I Become a Secret Police Officer of The Imperial Academy

Chapter 36

After finishing a naked embrace in the bathroom, I got dressed and stepped out to find that the outside had already turned pitch black.

Feeling the cool sensation as the slight moisture on my face evaporated, I took Ethel’s outstretched hand. Like a child holding their mother’s hand, I followed Ethel down the stairs, trailing after her.

Count Rosenberg didn’t seem particularly pleased that I was holding his daughter’s hand. Or maybe he just wanted to hold her hand himself.

It reminded me of something my father used to say: Alicia would hold my hand and follow me around everywhere, but now that she’s in her teens, she won’t even consider holding his hand anymore.

What did I say back then? I probably teased him about how he used so many chemicals on his patients that his hands reeked.

The night I said that, it couldn’t have been more than a coincidence that only my meal was laced with laxatives.

Anyway, we settled at the dining table and began our meal. Julius wasn’t here.

Apparently, he’d gone out drinking with a friend. Thinking about it, he spent more time away from home than in it.

Ethel entertained the Count and Countess with exaggerated or downplayed stories from the academy, making them laugh. 

As for me, I buried my face in my plate, eating as diligently as always. Truly, eating delicious food is a kind of blessing.

There’s no better way to tame someone, either.

I suppose I’m the one being tamed here. But when the time comes, I’ll leave on my own.

“Master! We’ve run out of bread and meat for the kids. I’m going to fetch some more!”

A small voice interrupted our meal.

Wait, were the Count and Countess raising another child besides Ethel and Julius?

So that’s where all the mountains of food go. It wasn’t just excess extravagance that was left to rot.

But Ethel didn’t look good. Her complexion was off.

“Ethel? Are you feeling unwell?”

Ethel was spaced out, her gaze fixed on something. I followed her line of sight.

It wasn’t a child who had spoken.

It wasn’t even human.

It had one horn, the other broken off somewhere. Its oily face suggested it had been eating in this household.

It looked no older than ten years since birth.

“You… why are you here?”

It spoke to me, glaring.

I didn’t know who or what it was.

But its pupils contracted sharply as it stared at me, and it didn’t look away.

Could it be…

Were they raising something from the underground?

Couldn’t shake their habit of hiding things in the cellar, I see.

After Julian’s situation became public, people had largely stopped capturing and privately punishing demonic creatures. Moving them here must’ve been easier.

I looked at the Count and Countess.

Both of them wore expressions of surprise, as if they hadn’t expected this.

The Count rose, as though to either calm the situation or lead the child away, and started approaching the creature, speaking to it.

Then he reached for his pistol. Damn it.

The creature defied him, screaming and crying, and eventually shoved the Count.

The middle-aged man fell helplessly.

Then the creature kicked off the floor and charged straight at me. It pushed past Ethel’s frail frame and grabbed a knife from the dining table.

It hurled the knife at me.

The blade struck my arm, tearing my skin deeply, but at least it didn’t hit my throat.

Expecting Ethel to take down that thing would be foolish.

She’s delicate and would probably panic and collapse in a situation like this.

She couldn’t protect me.

And I couldn’t expect her to kill a demonic creature barehanded.

I had to act. Otherwise, I’d die.

It moved fast—like a large dog sprinting at full speed.

Grabbing a fork with its left hand, it lunged at me.

It stabbed at me a few times, landing a hit on my arm, but I managed to fend it off.

Its speed wasn’t something human eyes could track.

It knocked away my defending hand and drove the fork into my neck.

I could feel the sharp object lodged in my throat. 

The pain was absent, likely due to adrenaline, but the fork hadn’t been pulled out, so I wouldn’t die immediately.

The blood loss made my mind begin to calm.

I was meant to live like this—fighting demons in bloody fields of corpses. 

Not enjoying a life of comfort in a mansion with good friends, fine meals, and soft beds.

This felt like punishment, a way of saying, “How dare you live so complacently.”

Did it think I was dead? The creature collapsed, trembling hands falling limp.

It looked satisfying. Like it had avenged its parents or something. Killing me must have brought it joy.

I remembered the first time I’d mistakenly killed a rehabilitation target in the counseling chamber. Was I as dazed as it was back then?

