Crow Henderson (3)
The door clicked shut behind him.
“Sleep well.”
“You too, Miss Emilia.”
“......”
With a towel draped over his shoulder, Schluss Heinkel vanished through the gap. The moment the door thudded closed, Emilia let out a long, quiet breath.
This version of Schluss Heinkel is one I’ve never seen before.
Today’s Schluss had been unmistakably off. The man who was always cool and composed—returning completely drenched from the rain? She couldn’t have imagined it. The Schluss she knew would have contacted the Imperial Academy for an escort or simply bought an umbrella. He must have suffered a shock so severe that even those simple thoughts had been beyond him.
Emilia carried an oil lamp to the second-floor balcony and sat, sinking into thought.
It has to be because of Yulia…
No matter how she turned it over, no other reason fit. Whether it had been an accident or the Lichtenburg family’s deliberate design, Schluss had come face to face with Julia von Lichtenburg. The shock of her appearance—so eerily similar to Julia von Iceburg—must have stunned him at first. Then, realizing she was someone else entirely, he had fallen into despair. That was probably how it had gone.
But is that truly all?
Yet Emilia couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling gnawing at her. A vague intuition that something else, some deeper secret, lay hidden beneath the surface.
Still… wouldn’t it be possible right now?
Suddenly she remembered a plan they had scrapped long ago. The honey trap. A literal attempt to seduce Schluss. They had abandoned it when he proved far more meticulous than expected, fearing it would only earn his disgust. But now? With him weakened and lost in despair, perhaps the honey trap could actually work.
If he found the one person he could rely on inside an academy full of nobles, wouldn’t Schluss open his heart to her?
What am I even thinking…
Emilia slapped both cheeks with her palms, forcing herself back to her senses. She had never received any training in that particular field to begin with. And no matter how necessary it was for gathering information… the idea of faking love left her with considerable revulsion.
Against someone I don’t even like…
She brushed her fingers across her lips, picturing Schluss. The way he had trudged in like a soaked puppy, dripping rainwater. The image of herself stepping forward to embrace and comfort him. And then what came after—
“No no no!”
Cheeks burning, Emilia slammed her forehead against the desk. She could not forgive herself for entertaining such vulgar fantasies. Especially not toward her surveillance target.
But at that exact moment—
“Huh…?”
A sudden chill crawled across her skin, raising every hair. It wasn’t coincidence or imagination. She had trained relentlessly to keep her senses razor-sharp. This was a genuine change in the environment.
And that change was, with high probability—
Enemy attack!
Emilia slipped swiftly from the balcony and descended to the first floor. Her movements were fast yet nearly silent, exactly as drilled into her. No sound at all, yet someone was nearby. Her instincts screamed it.
The instant she peeked around the corner—
Creak…
The door opened with ghostly quiet. Emilia held her breath and jerked her head back. A soft thud followed as it closed again—too faint to have been heard from the second floor.
Then came the presence, gliding closer.
An assassin…
She had to stop this assassination at all costs. Schluss was a high-priority target for the intelligence bureau. If he died, she would lose her reason to remain at the Imperial Academy.
Emilia hiked up her skirt and drew the dagger from the sheath strapped to her thigh in one smooth motion. Then she waited. Waited until the presence drew close enough. Until it stood directly in front of the corner.
The moment the target entered optimal range, she exploded forward with flawless precision, thrusting the blade.
A perfect ambush that should have pierced straight into the opponent’s abdomen.
“Hah!”
“……?!”
Her sword stopped dead. Emilia’s face hardened. The man had caught the blade with his bare hand, as though he had predicted the strike—as though he had been waiting for it.
When she slowly lifted her gaze to that horrifying smile, all color drained from her face.
Fear. A primal, bone-deep terror seized control of her body. The overwhelming sensation of standing before an impassable wall crushed her. She forced her unresponsive limbs to move and threw a desperate punch—
“Heh. So you want to fight, do you?”
“Ugh!”
The next instant she was slammed face-first into the floor. In the blink of an eye the man had vanished, only to reappear behind her. That alone was shocking enough, but worse followed. Both her arms were now pinned, completely immobile. Worse still, no matter how she tried to cast magic, the spell formulas refused to form.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Heh. The little maid is more skilled than I expected.”
He flipped her over. The man with the same skin-crawling smile pressed a hand over her mouth. A handkerchief forced its way between her teeth, sealing her tongue and rendering any loud cry impossible.
And in his other hand he held her own dagger, raised high. Aimed directly at her heart.
“Mmmph!”
“Shh. Shhh……”
Staring at the blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight, Emilia shook her head violently. She had never imagined she could become this pathetic when death stared her in the face. Yet the man clearly had no intention of letting her beg for her life.
The moment she squeezed her eyes shut, accepting the end—
“Stop right there.”
“……”
A low voice rang through the mansion. The man’s smile grew even more grotesque as he raised his head. When Emilia turned in confusion, she saw—
“Release her.”
Schluss Heinkel stood tall and commanding.
“Or I will kill myself.”
With a kitchen knife pressed against his own throat.
What the hell is he doing?
Emilia froze in sheer disbelief.
Name: Henderson
Real Name: Henry Pashtun
Gender: Male
Profile: A member of the Crows. Former member of the Imperial Army’s special forces. After discharge, he fled the military that attempted to eliminate him and joined the Crows.
Objective: Rescue Emilia from Crow Henderson
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Reward: 8 Shop Coins
I pressed the kitchen knife against my carotid artery and issued the threat. To any third party it would look like complete nonsense. But I was certain it would work on him.
