Blending In
Blending In
Upon hearing our answer, he closed the door and entered.
Then, with movements utterly devoid of any hesitation, he bowed to Helsi.
"Thank you for seeking us out. I am Angus Stewards, the manager of this hotel."
Even as he straightened his back and took a step back, waiting for our reply, his gaze remained fixed solely on the tips of Helsi's feet.
"I hear you are interested in our hotel's 'secret service'."
Helsi glanced at me for my cue.
Fortunately, her immersion wasn't broken, but it seemed she was quite flustered after witnessing 'the dignity of the real thing.'
I bought us some time for now.
"What's the secret service?"
I asked with an innocent face, and even the manager seemed thrown off.
"Ah. My apologies for such a blunder..."
Then, he smiled kindly and explained.
"It's a service that provides assistance to guests who find themselves in trouble in a foreign place. The reason it's a secret is to ensure that those who use this service do not face any further difficulties."
"Ooh." I let out an appreciative exclamation.
The manager cautiously asked Helsi.
"Is she your attendant?"
It seemed Helsi had re-entered her method.
She shook her head, then stared at the window with a distant gaze.
"It's fine if she stays."
Then, rising from her seat, Helsi drew the curtain over the window and asked.
"You've no doubt heard the story. You came because it was possible."
The manager's expression turned grave again as he answered.
"We cannot directly assist you. However, I have a proposal that may suit your tastes, which is why I have come to see you."
This might be a bit difficult...
I glanced at Helsi, and sure enough.
She had foreseen this situation and drawn the curtain.
With her back to the manager, staring at the curtain, Helsi's pupils were trembling violently.
She was so flustered that it was amazing she was keeping her voice so haughty.
"Let's hear it."
Oblivious to the client's panic, the manager lowered his voice another notch.
"Have you heard that the 2nd Fleet is mobilizing to support the expeditionary force?"
A counter-question about the affairs of the world?
This wasn't in the script.
Before Helsi could glance at me again, I stepped in first to send a message.
"I know! I heard it from some ajumma!"
In truth, just claiming to know was also dangerous.
It could be information where knowing made you a liability, or the manager might be feeding us false intel to test us.
But right now, I was a child.
In either case, I could just brush it off by saying the child must have misheard.
Of course, there was the risk that the other party wouldn't believe it, but fortunately, that worry was unfounded.
The manager continued as if it were only natural.
"The Council is gathering civilian vessels to participate in the support. And a certain noble lady I serve has already expressed her intention to join."
Helsi had received my message properly.
She turned to face the manager with a look of amusement and asked.
"And?"
Meeting her haughty face, the manager lowered his gaze.
"You will have to hear the details from the lady herself. Naturally, compensation will be prepared generously on that end."
Then, he asked as if pleading.
"May I arrange a meeting?"
Helsi paced around the room, pretending to think.
During that time, her gaze moved naturally, checking my reaction.
I swayed my body back and forth discreetly, then nodded at the right moment.
A short while later.
Helsi stopped walking, picked up the gold coin lying on the bed, and approached the manager.
"Set it up."
Then, holding out the gold coin, she added with a seductive flourish.
"And make sure it's not shabby."
The moment the manager left, Helsi started trembling violently. She was so afraid her voice might leak out that she couldn't speak and just thrust her face towards me.
A face full of anxiety and impatience.
'Doesn't she know she did well?'
Most people are incredibly good at recognizing when they've done well but remain oblivious to their mistakes. It seemed Helsi was one of those 'special cases.'
I've rarely seen that specialness manifest in a positive way, but since its potential rivaled winning the lottery, it gave me pause.
'Maybe I should train her as an assistant.'
It wasn't a decision to make right away.
For now, I needed to calm Helsi down.
"You did well. Just keep it up like that."
We decided to handle the newly appeared schedule.
"Let's go out and buy some newspapers and books. If we're going to deal with 'real nobles,' we need to have some culture ourselves."
Stepping back outside, we left Mauji Street and headed for the busiest thoroughfare in Brighton.
In front of the tram stop, we bought several different kinds of newspapers, and in an alley where robed students were milling about, we picked up a few books marked as new releases.
We read them in a second-floor café overlooking a small square where three streets converged.
