging by the fact that he was even giving me something resembling praise.

It pissed me off, but in my current situation, I was no different from a dog raised by Killian Knox.

A stupid dog that came running desperately at a bone tossed its way.

“Then……”

A tiny ray of light seemed to appear in the heart that had been crushed to the ground by a leash far tighter than I had expected.

Had I gotten the answer right?

Was he not going to kill me?

Could I live?

But Killian Knox crushed the tiny sprout of hope that had just begun to grow.

“You have a decent imagination. But I suppose waiting five days wasn’t worth it.”

He shook his head as if disappointed.

“I praised you for being perceptive, and this is all you managed to bring me?”

“Imagination……!”

So he was going to pretend he had no idea?

The competitive spirit I hadn’t felt in a long time burst into flames.

“Your Grace is leaving an incompetent intelligence department untouched.”

I looked straight into Killian Knox’s smooth face, which now only looked irritating to me, and spoke.

“One wall of the iron fortress known as Knox has collapsed, yet instead of rebuilding it, you’re simply standing by and watching.”

“So you’re saying there must be a real intelligence department? That is a terribly weak argument to support your claim……”

“No.”

I deliberately cut Killian Knox off mid-sentence.

“With all due respect, I’m not saying that simply because of Your Grace’s attitude. The evidence is the Knox ducal family itself.”

“Knox itself?”

One of Killian Knox’s eyebrows rose.

“Knox is still standing strong without losing its power. If a real intelligence department didn’t exist, Knox would have fallen long ago. Into the hands of its formidable competitors, if nothing else.”

“If there are men bold enough to challenge my power.”

“There are. The Constanz Marquis House in the south, the Viscount House of Limberg in the west, and the Wickers Count House in the north. If even two of them joined hands, Knox would have to be on guard.”

Killian Knox tilted his head slightly.

His face was still as cold as a statue carved from ice, but somehow, I could tell.

He was extremely displeased.

“If what you say is true, then I am a duke neglecting his duties. I haven’t even made an effort to rebuild the collapsed intelligence department.”

“How does that follow?”

Even though there was no way he hadn’t understood everything I had been saying until now, his habit of twisting my words around and deliberately picking at them irritated me.

“You’re deliberately leaving it alone because you consider this place Knox’s weakness.”

 

 

****

 

 

Interesting.

“So that’s why, during the last spy incident, you made Grayer Knox kneel in front of everyone and still let him live?”

The little one was acting as if he had seen right through Killian’s thoughts.

Even though Killian himself couldn’t see into that round little head in the slightest.

“Hmm.”

As if the eclipse that had already passed were returning once more, an impulse suddenly rose in Killian’s mind.

“If.”

Killian willingly followed that impulse.

“If you were me, how would you revive the collapsed intelligence department?”