Chapter 42 – Winning People (6)

Natasha said that she had chosen a room with only one bed for the sake of deception.

Thus, I lay in the same bed with such an attractive woman, sharing a single blanket.

“…”

Sleep did not come easily.

But that was not because there was a beauty within arm’s reach.

Rather, it was because even though we had formed an alliance, she was still a stranger whom I had met for the first time today.

‘Even if I am tired, let’s sleep after confirming she is asleep. I can get plenty of sleep on the way back anyway.’

Assuming the weather did not act up, the off-roader could cover twenty kilometers a day, and since it was two hundred kilometers from here to our Ember, it would take ten days.

I could get all the sleep I needed then.

Of course, although the probability of her playing tricks was extremely low, I would never do something as foolish as betting my future on probability or trust.

After keeping my eyes open and staying up for several hours like that, around the time dawn crept in.

Rustle-

Sure enough, there was Natasha, rising quietly.

‘What is she trying to do?’

One thing was for sure: she was not trying to go to the bathroom.

If she were, she wouldn’t have moved as stealthily as a stray cat, and.

“…”

She wouldn’t have leaned her pretty face close to mine to check if I was asleep, either.

However, I remained lying down, pretending to be asleep until the end.

It was not because I was a foolish pushover.

I simply could not miss this opportunity, as now might be the chance to confirm her true feelings and real purpose.

‘What is her purpose? Did she receive separate instructions from Herman Melville?’

For starters, she definitely was not trying to kill me.

Since Herman Melville, whom she followed so devotedly, had given me instructions to head to the Magic Ember.

This meant that, at the very least, her purpose was not to harm me.

In that case, there was only one remaining possibility.

‘She must be trying to dig up information on me.’

Opening my eyes slightly without making it obvious, I focused on that usual superhuman sense.

My five senses, which transcended those of ordinary humans, allowed me to pierce through the darkness and even hear her breathing.

‘As expected… she is rummaging through my bag.’

Just as I thought, she was searching through my belongings.

However, she would gain nothing from it.

Since there was nothing in the bag besides the equipment packed for crossing the snowy fields and dry rations like beef jerky.

In the first place, I did not possess any items that contained information she could deduce anything from.

That was, unless one counted Jeremy Scott’s magic gun and magic bullets tucked into the holster.

Yes, the magic gun, the bullets, and the holster…

‘…Did I keep the magic gun on my waist?’

A cold sweat broke out in an instant.

If I remembered correctly, because of the random inspections conducted on rookies, the last time I touched it was when I secretly put it in my bag at Namiya Bookstore.

The same went for after that, which was due to the decree that ordinary citizens, except for the police force, could not possess weapons inside the Ember.

For a rookie like me in particular, being caught meant execution, so I had put it in the bag and forgotten about it for a while.

‘Damn it…!’

Feeling my waist with tense hands, sure enough, the holster for the magic gun and bullets was not there.

This meant that Natasha would inevitably discover the magic gun.

‘Let’s wait. I don’t know what kind of reaction she will show.’

However, I chose not to move.

I had no way of knowing how she would react upon seeing Jeremy Scott’s magic gun.

Above all…

Click-

Since the faint clicking sound of the magic gun’s mechanism indicated she had clearly discovered my blunder already.

Although it was suspicious how a rookie possessed the magic gun of a general from the Ember of Progress, she might just let it slide.

Since my own track record was clean, she might think I had just gotten lucky and obtained it by chance.

Above all, according to what was written in the history books, the Immortal Ember and the Ember of Progress had a close cooperative relationship.

For reference, since the family of Odin’s second wife’s mother was the leadership family of the Ember of Progress, it was difficult to see them harboring hostility.

But there was something I had overlooked.

The fact that she was a spy for the Chief Engineer who supported Heimdall, making her an enemy of the remaining four brothers and sisters.

Indeed, the consequence brought about by my carelessness was dizzying.

“Aylen Vale, who are you? Who do you work for?”

Having seamlessly loaded the magic gun by inserting the magazine before I knew it, Natasha pointed the cold barrel at my head.

It was not just the gun barrel; even her voice and tone were chilly to the extreme.

‘Her voice is trembling. Anger? Regret? Sadness? What on earth is it?’

Once again, my superhuman senses detected a peculiarity in her voice.

But now that my life was in jeopardy, there was no time to ponder such things.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, nor do I know why you are doing this.”

“Don’t even think about playing dumb. You must know what this magic gun is.”

“It is because I know what it is. Isn’t that magic gun the cherished weapon of Jeremy Scott, who was a general from the Ember of Progress?”

For a moment, even as I spoke, I could not understand her reaction.

If she was an agent of an intelligence organization, she should know what happened to Jeremy Scott, so why was she reacting so violently?

After all, Jeremy Scott, who had probably been abandoned, was just a man living as a tavern owner in a nameless Ember, whose only joy was drinking.

At that, Natasha bit her lip with a painful expression and spoke.

“Where and how did you get this?”

“I don’t know if you will believe me, but I obtained it directly from him in our Ember.”

There was no way she, as a spy, did not know who Jeremy Scott was. Perhaps she had even met him.

