There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 41

It was really strange and fascinating.

It was clearly Rine Berck’s plain, innocent-looking face, yet she had Gisella Roth’s rough speech and voice.

I stepped closer and examined her a little more carefully.

With ordinary disguise techniques, areas with a lot of muscle movement, such as around the mouth and eyes, are the most vulnerable.

There was no helping it, since the technique involved attaching thin layers or structures over the face.

But on Gisella Roth’s face, I couldn’t find any of the slight lifting that would result from that.

So I couldn’t help but ask.

“Which one is your real face?”

I’d never seen Gisella Roth this close in the nest, so I had no way of knowing.

“Could it be that the Rine Berck one is…… Urgh!”

“You little punk.”

In the end, she grabbed me by the collar.

“I’m asking when you figured it out! How did you know?!”

“B-breathe! I can’t breathe, Lady Roth!”

I frantically patted the back of the hand gripping my collar as I shouted. Gisella Roth let me go, though she was still breathing heavily.

She did shove me away roughly, though.

“Answer me properly. When did you know?”

Gisella Roth asked in a voice that had lost even its usual roughness.

I should stop fooling around now.

“I became completely certain yesterday. The cookies hanging from my doorknob yesterday had medicine in them, didn’t they?”

“……What proof do you have that I did it?”

“You seemed to have paid extra attention to making the cookies’ shape and your handwriting different from usual, but you couldn’t hide this.”

I stuck out my tongue slightly and pointed at it.

“They tasted like Rine Berck’s cookies, the ones I’ve been eating for the past year. I have a pretty sensitive sense of taste.”

“Ha, so that’s how it was.”

Gisella Roth muttered as she roughly messed up her hair.

She seemed angry at herself for letting her guard down.

Not changing the recipe for the dough had been her own mistake, after all.

Even so, she could have taken her embarrassment out on an easy target like me.

But seeing her get angry at herself instead was actually pretty likable.

“But they were delicious.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

She makes a fuss even when I compliment her.

I take back what I said about her being likable.

“Fine, let’s say that’s how it was with the cookies. What about the other things?”

“Huh?”

“You said you became certain I was Rine Berck yesterday. Then doesn’t that mean there were signs even before that?”

“Ah, that.”

Should I tell her or not?

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to tell her.

The cookies she’d made for me had been delicious, after all.

“I gave you a present, remember?”

I pointed with my eyes at the box Gisella Roth was holding.

“……Candy?”

“Would you shake that once?”

She gave me a suspicious look, but shook the box as I asked.

“What? Why did you tell me to shake it?”

“There’s no sound.”

“So?”

She seemed quick to pick up on things, but somehow slow at the same time.

I let out a small sigh and continued.

“The candy box you normally carry around makes a sound.”

Gisella Roth froze.

She flinched, then pulled the candy box she normally carried from her apron pocket.

Then she gave it a small shake.

Rattle.

“That one.”

“Ha, shit. Damn it.”

Gisella Roth covered her face with one hand.

She must be embarrassed.

She had to be.

Getting caught by a brand-new rookie because of something as simple as a candy box.

“People are all different, but every time I ran into you, I heard the exact same sound. You, Lady Roth, and Rine Berck.”

I should stop here—

Of course not.

Since I was already at it, I decided to tease her a little more.

It was payback for everything she’d put me through.

“Oh, there were two more. The man I met on the way up to the Crow Tower, and—”

“You……”

“And the kidnapper who abducted me from the hospital ward.”

Gisella Roth’s eyes widened in shock.

“You were awake then?!”

“I only got hit slightly off the back of my neck.”

“You little, you fox-like……!”

Unable to contain her anger, Gisella Roth rushed at me, grabbed me by the collar, and shook me violently.

As I was shaken around like a piggy bank, I said,

“So from now on, carry your candy in this box. I picked one carefully so it wouldn’t make any noise.”

“You little punk……”

Gisella Roth’s eyes became even more frightening.

Her eyes were already scary because of their intense gaze, but now they seemed to be burning.

No, why?!

That candy box with thick padding inside was really hard to find!

I was just about to explain how much I’d gone around the shops in the fortress looking for it when—

“Haha! Ahahaha!”

Gisella Roth suddenly burst out laughing and lowered the hand that had been gripping my collar.

She held her stomach and bent over from laughing so hard.

She’s really scary!

“W-why are you suddenly doing this……. Just tell me what’s funny. With words.”

“Heh-heh, the captain told me to raise you well. You really are something, aren’t you?”

Gisella Roth muttered as she wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. Then she let out a refreshing “Phew!” and said,

“Yeah. You’re worth training.”

Those words immediately caught my attention.

“Then will you finally teach me properly now?”

“Yeah. I’ll put you through the wringer until you become useful.”

“I’ll work hard, Lady Roth.”

At last, I had earned my mentor’s recognition.

And I felt pretty good about myself, too.

After being kidnapped, treated like I belonged in a storage room, and even fed drugged cookies, I’d finally gotten a little payback for all the times Gisella Roth had dragged me around.

“Heh-heh, laughing this much made me hungry.”

Gisella Roth finally stopped laughing and spoke to me.

“You come out a little later. And don’t let any weird rumors start going around.”

“Yes, Lady Roth.”

When I obediently answered, Gisella Roth patted her apron into place and grabbed the doorknob.

Then she suddenly stopped and said,

“Oh, and call me ‘Senior’ from now on. Where did you get the nerve to casually call your mentor by her name?”

Her gruff scolding contained a gentle kind of consideration.

It was truly just like Gisella Roth.

I gave a small chuckle and answered.

“Yes, Senior.”