There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 22

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

Chapter 22.
“What kind of assumption is that…….”
Runelk Ains frowned at the very thought of it, terrible as it was, and offered his answer.
“Remove Grayer Nox at once and install someone suitable in his place. If we borrow a little of the true Intelligence Division’s strength in the process, he’ll settle in quickly enough. Once you change the fool steering the ship, it’ll sail in the right direction.”
Despite being nothing more than a junior member of the Action Division, Runelk Ains felt no urge to punish him for daring to call an executive “foolish.”
“But you have no intention of doing such a thing, do you. There’s no need, either.”
“No need?”
Killian’s narrowed pupils caught the insolent lip that jutted out as if tracking prey.
It was a change neither of the two facing each other noticed.
“If a dragon were bleeding, everyone would rush in thinking it was right to do so. They’d see it as a chance to topple a colossal being no one had dared challenge. But.”
“But that blood wouldn’t be the dragon’s—it would be the blood of prey already hunted.”
Runelk Ains nodded sluggishly, as if asking why the other was pretending not to know.
Killian drained his drink in one gulp without taking his eyes from him, then spoke.
“That’s what the junior member says. What do you think, Dupon?”
At the brief summons, a tall man emerged from the shadows.
It was Dupon Clansher, who had been listening to every word exchanged from the space hidden within the pillars of the Office.
“Wait, where did you just…….”
Runelk Ains’s eyes widened in surprise, his gaze darting repeatedly toward the pillar from which Dupon had stepped out.
But that curiosity didn’t last long.
Thud!
Dupon Clansher seized both of Runelk Ains’s shoulders with his enormous hands, bearing down like a hawk striking prey.
“It’s been far too long.”
An odd gleam flickered in Dupon’s eyes.
“Real talent has finally arrived.”
“Take him and train him into something useful, Dupon.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wait, just a moment!”
Runelk Ains cried out as he wrenched himself from Dupon’s grip with all his might.
“Then my answer was correct, wasn’t it?”
“Listen here.”
Dupon, taken aback, tried to stop the eager junior member like a puppy.
But a casual gesture from Killian sent an invisible force pushing him back two steps.
Killian set down his glass and stepped before Runelk Ains.
The shadow he cast by moonlight fell across his pale, insolent face.
“Then?”
“Give me the Antidote, please.”
“Did I feed you poison?”
“Not poison exactly, but something similar—you gave me that, didn’t you?”
And with that, he cast a sidelong glance at Dupon—a sight both amusing and petty.
There was nothing here that should catch his eye.
The little one grew cuter the more he squirmed.
‘Choosing his words carefully, too.’
Dupon Clansher was Killian’s instrument, an extension of his limbs.
Yet even before such a man, Runelk Ains refused to reveal that he had consumed Killian’s Dragon Blood.
He was someone who didn’t know how to relax, or how to trust anyone.
“That’s not possible.”
Killian spoke while gazing down at lips that had once been smeared with his own blood.
“It was rather entertaining, but not the answer.”
The correct answer was the Lunar Eclipse.
The Lunar Eclipse in which Killian, the heart of Nox, fell prey to the Dragon Blood—that was surely the darkest secret of Nox.
But if he had come to know of the Lunar Eclipse.
“Why, why are you……”
It was only the briefest moment, but Runelk Ains caught the sudden chill in Killian’s eyes and flinched back a step, fear written across his face.
He was sensitive as a hunted woodland creature.
‘He’ll need time to be tamed.’
Killian reached his quiet conclusion and spoke in a familiar tone.
“The answer you gave was only half the truth.”
“Half the truth?”
“You’ll learn the rest if you follow Dupon.”
When Killian gestured toward the door, the invisible wall that had held Dupon in place vanished as well.
“I’ll give you the Antidote when you prove you’re worth it. Get out.”
“……I understand.”
Runelk Ains bowed, his face thick with complaint, and stumbled after Dupon in an awkward gait.
Without once looking back, until he’d escaped the shadow that stretched long behind Killian.
“…….”
Killian, sensing the Dragon Blood within Runelk Ains’s receding form, habitually stroked the surface of the Office desk.
