There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 23

Tap, tap.

As I counted the quiet sounds of Dupont Clansher’s and my footsteps, I could roughly guess where we were.

‘I think we’re around the fifth floor now.’

The main building was five stories tall.

Yet the stairs did not end and continued even higher.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and keep going.”

At Dupont Clansher’s urging, I quietly avoided the finger that poked at me again and continued climbing the stairs.

‘Did I get it wrong? No, the fifth floor is the top floor, isn’t it?’

No matter how much I recalled the map of Knox that I had memorized long ago, the main building was definitely five stories tall.

Unlike my confused thoughts, my steadily moving feet eventually stepped onto the very last stair.

There, waiting for us, was a rather plain door—hardly what I would have expected as the destination of a passage hidden so thoroughly behind the portrait of the first Duke.

That is, if it weren’t for the dragon statue sticking out above the door.

“……A dragon?”

“Put your hand inside.”

“Y-you mean in there?”

I pointed at the dragon’s wide-open mouth, and Dupont Clansher nodded.

I stared blankly at the strands of curly hair falling from his tightly tied long hair and swaying gently before asking again.

“You’re joking, right?”

“If I had time to joke with you, I’d spend even one extra minute sleeping.”

Yeah, I could tell he was completely serious about that.

But still!

“It looks really, r-really ominous.”

“Tsk.”

Dupont Clansher clicked his tongue and muttered something even more ominous than the dragon statue before grabbing my right hand and shoving it into the wide-open mouth.

“W-wait a second!”

“Do you think I would actually kill you?”

“You just almost killed me and I came back to life…… Ouch!”

A burning sensation brushed against the tip of my ring finger.

“It bit me! It just bit me!”

I quickly pulled my hand out and checked it, only to see a drop of blood forming on the tip of my ring finger.

It really did bite me!

But Dupont Clansher simply stared at me without answering.

He had that same look he always gave when looking at something pathetic.

“No, the dragon just bit me……!”

My weak protest was drowned out by a grinding sound.

It was the sound of the dragon statue closing its mouth.

I didn’t even know anymore.

I couldn’t decide whether I should be more surprised by the secret passage my superior had dragged me to or by the dragon statue that bit people and tasted their blood.

“Are you planning to stay there?”

Dupont Clansher asked from beyond the door, which I had no idea when he had opened.

I really didn’t want to go inside.

I didn’t know what was there, but I had a feeling I absolutely should not go through that door.

“Can I just stay here?”

“……Come in.”

“Eek!”

In the end, Dupont Clansher grabbed me by the back of my neck and I had no choice but to cross the threshold.

 

 

****

 

 

 

To be honest, I had been planning to overpower Dupont Clansher and run away.

I didn’t have any weapons on me at the moment, so in a hurry, I even reached for the chain hanging from his waist, intending to steal it.

Thud!

“Ugh…… Oh, this isn’t what I thought?”

I screamed first, expecting the pain of my body hitting the floor after being thrown.

Instead, a soft, fluffy sensation welcomed me.

“A couch?”

It wasn’t an ordinary couch.

It wrapped around my body like a cloud while still supporting me firmly. It had to be a top-of-the-line couch.

“Smart, but perhaps a little lacking after all.”

Dupont Clansher said this as he watched me absentmindedly stroke the soft leather of the couch.

Then he turned around, snapped something with a sharp crack, and tossed it in. The fireplace, which had been completely dark, suddenly burst into flames.

“A mana-stone heater?”

It looked like an ordinary fire, but the flames burned without producing any smoke. It was definitely a mana-stone heater.

Mana-stone heaters were supposedly used only in the bedrooms of high-ranking nobles because they required expensive mana stones as fuel. So why was there one here?

I got up from the couch, looked around, and asked,

“Where are we?”

“The nest.”

“The nest……?”

It was far too luxurious a place to give it such a shabby name.

Even I, who had once been an executive of Wickers, hardly knew how to act in a place like this.

