There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 31

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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 31.
How lovely it was—her pallid cheeks flushed pink, and the pale brown eyes fixed on me trembled with emotion.
When she’d been bent over the desk, I hadn’t noticed, but Noah Benton stood a head taller than me.
She seemed delighted by the arrival of a new recruit, yet I found myself oddly unsettled.
‘Does hazing exist here too?’
Wherever you go, being the junior is a burden—but the way she cheered “Finally, I’m not the newest!” with such abandon felt off.
Even if Raven members didn’t harbor resentment toward their juniors, they certainly worked them hard.
“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Lunelk Ains.”
“Nice to meet you! Though we’ve actually met before!”
“Have we? I don’t recall…”
This time, I was genuinely caught off guard.
I rarely forget a face I’ve seen once.
Unless someone had a thoroughly unremarkable appearance, there’s no way I could forget someone as distinctive-looking as Noah Benton.
“How can you say we haven’t met? You were brought to the infirmary once! Little hero!”
“Ah, that time.”
When I’d been hospitalized after the Green Merchant Guild’s master used Varga Poison on me.
“I happened to be on duty that day. Ah! I’m a doctor. Officially, I’m stationed in the infirmary.”
I had two thoughts about Noah Benton’s introduction.
The profession fit her perfectly.
But how had a doctor ended up in Raven?
Saving lives and being part of a covert information organization seemed worlds apart.
There was an unspoken rule about not asking how people came to Raven, but I resolved to find an opportune moment to learn her story.
“But you were unconscious that time, so… I think we really are meeting for the first time!”
The second Raven member I’d had a real conversation with was a different type entirely.
Giselle Roth—honest about her feelings, her likes and dislikes clear-cut, yet somehow inscrutable.
Noah Benton, by contrast, seemed quite timid.
The way she kept watching my expression to see if I was upset was telling.
“I heard from Doctor Heinzel that Varga is a virulent poison—that my life was nearly forfeit. You were my benefactor with that excellent antidote.”
“Oh, benefactor… that’s…”
Noah Benton’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato.
“I was only doing what I should have done. Um, but… well…”
She wrung her clenched fists while hesitating, clearly wanting to say something.
“When I saw your file at the infirmary, it said you were eighteen…”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Then can I drop the formality? I’m twenty-four, so…”
Twenty-four was my original age.
She was six years older than Lunelk Ains, and since I was a newcomer, I had no objection to hearing casual speech.
“Of course. Please speak comfortably, se—”
Noah Benton had been so pleased about finally having a junior under her.
I’d meant to use the word she was fishing for to make a good first impression.
“Newcomers have a huge amount of work to do.”
But Giselle Roth cut me off abruptly, interjecting herself.
“Which means there’s no time to fool around like this.”
She waved a hand dismissively at Noah Benton, just as she had done to a man named Konrad moments before.
“Finish what you were doing and head back to your quarters to sleep. Come on, move.”
“Oh, understood…”
Chased from the conversation like a sparrow caught pecking at grain, Noah Benton nodded dejectedly.
“Come with me, recruit.”
“Yes, Roth.”
As I followed Giselle Roth, I glanced back at Noah Benton and offered a slight bow.
It was only proper to acknowledge her somehow.
“Goodbye!”
Her face brightened at that small gesture, and she waved in return.
She really did seem impossibly naive for someone who claimed to be twenty-four.
“What are you doing? I said to come on.”
“Yes, yes. Coming.”
Where was she dragging me now?
Keeping my expression neutral, I followed Giselle Roth as she hurried ahead, thinking to myself.
‘She deliberately separated Noah and me just now.’
Given the conversational flow of a perfectly ordinary greeting, there could only be one reason.
‘Does she not want me becoming close to Noah Benton?’
***
The room Giselle Roth pushed me into looked like nothing so much as a storage closet.
It differed from the storage room connected to the hidden passage through the fireplace in the Annex Building only in being somewhat larger, less decrepit, and having a soundproofed door that still functioned properly.
The only objects of any consequence were several large, sturdy bags stacked in one corner, all of them secured with genuinely heavy-duty locks.
“What is this place for?”
“This? An empty room.”
A storage closet, then.
Today being my supervisor’s first official day back, I was extremely curious why she’d suddenly brought me here, but I asked something else instead.
“Earlier, I noticed there were quite a few rooms accessible from the office space. Won’t you show me more of the Nest?”
When a friend moves and you’re invited to a housewarming, you show them around the place first.
Even if it’s just a closet-sized place where you can see everything from the doorway.
Not that I had experience with friends—I’d only picked up the custom from somewhere—but it was common sense all the same.
I’d assumed that for the sake of smoothly ordering me around later, she would show me around the Nest and fill my head with new information, but Giselle Roth showed no such inclination.
“You’ll learn the structure of the Nest naturally in time. For now, the only places you can access are that office and here, recruit.”
So different spaces had access restrictions based on security clearance.
I nodded reasonably and asked, “What happens if I try to open somewhere else?”
“Well, go ahead and try if you can.”
Giselle Roth snorted derisively and pulled a small desk and chair from the pile of furniture.
She pointed at it with a tilt of her chin and spoke.
“Sit. I’m going to tell you what you’re doing today.”
Something pulled from a heap of dust couldn’t possibly be clean.
The desk and chair, which had probably been white originally, now had a peculiar gray cast to them. I looked at them for a moment, then silently settled myself on the chair.
When I was active as an assassin, I’d wallowed in garbage heaps. This was nothing.
“Wait here quietly.”
When Giselle Roth returned after a brief absence, she was carrying several thick books.
Thunk!
She set them on the desk with such force that dust billowed around them.
“Memorize these.”
“Memorize these?”
I picked up each of the five books in turn and checked their titles.
The History and Genealogy of Knox
The Feudal Register of the House of Knox
A Comprehensive Geography of the Bernheim Empire
Crests and Seals: Identifying Handbook of Major Eastern Continent Families
Poisons and Herbs: A Practical Illustrated Guide
No wonder they were thick.
When I cracked open The History and Genealogy of Knox, the first one in the stack, it was thoroughly reader-unfriendly.
The print was minuscule.
‘Reading through each of these even once would take days.’
The volume was certainly excessive, but I understood why Giselle Roth had chosen these books.
Without knowledge, information becomes noise.
It becomes just one more meaningless whisper among the static, passing by without impact.
These thick volumes she’d handed me were carefully curated foundational knowledge.
Fortunately, I already knew most of the content, so it wouldn’t be terribly taxing.
But I decided to deploy some wisdom from life experience and turned a grimace toward Giselle Roth.
“All of… this?”
“Not all of it.”
She smiled slightly and pointed to the top two books with an air of magnanimity.
“If you’re going to be Raven, you need to know Knox inside and out. Start with just these two.”
“You mean memorize…”
“I’m going to test you.”
“Sigh.”
I let out a long, mournful sigh, then pleaded with Giselle Roth. “Couldn’t I at least read somewhere more pleasant? There were plenty of empty desks out there.”
“Study is more effective in a quiet place where no one bothers you.”
With that, Giselle Roth tapped the thick book cover twice and abruptly turned away.
“Call me when you’ve memorized it all.”
And then she actually closed the door and left.
“Hmm.”
Alone now, I rested my chin on my crossed arms and began flipping through The Feudal Register of the House of Knox.
The handwriting was neat enough, but the print was equally minuscule.
As expected, there wasn’t actually that much new material to memorize.
The problem wasn’t that.
‘She has no intention of actually teaching me.’
So what was really going on?

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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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