There’s Something Special About Her Chapter 43

“I did.”

I nodded as I answered.

A year ago, the first thing I had signed under the name Lunelk Eins was that very contract.

“But why would I need an additional contract? On paper, you’re still only a member of the action squad, aren’t you?”

“Ah, I see. Now I understand.”

So they simply made sure not to leave behind documents that could become evidence.

It was understandable. It was hard to even imagine a contract with “Crow” and “Lunelk Eins” written in place of “employer” and “employee.”

“Then why do I need a bank account?”

“I looked into it, and there isn’t a single account under your name anywhere in the Bernheim Empire or the surrounding kingdoms.”

“Ah, well, about that.”

That was because “Lunelk Eins” was a person who had only been created about a year ago.

With no idea when Wickers might come after me, I hadn’t had the luxury of casually stopping by a bank to open an account.

Back then, my first priority had been to hide myself in Knox as quickly as possible.

“I just didn’t really need one……”

“Why?”

Vanessa Karsten asked quickly, genuinely unable to understand.

“Before I joined Knox, I’d never had enough money on hand to need an account. And the pay from the action squad is pretty small—”

I almost said “pitifully small.”

“—well, it’s not exactly a lot.”

“In an environment where your food, clothing, and shelter are all provided?”

“Knox is very generous in that respect.”

I answered with satisfaction, while inwardly letting out a hollow laugh.

So this wasn’t simply a meeting to sign some contracts.

I’d been suspicious ever since she first brought up the bank account.

I didn’t know exactly what she was trying to find out, but Vanessa was unofficially interrogating me right now.

That must have been why she had searched through records in the Bernheim Empire and the surrounding kingdoms to see whether an account under the name “Lunelk Eins” existed.

As expected, I couldn’t let my guard down for even a moment.

“Generous enough that you can split up your meager action squad salary and donate some of it to a temple every month?”

Fortunately, Vanessa got straight to the point without wasting any more time.

So that was the problem.

I widened my eyes and pretended to be surprised, deciding to probe just a little further into how much she knew.

“How did you find that out?”

“Never underestimate a Crow’s abilities. Now, answer me.”

“Hmm, I just wanted to do something good. If I did good deeds now, maybe God would forgive me, at least a little, for the things I had to do to survive on the streets when I was young.”

“Then why the Altemore temple of all places?”

What?

She knew that much, too?

This time, even I was a little surprised.

To make my trail harder to follow, I hadn’t donated directly to the Altemore temple.

Instead, I sent money to the central temple in the capital, Lautern, and designated the Altemore temple as the recipient.

‘Just how far does their reach extend?’

They had enough information to dig through the temple’s list of donors.

Once again, I was amazed by the influence of the Duke of Knox’s family.

“Aren’t you from Lobenhaven? If you really wanted to make a donation, wouldn’t it make more sense to donate to a temple there?”

“Senior Vanessa, have you ever been to Altemore?”

Vanessa nodded.

“What did you think of it?”

“It was flashy and crowded. It’s the city with the most active cross-border trade.”

“And there are a lot of children begging on the streets, too. It’s close enough to Lobenhaven that even a child could get there in just a few days.”

At my words, her left eyelid twitched briefly.

She seemed quite surprised, but that was all the reaction she showed.

Her ability to control her expression was almost frighteningly good.

“My earliest memory is of an alley in Altemore. I think I was abandoned there. So I received a lot of help from the temple.”

Mixing truth into a lie makes the lie more convincing.

Everything I had just said was true.

Altemore was the city where my parents and younger brother were killed by Wickers.

I had lost almost all my memories from before that day, so the time I spent hiding in Altemore’s filthy, damp back alleys really was the closest thing I had to a childhood memory.

And it was also true that the temple had taken care of me when I collapsed from hunger.

But from here on, it was time for the lies.

“After I got a little older, I crossed over to Lobenhaven. The security was worse than in Altemore, but there were also more ways for kids like me to make a living.”

“……I see.”

Vanessa Karsten’s eyelid twitched once more.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem interested in digging any deeper.

She wasn’t cold enough to pry further into the miserable past of such a young newcomer.

After a brief silence, she smoothly changed the subject.

“I still haven’t heard why you never opened a bank account.”

“Oh, right. But there really isn’t much of a reason. I donate most of my salary to the temple in Altemore and only keep a few silver coins as spending money.”

“You’ve been receiving your salary for more than a year. Surely you’ve saved up some money by now?”

“That’s true.”

“Unless you carry all of it around with you, you would need somewhere to keep it……”

Vanessa suddenly stopped speaking.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Don’t tell me you keep it in a bag hidden inside your wardrobe?”

“I do.”

“You really…… keep it in your wardrobe?”

“Of course, I move it around sometimes. I’m at least that careful. Sometimes I put it under my bed or inside a drawer instead of the wardrobe.”

“And the cash gift you received from His Excellency?”

“Of course I hid that together with the rest.”

Vanessa’s eyelid twitched much more violently than before.

She swallowed and tossed a quill halfway across the table toward me.

“Sign. Now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I quickly grabbed the quill and wrote Lunelk Eins’s name in the blank space.

Gisella Roth was one thing. Her anger flared up quickly and died down just as fast.

But I absolutely did not want to see Vanessa Karsten angry.

“But, Senior.”

“You missed a box. Why?”

“Oops. Right, so, normally, do you need this many signatures to open a bank account?”

“Of course not.”

She snorted softly as she gathered the documents I had finished signing in order.

Then she set them down one by one to the side as she explained.

“One account at Knox Bank, where you’ll receive your action squad salary from now on. One anonymous vault at the Imperial Bank, and another at the Free City Merchants’ Guild. And the document you’re about to sign is for opening a vault at Lombardi Bank in the Western Continent under the name Lunelk Eins.”

“An anonymous vault and the Western Continent?”

I had already figured out the Knox Bank account and the two anonymous vaults while signing the papers.

But I hadn’t properly read the last document yet.

I’d noticed that the paper was slightly different and more luxurious than the others, and sure enough, the name “Lombardi,” the name of a Western Continent family, was written here and there.

Between the Western and Eastern Continents lay a vast ocean called Aurelia.

It was so enormous and its sea routes so dangerous that only the large sailing ships owned by merchant companies crossed it from time to time.

And yet, out of nowhere, there was a bank on the distant Western Continent?

Vanessa looked at me with an expression that seemed to say, What am I supposed to do with this kid? Then she patiently explained everything one by one.

“Just because there’s no contract doesn’t mean Crows receive no support. The work is dangerous and requires more sacrifices, so the rewards should be greater, too.”

“So I get paid twice?”

“That’s right. But since it takes time to turn the money in an account into physical cash, they’re being opened as vaults instead.”

“I see. But isn’t the Western Continent too far away to withdraw money from? And it seems like it’s being opened openly under my name, rather than anonymously.”

“……It’s emergency money.”

Vanessa Karsten answered after a slight pause.

“In case you don’t have the keys to the two anonymous vaults and can no longer remain on the Eastern Continent.”

“Ahh.”

So that was the purpose.

An organization that even prepared emergency funds for the most extreme situations.

The more I experienced it, the more I realized that Knox wasn’t such a bad place to work.

“That’s really reassuring!”

As I said that, the quill I picked up again felt strangely heavy.

I raised my eyes in confusion and saw Vanessa’s neat fingertips pressing down on the tip of the feather.

As if she wanted to stop me from signing.