There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 19

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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 19.
“Ahahaha! Hey, why are you grabbing the sword? Did you even know how to draw it?!”
“Cut it out before you slice your hand open, kekeke.”
“You seniors all knew about it!”
When I asked Jake—my senior, who was now actually squeezing out tears—he nodded while still chuckling.
“Of course it’s a raven if you hear a noise in the trees at night! You’ve been on duty for over a year and didn’t know that?”
“How could I possibly know that?!”
When you hear strange noises at night, you’re supposed to assume it’s an intruder!
“Sigh.”
It was a bird, not a person.
My tension released a beat too late, and a sigh leaked out.
Then Jake, still grinning widely, grabbed my shoulder and seated me back in front of the campfire.
“Now, isn’t our youngest quite impressive? Such nerve!”
“Your courage has deeply moved this senior, Runelk. Hehehehe!”
The seniors who wouldn’t stop snickering looked absolutely pathetic.
But just as back alleys had their law of strength, seniority was law in the Action Squad.
Naturally, my anger found its target in the easiest quarry—the winged pest.
“I mean, if it’s a bird, shouldn’t it sleep at night like a proper bird? Why does it have to fly around causing trouble in the dark?”
“Ravens around Nox in the Bernheim Empire are nocturnal. Didn’t you know?”
“You’re just messing with me again.”
Not falling for this twice.
When I shot him a suspicious glare, Jake slapped his chest as if deeply wronged.
“Wow, this guy’s picking on an innocent senior. Hubert, teach this disrespectful Runelk a lesson.”
“Ahem. Runelk, where did you say your hometown was again?”
Why are so many people asking about Runelk Aynes’ official place of origin these days?
“Robenhaven, a border town on the Crollin Kingdom side.”
“Then you might not know. I, Hubert Sauer, a true native of Nox, shall explain.”
Hubert puffed out his chest and flicked his fingers importantly as he spoke.
“Jake’s claim that the ravens around here are nocturnal is actually true. The exact reason diurnal ravens became nocturnal only in the Bernheim Empire isn’t certain, but in any case—even if Robenhaven might be different—at least in Nox, we don’t chase ravens away carelessly.”
“Even if they peck at grain or linger around fruit trees?”
“That’s the farmers’ business. The point is, in Nox, ravens are considered auspicious. That’s the thing.”
“Auspicious?”
Those cunning thieves who caw mockingly to taunt people and steal glittering jewels?
When I responded with obvious reluctance, the seniors all pointed to their chests.
Where the Emblem of Nox was embroidered.
“You don’t understand even when you see this? Moon, stars, raven. They’re all symbols of Nox.”
“Moon, stars, raven……?”
I’ve heard this somewhere before.
As I scratched my head at the strange sense of familiarity, Hubert launched into his lecture.
“Look here. This moon represents our leader, the Duke of Nox himself, and the stars floating in the middle represent the seven executives.”
“I’ve heard about that much when I joined Nox, so I know it roughly.”
“Then recite all the names of the stars from the 1st Star onward, you brat.”
“That would be…….”
Of course I have them all memorized.
1st Star Legien
2nd Star Karensis
3rd Star Noelrn
4th Star Adila
5th Star Oren
6th Star Ruena
7th Star Frien
The stars representing each executive and their respective departments weren’t just difficult and confusing in name.
Each star also had its own characteristics—position, brightness, and color.
For example, the 5th Star Oren, which represents commerce and the treasury, sits farthest from the moon among all seven stars yet shines the brightest.
It even serves as a guide for merchants who lose their way during trade journeys.
“How did you memorize all that? I mean, fine for the moon and stars, but what about the raven?”
My counter-question caught Hubert off guard.
He gave an awkward cough and tossed the question to Bono like a hot potato.
“Bono, you explain it.”
“Me? I don’t really know either. Jake, do you?”
“Isn’t the raven something like that? House of Nox watching over the empire even in the dark night, or something like that.”
“Ooh! That’s pretty clever!”
“Hehe, I do pride myself on my memory.”
They were patting themselves on the back, but the truth was none of them really knew the exact meaning.
