Home Education
"Where on earth did something like that come from? Right?"
Cheong said nothing in response to Arkan's question.
He knew she wasn't asking because she genuinely wanted his answer.
And, unfortunately, he had no information about the matter himself. All he knew was that the man had recently been appointed to office, and that his first posting was Blackmore.
"So he was said to handle some kind of unknown ability."
Arkan had already heard every detail of the situation when she invited him. Through the Monarch Assembly headquarters, the invitation had been sent, a minor clash had broken out along the way, and Cheong had been subdued without even being able to lay a hand on him. She had heard it all, down to the last scrap of it.
"He really couldn't move? Even after drawing up his mana?"
"Yes. It wasn't a simple restraint. It was more like all five senses had been paralyzed at once."
"...Really?"
An ability that stopped everything except consciousness.
What kind of cheating nonsense was that?
If he wanted to, he could kill anyone with that kind of ability.
And Cheong was a key member of the Monarch Assembly—a senior executive.
The fact that someone like him had been rendered completely helpless was not something to brush aside.
"There definitely wasn't any mana."
"Could he have concealed his aura somehow?"
"Maybe. But that wasn't something simple concealment could cover. And there's no way it fooled my eyes either. Besides..."
The corner of Arkan's mouth lifted faintly.
"I didn't even need to check."
Luke Richter.
He was the first human Arkan had ever seen who felt like an entirely different species of human.
Especially when he faced her killing intent and still acted relaxed, he'd genuinely startled her.
More importantly, Arkan possessed the Eye of Insight, an ability that could see straight through a person's thoughts.
Because of that, she understood humans better than anyone.
They were a species that lived with lies on their tongues.
So from the moment she met him until the moment they parted, she never once took her eyes off him.
"...Haha."
Not a single thing that came out of his mouth had been a lie.
That he'd conquered the labyrinth. That he'd killed a true ancestor with his own hands.
Not one exception.
He wouldn't know about the Eye of Insight, so she could at least be certain of one thing: he wasn't normally the sort of man who wallowed in deceit.
"You saw it too, right? The way that guy was lecturing me just now."
"I did."
"Have you ever seen a human like that before? I haven't, not even once. Ah! Unless he's not human? Come to think of it, there's no way a mere human could kill Arkantila, that old monster who lived for thousands of years."
Cheong listened in silence.
It was the first time he'd ever seen their lord talk this much.
"Was his name Rudine?"
"If you're referring to the girl beside him, yes."
"That little brat isn't human."
"Pardon?"
"Well, if you want to be precise, she is human. But she's only human on the outside. Something like a monster is hiding inside that shell."
Cheong looked at Arkan, whose eyes were sparkling with interest, and asked cautiously, "Should I assign someone to watch her?"
"Why would we?"
"...Pardon?"
Arkan added, in a tone that made his question sound tiresome, "If we're asking them to lend us people for five years, is there any reason to keep watch from the shadows? We can just send our own people openly."
After taking a sip of coffee, Arkan gave a small laugh.
"Choose carefully and send them over. I have a feeling we'll be seeing them often."
The deal had gone smoothly.
By dumping the troublesome forbidden tome at a bargain-bin price, I'd solved the manpower shortage that had been giving me the most trouble.
On top of that, they'd even promised to clean up the Shadow Society problem that had recently been giving me the worst headache.
Everything was going so well that I couldn't help being in a good mood.
Humming softly, I went back to the office—only to stop dead in my tracks.
"Luke, the house is a wreck."
"Yeah, it is."
Rudine and I could only sigh.
The dirt floor that should have been flat and even was pitted all over as if bombs had gone off, and the tidy office looked as though a storm had ripped straight through it.
We'd only been gone for a moment.
So what in the world had happened here?
What cursed bastard was responsible for this?
My head was starting to heat up.
I was barely holding my anger down when a dark figure came running toward us from the distance.
"Luke!"
A familiar tail silhouette.
I didn't even need to look to know it was Adina.
"Huff... Where have you been all this time...? You left me here all alone...!"
What was this cowardly fox talking about?
"Hey."
"Phew... Yes?"
"What are all these?"
I pointed toward the ground with my finger.
They were the traces of a fierce battle.
"Heh."
All at once, Adina's tail began to sway.
She lifted her chin and folded her arms.
"I did it."
"...What?"
"After you disappeared, a bunch of suspicious people kept coming around. Every single one of them was asking for Luke Richter."
"And?"
"So I killed them all! Heh."
Watching Adina brag with such a proud expression, I couldn't help letting out a sigh.
