127 – Bait – 1
To be honest, back alleys aren’t that grandiose. It’s not like a port city where foreigners come in and out countless times. The academy was located in the middle of the island. It means that there can be vicious swindlers, pickpockets, and brothels for bare-chested students, but there is no such thing as a large-scale criminal organization.
What are you going to do with such a large organization? It’s not like you can smuggle, you don’t have huge interests, and you don’t have a developed nightlife either. If such an organization enters a place like this, it will not be able to overcome its own weight and will begin to collapse on its own. Other than the natural occurrence of a few gangsters and bullies who are likely to be everywhere, there is no reason for bad guys to settle here.
“In that respect, there are many strange things about this case.”
“Yum… , so ask for help again, yum… , going to do?”
“Could you please put those bastard cookies down and focus on my story?”
Lira shoved her cookie crumbs from her hand into her mouth. She was seized with the urge to snatch the basket of cookies in front of her and throw it all away, but for now, I was the one who asked for it, so I held back.
“If you see people you don’t dare come here and sell drugs to students, it’s likely that the purpose is something bigger than just profit.”
“Yum…. Um, yum…. Certainly, this is where so much soybean water falls…. Not really.”
“So what I think is the purpose… , oh really.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer and grabbed the basket in front of her. I was an idiot and an idiot for having bought cookies as a treat. Lyra looked up at me with a puzzled expression. In the meantime, the cookie that went into her mouth was chewing well. She asked after she chewed everything in her mouth and swallowed it.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll give it back to you when I’m done talking.”
“The most despicable thing in the real world is threatening food.”
“I didn’t want to go this far either.”
She wasn’t some kind of kindergartener or a lower grader in elementary school, and as she said, she didn’t want to do this with dishonest food. She’s not training any animals. But there is a certain line in looking at it, I have no intention of listening to my story, and all my nerves are focused only on that snack.
“It’s not like they’re taking it away completely, they’re giving it back when the story is over. In the first place, why are you so obsessed with sweets?”
“Do you want to hear it?”
Lia smiled mischievously. I shook my head. Because I already knew what was going to happen. Bringing up the story of your unfortunate past and enjoying watching me at a loss. At first, I was a little embarrassed, but after a few times, it became an obvious pattern.
“If you want to hear that, I will tell you.”
“It’s okay.”
“At that time, I mean, it was the time when I couldn’t take off my snoring tee yet.”
“No, I hate it!”
Despite my strong will to reject her, her old story continued. The problem is, even if I say this, once I hear her story, I become concerned and end up listening to her. Even if it’s an obvious pattern, if it happens every time, it’s not an obvious pattern, it’s a pattern that works well. I don’t have to do it anymore, I think, but it’s the same every time.
“It was one of my dreams when I was young. Eating sweets to your heart’s content I didn’t even think of it when I was going through the trash, and after that, I was doing this and that, but what… , I don’t have time to put something sweet in my mouth.”
“Oh really….”
“I must have felt resentment for not being able to eat snacks at that time.”
Lyra said that, and she smiled a little faintly. I covered my eyes If you stay still after hearing stories like that, you’re like real dog garbage. Finally, shaking her head, I handed her the basket of cookies back to her. She put her tongue on her beret and stuck out her tongue.
“It’s a lie.”
“What?”
“It’s true that I couldn’t even dream of sweets and didn’t have time to keep sweet things in my mouth, but I didn’t really dream of eating sweets as much as I could. In the first place, I don’t like sweets that much.”
“Why did you do that….”
“Yeah, because it’s fun.”
She laughed wickedly as she tossed her leftover cookies into her mouth. Give me back my sympathy and guilt. She brushed her hands. She ate all the cookies she had prepared and must have finally made up her mind to talk to me.
“Now I’m going to eat some snacks, and I’m going to listen to you properly, so stop being angry and sit down.”
“You ate a whole bottle by yourself, but then you have to eat it. You don’t like sweets, do you?”
“Okay.”
At my words, Lyra shrugged her shoulders.
“By the way, is there anything you can do to help me? You can just walk around the back alleys and catch them roughly.”
“Then turn off the fire right in front of you, and the cause remains the same.”
If you’re going to pull out weeds, be sure to pull out the roots as well. This is because if you cut only the upper part, which looks ambiguous, it will grow back quickly. It’s not just about weeds. If you catch the end of spraying medicine directly on students, it will be replaced with another one soon, and the root cause will not be solved. What I want is not to put out the fire that fell at my feet right away, but to get rid of the source of the fire.
“Then what should we do?”
“That’s why I need your help.”
I explained my plan to Lira one by one.
