There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 31

Her cheeks, which had been pale, turned rosy, and her light brown eyes trembled with emotion as she looked at me.

I hadn’t noticed when he was lying facedown on the desk, but Noah Benton was about a handspan taller than me.

He seemed extremely happy about the existence of a new recruit, but I was secretly less than thrilled.

‘Is there some kind of hazing here, too?’

Being the youngest was hard wherever you went, but seeing him cheer, “I’m finally free!” made me feel rather uneasy.

Even if there was no hazing among the Crows, it was obvious that they worked the youngest member pretty hard.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Runelk Eins.”

“Nice to meet you! But this isn’t actually our first time meeting!”

“Have we met before…?”

This time, even I was quite surprised.

I rarely forgot a face once I had seen it.

Unless it was an extremely ordinary-looking face, there was no way I could forget someone with such distinctive features as Noah Benton.

“Can I really say that we met? You were brought to the infirmary before, remember! Little Hero!”

“Oh, that time.”

It was when I had been hospitalized because of the Varga poison used by the Green Merchant Lord.

“I happened to be on duty then. Ah! I’m a doctor. Officially, I’m assigned to the infirmary.”

I had two thoughts about Noah Benton’s introduction.

His job suits him perfectly.

But how did a doctor end up becoming a Crow?

Being a doctor who saves people and being a member of a secret intelligence organization seemed like completely different identities.

There was an unwritten rule not to ask about why someone became a Crow, but I thought I should find a chance to casually ask him later.

“But Runelk was unconscious back then, so… I-I guess it really is our first time meeting!”

The second Crow I had spoken with turned out to be another completely different type of person.

Gisela Lott was honest about her feelings and seemed to have clear likes and dislikes, yet she was strangely difficult to read.

Unlike her, Noah Benton seemed to have a very timid personality.

Even now, he kept watching my expression as if he was worried that he might have upset me.

“I heard from Dr. Heinzel that Varga is a deadly poison and that your life was almost in danger. It seems you were the benefactor who used a good antidote on me.”

“B-Benefactor…?”

Noah Benton’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato.

“I just did what I was supposed to do. Ah, um, but…”

Even though he fumbled over his words, he clenched both fists tightly, as if there was something he really wanted to say.

“When I saw Runelk’s file in the infirmary, I think it said you were eighteen years old…”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then can I, c-can I speak casually with you? I’m twenty-four, you know.”

If he was twenty-four, then he was the same age as my original self.

But he was six years older than Runelk Eins, and since I was the new recruit, I had no problem with him speaking casually to me.

“Of course. Please feel free to speak casually, Sen—”

Noah Benton had been so happy about finally having a new recruit under him.

So, thinking I should make a good first impression too, I was about to call him “Senior.”

“The new recruit has a whole lot of work to do.”

But Gisela Lott suddenly cut me off.

“There’s no time to sit around chatting like this.”

Then, just as the man named Konrad had done to her a little earlier, she waved one hand toward Noah Benton.

“Finish whatever you were working on and go back to your room to sleep. Hurry, hurry.”

“Ah, o-okay…”

Like a bird caught pecking at grain, Noah Benton was chased out of the conversation and nodded gloomily.

“New recruit, you’re coming with me.”

“Yes, Ms. Lott.”

I followed Gisela Lott and looked back at Noah Benton, giving him a small nod.

I had to at least say goodbye.

“Bye!”

Even that was enough to make Noah Benton’s face brighten as he waved at me.

He looked so innocent that it was hard to believe he was really twenty-four.

“What are you doing? I told you to hurry and follow me.”

“Yes, yes. I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Where was she dragging me off to this time?

I followed Gisela Lott, who was urging me along, while pretending nothing was wrong.

‘It felt like she deliberately separated me from Noah Benton just now.’

Judging from the flow of our perfectly normal conversation, there was only one reason I could think of.

‘Does she not want me to become friends with Noah Benton?’

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

The place Gisela Lott pushed me into looked, at first glance, like a storage room.

