Chapter 154
Chapter 154
Raid the Liaison Office (3)
There was a type of person Ilena particularly disliked—those who loved themselves far more than their abilities deserved.
In that regard, the man named Bran could be said to fall squarely into the category Ilena didn’t care for.
“He plays decently well, I suppose. But what’s the point if there’s no heart in the performance?”
The problem was that Ilena’s current mission required her to carefully pander to this pompous man.
‘Just you wait, Kairus.’
Of course, she knew full well that Kairus was also having a hard time right now, working with Nora.
But that didn’t make Ilena’s situation any less difficult.
So much so that she’d honestly rather be out marching than continue this conversation with this man.
Still, Ilena didn’t let her guard down or show even the slightest sign of displeasure.
‘Narcissist or not, he’s the liaison chief.’
The position of Security Bureau liaison chief wasn’t something one obtained easily. Besides, it wasn’t like Ilena was here to find a match for real, so there was no reason to show her likes or dislikes.
As they chatted and continued eating, Bran threw a question her way.
“Ah, come to think of it, I never asked your name.”
After a full thirty minutes of bragging about himself, he was finally asking something about Ilena. And Ilena had no intention of answering.
Instead, she put on a slightly flustered expression and glanced around nervously.
“Well, you see… I actually slipped out without my family knowing.”
Bran smiled faintly at her words. It wasn’t uncommon. Young ladies from strict households often sneaked out to take a peek at the outside world.
In fact, it was often something their families allowed intentionally, as a way of letting them breathe.
But if they gave formal permission to go out, the girls would want to go out all the time. So the families pretended not to know, letting them slip out now and then for a breath of fresh air.
‘So she’s from a noble house.’
Naturally, commoners didn’t manage their daughters this tightly. Now that he looked more closely, she kept stealing glances at her surroundings—clear signs of a well-bred lady out for a secret excursion.
“Oh dear, I apologize. That was rude of me.”
And of course, asking a young lady like her for her name or her family’s name while she was out for some fresh air was considered disrespectful to her house.
Ilena knew that too, which was why she had approached it this way. Revealing a fake identity to a Security Bureau liaison chief wasn’t a good idea.
‘That part’s taken care of.’
While she continued her act diligently, keeping Bran occupied, Kairus and Nora successfully arrived at the top floor of Zelkova Hall.
“How is it?”
“No one’s here.”
Nora, clinging to the window, checked the inside of the building and then spoke to Kairus.
“Let’s pick the lock and go in.”
There were ways to cut a hole in the window using a glass knife, but there was no reason to resort to that here.
‘It’s just a university window, after all.’
Nora took out a magnet and placed it near the latch of the window, sliding it with a smooth motion. The latch disengaged along with the magnet’s movement, and both Nora and Kairus were able to easily enter the top floor of the building.
“It’s quiet. No one’s here.”
“It’s still a university, even if it has a Security Bureau liaison office.”
It wasn’t feasible for Security Bureau personnel to stand guard in large numbers. Besides, the purpose of a liaison office was to serve as a relay for communication between local branches and higher command.
What was needed wasn’t numbers, but a few capable individuals.
Instead, alarms were likely in place. And that suspicion of Kairus’s soon became a certainty.
“This has to be the place.”
They opened a suspicious-looking door and found an inexplicably long hallway. At the far end of the hallway was another door.
Muttering to himself, Kairus pulled out his hip flask, conjured up mist, and scattered it through the corridor.
“Nothing good will come of touching anything in there.”
What had appeared to be an empty corridor was now crisscrossed with red lines like a web, revealed by the mist.
“Tripwires. If something solid touches them, it’ll send a signal.”
Nora spoke in a tone that made it sound like it was no big deal.
“There’s no way a person could get through that.”
“Well, that’s the point. It’s designed so no one can pass. I’ve heard those are pretty expensive. The Imperial Security Bureau must be investing a lot.”
With average flexibility, it would be impossible to slip between those red beams.
“Oppa, throw me.”
Kairus looked at Nora, thinking, what the hell is she talking about?
“Ah fuck, that’s disgusting.”
Using joints that bent in unnatural directions, Nora literally folded her body into something grotesque, managing to reduce her body size dramatically.
She folded both arms and legs behind her back and bent her waist backward, making herself roughly the size of a torso with just a head attached.
With a bit of exaggeration, it looked like she could fit inside a briefcase. At this size, it would be entirely possible to throw her between the red beams.
“You could just teleport.”
Nora shook her head.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about that. Feels like it might trigger something.”
“What’s with you and your gut feelings all of a sudden?”
Still, Kairus didn’t completely dismiss what Nora said. When something felt off, and there was another way to get past an obstacle without relying on a risky method, it was smarter to take the safer route.
And it’s not like they were out of options.
“Hurry up and throw me! It’s not like I folded myself up because I wanted to!”
At Nora’s words, Kairus obediently picked her up and took aim.
“I’m throwing you. You’re on your own for the landing.”
“Don’t worry, oppa. You just focus on the throw.”
Kairus immediately hurled Nora. With the sound of air splitting, she flew cleanly through the red beams and, as soon as she reached the door, unfolded her limbs and landed smoothly.
“Throw me the sword.”
To unlock that door, she needed Flicker, but Kairus couldn’t cross the red beams. Naturally, he had to toss Flicker to her.