But I wasn’t dead yet. Nor did I plan to die.

Instead of screaming in pain, I let out shallow breaths. Blood filled my mouth, and I began spitting it out.

Grasping the edge of the table with trembling hands, I tried to stand. The table tipped over, and I fell forward. Thankfully, the fall didn’t drive the fork deeper into my throat.

“E-Ellen, w-why now… of all times?”

With shaking hands, I grasped the fork’s handle and pulled it out.

I feared that removing it might kill me, but I had no choice.

The blood made it hard to breathe, so I spat it out.

Ethel rushed over, pressing her hands to my neck to staunch the bleeding. Her pupils were wildly shaking.

“W-wait. Just wait. I’ll stop the bleeding right now. And then… then we can… yes, we’ll find Isabel! She can heal anything. She’ll fix this.”

This must’ve been the first time Ethel had seen this much blood. I’d kept things clean during our previous counseling sessions.

Ethel ran off, returning with ointments and bandages that smelled strongly even from here.

She smeared the ointment on the wound and wrapped it tightly, slowing the bleeding.

“…Ethel. Everything I said… cough… was right, wasn’t it?”

They’re all just beasts, after all.

That’s why I suggested we get rid of them, but no one listened to me, and now this has happened.

Well, I almost lost my resolve, but this has reignited my motivation. It hurts—a lot, actually—but it’s clear now.

“Don’t speak, Ellen! Just hold on, I’ll use a spell—”

I pushed Ethel away. She looked at me, tears streaming down her face.

Taking a quick look around, I assessed the situation.

The Countess was still frozen in place, unable to do anything.

The creature, even after being grabbed and slapped by the Count, still wore a twisted smile.

The Count looked like he might collapse at any moment, casting a glance at me with vacant eyes before muttering something to the demon as he restrained it.

With the bandage wrapped around my neck, I figured the bleeding had slowed enough. I wasn’t going to die. An odd confidence coursed through me, convincing me of that.

I steadied my breathing and picked up the fork that had just been lodged in my neck and now lay on the floor. Then I lunged at the creature, driving the fork into its eye.

Unlike the throat, eyes are easier targets—they don’t hold onto what’s stabbed into them.

The creature had watched my movement, startled, but did nothing to block or escape—it just stood there and took it.

This is why calling demons stupid and dull isn’t prejudice; it’s common sense.

“Aaaargh!!”

Did it really think stabbing me in the neck with a fork would kill me? Sure, it might’ve killed me, but there’s no time for satisfaction or shock in this game. People don’t die that quickly.

How can anyone look at a demon child like this, one that seizes every chance to kill, and still think of it as a fellow human?

While it rolled on the ground clutching its eyes, I kept stabbing it.

I wasn’t sure where I was aiming anymore. My vision had grown blurry, maybe from all the blood I’d lost.

Whenever I saw a lump of flesh, I struck with all my strength, bringing the fork down on it. With luck, maybe I’d hit its throat or something.

“Ah… ah… ah….”

Ethel’s stunned breaths echoed faintly behind me. My strength was waning, and eventually, the fork wouldn’t come out anymore.

I grabbed a plate from the floor and smashed it down on the creature’s head. It didn’t matter if my hands got cut on the shards.

I kept going, throwing everything I had into the effort, until Ethel finally pulled me away.

It seems people can’t live idle lives forever. Once I started doing what I had to do again, a sense of fulfillment filled my entire body.

There shouldn’t be any issue here. After all, I was the one attacked first.

Then again, demons are resilient. Could something like this really kill one?

My vision was hazy, but I could feel something warm and wet falling onto my face. Tears, likely Ethel’s.

Crying, Ethel lifted my limp body and started carrying me somewhere.

Horribly enough, she also brought along the demon that had stabbed me with a fork, both of us suspended together.

That won’t do. We’ll have to sell off half the land and the buildings we own, sparing only the mansion.

Then I’ll start a new venture.

Anything with a respectable front will do. Maybe even open an orphanage.

Nothing beats an orphanage for a pristine outward appearance.

It seems the break is over.

It’s time to get back to work—much busier work this time.