“Chester?”
Hale tilted his head, looking at Chester, who had trailed off mid-sentence.
His expression was slightly stiff, looking different than it had moments before.
“……Ah, yes. I will do it.”
“Good. Then it is settled. We will form a team centered around you.”
A sigh escaped Chester’s lips as he stepped out after giving his salute.
No matter how much he tried not to think about it, or how desperately he wanted to shake it off, the words his father had said back then only grew clearer.
The details from the executive meeting soon spread throughout the entire Order.
Elka explained the situation to the Combat Department members, while Vilter briefed those in the Research Department.
Naturally, the headquarters fell into an uproar.
Someone was amplifying the mana of the monsters?
People buzzed with talk, saying it was something they hadn’t even dared to imagine.
“Ruite, you don’t seem very surprised?”
“Ah, well…”
Ruite scratched his head at Dane’s remark.
In truth, he had already been considering the possibility that someone was artificially tampering with the monsters’ mana.
The wavelengths of the evolved monsters had been unstable recently, and since evolution was a rare phenomenon observed in only about 5 to 10 out of every 100,000 monsters, the current situation was suspicious.
The fact that such things were happening so frequently was unnatural in itself.
Unnatural events often pointed toward human interference, so he had wondered if that was the reason.
However, since there was no clear evidence and he didn’t want to cause unnecessary chaos, he had kept the thought to himself.
“Humans really seem to commit evil in such diverse ways.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Ruite nodded in agreement and stretched.
Just as Dane said, one thing Ruite had learned after joining the Order was that the world was vast and there were many crazy people in it.
The Order’s scope of work included dealing with crimes committed within the Empire, and there were quite a few people who caused trouble through methods that transcended imagination or for goals one wouldn’t even dare to conceive.
This wasn’t the first time monsters were used in crimes.
Monster remains were not to be handled by anyone other than institutions officially authorized by the Imperial Palace.
Yet, many people personally possessed them or used the remains to create unauthorized magic tools to sell on the black market.
Of course, a case like this was unprecedented.
“Are you guys slacking off?”
A shadow fell over Ruite as he sat in the office.
As soon as he looked up, he saw Vilter’s face grinning at him.
Dane jumped in surprise and straightened his posture, and Ruite did the same.
“We aren’t slacking off.”
“Then what?”
“Let’s just say we were doing some advance preparation to devote ourselves even harder to our work.”
“You certainly have a way with words.”
Vilter let out a short laugh.
“Ruite, come to my room.”
“Huh? Yes, sir.”
Did he really think they were slacking and planned to scold him?
Ruite followed Vilter, feeling unnecessarily anxious.
He could feel Dane’s pitying gaze on his back.
“Oh? Senior.”
However, there was already someone else in Vilter’s room.
It was Cedric, a Knight from the Research Department.
He gave Ruite a small smile and a nod.
“The headquarters is currently forming a dedicated team to solve this problematic evolution phenomenon. A Knight Captain from the Combat Department will be the lead, and since it’s a monster-related issue, we need to pull people from our side as well.”
“Are you saying that’s us?”
Vilter nodded at Cedric’s words.
Since Ciel was the only Knight Captain in the Research Department and had many responsibilities to manage, he couldn’t be assigned to just one specific task.
Vilter added that he chose Cedric because he had the most experience and seniority among the Knights.
“Then why me… wouldn’t it be more helpful to pull another Knight instead?”
Ruite asked cautiously.
He had only been in the Order for a few months and was still just a regular knight.
He worried that he might lack the ability to show significant results in such a major case.
But Vilter waved his hand as if he had no intention of changing his mind.
“Ruite, you predicted that someone was behind this artificially even before the executive meeting was announced, didn’t you?”
Ruite was slightly flustered. Vilter had never asked him about it, so he hadn’t realized the man had noticed.
Seeing that reaction as a ‘yes,’ Vilter nodded.
“You have good sense, and more than anything, your… let’s call it intuition, is quite good. I think you’ll do well.”
Ruite barely swallowed a complaint about how that sounded a bit irresponsible, but he simply replied that he understood.
Even if he didn’t fully get it, one had to follow orders from superiors in the Knights unless there was a special reason not to.
After hearing more explanations, Ruite left Vilter’s room with Cedric.
“Ah, by the way, I wonder who the Knight Captain in charge is?”
Ruite spoke up, realizing he had forgotten to ask.
“Hmm, I wonder. Knight Captain Lond is severely injured, so it probably isn’t him… maybe Knight Captain Varen?”
Ruite wasn’t exactly thrilled by that thought.
