Ch.7474 – Secret Actions for a Lonely Child

<74 – Secret Actions for a Lonely Child>

Every morning at 2:22 AM, Oknodie would climb to the second floor of the main building and wait for her.

Hestia felt tremendous guilt, not knowing this and thinking she would give up for the day, considering it beyond her abilities, and just sleep comfortably.

Oknodie must have infiltrated the main building late at night, breaking through the strict security system and instructors, just because she wanted to play with her. And she had left that child alone all morning.

‘She must have been lonely.’

The desolation of waiting alone for someone who doesn’t come is something you can’t understand unless you’ve experienced it.

It was painful enough to guard an empty home knowing your family was dead and wouldn’t return, but how much more painful must it be knowing someone is alive but being unable to meet them?

Was I abandoned?

Am I tiresome?

Was I not fun enough?

Oknodie must have crouched alone in a dark room, thinking all sorts of things while waiting for her, then returning to her room dejectedly.

Hestia couldn’t begin to imagine how Oknodie felt when she spoke to the wall and it answered as if nothing had happened.

“Hey, Zhang.”

“…Did you come to make fun of me?”

“It’s not like that.”

Hestia made a decision.

She wanted to keep it a secret between just the two of them, but honestly, the academy’s night security system was too strict.

It was impossible to manage alone.

“Oknodie visits a secret room somewhere in the main building every morning at 2:22 AM.”

“Why would the academy have such a secret room? How did Oknodie know about it? And how do you know to tell me about it?”

“Oknodie is in the room next to mine. That child always knew a lot… I think she told me because she wanted to play with me. But the security is too tight to get there.”

“Why don’t you just figure it out yourself? It has nothing to do with me.”

“Aren’t you curious? What Oknodie is doing there. Whether you can break through the security that Oknodie managed to breach.”

So she was looking for a guide and stealth helper.

Zhang showed considerable curiosity.

“…Is that really Oknodie?”

“Probably?”

“Hmph. I don’t understand what’s going on, but it bothers me even more. I don’t think that Oknodie was fake, but considering we’re dealing with that ghost-like professor, we might have been deceived…”

“Ghost-like professor?”

“Yeah, there’s someone like that. Anyway, I’ll go with you since I’m also curious now. Where exactly is it?”

“I won’t tell you. It would be troublesome if you abandoned me and went alone. I’ll tell you when we enter the main building together at 2 AM.”

You look like a bear but you’re surprisingly thorough.

Zhang clicked her tongue inwardly.

* *

-Let’s meet at the pavilion outside the annex first. If you can’t even make it there, it would be a waste of effort, so I’ll just go back.

Because of Zhang’s conditions, Hestia crept down the corridor with a pounding heart.

‘I’ve been eavesdropping with my head against the wall the whole time. The patrol cycle for the first floor corridor is one hour.’

One instructor patrols each floor every hour.

Even after leaving the corridor, it’s not over.

One person guards the lobby leading to the exit via the dormitory’s central staircase.

Two more people patrol outside, and searchlights rotate from the nearby guard post.

How many more instructors and standby personnel might be inside the post?

It’s an incredible amount of manpower.

Considering the academy’s value, this level of security isn’t excessive, but from the perspective of someone who needs to break through it, it feels cruel.

‘I need to avoid both instructors and lights.’

The instructor had said it.

The academy’s dawn is dangerous for first-year babies.

From the baby’s perspective, it’s overprotection.

‘Are there ghosts or something?’

Tiptoeing quietly.

She crawled out through the window and moved on all fours into the bushes.

It was a full 200 meters to the pavilion outside the dormitory.

At a pace of 3 meters per minute, it would take over an hour.

It seemed excessive caution, but Hestia remembered being caught before and remained vigilant.

Thanks to that, she could see it.

‘Detection magic used to sense intruders in thieves’ camps!’

A faint light of mana passed at a height that could definitely detect a person, not a small animal.

If Oknodie saw it, she would exclaim “Laser beam security system!” with shining eyes.

Perhaps the reason she was caught by the instructor and spotted by the guard post lights when she fearlessly walked after climbing through the window last time was because her body touched that light.

‘This is killing me.’

It might be better to just break through by force.

Being large, she had to be especially careful not to trigger the lasers.

Unfortunately, a particularly low detection magic light appeared in her path.

She didn’t know how much wandering it would take to go around it.

This light was visible if you paid attention in the darkness, but its luminosity was so low that it couldn’t be detected with the naked eye from just 10 meters away.

Thinking that going another way might lead to lights at the same height, she resolved to break through right here.

Squeeze.

She tightened her buttocks and chest muscles, making her glutes and pectorals contract.

Thanks to that, she could somehow pass through with careful, small movements.

