Chapter 013
○ Kalmond Chocolat
Rank: ★★★
Level: 38
Traits: Escape A, Lockpicking A, Ambush B, Daggersmanship B, Unard Combat B, ???
Status: Despair
[Not Unlocked]
[Not Unlocked]
......
Fortunately, his information was displayed before my eyes. Every now and then there were people whose information simply would not open, and that could be maddening, but this bastard was an exception.
I needed to try making physical contact with more people. I still did not know the exact activation condition yet.
Looking at it, he was a textbook assassin. His Ambush and Lockpicking Traits were both at a very high level, which made it easy to understand why he served as the Enforcer Captain of an organization.
His level was 38.
Since Training Officer Cornel’s level had been 47, it seed reasonable to infer that people with considerable experience in a given field tended to have high levels.
By comparison, my friends Rohan and Arwen had both been in the single digits, while Beron, who had done so skulking around in the back alleys, had only been level 14, so the theory seed to fit well enough.
From now on, I ought to examine the level information of people I ca into contact with more carefully. If possible, I might even make a chart.
That said, those question marks bothered .
At the end of the detailed Traits of every person whose Status Window I had seen so far, there had always been question marks. Sothing seed to be locked, but how was I supposed to unlock it?
Well, that was a problem ti would solve on its own.
For now, getting out of here ca first.
Fortunately, I did not run into any enemies on the way out. The man guarding the back door had completely slumped over and was nodding off in his sleep.
When I returned to the quarters, I collapsed straight onto the bed. I rested while staring blankly at the ceiling.
How much ti passed like that?
A knock ca, and Rohan entered. I had told him to co by around this hour.
It was still deep in the night, so hardly anyone was moving about, and the corridor was quiet.
“How did it go?”
I grabbed a fistful of the papers strewn across the bed and waved them in my hand. Rohan’s eyes widened in shock.
“So you succeeded?”
“If I had not, do you think I would be lying here safe and sound like this?”
“Ha! So when you decide to do sothing, you really do it! Does this an we can send Training Officer Cornel down in one blow now?”
I would have preferred to rest a while longer, but for the sake of my friend, I forced myself upright.
Part of wanted to tell him the full story of infiltrating the warehouse. It had been a special experience for too.
But right now, I was tired.
And I could not be bothered.
If the opportunity ca later, I would tell him then.
“We need to analyze the materials more carefully first. We have to pick out only the things we can actually fit together. Before that, though, there is one problem....”
“A problem? What do you an? We have so much evidence.”
“When we have the evidence ready, who should we show it to? What would you do?”
Rohan rested his chin on his hand and fell into thought. Judging from his Status Window, he was not exactly blessed with outstanding intelligence, so I doubted anything brilliant would co of it.
“We obviously cannot show it to Training Officer Cornel. So should we not show it to Lord Yanrof after all?”
“If we followed the manual, that would be the proper course.”
“Then why not?”
“Because I cannot rule out the possibility that Head Butler Yanrof is involved in this too. If even Training Officer Cornel has been bought off, do you really think the Head Butler received nothing at all?”
“Our Head Butler is different! He is an upright and frugal man!”
It seed Rohan held the Head Butler Yanrof in truly high esteem. Well, that much I understood. He had once said Yanrof was the man he respected most.
I let out a sigh. Such an innocent friend.
This was a place where dia had not developed, so it was not easy to co across events or information.
The place I had co from had been different. There, you could see anything you wanted on the internet.
How many gentle-looking, mild-mannered people had committed unspeakably vile acts? Who could ever have imagined so strange middle-aged woman pulling strings behind the president of South Korea?
In other words, if I wanted to survive in a jungle like this, I had to start from the premise that unimaginable things could happen anywhere people gathered.
That was why, as a rule, it was always best to suspect people at least once if they were complete strangers. It cost nothing, and there was nothing wrong with being cautious.
“Think about Training Officer Cornel. Did he look like the sort of man who would stuff himself with dirty money? He did not, did he?”
“That is true.”
“We need to find another way. So indirect thod of purging the corrupt without walking straight into them.”
The first thing that ca to mind was moving the Knight Order. The knights were an independent military organization, a group that inevitably stepped into all major affairs of the House.
But neither Rohan nor I had any connection to them.
If we went to them with evidence like this without knowing anyone there, we might lose our heads instead.
I quietly lowered my gaze to the papers.
Then that docunt ntioning Young Lady Sapiela caught my eye again. Why in the world had those bastards been recording her movents...?
Wait. Sapiela?
Right.
That was it.
Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed through my mind.
I had found a way to deal with them through an organization that was neither the Butler Corps nor the Knight Order, and one that had no entangling interests at stake.
“Rohan!”
He jumped.
“Why are you shouting like that?”
“Can you bring Arwen here right now?”
“She is probably asleep.”
“Wake her up and bring her anyway. Right now.”
Perhaps he saw sothing in my eyes, because Rohan left the room with a dubious expression. While he was gone, I gathered the docunts that could serve as evidence into one pile.