I had no choice but to be honest here.

Since she would see him at the ‘Night’s Haven’ tavern anyway when we returned to the Ember together, lying would only damage my credibility.

Therefore, I had to act confident.

In the first place, I had only received a small favor from Jeremy Scott and had no other connection with him.

Yet, her reaction was dramatic.

“…Jeremy Scott is alive and in your Ember? And you received this cherished weapon directly from him?”

“It is the truth without a single lie. He is a tavern owner in our Ember, running it with his wife.”

“How did you know he was that Jeremy Scott?”

“You probably already know that I lived as a loose cannon. Naturally, I was a regular at the tavern, and I simply heard it from him when he was drunk one day.”

“…Liar. He is not such a careless man.”

“When I said I was going to take the qualification exam, he handed me the magic gun out of concern about raiders for me, a regular customer, and in return, I promised to bring him the specialty whiskey of the Immortal Ember, Eternal Thirst.”

The words flowed smoothly and without blockages.

That was only natural, since I was speaking the truth exactly as it was.

Perhaps because Natasha also found no loopholes in the story for it to be something I cobbled together to escape a crisis, she spoke in a much softer voice.

Of course, she was still just as cold.

“How do I believe that?”

“309 Street, No. 190, Room 103. That is the address of the liquor store, Jack Daniel’s. On my first day entering the Ember, I left one gold coin as a deposit with the owner, Jack Daniel, to purchase the last stock of Eternal Thirst. I agreed to pay the remaining balance and pick it up by tomorrow.”

“…”

As I laid out the specific address and alibi, Natasha finally seemed to withdraw her suspicious gaze.

But I knew that even this was only temporary.

Because human imagination was limitless, and once doubt bloomed, it was bound to grow infinitely until it reached the end.

“You can check it right now. In fact, please check it. I don’t want to keep being treated like this.”

Thus, I demanded clear verification.

Only then would her suspicions be completely dispelled, and I judged that this would be better for us, who had to be together for the next six months.

“Please wait a moment.”

Reverting to polite speech, she kept the muzzle pointed at me as she started to press the number one on the dial telephone connected to the front desk at regular intervals.

That was Morse code, and if interpreted.

—Request address verification for Jack Daniel’s liquor store and check the stock status of Eternal Thirst.

It could be summarized as such.

‘To think that what I used to play games would be used like this…’

What I had learned for smooth gameplay of was being used so usefully… While waiting with such thoughts, a moment passed.

Tick tick ti-dick tick-

This time, a signal came from the other side.

“…I am sorry for doubting you, Lord Aylen.”

Setting down the magic gun, from which the magazine had been removed, on the table and stepping far away, Natasha apologized.

“I am not in a very good mood. We could have resolved this peacefully without such intimidation.”

Far from being in a bad mood, my eyes flashed at the thought that I might be able to uncover the secret between Natasha and Jeremy Scott, but I spoke as such.

That way, Natasha would feel even more indebted to me.

As intended, Natasha bowed at the waist and apologized.

“I am sorry once again. Since the Ember of Progress is a potential enemy of the Chief Engineer and our organization, I had no choice but to suspect you, Lord Aylen. Please forgive me.”

In the conversation just now, Natasha had thought Jeremy Scott was dead.

And she probably knew the reason.

But what made her suspect that I was related to the Ember of Progress?

‘If she assumed that Jeremy Scott had died and his cherished weapon was divided among those related to the Ember of Progress, it would make sense.’

Since I would find out if I asked anyway, I stopped thinking and blurted it out.

“This is not something that ends with an apology. Since my life was threatened, I must know the real reason I had to be suspected.”

“As I just said, it stemmed from a misunderstanding…”

However, perhaps she had no intention of telling me easily, as she merely repeated the same words like a parrot.

“Do I look like a pushover to you? If that were really the case, why were you surprised to hear that Jeremy Scott is alive, and how did you know whether he was careless or not?”

“That is…”

“If you act like this, I cannot work with you, Natasha, nor with Herman Melville. Also, make no mistake: you were the one who broke our relationship of trust first.”

I could never let this matter slide.

Because I was certain that some unspeakable story lay behind the emotions Natasha had shown when I said Jeremy Scott was alive.

And since stories were everything that made up a human, there was nothing more valuable than this to me, who had to understand humans to their core to exploit them.

Also.

‘There is some complicated story between the two rather than them being simple enemies.’

Natasha McGrain, who felt a deep sense of debt toward him who was presumably her enemy.

Something must have happened between Jeremy Scott, who was a general, and her, a spy.

And I had a strong intuition that if I utilized that ‘something’ and ‘Jeremy Scott’ well, I could take Natasha hostage permanently instead of sending her back.

“Make your choice. Will you tell me, or will you leave this room immediately and go our separate ways?”

Thus, torn between fulfilling the Chief Engineer’s orders and disclosing the story tangled with Jeremy Scott, Natasha ultimately made her choice.

“…Two years ago, Jeremy Scott was demoted and sentenced to death in the Ember of Progress.”

“…”

“And all of that was my doing.”

The choice was obvious, but the contents were hard to believe even for me.