TSSAH 32

Chapter 32

I didn’t think Gisela Loth was the type of mentor who would neglect her junior.

From how she’d treated Noah Benton just a moment ago, she actually seemed like a pretty decent senior.

Her words and actions were a bit rough, but she knew how to roll up her sleeves and step in for a junior who couldn’t manage their own share, and she didn’t hesitate to offer affectionate nagging either.

She had a sense of duty as a crow, and just as much attachment to it.

I could tell from how her expression and tone had become oddly relaxed after we moved into the real Nest.

In many ways, she was a rare personality in this line of work.

Giving someone your heart meant exposing yourself to the risks that came with it.

‘If that’s the case, there’s only one reason she’d neglect me like this.’

That I still hadn’t made it inside Gisela Loth’s fence.

That was a bigger problem than I’d thought.

If Gisela Loth was simply the type with high walls in interpersonal relationships, it wouldn’t matter.

Being a crow alone might not be enough to make me someone special to her.

But what if it was because I ‘still’ wasn’t a real crow?

I let out a deep sigh and opened *The History and Genealogy of Knox*.

The door was closed, and it was a windowless sealed room, but that didn’t mean there was no way to observe me.

Especially here in Knox, where all sorts of bizarre mana engineering techniques were scattered everywhere.

I stretched my neck and began to study.

“It’s not over until it’s over.”

—

***Click.***

I woke to a faint sound from outside my quarters.

“Ugh, I’m starving. What’s the cafeteria lunch menu today…”

“I heard it’s not great, let’s just eat out…”

Judging by the voices drifting away as they chatted, it seemed like noise unrelated to me.

I thought about going back to sleep since I’d woken up suddenly, but my drowsiness was already gone.

Well, considering they were talking about lunch menus outside, it must be midday—no way I’d still be sleepy.

I lightly raised myself and checked the window and door.

There were no signs of intrusion, and everything was in the same state as last night.

I picked up the necklace hanging by the bed and stood before the mirror. A woman with long black hair and red eyes looked back at me.

I quietly put on the necklace, and she soon became a boy.

Runelk Ains—still too youthful to be called a mature man, with hazy blue eyes and fluffy dandelion-seed-like blonde hair.

Once I was back in this form, far more familiar than my original self, I felt at ease.

“Ahh, maybe I’ll go for a walk.”

It was a sudden impulse, but an excellent choice.

The sunlight was dazzlingly bright and warm, and just walking along leisurely seemed to melt the tension from my entire body.

“Oh, rookie, heading out to eat?”

“The cafeteria food’s bad today. Go eat somewhere else.”

“Yes, hello there.”

Members of the same action squad but different teams spotted me coming out of the quarters and tossed a word or two before passing by.

“Nice holiday, huh.”

That’s right.

Today was a holiday.

According to Knox’s rules, we should get one every week, but due to chronic manpower shortages, if you’re lucky, you get one every two weeks.

When I mentioned yesterday that I’d heard about the holiday, Gisela Loth glanced over her documents and tossed out casually:

“Oh? Then tomorrow, don’t come to the Nest. Get some rest.”

That was why I’d gotten a real holiday—free not only from the action squad but from the crows as well.

So I should be thrilled, like finding an unexpected cookie.

“But something feels off.”

Five days had already passed since Gisela Loth gave me those five books.

With the instruction to memorize two of them entirely, she’d left me to my own devices.

Even when I went to the Nest, I just stared at the pages of content I already knew, day after day.

At first I thought it wasn’t so bad—boring but comfortable.

Now I felt like furniture that had been abandoned and forgotten in a storage room.

“She even looked startled when she saw me yesterday.”

That was about Gisela Loth.

I’d been so bored that I came out of the storage room and approached her to talk, and she was so surprised she gave me a holiday as if to get rid of me.

“I have a rough idea why, though.”

I stopped walking, having been strolling along idly.

I’d thought I was walking along the outskirts where the action squad quarters were, but I’d wandered deeper into the inner area than I’d realized.

Today was my holiday, but for others, it was time to take a lunch break after working hard.

Standing at a bustling intersection, watching people walk toward their own destinations, I thought absently.

‘There’s no rule saying you can’t go to the Nest on a holiday… is there?’

Having thought that absentmindedly, I turned my feet toward the passage to the annex.

There was one thing I’d overlooked—impulsively going out for a walk, and impulsively heading toward the Nest—I’d forgotten that to get to the annex, I had to pass in front of the main building.

—

***In front of the main building, there was a long, well-paved gray stone road.***

At the main gate where that road began, there was a small plaza—a sort of meeting place where people gathered in small groups to soak up the sun or chat.

Since the plaza was always crowded, I didn’t pay it much attention.

My destination was the annex, which you could only reach by taking a side path at the fork just before reaching the plaza.

I walked along the road, keeping my ears open to the conversations around me.

“The Winterdale Clan…”

“We need to review the budget again…”

The conversations passing back and forth all seemed like extensions of work.

Besides, even though it was a plaza, it was technically an附属 facility attached to the main building, so no one raised their voice or laughed boisterously.

The main building was their workspace, and also the workspace of Duke Killian Knox and the seven executives.

“Rookie!”

So when I heard someone call my name, I thought it was a hallucination.

Unless they’d lost their mind, no one would shout that loudly in front of the main building.

“Rookie! Over here, over here!”

But when I didn’t stop walking, the voice only grew louder.

To make matters worse, even the people who had been chatting among themselves nearby all turned to look at me.

‘Really? They’re really calling me?’

Stunned by this unbelievable reality, I hesitated and looked up—and there, in the middle of the plaza, in a prime spot where the sun shined brightest, was Deacon Gold, waving his hand at me.

It turned out the person shouting someone’s name loudly in front of the main building wasn’t insane.

He was just an executive who wielded absolute power and therefore didn’t need to care what others thought.

“Rookie!”

And Deacon Gold wasn’t alone.

Judging by the smoke, he’d been enjoying a cigarette in the sun—and through the hazy smoke, Dupont Clansher was standing there as well.

“Come over here!”

Damn it.

Was he going to keep doing that?

At this rate, even the people working normally inside the building would open their windows and stare out.

I hurriedly dashed into the plaza.

Meanwhile, Deacon Gold had stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray his adjutant was holding, waved his hand to disperse the thick smoke, and fussed about.

In the process, his sleeve fluttered, and Dupont Clansher, who still had a cigarette in his mouth, frowned slightly and stepped back.

“Sir Deacon, you called for me?”

“Long time no see, rookie. Have you been well?”

No, why did you call me!

And until the whole neighborhood was staring!

I wanted to shout that at Deacon Gold, who was so calmly asking how I was, but on the outside I smiled and nodded.

At the same time, I subtly glanced at Dupont Clansher, who was watching from a few steps away.

The cigarette in his large hand looked impossibly small.

“Oh, I’m late with introductions. Brother, this is Runelk Ains. The action squad member who subdued the Green Merchant Guild master.”

Deacon Gold said to Dupont Clansher.

It seemed they were on casual terms in private settings.

Well, they were like relatives who’d been born within Knox’s walls and grown up close since childhood, so that made sense.

“Brother, you visited him in the hospital back then too—do you remember?”

At Deacon Gold’s question, Dupont Clansher, who had drawn deeply on his cigarette until his cheeks hollowed, stubbed it out in the ashtray and gave a short nod.

“I think so.”

Hmm, so we’re pretending not to know each other, then.

A rookie crow just does what the head crow tells them to do.