Episode 68
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 68
Oops, a slip of the tongue. She’d spoken her thoughts aloud without realizing it.
Far from being offended, Cain smiled as if he’d expected it and pushed a piece of chocolate into her mouth. Elysia frowned as the sweet, bitter taste spread across her tongue.
“What’s with you?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’s with me’?”
“What are you trying to pull?”
“Has there ever been a day I didn’t?”
She was at a loss for words, unable to counter his quick, unwavering retorts. What was she supposed to say? That the first emotion he’d shown her was contempt, so how could he have changed his mind so suddenly?
The extreme drop and rise in his favorability, blooming with pink hearts, was still vivid in her mind. But at some point, he had started acting as if none of that had ever happened.
Elysia tried to read his expression. The first thing that came to mind was system intervention. There was no way this man’s psychological state, which had plummeted like a roller coaster from the start only to continuously climb, could be so plausible.
Cain, interpreting her silence in his own way, spoke.
“No answer. It seems you were aware of my advances after all.”
“Shut up. You sound like a total player.”
“I’m hurt. You’re the only one for me.”
Frowning at Cain, who spouted such cringeworthy lines without batting an eye, Elysia sighed and tried to refuse him.
“It won’t take long. I’m just going to look around by myself and head back, so you can get lo—”
“If it won’t take long, then I have all the more reason to accompany you. The last carriage back to the academy will be leaving soon, and you’ll have to walk all the way to the dormitory.”
“If you’re so scared, why don’t you just go alone?”
The violent thought of beating this bastard unconscious was beginning to bubble up. Elysia almost reached for the baseball bat in her inventory before she managed to clench her fist, suppressing the impulse.
Whether he knew of her desperate struggle or not, Cain refused to back down.
“I can just take my own carriage back to my mansion. But you can’t, can you?”
“Hey… just go.”
“Weren’t you investigating Hertz’s whereabouts?”
How did he know that? The man stared down at Elysia’s startled face and raised one corner of his mouth.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know that Blair came all the way to the academy to meet you recently?”
“How do you know that?”
“Another man came to see the woman I’m interested in. Of course I’d keep an eye on things.”
It was amazing how every single thing this bastard said made her blood pressure spike.
“Besides, all you two talked about last time in the prefect office was him and Hertz, right? If not for that, what other reason would he have to seek you out?”
“How do you know what we talked about in the prefect office… Are you a fucking stalker?”
“It was in the meeting minutes Sylvester compiled.”
He didn’t miss the way her hostility subsided the moment she spat out Evan’s name with an indifferent look. His eyes glinted as he spoke.
“I’ll come with you. It’ll be a better choice for your safety, and for your entertainment.”
Elysia just glared at him without a word.
A strange sense of anticipation flickered beneath his blinking red eyes. For some unknown reason, it got on her nerves, but on the surface, there was nothing wrong with the situation.
Besides, Cain was a central figure in the Student Council, where nobles built their connections. He might be helpful in finding a clue to the case…
Finally, with a reluctant expression, Elysia pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and started walking without another word. It was a tacit agreement, and Cain, understanding it perfectly, matched her pace with a satisfied look on his face.
Elysia stared straight ahead, trying to ignore the burning gaze she could feel on her cheek.
Why is he looking at me like that? Should I just gouge his eyes out? she muttered inwardly, keeping the violent thoughts to herself.
*
At 7 p.m., Bicola Plaza was boisterous, lined with bustling pubs. The patrons clapped along to the music of a band playing violins in the center of the square. The noise was deafening.
Elysia covered one ear with a disgruntled look and glanced around.
“See anything?”
Ignoring Cain’s voice as he leaned down to whisper in her ear, Elysia moved forward. She slowly raised her hand and counted the streets branching out from Bicola Plaza, starting from the right.
One, two, three, four… She spotted an alley so narrow that only a small carriage could barely pass through. The fourth alley from the right. Without hesitation, she headed for it.
A huge crowd had gathered to watch the street performance. As she pushed her way through, Elysia was startled by someone suddenly grabbing her hand and let out a scream.
“Agh!”
“You have to take me with you. Were you just going to abandon me?”
Her heart, which had been pounding with excitement, turned to ice the moment she saw Cain’s crooked smile. Should I just bury this bastard somewhere? Calming her seething insides, Elysia pried his fingers off one by one and growled.
“You wanna die? Who said you could grab my hand?”
“What can I do? I’m a timid person. And asking if I want to die? Surely you don’t mean that.”
“Ah, this bastard, seriously.”
His teasing smile and provocative tone made her blood boil. When Cain finally went as far as to droop his eyebrows and feign a weakness that didn’t suit him at all, Elysia finally exploded and reached out.
Cain held out his hand with a grin, as if everything was going according to plan.
“I’m a delicately raised young master, you know. Surrounded by strangers, how could I not be on edge? So—”
Cain’s smug expression turned to one of bewilderment as his gracefully offered hand was ignored and his collar was seized in a tight grip.
He burst out laughing as he watched Elysia’s back, her not even glancing back as she dragged him forward. Ah, she’s really unpredictable.
Once they were out of the dense crowd, Elysia shoved Cain away and asked bluntly.
