My heart was beating fast.
‘…All I saw was a list, so maybe the original was in the data warehouse?’
If so…
‘…no way… I guess not?’
Even as I forced myself to deny my assumptions, I couldn’t shake the horrifying feeling that my limbs were becoming more and more entangled in the tight web Luke had created.
‘I certainly never received a file on the Lakers from a police officer or inspector when I was a player…’
…Was it because at this moment the material on Luke had burned? Was this pushing things a bit too far? She had a gut feeling that there wouldn’t be any valuable information, such as a case file on Luke, so I hoped not. The next time I passed by the government building, I would double-check, just in case, but I would have to proceed as though it had actually burned down.
If so, where are the files that the Lakers obtained from the Inspector General kept?
When I was a player, I once searched Luke’s room. So thorough that I even used the secret passage in his room. However, I had never seen a case file that appeared to have been received from the Metropolitan Police Department at that time.
‘Anyway, since the information from the Metropolitan Police Department was burned, the only thing we can rely on is the file that Luke says they have.’
I had to find it somehow. The moment I made that promise, I heard the conversation that had been cut off again.
“He says all kinds of things. And use this for travel expenses on the way. “If it’s not enough, please let me know at any time.”
“Hehehe. Oh, indeed. I shouldn’t receive something like this.”
No, you were giving money to the police like this. Moreover, they are treating it so slyly as if it is no big deal…?
‘Is this the only way the justice of this poem will survive? Uh? Is it true that you are determined to catch a serial killer?’
How do you handle matters like that when it comes to giving out gifts during Christmas? It’s unbelievable that I asked him for information and put my trust in such a hot pants inspector. Footsteps and a door were heard, and their voices became progressively more far away. It appeared as though the two intended to stroll together to the carriage and converse. Inspector Triver and Lakers emerged in the distance outside the glass, close to the carriage, while I was processing the facts I had overheard.
‘He even sent me off, the killer and the police inspector must have been very close… It’s a good thing.’
I was shocked and watched without taking my eyes off, but the moment the carriage started, Luke suddenly raised his head and turned to look at me.
‘…Hike.’
Even though it was a very long distance away, his gaze was extremely intense. As if he knew that I had been listening to their conversation with great interest, his sharp silver eyes did not leave mine for a very long time. I hurriedly took a step back from the window, averting my gaze. It was only when he was out of sight that I felt my racing pulse calm down.
“…phew.”
I let out a sigh and sat down on the high sofa where I could clearly see the children. Then, I suddenly remembered that there was something strange in their conversation. The pitfall of playing with children is that no matter how many times I play the same game to the point where I get sick of it and don’t want to do it again, they don’t get bored as easily as I do. That’s why I didn’t want to play hide and seek. It’s a scary game to play once, but it’s obvious that once you play it, you would be begging to play the same game again.
‘But a promise is a promise, so there’s nothing I can do about it.’
Both of today’s book reports were written with much more seriousness than I expected. Shine even wrote his handwriting quite beautifully. She needed to give a reward.
‘…And I wanted to find something using hide and seek as an excuse.’
Luke had made it sound like he would find the data and give it to Inspector Triver, but would he actually find the data and return it to him? If Rearmond had data somewhere, I had to find it myself. Thanks to this, I ended up having to suggest that the children play this scary game that they didn’t want to play several times.
‘…The work to be done is increasing, and there is no suitable helper. Shouldn’t the difficulty of this game be patched?’
I sighed, held the hands of the two excited children, and went out into the garden. The garden of the Rearmonds was so large, huge, and beautiful that I had never even explored it in its entirety. I didn’t even know flowers were blooming because it was a game where the weather was gloomy every day, but the red roses that covered the entire garden were blooming day and night. The item I wanted to find was indoors… It bothered me that I made eye contact with Luke earlier.
‘If I start searching for things indoors right now, it will probably be too obvious.’
If I got on his nerves like that, he might end up going crazy at any moment.
“Where do I begin?”
“When does it start?”
“Did you also tie your shoelaces?”
“Luna too!”
“Look at this, I’m wearing shoes that are comfortable to move around in.”
