Chapter 48. The Rat

The moon cast its light through the clouds, illuminating a very old, dilapidated warehouse.

Bryn was walking towards it, fuming.

Kwang!

Bryn expressed his displeasure by roughly kicking the warehouse door.

“My, what has happened that you are acting this way as soon as we meet?”

The man who was in the warehouse asked, stroking his thin mustache.

Bryn glared at the man and pointed a finger at him.

“You! How the hell do you do your job?”

“Please do not get excited. I would appreciate it if you would calmly explain what happened.”

Despite the man’s words, Bryn could not contain his excitement. He grabbed the man by the collar.

“Fuck! You said you would take responsibility and handle it!”

“...Are you talking about Maxim?”

“Yes! Maxim! Fuuuck! What are you going to do!”

“Wouldn’t it be better to let go and talk? It hurts my ears when you’re this close.”

The man said with a smiling-eyed expression.

At that, Bryn ground his molars and put all his strength into his hand.

The man, with a choked voice, said, ‘It’s difficult to speak like this,’ asking him to release his collar.

“Hey! You son of a bitch! I’m about to get fucked over because of you!”

Bryn shouted, shaking the man fiercely.

At this, the man gagged, as if to emphasize that he could not answer unless he released his hand.

“Ugh! Fucking son of a bitch.”

Bryn spat out a curse and pushed the man away.

“Please do not get so excited. When you are excited, even things that would have worked out will not.”

“What? This bastard really. Is he trying to see me die?”

Bryn raised his fist to strike the man.

But the man did not just watch. He quickly extended his hand and grabbed Bryn’s wrist.

“Calm down. What will change by getting so excited?”

“Let go! Aren’t you going to let go?”

“I understand. You are saying that the 4th Prince will be angry because Maxim returned alive, is that not it?”

At the man’s words, Bryn let out a hot breath and released his fist. He then stared at the man with eyes that were redder than before, filled with killing intent.

“You knew all along and were just pretending not to? Gabriel Hoso. Now that you’ve touched some money, is there nothing in the world you’re afraid of?”

“Hey, what are you saying?”

“Then what are you trying to do now? Are you messing with me?”

“No. How could I do such a thing? I am a body that cannot live without the grace of the Willford family.”

The man, called Gabriel Hoso, bent his waist in half and spoke very politely.

Seeing this, Bryn, in order to swallow his rising anger, clenched his molars tightly and took a deep breath.

“A wise choice.”

Gabriel said with a smile. He is the only son of Gashu Hoso, who leads the Hoso Merchant Guild. He is in charge of the dirty work ordered by the 4th Prince, as well as Bryn Willford and Fioren Dickens.

“What happened with that Maxim? Why, why is he alive and walking around?”

“It is not certain, but I believe it may be because the level of the fellows he was with was high.”

“No, fuck… how high can Adellian or Piontek be? Those bastards are only 1st Circle.”

“Then…”

“Hey, you. Tell me honestly. You didn’t use some cheap trash to save money, did you? Like some complete garbage. Huh? Th-that, fuck. You know. Those gangster bastards who wander the back alleys.”

At Bryn’s words, Gabriel let out a snort.

“What? Are you laughing now? In this situation, you. You fucking bastard. You find this funny?”

“That is not the reason I laughed, so please do not be angry.”

“Annoying bastard. Then what is it? If you didn’t save money, why is that Maxim alive and walking around?”

“I did not actually hire gangsters. I used the Amirios clan.”

“Amari? What’s that?”

“They are people who have received the curse of Ignia. They are fellows that even decent knights cannot handle.”

“You hired such fellows, so why is he alive?”

“If the level of the fellows with him was not high, I suspect the academy may have assigned someone to them.”

At the words that someone was assigned, Bryn’s face hardened. An academy official saved Maxim. If that is true, they will judge that there was a problem with the exam. Then the academy will investigate this incident at the school level…

‘Aren’t I going to get caught?’

This was no different from commissioning an assassination. And it wasn’t aimed at an ordinary person. It was a prince.

Even if the 5th Prince was a discarded card by the royal family, he was still royalty. If the investigation reveals that Bryn is connected, it is not a simple charge of instigating murder.

Trying to kill a royal is an act of treason that harms the kingdom. This is a crime of treason, and not only Bryn himself but also his entire family will not be able to escape capital punishment.

‘There’s no way that bastard Hans would save me, right?’

Although Bryn was helping the 4th Prince, the moment he is discovered, their relationship will naturally be severed. It would be a relief if it simply ended. The 4th Prince, to save himself, would attack Bryn and try to bring down the Willford family.

Shadows filled Bryn’s face. His breathing became increasingly rapid, and his fingertips trembled, revealing his anxiety in a raw manner.

Gabriel looked at Bryn and made an ‘um!’ sound.

“Do not worry too much. I have taken care of everything. There will be absolutely no mention of you, young master.”

He smiled brightly at Bryn, who was trembling in fear, his previous fierce momentum completely gone.

“R-really? You’ll make sure there’s absolutely nothing?”

“Of course. You do not need to worry. I will somehow sort this matter out, so I would be grateful if you would speak well of me to the 4th Prince.”

“How are you going to sort it out?”

“You will find out in due course.”

Gabriel took Bryn’s hand and patted it lightly. He then smiled brightly to give him the assurance that he didn’t need to be anxious. While thinking that he could easily handle someone like Bryn.

***

“Attention.”

Armand Blace, with a swollen face, stood at attention.

I looked him up and down.

“You’ve been eating well lately, I see.”

“……”

“Hey now, answer.”

“It’s not like this because I’ve been eating…”

“I know.”

