I recalled the moment when his likeability rating rose the highest. Luke said ‘delete memory’ to me in a very different voice than usual, as if he was speaking directly from my head, and it was right after a system error message that I had never seen before appeared. For some reason, I found him interesting.
‘What if the ability he can use is the ability to erase other people’s memories?’
If that’s the case, destroying evidence would be a real deal to him. However, if the memory of me constantly going in and out of the police station and sticking my head out at every scene couldn’t be erased… I would be very uncomfortable.
‘I want to monitor my every move and what I do.’
In my opinion, it was a very plausible conclusion. Okay, at first, I wondered what he was thinking, but the way he took time out of his busy day to come and check on me was like ‘surveillance’ no matter where I looked.
‘…oh my god.’I got a cold and my body tightened at the thought. I comforted myself by taking a deep breath.
“He would have killed me immediately if he had intended to kill me in any case.” It could be alright because as of right now, I have not gotten any threats and my name is not listed in the case book.
But Inspector Triver Ruak and Mrs. Blier didn’t know other people’s feelings and thought there’s some kind of sweet love story going on between the two of them. I ran my hand over my pale face. I didn’t know if it’s time for me to worry about other victims, but that didn’t mean I could no longer afford to watch other people suffer while only caring for my own body.
And even if I only try to take care of my body… Now I have no idea what I can do to stop that abnormal man’s interest.’
I planned to spend time with the kids first and then go out as soon as the weekend came. I went to the alley where I fell under the pretext of going to the banquet hall and getting some clothes to wear. If I ever run into the officer who found me, I might be able to at least say thank you.
‘…Since we decided to go to the royal banquet together, you won’t stop us from going out, right? There’s also a great excuse to get a dress tailored.’
At first, it was a problem because I didn’t have money, but now I had to worry about whether I could go out even if I had money.
‘I’m really busy mountaineering.’
I sighed deeply and hurriedly gathered my thoughts when I felt someone hanging on both of my legs.
“Teacher, let’s play hide and seek.”
“Hide and seek!”
With eagerness, their brilliant silver and gold eyes were fixed on me. Refusing their request is difficult when they have those kind of eyes. In addition, I promised to listen first. The Learmond family’s immense influence may be the reason these two incredibly adorable kids have escaped appropriate punishment from a variety of tutors, but isn’t part of the reason they are so adorable also? Shine stared at my skin tone and murmured nervously as I smiled and caressed their heads side by side.
“Well, if you’re still incompetent and can’t do it, you can say that. I don’t want to play hide and seek like that.”
Luna protested strongly, raising her soft arms up, her breasts rising, as if she was startled by her brother’s words.
“No! Luna wants to do it!”
Shine straightened her back like a fully grown adult and looked at Luna.
“Luna, a noble should know how to take care of her subordinates.”
“…Subordinate? Albi is a teacher! “I want to play hide and seek!”
“That’s true, but… Anyway, do you want to see Arbice lying down in pain again?”
Luna raised her arms as if trying to annoy her, but she was startled by those words and looked at me in despair.
“Omg! Teacher Albi, are you sick again? Does it hurt? No, then it’s okay if you don’t play hide and seek.”
‘What are these lovely creatures?’
I thought the reason I was sick for three days like that was because I was physically exhausted, but also mentally exhausted. I was perfectly fine now. Moreover, hearing the sweet concerns of these cute children made me feel completely better. I smiled and hugged them both and whispered softly to them.
“Teacher, it won’t hurt anymore. So don’t worry.”
“Really?”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
When I said that, Shine immediately looked excited, as if he had forgotten everything I had said in an adult manner. He said it’s okay if we don’t play hide and seek. Trying not to show the inevitable smile on my face, I put on a stern face as best I could.
“Instead, let’s do it after completing all the assignments assigned today. If you can’t do everything today, you won’t be able to play.”
