I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 58
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Sniffle, sniffle.
“Quiet over there.”
“Hic—yes, yes!”
Bennett had been pitifully shedding tears for some time now, but to Aiden, it was merely noise.
If you misbehaved, you deserved punishment—wasn’t that only fair? These three troublemakers had caused a disaster the moment they were let out, so they deserved to cry until their eyes ran dry.
Of course, had Olivia—bound together with the other two through sheer misfortune—heard him, she would have protested with wide eyes: ‘Me? Not you, senior?’ But alas.
There was no way for Olivia to know what lay in Aiden’s heart.
Aiden counted off on his fingers as he recited their list of catastrophes.
“So. Not knowing which task to tackle first, you sat on a bench in the village running your mouths about Investigation through Inquiry and this and that.”
“That, well….”
“Then you wandered all over the place and merrily stumbled into a deserted alley.”
“We’re sorry, we’re sorry!”
“And you didn’t even notice someone was tailing you until it was far too late—and worse, you exposed your identities to them?”
Was he supposed to count his blessings that they hadn’t been caught and taken hostage? Aiden’s head tilted to one side.
He hadn’t asked for much—just that they gather information safely and discreetly from the villagers. That was all. Yet even that, they’d bungled.
The truly dangerous and difficult work—hadn’t he and Olivia been the ones to see it through?
Sniffle.
Bennett sniffled again. A vein bulged at Aiden’s temple.
“Now hold on. What did you do right, hmm? Explain yourself!”
“Eek.”
“Speak. I’m genuinely curious—tell me!”
“Whimper.”
“Ugh, I’m about to lose my mind!”
“I’m—sob—I’m sorry.”
“No, wait… it’s my fault. I’m the guilty one here. I was the fool who trusted you lot. When there’s no one else in this world to trust, I put my faith in you!”
He tilted his head to one side, eyes wide, glaring at the three standing before him in kneeling position with their hands raised in supplication.
Watching their teary faces, his irritation only grew, so he shut his eyes tight and lifted his chin—delivering one final lecture for good measure.
“If I collapse from stress because of you, that’s a loss to the nation itself, understood?”
Then a voice came—calm and measured, entirely unlike the whimpering of the other two.
“But, senior.”
“What.”
“Why must I stand in punishment alongside them?”
Aiden opened his eyes in that exact posture and gazed forward. Olivia stared at him, her round, lovely face brimming with indignation.
Aiden looked down at her for a moment, then let out a scoff and replied.
“Ah, I see you don’t understand. The most vital virtue for becoming a Knight is camaraderie—camaraderie. Do you know what that means?”
“…What does it mean?”
“It means you and your peers are as one body. If your classmates are being punished like this and you slip away on your own, what damage do you think that does to your bond?”
Of course, it was nonsense. Aiden knew that perfectly well even as he spoke.
Among his peers at the Academy, he had a reputation as “a man in whom not a shred of honor could be found”—having masterfully evaded Joint Responsibility throughout his entire time there.
In any case, this was hardly information those three needed to know.
It was only today that he had decided those beneath him should form one body with their peers.
Olivia still seemed unconvinced but said nothing further. Aiden watched them and began tapping rhythmically on the table with his finger. The regular sound filled the conference room.
“B-but we did bring back proper information!”
“What, you’re talking back? So you think you did well, then?”
“I never said we did well….”
Panya’s protest crumbled instantly. Tap. Aiden’s finger struck the table once more before stopping.
In truth, the reason he’d cut their punishment short had something to do with that. After all, the information they’d brought back was actually quite useful.
Of course, it was only through sheer luck and circumstance that they’d managed to succeed, but success by chance was success nonetheless.
“All right, Olivia, lower your arms. Let’s organize this.”
Witness Statement – Zeta (male, 50s / Retired Mercenary)
Through the investigation conducted by Bennett Sanchez and Panya Rentau, the retired mercenary Zeta of Rochen Village testified that on the day of Dorothy’s disappearance, he witnessed Dorothy following a man with silver-blonde hair.
Olivia lowered her arms as if she’d been waiting for the signal. She even took a seat right beside Aiden without being asked.
He flinched slightly at her boldness, but seeing Olivia’s green eyes so close—defiant and full of spirit—he found himself smiling instead. Whatever was on her mind, she simply looked endearing to him.
She used to throw tantrums much the same way when she was younger.
Aiden’s expression softened with sudden nostalgia, but he tightened his lips. Any further, and his face would crumble, stripping away all dignity.
Pfft. Olivia scoffed just as Aiden had moments before, pointing at the document he’d written.
“So Dorothy disappeared differently than the other livestock.”
The testimony was that Dorothy had trotted after a silver-haired man on the day of her disappearance. Had the testimony ended there, Aiden could have simply removed the three from the livestock case as he’d wanted.
But unfortunately, there was a connection between the livestock disappearances and Dorothy’s case.
The silver-haired man moved through the Forest Path as if possessed, and Dorothy continued to follow him—such was the testimony.
He crossed the entire village heading toward the Forest Path, yet no witnesses besides Zeta came forward.
Postscript: A testimony was obtained suggesting the silver-haired man is Leon’s brother. Confirmation was sought from several villagers, but all claimed ignorance.
In other words, despite moving openly, there wasn’t a single other person who claimed to have seen the man. Olivia picked up her pen and began scribbling intently at something.
She seemed to be marking suspicious points or areas requiring further verification in Zeta’s statement.
Aiden watched her closely. The defiant expression had vanished entirely, replaced by an almost startling concentration on the task before her.
The hand holding the pen moved fluidly across the paper, and whenever she encountered a point of difficulty, her brow would furrow as she touched the pen tip to her hair.
The result was that her neatly arranged hair had come loose, strands falling in disarray.
Perhaps because it was unusual. That subtle disarray caught Aiden’s gaze.
‘This is irritating.’
Once it began bothering him, he could see nothing else. His focus scattered, and he found himself fixating solely on the pattern of her disheveled hair.
Aiden wasn’t alone in this—Bennett, still sniffling quietly against the wall, had also fixed his gaze on Olivia.
Twitch. Aiden’s eyebrow twitched. That gaze gnawed at him relentlessly.
He needed to settle this. Aiden made his decision quickly.
“Especially this section here requires further investigation—”
“Why?”
“I—just now—”
Reaching out, he brushed her disheveled hair back into place, and at last the Olivia he knew returned.
Aiden didn’t stop there; he rose from his seat and gathered the hair he’d swept aside, holding it together in his hand.
Smooth chestnut strands slipped gently between his fingers.
“S-senior?”
“Keep working. It’s been bothering me.”
“What?”
“Your hair. All those stray strands were getting to me.”
He tied it firmly with a Ribbon he always kept on hand, and only then did his unease settle.
Aiden cast a deliberate look toward Bennett. Bennett’s eyes had gone wide, his mouth falling open as he stared back and forth between them.
Panya poked at Bennett’s ribs repeatedly. It was deeply satisfying.
‘How dare you look at our Olivia like that?’
Aiden’s eyes blazed.
In truth, Bennett had merely been curious about what Olivia was doing, and he had sworn a thousand times never to regard her ‘that way’—but such considerations were irrelevant to Aiden.
When it came to matters concerning Olivia, Aiden had long since abandoned all pretense of objectivity.
“It bothered me. Quite a lot.”
And in truth, what he felt was something only Aiden himself failed to recognize properly—petty jealousy of the most childish kind.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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