Every time he saw that man, he would smirk, clearly knowing about Ruite’s relationship with Chester.
If they handled this case together, they would be seeing a lot of each other, and it was obvious how many useless things Varen would say.
“Or it could be a different Knight Captain.”
Ruite hoped for the latter, but a few days later, he found out who had been selected as the person in charge.
A dedicated operations headquarters to solve the case was set up in the small conference room of the main building.
The first person Ruite saw when he entered with Cedric was Chester.
He was giving various instructions to the members who were organizing data inside.
“Excuse me.”
Everyone turned their heads at the sound of Cedric’s voice.
Naturally, Chester’s gaze went to Ruite first, and the corners of his mouth twitched as if he were happy to see him.
“We have been dispatched from the Research Department. I am Knight Cedric, and this is Knight Ruite.”
Cedric naturally walked up to Chester and greeted him.
“I heard from Vice Commander Vilter that he would send two people. We plan to focus on organizing relevant data today and tomorrow, so please help us, Research Department.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cedric approached the gathered members with a familiar greeting.
Ruite tried to follow behind him, but Chester suddenly grabbed his wrist.
“Knight Ruite, I have a separate task for you, so step outside for a moment.”
Ruite narrowed his eyes at Chester’s bossy tone, but he obediently followed him out.
“So? What is this separate task you have for me, Knight Captain?”
Ruite spoke with deliberate emphasis on the formal honorifics.
Looking at the smiling face, Chester’s earlobes naturally turned red, and he pulled Ruite into his arms.
“Chester…! Someone will see.”
“People rarely come to this floor.”
Ruite glanced at the door leading to the small conference room.
He was on high alert, listening to the faint voices of other members inside and worrying that someone might come out or walk up the stairs, but he still placed his hands on Chester’s waist.
“So you were the one in charge?”
“Yes, the Commander assigned it to me. What about you?”
“Vice Commander Vilter assigned me.”
“Anyway, I hate it, but I like it too.”
“What do you hate, and what do you like?”
Chester lifted his head from where it was rubbing against Ruite’s shoulder and gave him a brief kiss on the lips.
“I hate it because it could be dangerous, and I’m worried you might get hurt.”
“And?”
“But I like it because we’re on the same team, so I can see your face and encounter you every day for a while.”
Even though they were in the same Order, Ruite was in Research and Chester was in Combat, so their departments were different.
Unless they went to the same field site, it was hard to see each other during work hours—though it was possible at other times.
Because of that, just as Chester said, joining the same team meant they would see each other more often than before.
“Well, I like that part too.”
To be honest, Ruite thought anyone was fine as long as it wasn’t Varen, but deep down, he had hoped Chester would be the one in charge.
Chester listened silently and stared at Ruite.
Then, he naturally tilted his head and leaned in. Ruite, now used to it, blocked his lips with his hand.
“Let’s keep work and private life separate, Knight Captain.”
“Don’t you think Knight Ruite is being a bit mean?”
“Why am I being mean?”
“Saying something so cute and then telling me to hold back.”
“……I’m curious, where exactly am I cute? I’m a sturdy adult man.”
The word “cute” suited women; it wasn’t a fitting word for a man doing knight’s work.
Furthermore, Ruite had never heard that he was cute even from his family, or from his peers back when he attended the academy.
“You only need to be cute in my eyes.”
Chester wrapped his arms around Ruite’s waist and pulled him close.
Their faces were now very near.
In the quiet silence, just as their lips were about to overlap, Ruite suddenly grabbed Chester’s face.
“Chester, have you not been sleeping lately?”
Chester’s body flinched slightly, as if Ruite had hit the mark. Ruite looked into Chester’s face with a serious expression.
At a glance, he looked the same as usual, but he wasn’t at all.
There were slight shadows under his eyes, and his gaze was the same.
Before, there was a sense of sharp, strong will, but now it felt like that sharply honed blade had grown a bit dull.
“Is something wrong?”
My first thought because it’s a new thing happening would be to check recent Whitmore graduates.
The first incident happened at Whitmore, on a beast that had equipment that was supposed to subdue it a bit for safety. So maybe the person who made the magic tool responsible was in fourth year back then, as they were the ones who spend the most time in the monster mountain.
Plus, there’s a year after graduation for the tool to be popularized around from north to central.
Either way, I think it would be smart of them to talk with Whitmore staff about it. Ask about the origin of the monster that evolved. If the monster was captured from the north were the accidents started, perhaps something contaminated it before capture and it has nothing to do with the academy. But if it was captured somewhere else it had to have been affected by something in the academy at the time.