Chapter 9

“……”

There was a brief silence in the room. It wasn’t a good one.

Nicholas stared at Simon, Marianne, and back at Simon again with his big doe eyes. As soon as she thought his mouth was distorted, a rough voice like sandpaper came out from him.

“Chief, this is…….”

“Times are changing. There are already ten female police officers working at the Metropolitan Police Agency. We can’t be the only ones left behind forever, Nicholas.”

Simon explained in a gentle voice as if to soothe a child. Marianne stared blankly at Simon.

“Furthermore, Marianne graduated from the Royal College of Law. She’s too talented to work in the Blauberg’s Police Agency. So, let’s see what you can do here, Marianne.”

Marianne was proud to have great discernment for people. It was because she met countless people as Lady Schneider. Most of them were devious human beings.

People who despise inwardly but smile normally on the outside. People who humble themselves with hidden ambitions.

Due to this, Marianne easily noticed that Simon was an ambitious figure. He wanted to establish his political position, rather than in the field at the moment. He might be aiming for a higher position than the chief of the Blauberg Police Agency.

“But……”

“I made this decision after much consideration, so I won’t allow any objection, Captain Stefan.”

Simon stared at Nicholas with a stern look on his face. Nicholas tightened his lower jaw with a face of disapproval against his orders.

He did say that when he was angry, he’d call people with their job title.

The air in the room cooled down rapidly. She even imagined sparks flying in between them. Marianne, as if a shrimp caught between the whales, quietly held her breath.

Becoming the seed of conflict and a hot potato despite her wishes, she stood still, should she pose as a mediator. In this case, when she stood in between them, she was the cause of the fight.

“This is a command, not a request, Inspector Stefan. If you no longer want to protest, you’d better take your leave now. Let the new officer know about her work.”

Nicholas, who glared at him once again, turned his back on him in anger.

“I understood.”

Marianne, who was looking at his back, hurriedly bid goodbye to Simon and followed Nicholas out.

Simon let out a deep sigh and shook his head. He was also unhappy with the appearance of the female police officer. What can they do in the police agency?

“It’s good if she doesn’t get in the way.”

However, he couldn’t refuse Marquis Schneider’s request either. This was because he needed the help of the marquis to jump to a higher place with his limited background.

***

He swung his head away. Nicholas strode with a fearfully stern look on his face. Then, when he realized a quiet footsteps were following him, he stopped in his place.

Marianne also stopped walking and looked at him with a smile. His unpleasant eyes scanned her up and down.

Soft blonde hair, small fair-skinned face, deep blue eyes like the sea before shakened by a storm. Thin neck and slender body.

“……”

Nicholas also heard that there was a female police officer at the Metropolitan Police Agency. However, he remained skeptical about the female police officer.

At the same time, he knew that he shouldn’t have taken this out on her. Nicholas was a stern man, but not an irrational man.

“Marianne Haveck?”

“Yes, Inspector Nicholas.”

Marianne stared at him with a smile on her face. His grim face might be scary, but she wasn’t intimidated at all.

She has got some nerve.

“Follow me.”

He took the lead with an unwilling look. Marianne followed him with clenched fists instead of bringing her umbrella.

Then, she realized that NIcholas’ response was considered very gentlemanly. It was because she faced a more hostile reaction in the past.

“What did you just say, Inspector? A new officer? Who? This woman here?”

“Stop joking, Inspector, I’ve told you several times, your jokes are not fun because they don’t sound like a joke at all.”

“Well…… she looks weak.”

A red-faced, hot-tempered man pointed a finger at Marianne, and a slender, very pale-looking man said a sarcastic remark. A young man wearing suspenders looked at them and quietly added.

Nicholas, who took a short breath, spoke in a brusque voice.

“It’s the commissioner’s order.”

“What?”

“When did our commissioner become sober?”

“It’s been a long time since he left the field, so he must have lost his touch as well! I’ll be off to the commissioner’s office right now……”

“No matter who goes there, we can’t change the chief’s mind. Maxim.”

“D*mn it!”

The hot-tempered man called Maxim clicked his tongue and stared at Marianne. There’s no way he would stare more fiercely than when he encountered the enemy who killed his parents.

Marianne sighed silently, thinking that the air surrounding her seemed to have sharp thorns. Fierce looks that poked her from all directions as if she had a strange form.

However, she didn’t lose her smile.

Kristoff wasn’t the type to get angry very often. No, Marianne had never seen him get genuinely angry.

He knew how to control himself, and his feelings were rarely shaken by others.

