Nelle Meyer's investigation had, quite literally, ended as a mere formality.
For Jin Crow.
For Aton and Martin alike.
Naturally.
The answers had already been decided for both sides.
However, unlike Aton, who returned with a bright expression as though he had been granted absolution, Martin's anxiety and guilt only grew worse with each passing day.
Cigarettes. Park.
Even on the night he returned from the investigation, after receiving Aton's message and heading out with a half-dazed expression, nothing had changed.
‘Where did everything go wrong?’
He couldn't understand how everything had turned out this way.
At first, he had simply not wanted people looking down on him.
So he had started hanging around with Aton.
Pretending to be tough.
Life at the academy had been genuinely enjoyable.
No one dared provoke them.
And unlike the other male cadets, he had even felt a sense of superiority whenever he was around the girls.
But everything had begun falling apart once Aton started going out of control.
And once he himself had remained silent and tacitly gone along with it.
“Fuck.”
Eventually, after arriving at the outskirts of the park where they always smoked, Martin quietly cursed under his breath.
Just one absentminded remark.
Yet it was enough to provoke the already unstable Aton.
“......”
Aton slowly turned his head.
Their eyes met.
An awkward silence settled between them.
Aton was the first to speak.
Frowning, he looked Martin up and down with irritation before saying,
“What the hell's your problem, huh?”
“......”
Martin didn't answer.
He no longer held even the slightest expectation that they could still talk things out.
To begin with, he wasn't even sure why he had come.
Perhaps his body had simply moved out of habit while his mind remained numb.
Or perhaps he had merely wanted to get out somewhere because the suffocating feeling had become unbearable.
Still, one thing was certain.
Nothing good would come from staying here any longer.
Step-.
Seeing Martin's gloomy expression, Aton rose from where he had been sitting and walked toward him.
The flickering park lights cast shadows over both of their faces.
Then Aton spoke with a cold expression.
“Now that I think about it, you've always been like this. All talk, but never actually stepping up.”
“......Yeah.”
“Fucking pathetic.”
Before they knew it, the distance between them had shrunk considerably.
Close enough that if either of them threw a punch, dodging would be nearly impossible.
Martin slowly raised his head.
On that quiet night, where only the occasional chirping of insects broke the silence, he looked directly at Aton's face for the first time since everything had happened.
‘He doesn't feel guilty at all.’
Seeing that, Martin closed his eyes.
He and Aton were different.
Martin's conscience had not yet dulled enough to cast aside his guilt.
But he also lacked the courage to turn himself in.
That was why he had intended to speak.
He would tell him he wouldn't reveal anything to anyone.
And that he would quietly leave the academy.
But when he finally opened his eyes...
He could only stare blankly at Aton.
Unable to say a single word.
“......!”
What Aton held in his hand was a Special-duty weapon.
An axe.
And it was swinging straight toward Martin's neck.
'Why?'
That single thought flashed through his mind as he felt the end of his life approaching.
He was going to die.
The ferocious Psionic Energy contained within Aton's axe proved it.
For the first time in his life, the fear of death bound Martin's already-shaken body in place.
The axe descended, ready to harvest his neck.
Or rather...
It almost did.
Kagagagagang!
Had a spear not shot forward at an unbelievable speed and shattered the axe blade.
“Urgh!”
Fragments from the broken axe flew across both Martin's and Aton's faces.
Long crimson cuts were carved across their cheeks.
“Haaah!”
Martin collapsed to the ground.
Warmth spread through his trousers.
His body, only now realizing the terror of death, had given out completely.
As the fleeting terror faded...
A long shadow fell over him.
Looking up with trembling eyes, what entered his vision was none other than the back of a head covered in slightly curly ash-gray hair.
“......Ah.”
The sigh escaped unconsciously.
The moment he realized who it was, countless emotions became tangled together.
Shame.
Self-loathing.
Gratitude.
Relief...
Meanwhile, Aton, whose eyes had already become those of a man who had completely lost his mind, glared at Baek Hui-young standing before him as though he were a beast grinding its teeth.
“You... you again, Baek Hui-young.”
“I won't waste words. Aton, turn yourself in.”
Aton fixed his gaze on Baek Hui-young.
Ash-gray eyes.
Empty.
Similar to Jin Crow's.
He hated them.
Just because he happened to be good at cutting down monsters, he strutted around as though he were someone important.
Perhaps that was why.
“Go fuck yourself!”
Drawing out a spare axe, Aton sneered and immediately charged.
Tap!
His feet kicked off the ground.
The axe he swung was already filled with nothing but murderous intent toward Baek Hui-young.
Perhaps sensing it.
Baek Hui-young also gripped his spear with an icy expression and was just about to thrust—
“......Huh?”
The center of Aton's forehead suddenly turned crimson.
Instinctively realizing something had gone terribly wrong, Baek Hui-young let out a breath of shock.
But everything had already happened.
A tiny red dot lingered upon Aton's forehead.
Baek Hui-young's spear never reached him.
The back of Aton's head suddenly caved in like a rotten watermelon.
Then exploded.
Kwa-dududuk!
Red blood and bright scarlet fragments of brain matter splattered in every direction.
Some landed on Martin's cheek before slowly sliding off.
Thud.
His body, having lost all control, collapsed to the ground.
Witnessing Aton's death right before his eyes, Martin completely lost himself.
His body trembled uncontrollably.
“Famille!”
At Baek Hui-young's shout, Famille's Psionic Energy spread across the surrounding area.
“Ran! Beatus!”
“Got it!”
Immediately afterward, Dokgo Ran and Beatus sprinted toward the forest beside the park.
Hino Kanae likewise drew her katana and sharply scanned their surroundings.