“First, pretend you are a student and approach drug dealers. At first, just buy the medicine normally. Then, a few days later, he goes back to buy medicine, and this time he claims he has no money.”
“Isn’t that what attracts attention?”
“Because that is the purpose. I’m sure if you mess around like that, I’ll subdue you and take you somewhere.”
I was certain about this. Rumors spread that several of the seniors had already gone missing, and that most of them had been very sensitive and shrewd until a few days before their disappearance. Even those who disappeared have one thing in common: their families are not very wealthy. Between this series of inexplicable facts, if you put the mysterious medicine, everything fits perfectly. Everything pointed very clearly to where they had disappeared.
“If you drag them to their base like that, things will be easy from then on.”
“Are you saying that I am bait after all?”
Her expression twisted.
“Do you think I will do that for you now?”
“Will you not?”
“Don’t do it!”
I think it’s too openly a decoy strategy. It could be a bit risky However, if it wasn’t Lira, she has no one to play this role. She maintained her stubborn attitude, as if telling her not to dream.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, but my immediate goal is a comfortable life.”
“Isn’t that revenge?”
The blank expression she made when she was told that I was still abandoned is good in her eyes. But Lyra shook her head.
“It was like that at first. But now that I live like this, I don’t think it’s bad to live a peaceful and stable life. It’s true that the baby has reached me, so it’s okay to just be right, and to work hard like this. “
“Then, did you find the medicine this time?”
“If you keep messing with the academy like that, the peaceful and stable life I want will be ruined. It’s not that hard or difficult to figure out the situation properly. But being caught as bait is too risky. To put it simply, your belly button is bigger than your stomach.”
She said that, as if she was really satisfied with her current life, with a face that didn’t like the decoy operation. She said bluntly.
“You can do it yourself.”
“That would be difficult.”
They’re not stupid either, and they probably know my face. If I go and ask them to sell some medicine to me too, then the possibility that they will be vigilant is much higher than the possibility that they will sell the medicine thinking that it will be good. Lyra twisted one corner of her mouth as if it were dumbfounded.
“I’ll tell you again because I seem to have forgotten, but I was originally from that side too?”
“Do you think they know your face?”
“Well, that’s not the case….”
There is no way that the face of a person with the name of an assassin is known even to the low-level people who spray drugs on children. If so, I would have doubted her identity. Or skill.
Running out of excuses to somehow get out of the bait role, Lira resorted to her last resort. She put her hands on her ears, closed her eyes, and shook her head quickly from side to side. Yes. She started writing her swarm.
“Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know. Anyway, I won’t!”
“No, he said he would help. You said blah blah that came into your front yard!”
“As I said before, your belly button is bigger than your belly? You can’t burn down the whole house trying to catch a thief!”
Then what should I do? Can’t I just carve out my time to patrol? If you spend time like that, you’ll eventually get caught someday. It will be a little different this time, and should I trust the guards? I thought about this and that, but in the end, no matter what number I chose, the essential solution was difficult.
From nob le mt l dot com
My expression became serious, and Lira cautiously helped me.
“No, uh, can I ask the other kids?”
“The other kids?”
“What, Cordelia or something… , She herself was motivated in her own way.”
“What are you talking about? It’s dangerous.”
I answered without hesitating even for a second. I’m deliberately keeping it a secret because I don’t want to get involved in dangerous things, but it doesn’t make sense to leave the most dangerous lure.
“Wow, then me?!”
Lira asked with a very genuinely sad expression at her reply to my sword. No, there are some skill differences… , Of course, if you compare Lira to her Hestia or her friends, her priorities drop. I wonder if it’s too cold for her to honestly show her in front of her face, but she’ll be caught soon after she’s lied to her anyway. Besides, there is no need to hide this in a relationship where each other uses each other anyway.
“You don’t answer?!”
“What is that… , I guess so.”
Since I didn’t even try to make a single excuse, Lira jumped up and down.
“Wow, that’s a bit too much! Can’t you just lie there and say that it’s not like that? How can you discriminate against people like this?”
“If you tell a lie, everything will notice anyway.”
“It’s a matter of sincerity! In good faith!”
Even if you say so… , In the first place, her first meeting was like that. To be honest, I don’t feel like a business partner. To be honest, I don’t even know why she’s angry. Did she think she was a friend because she sincerely helped her a few times and shared her jokes? If it wasn’t for Hestia’s contract magic, she would still be the highest level of alert for me. She still doesn’t feel like a friend in the true sense of the word. How can we be friends when we don’t trust each other?
“Sheesh. I really don’t know. I’m going.”
You’re not joking around like usual, are you really mad? It’s like seeing something like that for the first time. Like that, Lira showed off her pout and disappeared.