TSSAH 28

Chapter 28

Senior Graff’s current affiliation was the Intelligence Division.

He had worked in the Action Division for a long time before an opportunity arose and he transferred to the Intelligence Division. That was also why Senior Hartmann was so happy to see him, and why they had cleaned up the outpost so neatly.

“Senior, how is life in the Intelligence Division?”

“It’s hectic every day, you know. Sorry about last time. Something urgent came up all of a sudden.”

“Oh, not at all! We’re all in the same Knox fortress! Whenever you come is fine!”

He was talking about the time last time when he had planned to visit the outpost to hear my hero story but suddenly canceled the appointment.

Thanks to that, I was glad I didn’t have to repeat the same story again, but some of the seniors who had been excited to meet Senior Graff after a long time were quite disappointed.

The one most deflated among them was Senior Hartmann.

“Please sit here, Senior! And tell us some stories about the Intelligence Division!”

“Well, there’s not much I can talk about outside.”

“Kuh! So cool, classified information!”

Senior Hartmann was the ambitious type.

So he wanted to join a major department someday, not the Action Division, and Senior Graff was someone who had accomplished that before him.

So of course he was anxious to make a good impression, even making me do cleaning I’d never done before.

“I heard you got promoted recently too!”

“I can’t tell you how reassuring it is to have a senior from the Action Division in the Intelligence Division!”

It wasn’t just Senior Hartmann wagging his tail beside Senior Graff.

All the veteran Action Division members who had considerable years of service gathered around him.

“This promotion was just luck. Even so, I’m still at the very bottom, as always.”

Seeing the seniors begin their conversation in earnest, I quietly asked Senior Bono.

“It looks like the cleaning is all done—can I step outside?”

“You should stay and listen more. Jump in and ask questions too.”

“I don’t really have anything to ask.”

I already knew as much as I needed to about the Knox Intelligence Division.

Besides, Gisela Loth had told me not to do anything that would draw people’s attention.

I figured it was best to avoid noisy places as much as possible.

“Alright, go ahead.”

I bowed my head and stepped outside the outpost.

Only after settling in front of the campfire did I finally feel like I could breathe.

“Maybe I’ll close my eyes for a bit.”

As Gisela Loth had said—enjoy the last of your leisure—the energy I’d recharged before coming to work was completely spent cleaning the outpost.

Leaning my head against a tree while sitting down, sleep poured over me as if it had been waiting.

Even then, the clamor from inside the outpost never ceased.

Whether it was because they were excited by Senior Graff’s appearance, everyone’s voices were louder than usual today.

‘Chatty old men.’

That was my last thought before I dozed off.

If only I could have slept deeply for a long time.

But as soon as I woke from my light sleep, I could instinctively tell that not much time had passed.

And also that someone was approaching me.

Without deliberately opening my eyes, I gauged the presence coming toward me.

‘Not Action Division.’

If it were the seniors, they’d have been shouting from afar—”Rookie, you bastard, get up right now!”

They wouldn’t be sneaking up like this.

But their skill at muffling footsteps and controlling breathing was quite clumsy.

I judged it wasn’t a threat requiring immediate action, and pretended to wake up naturally.

“Ugh, oh my back. ……Senior Graff?”

The presence felt unfamiliar, and the one approaching me was Graff Müller, who should have been inside the outpost receiving praise from his juniors.

“Oh? Haha, did I wake you?”

Being caught sleeping on duty by a senior, and a legendary one at that—for a low-level operative like Runelk Ains, it was the kind of situation that would make his heart drop.

“Oh, no! I was really just resting my eyes for a moment!”

As I hurriedly made excuses and tried to get up, Graff Müller sat on a nearby log and smiled with a kind face.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t get up, stay seated. That’s just how night duty is. And I’m not even in the Action Division anymore, so what does it matter?”

He even winked one eye—a perfect example of a generous senior overlooking a junior’s mistake.

“Th-thank you, Senior Graff.”

“Right. You’re Runelk Ains, aren’t you? The one rumored as the little hero.”

“It’s an undeserved nickname… I really only lent a hand in catching the assassin, so it’s quite embarrassing.”

