There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 96

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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 96.
These two didn’t have a good relationship, did they?
I went very still and moved closer to them so I could hear their conversation more clearly.
Wilfred Kessler from the Administrative Department—capable, but nearly ruined after taking the fall for his superior’s corruption, and Padilla Bondeys, who had cleared his name and brought him to the Training Camp to give him a place to belong.
Even though it had been a long time ago, their relationship shouldn’t have become so distant that they’d be speaking like this, should it?
‘I’ve got it!’
I pressed my ear to the wall and happened to spot a tiny hole that looked into the Office.
It hadn’t been made deliberately—it looked like an old nail hole from years back.
‘Oh, perfect position.’
The hole was positioned so I could clearly see both Padilla Bondeys sitting in the head seat and Wilfred Kessler on her right.
‘Were they working?’
It wasn’t past midnight yet, but it was still late in the evening.
Sure enough, Wilfred Kessler looked exhausted—as much from his face as from his voice.
“It’s getting late. Shall we call it a day?”
Wilfred Kessler said this as he removed his glasses.
The way his hand pressed at his tired eyes was almost rough.
“It’s still early evening. Don’t complain—if you’ve got the energy to grumble, use it to read one more page.”
Padilla Bondeys brushed off her subordinate’s plea with a distracted tone, her attention wholly fixed on the papers before her.
She didn’t seem to notice that Wilfred Kessler was reaching his limit.
“Commander.”
“Why do you keep calling me? I said I can hear you.”
“Please.”
“…What?”
Only then did Padilla Bondeys sense something was wrong and looked up.
She tilted her head at Wilfred Kessler’s hardened face, but still replied with that teasing edge to her voice.
“This is your specialty, isn’t it. What’s the problem?”
“Do you know how many days it’s been?”
“Right, right. About a week now? Look, I said I’m sorry about it, didn’t I?”
Padilla Bondeys gave a short laugh and stood up, stretching widely.
Then she pulled out a bottle and glasses from a nearby cabinet and coaxed Wilfred Kessler with an easygoing manner.
“You’re the only person around me who knows how to work with numbers. What am I supposed to do? I just can’t make sense of these statements, no matter how hard I try. Help me out here. After all, you were once famous in the Administrative Department as a ledger specialist, weren’t you, Wilfred Kessler?”
The way she carelessly poured a full cup and handed it over made them look less like superior and subordinate and more like old friends.
“Do you remember the day you transferred here as an instructor from the Administrative Department?”
“….”
“What did you say back then? Oh, ‘The way this place runs so ad hoc, it’s not a training camp, it’s a detention facility!'”
“I understand, so please—stop! I’ve heard enough!”
Finally, Wilfred Kessler exploded.
Unable to hold it back any longer, he burst out, and he himself looked quite taken aback by it.
“I… I should be going now.”
After a brief hesitation, he stood abruptly and made for the door.
Well, he tried to leave.
Click.
Not until Padilla Bondeys set down her glass quietly and stopped him.
“Instructor Wilfred Kessler.”
Damn, she was terrifying.
I’d felt it during the sparring examination too, but a stern Padilla Bondeys was really someone you didn’t want to face.
Better to fight with fists and take blows any day.
If even I felt that way, what must it be like for Wilfred Kessler, who’d held nothing but a pen his whole life?
He didn’t even dare look up at Commander Bondeys as she approached.
Thud, thud.
Walking with heavy footsteps, she looked down at Wilfred Kessler’s eyes and asked.
“Did I tell you to go?”
“No, no I didn’t—I mean, no, Commander.”
“Then why are you acting on your own?”
“I’m… sorry.”
“That’s right. I almost took it as insubordination, you know.”
So let’s be careful, shall we?
Padilla Bondeys tapped Wilfred Kessler’s shoulder heavily.
A moment of defiance and the superior’s generous forgiveness.
I thought the incident was settled.
But beneath the ink-stained sleeve, Wilfred Kessler—his fist clenched tight—pressed on.
“I was rude just now. And so I hesitate, but… may I speak frankly?”
“…Go ahead.”
“I have no complaint about organizing the Training Camp’s financial records. It’s my duty to assist you. But these recent assignments… I don’t think this is right.”
His voice trembled as he released words he’d been holding back for a long time.
“Before the ledger work came the next fiscal year’s Budget Planning Document, and before that… You keep dumping tasks on me, yet you’re hardly ever in the Office.”
“So you’re complaining that I’m pawning off my work on you and going out to play?”
“It’s not that… Ah.”
Wilfred Kessler sighed and rubbed his face before continuing.
“If you’re punishing me because of Hanno Becker, then please… forgive me. I’m begging you.”
Hanno?
Why is that fool’s name coming up here?
It was completely unexpected.
“Hanno Becker. You’re presumptuous, Kessler.”
Padilla Bondeys’ lips twisted in displeasure.
“Tell me. What did you do to make me angry?”
So now he had to list his own crimes.
Even Wilfred Kessler squeezed his eyes shut—that’s how cruel she was being.
“I… I tried to transfer Hanno Becker, whom you assigned to the Martial Arts Division, to the Literary Division.”
“That’s right. It’s my authority as commander to assign trainees. You shouldn’t have overstepped. So tell me—do you still believe Hanno Becker should train in the Literary Division?”
“I…”
He answered, breathing heavily.
“I believe above all in the trainee’s own wishes.”
Standing up to the commander for a single trainee seemed, on the surface, the mark of a true mentor.
“When did Nox start assigning divisions based on what trainees want?”
Yet Padilla Bondeys’ face held no warmth, only cold mockery.
“I’m genuinely disappointed if that’s all this is about, Instructor Kessler.”
“That’s… not the only reason. The Becker family’s debt is considerable too…”
“Right. About 100 Gold, wasn’t it?”
A common laborer earned about 20 Silver a month.
But 100 Gold?
“He’d need money to pay that off. With his natural build and strength, he could rise to a high rank in a short time. In the Martial Arts Department.”
Unlike me, shocked at the scale of the Becker family’s debt, Wilfred Kessler was stunned that Padilla Bondeys knew about their circumstances at all—his eyes widened.
“How did you… how could you possibly…”
“Drop that delusion that you’re the only one who understands a trainee’s situation, Instructor Kessler.”
She spoke coldly, then released a faint sigh.
“I’m tired. Go on, get out.”
With a light gesture, Padilla Bondeys dismissed Wilfred Kessler from the Office, but she remained there for a long while afterward.
In silence, alone, drinking spirits.
Until the bottle was empty, she stared ahead with heavy eyes, looking at nothing in particular.
***
The next day.
I sat at a table in the Dining Hall, turning over in my mind the conversation I’d accidentally overheard.
The numbers ‘100 Gold!’ seemed to hover above Hanno Becker’s head as he sat across from me.
What on earth did his parents do to rack up such an enormous debt?
And didn’t someone say he has a lot of younger siblings too?
What are they going to do?
I was quietly heaving a sigh on the other side of the table, dipping the last chunk of meat into sauce, when—
“Runelk.”
I looked up at the voice calling my name and saw Bertolt Krauss.
I’d figured he’d be nursing a drink in the Warehouse since training was over.
“Come talk with me for a minute.”
The fool, looking somehow neat and put-together as if he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol, seemed terribly anxious and unsettled.

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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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