Today’s assignment was to write a book report. While I was thinking about something else for a moment, the book was already thrown on the floor. It was a task prepared for the two children who kept doing other things and having difficulty concentrating during reading time. Shine quickly picked up the book and made a very solemn face, wondering why it was so difficult. When I saw the two children nodding their heads with their lips pursed, I couldn’t help but laugh.
‘What on earth is hide and seek, why would you want to play like that?’
Well, I remembered I had a lot of things I wanted to do when I was young. Shine and Luna liked active things more than expected. Since Luke had ordered them not to go far, the distance they could go was limited, so Shine and Luna mainly played in the Duke’s garden. I played games with rackets and balls similar to croquet or badminton, jumped rope, and occasionally went for walks or treasure hunts whenever I felt like it. The children were likely to be so excited because the hide and seek game they were playing today allowed them to move around the widest area.
I sighed and made up my mind. Be prepared to wander around this gloomy old mansion, where there are probably as many as five hundred ghosts, and open dark closets and low drawers. While the children were writing their book reports, I took advantage of the silence to look out the window alone and saw a customer’s carriage coming in.
Clatter, rattle.
The carriage that came in with the sound of wheels rolling was a police carriage painted bright blue. Although it wasn’t as big as my room, I could clearly see the carriages coming and going from the window of this room where I was studying. As if Luke was a great celebrity, the Duke’s residence was crowded with guests, including high-ranking police officers and local officials, who came here all the time. Did he think he could get any good information by discussing the murder case with Luke and not with anyone else? …Or was he just trying to do it all…?
I opened the door slightly and listened. The good news was that the room where the children were taught was very close to Lukes’ office. If the door was slightly open, it was easy to overhear the conversations of police inspectors and officers coming and going in the hallway.
“I keep getting complaints that I can’t sleep because some dogs were barking yesterday and it was noisy.”
“So, that’s right. I’m already dying because I don’t have enough work, so I can’t even pay attention to the barking dog, right?”
“There’s no other way to say it’s crazy.”
I pretended not to listen but listened.
‘The moment all the dogs in the city start barking at once…?’
I suddenly remembered that such scenes happened often.
‘The dogs are barking… They are on guard for what?’
I didn’t think it was a very important element in the game, but hearing it now, it sounded very meaningful. As I was listening to the story while quickly scribbling down what I thought I needed to remember on the small notepad I was holding, I heard the sound of the door on the side where the Lakers were opening wide and the sound of conversation getting louder.
“Thank you for always cooperating in many ways. What I am leaving behind is a summary of the peculiarities seen at the scene of the Catherine Hunt murder case. I don’t know if you’ll find anything useful.”
Luke and Inspector Triver were closer than expected. I didn’t even know that he would come directly to report the details of the incident to the Lakers. Even organized the report.
‘No, this is… Isn’t this a leak of police secrets? Is this collusion between politics and business?’
I quietly listened, expressing my astonishment and dissatisfaction.
There was a long silence as the Lakers reviewed the data, and then his soft voice was heard.
“This is full of interesting information. As expected, the inspector is very capable.”
“We were all just following the Lakers’ instructions. The higher-ups were also happy that they had found some evidence this time.”
“Hmm? What am I?”
“Haha, anyway, you are humble. Rather, it’s about the material I gave you last time…”
“Ah, it’s the case file you gave me a while ago. It must be somewhere. If we find it, we will contact you immediately.”
“Haha, this is shameless. Even if we hadn’t been dissatisfied with our office’s data warehouse, we wouldn’t have had to ask for something like this. As all the old materials were completely burned down…”
‘…There was a fire?’
Fire… As I furrowed my eyebrows and thought about the story in detail, I remembered that there was an incident that was only briefly mentioned in one line. Yes, there was a fire in the data warehouse of the government office. I just thought it was a trivial incident… I stiffened in shock. Not long ago, when I visited the Metropolitan Police Department in person to testify as a witness. At that time, I saw a case file related to Luke listed.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on October, 12.
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