There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 27

The husky voice I had thought sounded pleasant now made a hissing, metallic sound right beside my ear.

“It’s not like that.”

“Really?”

Gizella Lott quickly pulled away, just as quickly as she had approached.

“There’s an unwritten rule among the crows. We don’t ask how someone became a crow.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t want to reveal my own circumstances, so I don’t ask about someone else’s. Everyone must have their reasons for becoming a crow whose existence and identity are both secrets, right? But I’m a little curious about Runelk Eins’s story.”

Her eyes flashed once more as she smiled.

“How did a low-ranking member of the Action Squad become a crow, and what did the captain see in you that made him personally take you all the way to the Nest?”

“……He never took my hand, though.”

“Well, if you’re lucky, you might find out little by little. Anyway, once your cover duty is over, return to the Nest. Got it? If you’re late like today, I’ll kill you.”

“Was I late today?”

I was sure I had moved according to the schedule.

When I tilted my head, Gizella Lott frowned.

“Technically, you were five whole minutes late.”

“That much…….”

If she didn’t like waiting, she should have given me the right meeting place!

She had told me to come to the zelkova tree, but she had been standing in front of a plaque engraved with a zelkova tree.

“You know how much can happen in five minutes? And you have such a terrible sense of time?”

“I’ll be more careful from now on. But the bell tower only rings once an hour…….”

“What? You don’t have a pocket watch?”

Gizella Lott asked while taking a small watch out of her pocket and showing it to me.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s expensive.”

As mana engineering developed, pocket watches powered by tiny pieces of mana stones had been invented.

When they first appeared, they were so expensive that only members of the royal family and high-ranking nobles could afford them, but these days, even reasonably well-off commoners could often be seen carrying one.

I had once owned a pocket watch, too.

I think I was around fifteen when Edward gave it to me as a present.

Of course, I had left everything he had given me behind in Wickers that night.

“Oh my, goodness.”

Gizella Lott put on an exaggeratedly pitiful expression.

“Is the Action Squad’s pay really that bad? So bad that you can’t even buy a pocket watch?”

“It’s not like that. Well, of course, the pay is tiny, but I just didn’t have a reason to carry a watch. My work schedule is already burned into my body, and it’s not like I’m busy enough to live my life down to the minute.”

“Really? Then you should get one. You may not like your new life as a crow very much, but it’s essential here. A life divided down to the minute.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

A pocket watch, of all things. Such an expensive thing.

I had planned to use the bonus as emergency escape money.

Maybe I should cut down on my temple donations this month.

I let out a small sigh and made sure to tell Gizella Lott,

“It’s not that I hate being a crow.”

“Then?”

“It’s just…… something I never expected at all.”

I had thought I would spend my work hours chatting with the seniors in the Action Squad, and occasionally catch smugglers trying to secretly bring things into the fortress.

At least for the time being, I thought I could live a leisurely life like that.

“Anyway, if my attitude offended you, I apologize.”

“No, no.”

Gizella Lott waved one hand.

I watched her carefully, wondering if she was about to make another joke, but this time, at least, she seemed sincere.

“When newcomers first set foot in the Nest, they’re usually one of two types. They either feel proud of becoming a crow and get really excited and thrilled, or they’re scared stiff and nervous.”

She fell silent for a moment.

Her brown eyes, fixed somewhere on the wall of the Nest, seemed to wander through an old memory.

“Neither lasts very long, though.”

Her tiny mutter was as faint as the look in her eyes, almost easy to miss.

But in the next moment, her face turned back into its usual carefree expression, as if nothing had happened.

“But you might be a little different, Runelk Eins. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what happens.”

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Now, tell me everything I taught you, in order.”

“First, return to the Nest immediately after my cover duty ends.”

“Mm. And after that?”

“……If I wander somewhere else and get caught, I’ll die.”

“Right. Next.”

“Second, always keep my appointments on time.”

Those were the things Gizella Lott had added herself.

The important part started with the third rule.

“Third, don’t attract unnecessary attention.”

“That’s especially important for you, Little Hero.”

If it had been Jake, he probably would have tripped me from behind when I wasn’t looking.

But I couldn’t even get that kind of revenge on Gizella Lott.

Besides, she wasn’t saying it just to tease me this time, which made it even harder.

“You’ve already attracted people’s attention once. There are still plenty of people who remember you as the ‘Little Hero’ who protected the Duke from an assassin. So keep a low profile for the time being. Stay quiet.”

“I want that too.”

At my grumpy answer, she gave a small laugh and asked, “And the fourth?”

“Never tell anyone outside the Nest about the crows.”

Of the four rules, that was the most important one.

Gizella Lott emphasized the fourth rule more than any other and made me repeat it several times.

So I thought she would do the same this time.

But after staring at me strangely for a moment, she suddenly sprang up from the couch.

“That’s enough. You can go.”

“Really?”

“You said you’re on night duty, didn’t you?”

She was even taking my cover-duty hours into consideration?

Were the crows actually a surprisingly reasonable organization?

But the next thing Gizella Lott said made me realize I had let my guard down again.

“You won’t have many leisurely days like this from now on, so get plenty of rest while you can.”

It was late at night, past midnight.

The outer-wall watch post of Nox was brightly lit.

The small room, usually filled with the snoring of seniors fast asleep, was bustling as everyone prepared to receive a guest.

They swept the floor, which was covered in dirt and dust, and wiped down the sticky table, whose stains no one remembered the origin of.

Of course, I was responsible for all the sweeping and wiping.

“Rookie! Wipe over here too!”

“Yes, sir!”

Senior Hartmann, who had recovered from being a pathetic fool taking his anger out on everyone after losing money at the gambling table, pointed at the doorknob and grumbled.

“The watch post is a complete mess.”

Who was the one who had been eating and sleeping just fine in this very mess every day?

I snorted at Senior Hartmann’s expression as he frowned at the handprint-covered doorknob.

“Don’t just wipe it. Make it shine.”

“It’s cast iron. I don’t think it shone even when the watch post was first built.”

“What’s with the backtalk! Back in my day, if a senior said he wanted wine while on duty, we’d at least bring him some grape juice!”

Here we go again.

That “back in my day” routine.

It was absolutely exhausting.

The other seniors, who weren’t holding rags like me but were pretending to clean the watch post because they couldn’t take any more of Hartmann’s nagging, shook their heads.

Bringing up the old days like a broken gramophone whenever he got the chance was Senior Hartmann’s habit, so I could only imagine how sick of it the people who had listened to it for years longer than I had must be.

Even though no one answered him, Senior Hartmann kept talking.

“When I was a rookie, Graff, the senior who’s coming today, got hurt during a patrol. Back then, I carried him all the way to the infirmary like lightning……”

“You shouldn’t lie to the kids.”

“Senior!”

Senior Hartmann’s face lit up like a puppy seeing its owner.

Graff, who was supposedly from a generation much older than even the current senior-most member, Hartmann, was practically a legend of the Action Squad.

So I had expected someone huge and intimidating.

Instead,

“Well, look at this. Nothing has changed.”

“Still cramped and old, right? I bet it can’t even compare to the intelligence department where you work, Senior!”

The middle-aged man who stepped into the watch post had a much more ordinary build and appearance than I expected.

He was the kind of person who could pass by you several times without leaving much of an impression.