There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 21

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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 21.
Killian set down the glass he’d been holding onto the desk in his office.
“The Raven.”
The golden eyes fixed on me had sharpened like a blade.
I couldn’t afford to yield here.
I clasped my hands behind my back and drew my core muscles tight.
“Explain yourself properly.”
“To be precise, it’s the Raven Tower.”
“Is there some problem with how House of Nox exchanges correspondence?”
Killian poured liquor into the half-empty glass as he spoke.
He looked at ease.
And his regaining composure was hardly a good sign for me.
But having come this far, there was no retreat.
“There’s no problem with the system itself. Only with that candle sitting there so openly.”
The scattered fragments suddenly coalesced into one complete picture—the crucial clue that bound everything together.
A candle that had been stocked in the Raven Tower.
“The kind of candle that produces a milky white flame around its wick is used primarily by the lower classes who can’t afford better ones. They’re cheap and burn for a long time. When I checked, every candle distributed throughout House of Nox, including those in the message tower, was the same type. This inferior candle has one useful characteristic.”
I turned my gaze to the candlelight burning quietly on Killian Nox’s desk.
The flame flickered pure and crimson, unmarred by white residue.
“Once it cools and hardens, the wax peels off easily. For the lower classes, it’s convenient—they collect the drippings to make new candles. For House of Nox’s true intelligence agency, the ones who open every message passing through the tower to verify its contents, it’s convenient for a different reason: no trace remains that the envelope has been opened.”
The moment I mentioned the “true intelligence agency,” the veins in Killian Nox’s hand turned blue as he set down the bottle.
Startled, was he.
I’d landed a blow.
“Of course, the people of House of Nox seem to believe it’s simply for cost savings, so there’s no need to replace all the candles. Or to accelerate the delivery time to buy the true intelligence agency more hours to open sealed messages and compile their contents.”
It was advice given with genuine intent, in my own way.
These were only small clues that even I had nearly overlooked.
But Killian Nox seemed genuinely displeased.
“You keep saying strange things. A true intelligence agency.”
His laughter came out cold.
Even the glass clenched in his large hand seemed like a threatening weapon.
It was fortunate that I’d assumed a rigid posture early on.
At least my trembling hands wouldn’t be visible to him.
“It’s the darkest secret of House of Nox that I’ve managed to uncover. Not the intelligence agency that’s openly visible, the one led by Greyer Nox, but a true intelligence agency that exists somewhere within House of Nox.”
“So you’re telling me that House of Nox has a perfectly functional intelligence agency, yet they’re merely a facade?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Well, I’d dealt with Greyer Nox’s intelligence agency directly.
Hundreds of messages pass through the Raven Tower each day.
They simply don’t have the capability to handle such vast, unrefined information.
High-grade intelligence, or useful intelligence, doesn’t announce itself with a red flag from the start.
Just as I nearly got swept up in the hidden affairs of the late duke and duchess and lost my way, refining random information and weaving it into other threads isn’t something anyone can do.
‘If House of Nox’s intelligence agency had possessed such skill, they would have been far more troublesome to deal with.’
Standing before Killian Nox, my mouth felt bitter as I chose my next words carefully.
Somehow it had crumbled far too easily.
Neutralizing House of Nox’s intelligence agency was an achievement I took some pride in, but the real one lay elsewhere.
“Your Grace, though I’m deeply sorry to say it, the evaluation that House of Nox’s intelligence agency is incompetent isn’t a secret. It’s reached even someone as lowly as me. Greyer Nox himself, as well as a loyal retainer who dedicated his life to the ducal house…….”
“Spare me the nonsense.”
“Ahem. In any case, I believe the one leading the true intelligence agency is far more capable than Greyer Nox. Someone like Dupon Clansher, Your Grace’s closest confidant.”
For a moment, something like amusement flickered at the corners of Killian Nox’s eyes.
“Did you discover that by sneaking into Decon Gold’s office?”
“That—that wasn’t exactly…….”
“You shouldn’t lie.”
It was spoken in a tone like coaxing a child, yet unmistakably a chilling warning.
“……I confirmed that vast funds have been allocated annually under Dupon Clansher’s name.”
“Decon didn’t maintain proper security, it seems.”
In truth, it was his aide who was the problem, not Decon Gold.
But I lacked the loyalty to defend Decon Gold’s competence in front of Killian Nox.
Then, suddenly, a realization hit me, and my skin crawled.
I’d definitely shaken off my watchers and moved around.
“But how did you know I’d gone to Decon Gold’s office…….”
“I told you that I can know everywhere you go.”
Killian Nox answered flatly.
But to me, it sounded like a death sentence.
He’d mentioned something about being a Dragon’s Familiar, but I’d thought of it as a compass pointing direction.
A long leash that kept me from fleeing far.
But to be able to sense my movements within the castle walls themselves?
As despair began to color my face, Killian Nox seemed to be enjoying himself.
“Not bad.”
Even offering praise like that.
Infuriating as it was, my current position was no different from a dog raised by Killian Nox.
A stupid dog scrambling eagerly toward the scrap bone he tosses my way.
“Then…….”
It felt as though a small light was breaking through the despair that had crushed me far deeper than I’d expected.
Had I gotten the answer right?
Would he not kill me?
Could I—could I survive?
But Killian Nox trampled the budding hope before it could fully bloom.
“Your imagination is decent. But it’s not worth five days of waiting.”
He shook his head as though disappointed.
“I praised you for your quick wit, and this is all you’ve brought me?”
“Imagination……!”
So he was going to play dumb?
The competitive spirit I’d forgotten about for so long blazed to life.
“Your Grace, you are allowing an incompetent intelligence agency to persist.”
Now I looked directly at Killian Nox’s smooth, insufferable face as I spoke.
“One wall of the fortress that is House of Nox has crumbled, yet you neither rebuild nor even acknowledge it.”
“So you’re saying a true intelligence agency must exist? Your argument lacks sufficient evidence for such a claim…….”
“No.”
I deliberately cut him off mid-sentence.
“With respect, I’m not speaking merely by observing Your Grace’s conduct. The evidence is House of Nox itself.”
“House of Nox itself?”
One of Killian Nox’s eyebrows rose.
“House of Nox still stands undiminished, retaining its power. If a true intelligence agency did not exist, House of Nox would have already fallen—to the hands of capable rivals no less formidable than itself.”
“Only if there were men bold enough to truly challenge my authority.”
“There are. The House of Constantz to the south, House of Limburg to the west, and House of Wickes to the north. If any two of them joined hands, House of Nox would have reason to be wary.”
As Killian Nox tilted his head slightly, his face remained as cold as a sculpture carved from ice, yet I could sense it somehow.
That he was profoundly displeased.
“By your logic, I am a derelict duke, neglecting even to rebuild my collapsed intelligence apparatus.”
“How could that possibly be?”
Despite his certainly understanding everything I’d laboriously said, his evasive twisting irritated me as well.
“You’re deliberately leaving it neglected—acknowledging it as House of Nox’s weakness.”
***
Interesting.
“Isn’t that why, during the Spy Incident last time, you brought Greyer Nox to his knees before everyone and yet let him live?”
The small creature was playing at reading his innermost thoughts.
When Killian himself couldn’t see into that round skull at all.
“Hmm.”
As though a solar eclipse long past were returning, an urge suddenly stirred in Killian’s mind.
“If.”
Killian indulged the impulse willingly.
“If you were in my position, how would you resurrect a collapsed intelligence apparatus?”

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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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