Episode 48
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 48
All eyes naturally turned to Evan. He was in the middle of recording Blair’s statement and furrowed his brow as if to ask what they were looking at. Then, he flipped through the student record book and spoke to Elysia.
“Looks like he was frequently absent to begin with.”
Elysia walked behind Evan and leaned over to look at the record book in his hands. The records, a chaotic mix of tardies and absences, had been plastered with nothing but absences for the past week. Elysia automatically took out her notebook.
SYSTEM: You can now memo your deductions here.
“He hasn’t been seen for a week? What about before that? What was his expression like? Was he spouting any bullshit?”
When Blair hesitated to speak, Elysia unceremoniously smacked him on the head. Struck on the crown of his head, he growled.
“Are you even allowed to do this?”
She could hear him grinding his teeth, but she paid it no mind. Instead, she irritably smacked Blair’s head again with her notebook as it kept lolling to the side, still under the influence of the drugs.
“What? What, you bastard? You got a problem?”
“Ah, ow! Stop hitting me, I mean—”
“Did I hit you that hard? Did I? Quit your whining and just answer my questions. Got it? Huh?”
Just as Blair, who had been hit once more, was left gaping, a timid, shrinking voice came from the corner. It was Joel, the only commoner, who had been trembling in a panic.
“He… he didn’t look well.”
“How so?”
“He was constantly anxious, like he was being chased, and, um, he looked extremely tired. Like he hadn’t slept in a long time. And… he gave me the drugs like he was trying to get rid of them.”
Get rid of them? Elysia, who was jotting down his words in her notebook, asked again, a sudden suspicion dawning on her.
“Without taking any money?”
“Yes. He originally said he only gives one bag for free at the beginning, but this time he said it was an exception and gave me several bags. I thought it was… strange.”
“Did he say anything specific? Anything like that?”
Joel flinched at Elysia’s question and his lips trembled. His face clouded with anxiety as he recalled that moment.
The man’s bloodshot eyes were wide and crazed, his trembling fingertips handing over the bags of drugs. He seemed hollow, almost inhuman. His parched lips had spilled out a slack-jawed smile as he whispered…
“He said a product on a whole other level would be out soon… and that he would be the first to experience it…”
Frowning, she lifted her head from her notebook. “Product” had to mean the drugs, but the description was puzzling. On a whole other level?
Of course, it could have just been his way of saying its effects were far more potent than the existing drugs. Besides, the guy was a delinquent who was frequently absent anyway. He could have just disappeared somewhere for another one of his escapades.
But her intuition kept pricking her like a needle in her back, telling her not to dismiss it so easily.
Something’s wrong. There’s something more to this. Definitely.
“A whole other level?”
“He was rambling, not like his usual self. One moment he was saying it was on another level, the next he was saying you could taste the truth, and then he’d suddenly start shaking and shaking his head. His pronunciation was so slurred… I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying.”
Elysia recalled how Hertz had acted so brazenly at Alma’s base of operations, without a care in the world. At first, she’d thought he was just an idiot, but after learning his identity, she’d judged him to be cunning instead.
He wasn’t some pup yapping fearlessly at a tiger; he was a person who acted with a clear understanding of his own status and influence.
Had his opponent not been a woman who would commit murder with a smile, completely indifferent to social standing, he never would have lost. Society was structured to ensure he always won…
Elysia stared down at the words scrawled in her notebook.
「Looked unwell, mentally unstable
A product on a whole other level…?
Truth…」
Talking about truth while high on drugs—he had to be out of his mind. Maybe he’d sold his sanity along with the drugs. Her gaze shifted to the top of the page, and she tapped it with her fingertip.
「Unseen for a week」
Where could he have gone?
To be honest, she wasn’t worried about his well-being. It was just a pain in the ass. To get a lead, she needed to start with the middleman and trace the network backward. But he just had to vanish into thin air? Elysia irritably kicked the leg of the chair in front of her.
She already knew from her hundreds of experiences in <Panic in the City> that taking down a drug ring was no easy task.
But the more she dug into this case, the stranger it felt. Why were they deliberately exposing a business that was already in its second year and well into a stable phase to so many people?
And the smell of blood she had caught at their base—where did it come from, and why? She’d thought they were a group with some semblance of mercy for not killing the traitorous middleman, but now, she was having second thoughts.
Had they kept him alive because they had another use for him?