Noticing my cold stare, Hubert, being the coward he was, brought up the earlier conversation again.
“Anyway, Runelk, you shouldn’t be scared of ravens like you were just now.”
“Ravens are…… a bit unsettling.”
It wasn’t just because of the nightmare from this afternoon.
In memories that only go back to age ten, I’ve always hated ravens.
“Why?”
“They just look kind of creepy.”
“Look at you. Then how do you send Messenger Ravens?”
“Messenger Ravens? I’ve never sent one.”
You need someone to correspond with for that.
I have no relatives to check on, no close friends.
In the first place, there’s no one who knows my real identity—Helena Morton.
‘Well, by now Edward would know.’
Writing a letter to that man, who’s burning with the desire to find his father’s murderer—a former friend and traitor—would be far too much like something Killian Nox would do.
But the surroundings had gone oddly quiet.
The seniors who’d been chattering loudly fell silent and looked at me with pitying eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Is having no one to send letters to really that pitiful?
Bono, the first to return to his usual playful demeanor, pointed beyond the Nox City Wall where the watchtower stood and spoke.
“Nox uses ravens instead of pigeons for Messenger Ravens. If you go east of the Outer City, there’s a tall tower—that’s the Raven Tower. Later, when you get yourself a lover, you’ll end up frequenting that place constantly.”
“Right.”
As if I’d ever get a lover.
At least not before I escape safely from Killian Nox’s grasp.
At my lukewarm response, Jake, who’d been thinking I was still too young, suddenly slapped his knee.
“Runelk, if you’re not from around here, do you perhaps not know the fairy tale either?”
“Fairy tale?”
“Every kingdom and empire has a Foundation Myth, right? House of Nox has one too.”
“Oh, I loved that story when I was little.”
Hubert stroked his bristly beard and sank into nostalgic reverie.
“Since you don’t seem to know, this senior shall tell you. A long time ago, there was an era when nothing but the moon hung in the sky.”
I wondered at the sudden tale, but since dawn was still far away, I settled in to listen.
Yet as he spoke, my brow furrowed deeper.
“But then one day, a darkness rotted to its very core, without knowing its place, reached for the moon’s seat…….”
“Wait a moment, Jake.”
“We’re just getting to the best part—why!”
“Does the raven warn of danger and the story ends?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
How indeed.
How could I possibly know that?
This was a story I’d heard in a nightmare I’d had this very afternoon.
‘Was it just a nightmare?’
I tried to distinguish dream from real memory in the nightmare that was still vivid in my mind.
At the same time, my temples throbbed and a headache set in, but I ignored it.
It was always this way when I tried to recall memories from before age ten, before the catastrophe.
‘Mother did tell me old stories before bed back then.’
Through the thick fog of memory, the soft warmth of blankets and my mother’s body heat came slowly floating back.
‘So that fairy tale…….’
Ding.
“Did any of you seniors hear that sound just now?”
“Sound? What are you suddenly talking about?”
“I definitely heard something like a bell ringing.”
“Good grief, why are you being so creepy!”
Jake pulled his large frame into a tight hunch and scanned the surroundings.
These were men keen enough to catch even a raven’s smallest cry while clamoring away.
There’s no way they didn’t hear a bell so clear.
“You stupid fool! You’re just messing with us, aren’t you!”
“Runelk, you sneaky brat! Revenge for what happened earlier?!”
But I had no patience to pacify the grumbling Jake.
‘Did it come from outside, or from inside my head?’
I tried to grasp what that bell sound meant, but only a sharper throbbing pain in my head intensified.
The door to memory that had briefly cracked open seemed to have slammed shut again.
“I think I must have heard wrong. But I do remember my mother telling me that story about the raven and the moon when I was very young.”
It was a faint memory I barely caught before the bell sound came.
“Is that so? Robenhaven isn’t too far from here, is it? How did your mother come to know that story?”
“That’s what I’m wondering too.”
I gazed toward the Messenger Raven tower hidden behind the high wall and answered.
“How could our mother have known a Nox fairy tale?”

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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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