As she was struggling to pass through, she heard the sound of a window clattering open in the distance.

“!!”

Who would open a window so noisily?

Hestia lay flat, not moving an inch, afraid of attracting the instructors’ attention.

She heard students’ voices in her ears.

“If we want to get more flags, we need to settle this tonight-nya! Nun, hurry up and come out-nya!”

“The Lightning Heaven God Church does not permit sneaking around in the darkness like cowards.”

“Do you want to be looked down upon for collecting fewer flags than those Imperial bastards-nya? The god of the Lightning Heaven God Church will curse incompetent believers who damage his reputation-nya!”

The distinctive nya-nya speech pattern audible even from afar in the darkness.

A member of Group A’s advanced class.

It was the voice of Zenya, the beastkin fighter.

As expected of a nocturnal cat, she sounded very energetic just from her voice.

“…As a nun of the Lightning Heaven God Church, I cannot bring shame to the Holy Light Madeus. Please forgive me for the sin of sneaking around like a mouse in the darkness.”

Niche, the nun of the Lightning Heaven God Church.

She was one of the advanced class students collecting flags in the same team as the beastkin fighter Zenya.

Thursday, third period.

While their courage to collect flags early in the morning before the principal’s class was commendable, their timing was bad.

Already, she could sense an instructor yawning boredly in the distance, killing time.

Flash! Flash!

Searchlights flew toward the careless nighttime wanderers who were making loud noises without fear.

“You kids, just go back inside and sleep. Since it’s your first time, I’ll let you off with a warning, but if you get caught again, you’ll either pay a fine with points or go to the punishment room…”

“Run in opposite directions-nya!”

“Lord Madeus, please grant me feet faster than the instructor’s.”

The cat beastkin’s unique agility and the nun’s physical enhancement through divine arts.

The instructor blew a whistle at the outrageous audacity of advanced class students fleeing right in front of him.

“Catch those girls!”

“Runaways? Are there runaways we can catch for a free 100 points each?”

“Stop right there, points!”

Instructors poured out from the dormitory and guard posts where they had been on night patrol and standby duty.

‘That damn cat girl!’

Hestia was indignant.

Thirty minutes of crawling might be wasted because of that troublesome cat girl who suddenly appeared.

If I get caught because of her, I’ll never forgive her!

* *

“Tighten the rope.”

“Nyaaaa! My tail hurts-nya!”

“Shut up. If you got caught, you should have surrendered quietly. How dare you try to run away?”

“Hiyaaaa!”

Zenya trembled every time the instructor pulled her tail as she was dragged along, tightly bound with rope.

Behind Zenya and the instructor followed Niche, the nun of the Lightning Heaven God Church, with a noose around her neck and making clanking armor sounds.

“For a so-called nun, you can’t even lift your head. At least you’re aware you did something shameful.”

“You thieving cat. You should be dragged along quietly like her. Hey, hey!”

“Hnnnng!”

“But doesn’t this one shake her waist too much?”

“Doesn’t her expression look… lewd?”

Report them for sexual harassment.

As Hestia was inwardly criticizing the instructors, she suddenly realized that Niche, who had been looking at the ground while being dragged, had turned to look in her direction.

Nervous.

Her pupils shook uncontrollably from left to right, revealing her anxiety.

You’re not going to snitch, are you?

“Instructor.”

“What is it, nun?”

“Zenya’s tail is an erogenous zone. Grabbing and pulling her tail like that is equivalent to stimulating her genitals.”

“What?!”

“Are you perhaps trying to harass a student by using your position?”

“N-no, I thought her reactions were funny and her expression looked a bit lewd, but I had no such intention!”

The instructors looked at her with disbelief.

Nun Niche made a deal in a quiet voice.

“If you let us go and pretend you didn’t see us, I won’t report that several instructors sexually harassed a beastkin female student from the frontier.”

“Whoa, no, uh.”

“Damn it. What kind of situation is this because of you?”

“We’re screwed.”

The instructors let the two go with sour expressions.

Niche glanced back at Hestia once and raised one finger.

-You owe me one.

The prim nun’s voice rang directly in her head.

Hestia flinched and nodded, and the two students returned to the dormitory entrance with their heads bowed.

‘Phew… I really thought I was going to get caught.’

“Why are you so late?”

“The instructors were wandering around outside because of some other students.”

“We still have to walk to the main building. Hurry up and follow me.”

Zhang, who had joined her at the pavilion.

When would they ever reach the main building?

Hestia suddenly realized that despite all this commotion, she hadn’t even seen Oknodie’s face.

‘As expected.’

An assassin raised by a noble family.

She’s on a completely different level from an amateur alley cat.

She nodded to herself, recalling the rumors and finding them convincing.