Ch.8888 – April’s Investigation 3

<88 – April’s Investigation 3>

Oknodie, after collecting the flask containing the culture medium, went deeper into the garden instead of leaving.

‘Does she still have business here?’

As April hurriedly followed behind, a leaf lightly brushed against her collar.

Rustle.

Despite the small sound, Oknodie whipped her head around and looked directly at where she was standing.

“Huh? Is someone there?”

“!!”

I’m caught.

If she moves even slightly or takes one wrong breath, it’s all over.

The information that Oknodie could detect and avoid the mana traps installed on the academy dormitory’s outer walls was something April had personally observed and documented in the questionnaire.

She couldn’t let any mana leak out.

Just like holding her breath, she had to contain her mana within herself and not let it escape.

“Hmm?”

10 seconds.

“Hmmmm??”

20 seconds.

“Must be my imagination.”

Hurry up and go, you damn brat.

Even as she cursed inwardly, she couldn’t hear receding footsteps.

Instead, the presence was getting closer.

How cunning.

As expected of a Wiheomhae Foundation special scholarship student, her actions were truly extraordinary.

“Found~ you!”

Grab.

When Oknodie finally reached into the bushes, April thought she was going to be caught.

Rustle rustle!

Patter patter patter.

Just then, a squirrel darted out from the bushes.

What Oknodie had been aiming for was the squirrel.

“You little~ rascal~”

The squirrel appeared carrying a large piece of turnip grown in the garden.

It bared its teeth at Oknodie, who was poking it with a twig.

“Oh right. This isn’t the time, is it?”

Oknodie stopped playing with the squirrel and hurriedly ran deeper into the garden.

<No Unauthorized Entry>

<Entering may endanger your life>

April flinched greatly at the sign that Oknodie ignored and passed by.

-Woof woof! I once followed a butterfly into the garden and almost got into big trouble!

Silly dog-beastkin Happy.

April recalled the firsthand experience she had heard from her.

-Woof woof! The clubs in the student council building have security measures to prevent rival clubs from intruding!

-Woof woof! I got caught by a plant that sprayed strange powder and fell asleep for a month before waking up!

She might end up sleeping for a month like Sleeping Beauty in the forest.

It was dangerous for her as a spy, but even more dangerous for Oknodie as a freshman!

‘I’ll have to help depending on the situation.’

Inside the greenhouse that April secretly entered following Oknodie.

At the entrance of the indoor facility that strictly controlled temperature, humidity, wind direction, fine dust, ozone, and harmful gases, there was a large flower the size of a person nodding off.

It was a <Nodding Flower> that sprayed sleeping gas to subdue predators or prey when it sensed danger or spotted food.

Nod… pororong.

Nod… pororong.

Oknodie carefully snuck past the flower that was dozing off with even a snot bubble forming at its nostril.

“???”

How did she pass by without being detected?

April cautiously approached the area.

…Actually, how would anyone get caught by this?

The Nodding Flower was sleeping so deeply that such a question arose.

Clearly Happy must have woken it up by running around making noises like “Woof woof! Come here butterfly!” or “Woof woof! It’s a sleeping flower!”

With that level of intelligence, she should be thankful that getting caught by a security flower and sleeping for a month was all that happened.

‘That’s a vine trap that catches people who step on it and suspends them in the air.’

‘And there’s a blood-sucking parasitic tangle that sticks to your body all day if you get caught in its fibers.’

‘…That plant over there, I’ve never even heard about it at the academy. Did Jona tell Oknodie about such things?’

This went beyond the level of information that would be casually shared.

While thinking that the relationship between Jona and Oknodie might not be that of an ordinary butler and scholarship student, Oknodie reached the deepest part of the greenhouse.

The plant club had strict multi-layered security where one could suffer terribly from vine traps or blood-sucking parasitic tangles if they let their guard down after seeing the seemingly harmless Nodding Flower at the front.

At its core was a mana board lock that opened the door after recognizing one’s identity when they placed their hand on it.

“Huh…?”

Judging by her surprised voice, even Oknodie hadn’t expected this security procedure.

Peek peek.

Oknodie pressed her cheek against the glass window, trying hard to look inside.

“Hmph.”

She made a dejected sound, as if what she was looking for was inside.

Yes, let’s give up and go back now.

Even the person tailing her is getting nervous.

“I wanted to get the perfect crime bonus too.”

“???”