This was the man who could slip past the Imperial Academy’s barrier without triggering a single alarm, strolling in like he owned the place. He was infamous for loud, messy work. If Henderson had truly come to kill me, he would have simply blown up the entire mansion with explosive magic. The fact that he had gone to the trouble of infiltrating quietly meant one of two things: he was here to kidnap me or to talk.
Either way, he couldn’t achieve his goal if I died.
“Hah. You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.”
“Want to test them yourself?”
“……”
Henderson’s expression froze—except for his mouth. That kept smiling like always. Truthfully, I was terrified. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely keep them still. I wasn’t the kind of person who could willingly cut his own throat. Not unless my hand slipped by accident.
But I trusted Schluss Heinkel’s eyes. Those empty eyes that held no emotion. To Henderson, they must have looked like the eyes of someone who had already given up on life. Eyes of a dead man.
“Who do you think is faster—me drawing the blade, or you snatching it away?”
“Stop asking and just try it. Once it happens, there’s no taking it back.”
“……”
Henderson clicked his tongue in clear displeasure and lowered his hand. The dagger clattered to the floor. He normally didn’t carry daggers… so he must have taken Emilia’s. I decided to pretend I hadn’t noticed.
“Haaah…!”
“There. I let her go. Satisfied? Now put your knife down too.”
“Come behind me.”
“Y-yes!”
The moment the magical restraints vanished, Emilia scrambled over to me. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her safely behind my back. I could not allow Emilia to be hurt. Not if I wanted to avoid being chased to the ends of the earth by Hurtlocker.
Reward: 8 Shop Coins granted
The quest completion notice arrived with the reward. That meant Emilia was no longer in immediate danger of dying. I dropped the kitchen knife onto the floor. There was no point trying to fight him with something like that anyway.
“Nice to meet you. So you’re the commoner top student everyone’s talking about? Hehe. I’m Henderson. Among the Crows I’m—”
“Enough chatter. Get to the point.”
“Ah, right. Quite impatient, aren’t you? To be honest, I received a request to kill you.”
Spilling mission details so casually. He really was the worst of the worst among the Crows. Though his abilities were so outstanding that he remained popular despite his complete lack of professional ethics.
“But it seems like such a waste. Killing a future fellow Crow?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You really don’t know? No, you already know, don’t you? That your future isn’t all that bright. Hehe…”
Henderson twisted his lips into a grotesque smile. It was hideous to look at, but I couldn’t exactly tell him to stop. Not when brain damage forced him to laugh even when he didn’t want to.
“Do you honestly think you’ll be able to graduate peacefully from the Imperial Academy? Like the other nobles? Hah! Absolutely not!”
“……”
“What awaits you is endless harassment from both students and faculty. You’ll endure all the bullying, thinking that once you submit your thesis it’ll be over. But your thesis will be rejected again and again for absurd reasons. After three years of nothing but writing and rewriting, you’ll start to lose your mind. All your classmates and juniors will have graduated while you’re still stuck there. ‘Why am I the only one suffering like this?’ you’ll ask. And do you know the answer?”
“……”
“Because you’re a commoner! That’s it! Hah! You can’t graduate because you’re a commoner! Even if you entered the Imperial Academy, there is no path to success for you! In the end you’ll drop out. And do you know what you become? It’s obvious. You become a Crow.”
The story Henderson spat out with genuine emotion was disturbingly specific. Of course it was. It was his own past. He had entered the Imperial Academy with dreams of glory, only to be rejected by the academic world. After dropping out he joined the Imperial Army, and eventually became a Crow. The most honest profession in the Empire—one where ability alone let you rake in money, regardless of whether you were a commoner or not.
“I can see your future clearly. Hah. So why suffer needlessly? Leave the Imperial Academy, Schluss. Become a Crow. With your talent, I guarantee you’ll handle more money than most counts.”
“You call that a serious offer?”
“Hah! Of course I don’t expect you to agree right away. You’ll have to experience it yourself before you understand what I’m saying. So I’ll give you all the time you need. Whenever you feel like it, come find Crow Henderson. I’ll kindly guide you down the path of the Crows…”
“No need to wait. I have no intention of becoming a Crow.”
“Hah… Playing hard to get. You’ll come crying to me eventually. See you then.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Henderson, who had turned to leave, stopped dead in his tracks. When he looked back, his eyes widened. He had spotted me aiming my hand at his head like a gun.
I had to kill Henderson here. He was a named character capable of completely ruining my plans. When an opportunity to kill him appeared, I could not let it slip away.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Stalling, you idiot. I had gone to the training grounds earlier to clear my head and ended up going a little wild. As a result, I had used up today’s entire quota of Selection and Concentration.
“You break into the dormitory and think you can just walk away?”
“Ha! Hah! Really? You want to fight me?”
“……”
“Didn’t I tell you my name earlier? I’m Henderson! Crow Henderson! Don’t you know?”
“……”
“The Crown Prince’s assassin! The strongest Crow! Ring any bells? And you want to fight… heh, heh hah… This is actually hilarious.”
He alternated between laughing and crying before finally looking genuinely pissed. Still wearing that grotesque expression, Henderson reached into his pocket. The clear sign he was preparing for battle.
Damn it. Not yet—
Dong… Dong… Dong…
The grandfather clock in the living room began to chime. Midnight. The signal that a new day had begun.
Which meant Selection and Concentration had just reset.
Finally.
“You’ve got no respect for your seniors, do you? Guess I’ll have to teach you some man—!”
“……!”
As Henderson spat the words, a small stone rolled out of his pocket. In the same instant, the entire room exploded with blinding light.