IBVSM 09

Chapter 09

‘Luther?!’

Jeremy was more afraid of Luther than of Aden.

Partly because Luther’s unofficial title was “fixer,” but mostly because the man’s muscles were absolutely monstrous.

Compared to that, the company head himself almost seemed harmless.

A pale-faced desk jockey—had Aden ever even fought anyone in his life?

And besides, wasn’t the reason he dragged around a giant like Luther as a bodyguard because he lacked confidence in his own strength?

‘S-still, it’s fine. Luther’s an idiot.’

The one fortunate thing was that Luther was a fool who wandered around laughing absentmindedly.

If Jeremy talked his way through it cleverly enough, maybe he could escape. Thinking quickly, he shouted loudly,

“Luther! Is that you?!”

“……”

“Untie me, would you? That trainee girl tied me up in here and ran off!”

Actually, this worked out perfectly.

Hadn’t he uncovered that trainee—what was her name, Ilian?—as a spy?

Sure, she had knocked him unconscious with a broom, but she’d obviously fled in fear that her cover would be blown.

So all he had to do was pin everything on her.

Even his own corruption.

“She kept hanging around in front of the document storage room, so I got suspicious and questioned her. Then she suddenly attacked me with a broom! I knew my instincts were right!”

“……”

“She was clearly plotting something. Otherwise there’s no way she would’ve attacked me—!”

Click.

At the sound of what seemed to be a button being pressed, Jeremy froze, his eyes widening slowly.

[Something felt off, so it’s a good thing we came back quickly.]

At the same time the voices from the hallway began playing aloud, the figure who had been standing with his back turned slowly faced him.

[Who sent you?! Was it the chairman? Did he send you to spy on me?!]

[I-I think you might be misunderstanding something. And who exactly is this chairman…?]

“B-boss…?”

“Jeremy Sand.”

[Fine, then! Let’s do this!]

[Wait, calm down first—]

Click.

Aden switched off the recording magic device and asked in a completely flat voice,

“Do you have any other excuses?”

“Th-that is, well…”

“Not this low-quality nonsense. Something… more convincing.”

Something was wrong.

Had the company head’s build always been this… imposing?

And had his eyes always been this cold?

The moment Jeremy faced Aden directly, questions like When did he install the surveillance device? no longer seemed important at all.

After the initial interview, Jeremy had rarely spoken with Aden face-to-face, which only made it harder to force words out now.

Just as he finally struggled to open his mouth—

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“B-boss! It’s not like that! I-I truly—!”

Was this what prey felt when confronted by a predator?

The pressure radiating from Aden was so overwhelming Jeremy could barely breathe.

He realized then that he had been deeply mistaken.

Terribly mistaken.

Jeremy’s instincts screamed at him.

“I was wrong! Boss! I-I’ll tell you everything!”

If he wanted to survive, he had to confess everything.

But as always, Jeremy’s instincts were far off the mark.

“Tell me what? That you established the shell company Ronen Logistics Services and embezzled over three hundred million gold? Or that you demanded regular kickbacks and entertainment from subcontractors?”

“Th-that’s…!”

“Or perhaps that your chairman’s original assignment was merely to steal the Black Label documents from the archive room?”

Jeremy’s mind went completely blank.

“You’re wondering how I know. But there’s no need for me to answer that. Though I suppose I can tell you when I found out.”

Thud.

Still wearing black leather gloves, Aden suddenly slammed Jeremy against the wall.

“Ghk!”

No—

It wasn’t a wall.

Groaning in pain, trembling violently, Jeremy lifted his head and saw—

“H-how is this…”

An empty document cabinet.

Only then did Jeremy finally understand.

The document storage room he had dug tunnels to infiltrate…

‘Don’t tell me it was a trap all along?!’

There had never been anything there to begin with.

His vision blurred. Jeremy begged desperately, not even realizing tears were streaming down his face.

“Please spare me! I’ll do anything—anything you ask! So please!”

“Why would I dirty my own hands?”

Then—

A tiny spark of hope lit in Jeremy’s eyes as he looked up.

But Aden’s face remained as calm as ever.

Or rather, expressionless in that same familiar way.

“You aren’t worth that effort. That’s a task for the ‘chairman’ who sent you.”

“Ah… ah…!”

“Think carefully about what the chairman will assume when a spy whose identity has been exposed still returns alive.”

He’ll think I betrayed him.

He’ll assume I spilled everything to save my own life!

But Jeremy was given no time to dwell on it.

“Of course.”

The last thing Jeremy saw was—

“I never said I’d send you back in one piece.”

—those chilling violet eyes drawing closer, whispering like the gaze of death itself.

Some time later.

“……”

Returning to his office, Aden removed the bloodstained leather gloves and tossed them into the trash.

Straightening his clothes and sitting back down at his desk, every movement was precise and orderly, almost ritualistic.

As he tilted his ever-present hip flask toward his lips, a mechanical sound drew his attention.

The communication device.

“Yes, this is Aden.”

—Boss? It’s Lennox! I’m calling in with a report! More importantly, have you been well? Feels like I haven’t seen your face in ages! Though you probably don’t care, I’ve been doing quite we—

The cheerful voice of the man introducing himself as Lennox came through accompanied by the cries of seagulls.

Aden replied shortly.

“Just the report.”

—Right, right. Anyway, about that bastard Jeremy? We found the vault he’d hidden and recovered every last coin he embezzled, plus all the money he extorted from subcontractors!

“Any difficulties?”

—You told us to tag every payment made to him so we could trace it, remember? Jeremy thought he was clever renting the vault under someone else’s name, but honestly, this was easy work.

Even hearing that they had recovered well over three hundred million gold, Aden’s expression did not change.

It was exactly what he had expected.

More importantly, his thoughts were elsewhere—estimating when the tagged money he had given another person might begin moving.

For example, the three million gold “welcome bonus” he had handed to a certain trainee employee.

—By the way, I heard another spy joined as a new recruit? Seriously, boss, why do you have so many enemies? Personally, I think—

“Just the report.”

—Yessir. Anyway, the location where Jeremy rented that alias vault wasn’t far from Sirena, where the trainee used to live, so I arrived there a little while ago.

If Luther was the fixer, then Lennox was the tracker.

Aden had instructed Lennox to contact Mason, owner of the trainee Ilian’s previous workplace, the Mason Trading Company.

—Uh… I think this Mason guy may have run away somewhere. Recently, too.

Hah.

Aden’s brow narrowed faintly.

“Why?”

—This village is mostly elderly people, so it was hard to investigate openly. Rural port towns spread rumors fast, and the locals are wary. So I headed straight to Mason’s house instead.

A groan came through the device.

—There was absolutely no sign of anyone living there. So I forced the door open just in case, and—

“Mason wasn’t there.”

—Not just that! The whole place was a disaster! Clothes everywhere, valuables boxes left open—looked like someone fled overnight!

Of course, if Ilian had heard this, he would’ve grabbed his forehead in exasperation.

Mason hadn’t fled anywhere. He had merely gone on a retirement trip, and he had always been catastrophically bad at cleaning and organizing. That was the entire reason he had hired young Ilian in the first place.

But Lennox, unaware of that fact, added gravely,

—Boss… I don’t think this spy is ordinary.

Aden turned his gaze toward Ilian on the surveillance screen.

Watching her poke experimentally at the creaking floorboards before breaking into a small grin, Aden slowly nodded.

“I agree.”