Did she just say “perfect crime bonus”?

As April doubted her ears, a sight that made her doubt her eyes unfolded.

Grab.

Oknodie grabbed a large rock nearby and lifted it up to head height.

Surely not, right?

If someone had seen April’s trembling eyes, they would have answered “Yes, exactly” as the rock forcefully smashed down on the security booth with the mana board.

CRASH!

WAAAAAANG──!!

The security booth shattered with a terrible sound.

‘She broke it!!’

Having abandoned the perfect crime, Oknodie switched to a forced operation.

She stepped over the booth fragments, rushed inside, looked around the dirt piles, and then plunged her hand deep into the soil.

Her white-gloved hand rummaged through the soil, and then her face lit up with a “Wow-!” as if she had found ginseng.

“Got it!”

In Oknodie’s triumphantly raised arm was a <Mandrake>, an ultra-rare plant with more than five stars of rarity that resembled a human more than ginseng.

April’s brain quickly recalled information related to mandrakes.

Mandrake.

A flower that screams when its roots are pulled.

Hearing it causes fainting.

Here, at a crime scene.

If caught, forced investigation by the academy.

If fired from being a cleaning maid, silenced by the foundation.

Essentially confirmed death!

‘Eek!’

Overcome with fear, April tried to cover her ears with both hands, but in the process, she instinctively realized.

The speed at which the mandrake’s open mouth would scream would be faster than the speed at which her hands could cover her ears.

I’m done for.

Goodbye, my life.

To die more stupidly than Happy.

With two cleaning maids suffering misfortune, this garden will be known as the cleaning maids’ cemetery from now on.

As she prepared for the end of her life, the mandrake’s loud scream penetrated her ears.

“Waaaaaaah-!”

But with a baby’s cry mixed in.

“Huh?”

“Ah, there really was someone here!”

“Ah!!”

Confusion at whether mandrakes had babies and relief at surviving caused her to inadvertently let out a gasp.

As soon as she realized Oknodie had spotted her, she took off running.

April, who had been near the entrance, was able to escape the garden before Oknodie.

‘Why did she steal a baby mandrake? Who made her do this in the first place?’

The mention of a “perfect crime bonus” implied that someone would give her a bonus.

Who could it be?

Who would give Oknodie a bonus for criminal activity?

A superior from the foundation?

Her dedicated butler, Jona Wiheomhae?

No, not someone from the foundation.

There was another person who fit the criteria.

A professor who was more familiar than anyone with ‘theft’.

Someone who taught one of the classes Oknodie was taking.

‘The noble thief, Bronze De Estra!’

Oknodie must have received a secret individual assignment from Professor Bronze.

Thinking about it that way, everything made sense.

“Intruder!”

“There’s a thief in the garden!”

“It must be those alchemy club bastards!”

“How dare they try to steal rare medicinal herbs for free!”

“Unforgivable!”

“Let’s bury their corpses in the garden and use them as fertilizer!”

“Don’t let them out of the ground until they grow twice as many herbs as they stole!”

Oknodie tore through the garden’s greenhouse vinyl, climbed a tree, and escaped through a second-floor window.

While the plant club students, filled with not just anger but madness, rushed into the greenhouse, Oknodie completely disappeared from sight.

Watching the scene, April thought the students looked somewhat familiar.

‘That crazy woman Professor Weird!’

Yes, they were students who attended lectures by the dryad professor nicknamed “the crazy woman with flowers in her hair.”

There had been an incident where she suddenly made fourth-year students eat stones, and when they vomited them out, the stones covered in saliva were left on the classroom floor.

Thanks to that, April remembered having to clean up the stones and mop the floor as overtime work outside her regular hours.

‘Professor Weird was also the faculty advisor for the plant club.’

And Professor Weird was in charge of one of the first-semester freshman courses that Oknodie had registered for.

Moreover, Bronze’s class was during the second period, and Weird’s class followed right after in the third period.

‘From day one, Bronze must have set a goal to make Oknodie his disciple and assigned her the task of stealing Professor Weird’s precious item.’

Having penetrated such strict security and successfully stolen the baby mandrake, Oknodie certainly deserved to be called a proper thief.

April diligently moved her magic pen and filled out the questionnaire.

Q10: Oknodie’s future aspiration

A: To become a noble thief like Professor Bronze De Estra.

Especially when filling in the blank for question 10, she wrote with 100% certainty without a moment’s hesitation.