“For such a young Action Division member to lend a hand is impressive enough. And it seems your role was bigger than you think?”

He then glanced toward the outpost and whispered playfully to me.

“It’s a secret from the guys inside, but I was actually the one in charge of gathering information on that incident.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Haha, I got lucky. Thanks to that, I got promoted too.”

He tapped his chest with his fingertips—beneath the silver eye symbolizing the Intelligence Division, there were two bars indicating a regular member.

In Action Division terms, that was the same rank as Senior Jake.

Which meant that until recently, he had been a low-level member just like me.

‘Does the Intelligence Division not count Action Division experience?’

Being a low-level member at what looked to be around forty years old.

It seemed Graff Müller’s life in the Intelligence Division was quite tough.

“I heard the kids call you ‘Rookie’—mind if I do the same?”

“Of course, Senior.”

“Right, Rookie. I heard you got called up to the higher-ups again this time?”

“…Pardon?”

What was this about?

When I tilted my head, Graff Müller repeated himself.

“The day you missed duty, I mean. I heard from the kids that you got summoned from above that day?”

“Oh, that day.”

He was talking about the day I struck a deal with Killian Knox, got dragged away by DuPont Clanshire, and became a Crow.

I’d wondered why none of the seniors said anything even though I hadn’t shown my face at the outpost—apparently they’d brushed it off as “being called by a high-ranking official.”

It was a pretty half-hearted excuse.

Well, at that point Killian Knox was still planning to kill me, so he wouldn’t have bothered putting any effort into a false pretext.

“That’s right. I went to the main building.”

“Hoo, that must have been tough. Which official called you?”

“DuPont Clanshire.”

There were a few reasons I gave DuPont Clanshire’s name.

First, it would have been too much to say I met Killian Knox—that man was too big of a figure.

Also, there might have been witnesses who saw me walking with DuPont Clanshire that night, from the Duke’s office to the secret passage.

And most of all, he was the leader of the Crows.

Even if Graff Müller tried to dig deeper after hearing my answer, I trusted that DuPont Clanshire would somehow handle it.

‘Since he’s in the Intelligence Division anyway, being careful can’t hurt.’

Even as I thought that, I smiled bitterly inwardly.

The reputation of Graff Müller I’d heard from the seniors was impeccable.

He was diligent, good-natured, and generous to juniors—they said no one envied him even when he was selected for the Intelligence Division and transferred.

On the contrary, everyone genuinely congratulated Graff Müller.

I didn’t like that I was being wary of such a senior—someone I was meeting for the first time today.

“DuPont, you say?”

Graff Müller’s wrinkled eyes went wide.

“Rookie, you’re acquainted with Sir DuPont too?”

“Acquainted? That can’t be. I was just summoned, that’s all.”

I quickly waved both hands.

‘I should have just given a different name!’

It was just this morning that my handler warned me to live quietly as a mouse until the rumors about the “little hero” died down.

When I heard the threat that “breaking the rules means death,” I hadn’t thought much of it.

But now that I’d made an unintentional mistake, just recalling Gisela Loth’s face sent a chill down my spine.

“Wouldn’t you be the one more acquainted with him, Senior?”

“Me?”

“You kept calling him ‘Sir DuPont’—I must have misheard.”

“Haha, did I?”

Graff Müller looked quite flustered as he trailed off.

“I work in the main building, so I see his face often as people come and go. I must have done it without thinking.”

“That makes sense.”

It didn’t make any sense at all.

DuPont Clanshire was directly under Killian Knox, the highest-ranking among the executives, called the “First Star.”

Calling DuPont Clanshire by name?

‘Could this senior also be a Crow?’

For a moment that suspicion crossed my mind, but I soon dismissed it.

I’d only met Gisela Loth so far, but I was certain that at least her Crow colleagues wouldn’t be as sloppy as Graff Müller.

‘Then he’s the type who pretends to be acquainted.’

Just as the wariness I’d laughed at myself for was about to quietly shift into suspicion, Graff Müller delivered the finishing blow.

“So, can you tell me what you talked about with Sir DuPont?”