His face was swollen from being hit somewhere, and his abdomen must be from eating well.

It’s not like someone would hit him and make his lower belly and sides swell up evenly.

“You missed me, right?”

“……”

“Answer.”

“W-we’re not really on that good of terms…”

“We’ll become good friends from now on. No, wait. We were good friends after the semester started. Weren’t we? A relationship of longing and missing. You don’t like it?”

“……”

“Did you decide to practice ‘silence is golden’ today? Should I make you practice it forever?”

“No! No!”

His expression and his gestures, this is almost a seizure. A seizure.

“Let’s just behave ourselves.”

“...But do we really have to meet like this at this hour?”

The time now is… looking outside, it seems to be around dawn. The other kids are probably all asleep. Probably. And I am spending a very cozy time with Armand Blace in the Red Deer Class lounge.

“If we’re close, does time matter? Don’t worry about useless things and tell me what you found out.”

“The teaching assistant… there is one.”

I had told Armand to find out who worked with Professor Keller, who frequented his research lab, or who he shared secrets with.

I couldn’t ask the other kids. Adellian? Piontek? Odekerkh? Their reactions would be different, but it was obvious they would refuse to look into it. Michelle wouldn’t know anything about the academy, so it’s better not to ask her.

‘If I ask her for no reason, she’ll just wander around and attract attention.’

So, Armand is the best person to investigate quietly. If he leaks my words elsewhere… the one who overhears it is obvious anyway. If what I’m doing gets out, and Hans’s gang finds out, I can just grab Armand and beat him to within an inch of his life. If Hans comes looking for me using that as a pretext, I can beat the hell out of him. I’m planning to beat him up anyway. It’s just a matter of whether it’s a little earlier or later. What’s important is the pretext.

Hmm… should I just publicly shout about who the culprit is and wait for the flies to swarm?

No. That would be too noisy. It would be a headache if it wasn’t just flies that swarmed. The one who actually ordered my death might go into hiding. So it’s better to proceed step by step like this.

“Who is the teaching assistant?”

“Serena Viscontin… is her name…”

“How am I supposed to know if you just tell me the name?”

“Y-you don’t know?”

I stared intently at Armand with a look that said, ‘are you asking because I don’t know?’

“I might not know. Right, because I lost my memory.”

“If you’re going to do a job, do it properly. At the very least, you should have brought a portrait.”

“Hey, how am I supposed to get a portrait of a teaching assistant?”

“You can’t?”

With the corners of my mouth pulled up all the way, I looked at Armand with eyes that asked if he really couldn’t get it.

The fellow who had been staring at me with wide eyes until a moment ago, lowered his head. After swallowing dryly a couple of times, he turned his head this way and that to avoid my gaze.

“What are you doing?”

“No, this isn’t something I can get just because I want to, so there’s nothing I can do.”

“Nothing? Why?”

“Drawing a portrait costs a lot of money, you know? And how would I know if that person had a portrait drawn or not?”

His words made some sense. So I nodded my head.

Seeing this, Armand also let out a slow, very slow breath of relief and relaxed his stiff face.

Without my permission.

“Draw it.”

“Huh? What?”

“Draw it so I can recognize her.”

“R-right now? Who? M-me?”

“What? You can’t? Then bring her here.”

I put force into my eyes and smiled brightly.

“Hic!”

Armand started hiccuping. I don’t know what he’s so scared of. If he just does as he’s told, nothing will happen.

By the way, do I have some kind of ill-fated relationship with female teaching assistants?

“Does this Serena person hate me?”

“Hic! Huh? Hic! Hate? Why?”

“If you ask the person who asked the question for the reason, how am I supposed to answer?”

“...Sorry. Hic!”

“Have I ever done anything to hold a grudge against that person?”

At my question, Armand, holding his breath, shook his head.

“Phew! No. The two of you have never been involved separately. Actually…”

“Speak without being self-conscious. I won’t say anything.”

“Who would hold a grudge against you? You don’t even talk to anyone.”

That’s true. He said everyone avoided Maxim because they were scared of Hans’s gang.

Maxim seemed to know that and treated others coldly as well.

In that case, it means Serena passed the exam information to someone else.

‘Who…’

Suddenly, Bryn came to mind. Was the reason he went out of his way to pick a fight on the day I returned to the academy to check my condition himself? Since he could hear about my return through the guards.

If this assumption is true, then Hans must be connected. It’s a very appropriate pretext for what I have to do in the future.

“What is the relationship between Serena and Bryn?”

“They probably have no relationship.”

What does this bastard even know?

“I-I’ll find out. I just have to find out, right?”

He’s not unobservant. But that’s not nearly enough.

“It’s too late. When are you going to find out? Let’s just go to where Serena is in the morning.”

“Huh? I’m going too?”

“What? You don’t want to? Then draw a portrait. So I can find her at once. If I can’t find her with the portrait, I’ll make you search for gold your whole life. For-ev-er.”

To show him I wasn't bluffing, I looked at Armand with sparkling eyes.

“I’ll go. I’ll go before the morning class. Together.”

“Good thinking. It’s really nice to be on friendly terms. Isn’t it? Stepping up for a classmate whose memory isn’t intact.”

“……”

“What? You don’t want to be friendly?”

“N-no. I like it. I like it a lot.”

Armand forced a smile and nodded his head.

So I patted the fellow’s shoulder and told him to smile more. Because the joyful laughter he once had will be no more. No, if he doesn’t smile forcedly like this, he will have no reason to smile at all in the future.

‘If the whole world laughed with you before, from now on you will cry alone. Thoroughly.’