A little later, the door opened, and Arwen entered with Rohan. Arwen looked as though she were still halfway through her journey in dreamland. Her eyes were only half open.
“What in the world is going on? Calling everyone at this hour.”
“I am sorry. Just sit down first.”
“I am sleepy.”
The way she rubbed her eyes was rather cute. But now was not the ti to be distracted by Arwen’s cuteness.
“Do not worry. I am about to wake you right up.”
I handed Arwen the materials I had prepared. Since she worked as a maid, she could read.
I had asked her once before in passing, and it seed the literacy rate in this world was actually quite low. But anyone who wanted to work as a butler or a maid had to know how to read. I had heard the three of us used to study together for that reason.
Arwen stared blankly at the papers, then jolted in surprise.
“These are rchant-company transaction docunts.”
“That is right. Look carefully at whose na appears there.”
“Cornel... You do not an Training Officer Cornel?”
I nodded.
She flinched again and stared even harder at the papers. Just as I expected, she looked thoroughly awake now.
I added an explanation.
“The quality of the goods delivered to House Adeline was poor. Training Officer Cornel was behind it. I could not find anything like a bribery ledger, but we secured letters and docunts, so that will be enough. The interesting part is that Butler Apprentices who pointed out the wrongdoing were quietly driven out without a trace. Read this too.”
I showed her the docunts I had found in Training Officer Cornel’s room as well. With that, the whole puzzle clicked into place. Arwen was so shocked that she dropped the papers.
“If there were any apprentices who failed out, or anyone who disappeared, then I am certain Training Officer Cornel had a hand in it.”
“T-then what are you going to do now?”
“I would like your help.”
“How?”
“Let et Young Lady Sapiela.”
I played my trump card.
As expected, both of my friends were left staring at with their mouths open.
Arwen was one of Sapiela’s favored maids. That was because she was a simple country girl, amusing to tease, and kind-hearted enough to keep close by.
Well, none of that was my concern.
“The Arkain rchant Company’s warehouse was full of fresh ingredients. That is no different from insulting the House itself.”
I pulled a fresh apple from my pocket, one I had taken from the warehouse, and showed it to them.
“All right. I will try. It is too late tonight, so I will speak to her tomorrow.”
“I am counting on you.”
Arwen pressed her lips together and nodded.
The truth was, I had one more reason for wanting to et Young Lady Sapiela and discuss this matter with her.
Among the docunts I had found in the rchant company’s warehouse, her na appeared far too often.
My instincts were telling sothing.
These filthy bastards were planning sothing sinister.
***
After so ti, Arwen finally lost the battle against sleep and returned to her own room. Only Rohan and I remained.
“What exactly are you planning to do when you et Young Lady Sapiela?”
“There is a justification.”
“What justification?”
I let out a sigh and pointed at my head with a finger. Think a little, my friend.
“I first learned about this problem through Rosetta, did I not? Those Arkain rchant Company bastards delivered horrible ingredients, and because of that, the Young Lady’s banquet nearly turned into a disaster.”
“That is true.”
“If so, it is no different from having wronged the Young Lady herself, which ans that is how I should build the whole board. If she learns that her party nearly turned into a ss, do you think she will sit still? And right now, the House’s honor is being insulted too.”
“Oh! That is brilliant!”
But the look on his face was strange. Rohan blinked and asked,
“Still... was your head always this good? Out of the three of us, you were definitely the last one to learn to read.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Even so.”
“Then you should try falling from the third floor and hitting your head too. Who knows? It might improve things.”
Judging by how seriously Rohan took that, he seed as though he might actually consider trying it. I stopped him there and sent him back to his room.
After taking off my clothes, I inspected the small wounds on my body.
I had not been slashed or stabbed by a blade, but I had picked up a few scrapes while dodging attacks.
I applied the dicine Arwen had left behind and wrapped bandages around the injured spots.
Then I lay down on the bed, closed my eyes, and waited for the next day to co.
***
Morning broke.
Today was my last day working at Rosetta. In high spirits, I washed up and began preparing for duty.
The docunts I had taken from the warehouse yesterday were stored sowhere no one could ever find them. If Training Officer Cornel heard that the warehouse had been raided, there was a high chance he would suspect .
In that case, of course I needed to prepare for it.
Before anything else, perhaps I should go have a look at Training Officer Cornel’s face.
On the pretext of giving my morning work report, I went to the Training Officer’s office. But the butler standing guard in front of it stopped .
“There is a guest inside. Step back and wait for a while.”
“Understood.”
A guest?
At once, that sharp intuition of mine began to stir again. Normally, if I were just another Butler Apprentice, they would have let enter. After all, the matter concerned work.
But the fact that I had been stopped ant only one thing.
The guest inside was not an ordinary person.
In that case, I would have to confirm it sohow.
With a thick door standing in the way, there was no way to know who was inside or what sort of conversation was taking place.
But that was only true for ordinary people.
I had a special power.
I drew the mysterious force from my heart upward toward my ears. My ears humd, and my hearing began to amplify.
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