Chapter 223
Chapter 223
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 223
Chapter Title: My Little Brother (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yuri looked at Duran with a look of utter disbelief.
‘So the real culprit’s already been caught, and I was just locked up as a suspected accomplice.’
It was plenty understandable.
Even she would have suspected someone with a prior record of doing exactly that.
But there was one thing that didn’t make sense.
‘If the real culprit’s caught, just interrogate them to find the accomplices, right?’
No matter how tight-lipped they were, the Black Sword Corps should have no trouble extracting information.
Yet Duran had gone out of his way to test her personally to see if she was an accomplice.
‘No way….’
One possibility flashed through Yuri’s mind.
‘What if the real culprit is dead?’
That would explain everything.
If the culprit had died without giving up any information, they’d have no choice but to flush out accomplices like this.
“…….”
Yuri stared at Duran in silence.
“What’re you staring at?”
Yuri didn’t voice her suspicion.
‘Sometimes it’s better to play dumb.’
Acting like she knew something would only drag her deeper into this mess, and if luck was bad, it might even tie back to what she’d done before.
She didn’t know how much of Duran’s words were true.
But if the real culprit really touched documents in Duran’s office like he said, it did sound eerily similar to her own stunt.
So Yuri answered Duran’s question with a sullen face.
“You’re saying just go like this?”
“Don’t want to?”
“Bare-handed?”
“Then?”
“Compensation! You gotta compensate me!”
“For what?”
“You promised to grant my demand if I caught the culprit.”
“Why should I? You didn’t catch them.”
“Thanks to me, the investigation made progress, didn’t it?”
“What progress?”
“I’m one less variable on the accomplice list, so it’s easier to investigate now, right?”
“…….”
“And you gotta make up for the time I lost under false pretenses! Everyone else is already in the Forest of Beginnings causing chaos, and I’m the only one stuck here!”
Duran scowled at Yuri’s indignant, point-by-point grilling.
He waved her off lightly, as if he didn’t want to hear any more.
“Tch, fine. I’ll do it, so quit your whining. Man, it’s annoying.”
With that, Duran vanished with the other Black Sword soldiers, fleeing like they couldn’t get away fast enough.
Yuri flashed a satisfied smile at the sight.
‘Nice!’
Finally, she had what she wanted.
She turned back toward the path to the Forest of Beginnings and gauged the time by looking at the sky.
‘Not too late yet.’
The time she’d wasted wasn’t as much as she thought.
An hour at most?
‘If I hustle from here… I might even make it with time to spare.’
Just as she started toward the Forest of Beginnings.
“Yuri Holland!”
“Yuri!”
Yuri looked up at the voices calling her from afar.
“Huh?”
He blinked at his classmates approaching, one skewering a man on an axe-spear like a wild boar.
“…What?”
While Yuri stood there dumbfounded, Clarice and Nelly came right up to him.
“T-This is the one, right?”
“This the hairy bobblehead you mentioned?”
Yuri jolted in surprise at the man the two panting girls dropped.
‘This guy?!’
He was taller and bulkier than the boy in Yuri’s memory, but the face was unmistakable.
Even filthy and a bit gaunt, anyone could tell it was Moochi at a glance.
Yuri looked at them admiringly.
“You two… where’d you find this guy?”
Nelly and Clarice launched into their tale of heroism.
How they’d tracked down the hairy bobblehead and bagged him, and so on.
After chattering on for a while, the two shot him expectant looks, like they wanted praise.
Seeing his classmates like that gave Yuri a profound realization.
‘One good lackey is worth ten slaves.’
Yuri’s eyes sparkled with delight.
‘Alright, gotta reward the obedient pups.’
Having this example would motivate the other slaves to step up on their own.
“You two are exempt from ranking battles for the next two months.”
“T-Two months?!”
“Really?!”
Nelly and Clarice exchanged stunned glances, their faces lighting up with joy.
‘The hidden reward for this wild goose chase…’
‘…was this!’
They were convinced.
Better than any dragon plaque or points from dashing around the Forest of Beginnings.
This two months of freedom for snagging the hairy bobblehead was the real jackpot.
While Nelly and Clarice rejoiced.
Yuri smiled contentedly at the passed-out Moochi.
‘Now that this is done… we can head out right away.’
* * *
Splooosh—!
A small rowboat shot forward, kicking up an enormous spray.
An unbelievable speed no full-rigged ship could match.
Duran watched in awe.
“How the hell did he get all the way to Yuram’s mainland… he swam there?”
Honestly, Duran had suspected Yohan Redner.
That guy had the skills to ferry Yuri Holland from here to the mainland, no problem.
But the truth was far more absurd and straightforward than that.
‘Pushing a boat at that speed… swimming solo would’ve been even faster.’
Having unraveled the mystery that bugged him for a year, Duran couldn’t help laughing at the sheer ridiculousness.
Just then, a woman approached from behind.
“That kid’s not even bothering to hide it anymore.”
Duran’s adjutant clicked her tongue in disbelief at Yuri openly taking Moochi away.
Duran smirked.
“He demanded it so brazenly, no need to hide.”
Yuri’s two demands as compensation were simple.
One: a small rowboat.
Two: permission to take one reserve knight with him.
No rules broken, so Duran had shrugged and allowed it.
“Hmm… seeing that, I’m starting to regret it a bit.”
What stunt was he planning this time?
God, he hoped it wasn’t anything major.
His head already ached thinking about cleanup.
“Ha…….”
He sighed lightly and asked his adjutant.
“Autopsy results?”