“So what, you bastard.”
“…So I was going to ask you to be gentle with me.”
Elysia frowned as if she’d just heard the most ridiculous bullshit and dusted off her hands. Cain followed her as she strode unhesitatingly into the dark alley.
“Why are we here?”
“The place that supplied the paper Hertz used for his letter is around here.”
“Aha.”
Cain smiled, his eyes curving, and looked around as he walked. The cry of a cat echoed from within the alley, which was shrouded in deep darkness.
Walking with her senses on high alert, Elysia suddenly felt something brush against her fingertips and froze in shock.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hah…”
Absurdly, the thing that had startled her was the back of Cain’s hand. But I was keeping my distance. Why is he right next to me? She fumbled, reaching out to where she thought the wall would be. She didn’t have to reach far before her hand met the cold stone wall.
“The path…”
“Has narrowed.”
The alley, which had been wide enough for a carriage, had become so narrow that two people had to press close together to pass.
Elysia tried to turn around and exit the narrow passage, but she ended up slamming her face into Cain’s chest and muttering a curse. For fuck’s sake, what a fucking mess…
A smooth, teasing voice immediately floated down to her ear.
“What, you wanted to steal a kiss?”
“Get lost!”
Cain let out a low chuckle. Elysia pushed away his hand as he tried to cup her cheek and check on her, then felt her throbbing nose. Thankfully, it was fine. It just hurt like hell.
Elysia revised her assessment of Cain. She’d secretly looked down on him for being thinner than Evan, but considering how easily he’d broken her chokehold earlier and how solid his body felt, he was clearly someone who knew how to use his strength.
Ugh… I hate him even more now.
Elysia kicked Cain in the shin and snapped.
“Back up.”
“As you wish.”
After about five minutes of walking in silence, the alley widened again. Roughly gauging the width, Elysia realized this wasn’t just an alley, but a space designed to be wider than the entrance, allowing a carriage to turn around.
Good, this is it. Elysia let out a breath and casually put on her monocle, activating her skill.
<system> Active Skill ‘Observation’ has been activated. (Duration: 15 minutes)
Perhaps thanks to the skill, objects in the pitch-black darkness began to come into sharp focus. Elysia once again reviewed the information Adrian had brought her.
‘Using the alias ‘A,’ requested that the goods be left in the fourth alley to the right of Bicola Plaza at 3 a.m. on the 10th of every month.’
The carriage probably stopped here. To turn around and exit, it would have had to. Alright, so where did this unidentified person transport the paper left by the distributor?
She examined the buildings surrounding the circular space one by one. They were all conspicuously shabby.
First, the first building. As she turned her gaze toward it, the results analyzed by her skill shimmered into view.
Building Deterioration Level: High (+100 years)
Purpose: (Former) Inn, (Current) Public Housing
! No unusual findings !
Not this building? Without panicking, Elysia shifted her gaze to the next one. But the skill window returned the same answer: no unusual findings.
At this point, she started to get anxious. The next building, and the next. She even got down on the ground, practically crawling as she examined every inch of the floor, but the skill window kept displaying the same result.
The wig she was wearing for her disguise felt suffocating. She threw off her hat, and her short brown hair fell against the nape of her neck. Elysia scratched the back of her head and muttered a curse. Nothing unusual? Don’t bullshit me, there has to be something here!
She belatedly realized today’s date. It was the 25th, a full 15 days after the delivery date. Of course any faint traces would have vanished.
Once again reaching the limit of her patience, Elysia kicked a wretched-looking pebble at her feet.
“Ah, fuck! When my luck is bad, it’s the absolute worst!”
Her intuition, which was never wrong, was screaming that this was the place, yet the results from her skill analysis showed nothing. She only had about three minutes of skill time left.
Cain, who had been watching Elysia leisurely as she irritably threw off her monocle, asked.
“So, what are you going to do now?”
“…”
“I don’t know the details, but it seems things aren’t going well.”
The smile had vanished from Cain’s face as he gently took Elysia’s wrist while she stood silently, letting his words wash over her. His red eyes, unfocused with concentration, took in her silhouette.
As if imitating someone else, he called out to her.
“Hm? El.”
As he copied the words of the man who had been chatting with her, he felt a strange tickle in his heart. He was about to habitually express his displeasure at the feeling when he realized the woman beside him deserved such treatment, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
The woman slowly turned her head and met his gaze directly. A light glinted in her gray eyes, which were soaked in darkness.
“If thought and calculation don’t work, I’ll just have to do it my way.”
<system> Beast’s Intuition (Passive): ‘Intuition Accuracy’ increased by 21%.
Cain turned his eyes to where Elysia’s gaze was fixed and narrowed them with interest. She was more focused than ever before.
She was so focused on her senses that she was barely thinking at all. Her aura had grown fiercer than usual, making him frown.
As if to suppress her surging excitement, she clenched and unclenched her fist, then muttered with a blank expression.
“By the way, why did you lie?”
How novel. That was his impression of her question. To him, lying was as natural as breathing. He curved his eyes into a gentle smile, about to brush off her question with a vague answer, but was stunned by the blunt follow-up that came without warning.
“Saying you’re a delicately raised young master. That’s a lie.”