There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 80

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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 80.
“You’re joking, right?”
Bertolt Kraus was definitely messing with me.
It looked like a wine bottle, but whatever was inside had to be grape juice.
Was he testing my reaction?
“If you don’t believe me, check it yourself!”
With that, Bertolt uncorked it in one practiced motion and poured the contents into a glass.
Immediately, the sharp aroma of wine filled the warehouse.
“It really is alcohol.”
“See? I told you! Don’t be shy—have a drink already.”
Bertolt pressed the wine on me like a generous host, then poured his own glass and took the first sip.
I hadn’t even brought the glass to my lips yet, but watching him made my head spin slightly.
‘No matter how careless someone is, there has to be a limit.’
Kraus clearly had no awareness whatsoever that he was inside the Training Facility of Nox.
I set down the glass I’d been holding and asked, “How did you even get this inside?”

“You shouldn’t ask about those things so soon, friend!”
Kraus answered with a flushed face, already tipsy from just a few sips.
“I trust you enough to invite you to my hideout, but I’m not ready to spill all my trade secrets just yet!”
As he spoke, he lounged half-sprawled across the sofa, tilting his wine glass with reckless abandon.
A sociable personality that wins people over easily—I liked that about him.
But this fool was simply an idiot who relied on his family’s money and threw his weight around.
An idiot who didn’t know fear of the Underground Prison.
“Some more friends will be here soon, so just relax and wait with me, yeah?”
“How many people know about this warehouse?”
“Well, let’s see… including me, that’s four now. Wait, no! Now that Runelk knows too, that makes five! It’s the secret that binds us together!”
A secret, my ass.
Two people know it, it’s not a secret. Three know it, the whole world knows.
Among people who came and went to a place like this, there was no honor strong enough to keep a secret.
A creeping anxiety seized me—as if the Action Squad could kick down that door at any moment.
If I got dragged to the Underground Prison while hunting for spies, would Killian Nox bail me out?
At least Dupon Clansher wouldn’t pretend not to notice.
Kraus giggled at my expression.
Wine spilled from his glass, but he didn’t seem to care at all.
“Don’t be so nervous, Runelk! Really, it’s fine?”
It’s not fine, you idiot!
Setting up a private space like this underground in the Training Facility, gambling dens and alcohol!
There’s nothing fine about any of this!
I wanted to grab this fool by the collar and shake him until something made sense.
To avoid smacking some sense into the idiot’s head, I needed a distraction.
I walked over to the box full of wine bottles and peered inside.
“These don’t look like they have official permission to be sold inside Nox.”
“Huh? How’d you know that?”
“The Action Squad’s main job is inspection.”
I answered briefly and pulled out one of the bottles.
I had a hunch, and I was right.
The label on the wine bottle was pristine.
All alcohol entering Nox had to pass inspection for quantity and contents, after which an official Green Stamp was to be applied to the label.
We conducted the first inspection at the Guard Post where I worked, then a second verification happened at the trading post on the outer wall.
“Oh right, that! Wow, you really are a pro! You noticed at a glance.”
“So you knew.”
“Of course! It’s part of my effort to keep this hideout safe. They say the trading post is extremely strict about checking how much alcohol gets consumed at any shop in the Commercial District. I still don’t get why they go that far.”
Kraus grumbled that the Action Squad was just bored and had nothing better to do.
“If they didn’t, you wouldn’t know what else might be inside those bottles instead of alcohol.”
“What do you mean?”
“What if someone decided to poison the alcohol and smuggle it in to destroy Nox?”
“…Poison?”
“If only a bottle or two got in, it would end with a few deaths. But if contaminated alcohol arrived in large quantities, you can imagine what would happen.”
Thousands of people lived inside Nox Castle, handling all their food and water here.
That’s why outside forces didn’t dare touch Nox carelessly.
This place was like a fortress with thousands of soldiers ready to fight at any moment.
So if someone wanted to weaken Nox’s strength, the easiest method would be poison.
In the alcohol brought inside, in food supplies, or in medicines.
That’s why anyone caught possessing or consuming Unlicensed Goods faced severe punishment without exception.
I kicked the box with my foot.
It didn’t budge.
That meant at least dozens of bottles were inside.
Drinking in secret during training?
He’d end up in the Underground Prison and suffer for a while, but if he was lucky, he might see daylight again.
But smuggling in a large quantity of alcohol deliberately and getting caught?
I let out a dry laugh at Kraus, who was essentially a living corpse at this point.
“Well, theoretically speaking.”
“What, you scared me to death!”
“You said everything was fine.”
“It is fine! There’s no way we’ll get caught!”
I took a seat near the fool who had no idea how enormous a crime he’d committed.
Finding a spy was important, but I couldn’t turn a blind eye to such a gaping hole in Nox’s inspection procedures.
If someone could smuggle in this much alcohol, who knew what else they might be bringing in.
I decided to build a closer friendship with Bertolt Kraus and find out exactly what method he was using.
“You said your friends would be coming soon, right?”
I’d report them all the moment my investigation was done—might as well get a look at the faces of these fools heading straight to the Underground Prison.
***
“Hey, Bertolt! Aren’t you freezing?”
“Geez, look at how thin his shirt is!”
Trainees arrived, shivering and complaining their bodies felt like ice, and immediately gasped when they saw Bertolt Kraus.
“Drinking warms you up. And you forgot I’m from the Crowlin Kingdom?”
Kraus boldly unbuttoned one more button on his shirt.
“At this temperature, it’s basically spring.”
“That guy’s completely insane.”
“Or maybe the alcohol scrambled his brain.”
One of the four trainees joking and laughing together spotted me and pointed.
“Hey! It’s the ill-fated prince!”
Where on earth had that rumor come from?
I didn’t want to know.
I let the comment go in one ear and out the other, and waved.
“Hi. Could you call me by my name instead?”
“Wait, you’re really Runelk?”
A woman who had spotted me a beat late let out a small shriek.
“Bertolt, did you bring him?”
“Yeah. Don’t you think someone like him is worthy of being a new member of our hideout?”
Soon to be a fellow resident of the Underground Prison, at any rate.
Though not me, of course.
The trainees, oblivious to what I was actually thinking, were quick with their praise for Bertolt.
“Right, four was too few!”
“I’ve been dying to ask him stuff anyway!”
“Really? I have too, so this works out great.”
Seeing that I responded well to his friends without awkwardness, Bertolt seemed satisfied, patting my shoulder before reaching for another wine bottle.
“Come on, let’s drink and have some fun!”
As the wine made its rounds, the atmosphere quickly heated up and grew looser.
Watching these trainees with flushed faces sprawled about, my suspicion only deepened.
‘How has this not been discovered yet?’
I was just about to start prying into that “trade secret” when—
“You guys know about the commotion in Wickes lately?”
Bertolt Kraus spoke in a meaningful tone.

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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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