“No anomalies found.”
“Hmm…….”
Duran’s face hardened.
‘What the hell?’
The document theft incident was complicated.
First off, the theft wasn’t from Duran’s tent—it was his adjutant’s.
It used to be Duran’s, but after Yuri ransacked it once, he’d moved, and the empty tent went to his adjutant.
The culprit stole a few documents from there…
‘And burned them all.’
Then plunged a knife into his own heart and ended it.
Duran furrowed his brow, recalling what he knew.
‘No connections to any clues or circumstances. Nothing fits.’
The stolen documents were all useless junk, scattered purposes with no links.
He didn’t even try to flee with them—just burned them all not far from the adjutant’s tent.
Then straight to suicide.
‘What’s this mean? What was the goal?’
As Black Sword Corps vice-commander, he’d seen every kind of mess under the sun, but nothing this baffling.
He couldn’t fathom the suicide’s motive.
‘Headache.’
It might seem minor enough to ignore, but he couldn’t for one reason.
The dead culprit was Black Sword Corps.
“Hmm…….”
As Duran scowled.
His adjutant asked.
“But how are you so sure Yuri Holland isn’t an accomplice?”
The case had zero clues, no leads at all.
Only one tenuous link, if you stretched it.
Yuri Holland.
Last year’s rampage through the Black Sword Corps outpost by Yuri.
So maybe he was the only connection.
But Duran was certain he wasn’t and released him.
The adjutant was curious why.
Duran answered flatly.
“Information-seeking eyes.”
“Pardon?”
“The info I gave Yuri Holland was just that someone broke into my office and touched documents.”
“Yes, but?”
“After that, I fed him more false info. Took him to your tent, not mine. And the second he walked in, know what he did?”
“What?”
“Took it all in.”
“All of it…?”
Duran elaborated for his still-clueless adjutant.
“Say you’re an accomplice in this, under suspicion. You’d have scouted the infiltration spot beforehand, right?”
“Naturally.”
“Then in a familiar space, pretending innocence, what would you instinctively look at?”
“The target documents, obviously… ah!”
“Yeah. Even acting innocent, you’d unconsciously scan for docs related to the incident. But Yuri Holland scanned the whole space right away. Meaning he wasn’t acting—he was genuinely analyzing it.”
“To find the real culprit, like he said?”
“Yeah.”
That’s why Duran let him go.
Now even that potential lead was gone.
Back to square one, Duran sighed and ordered.
“Dig deeper on the dead Black Sword soldier.”
“We’ve combed everything, but it’ll be tough. No threads from the start—or they were all cut. Nothing sticks.”
The culprit was an unremarkable Black Sword soldier.
Model employee, no issues with record or conduct.
His colleagues were shocked he’d rifled the adjutant’s office and suicided.
Seeing her hesitate, Duran said firmly.
“Find it. Even if threads are cut, there’ll be stumps. Bring me those.”
Usually laid-back with seeming gaps, but his nature was meticulous and ruthless.
Knowing that side, the adjutant nodded grimly.
“Understood.”
* * *
Warmth enveloped him, and the scent of roasting meat filled his nose.
Crackle, crackle—.
Hearing the firewood pop, Moochi’s consciousness slowly returned.
His eyelashes fluttered up.
“Mm…….”
Through half-open eyes, sunset hues poured in.
Regaining awareness in a flash, Moochi’s eyes snapped wide.
But he lay there blankly, staring at the sky, not grasping the situation.
“Ah…….”
No thoughts came.
Just that the crimson sky was so pretty.
Then he remembered passing out and bolted upright.
A voice hit his ear then.
“You awake?”
Moochi’s head whipped toward it.
There, beyond the roaring bonfire.
Crackle, crackle—.
A boy poked the flames with a long stick.
Crackle, crackle—.
Black hair, golden eyes.
Skin so pale it showed even in firelight, a delicately androgynous beautiful face.
No longer quite a boy, edging into youth, he looked up at Moochi with a mischievous grin.
“Wouldn’t wake even after tossing stuff at you—might as well call it died and came back.”
“Ah……?”
The all-too-familiar voice left Moochi dazed.
‘…What?’
Last thing he remembered before blacking out: two crazy intruders going berserk.
Nothing after.
The situation confused him.
“…A dream?”
Yuri snorted at the mutter.
“Dream my ass.”
He flicked the stick in his hand, sending something from the fire flying at Moochi.
Thwack—.
“Ow, hot hot!”
A black, scorching something hit his forehead and fell.
The burning pain let Moochi confirm this was no dream.
He clutched his forehead in panic.
“…Yuri hyung? Really you, Yuri hyung?”
Yuri’s eyes bulged at that.
“Hyung? The fuuuck?”
He jabbed an accusing finger, incredulous.
“You snot-nosed brat, calling a senior like heaven’s gift ‘hyung’? Punk! Say ‘senior’ properly, got it? Huh?”
Moochi relaxed at Yuri’s thuggish, crooked scowl.
‘Real Yuri hyung….’
That signature cockiness and delinquency.
Grown, but unchanged—it confirmed the figure before him was Yuri.
Only then did Moochi relax enough to look around.
“Where are we, Yuri hyu…….”
“Tsk!”
“…S-Senior?”
Instead of answering, Yuri fished something else from the fire with his stick and chucked it at Moochi.
Thwack—.
Yuri replied as the dark lump landed precisely before him.
“Why do you think I told you to call me senior?”
“……?”
Yuri grinned at the baffled, clueless Moochi.
“Welcome to real Yuram, snot-nose.”