There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 37

‘Let’s get out of here first.’

If I stayed here any longer, I had no idea what those jealous old men might do to me just because I had a lover who didn’t even exist.

“W-well, I’ll be going in first! Good work, seniors!”

“Hey, rookie!”

I grabbed the bag hanging from the doorknob and hurriedly ran inside the room.

“You little bastard, open the door!”

Even though I quickly locked it, the angry seniors pounded on the door so hard that it shook as if the hinges were about to come off.

I quickly braced myself against the door with my back and shouted.

“I’m sorry!”

I didn’t even know what I was supposed to be sorry for, but I apologized just to survive.

How many times did I shout that?

The angry herd of bulls finally backed off, and peace returned.

“Haa, I’m dying.”

I staggered over and finally collapsed onto the bed.

What a ridiculously long day.

“Should I get a little sugar in me and then wash up?”

Still lying down, I moved only my hand and opened the bag.

As expected, there were cookies inside.

“This is the first time I’ve seen cookies shaped like this.”

Elsa, Rine, and Mina were the ones who usually brought me snacks they had baked themselves.

But sometimes, they would give me something made by one of their friends.

Crunch.

I put one of the perfectly square cookies into my mouth and chewed. A sweet taste spread through my mouth.

But there was a special flavor that came afterward.

“This is another flavor I’ve never had before.”

Seeing something poking out here and there, it seemed that a certain kind of tea leaf had been mixed into the dough and baked.

It wasn’t bad.

Eating something sweet at the end of such an exhausting day even felt like a reward.

I liked it enough that, without realizing it, I quickly ate about five of them.

“I need to wash up before I sleep, though……”

Maybe it was because I had finally relaxed after getting through a near-death experience.

My eyelids suddenly became heavy.

I blinked, pretending to fight off the drowsiness, but soon gave up.

I’ll sleep for a bit and wash up when I wake up.

It was just when I surrendered to the temptation of a deep sleep.

“Puhah! P-ugh…….”

I suddenly woke up at the feeling of being unable to breathe.

“What the—”

Splash—!

Ice-cold water poured over me.

I tried to stand up in surprise, but my body wouldn’t listen.

There wasn’t a single part of my body where I could properly put any strength.

Unable to hold my neck up, I let my head drop, and through my blurry vision filled with water, I saw my body firmly tied to a chair.

‘Where am I?’

The only thing I was sure of was that this was no longer my room.

Whenever I moved my toes, which were the only part I could move freely, I could feel the ends of my boots scraping against the rough floor.

“Haa, haa.”

Even breathing was no longer under my control, and the air seeping in between my labored breaths was damp.

Though that might have been because my entire body was soaked with water.

‘Who is it?’

The first thing that came to mind for the second question was.

‘That bastard Edward?’

Did Wickers finally find me?

Then was this the Cromwell Kingdom?

Just how long had I been unconscious?

Questions I couldn’t answer for now came one after another.

“Urgh.”

I clenched my teeth and forced my eyes wide open to at least secure some visual information, but even that was difficult.

My eyes shouldn’t have needed light even in the middle of the night.

Yet my dark field of vision was narrow and constantly swaying, as if a blindfold had been put over it.

The floor rose up, and my legs stretched out like melted taffy.

“Damn…… it.”

My hearing was broken too.

Even though it was my own voice, it sounded as if I were hearing several people screaming at the same time underwater.

It wasn’t enough that even the muscles involved in breathing had completely relaxed.

Now my sight and hearing were messed up too.

At this point, there was no guarantee that my other senses were still working properly.

‘Poison.’

And not just any poison.

A poison made by mixing several kinds together to make the person who took it completely defenseless.

I had to regain consciousness first.

And the most effective way to keep myself from losing my reason in a situation like this was pain.

Since I couldn’t exactly slam my head against a wall whenever I wanted, I had only one option.

Just as I was about to push my numb tongue between my teeth to bite it—

“Urgh!”

A powerful hand grabbed my hair and forcibly lifted my head.

The light pouring into my narrow field of vision felt like it was stabbing my eyeballs.

Someone was right in front of me, but in my confused vision, which made it impossible to regain consciousness, I could barely make out the other person’s black silhouette.

“Trying to bite your tongue? What bad manners.”

His voice was low, like someone pounding on a huge pipe and a drum at the same time.

“You bastard…… who are you?”

He didn’t properly answer my question.

He only chuckled with a sound that didn’t seem human at all.

“Who…… sent you? What the hell do you want, haa……? Don’t tell me Ed—”

Just as I was about to say Edward Wickers’s name, the most likely person behind this, something beyond the kidnapper’s shoulder came into view through my shaking vision.

‘Iron bars?’

They were blurry, but there was no doubt that they were thick iron bars.

The damp air.

And the iron bars.

The pitifully scarce clues all pointed to one answer.

‘……The underground prison of Knox?’

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

Dimark Shuren, a Crow belonging to the Execution Department, frowned beneath his black mask.

The reason was that the new recruit taking the final test was far too young.

He had heard that the boy was eighteen, soon to turn nineteen, so he had expected at least a somewhat grown man.

But even his round head was too small, and every time his straight neck wobbled, Dimark Shuren felt like some low-class thug bullying a child.

Feeling uncomfortable, Dimark Shuren unconsciously loosened his grip on the boy’s hair a little.

‘Oops.’

The head, having lost its support, almost dropped, so he had to grab it again.

The ‘Test Drug’ was a kind of special truth serum made to test the mental strength of new recruits who entered the Nest.

It relaxed their muscles so they could no longer control their own bodies, and disrupted their five senses, increasing their confusion.

At the same time, it suppressed the part of the brain responsible for reason, leaving the unconscious mind wide open.

A Crow who took the Test Drug entered a state much like having a terrible dream.

A state where they had no choice but to reveal all their secrets and desires.

‘But how much of that stuff did they give him?’

He twitched the cheek marked with a deep scar and looked at his junior, Gisella Rott.

But his junior shrugged as if she had no idea what he was talking about and whispered into his ear.

“I made sure exactly the right amount went into each cookie.”

“And yet this is what happened?”

“He must be sensitive to medicine.”

The test had to be carried out.

It was a necessary rite of passage to be recognized as a Crow and become a true member of the Nest.

Under the influence of the truth serum, there were two things the examiner had to confirm.

What kind of person this Crow candidate truly was, and above all, whether they could keep the Crow’s secrets.

So the only thing Dimark Shuren could do for this ridiculously young recruit was finish the test as quickly as possible and give him the antidote.

‘That is, if he passes.’

Crow candidates who failed were disposed of.

Since they knew about the existence of the Crows and the location of the Nest, they couldn’t leave outsiders behind who were incapable of keeping their secrets.

Dimark Shuren rather liked the viciousness of the boy who had even tried to bite his own tongue just to regain consciousness.

Watching him still resisting the effects of the drug, Dimark Shuren thought.

‘Hang in there.’

If you pass the test, you’ll gain the strongest ally you can trust with your back in any situation.

“Let’s begin.”

Dimark Shuren adjusted his mask and announced the start of the test.

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

In the darkest corner of the solitary cell in the underground prison prepared for the test, Noah Benton was waiting anxiously with the antidote in hand.

“Haa, huff, gasp…….”

Seeing the rookie gasping for breath made Noah Benton feel like his own chest was tightening.

‘He seems to be struggling too much…….’

It wasn’t simply because he felt sorry for the rookie who was taking the test.

As a Crow and the Nest’s doctor, Noah Benton himself was the one who had made this ‘Test Drug.’