There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 86

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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 86.
“……Bertolt, you too.”
The note slipped from my disappointed hand and fluttered to the ground.
Bertolt Kraus, the one I’d trusted until the end, had been struck from the candidate list.
[Kraus Trading Company, debt confirmed.
Rival company marriage contract with Bertolt. Debt resolved.]
What the idiot had lacked was motive.
A reason worth playing the spy for.
After that first day I’d gone to the Storage looking for it, I’d spent time with the idiots more than once.
Then yesterday, I learned that the Kraus Trading Company had accumulated massive debts.
I’d been so damned pleased about it.
I’d quickly sent a message through Onyx, requesting help from the seniors at the Nest.
But just now, word reached me that the Kraus Trading Company had resolved its debts through a political marriage for their son, Bertolt.
“Damn it, I thought I finally had the rat by the tail!”
A wave of crushing deflation washed over me.
Eventually I just collapsed onto the Dormitory floor and lay sprawled out.
“What the hell did I miss?”
Now I had to admit it.
That I might be completely wrong.
For nearly a month, I’d been barking at the wrong tree like some mutt.
“Think. Let me think through this again.”
A long exhale.
As I closed my eyes, the personal information of all the trainees unfurled in my mind like a scroll.
‘Not this one. Not this one either. I dug into this one because of suspicions, but nothing came up.’
The trainees’ records, the movement patterns I’d personally verified, their known associations—all wove together like a dense spider’s web.
I was the spider crawling across it.
Searching for gaps in the web, or threads that connected to entirely wrong places.
I spent a long time with my eyes closed, moving through that network of information.
Because lies always left traces of contradiction.
But after the long search, I arrived at the same conclusion as before.
‘Nothing.’
How could this be?
This shouldn’t be happening, should it?
What if I’d gotten it wrong from the start?
What if it was Felix Melcher acting alone?
‘No, it can’t be that.’
Killian Nox had been certain.
That there was an accomplice.
And he had said so.
That he’d been watching to catch both Felix Melcher and his accomplice in one sweep.
There had to be something.
Killian Nox had seen it, but I’d missed something.
A refrain I’d repeated hundreds of times, trying to steady my mind.
But even the best medicine loses its potency when repeated endlessly.
The seed of doubt sprouted again as if I’d never tamped the ground down at all.
‘Killian Nox isn’t a god. He could make a mistake too.’
Should I send Onyx right now to ask?
Whether there’s definitely an accomplice among the trainees in the Training Grounds?
That no matter how hard I’ve searched, there’s no trainee I can suspect of being a spy?
Or what if the information about there being an accomplice among the trainees was wrong…….
“Wait.”
My closed eyes snapped open.
Had Killian Nox said it like that?
An accomplice among the ‘trainees’?
I rewound my memory, going back to the day I first entered the Training Grounds.
Crossing the practice field under the sharp gaze of everyone.
Looking up at the Training Grounds’ drawbridge lowering with a loud rumble.
And that moment I encountered Killian Nox in Dupont Clanscher’s office.
The edge of my ear, cut by the Letter Knife, throbbed with pain once more.
Back then, Killian Nox had said:
“That trainee wasn’t moving alone. I left him alone on purpose, to use him as bait to catch another rat.”
“But you ruined it all, Runelk Ains.”
“So go into the Training Grounds and find them yourself.”
“You’re going to become the bait instead.”
Damn.
Killian Nox had never said the accomplice was among the trainees.
Chapter 8
So why had I convinced myself the accomplice had to be one of the trainees?
“Why? Because I made a stupid assumption all on my own.”
I muttered listlessly, shaking out my wet hair.
Once I understood why no spy had appeared despite all that searching, the first thing that flooded through me was anger at myself.
To make such a ridiculous mistake.
When I thought that if I hadn’t made it, I could’ve written a real report instead of a suicide note just moments ago, all the grueling work came rushing back and I couldn’t sit still.
So I spent a long time rolling on the floor, flailing my limbs.
After burning myself out completely, some sense of sanity returned.
And I became aware of my own condition—rolling around on the ground without even a proper wash.
I couldn’t let myself stay that way, so I went straight to the Bathhouse and cleansed myself with hot water in a ritual of purification.
“Ahh, now I can actually breathe.”
Humans really do need to wash.
I nodded to myself, gathering up the trainees’ personal files and letter copies that had been scattered on my desk, neatly tucking them into a drawer and locking it.
I didn’t need to look at these anymore.
I’d read and analyzed them so much they were already burned into my head.
Instead, a fresh piece of paper now lay on my desk.
Scratch, scratch.
The quill moved, etching two words onto the paper.
1. Employees
2. Instructors
“Hmm, and also…….”
I tapped my chin in thought, but no more candidates came to mind.
If not a trainee, then only employees and instructors could move freely through the Training Grounds.
“The employees.”
I wrote down the number and composition of employees at the Training Grounds.
Kitchen, Dining Hall – 8 people
Cleaning, Laundry – 8 people
Medical Ward – 1 person
Facilities Maintenance, Grounds Care – 3 people
Based on what I’d gathered so far, a total of twenty people worked here.
It was somewhat lean for handling the board and lodging of forty-three trainees and five instructors, but there was no help for it.
Of course, it was a matter of security.
Just looking at the fact that Gisella Rot was working in the Main Building’s Kitchen, you could see how thoroughly Nox managed its employees.
All the same, workers were an excellent channel for gathering information—they could learn far more than one might expect.
But I took the tip of my quill and poked at the number 1, then struck it out with a few sharp lines.
“The employees aren’t it.”
This conclusion had several reasons behind it.
First, employees working at Nox underwent rigorous Background Checks every six months.
If any suspicious behavior was detected, their contract was terminated immediately, and they lost even the right to remain in Nox Castle.
For them, a single misstep meant losing both their livelihood and their position at once.
In return, Nox paid them far more than employees at a typical noble household would receive.
So they didn’t do anything that might invite suspicion, and they were careful to stay in their place.
Second, the personnel deployed to the Training Grounds were drawn exclusively from employees who had worked at Nox for a long time.
People who had already put down deep roots in the Nox Ducal Family.
For example, Ida Tomajin, the daughter of Hans Tomajin who works in the Training Grounds’ Dining Hall, is part of the Nox Security Detail.
Would people like that really act as spies against Nox?
It would be like putting their own blood relatives in chains.
And more than that.
“The information they can access is clearly limited.”
Employees had access to extremely restricted information.
Trivial details like who eats with whom or how much laundry comes from which room were almost never useful, except in the rarest circumstances.
Spies were always placed according to the value of information they could obtain.
“That leaves only the instructors.”
The headache that had vanished during my hot bath seemed to be returning.
“Is one of the instructors really the spy?”

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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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