***
After leaving the Office, I wasn’t granted the fortune of returning to my quarters.
Instead, I found myself following Dupon Clansher somewhere.
He showed no sign of revealing our destination beforehand, so I had no choice but to follow, my eyes fixed on the heels of his boots.
“Don’t talk back to the Commander like that again. Understood?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Be grateful the Commander was in a good mood today. You nearly died.”
Did I not know that?
Everything Dupon Clansher said, walking a step ahead, flowed straight out my other ear.
My mind was numb.
‘I’m alive.’
Having just brushed past death, the relief that washed over me was no small thing.
A body that hadn’t eaten or slept properly in five days suddenly sagged like waterlogged cotton.
I blinked at my heavy eyelids and turned my gaze toward the window that opened onto the Corridor.
The Castle’s landscape, grown familiar over the past year, looked unexpectedly dear to me.
My nose began to sting inexplicably, so I rubbed it and thought.
‘The Lunar Eclipse has ended, it seems.’
According to Dupon Clansher’s words, Killian Nox did indeed seem to be in quite a good mood today.
Completely different from the savage creature he’d been under the influence of the last Lunar Eclipse.
‘Killian Nox, damn you.’
My throat, escaped from the snare of whatever hideous beast—dragon or serpent—it was, still thrashed with terror.
Good thing I hadn’t spoken the word Lunar Eclipse aloud.
From the moment Killian Nox uttered the phrase “the darkest secret,” I knew what he meant: the Lunar Eclipse.
But even if it was the right answer, it was no path to extending my life.
How a junior member would be disposed of for learning that the head of Nox was something closer to a monster than a man—it was transparent as daylight.
Doomed, whether I gave a boring answer or even spoke the truth.
Hating the moon that hung unnaturally bright tonight, I turned my head away.
‘Might as well just spread it all as gossip.’
I learned of the Lunar Eclipse back when I still belonged to Wickers.
But I never reported that information to Edward—I buried it.
The Lunar Eclipse was like the Reverse Scale of Killian Nox.
A Reverse Scale that, if touched carelessly, would bring a dragon’s fury upon you.
At the time, I wanted only to avenge my family, and I had no desire to blunder into Killian Nox and die a dog’s death before that goal was achieved.
‘Besides, it’s not even a weakness.’
Every Lunar Eclipse makes Killian Nox more cruel, more powerful.
Thinking of that, I suddenly felt how close I’d come to death.
To escape a snare laid by Killian Nox.
As tension drained and my body temperature dropped, I wiped the chill from the back of my neck and asked.
“By the way, where are we going?”
“You ask quick questions, don’t you.”
Dupon Clansher muttered as if he were seeing every strange thing under the sun.
“Don’t make a fuss. Just follow quietly.”
“……Yes.”
As if he would’ve answered even if I’d asked.
I didn’t care for anyone from Nox, this man or that one.
Whatever it was, just let it be over quickly.
I wanted nothing more than to take off this Necklace that felt heavy today and collapse onto my bed.
But the further I followed Dupon Clansher, the more my suspicion grew.
And so I found myself standing before an enormous portrait of the First Duke of Nox, at the far end of the western Corridor of the Main Building 4th Floor.
It was a vivid painting: the First Duke’s golden eyes and the crimson eyes of a raven perched on his shoulder.
“Dupon Clansher, exactly why are we……”
“Shh.”
With a single sharp look, Dupon Clansher shut my mouth, then pressed several jewels embedded in the frame of the portrait deliberately.
The moment I saw those familiar hands, my mind snapped awake.
Oh no, this is bad.
I was about to get dragged into something incredibly annoying and troublesome.
“I should probably go……”
Dupon Clansher grabbed the arm of my attempted escape and half-threw me through the now-revealed secret passage.
That’s right.
There had been a secret passage behind the portrait all along!
“Don’t create needless trouble for either of us. Start walking ahead.”
Was this how the executives of Nox spoke, or something a thug from a dark alley would say?
Too bewildered to move, I felt Dupon Clansher’s long, hard fingers poke sharply at my back.
“I understand. I’m going, I’m going.”
The passage, lit only by moonlight seeping in from outside, was a staircase leading upward.

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