I Become a Secret Police Officer of The Imperial Academy

Chapter 39

After classes ended, I went to dinner with Ethel.

For some reason, we crossed paths with Theo and Isabel on the way to the dining hall.

Maybe they were on a date or something.

Of course, Ethel was paying for the meal. It might seem a bit shameless, but I figured I could make it up to her by treating her to something nice after I sold a few vacation homes. Maybe even that fancy hotel meal we talked about.

“Ethel, I’m going to ask you for the same thing I mentioned last time. Is that okay?”

“…What thing?”

Ethel looked dejected, like a scolded puppy, her mood utterly downcast.

It wasn’t her fault—just that damned demon’s. If anything, her only mistake was doing nothing when a beast attacked a person. But I couldn’t exactly hold that against her.

All I wanted was for this sweet girl to live happily, oblivious to it all. As long as she didn’t hide demons again, that was enough.

“The gun. Give it back.”

“…Okay.”

Hearing that, I smiled.

“By the way, the food here’s pretty good.”

In truth, it wasn’t all that great. But I needed something to talk about, so I forced it.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Hey, Ethel, I’m not mad, and I’m really fine, so you don’t need to keep beating yourself up over it.”

“…But it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t forced you to come here, none of this would’ve happened.”

“Well, if we’d exterminated all the demons from the start, this wouldn’t have happened either.”

I tore a piece of bread, spread butter on it, added a slice of meat, sprinkled some pepper, and popped it into my mouth. Prepared like this, even the slightly gamey food tastes better.

Dusting the crumbs off my hands, I continued the conversation.

“It was just an accident. Who could’ve predicted something like this would happen?”

“…An accident, huh.”

“Yeah, an accident. You can’t blame yourself for raising some ungrateful beast.”

I’d already said my piece, but Ethel, ever the kind-hearted one, would probably just feel guiltier rather than getting mad at me.

After finishing the lackluster meal, I walked Ethel back to her mansion.

I didn’t go inside, stopping at the front gate instead.

After a while, Ethel returned, carrying my neatly folded school uniform, my gun, and the substances that had been hidden in my clothes.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Her expression seemed so pitiful that I reached out and patted her head.

“So, where will you sleep now?”

“Where else? Back where I’ve been sleeping.”

Why did she look like she was about to cry? My house wasn’t that unlivable. At least my room was clean, so it wasn’t too bad.

“Take care, Ethel.”

“…Bye, Ellen.”

It was an ordinary farewell between friends, but it felt more like a final goodbye.

Time to do something everyone would hate me for.

I walked for a long while, heading toward the bridge that led to the slums. 

Along the way, I stopped by the mansion to pick up my hoodie, pulling it over my head.

It feels odd saying this about myself, but being as beautiful as I am tends to attract all kinds of beasts.

Walking past alleys where beggars sat begging and into streets that reeked of sewage, I eventually reached a brightly lit street of revelry.

It was a unique place—frequented by nobles, no less. A place where money could buy anything.

I entered a gambling den filled with servers wearing garter belts and barely-there outfits, their tops held together by mere strings.

Of course, I had to remove my hood before entering. Suspicious people weren’t allowed to roam freely, lest they cause trouble for the esteemed patrons.

At the entrance, I handed my gun to the man collecting weapons.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

“Nope, hold on.”

I handed over a dagger from my waistband and a vial of poison before being allowed inside.

I’d gotten my membership long before my family fell into ruin.

The air was thick with laughter, sobbing, shouting, and the unmistakable stench of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol.

In a futile attempt to freshen the place, someone had placed a large potted flower in the center of the room.

Winding my way deeper into the gambling den, I reached a secluded, large room. Inside, Marco sat surrounded by women, holding a bottle of liquor and laughing raucously.

As I approached, a guard stopped me.

“This area is for VIPs only. Little miss, go play roulette or something.”

“…I’ve been here plenty of times before.”

“Doesn’t matter. You can’t come in. Turn around and leave.”

When the guard reached out to forcibly turn me away, I grabbed his arm and flipped him to the ground.

The commotion caught everyone’s attention. Soon, Marco stumbled out, his face flushed with drink.

“What’s all this noise?”

“Marco, long time no see.”

“Oh, miss…? What brings you here?”

“I figured it was time to get back to work now that things have quieted down.”

“Come on in.”

