There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 29

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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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Chapter 29.
‘I almost let out a sigh.’
It nearly escaped before I could catch it.
The disappointment was overwhelming.
It was absurd to feel this letdown after exchanging just a few words, and yet I meant it sincerely.
Somehow, I’d begun to hope that Graf Müller — the man his Action Unit seniors revered — might actually be worth something.
I’d harbored the wish that he might be a decent person after all.
“I’m just curious, that’s all. What exactly did Runelk Eines tell you about Dupon?”
Graf Müller’s pretense of asking out of kindness couldn’t hide the persistence in his eyes — and it was truly disappointing.
For even a moment, I’d wanted to live without suspicion, purely and simply, but the world wouldn’t allow me that peace.
“There really wasn’t much to it.”
As I took a defensive stance again, Graf Müller’s patience wore thin.
“You’re really something, aren’t you? Here I am, your senior, asking you straight out, and I even looked the other way when you were sleeping on duty during your shift.”
Not content with playing the seniority card, he was even making veiled threats now.
Who said Graf Müller was a good person?
“It’s not like that, senior. The truth is, I was so nervous that day that I can’t quite remember what I said.”
When I added that Dupon was terrifying, as he well knew, Graf Müller’s attitude softened.
“I’d be happy to answer if you asked me directly what you wanted to know. At least to the extent that I’m aware of things.”
In other words, tell me what you know and how much you know about it.
***
“In the end, the Information Department is just a playground for the well-connected, that’s all. Blood relations, regional ties, school connections — I don’t even know anymore.”
“That must be difficult, senior. I thought a core department like the Information Department would be different, but it seems the same everywhere.”
“It’s all an illusion! The way they stick together and act so shamefully. Last time, there was this thing….”
I nodded along earnestly, pretending to listen to Graf Müller’s account.
What had begun as his attempt to extract information from me had, by the time the eastern sky began to lighten, reversed entirely.
Graf Müller was pouring out his grievances, revealing intimate details of the Information Department, and I was learning a great deal from it.
‘This is child’s play.’
Extracting information from a target is one of my core strengths.
Since he was formally assigned to the Information Department but had never received proper training, Graf Müller had no hope of withstanding my Interrogation Technique.
Being a low-ranking member of the Action Unit, and lacking any backing within Nox to guide him, seemed to have influenced his weakness as well — though that wasn’t really my concern.
What mattered was a single fact: Nox’s Information Department was truly a paper tiger.
They still didn’t understand Green properly.
Graf Müller’s promotion was purely a matter of luck, just as he’d said.
Through inquiries among merchants I’d grown close to during my Action Unit days, I’d learned that Green had illegally sold weapons to the Crolin Kingdom, and a considerable portion of them had flowed into the black market.
Of course, he’d reported the information he’d collected to his superiors, and the Information Department was now moving on it as a lead.
They had no idea about the Mana Runaway Drug intelligence I’d slipped to Deccan Gold.
‘I’m getting bored with this.’
I’d already extracted everything useful from Graf Müller.
I had no interest in learning how many hardships he’d overcome to survive this long.
It was Hartmann, unexpectedly, who came to my rescue.
“Wait, senior! You’re still here?”
Having slept well, Hartmann emerged from the Guard Post with sleep in the corners of his eyes, and the moment he spotted Graf Müller, he rushed over.
“Oh, I got so caught up talking with Runelk I lost track of time.”
“I heard many good things from Graf Müller.”
Despite openly admitting I’d shirked guard duty to chat with him, Hartmann said nothing reproachful.
His eyes only sparkled at the chance to deepen his friendship with Graf Müller even slightly.
“Since we’re at it, senior, let’s go get breakfast together! I know a place that makes fantastic bacon!”
“Sure, let’s go.”
Graf Müller agreed readily.
Thinking it was finally over, I brushed myself off and stood up, but then Graf Müller suddenly asked me something.
“Runelk, would you be interested in the Information Department?”
“…Yes?”
“I was just thinking it would be good to have a junior from the Action Unit in the Information Department.”
He was saying he wanted to take me and use me as his personal lackey.
“If you’re interested, I could drop a word or two in the right places. They’re short-staffed in the Information Department these days.”
After listening to his complaints all night, is that how you repay a favor?
The man had only just made rank two and was still getting looked down on by green recruits in the Information Department — there’s no way someone like that could have the power to bring me over.
That proposal was purely meant to boast in front of his junior Hartmann.
But Hartmann revered Graf Müller’s words as gospel, and I doubted he’d have the discernment to distinguish empty talk from truth.
“Runelk going to the Information Department….”
Envy, anger, jealousy, betrayal.
A tangle of pointless emotions swirled behind Graf Müller, and the terrible glint in Hartmann’s eyes as he stared at me made my head ache.
Before sunset, the rumor would spread far and wide: ‘The little hero was chosen for the Information Department.’
My forced smile began to tremble.
“I prefer the Action Unit, senior. I’m not cut out for a place like the Information Department.”
My handler had told me to keep quiet.
It was all ruined now.
***
Graf Müller and Hartmann left as dawn broke, and a few hours later, I safely completed my Action Unit shift.
After finishing the junior’s task of cleaning up the Guard Post, I headed directly to the Annex Building.
Using the secret passage I’d once tried with Gisela Roth, my second trip to The Nest posed no problem at all.
I was merely curious about where the other branches of the maze-like crossroads led.
But the problem awaiting me at The Nest was Gisela Roth herself.
“Well, well, who do we have here! Runelk Eines, the person the Information Department is eyeing!”
“How did you already….”
“The rumor that the little hero might get scouted by the Information Department has already spread all over the city — did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“…I apologize.”
I felt wronged.
But making excuses would only make things worse, so I apologized first.
“Runelk Eines, are you joking?”
Gisela Roth, who’d been smiling and teasing me moments before, suddenly turned serious.
“I should have been more careful….”
“The Information Department — and with a worthless fool like Graf Müller?”
“…Yes?”
“I can’t even hold my head up, I’m so ashamed.”
The focus of her anger seemed different from what I’d expected.
Unable to contain her fury, I asked carefully.
“You told me not to attract unnecessary attention, and you’re angry because I became the subject of rumors again, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m angry! But I hate being connected to the Information Department even more!”
Gisela Roth exploded.
“I already knew the ‘little hero’ would become famous and never expected to return to obscurity. But did you have to let rumors spread that the Information Department has its eye on you? And by some nobody regular member at that — how dare some crow presume such a thing?”
She seemed to have taken a blow to her pride.
She was furious that a phantom like the Information Department would dare evaluate and judge me.
At least she wasn’t angry at me — that was a relief.
After venting for a while, Gisela Roth warned me with a fiercer expression than ever.
“From now on, the moment you see anyone from the Information Department or that bastard Graf Müller, you run the other way. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“Huh, I’ve been steaming since this morning — I feel like breaking something.”
Gisela Roth murmured while brushing back her hair, then abruptly stood up.
“Come with me.”
And she headed for the opposite side of The Nest.
Standing before one of the large bookshelves that occupied an entire wall, she touched a few books in sequence.
Click, whoosh!
The bookshelf slid inward and shifted to the side.
‘The Nest had more to it than this?’

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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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