There wasn’t even straw like the kind a bird would use to build a nest. The thick carpet covering the spacious floor was dense enough to absorb even the sound of footsteps, and the various places to rest around the mana-stone heater were clearly just as luxurious as the couch I had been sitting on.

A round table large enough to seat at least ten people occupied one side, while even an elegant painting hung on the wall.

The fairly spacious room looked comfortable and cozy thanks to the furniture arranged in all the right places.

Or perhaps it was the sense of security created by the bookshelf covering an entire wall.

“Sit down.”

Dupont Clansher had somehow already made a steaming cup of tea and spoke to me.

He had seemed unusual from the moment he turned on the mana-stone heater, and every little thing he did looked incredibly familiar, as if he had been coming here for years.

I first awkwardly lowered myself onto the couch as Dupont Clansher had told me to, then asked,

“Where…… are we, Sir Dupont Clansher?”

“I just told you. The nest.”

After giving me another short, careless answer, Dupont Clansher took a sip of tea and called my name.

“Runelk Eins, of the action squad.”

“……Yes.”

“From this moment onward, I hereby order you to become a Crow.”

“A Crow……?”

The thing that flies around going caw, caw?

The thing that glares at you with bright yellow eyes?

“Yes. Officially, you will still belong to the action squad, but do not forget that you are now someone who belongs to the Nest.”

“Wait, wait a second.”

I held out both palms and stopped Dupont Clansher.

“I’m sorry, Clansher. I’m just a little…….”

“Yes, you must be confused.”

I had expected Dupont Clansher to click his tongue and call me pathetic again, but this time, he simply nodded.

He seemed just as accustomed to situations like this as he was to turning on the mana fireplace.

“Do you remember what His Grace said? That your answer was only half right.”

“W-well, yes.”

“When a member suddenly said the word ‘Crow,’ even I was surprised for the first time in a long while. I thought everything had been found out.”

Dupont Clansher laughed cheerfully.

“Well, it was only half an answer, but it wasn’t bad. Just as you suspected, there are two intelligence bureaus in Knox. The intelligence bureau of Grayer Knox, which is put on display for everyone to see, and.”

His calloused index finger made a light circle through the air like a conductor’s baton.

“the ‘Crows’ hiding inside the Nest.”

“Not the Crow Tower?”

“That’s only where the letters are collected.”

It felt as if someone had struck me hard on the head with a giant hammer.

I looked around the luxurious room again, luxurious enough that I could believe it was the Duke of Knox’s private lounge.

‘This is the real one.’

I had expected the real intelligence bureau to exist somewhere, but I never imagined it would be this large and elaborate.

Then, as if struck by lightning, I suddenly came to my senses.

“But I…… became a Crow?”

Dupont Clansher had definitely said that just now.

From this very moment, I was something or other.

“Aren’t Crows what you call the real intelligence bureau?”

“That’s right.”

“Then why me……. The Crows sound like an extremely important organization in Knox, but I don’t have the ability for that……. A-and I like the action squad!”

I could slack off most of the time, and although things were occasionally annoying, I didn’t have to think too hard about complicated matters!

I liked the action squad, where I could live peacefully as long as I more or less kept my seniors happy!

“Stand up.”

Dupont Clansher put down his teacup, walked toward me, and ordered.

I quickly stood up as he told me to.

But standing face-to-face at such a close distance made our difference in height painfully obvious.

The top of my head almost reached Dupont Clansher’s shoulder.

His large clothes made him seem less threatening, but being this close made me realize just how enormous his build really was.

“Runelk Eins.”

His dark green eyes, looking down at me, were as dry and rough as withered moss.

‘Is he going to hit me?’

The atmosphere was tense enough that it wouldn’t have been strange if a fist came flying at me at any moment.

Then both of Dupont Clansher’s arms moved at the same time.

Was he going to grab me and kick me?

Was he really that angry just because I talked back a little?

Thinking that he was more petty than I had expected, I braced my stomach tightly for the impact that was about to come.

Thump.

Just as he had done in the Duke’s office, Dupont Clansher suddenly grabbed both of my shoulders and said,

“You have talent.”