Protecting Bridget Village (1)

“…What?”

“…Really?”

“Yes, almost certainly.”

Surprised by Seraphine’s confident declaration about searching for a collaborator, Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot and I questioned her back almost simultaneously.

Even with our immediate questions, Seraphine nodded and confidently began explaining about the collaborator she had found.

“As I told you yesterday, the most likely person I consider to be the collaborator is Mr. Hankerton, the director of the orphanage in the village.”

“I-I think Mr. Hankerton is a bit… unlikely to be a collaborator with the bandits.”

“Today, I pretended to volunteer at the orphanage and did a little investigation. Information like rumors about the orphanage gathered from the children’s testimonies, or how many children leave and enter the orphanage each month. While I was at it, I also read some of the ledgers in the director’s office.”

Seraphine casually ignored Celista’s opinion and confidently relayed the information she had gathered to the others.

For Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot and me, Seraphine’s information seemed more credible, so we naturally had no choice but to listen more closely to her words.

“…So? What do you think?”

“It’s an orphanage that, no matter how you look at it, has no source of income, yet it continues to operate in this remote village. The list of noble names recorded as ‘donations’ also seems strange. At least, not a single name of an influential noble I know was listed. They probably listed appropriate aliases to prevent anyone observant from noticing anything strange when looking at the ledgers.”

“…Right. Anything else?”

“Most suspicious of all are the testimonies of the orphanage children. According to the children’s testimonies, one or two children from the orphanage are adopted somewhere each month, but they say they’ve never seen the faces of the adopting parents.

Normally, when adopting a child from an orphanage like this, even nobles would at least once see the face of the child who might become part of their family, wouldn’t they? Even if they intended to raise the child not as their own, but as a squire or a maid.

However, according to the children’s testimonies, it means there are only people who adopt children by simply looking at documents, without meeting them directly or discussing which child to take. No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Especially if they are parents passionate enough to come all the way to a remote orphanage like this to adopt a child.”

“…That’s right. You have a point.”

“No matter how I think about it, that man is clearly doing something bad at that orphanage. Even if he’s not involved with the bandits, it’s probably not a good business he’s running. Given that he’s committing illegal acts, it’s even more likely he’s involved with some nefarious force, circumstantially speaking.”

If everything Seraphine said was true, then in the actual game, Orphanage Director Hankerton would likely be the bandits’ collaborator.

And since Seraphine wasn’t the type to be weak-willed or spout strange nonsense like Celista or Silena, her statements held considerable credibility.

‘The problem is that not only Seraphine, but I also found that ‘collaborator’….’

In 『Luminor Academy』, there were three individuals who could potentially be the bandits’ collaborator, and the way the Humanities Exploration Class progressed was by gathering evidence and identifying one of the three each time you played.

Thus, sometimes Orphanage Director Hankerton, who genuinely operated the orphanage with good intentions, would become a human trafficker selling orphans into slavery, and Village Chief Rombel, who cooperated with the Academy students to protect the village from bandits, would sometimes become a traitor who betrayed the Academy students for the village’s safety.

…And the village woman I suspect as a collaborator also has multiple storylines, one where she is a collaborator and one where she is not.

‘No, perhaps….’

As suspicious circumstances overlapped, a hypothesis formed in my mind, and at that moment, the Hero Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot also began to state that he seemed to have found the collaborator.

“It might sound a bit strange to say this after hearing Seraphine’s words, but somehow, I still think Village Chief Rombel is suspicious.”

“……What?”

“Actually, circumstantially, he was the most suspicious person. Starting with the sudden bandit attack we encountered on our way to the village. It was as if they knew in advance that we would be visiting this village.”

“…That is certainly suspicious. The only people who would know our arrival time and travel route to this village would be, at most, the Professor and Village Chief Rombel-nim.”

“If someone leaked the information, the Village Chief would be the most likely suspect. Furthermore, his readily offering us the Village Hall now seems to have had another purpose, looking back.”

“…Another purpose?”

“Since we are Academy students, we are probably the only ones in this village who can properly exert force against the bandit group.

If by any chance the bandits attack this village again, it would be easier to deal with us all at once if we were gathered in one place, rather than scattered in various people’s homes, wouldn’t it?”

