VIP Early Access
Eksklusif untuk member VIP
Password Protected
Chapter ini dikunci dengan kode khusus
Chapter 12: An Account of the Event
ONCE they’d returned to the capital, Olivia, Daisy, and Elliot were immediately taken to the hospital. They’d been so preoccupied with other things that they hadn’t realized they were covered in scrapes and bruises, and Olivia was limp with exhaustion.
After being treated, Olivia was taken to a room where she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, only waking two days later. She then had a simple meal, and the doctor checked her over again before sending her home. A carriage waited for her at the hospital’s entrance. Daisy had come to pick her up.
“Are you all right, Olivia?” Daisy asked.
“I’m fine. How about you? Did you get down okay?”
“Yeah. It was fun.”
Е_numã
Seeing her eyes sparkle made Olivia realize Daisy really did have fun falling from extreme heights.
The carriage took the young ladies back to the Research Institute. Daisy told Olivia what had happened during the two days she had been asleep. The knights and investigators had barged in—it was not the time to be doing research.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
“The Institute is in an uproar,” she began. “Robin… It turns out he was a spy for the Garde Empire.”
He had been feeding the Empire secret information ever since he’d started working at the Royal Magic Research Institute five years ago. Professor Nicholas was more upset than they’d ever seen him.
“He looked like he couldn’t believe it when the knights told him about Robin. Though…I understand how he feels.”
Olivia sighed and nodded. “Yeah, me too. I still can barely believe it. I never once thought he could be a spy; we’d worked together on this project for so long.”
W̄ еb ńоv̈ е̄ l En û m а
Daisy then went on to tell her that when the airship ran out of mana, it crashed in a forest near Daregas, next to the border.
“It crashed on this side of the border because the wind wasn’t very strong that day, but if it had been a bit stronger, it would have fallen inside Garde,” Daisy recounted.
Experts had told them that the wind generally blew toward Garde this time of year, and it was likely that Robin planned to make the airship uncontrollable so it would be blown across the border.
That box Robin had brought on board was still in the airship. It contained the most recent research and newly developed items, along with all the reports on the airship.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
He really was a spy… Olivia’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. She’d still hoped that it was all some sort of horrible mistake, but it was not.
Olivia then went back to her room in the Institute, where she showered and got changed. Once finished, a maid came to get her.
Е̇ nu̇m a
“It sounds like they’d like to ask you some questions,” the maid said.
She followed the maid into the main hall, where many people in uniform were gathered. They were all busily walking about, and some people were carrying large boxes out.
What happened was really bad, wasn’t it?
The maid brought her to a waiting room on the second floor of the main hall. Two elegant men sat on the sofas in the center of the room. Not far from them was a young man sitting at a table. He looked like he was there to take notes.
The men stood and regarded Olivia with an apologetic expression.
“We apologize for calling you in just after you’ve been released from the hospital,” one told her.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
“No, I’ve rested plenty. I’m fine.”
Olivia then went on to answer all the questions they asked her, about how she came to work at the Research Institute, everything she could remember about Robin’s behavior, and what happened on the airship.
While she was talking, she couldn’t help feeling like it didn’t feel real, even though she witnessed it herself.
It feels like it happened in a dream.
Once they were done talking, the three men stood.
“Thank you for assisting our investigation. We’ll have tea brought in, so please wait here,” the other man said.
En ŭm̌ȧ ._і̊ d̃
“Thank you.”
Once the three men had left, a maid came in their place with tea. Olivia took a sip and let out a sigh. Maybe because the tea was warming her body, her tumultuous emotions were starting to calm.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Once done with her tea, she started to wonder what would happen next, and that’s when the door opened again, letting in a tall man. He was wearing a uniform and a concerned expression.
“Elliot!” she cried.
He looked utterly relieved when he saw her. “Thank goodness. You look like you’re feeling better.”
Apparently, he’d come to visit her several times while she was in the hospital, but had been worried whenever he’d seen her still asleep.
Е̊ǹ u m̌ а́
He sat across from her and looked her straight in the eye. “I don’t have much time, but I wanted to talk to you. How much do you know about what happened?”
“Daisy told me Robin was a spy. Did you know?” Olivia asked. He had told her to be careful of him and had even told her to be careful before she’d even joined the Research Institute. Was it possible he’d known something?
But he shook his head. “All I knew was that information was being leaked from our country to Garde.”
The leaked information covered many fields, but information on magic items was the most commonly leaked.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
“Robin was very good about hiding who he really was. Add onto that the fact that he had five years of work under his belt, and no one—not those around him or even the investigators—realized it was him.”
Elliot only started to suspect Robin himself when they’d visited Olivia’s family home and felt like something was off.
Wе̄b̃ n оv е̊l Е̊ ṅ u m а̃
“I’m sure you know by now, but your father was involved with developing weapons thirty years ago,” Elliot continued.
“Yes,” Olivia admitted, her gaze falling to her lap. “One of the researchers who’s been here for a very long time told me recently.”
According to Elliot, large amounts of important documents related to the development of weapons went missing immediately after Olivia’s father stopped working at the Institute.
“The kingdom knew that your father hadn’t taken anything with him when he left, so they never suspected him. Garde, however, did,” Elliot explained.
