episode_0365

“… Yes?”

“… Really?”

“Yes, I’m almost certain.”

Surprised by Seraphine’s confident statement about searching for collaborators, I and I questioned her almost simultaneously.

Despite our immediate rebuttal, Seraphine nodded and confidently began explaining about the collaborator she had found.

“As I said yesterday, the most influential person I consider a collaborator is Mr. Hankerton, the director of the orphanage in the village.”

“Well, I think Mr. Hankerton is a little too much of a collaborator with the bandits… .”

“Today, I did a little research while pretending to do volunteer work at an orphanage. Information such as rumors about the daycare center obtained through children’s testimonies, or how many children leave and enter the daycare center each month. As a side note, I also read some of the ledgers in the orphanage director’s office.”

Seraphine lightly ignores Serista’s opinion and proudly conveys the information she has gathered to others.

For me and Gomjoshegigot, it was Seraphine’s information that seemed a little more credible, so we naturally had no choice but to listen more closely to what she said.

“… so? What does it look like?”

“No matter how you look at it, it is an orphanage with absolutely no money to be made, but it continues to be maintained in this outskirt village. There also seems to be something strange about the list of noble names mentioned as ‘donations’. At least not a single name of an influential nobleman that I know was written down. Perhaps, an appropriate pseudonym was entered so that other discerning people would not feel strange when looking at the ledger.”

“… okay. Is there anything else?”

“More than anything, the most suspicious thing is the testimony of the children at the orphanage. According to the children’s testimony, one or two children from the orphanage are adopted somewhere every month, but they say they have never seen the faces of the adoptive parents.

Normally, when you adopt a child from an orphanage like this, it’s normal to see the face of a child who might become your family at least once, no matter how noble you are, right? Even if you plan to raise it as an attendant or maid rather than a child.

However, according to the children’s testimony, this means that there are only people who adopt by looking at the documents without even meeting the child in person and discussing which child to take, but no matter how much you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. This is especially true for parents who are passionate enough to come to an orphanage in the outskirts and adopt a child.”

“… yes. That’s right.”

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s clear that the man is doing something bad at that daycare center. Even if, by some chance, you aren’t connected to bandits, you probably won’t be doing very good business. Considering the circumstances, as he is committing an illegal act, it is more likely that he is connected to subversive forces.”

If everything Seraphine said was true, there was a high possibility that orphanage director Han Curtain was a collaborator of the bandits in the actual game.

And since Seraphine wasn’t the type to be weak or talk strange nonsense like Celista or Silena, her remarks had a lot of credibility.

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

In 『Luminor Academy』, there are three people who have the potential to be collaborators with the bandits, and the way the humanities inquiry class proceeds is to collect evidence each time you play and find one of the three people.

Therefore, at times, the head of the orphanage, Hankerton, who runs the orphanage with sincere good intentions, becomes a human trafficker who sells orphans into slavery, and at other times, Chief Rombel, who cooperates with the academy students to protect the village from bandits, acts to ensure the safety of the village. He also becomes a traitor who betrays the academy students for his own sake.

… And as for the village woman whom I suspect to be a collaborator, there are multiple stories of one who is a collaborator and one who is not a collaborator.

‘No, maybe…’ .’

In the midst of the suspicious circumstances, a hypothesis was floating around in my head. The hero, Gomjoshegigot, also began to say that he thought he had found a collaborator.

“It may feel a little strange to say something like this after listening to Seraphine, but for some reason, I still think Chief Rombel is suspicious.”

“… … Yes?”

“Actually, considering the circumstances, he was the most suspicious person. The same thing happened when we were suddenly attacked by bandits on our way to the village. It was as if they knew in advance that we would visit this village.”

“… Well, that certainly seems suspicious. The only people who could know when we would visit this village and our travel route would have been at most the professor and Chief Rombel.”

“If there is someone who stole the information, the village chief is likely to be influential. Moreover, now that I think about it, the fact that they gave us the village hall so readily seems to have another purpose.”

“… Any other purpose?”

