Sincerely, Vanessa [EN]: Chapter 103

To Teacher, From Vanessa 103

Dahna swallowed hard. The window, set very high, was so small that only a faint light trickled down.

To her, this moment felt like a dream.

Normally, she would be sitting at her desk, grumbling about being overwhelmed with assignments. She might have complained to her friends about wanting to put off her work and play.

But reality was very different. Dahna was anxiously biting her lip in a dark, gloomy room with a black stone door.

Dahna’s family was not wealthy. Or, to be precise, they had been wealthy, but at some point, their fortunes began to decline.

Her father, oblivious to the political situation, was squandering all the wealth he had inherited from his grandfather. The businesses he was tempted to invest in all had bleak prospects, and it was common for him not to receive even half of his investment back.

The only people left around him were swindlers, and distant relatives were eager to embezzle even the remaining assets.

As a freshman at Bamberg Academy, she sat in the classroom wearing only the prettiest clothes.

As a sophomore, restrictions began to arise in buying new clothes.

As a junior, she paid her tuition in installments. She envied what her friends wore.

Sometimes, when she returned home during vacation, she could see that precious pieces of furniture were disappearing. The room was empty, even desolate at night.

Then one day, someone came to see her father. His face was covered, but a unique accent flowed from his slightly visible mouth. Her father met with that person almost every day for a month.

And Dahna once again had a closet full of beautifully tailored clothes.

However, there was also something she had to do. At that time, blinded by the returned wealth, she thought it was nothing much and turned a blind eye….

She quickly shook off her old thoughts. Dahna was still alone here, and the desk was empty and clean with nothing on it.

Dahna anxiously bit her nails. If she could contact her father, she would know what to answer! When on earth would someone come in?

Then the door opened, and a ray of light seeped through the gap.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting so long.”

Dahna opened her eyes wide and gasped. A man surrounded by light was walking in. The man was perfect, as if a god had descended in human form.

He possessed a brilliant color like warm sunlight, but it was not a warm beauty that shared warmth, but a powerful beauty that seemed to destroy something. His well-defined body made that feeling even more prominent.

The man shared a cluster of light with the frozen Dahna. As a soft warmth enveloped her surroundings, her trembling body finally calmed down.

Dahna opened her mouth falteringly, without even thinking properly.

“I, I don’t know anything. Really, just….”

“Perhaps.”

A soft voice echoed in her ears. She felt a little relieved at the words.

The man sat in front of Dahna and slowly turned over the documents. Dahna blushed, looking at his large hands and the joints of his long fingers.

She glanced at the man’s face. She barely suppressed the exclamation that was about to come out. If she were to pull out the male protagonist she had imagined while reading romance novels, it would be this man.

No, he was even more amazing. Such a perfectly sculpted jawline and those brilliant eyes. How amazing would it be if a smile spread across his indifferent face!

As the silence continued, Dahna spoke first.

“Do, do you know Lamaira Sol?”

“The name of an ancient god.”

“They say it was the name of a merciful god. One who embraced the earth with warm wings….”

Gideon tilted his head slightly at the woman’s rambling words. Dahna’s face flushed at the golden eyes staring intently at him. She wanted to say that he had the color of that god descended, but she didn’t have the courage.

Gideon slowly opened his mouth.

“You put animal carcasses in the lake.”

Dahna, regaining her senses, snapped her mouth shut.

“I have already received clear statements from the people around you. They said you had a very hard time after receiving strange packages several times.”

Gideon turned over a few documents and checked the statements of other students.

“And you often went out at night.”

“I, I just went out. I took a walk. I really…”

Dahna muttered anxiously, but Gideon continued slowly.

“Unfortunately, there were students running around the castle at night and dawn. They said they saw you throwing something into the lake while running along the perimeter path in the dark.”

“It must have been just one day! I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the lake and threw a, a twig, but it was a misunderstanding.”

“More than five different students testified.”

Dahna’s lips trembled. Gideon read the contents in a nonchalant voice.

“‘January 28th. A student sitting near the lake saw someone throwing something unknown into the water. Suspicious of the time, I approached, but the student was nowhere to be found, and a hazy mist spread over the surface of the water.’”

“That student is n-not me!”

The sound of paper turning was heard.

“‘January 30th. I saw Dahna Doran throwing something at the lake. Her face was covered, but the bracelet she was so proud of was reflected in the moonlight, so I could tell. It’s an item with several strands of gold twisted together and finished with a blue jewel.’”