Even though I had cast Perception Inhibition Magic, there were still people who reacted oddly upon seeing Hati.
It wasn't just surprise at her black sclera; they would become dazed, as if bewitched by something.
Zenon had studied the Dampir in extreme detail, but he had shown no interest whatsoever in the 'something' that was born alongside them.
The only material he left on the subject was a single thin notebook.
'It's probably a field handled by another lab...'
The 'Eastern Base,' said to be across the sea.
I had memorized the location, but even if this job succeeded and I managed to leave the country, I had no intention of going there right away.
Forcing my way in by force risked data loss, and there was too much I needed to learn beforehand.
Even in the newspaper I was currently reading, I found five events that I absolutely needed to know about.
Each one was a difficult research topic requiring extensive prior knowledge.
I glanced over at Helsi.
She was clutching her head, staring at a single newspaper that she'd been gripping for the past hour.
A person who, by all accounts, came from a clerical background was acting like this.
'Is this the kind of intelligence that can be improved through training?'
I estimated Helsi's brain development using the database I'd built up since my past life, then made a decision.
'I guess I'll have to try to find out.'
It was a form of human experimentation in its own way, so it piqued my interest.
A carriage was waiting in front of the hotel when we returned.
In a world where trams were common enough to go down side alleys, the 'Dragon-scaled Horse Carriage' before me was surprisingly rarer and more expensive than a private vehicle.
A Dragon-scaled Horse.
With hooves as sharp as a bird's beak and vertically slit irises, this horse was frequently used as material for chimeras in Zenon's lab.
Thanks to that, I knew its traits and price very well.
'Grade 3 or higher... That's a pretty fine steed.'
Since it was my first time seeing a fresh, living creature, I was observing it closely when the manager walked out from the hotel.
"I've been waiting."
Then, opening the carriage door, he explained.
"I've arranged the meeting at a private villa in the Miheln House district. A dedicated lounge is also prepared there, so let's go for now."
His manner and atmosphere were no different from before.
A solemn tone.
Calm movements.
That's why opening the door and looking was strange.
'What's the rush?'
Maybe his natural disposition was domineering or overbearing.
I could have tested it by deliberately dragging things out, but I didn't want to sour the mood before we even got down to business.
So, I quietly boarded the carriage.
The carriage ran along the main road.
It left the busy district, skirted the outskirts along a stream, and headed for the most secluded section of a street lined with luxurious mansions.
The place we arrived at was a 'ㄷ'-shaped stone mansion with a small garden of about fifty pyeong visible beyond an iron-barred fence.
Looking around, I could see one or two such mansions scattered among a complex of old-fashioned villas.
Roughly one for every three or four blocks.
Even the villas making up the blocks were lavish buildings with white marble carvings hanging here and there, so this was clearly an upper-class neighborhood within a wealthy district.
It was odd that the gatekeeper of such a mansion was a woman in a maid's uniform.
'Is the security so good here that they don't invest in guards?'
The gate opened.
When the carriage stopped in the garden, the manager, who had been sitting on the driver's seat, opened the door and said.
"Please follow the maid. She will guide you to the lounge."
Hati jumped out first, so I followed her out.
Helsi was flustered for a moment, then came to her senses and chided us.
"Both of you, be a bit more composed. Always think of yourselves as the face of the family."
The face of the family...
Good, deep immersion.
"Yes..."
I answered cheerfully, thinking.
'Maybe it's time for me to show some enthusiasm too.'
I nicked my finger and let a single drop of blood fall.
The droplet crawled along the floor like a slime and attached itself to the sole of the manager's shoe.
As we followed the maid, I focused on the vibrations the droplet sent back.
The vibrations, which had been transmitted muddily like hearing music underwater, gradually grew clearer.
By the time we crossed a red-carpeted hallway, entered a lavish drawing-room, and Hati had climbed onto a plush sofa and taken the posture of a toast slice, I was able to convert all the vibrations into sound.
The manager's voice rang in my head.
'Lady Adel. The guests have arrived.'
The woman's voice that answered was gentle as a holy woman's, yet firm as a soldier's.
'Yes. Just finished up on this end as well.'
And cold as a serpent's.
'Kill them.'