“As we are students of the academy, we are probably the only ones in this village who can use proper force against the bandit group.

If bandits attack this village again, wouldn’t it be easier to deal with them all at once if we gathered in one place rather than being scattered here and there, taking care of other people’s homes?”

“Ha, but it’s not good to make such a conclusion… . If you say things like that, it means that we should be suspicious of everyone who has been kind to us… .”

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

And that’s not the only part I have doubts about. Just like yesterday, today too, Chief Rombel orders us men to do work that requires extra effort… .”

From then on, he continues to explain each and every reason why he is suspicious of Chief Rombel from his own perspective.

As the hero’s resolute attitude and evidence piled up, the saintess could not help but nod with a somewhat lonely expression.

First of all, as I was listening to Gombel’s circumstantial evidence, I was able to find quite a few characteristics that Chief Rombel showed when he was a collaborator. In the original game, when this level of evidence was found, the search was stopped and the story continued, treating Rombel as a potential collaborator. Because it was okay to proceed.

The corruption of orphanage director Hankerton discovered by Seraphine, and the circumstances of village chief Rombel discovered by Gemmojoshegigot.

“Actually, I would like to tell you about what happened in the women’s self-defense class today… .”

And even the strong traitor candidate I found.

It was the moment when I became convinced that the hypothesis I was building up in my head might actually come true.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The total time spent in Bridget Village for humanities exploration classes at 『Luminor Academy』 is 4 days and 3 nights.

Since the area is located a bit far away from the academy, we had to spend 2 days and 1 night just to travel there, so the duration of the classes had to be adjusted accordingly.

That means that if the bandits want to do something, they have to do it on the third night, no matter how bad it is.

The reason why this small village, which would have been robbed long ago if they were going to rob it, is still left behind is because, as I said before, the purpose of the bandits was not limited to simply capturing one village, and their remaining purpose was, of course, to steal young, beautiful, and expensive slaves in their prime. It would be put in.

As the first day’s attack had failed, it was an unavoidable decision to attack us on the last day, when we were most likely to be off guard.

So, in the end, on the third night of our visit, we split into separate groups and patrol the village.

It was not a patrol that wandered around the village without any thought, but rather a group that was randomly divided into groups to patrol a random area.

First of all, there is a group of three members, Gemmojoshegigot and Harem, who patrol the area around the largest passage on the outskirts of the village where the orphanage is located.

Natalie, Thomas, and Luke’s group patrolling near the village chief’s house and village hall.

And the group of me, Ethan, and Agnes patrolling the residential areas and the small passages on the outskirts of the village.

The distribution of groups was roughly based on each person’s intimacy and combat power. In terms of boss battle difficulty, Orphanage Director Hancurtain was the most difficult, and Chief Rombel was the easiest.

‘Until now, I would have distributed groups thinking that the boss monster would only appear on one of the three routes… .’

At this point, I was able to start to notice things as well. In this 『Luminor Academy』, branch bosses appear continuously throughout the year when there are no special contradictions related to the progress of the story.

In cases where the corruption route has completely disappeared, such as Ethan, Harold, or the nobles of the Auguste family, inconsistencies naturally arise, so they do not appear as boss monsters, but the three named monsters encountered in the Witch’s Forest and the named bandits encountered just a few days ago do exist together. They appeared together without any problems.

In that case, even in this route, we have no choice but to consider the possibility that all three collaborator candidates are traitors.

The head of an orphanage who wants to continue the slave trade with children in a village on the outskirts, out of sight of the imperial family.

The village chief decided to hand over academy students, who were outsiders, to bandits for the survival of the village.

And the fact that there are women in one village who were once taken by bandits, barely escaped, and have a desire for revenge, hoping that others will experience the pain she went through, is because there is no particular ‘contradiction’.

‘Of course, it’s best if nothing happens if possible… .’

Looking at the pattern so far, that probably won’t happen.

“… Sigh, huh… . Keck… .”

“… … !”

As if to confirm my prediction, I heard someone’s painful breathing coming from inside the village alley, and the three of us had no choice but to naturally head towards the back of the alley.