This stupid fox.
She'd fought them without even knowing who they were.
Wait a second.
...She didn't know who they were?
If someone came here looking for me, there were only two possibilities.
Either they meant me harm.
Or they had business with me.
If it was the latter, the range grew much narrower.
"Could they have been..."
"Hm?"
"Nobles in formal dress?"
Adina shook her head vigorously.
"No. Just filthy-looking people who smelled awful. Ugh... even thinking about them makes me feel like my nose is rotting."
That was completely different from what I'd expected.
Thankfully, it didn't seem they'd come from the Imperial Family.
"How many were there?"
"Hmm... ten? Fifteen?"
"So you killed them all? Even though you didn't know who they were?"
Flinch!
Her fox ears twitched again, and she nodded.
"Yes! Every last one of them. Oh, and I found this too!"
She pulled something from her pocket and held it out.
A scrap of paper stained with blood.
Faint writing was scrawled across it.
Luke Richter... eliminate... reward...
"..."
What the hell.
There was already a contract out on me?
What had I even done?
"Luke."
Rudine, who had been quietly watching, called to me.
"Look over there."
She pointed up at the office ceiling with her finger.
When I lifted my head, I lost my words for a moment.
The center of the ceiling had been punched through in a perfect circle, as if a meteor had fallen straight through it.
Watching sunlight pour through the hole, my eyebrow twitched.
"Ah, that!"
Adina, who had been looking at it, flicked her tail and said proudly, "I missed one, and he ran off by blasting through the roof. Of course I tracked him down and killed him, so there's no need to worry. See? Nice and clean, right?"
"Then why are there two holes?"
"Ah, one of them was because I misfired a spell..."
Ah.
So she'd made a mistake.
The more I thought about it, the more absurd it became.
The reason the Shadow Society leader had died was because the bastard was a thrall of the true ancestor.
— Luke... Richter...
— I won't... forget... this...
So before dying, he'd been muttering my name.
The exact same line Arkantila had left behind when she died.
And the cause of it was—
— Luke, huff...! Richter, huff...! What in the world did you do...!
— Adina, who'd come charging in while shouting my name.
...
I caused plenty of accidents when I was young too.
I stole chocolate from the supermarket, and I even skipped cram school to go to the arcade.
So I can understand it.
Adina had never really been loved by a family to begin with, which meant she lacked social sense as well.
It was almost like looking at my younger self.
But even so.
Whenever that happened, my mother used to tell me one thing.
And that was:
"Rudine."
"Mm?"
A beating is the best medicine.
"Don't kill her."
"Mm."
"Just give her some proper education."
"What kind of education?"
"Home education."
"Got it!"
"Huh? What on earth does that me—kyaaah!"
Before Adina could even finish her question, Rudine moved.
With a sound that cut through the air in an instant—
Thwack!
"Kyaaack!"
Adina's scream echoed through the office.
A few days passed.
At first, Adina complained bitterly about the "education" she'd received from Rudine, but once each of her mistakes was laid out clearly one by one, she quickly tucked her tail between her legs.
Especially when she heard that she'd ended up becoming an unidentified behind-the-scenes mastermind because of it, she broke out in a cold sweat.
And now.
I'd been worn out cleaning up the wrecked office, but otherwise it had been a fairly peaceful stretch of time.
I was enjoying a period so uneventful that there was hardly anything to complain about—until...
Creaaak—!
A carriage came to a stop in front of the office.
No, not one.
At least five carriages were following behind it.
What is this?
Had they come to thank me?
But it shouldn't have been time for that yet.
While I was puzzling over it—
Clack.
The carriage door opened, and a man in uniform stepped down.
The moment he saw me, he asked, "Are you Sir Luke Richter?"
After confirming my name, he went on, "I've come to deliver something."
He checked the documents, then whispered with the people who got out after him.
"Please wait just a moment."
And then, a moment later—
"!!!"
The doors of the carriages behind him swung open, and an absurd amount of gold coins spilled out.
I couldn't hold back my curiosity any longer and asked, "What is all this?"
"Gold coins."
"Why are you bringing gold coins to me?"
"Ah, I should have explained that."
He smiled brightly and began reading the names written on the document.
"Katran, Deykal, Bren, Calix..."
Familiar names poured out one after another.
They were the names of the criminals who had been exposed all at once when the true ancestor was killed.
"...Up to here, these are the criminals you personally killed, sir."
What?
Then this was...
"We thank you for your hard work. It's a modest amount, but this is the bounty settled by the Imperial Family."
"!!!"