「Truth…」
Elysia looked at the word again.
Truth. What was this truth that Hertz was so excited to see? As Elysia was lost in thought, something warm touched her cheek. She flinched, about to go on guard, but felt sheepish when she realized it was a mug offered by Adrian. She took it from him.
While she had been thinking, the room had been tidied up. Elysia glanced awkwardly at the desk that still bore the marks of her shoes, then rubbed them away with her sleeve.
“What’s this?”
“Evan left it for you before he went.”
“…Where did he go?”
“Where do you think?”
Adrian answered with a pout, as if the answer was obvious.
“To the Student Council office, of course. He went to hand over the list of students we caught today.”
Fast and quiet. That’s just like him. Elysia wrapped both hands around the warm mug and muttered to herself.
“What do you think will happen to them?”
“Well, since we’re presenting physical evidence, the punishment might be harsher than before.”
Slurp. Adrian took a sip from a mug of the same color as hers and murmured.
“Hmm… I wonder what they’re talking about.”
*
Evan stared intently at the man across from him, lifting the teacup—which was clearly of high quality—not with the slightest awkwardness, but with a familiar ease.
His green eyes, always so gentle when looking at Elysia, were now cool and sharp. The man with gleaming red eyes asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Did Elysia do this, too?”
“You could say El did all of it.”
“‘El,’ is it? You two must be close.”
This was the conversation they were having. Evan’s expression hardened, uncomfortable with the way Cain was so openly showing his interest in Elysia.
But why does that make me uncomfortable? A sudden wave of confusion hit him, and he blinked. Cain, not missing that fleeting moment, let out a soft chuckle and murmured.
“When did you two become so close?”
“That’s not what I came here to discuss. I’m here about their punishment—”
“Ah, I’ll have them all expelled.”
“All of them?”
“Can’t have them tarnishing the school’s reputation, can we?”
When Evan raised an eyebrow as if to ask if he was serious, Cain simply shrugged. Evan glanced at the documents, which hadn’t even been opened. He’s going to expel them all without even knowing who’s on that list? This wasn’t like him at all.
As if to ask what the problem was, Cain spoke.
“You didn’t even bother to look at the list I just gave you.”
“Do I really need to know the names of trash like them? Besides, if Elysia vetted them all herself, what further judgment is needed?”
An oddly strong trust in Elysia was evident in his red eyes. Cain held the red-tinted reagents Evan had brought up to the light and murmured with interest.
“So this is what it looks like… It’s my first time seeing it in person.”
In person? Does that mean he knew of its existence before? Evan found it strange that Cain wasn’t the least bit curious about the reagent’s accuracy.
“…Shouldn’t you at least pick out the students from families your house has ties with before you expel them?”
Cain burst out laughing at Evan’s blunt words. Punishments here were always handed out that way. If you had a close connection within the Student Council, you got a slap on the wrist. If not, you faced the full consequences.
Setting his teacup down without a sound, Cain smiled smoothly, a sly look on his face.
“Why do you treat me like such a bad guy? That hurts my feelings.”
“I was just surprised because you’re not acting like your usual self.”
“You’re the one who’s not acting like yourself.”
What does he mean by that? Evan looked up, puzzled by the remark. Cain, who had been studying Evan’s face as if observing him, continued.
“You, who always let everything slide, saying it’s fine. What’s with the sudden change? Ah, I’m not blaming you. In fact, this is how you should have been all along.”
He glanced once toward the door behind Evan, a smile gracing his lips as if he was thinking of someone. Cain pictured the face of the woman who would be in the hallway beyond the door, past another door, and in the room beyond that, and murmured.
“Is it because of Elysia?”
“I don’t know why we keep coming back to El—”
“Why? I told you before.”
A sly grin spread across the man’s face. He clasped his hands on the table and fidgeted with his fingers like a shy boy. Evan realized that every time Cain brought up Elysia, his own mood soured.
Cain Ror. Before they had clashed over Elysia, their relationship hadn’t been friendly, but it hadn’t been particularly hostile either.
“I’m interested in her, I tell you.”
But he couldn’t understand why his heart grew so heavy whenever those lips spoke of Elysia. Especially when he showed such blatant interest.
Every time Cain displayed that strange level of trust in Elysia, Evan felt his nerves fray. Unable to bear the discomfort any longer, he finally asked.
“Why?”