Chapter 241

“Lawrence Everheart.”

A young accountant who had once been highly anticipated in the securities world.

In just two years, he graduated from a top-tier university’s Department of Finance in New Valhalla City and immediately secured a position at a promising financial firm.

Afterward, he met his wife, Sylvia Everheart, and successfully married her.

“Sylvia Everheart.”

An actress who debuted in her teens.

She mainly appeared in action films, quickly rose to stardom, and played leading roles in numerous works.

Her representative work was a noir action film she shot in her early twenties. At the time, the movie’s explosive popularity led to a trend among the public of undergoing cyberware implantation surgery to obtain nearly white silver hair and violet irises.

Of course, people soon realized that the problem wasn’t hair or eye color, but the face itself, and that trend quickly died down.

Then, in her mid-twenties.

Though she was still at the height of building her career as an actress, she suddenly announced her retirement along with her marriage. And she took on the same surname as her husband—‘Everheart.’

According to what Sylvia revealed in an interview, the way the two met felt like a scene straight out of a romance film.

As always, it was a rainy street.

Because of a ridiculous mistake by his android secretary, the man had forgotten to bring an umbrella and hurried into a cafeteria to escape the pouring rain.

Unfortunately, the place was full, and he had no choice but to share a four-person table with a lone female customer.

And by sheer coincidence, sitting across from him was a pitiful young actress who had fallen into a slump due to excessive popularity.

She had concealed her identity with cyberware that altered her appearance and was traveling throughout New Valhalla City in search of herself.

That chance encounter at a shared table became the starting point for the two to slowly grow closer. They exchanged contact information, went on dates, and built up the most fluttering, heart-pounding moments of their lives.

However, Sylvia was a young actress. Considering her future career, she couldn’t maintain a long-term relationship with a boyfriend.

To an actress, a scandal was a lethal poison. She had overcome her slump and felt it was time to return to her original self.

And so, she told him they should break up.

Revealing her true identity, Sylvia said their relationship had merely been like playing with fire, and that the two of them were never meant to be connected.

But the single sentence Lawrence uttered on the spot pierced straight through her heart.

She realized that her true self was not when she stood on set as an ‘actress,’ but when she stood by his side as a ‘beloved lover.’

And then, with impeccable timing, came Lawrence’s proposal.

She gave up the career she could have continued to build and decided to become Lawrence’s wife.

“…….”

As Irie Elisbell read through those gossip articles, it felt as if every scene unfolded vividly before her eyes. She sensed an inexplicable connection between herself and Sylvia Everheart.

Of course, it was probably an illusion.

To put it more coldly, it could be called ‘over-immersion.’ Perhaps it was simply because Sylvia Everheart’s appearance resembled her own a little, and she was unconsciously projecting herself onto a woman from the upper class.

Thus, Irie tried to objectively assess her own behavior and stop investigating Sylvia.

But she couldn’t.

‘Lawrence Everheart’ and ‘Sylvia Everheart,’ the teenage gangsters of the Fallen Sector who had murdered them, the figure called ‘PJ’ who had not been caught even after twenty years, and ‘Ariana Everheart,’ who was presumed to have been killed by them as well.

She couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Whenever she came to her senses, her mind was filled with thoughts of people who had no connection to her at all, and she even found herself repeatedly dreaming about that robbery-murder case.

What was even stranger was that in those nightmares, Irie wasn’t ‘Sylvia Everheart,’ but ‘Ariana Everheart.’

As Ariana, Irie was sleeping soundly in a cradle late at night. Then a mysterious boy entered the nursery, and she opened her eyes at the faint presence.

Despite the appearance of a stranger, the baby did not cry.

Perhaps it was because she didn’t sense hostility from the boy. Or perhaps she simply wasn’t hungry or sleepy. She was too young to properly distinguish such things.

And so, the baby and the boy stared at each other for a long time. An indescribable emotion overflowed from the boy’s eyes. And in the next moment.

Taang-!

A gunshot that seemed to tear apart the ears shook the nursery. The boy flinched and shrank back, and naturally, the baby burst into tears.

The boy wandered around the nursery in confusion. In the meantime, several more gunshots rang out. The boy’s face turned pale, and the baby’s cries did not stop.

Soon, as if drowning out the baby’s cries, sirens began to wail. Outside, the sound of shattering glass echoed, and the distinct engine noise of an aerial vehicle gradually grew distant.

The boy left the nursery and headed toward the master bedroom, where his companions were. After seeing the horrific scene that had unfolded there, he screamed and ran back to the nursery.

His face even paler, the boy clawed at his own face…… and then, clutching the wailing baby in his arms, he began to run somewhere.

And the boy’s profile.

It looked uncannily like someone I knew.

“Irie Elisbell.”

“……!!”

“Irie Elisbell.”

At the sound of someone calling her name, Irie jolted back to her senses.

Only then did she realize that class was in full session. When she lifted her head, the professor of a required second-year liberal arts course was glaring at her expressionlessly.

“Can you explain what I was just discussing?”

“……I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine. I will deduct five points from your attitude score.”

The professor spoke as though he had no interest in whether she actually paid attention to class. He was the type to treat people mechanically, with no intention of showing consideration or understanding.

“……Yes.”

Knowing that, Irie obediently accepted the measure, and the professor turned back toward the electronic board and resumed the lecture.

I let out a sigh and rubbed the space between my brows.

Then—

[Is something wrong?]

One of the female students attending the same liberal arts class sent her a voice chat. We had been rather distant until last year, but since this year, we had grown fairly close.