“B-but, it’s not good to jump to conclusions like that…. If you speak that way, it means we have to suspect everyone who has been kind to us, doesn’t it….”

“…That’s true. It’s unfortunate, but we can’t rule out the most likely possibility, Celista.

And that’s not the only thing that makes me suspicious. Just yesterday and today, Village Chief Rombel-nim has been unusually assigning only us men tasks that require physical strength….”

Even after that, Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot continued to explain, one by one, the reasons why Village Chief Rombel seemed suspicious from his perspective.

As the Hero’s resolute attitude and evidence accumulated, the Saintess reluctantly nodded with a slightly melancholic expression.

Since I was also listening to Gyeotmwa’s circumstantial evidence, I could find quite a few characteristics that Village Chief Rombel would exhibit if he were the collaborator, and in the original game, it would have been fine to stop the search and proceed with the story, treating Rombel as a provisional collaborator, once this much evidence had emerged.

The corruption of Orphanage Director Hankerton discovered by Seraphine, and the circumstances surrounding Village Chief Rombel discovered by Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot.

“Actually, as for me, if I were to tell you about what happened in today’s self-defense class for women….”

And even the strong candidate for traitor that I had found.

It was a moment when I felt certain that the hypothesis I had formed in my mind might actually come true.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The time spent in Bridget Village for the Humanities Exploration Class at 『Luminor Academy』 was a total of 3 nights and 4 days.

As it was a region located a bit far from the Academy, requiring 1 night and 2 days just for travel, the duration of the class naturally had to be adjusted accordingly.

That meant, if the bandits were to cause trouble, they would have to do it by the third night at the very latest.

The reason they had left this small village untouched, which they would have plundered long ago if that were their only goal, was, as I mentioned before, because their objective wasn’t merely to seize a single village, and their remaining objective was, of course, to acquire young, beautiful, and valuable slaves in their prime.

Having failed their first day’s attack, their attacking on the last day, when they’d assume we were most off guard, was an unavoidable certainty.

Therefore, on the third night, which eventually arrived, we split into our respective groups to patrol the village.

It wasn’t a patrol where we aimlessly wandered around the village; instead, Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot had arbitrarily divided us into groups, each assigned to patrol a specific area.

First, Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot and his harem trio’s group patrolled around the largest thoroughfare on the outskirts of the village where the orphanage was located.

Natalie, Thomas, and Luke’s group patrolled near the Village Chief’s house and the Village Hall.

And my group, with Ethan and Agnes, patrolled the residential area and the smaller thoroughfare on the outskirts of the village.

The groups were roughly divided considering each person’s affinity and combat power. In terms of boss battle difficulty, Orphanage Director Hankerton’s side was the hardest, and Village Chief Rombel’s side was the easiest.

‘Up until now, I would have naturally divided the groups assuming that a boss monster would only appear on one of the three routes….’

By this point, Gyeotmwa Jyosyegigot and I were gradually realizing something. That in 『Luminor Academy』, branching bosses would continue to appear together as long as there were no particular contradictions related to the story’s progression.

Of course, in cases where a corruption route has completely disappeared, such as with Ethan, Harold, or the nobles of the August Family, they wouldn’t appear as boss monsters because contradictions would arise. However, the three types of named monsters encountered in the Witch’s Forest, or the named bandits faced just a few days ago, appeared together without any issues, as their co-existence didn’t pose a problem.

If so, then even on this route, we had no choice but to consider the possibility that all three collaborator candidates were traitors.

An orphanage director who wants to continue selling children into slavery in a remote village beyond the Imperial family’s reach.

A village chief who, for the survival of the village, decided to hand over the Academy students, who were outsiders, to the bandits instead.

And a woman who was once dragged away by bandits, barely escaped, and harbored a desire for revenge, wishing others to experience the pain she endured, all existing in one village, didn’t particularly create a ‘contradiction’.

‘Of course, it would be best if nothing happened at all….’

Given the pattern so far, such a thing probably wouldn’t happen, of course.

“…Heup, Keuk…. Kek….”

“……!”

As if to confirm my prediction, someone’s distressed gasps could be heard from inside the village alleyway, and the footsteps of us three naturally turned towards the alley.