After that visit to the family home, Elliot began investigating everyone who knew those documents were in the house. He had gone to the end-of-year party wary of those in attendance and was strongly suspicious when he saw Robin.
“Why were you suspicious of him?” Olivia asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Elliot pointed to his feet. “His shoes. He had on boots even though it was a formal party. That could be easily explained if he were a researcher who didn’t care about his clothing, but he didn’t seem to be that sort.”
“No, you’re right.” Olivia nodded. “He was always well-presented.”
Seeing that made Elliot’s intuition jump into overdrive. “I talked to him a bit after I had that thought, and I only got more and more suspicious of him. He was far too knowledgeable about the world for a researcher shut away in a research institute.”
“And that’s why you warned me to be careful.”
“Yes. But I was ever so slightly too late, hindered by my own cautious nature,” Elliot replied with a wry smile. He’d wanted to wait to say something until he was more certain, but by the time he went to see Olivia the next day, Robin had already made his move. “I knew when I saw your reaction. He’d already provided you with information to make you suspect what I had to say.”
He had a feeling then that saying anything more would only make things worse, so he told Olivia the one thing he most wanted to tell her, then secretly watched from afar as he continued his investigation into Robin.
Ёn.u̇ m̆ а̂
During that period, he caught wind of the extended test flight, about how far it was going and in what direction. He suspected Robin would try to fly the airship back to Garde.
“I suggested to Marquess Wilson that Robin be removed from the test flight team, but he trusted Robin.”
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Nicholas was normally so friendly, but he was furious at Elliot for suspecting Robin despite having no hard evidence. Having no choice, Elliot negotiated with him to change the flight path so the airship would fly along the rail line, making it easier for them to follow the ship and allowing Elliot to board secretly.
“You saw everything that happened after that,” said Elliot.
They still hadn’t found Robin. He’d used his flying stones well and escaped into the forest. They were still searching for him, but no luck yet.
“He was very thorough,” Elliot continued. “There is a possibility he had help waiting for him.”
Ẃ е̃b́ṅ оv̄е́_ĺ E ň ǔ m а
“Oh…” Olivia hung her head. She was filled with a mix of emotions and couldn’t bring herself to say anything.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, followed by a voice. “Lord Elliot, you have a visitor.”
Elliot stood and gave Olivia an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll contact you again this evening.”
“Don’t worry about me. Thank you for making time for me even though you’re so busy.”
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Olivia watched him hurry out, then slowly followed. She left the main hall. It was already evening, and the clouds in the sky were dyed red.
It’s already so late…
Ěn ú m å
She walked unsteadily back to the bustling research hall and went back to their laboratory. There she found Daisy sitting at the worktable writing something in the evening sun slanting through the windows.
The room was empty, like they’d taken all their books and documents somewhere.
Daisy looked up. “Good evening, Olivia. Are you done?”
“Yeah, they asked me all sorts of things.” Olivia walked to the window and looked outside. The sky was as red as blood. Maybe it was going to rain tomorrow.
Daisy let out a heavy sigh. “I still can’t believe it… Robin was a good person.”
Olivia nodded. “He was always a good person.”
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Then she remembered. She had a feeling that, at the very end, he’d tried to say something to her.
“Hey, Daisy,” she began slowly. “The last time my eyes met his, I felt like he said something to me.”
“What did he say?”
Olivia brought her hand to her lips in thought as she remembered how his mouth had moved. She turned to look at Daisy. “I think… ‘I’m sorry.’”
Daisy looked as if a weight had lifted from her. “That’s…kind of very like him.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Ѐnûm̌ а̄. і d̃
Olivia smiled at Daisy, feeling somehow relieved.
The two then went to the cafeteria together for the first time in a while, then said goodnight and went to their individual dorm rooms.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
💎💎💎
A week after the incident, the investigators completed their inquiry and left, allowing the Research Institute to return to normal life.
Professor Nicholas was on the verge of tears when he apologized to Olivia and Daisy. “And it’s because of that that you two were put in danger.” He honestly had trusted Robin until the bitter end.
Olivia and Daisy accepted his apology. They’d worked directly with Robin and hadn’t noticed themselves; there was no way Nicholas would have realized.
Ŵеb n о v̆ е̂.l Ѐnu_m а
The royal court, however, disagreed. Nicholas was forced to step down as department chair, and his boss, the Institute’s director, was fired.
All the other researchers would look at Olivia and Daisy with pity. It seemed the story had turned into something horrible along the lines of, “Robin had tricked the two of them into researching what he wanted, then planned to steal the airship along with all their research and then kill them.”
Even Francesca had sympathy for them.
“It is your fault for trusting a commoner like that, but I’m just glad you’re all right,” she’d said to them. Neither of them really understood what she actually wanted to say with that remark.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Research on the airship continued as before because the demonstration, which VIPs from home and abroad would attend, was approaching quickly. They quickly built a new airship and added several veteran researchers to the team to replace Robin, with Olivia taking over leadership.
Two months after that, the team pulled off the demonstration without a hitch.
Е nǔ m̊а
Konten Bab Belum Tersedia
Bab ini belum memiliki konten teks atau sedang dalam proses penyuntingan.