She was a scholarship student affiliated with a completely different Megacorp, but after several incidents last year, the barriers between affiliations had largely disappeared, making this possible.

[It’s nothing. I’m just tired.]

I really was tired.

This damn school was hell-bent on squeezing everything out of its students, and as someone who had to fight on the front lines against it, I had no choice but to be exhausted 365 days a year.

In other words, being Student Council President was the perfect excuse for being tired.

Thanks to that, she didn’t probe any further. It was fortunate for me, but just because I managed to gloss over a friend’s concern didn’t mean the fundamental problem was solved.

‘This won’t do.’

If I kept failing to focus in class like this, my grades would surely drop. And if that happened, Mr. Chairman would be disappointed in me. That must not happen.

……Though, rather than the way a mature woman would try to appeal, it felt closer to how an elementary school boy might seek attention, but anyway.

The important thing was that I needed to properly sort out my feelings first before I could do anything. After entering the Academy, I had been swept up in one incident after another and had forgotten my original goal. It was about time I pulled myself together.

‘I need to find traces of my brother.’

Peter Jones, who had been a scholarship student affiliated with the Stingray Foundation at Trinity Academy—how had he suddenly vanished from the world? What was the truth hidden behind the cause of death labeled as ‘accidental death’? It was time to find out.

‘There’s no way that man called PJ is my brother. How many people in this city use those initials?’

The fact that I resembled Sylvia Everheart, that taking the initials of the name Peter Jones resulted in PJ, and that my place of origin was the Fallen Sector—surely all of it was just coincidence.

Let me say it again: it had to be coincidence.

No, it must be coincidence.

It had to be nothing more than an incident that occurred through absurd probability. Because if it wasn’t…… if it wasn’t…… what was I supposed to do?

……I didn’t know.

I shook my head and brushed away the useless thoughts. I could worry after I found out the truth.

But…….

‘How am I supposed to find out?’

Mr. Chairman Aaron, who surely knew the entire truth, would never open his mouth, and the same would go for his subordinate, Maria.

‘Should I dig through the academic records and look for Stingray scholarship students who were in the same year as my brother? No, maybe that won’t work either.’

Even if I managed to find out secretly, they would all have graduated and entered the Stingray Group to work. Among Stingray employees, there wouldn’t be anyone foolish enough to let their tongue slip and fall out of favor with the Crown Prince.

‘Hmm…….’

As I pondered, someone suddenly came to mind. Now that I thought about it, wasn’t there an expert in ‘finding people’ right nearby?

Lexus Bane.

A former police officer, a former member of the Stingray Security Team, a capable fixer who had almost become a specially designated fixer, half a loafer and half unemployed, and at the same time, currently a private training instructor affiliated with the Stingray Foundation.

‘I’ll ask that old man.’

“…….”

“Why do you look like that, old man?”

“……W-why does my face look like what.”

“You look like a pathetic husband who just got caught hiding secret slush funds.”

“If you say it like that, it makes you sound like my wife. Don’t use weird metaphors, brat.”

“You’re the one who likes those metaphors.”

“Tsk. That mutt’s learned only strange things…….”

“What’s ‘mutt’?”

“Your hair’s white. And the way you act is kind of like a puppy. So, mutt.”

“What did you say……?”

“What’s with that look? Are you refusing the nickname bestowed upon you by your sky-like master?”

“What nonsense.”

“What, ‘what nonsense’? Look at the way you treat your elders.”

Lexus clicked his tongue.

But that was only to hide the anxiety burning inside him.

Ah, it had finally come.

He had thought things had been quiet for the past few months, but in the end, Irie had begun running toward the truth again.

The problem was that, judging by the look on this brat’s face, she seemed to have already guessed half of the truth.

It looked like she still believed her suspicions were absurd and hadn’t taken a heavy blow yet…… but people in this state were precisely the ones who shattered when their worst expectations turned out to be correct.

‘Damn it…… why me…… damn it…….’

He had absolutely no desire to get entangled in a tragedy where a single student’s fate, past, and trauma were woven together like a spiderweb. But it wasn’t as if continuing to hide the truth from the person involved would solve anything either…… it was enough to make him lose his mind.

In the end, unable to advance or retreat, Lexus attempted a temporary evasive maneuver.

“Money.”

“Huh?”

“Do you have money? Money, money. I’m expensive.”

“How much?”

“One million Credit as a deposit. If I succeed, another one million Credit.”

“Why are you so expensive?”

“Heh. Got a complaint?”

“You’re just a washed-up fixer who used to hang around Sector E…….”

“What did you say, punk?”

Lexus pretended to flare up for a moment, but inwardly he cheered.

Yeah, there’s no way you’d have that kind of money, Irie. It’s just realistic enough to make you hesitate and give up on the request.

Come on, go find someone else!

I don’t have the capacity to take responsibility for your tragedy!

“Ugh. I guess I have no choice…….”

“Huh?”

“I’ll pay. I can just transfer it to your account, right?”

“W-wait! One million Credit!? You have that much money!?”

“I received a scholarship.”

Right, this brat was a special scholarship student……!

You damned Crown Prince!

Why does a twenty-one-year-old have more money than I do!?

He cursed his employer in his heart, but since that man had been taking leave at his own discretion for days, there was no way the words would reach him. All Lexus could do was let out a deep sigh.

“Haah…….”

“You’ll take it, right?”

“What if I say no?”

“……?”

“…….”

“…….”

“……Fine, so stop looking at me with those abandoned puppy eyes, mutt.”

“I told you I’m not a mutt.”

“Anyway.”

Lexus had always been weak to women.

“Fine. I’ll look into it.”

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