“Are you sure about this, oppa? What if I run off with it?”
“I’ll chase you down and get it back.”
Kairus answered simply and tossed Flicker with a flick of his wrist. The sword cut through the air with a sharp sonic boom.
Nora tilted her head slightly to avoid it, and with precise timing, caught the handle mid-air.
“If I hadn’t moved, that would’ve stabbed me in the face.”
“Too bad you dodged.”
At Kairus’s dry remark, Nora grinned and thrust Flicker into the door. A mosaic pattern spread outward, and the door vanished.
“But what about getting back?”
In response to Kairus’s question, Nora answered,
“A setup like this always has a control switch nearby. Just wait a bit.”
Nora disappeared beyond the door, and about ten minutes later, a chime sounded, and all the red beams vanished.
The door was cleared again, and Nora inside gestured to him. Kairus crossed through before Flicker’s time limit expired.
“Here.”
Nora immediately handed Flicker back to Kairus.
“Thank goodness. I was wondering if you’d use this chance to kill me.”
“Not until the Republic places a request.”
It was a chilling answer, but coming from a Lunaseeker, it was one of the more friendly things he could’ve heard.
“Let’s get started with the search. At this rate, Ilena might actually get dragged to that hotel.”
“Didn’t think you’d care about that sort of thing.”
Getting dragged into a hotel by some man she met that same day while on a job wouldn’t exactly be a pleasant experience.
“If it can be avoided, why let it happen?”
With that, Kairus quickly used Flicker to unlock all the secure cabinets, pulled out the documents, and began scanning through them.
While Kairus and Nora were diligently examining the documents, Ilena was busy fending off Bran’s mounting advances.
‘Have a meal together, and then he wants to drink. Start drinking, and he uses the mood as an excuse to sit next to you. Sit next to you, and he wants to touch. Touching leads to wanting to lie down together.’
It was something Ilena had heard during her childhood education in the Kellogg family. And not a single part of it was wrong.
So, if she had to guess what stage they were at now—it was the drinking stage after moving to another seat.
Fortunately, she could keep an eye on the street through the window.
“Wait a second….”
While they drank and chatted, Bran suddenly stood up. Looked like he was heading to the restroom or something.
Of course, the restroom was just an excuse. As he stepped away from the table, Ilena quietly stared at the empty glass in front of her.
‘He’ll sit next to me when he comes back.’
Leaving his seat was just a prelude to moving closer. And when he returned, the seat he’d choose would be the one next to Ilena.
And Ilena had no intention of rejecting him up to that point.
“After that, he’ll try to touch me.”
Bran’s pace was no joke. With a bit of exaggeration, it seemed like he’d go in for a kiss right here at the table.
The issue was, Ilena had been consistently feigning interest in him this whole time.
Like shoveling coal into a train already speeding down the tracks—it was no surprise that the train was only accelerating further.
‘I can reject him a few times.’
It would be stranger if she didn’t flinch at all when he started groping her thigh or something. A few rejections wouldn’t seem suspicious.
But repeated refusals would become a problem. She had spent all this time wide-eyed, full of compliments, sending signals that she was smitten. Suddenly rejecting him out of nowhere?
Of course, the thought would cross his mind—‘What’s with her?’
And if it ended there, fine. But Bran was the liaison chief. He had probably dealt with plenty of people trying to approach him with shady intentions.
Yet, the fact that he still chased after women meant he had sharp instincts.
The moment he sensed something suspicious, he’d likely walk away and head straight back to Julian Conservatory.
‘I can’t risk messing things up for Kairus and Nora.’
Even so, she couldn’t help but wish the job would wrap up soon.
“You didn’t wait too long, did you?”
“Not at all.”
They had already dropped formal speech before the drinks. Naturally, he sat right next to her, and Ilena, pretending nothing was amiss, met his eyes briefly with a smile before turning her gaze out the window.
“You keep looking outside.”
Ilena nodded at Bran’s remark.
“It’s just fascinating. So many people walking around. And the gas lamps light up before sunset too.”
The excuse was convincing enough that Bran didn’t question it. And naturally, his hand drifted onto her shoulder. Just as he had accepted her excuse, Ilena accepted his touch.
“It’s been like a dream today. Do you think this kind of connection could continue?”
To her question, Bran replied,
“Don’t think about what comes next. Focus on completing this dream-like day.”
Ilena fully understood what he meant by “completing” the day, and she also knew that she was the only one who didn’t wish for that ending. To top it off, he hadn’t even answered her question.
“Sorry, I guess I’m just a worrywart.”
As the hand on her shoulder started to tighten its grip, Ilena subtly slipped away from it.
Before Bran could say anything, Ilena placed her hand on his thigh.
‘Better I touch him than the other way around.’
It was like that absurd question: Would you rather touch your friend’s balls or have your friend touch yours?
Touch or be touched—in this situation, Ilena chose to be the one doing the touching.
From Bran’s perspective, it wasn’t a bad trade-off either, so he didn’t object.
And finally, in the direction Ilena had been gazing out the window, she spotted Nora and Kairus.
‘I need to get out of here. Why didn’t they finish sooner?!’
She would need a bit more time to extract herself. If she suddenly stood up and left after putting her hand on the man’s thigh, it’d be way too suspicious.
And with a bit more exaggeration, Bran might even try to follow her.