The Corpse That Defies the Natural Order - 4
I surveyed the surroundings in silence. Even excluding the one vermin sprawled out as if unconscious, there were plenty left who could spill information. Of course, there might be confidential details known only to their leader, but that didn't matter. With numbers like these, a slight drop in quality was perfectly acceptable.
Even if only the leader knew the backers or collaborators of the Third Glory, it was fine. They were the sort of lunatics who had bared their fangs at the Empire, driven mad by the delusion of restoring Apels. They would inevitably try some other scheme, and the moment they did, I would find them and kill them.
Yes. There was no problem at all.
No issue with killing them either.
Having reached that conclusion, I walked toward the vermin. The two Mukgwangdae members holding its arms hastily stepped aside, and the 1st and 4th Department Heads fell in behind me.
I grabbed the unconscious one's head to haul it up and wake it—then something felt off. Eyes rolled back to pure white. A lower jaw so thoroughly crushed that no trace of it remained. And blood streaming from what was left of its face.
"It's dead."
At my words, the Mukgwangdae member in front of me flinched. Already gone. The 4th Department Head must have failed to control her strength when she kicked it in her hurry.
I stared for a moment at the vermin's flipped eyes, then tightened my grip and crushed its skull. Pointless now that it was dead, but I needed to vent this godawful feeling somehow.
I roughly shook the filth from my hand and turned around to find the 4th Department Head looking completely lost and the 1st Department Head darting her eyes every which way.
What am I supposed to do with these two.
There were clear signs the 1st Department Head had deliberately dragged out the torture, and the 4th Department Head had, for whatever reason, unauthorizedly executed a key interrogation subject. If I wanted to make an issue of it, I had every right to reprimand them both.
I looked between them, then let out a small sigh. The way they trembled and hung their heads bothered me. Ordinarily it wouldn't have been a problem. I had expected the 1st Department Head to get completely absorbed in her new toy—the Apels restorationists—and I knew the 4th Department Head always threw herself into anything involving me.
And yet I was the one who hadn't pressed the 1st Department Head earlier, and I was the one who had stayed silent even knowing the 4th Department Head would charge ahead. Turning around and scolding them now would just be ugly.
Even if I had heard something completely unexpected from a completely unexpected place—
Fuck.
It still felt like shit no matter how many times I thought about it. Frustrated, I moved to scrub my face dry, then stopped when I realized my hands were still damp. The 4th Department Head, who had been carefully watching my expression, hesitantly held out a handkerchief.
"Manager, if it's all right… please use this…"
Her voice was unchanged, but I saw the hand holding the handkerchief trembling slightly, and any thought of reprimanding her vanished completely. Fine. Bad luck. What just happened was simply bad luck.
"Thanks."
I wiped my hands with the 4th Department Head's handkerchief and handed it back. Then, to show I had let it go, I clapped her on the shoulder a few times.
"Still, Penelia's the only one who ever thinks of me. Thanks for getting angry in my place."
She had taken work that should have been mine, but she had also stepped up and handled the thing that set her superior off. She had done it with good intentions, so I could let it slide.
Leaving the 4th Department Head bowing her head deeply again, I turned to the 1st Department Head. She was trembling worse than before—probably convinced that all the anger meant for both of them was about to land solely on her. Don't worry. You're getting a pass too.
"Erzebet?"
"Y-yes! Manager!"
The way the 1st Department Head barked the reply at full volume while locking into a rigid attention stance was a little funny. I huffed a quiet laugh and clapped her on the shoulder the same way I had the 4th Department Head.
"Earlier was just a mistake. Right?"
"N-no, sir. I should have been faster…"
"It was a mistake. You've done well so far, Erzebet. Anyone can slip up once in a while."
As I offered the reassurance, the trembling in her body gradually subsided. Where else would you find a superior who looks out for his subordinates like this?
"You can do it properly this time, can't you?"
"Yes, sir!"
The boot-camp-level intensity of her answer left me mildly satisfied.
"Thinking about it, the fact that they knew about the northern business means they definitely have backers or collaborators."
"I'll uncover every last one of them!"
"Good. Let's do this right. Understood?"
The way she kept nodding made me think she would actually deliver this time. When the 1st Department Head was serious, she produced results that satisfied.
"I'll head to the booth for a bit, then. I should at least show my face before today's operating hours end."
If the person who left saying he had someone to meet never returned by the time the booth closed, people might start thinking something was strange. I needed to slip over alone, make an appearance, and then get back to the forest.
Watching the Manager's back as he headed toward the Academy, I finally managed to calm my racing heart. When he touched my shoulder. When he called me by name instead of by my title as 1st Department Head. I wondered if a heart could even beat harder than this—it had been pounding like mad.
Hehe…
We're fucked.
We were completely fucked.
He was only holding it down inside. He had truly lost it.
Most people who had rolled around on the battlefield developed their own personal jinxes. The Manager was one of them. He never, ever called a civil servant by name. Not in public, not in private—always by title. His jinx was the very act of using someone's name.
Because over those two years in the north, he had lost so many people he had grown close enough to call by name. Because out of the suicide unit assembled to kill Kagan, the Defier of Heaven, the only one who made it back to the Imperial Capital alive was the Manager.
And yet for him to call someone by name instead of title meant his head and body were so far out of sync that he hadn't even registered the jinx. That only ever happened when he was genuinely, properly furious.
You son of a bitch.