Dahna blankly looked down at her wrist. It was the bracelet she happened to be wearing today.

“‘February 1st. I saw Dahna Doran dropping a short knife from her bag. I pretended not to see it and turned my head, and she quickly hid it. Strange items were repeatedly delivered in packages.’”

After that, only unfavorable stories poured out. Dahna Doran could no longer control her trembling body.

The man turned his gaze to her pale face. Soon, his long fingers tapped the desk.

“Dahna Doran.”

A soft voice called her name. Dahna hunched her shoulders.

“I don’t feel good that you were having such a hard time. There must have been a reason. A reason why you had to do something you didn’t want to do.”

Dahna swallowed hard. The man’s eyes were still looking down at the documents….

“Not everyone in the world walks the right path. Sometimes they falter and fall into the wrong path. It’s not entirely your fault.”

His voice was soft and low, as if he wasn’t trying to blame anyone.

“However, if you don’t return to the right path when you have to make the final choice, it will remain your fault.”

Dahna started biting her sore fingertips again, which she had bitten so much. She didn’t know how the man would see her, but it was hard to bear.

Gideon waited without saying a word, until the woman’s lips, covered with white dead skin, twitched and spat out a voice.

“I, I really didn’t know. I just! They just told me to put it in. They said it was nothing. It’s a huge lake, right! It won’t rot with just a few animals.”

“Who said that?”

“I really don’t know anything. Nothing! A package just came….”

Gideon blinked slowly. Dahna looked at him, expecting a kind consolation.

*I see. You might not have known. Then I will get you out of this danger….*

As if she were the heroine of some novel.

“Do you think they will take care of you?”

Perhaps she was even more shocked by the indifferent voice that returned. Dahna’s lips trembled.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“They used your family as a tool. They whispered in your father’s ear. *I will help you improve your business. I will introduce you to new investment opportunities….* Such words are common. There is no need to guess.”

Gideon rubbed his tired eyes.

“However, now that you have been caught and your usefulness is over, you will die as soon as you leave this place. Why would they keep someone alive who knows the secret? The only reason you are alive is because you were inside Bamberg Academy. Because it is impossible to enter and kill someone without permission.”

Dahna could no longer stop her whole body from trembling. She understood exactly what this man was saying, which made it even worse.

She couldn’t even feel the warmth of the light anymore….

“The right path I mentioned does not mean the path of justice. I’m telling you to choose the path where you can live.”

Gideon coldly pushed the documents aside. They weren’t even worth looking at.

“A path that is neither just nor yields proper benefits.”

*Are you going to make such a foolish choice?*

A chilly remark fell. Dahna suddenly realized that she was trapped inside a stone wall and chattered her teeth. Coldness permeated her body.

Before long, Gideon came out of the stone door. The door closed silently, looking like a wall. The surrounding soldiers bowed their heads in salute.

As Gideon strode forward, a lieutenant colonel from the Special Forces followed him and hummed.

“Are you done already?”

“Yes.”

“You’re always so quick when you go in, Captain. I guess the content is as expected.”

Gideon handed over the letter he had written in advance. The black-haired lieutenant colonel with glasses accepted it politely.

“Doran from the east. Go with the other soldiers and Colonel Alimont. Bring all those connected. I will talk to the Ministry of Justice separately.”

“What about the other side?”

“Lieutenant General Zankval will go there himself. Shouldn’t we show that much respect to that family?”

The lieutenant colonel, grinning, flexed his hands a few times, his eyes shining.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve arrested people instead of killing monsters. I’ll be back quickly. I’ll tie them all up and throw them in.”

Gideon nodded indifferently. The squad member saluted and skipped away excitedly.

He was lucky. Just as the Special Forces, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance, were digging into the flow of money and the actions of those behind it and had sorted things out to some extent, Vanessa discovered movements to damage the magic circle inside the academy.

Until now, all the witnesses had been found dead, but fortunately, the students of the academy were alive. It must have been because they couldn’t dare to kill anyone inside the academy.

As always, the living have more to say than the dead. They were able to extract a lot of information.

They needed perfect evidence. No matter how powerful the king was, he could not recklessly trample on the nobles and priests with power.

If he did, there would be an immediate backlash from the whole country, and the king’s power would weaken. The most important thing in politics was justification.

Now that they had caught one, the rest would follow. The evidence, which had been carefully prepared for a long time, blocked even the possibility of rebuttal. If the intelligence agency also stepped in, it really wouldn’t take long.

It was time to overthrow those who had endangered the entire Freva for their own benefit.