“Luna too!”
I forced myself to put my bloody thoughts aside while listening to the excited voices of two children who were very serious about playing hide and seek. As I looked around the wide garden, there seemed to be plenty of space to hide. No, there were too many of them, so it was a problem. An eerie atmosphere covered the entire garden, and the bushes, which were decorated only with red roses, looked as if they were drenched in blood. After all, playing hide and seek in this mansion would be perfect for having a heart attack.
“You must hide only in the garden. Understand? You can’t go far.”
Shine and Luna nodded, stamping their feet excitedly.
“Good. The teacher is a tagger.”
“Play tag!”
Yeah, well, the hiding role is probably fun. I made up a gloomy voice with the intention of making people happy that this had already happened.
“Good. Hehehe, I’ll make you regret saying you wanted to play hide and seek with the teacher. Ugh.”
“Ouch! Luna is scared!”
“Catch it!”
Shine and Luna teased me side by side, and when I waved both hands in the air as if I were a monster, they laughed and ran away to their respective positions.
“Ten… nine… eight… seven… Three, two… one… Find it now! Where are they? “Are they here?”
The Duke of Rearmond’s garden was a huge maze-like space manicured by the hands of professional gardeners. It was easy to find someone who was tall, but kids like Shine and Luna might not be able to see them if they decided to hide. All the bushes were so tall that if you crouched behind a trimmed rose bush, you wouldn’t even be able to see it until you got very close. To put it in a good way, it was a garden filled with time and history, but in a bad way…
“I heard garden water is that expensive. If I pull it all out and sell it, I’ll make a lot of money.”
I muttered sarcastically and wandered around the garden. As I was looking around in places that were hard to see, such as behind a gas lamp or behind the trunk of a large walnut tree, I quickly found Luna crouching down. Luna was as scared as I was, so it seemed like she couldn’t hide in a corner. The hem of Luna’s pure white dress was sticking out among the rose bushes not far away. However, if I found her soon, it was obvious that the game of hide and seek would start from the beginning again. Deciding to search for it as slowly as possible, I pretended to walk around False False and repeated the phrase ‘I can’t find them?’ over and over again. I could hear them giggling, wondering if it was so funny that I couldn’t find them.
[Shine’s favorability has increased.
Lv.2(90/198)]
[Luna’s favorability has increased.
Lv.2(35/198)]
And this information window pops up. These kids were really serious about hide and seek. I laughed and shouted ‘I can’t find them?’ a few more times in a spirit of service before Luna approached the bush where she was hiding. She may have moved her body a little during that time, so the hem of her white dress was not noticeable. I ran my hand through the vertically neatly trimmed bushes and made a loud sound as I moved.
“Where are you?”
Bushes much taller than me are standing in a row, almost like a huge wall. I stood close behind her, and leaned out next to her, excited to surprise Luna.
“I found you…!”
And what I found was not Luna. As I slowly raised my head, what met his gaze was the Duke Luke Rearmund, his face glowing yellow in the gaslight of the garden.
“…Oh, Duke?”
To be honest, I thought it took my breath away. If you were to survey occupations you don’t want to encounter while playing hide-and-seek, wouldn’t the first place be a murderer? Of course… Not only could it not be called a job, but even if it were, it wouldn’t be included as an example in the survey… Moreover, I came to the garden on purpose to avoid the person who caught my eye earlier… I never thought I’d meet him here. I looked at him, rubbing my poor heart that had almost stopped. While I was with my kids, I had forgotten that Luke existed. So I never thought he would suddenly pop out in a place like this.
“…What are you doing here?”
“I have nothing else to do. I only stopped by for a moment because Miss Green looked like she was having a lot of fun playing with my nephews.”
“…I see.”
The owner of this house says he wanders around the house to see what the people he hired were doing. I had nothing to say about that. Moreover, although I realized it too late now, it suddenly occurred to me that among the favorability events that appeared all at once when Luke’s favorability rating increased, there was ‘Hide and Seek’.
‘…What should I do with this?’
I had an ominous feeling that this game would not end as a simple game.
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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, 17.
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