Copy Skills with Affinity! - Chapter 34

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈

Chapter 34: Pursuit (3)

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“Hmph.”

Noel exhaled through her nose as she glared at the documents on her desk.

For someone famous for never getting distracted while working, it was unusual behavior.

“...”

With narrowed eyes, Noel scanned the seal on the envelope. The elegantly written message concisely conveyed its purpose.

[ To Lady Noel, from the Central Intelligence Bureau. Personal details on the person you requested. ]

... It was the background report on Aiden Kellermain she had requested before.

She had commissioned it as soon as he said that he and Noel had been connected in the past.

Without a word, Noel rose and made a lap around her office.

She walked slowly, as though inspecting every corner of the room with melancholy in her eyes.

After pacing around for a while, she returned to the table.

“Hm.”

She let out another long breath through her nose as she stared at the envelope.

... Even she did not know how many times she had already done this.

“Lady Noel. Are you feeling unwell?”

Stella, who had been quietly watching her, finally asked.

It was the first time she had seen this usually diligent woman, who devoted herself silently to her work, agonize over something to this extent.

“Isn't that the information you personally requested? I remember you waiting for it eagerly.”

“... That's true.”

Noel answered with difficulty as she picked up the envelope.

Stella's question was perfectly reasonable.

When Noel first requested this investigation, not long after meeting Aiden, she had been extremely curious about his background.

But since then, her relationship with that man had made some... progress.

In Noel's heart, Aiden Kellermain had clearly become someone who stirred emotions too complicated for her to regard him as merely a contractual partner.

And in that state, there was one thing she knew clearly.

Aiden Kellermain's past, contained in this envelope, was undoubtedly unknown territory.

The Central Intelligence Bureau dug up even the smallest details. This would be on an entirely different level from the background check she had done herself.

Which meant, in other words...

‘... If something goes wrong, I can't go back to how things were.’

What if?

What if Aiden had been connected to her in a bad way in the past?

What if there was information here that she simply could not overlook?

What if that made it impossible for them to maintain their current relationship?

“...”

Her hand, which had been about to open the documents again, stopped.

‘Why?’

She had felt something similar before. When she watched the Prince meet Aiden from afar and thought he was trying to break off their engagement, she had felt much the same.

The thought that he...

That he might grow distant from her scared her.

She did not even know why she feared such a thing.

‘... To begin with.’

The corners of Noel's eyes drooped.

What exactly was her relationship with him?

She had heard him say that he liked her, yet she had never given him any answer in return.

And here she was, secretly digging into his past without him knowing.

“...”

Really.

Even if it was necessary, this was clearly something she should not be doing.

Noel slowly closed her eyes.

But after taking a deep breath, she opened them sharply and tore the envelope open.

‘... At least.’

If she was going to do something she should not, she should at least make sure she did not regret it.

If this led her to learn something he wanted to hide, she would apologize honestly. If he had done something wrong that he could not tell her, she would bear that burden with him.

Was that not, at the very least, the honest way to respond to someone else's feelings?

With determined eyes, Noel picked up the documents and began reading them thoroughly, looking as though her eyes might begin to shine.

After spending a long time reviewing them several times, she silently set them down on the desk.

“... Stella.”

Stella turned tensely at Noel's heavy voice.

She too had many questions about Aiden's identity.

“Yes.”

“They say Aiden has never been in a relationship in his life.”

“...”

“... And his favorite food is Far Eastern-style spicy noodle soup.”

Stella looked as though she had no idea how to react. Noel tossed the documents onto the desk and rubbed her face.

“... That's the most useful information in there. Out of everything written.”

“Pardon?”

“Come read it yourself.”

At that, Stella tilted her head and approached, picking up the documents.

After reading to the end, she had no choice but to agree with Noel.

“... Isn't he just a perfectly ordinary commoner?”

“Exactly.”

“There's nothing noteworthy at all...”

“There is.”

Noel clutched her forehead as though she had a headache.

“He's a war orphan.”

“Pardon?”

“The people he calls family now are people he met after he turned fifteen. They aren't blood relatives. He was never formally adopted, either.”

“...”

Stella blinked.

“I assumed they were blood relatives, given how dearly he treasures them.”

“... So did I.”

It was unexpected.

He had been willing to risk his life to protect them, so Noel had naturally assumed they were close relatives.

But on paper, they were essentially strangers.

Just like Noel and him.

“...”

It was quite an ironic similarity.

Especially when she thought of how he threw himself into matters concerning Noel as though they involved his own family.

“More importantly, if he's a war orphan... that explains why there are no records from his childhood.”

“Right?”

Indeed, every record from before he met his current family was blank.

Common sense said that even the Central Intelligence Bureau could never trace a war orphan's past.

There were countless possible routes through which he might have come to the Empire. It was only natural that they could not determine it clearly. Expecting otherwise would have been unreasonable.

“...”

But that was the problem. Something about it still bothered her.

‘... Of all things.’

The period missing from Aiden's history perfectly overlapped with the period of her memory loss, which she had never told anyone about.

The information she most wanted to know lay in the past that even the Central Intelligence Bureau could not uncover.

‘There is only one clue.’

And there was only one way to pursue it.

“Stella.”

“Yes?”

“... I need to go meet Aiden's family at least once.”

“An ordinary commoner might faint just from facing you, my lady.”