I glared at the headless leader of the Third Glory. I had been treating him as a cute new toy, and I never imagined he would pull a stunt like this. Thankfully the Manager hadn't exploded outward. No—actually, the fact that he was bottling it up inside made it even scarier…
"Penelia. You okay?"
I shifted my gaze from the headless bastard to Penelia. The Manager, who had always favored the 4th Department especially, had called the 4th Department Head by name as well. I couldn't even imagine the shock Penelia must have taken.
Even now she was muttering something with her head bowed. From the perspective of someone who lived solely for the Manager, it must have felt like the sky was falling. I let out a small sigh and stepped closer to comfort her.
"The Manager said I'm the only one the Manager said I'm the only one the Manager said thank you the Manager called me by name the Manager said I'm the only one…"
"Ah."
I had worried for nothing.
Leaving Penelia muttering with slightly terrifying intensity behind me, I headed for the remaining members of the Third Glory.
I gestured at a few still-frozen Mukgwangdae members, and they quickly fell in behind me. Their steps gained a little weight as they recovered their wits. Looks like they were pissed off too. Well, they had just watched some crazy bastard insult the Manager to his face.
"Bring that one."
"Yes, ma'am."
I pointed out a suitably unconscious specimen; they immediately ran over and dragged it in front of me. Since interrogation required the subject to be conscious, I slapped it across the face to force it awake.
The instant it opened its mouth to scream, a Mukgwangdae member shoved a gag in. Yeah. These kids were sharp—easy to work with.
"I wasn't originally planning to go this far, but your leader committed a major offense against us. My condolences."
I pulled a dagger from my coat and started talking—then suddenly found the thought strange. Why was I offering this thing condolences? We were the ones who had taken one-sided damage here. If anything, didn't this one share the guilt for failing to manage its leader?
"On second thought, I don't particularly feel any condolences."
I could do this with a clear conscience.
Nodding to myself, I checked the edge of the dagger, then began carefully peeling a little flesh from the Third Glory member in front of me.
How many flayings can you last through? Hang in there for a long, long time.
I had managed to avoid becoming the kind of toxic superior who dumped personal rage on his subordinates. Still, time had given me a bit more patience than before. In the old days I would have charged in the second I heard something like that.
"A man who climbed the ranks on his comrades' blood money."
The words kept circling my head, and my brow furrowed on its own. No matter how much patience I had gained, some things still felt like absolute shit. What made it worse was that I couldn't even deny it. Because it wasn't wrong.
I forced the thought aside as best I could. By the time I reached the Academy, I could see booths already wrapping up for the day. Damn. A little late. I picked up the pace to the Baking Club booth—only to find it empty as well. Definitely late.
"Ah, Oppa!"
Just as I was about to turn back toward the forest, Luise's voice called from behind me. She had been crouched in a corner of the booth; now she popped her head out.
"What are you still doing here?"
"I'm the club president, after all. I had to wait until you came, Oppa."
The way Luise grinned as she said it made me huff a laugh. As if she had any idea when I would show up, just waiting blindly.
"Where are the others? They wouldn't have just left."
"The people from the Three Kingdoms took them."
Luise said it simply, but I could feel how much Villar must have suffered to make that simple thing happen. Hauling those three back to the dorms while leaving Luise behind would have been no easy task. And in the middle of that, Erich and Ainter got dragged off too—whose work was that? A counter-check from the foreign trio who couldn't afford to leave the two of them behind?
They're good at checks, I'll give them that.
No one could pull ahead, and at the same time no one was allowed to pull ahead. Weirdly well-balanced bastards.
"Oppa, could you give me your hand for a second?"
"My hand?"
I held it out without thinking, then belatedly realized my mistake. I had wiped it, but the smell of blood might still be clinging to it—not exactly a pleasant scent for a kid who ought to grow up seeing only nice things. Luise paid it no mind, though, and set a small pouch on my palm. Thankfully it didn't seem to smell.
"I made them extra sweet this time!"
"Did you?"
"They say sweet things are good when you're tired."
At Luise's worried words, my body went still for a moment.
"You looked really tired, Oppa. I hope this helps even a little."
"Yeah."
"Um… Oppa? Like I told you before…"
"If anything comes up, tell me anytime?"
"Hehe…"
I watched her laugh awkwardly, then looked down at the pouch in my hand. Sweet food is good when you're tired—I'd heard that plenty of times.
"Thanks. I'll enjoy them."
"Yes!"
I gave a small smile back to the brightly beaming Luise.
After confirming she was heading back to the dorms, I left the Academy myself to return to the forest.
Sweet things are good when you're tired, huh.
I opened the pouch Luise had given me and took out one of the cookies inside. The clean shape said she had made them with care. Back then I never could have imagined anything this neat.
"Karl! I brought something good!"
"Ta-da! How about it? Where else are you going to get a chance to eat dessert in the north, huh?"
"Do you ever look in a mirror? You've got exhaustion plastered all over your face."
"Sweet stuff is the best when you're tired! I'm giving this to you because I care, so eat it!"
"And don't go bottling things up alone, kid. If anything's wrong, you come tell this big sister anytime!"
Ah.
"Fuck."
Whether it was because I had just heard that kind of talk from the vermin, or because Luise had said something similar—old memories suddenly rose up.
I looked down at Luise's cookie for a moment, then carefully took a bite.
"It's good."
Yeah. It was good. Luise's cookies were good.
The cookies I had eaten in the north had been good too. The best of anything I had ever tasted.
So Luise's cookies were good as well. Just like back then in the north.
Yeah. Luise's cookies would definitely be good. They would be.