The only differences from the storage room in the annex, where there had been a fireplace leading to a secret passage, were that this one was a little bigger, less worn-out, and its soundproofed door was still in good condition.

The only things that looked even remotely important were several large bags piled up in the corner, but even those were firmly locked with very sturdy-looking padlocks.

“What is this place used for?”

“This place? An empty room.”

So it really was a storage room.

Today was technically my first official day reporting for duty under my supervisor, so I was very curious why she had suddenly brought me to a storage room, but instead I asked something else.

“I noticed earlier that there seemed to be many rooms you could enter from the office area. Aren’t you going to show me more of the Nest?”

Even if a friend moved to a new house and invited you over, they would normally show you around first.

Even if it was a tiny house where you could see everything just by standing at the entrance.

Of course, I didn’t have any friends, so this was just something I had heard somewhere, but that was the common sense of it.

So I had expected her to show me around the Nest and make me memorize a lot of new information, if only so she could use me more easily later.

But Gisela Lott showed no intention of doing that at all.

“You’ll naturally learn the layout of the Nest as time passes. For now, the only places you can enter are that office from earlier and here, Newbie.”

Were the areas divided according to security clearance?

I nodded casually and asked,

“Then what happens if I try opening one of the other places?”

“Hmph. Go ahead and try if you can open one.”

Gisela Lott snorted and pulled a small desk and chair out from a pile of furniture.

Then she pointed at them with her chin and said,

“Sit. I’ll tell you what you have to do today.”

There was no way something pulled out of a pile of dust could be clean.

The desk and chair seemed to have originally been white, but they were now a strange shade of gray.

I looked at them for a moment before quietly sitting down.

I had rolled around in piles of trash while working as an assassin, so this much was nothing.

“Wait quietly.”

After briefly leaving the storage room, Gisela Lott returned carrying several thick books.

Thud!

They must have been incredibly heavy, because when she placed them on the desk, dust flew everywhere.

“Memorize them.”

“These?”

I picked up all five books one by one and checked their titles.

The History and Genealogy of Knox

The Knox Ducal Family’s Feudal Register

A Complete Geography of the Bernheim Empire

Coats of Arms and Seals — A Guide to Identifying Major Families of the Eastern Continent

Practical Illustrated Guide to Poisons and Herbs

No wonder they were so thick.

I carefully opened the book titled The History and Genealogy of Knox on top, and it was anything but reader-friendly.

The letters were incredibly tiny.

‘At this rate, it’ll take several days just to read through them once.’

The amount was excessive, but I could understand why Gisela Lott had chosen these books.

Without knowledge, information cannot become intelligence.

It would simply become one piece of meaningless noise among countless others and pass by unnoticed.

The thick books she had given me could be called an excellent selection of basic background knowledge.

Fortunately, I was already familiar with most of the contents, so it probably wouldn’t be too difficult.

But using the wisdom I had gained from life, I put on the most exhausted expression I could and said to Gisela Lott,

“All of these…?”

“Of course not.”

She gave a small laugh and pointed at the two books on top, as if she were doing me a huge favor.

“As a Crow, you need to know Knox inside and out. For now, just memorize these two.”

“When you say memorize…”

“You’re taking a test.”

“Sigh.”

I let out a miserable sigh before asking Gisela Lott pleadingly,

“Can’t I at least read them somewhere more comfortable? There are plenty of empty desks outside.”

“You study better in a quiet place where no one can bother you.”

Finally, Gisela Lott lightly tapped the covers of the thick books before turning around.

“Call me when you’ve memorized everything.”

Then she really did close the door and leave.

“Hm.”

Now alone, I rested my arms on the desk and propped up my chin as I flipped through the pages of The Knox Ducal Family’s Feudal Register.

The lines were written in fairly neat handwriting, but the letters were tiny just the same.

As I had expected, there wasn’t actually that much new information I needed to memorize.

That wasn’t the problem.

‘Looks like she has no intention of actually teaching me.’

What on earth was the problem?