Marco handed some cash to the guard, who grinned sheepishly and pocketed it before getting back up. A guy his size wouldn’t have been seriously hurt by just being flipped.

“Sweetheart, who’s the kid?”

“Is she your type now?”

“She’s cute, even if her chest is smaller than mine!”

The women clinging to Marco chattered away, making snide remarks.

Marco shooed them off, throwing a wad of cash at them and telling them to leave.

“For someone they call ‘sweetheart,’ you must’ve spent a lot on them. They look expensive.”

“Well, I’m very capable, you know.”

“Too bad for you—I’m not interested in that kind of thing.”

“You’ll find someone great, miss.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

I reached for the expensive-looking liquor in front of me, but set the bottle back down.

I couldn’t drink. I wasn’t supposed to.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to show up so soon,” Marco said, raising the bottle to his lips and taking a swig straight from it.

“My paycheck would’ve lasted me a lifetime even if I didn’t get paid again. But with the counseling chamber exposed and all, is there anywhere left for you to work?”

“There’s a place not far from here.”

I pulled out an herb cigarette, lit it, and placed it between my lips. Marco casually took one from my pack, lit it, and inhaled deeply before grimacing.

“Ah, right, there is one. I heard one of the bosses handling collections nearby disappeared. That your doing?”

“Yeah, demon.”

“Well, technically a beastkin, but close enough.”

“I’ll sell a few more vacation homes to get some cash together. This is getting boring. I need to get back to having conversations with clients.”

It wasn’t as if I was starving myself and surviving on stale rye bread because I had no money. I just didn’t feel like eating anything enjoyable.

I didn’t want to experience pleasure through taste—or anything, really.

Especially not meat dishes. Anything with bones or visible red flesh was out of the question.

The only reason I’d let Ethel drag me around was because I’d lost my will to live. That pretty much explained it all.

Now wasn’t the time to wallow in self-pity.

I’d helped build a world where demons couldn’t roam freely on the streets without fear.

Not just because angry humans wouldn’t leave them alone, but because they now lived with the constant terror of being abducted and slaughtered like livestock.

All that was left was to drag these vermin out of their hiding places and kill them all.

Ethel’s family still had a few around, didn’t they? Those would need to be burned as well.

“Why are you grinning like that all of a sudden?” Marco asked.

“That’s an awfully cheeky tone. Can’t I smile if I think of something amusing?”

“Well, society tends to call that madness. Might want to dial it back a little.”

“Sure.”

Apparently dissatisfied with the herb cigarette, Marco extinguished it in his bottle of liquor. Then he put on the coat hanging on the wall.

“My late father always said, as long as the bloodline remains, loyalty must remain eternal. Shall we go, miss? I’m sure there are plenty of others you need to meet.”

His words sounded grand, but his drunken, unsteady steps dulled the impact.

“I also need someone to do my laundry.”

“You’ve been living alone for weeks. How were you managing it before?”

“The maids at a friend’s house handled it.”

“You’ve got good friends, then.”

“Don’t I?”

On the way out, I retrieved my weapons from the doorman: the pistol, dagger, and poison. I carefully tucked them back into my coat. Marco, meanwhile, was still stashing his arsenal.

He seemed to have at least ten daggers on him.

“Why carry so many?”

“In this line of work, you need enough blades to stick in the necks of ten demons just to keep from being robbed.”

“And guns?”

“Sometimes, things don’t go down with a blade. This is enough for me.”

Given his skill, I didn’t need to worry. Marco was someone who could handle himself just fine.

With all his weapons hidden in his coat, we walked out of the gambling den together.

The glowing backstreets always had a strange liveliness to them. They were, in their own way, uplifting. Something about the bright lights of the night stirred a certain excitement.

Taking light, energetic steps, I asked Marco a question.

“Where does the butler live?”

“He prefers to keep up appearances, so he’s probably in an ordinary residential neighborhood.”

“Sounds like it’ll take a while to get there.”

“Once we find the old man, the others will come to us on their own. It’ll be worth it.”

I suddenly felt the sensation of being watched and glanced back.

“Something wrong, miss?” Marco asked.

“Nothing. Just feels like a rat’s following us.”

“It’s probably following me. I’ve been spending money a bit too lavishly lately.”

“Let’s take a few detours. That should shake it off.”

With that, we altered our path and kept walking.