That was true.

Still, if she wanted to dig deeper into Aiden's past, they were the only people she could ask.

As Noel seriously considered that, the office door suddenly flew open.

Katia stood there, her expression deeply displeased.

“Your Highness? What brings you here?”

Noel tilted her head and asked.

After their fight, they had somehow exchanged apologies. Noel did not make it obvious, but Katia still seemed uncomfortable around her.

In any case, both sides needed to be comfortable if they were going to get along. Noel was usually the one trying to ease the atmosphere.

“Listen calmly first.”

... Apparently, the subject that followed would make that impossible.

“That guy got kidnapped.”

“... That guy?”

“Your husband.”

Sparks flew from Noel's eyes.

▣

Having a sack pulled over your entire face actually took more stamina than one might think.

And if you added being tied up tightly with ropes and dragged away, there was no need to say how exhausting it was.

So when someone yanked the sack off his head, Aiden was already quite worn out.

‘... I need to train more.’

He had never thought his stamina was lacking, but now that he was caught up in the main scenario, full of every sort of monster, all kinds of things kept happening to him.

Things would only get worse from here.

As that thought crossed his mind, the person who had removed the sack pressed a gun barrel against his forehead.

His fully covered appearance was striking. A mask, black gloves, and a coat.

He was dressed like someone introducing himself by saying, “I do filthy, sinister work.”

“Is this him?”

“Yes. We found him near the building and brought him in.”

“... You caught him easily. Isn't he the one who's been poking around our business all day?”

Aiden smiled bitterly to himself at the sight of another masked person speaking.

No, they really had caught him easily.

After all, Aiden himself had offered no resistance and allowed himself to be captured.

As he thought that, the man aiming the gun at his forehead raised it.

‘Ah.’

There was no need to ask what it was for.

The pistol swung down hard and struck Aiden squarely in the face.

After he repeated it several times, blood running down his face dyed his vision red.

“... You don't even show that you're in pain. You're a tough one.”

“...”

... No.

It was not that he was tough. He was simply thorough.

He had taken medicine beforehand. If he got kidnapped somewhere like this, he had been certain they would not leave him unharmed.

‘... Divine Power isn't coming out either.’

Aiden almost laughed inwardly when he saw that the Divine Power, which should have burst out immediately upon sensing danger, was not appearing.

... Well.

“That's enough of the greeting. I don't like wasting time, so let's get to the point. Who sent you?”

“I don't like wasting time either, so I'll answer right away. If you don't want to die, leave behind a reasonable amount of documents and items.”

The reason it was not appearing was probably because Aiden did not consider this a crisis at all.

The masked man hesitated at his unblinking answer.

“... What?”

“You know you can't destroy everything in time anyway. Leave enough behind for us to find out that you have direct connections to the Prince or the Minister of Administration. Then we won't chase you down and beat you to death.”

“...”

The masked man gave a hollow laugh and aimed his gun at Aiden's forehead again.

“Hey, I don't think you understand the situation here...”

“I know you won't kill me.”

“...”

“You still have plenty to destroy, right? If you add a corpse to the situation, you won't be able to run away cleanly enough to avoid being traced.”

“...”

“If you want to save your own lives, you don't have time to make more trouble here, do you?”

The masked man continued to fall silent as Aiden calmly spoke.

‘What is with this guy?’

That was probably all he could think.

It was as though Aiden had willingly come here to be captured.

He understood their situation and methods perfectly. They were the ones who had tied him up and pointed a gun at him, yet they were the ones feeling pressured.

“We aren't trying to kill you either, so just cooperate reasonably...”

Aiden stopped in the middle of his sentence.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he began recognizing one thing after another around him, he was finally able to grasp the situation properly.

Which meant that there were far more people surrounding him than he had expected.

“... You haven't all withdrawn yet?”

Aiden's face went pale in an instant.

His sudden change in emotion was so sharp that even the masked person pointing a sword at him looked startled.

It was strange. Until moments ago, this man had not blinked once as he threatened them.

“Wait, aren't you people supposed to be competent enough for the Prince or the Minister of Administration to trust you with direct work? What have you been doing this whole time?!”

... Then he suddenly started scolding them.

“... What?”

“I naturally assumed almost everyone would have withdrawn and only one or two people would remain! If things are like this, I can't protect all of you! Someone is definitely going to die!”

“...”

What was he even talking about?

He had been kidnapped, yet he had threatened them. Now he was saying he would protect them.

“Stay calm and listen carefully.”

Aiden spoke as though he were so desperate that he could barely breathe.

“It's not too late. Treat me first.”

“...”

They understood less and less of what he was saying.

‘... Is he mentally ill?’

As everyone there seriously considered that possibility, Aiden urgently continued.

“No, don't you have a spiritual elixir or something? You don't actually have to heal me, just make me look unharmed at the very least! If she sees me injured, every one of you will die!”

“What the hell is this lunatic talking abou...”

Someone finally lost patience and began to speak, but their sentence cut off midway.

Rumble...

Something was wrong.

They could feel it too.

Rumble... Rumble... Rumble...

The air was trembling.

Though it was still far away.

... Something terrible was slowly approaching them.

Rumble...

Step by step.

Every time it took a step, the trembling of the air grew stronger. It felt as though some enormous creature was coming this way.