“H-He died instantly.”
“It wasn't a gun. A spatial ability... No, if it were that, something still feels different.”
Even without Miel and Famille's hurried assessments, the conclusion had been obvious.
But that wasn't what mattered.
‘Kukenhauzen?’
Baek Hui-young silently stared toward the forest where Dokgo Ran and Beatus had rushed.
Then he bit down on his lip and thought with darkened eyes.
‘No... This is...’
This wasn't a close-range sniper shot.
And there was only one person capable of pulling off something like this.
‘Rosen's Quad Gear-class Esper Instructor.’
Head Instructor.
Ryuchen.
“......Ah... ah.”
Glancing at the shell-shocked Martin, Baek Hui-young quietly repeated Ryuchen's name to himself.
The silent Rosen had finally intervened.
That fact alone left his thoughts in utter chaos.
Meanwhile, from behind, Ner, who had witnessed everything unfold, narrowed her eyes before replaying the video she had just recorded.
“It came out perfectly.”
Regardless of Baek Hui-young's confusion, the incident had already begun accelerating rapidly.
“Damn it!”
As a result, Inspector Nelle Meyer's position became precarious due to Aton's death and Martin's confession.
Once again, that damned Blind was the problem.
Immediately after the video of Aton and Martin was uploaded, Obia Timist, who had previously cooperated with a pleasant smile out of respect for the authority carried by the title of inspector, barged into the temporary office Nelle Meyer was using and said,
“As Commander of the Military Police Battalion, I'd like to investigate your biased investigation, Inspector. That's alright, isn't it? Ah, by the way, that wasn't actually a question. If you don't like it, you should've done your job properly.”
Nelle Meyer had been about to curse at that cheerful smile.
But the killing intent contained within Obia Timist's crimson eyes forced her to shut her mouth.
Only then did she remember.
Obia Timist.
She too was a Quad Gear-class Special-duty Officer.
Of course, that didn't mean Obia had the authority to immediately arrest or dismiss an inspector sent by the Ministry of National Defense.
So after undergoing several rounds of questioning, Nelle Meyer was eventually allowed into Martin's interrogation room.
She knew the situation had gone wrong.
But she still had to determine whether there was any room left to salvage it.
After receiving Aton's message, we headed to the vending machine in the alley near Training Ground 15. And there...
Just as she had feared, things had already gone completely off the rails.
Perhaps because of that.
Nelle Meyer bit her lip until it bled as she cursed Günter for handling everything so stupidly and rashly.
‘That idiot ruined everything. Damn it.’
She couldn't even understand how someone like him had become Head Instructor.
Nor could she comprehend why he had killed Aton.
If she had her way, she wanted to hunt him down and tear him apart.
But unlike Günter, she wasn't brainless.
‘We failed to achieve our objective, but we can still write this off as nothing more than the independent actions of two cadets.’
Neither she nor Günter had left any evidence behind.
Martin's testimony claimed someone had manipulated them from behind the scenes.
But he couldn't identify who that 'someone' was.
Nor had the person who killed Aton been caught.
Of course, Jin Crow and Ideale probably had their suspicions.
But suspicion alone accomplished nothing.
Thinking that way made her feel considerably lighter.
‘That's right. We're safe.’
Cut off the tail.
Blame everything on Aton and Martin.
Then withdraw.
Just as always.
Thinking that, Nelle Meyer nervously lit another cigarette.
“......”
Winter was approaching.
Yet the corridor leading to the Headmaster's office had already grown far colder than anything considered normal.
The windows had cracked under the freezing temperature.
The water pipes were frozen solid, on the verge of bursting.
Even so, no one dared speak to Ideale.
Naturally.
She was one of the two people currently consumed by the greatest rage in the Central Special-duty Officer Academy.
“......”
The fact that she could no longer suppress the Psionic Energy surging from her heart vividly demonstrated the extremity of her anger.
Finally, as though reaching a decision, she activated her communicator and contacted someone.
Bzzzt-.
The hologram flickered.
Moments later, the other party's figure emerged like a mirage before becoming clear.
〔Glory to the bloodline of Ironblood. It has been a long time, Lady Ideale.〕
The elderly man wearing the rank insignia of a Warrant Officer greeted her warmly, as though meeting a beloved granddaughter after a long separation.
But Ideale faced him with an expression as cold and still as ice.
“Eleven cadets. Ninety-seven members of the 23rd Security Brigade. One hundred and eight lives lost in total, Fidelis.”
Her voice was so cold that even across an interstellar transmission traveling through Hyperspace, the fury she exuded could be felt in full.
Yet the old man called Fidelis showed not the slightest change in expression.
He answered gently,
〔It is a tragic matter, my lady.〕
“Warrant Officer Fidelis.”
〔Hoho, drawing such a line between us saddens this old man—〕
“Warrant Officer Fidelis!”
Craaaack!
At that instant, with her shout, every piece of furniture inside the Headmaster's office began freezing over.
Not just the windows.
The modest sofa.
The work desk.
Even the bookshelves.
Everything was swallowed by her freezing aura and quickly turned pure white.
Only then did Warrant Officer Fidelis erase the gentle smile from his face.
Expressionless, he answered,
〔This is all the Brigadier General's fault. Do you still not understand that?〕
The warm expression from moments earlier vanished with frightening speed, as though it had been nothing but deception.
Even his perfect poker face, however, finally cracked when Ideale's white pupils glowed as she spoke.
“You actually joined hands with the Empire? Have you lost your mind?”
〔Oh, dear.〕
Fidelis closed his eyes and quietly murmured.
Ideale did not miss the fact that it was an admission.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter