“Luther?!”

Jeremy was more afraid of Luther than he was of Aden.

After all, Luther’s unofficial title was Fixer, and more importantly, the muscles visible beneath his clothes were no joke.

Compared to him, the merchant company president seemed like nothing particularly special.

He was a pale-faced desk jockey. What could someone like that possibly know about physical combat?

Besides, wasn’t that exactly why he kept a hulking bodyguard like Luther around? Because he lacked confidence in his own strength?

‘B-But it’ll be fine. That Luther fellow is an idiot.’

Fortunately, Luther was a fool who went around laughing foolishly at just about everything.

If Jeremy could talk his way out of this, he might still escape. After quickly turning the situation over in his head, Jeremy raised his voice.

“Luther! Is that you?!”

“……”

“Untie me! That apprentice girl must have tied me up here and run off!”

In fact, this was perfect.

Hadn’t he been the one to discover that some apprentice named Ilian was a spy?

She had knocked him unconscious with a broom, but it was obvious she had fled out of fear that her cover would be blown.

Then all he had to do was pin everything on that girl.

Even his own embezzlement!

“She kept loitering around the document archive, acting suspiciously, so I approached her. But she suddenly attacked me with a broom! My suspicions were right all along!”

“……”

“She must have been plotting something. Otherwise, why would she attack me…?!”

Click.

Jeremy stopped at the sound of something like a button being pressed. His eyes slowly widened.

[I’m glad I had a bad feeling and hurried over.]

At the same time, the scene that had unfolded in that very corridor came echoing through his ears.

Someone who had been standing with their back turned slowly turned around.

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

[I-I think there’s been some misunderstanding. Who is this chairman you’re talking about…?]

“D-Director…?”

“Jeremy Sand.”

[Fine! Good! Let’s see you try!]

[Wait a moment. Please, calm down first…]

Click.

Aden switched off the recording magic device and asked in an utterly emotionless voice,

“Do you have any other excuses?”

“Th-That’s… Well…”

“Not something this pathetic. Something… how should I put it? Something worth listening to.”

Something was strange.

Had the merchant company president’s physique always been this… imposing?

And had his eyes always been this chilling?

The moment Jeremy faced Aden, even the question of When did he install that recording device? no longer seemed worth wondering about.

Since the interview, Jeremy hadn’t really had any opportunities to speak with the company president face-to-face. That only made it harder for him to find the words.

Just as Jeremy was finally managing to open his mouth—

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“D-Director! That’s not it! I-I really…”

Was this what it felt like to be a prey animal standing before a predator?

The pressure bearing down on his entire body was so overwhelming that he could barely breathe.

He had been mistaken all along.

And not just mistaken—he had made a truly horrifying miscalculation.

Jeremy’s instincts screamed at him.

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

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

But, as always, Jeremy’s instincts were nowhere close to the truth.

“What exactly are you going to tell me? That you established a shell company called Ronen Logistics Services and embezzled three hundred million gold? Or that you demanded regular bribes and lavish entertainment from subcontractors?”

“Th-That’s…”

“Or perhaps that the original mission assigned to you by the ‘Chairman’ was simply to steal the Black Label documents from the archive?”

Jeremy’s mind went completely blank.

“You must be wondering how I found out. I suppose I don’t have to answer that. However, I can tell you when I discovered it.”

Thud!

Aden, wearing black leather gloves, suddenly slammed Jeremy’s body against the wall.

“Gah!”

No.

That wasn’t a wall.

When Jeremy, trembling and groaning in pain, raised his head, he saw—

“H-How can this…?”

An empty document cabinet.

Only then did Jeremy understand.

The document archive he had gone to such ridiculous lengths to infiltrate—even digging an underground tunnel to reach it—had actually…

‘Could it have been a trap?!’

There had been nothing inside from the very beginning.

His vision grew hazy. Without even realizing that tears were streaming down his face, Jeremy began to plead.

“Please, spare me! I’ll do anything you ask! Anything! Just, sob, please…!”

“Why would I dirty my hands?”

Then…?

A faint glimmer of hope flashed in Jeremy’s eyes as he looked up, only to meet Aden’s face.

There was an air of leisure about him, yet at the same time, he looked utterly bored.

In other words, his usual expressionless face.

“You’re not worth the trouble. That’s something the ‘Chairman’ who sent you should take care of.”

“A-Ah…!”

“Think carefully about what the Chairman will think when he sees you return alive despite having been exposed as a spy.”

He would think Jeremy had betrayed him.

He would undoubtedly assume that Jeremy had confessed everything he knew in exchange for his life!

However, Jeremy wasn’t given enough time to think it through.

“Of course…”

The last thing Jeremy saw was—

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

Those eerie violet eyes drawing closer as Aden whispered like the Grim Reaper himself.

Some time later.

“……”

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

He straightened his clothes before sitting back down at his desk. Every movement was neat and orderly, almost like a ritual.

He raised the hip flask he always carried to his lips, but turned his head at the sound of a mechanical beep.

It was his communication device.

“Yes, this is Aden.”

—Director? It’s Lennox! I’m calling to give you a report! By the way, have you been doing well? It’s been ages since I’ve seen you! You probably don’t care, but I’ve been doing quite well myself…

A cheerful male voice introducing himself as Lennox came through the device, accompanied by the distant cries of seagulls.

Aden gave a brief reply.

“Just get to the point.”

—Ah, come on! All right, all right. Anyway, you know that Jeremy fellow? We found his vault and recovered everything he’d embezzled, along with all the money he’d extorted from the subcontractors!

“Did you encounter any difficulties?”

—You instructed us to attach tracking tags to all the money paid to him, remember? So we could track it. Jeremy tried to be clever and rented a vault under someone else’s name, but something like that is child’s play for us.

Despite the good news that they had recovered well over three hundred million gold, Aden’s expression remained unchanged.

It was exactly what he had expected.

More importantly, he was wondering when the tracking tags attached to the money given to someone else would start moving.

For example, the three million gold he had handed to the new apprentice as a welcome bonus.

—By the way, I heard another spy infiltrated the company as a new recruit? Good grief. Director, why do you have so many enemies? If you ask me…

“Get to the point.”

—Y-Yes, sir! Anyway, the place where Jeremy had rented his secret vault wasn’t too far from Sirena, where the new recruit supposedly used to live. So I arrived here a little while ago.

If Luther was the Fixer, Lennox was the Tracker.

Aden had previously instructed Lennox to get in touch with Mason, the owner of the Mason Trading Company, Ilian’s former workplace.

—Well, it seems that this Mason fellow has run off somewhere. And apparently, it happened quite recently.

“Hah.”

Aden’s brows drew together ever so slightly.

“Why?”

—Well, first of all, this village is full of elderly people, so it was a little difficult to conduct inquiries without drawing attention. Small coastal towns are notorious for spreading rumors quickly, and the locals tend to be rather wary of outsiders. So I went straight to Mason’s house instead.

A weary sigh came from the other end of the line.

—There wasn’t a single sign of anyone living there. So I figured something might be wrong, picked the lock, and went inside…

“So Mason was gone.”

—That’s not all! The whole house was an absolute disaster! All the clothes had been pulled out, and even the valuables boxes had been opened. Could he have fled in the middle of the night?

Of course, if Ilian had heard that, she would have probably buried her face in her hands.

Mason had simply gone on a retirement trip, and he had always been absolutely hopeless when it came to cleaning and organizing. That was precisely why he had hired Ilian when she was still young.

But Lennox had no way of knowing any of that, so he continued in an extremely serious tone.

—Director. I’m telling you, I don’t think this latest spy is an ordinary person.

Aden shifted his gaze to Ilian on the recording magic device.

He watched as she lightly tapped a creaking floorboard before giving a small laugh.

Then Aden slowly nodded.

“I think so too.”