185 – Qualifications
Chills ran down my spine.
It’s not enough that I was sitting next to you, avoiding my senses. You know everything I’ve done.
That must mean that the man in front of you is by no means an ordinary person.
There was a very high possibility that it was someone related to this train, that is, the person I was looking for.
It was difficult to guess what the other person was thinking because he was wearing a mask and couldn’t read his expression.
First of all, let’s apologize politely. Whatever it was, it was wrong to ride without a ticket.
“Sorry. It may sound like an excuse, but it wasn’t because I didn’t have money, but because I didn’t know how to get a ticket, I inevitably made a mistake. I will do whatever it takes to compensate.”
“Hmm.”
The only thing that came back was a meaningful exclamation.
Do you want something more? Feeling a bit uneasy because of the poor response, he added a story to each phrase.
“Actually, this time I don’t want to simply use the train, but I want to have a business discussion with the Magic Engineering Society that manages this train…”
“How did you get the ticket the last time you boarded the train?”
After he cut off his words, he hesitated a little before answering the question that jumped in, then answered honestly.
“I bought it from a witch.”
“Really.”
Unexpectedly, the opponent seemed to agree with me without any reaction.
Is it because you know about the witch’s shop?
Even if not much is known about the witch’s shop, it’s not such a huge secret that if you find out, her life will be in danger. Rather, it felt more like a hidden restaurant that only those in the know know about.
The cowboy man nodded her head alone and asked me straight away.
“Are you the Phantom Thief Raven?”
“···Uh. Hmm. That is.”
What is it? I didn’t feel a sense of crisis at all because I was so vain that I was exposed.
It’s hard to explain, but in other words, it’s like being caught in a hidden camera.
It was so absurd that I was about to burst out laughing. If you’re going to get caught this easily, isn’t it meaningless to try to hide your identity?
The other party seemed to already be convinced of my identity, so it seemed useless to try to escape now.
“Yes. How did you find out?”
“That’s a secret. To give you a hint, I’ve been guessing since the last time we first met.”
From noble mtl dot com.
Come to think of it, it reminded me of the first time I met this man.
Even though I was obviously disguised as Lupine, he saw through my true self at once.
Maybe he has a special ability to grasp the essence of his opponent? I don’t know what it is though.
“Then that way…”
“Feel free to call me chief engineer.”
Director. That title instantly revealed the identity of the enigmatic man.
At the same time, I could understand why he was on a train with no one on board and why he took it for granted that I had been on a free ride.
But at the same time, there were also questions that arose.
“Didn’t you get off halfway last time? Certainly in Frankfurt…”
“Hmm. That was a fittingly coined word to pretend to be a guest. You got off in Paris anyway, so there’s no way you’d notice my lies.”
“Aha.”
To say the least, since I got off the train first, there was no way to check where the other person got off.
I just believed that since I talked to him and said the destination was Prussia, of course.
There was a slight awkward silence as the conversation stopped for a moment.
Oops. It’s not like this, I need to hand over the money first. It was not an empty word to say that we would compensate as much as possible, so we had brought more money than the actual ticket price.
“How much can I give you? I will add more to the ticket price as an apology.”
“There is no particular need for that.”
“…Yes? You don’t need it?”
This was another completely unexpected answer, so I looked at the engineer with a puzzled expression.
“Didn’t you tell me earlier? It’s not because I don’t have money, it’s because I don’t know how to get a ticket.”
“It was. But does that matter…?”
“It’s the same thing. We only sell tickets to people who deserve it more than money.”
You deserve it. So, are you saying that you only pick up customers who are in the right class?
I don’t know exactly under what conditions the eligibility is determined, but the criminals will probably be eliminated. It occurred to me that they would never accept a thief who was not an ordinary thief, but a thief who wreaked havoc in society.
But a witch has what she deserves? To be honest, she must not have a good general perception even as a witch. If you think about what the word witch hunt means right now, don’t you feel it? It was at the level of a phantom thief or a witch.
I was genuinely curious and asked the head of the institute.
“What are your qualifications?”
“Hmm. I think it’s going to be a long talk, but let’s sit down first.”
An empty train car with nobody but us. I sat in the same seat as last time, but the atmosphere was quite different from then. At the time, I thought of him as just an unusual guest, so I was annoyed whenever he spoke to me, but now the situation has reversed.
“I would like to hear from you first. Did you hear earlier that you wanted to have a business talk with the society?”
“Yes. I’ve already revealed my identity, so I’ll just be honest. I’m active as a phantom thief and at the same time I’m running a foundation. From that point of view, I thought that magic engineering was too wasteful to use only a few specific people like this.”
I was talking seriously, but the chief engineer burst into laughter.
“It’s ironic that the phantom thief said that.”
“···This may sound strange, but it’s true. Even though I’m active as a phantom thief, there are circumstances I can’t talk about.”
“Of course it is. I believe you too.”
I don’t believe it at all. What can I do though? Actually, such a reaction is natural.
On the contrary, if I were in his position, I would have snorted and laughed the same way.
“In addition to that, I have a little bit of an idea that I might be able to drastically reduce the spatial restrictions that occur while I am active as a phantom thief.”
“Is Noni itchy only in Britain? After all, there are so many treasures in the world, but it would be difficult to be satisfied with only one country.”
“…Is it really that hard?”
Help me use my skills for stealing. Even after I said it, I wondered where else could there be such a shameless request.
However, instead of showing any displeasure, the engineer smiled.
“You are full of romance. I want to support you. Originally, there must be one or two troublemakers like this in order to have fun in life.”
“Then are you accepting it?”
While the reason makes me tilt my head a bit, it was a very good sign that the other person’s reaction was positive no matter what.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have that kind of decision-making power. It’s because he’s just the head of the train that moves the train. It would be quicker to go to the conference and meet the vice president and talk to him in person.”
Vice-president. It’s a bit unfortunate, but it’s somewhere with just this. It’s a much better situation now than the first time when I didn’t know what to do.
“Of course, the qualifications will be reviewed first.”
“…As you said before, what is the criterion for alternative qualifications?”
“Very simple.”
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke slowly.
“Can you kill a girl?”
“・・・・・・Yes?”
“To be more precise, is it something that can help kill that girl? That is the qualification condition.”
Once I understood the meaning, an unpleasant feeling of discomfort covered my whole body.
Killing people?
Is that a girl too?
If it had been a joke, I couldn’t have passed it by, but the chief engineer’s voice when he said that was serious, not playful.
I tried to get up from my seat, frowning.
No matter how powerful the Magic Engineering Society was, if they had known it was such a psycho group, they wouldn’t have dared to do it from the start.
But before I could move, he opened his mouth again.
“Your goddess will be wishing for the girl’s death too.”
“What?”
No, how…
I’ve dealt with countless people so far, but no one noticed the existence of the Goddess.
There were no exceptions for any strong person other than a transcendental person like the spirit of the lake.
Then, what kind of existence is the head of the engine in front of you?
I couldn’t understand more than that. I didn’t want to understand
To think that even the goddess wished for the girl’s death. What the hell is that…
I couldn’t believe it, so I tried to ask the goddess directly.
‘Goddess? What do you mean? Isn’t it? That’s just bullsh*t. Yes?’
[···I do not force you to choose. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.]
‘Don’t go round and round like that, tell me clearly. Are you sure that’s true? Does the goddess even want me to kill someone!’
The Goddess kept her silence for a long time before giving her answer in a low voice.
[···Yes. That’s what it says.]