However, there were times when he had to put up an angry act if necessary. Instead of screaming, Kristoff pressured his opponent with silence. And it was always Kristoff who won.

Marianne looked around at her opponents with a light smile. She was thinking about who to choose among the four men, and she decided Maxim was her first target. As he seemed to be the one leading the atmosphere.

She stared silently at Maxim. When he noticed Marianne’s gaze, he glared back. He pushed out his torso as if threatening her, putting up an attitude that was ready to attack at any moment.

Nevertheless, Marianne didn’t back down a bit. Marianne’s smile was firm, and Maxim’s anger was at stake. Maxim let out a low groan and hit the desk.

Bang!

“Sh*t, just do whatever you want!”

Unable to contain his anger any longer, he ran out of the office. The winner of this silent battle was definitely Marianne.

Oh, my. Now that she survived, she had to thank Kristoff.

Marianne drew her attention to the other three alternately, flashing a smile by pulling the corners of her mouth. A sweet, yet determined voice came out of her lips.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Marianne Haveck. Please feel free to call me Marianne.”

She threw her eyes at the two men alternately. She acted elegantly as she waited for their responses.

At that moment, Nicholas noticed that she wasn’t as timid as she looked. The two men also opened their eyes wide in surprise.

The pale-looking man pursed his lips and turned away, while the man wearing the suspenders wondered what to do with a puzzled look on his face.

“Hm.”

Nicholas, who seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment, pointed to the mountain of piled-up documents on the desk.

“All right, Marianne. You have to organize those reports by case and by time in commemoration of becoming our colleague.”

That’s outrageous!

Marianne, who was looking at a pile of documents as if she was about to faint, managed to swallow the scream on the tip of her throat.

Then, she nodded in a relaxed manner. Showing an expression as if it was a piece of cake.

“……Yes, Inspector Nicholas.”

To add a little lie, the document was as tall as her body. The pale-faced man grinned, and the man wearing suspenders showed a worried look.

Marianne walked bravely to the desk with her fists clenched. It wasn’t yet the time to blow Nicholas’ head off. The opportunity would come at any time.

***

Martin hated this moment, which has been repeated for days. The old butler honestly felt that he wanted to avoid this if he could.

Swallowing nervously, he knocked on the door to the office. Then he was granted permission to come in. Martin took another deep breath before entering the room.

“……”

It couldn’t have been possible, but it seemed that winter only came back in there. Outside the window, the gentle spring sunshine and the bird’s songs could be heard, and a dreary northern wind blew in the office.

Kristoff, who was sitting at the desk, slowly lifted his eyes. However, Martin could read the nervousness and impatience reflected in it.

It was quite a refreshing sight. His owner never showed his feelings, and even Martin couldn’t read his innermost feelings most of the times despite serving him since he was young.

“What happened?”

Kristoff, who couldn’t wait even a bit for Martin to walk to the desk, asked angrily. It was also an unfamiliar sight.

Is the man in front of him really the self-restrained Kristoff?

It wasn’t until Lady Schneider disappeared that Martin realized she meant something to him.

In particular, when Kristoff, who was known to be a workaholic, said he would no longer take on any cases, Martin was flabbergasted.

“I’m ashamed.”

Martin lowered his head with a sorrowful look on his face. Ha, Kristoff looked up at the ceiling and burst into laughter. His pupil hardened coldly.

Martin continued quietly while looking at his master’s gaunt side that has lasted for days.

“None of the taxi drivers picked up Madam in front of the department store. We have to extend the search through the coachmen, but it’ll take some time. There are so many more carriages compared to taxi drivers.”

“Marianne disappeared, and no one saw her? She must have risen to the sky or fallen to the ground. Is she a magician?”

Kristoff spoke sarcastically with a cold voice. Martin, who had no come back, dropped his gaze as if he had nothing more to say.

Kristoff involuntarily gripped his armrest. The amount of strength applied was unimaginable, his joints protruded out, and the bones on the back of his white hand even stood out.

“Marianne.”

Kristoff recited her name. As it has been many times.

His eyes turned to the divorce papers on the side of the desk. At the same time, Kristoff’s eyes shone as sharp as a razor.

Marianne’s escape wasn’t an accident at all. She planned it more carefully than anyone else, and finally succeeded.

In other words, she greeted him as usual and talked, while thinking of running away.

Even at that moment Kristoff believed in her love.

His grip on the armrest became stronger. At a single glance, his eyes seemed shakened.

“Why?”

Kristoff repeated the question that never left his mind at all these days. However, he didn’t figure out the answer again this time.

Veronica Kloze.

The name of his sister-in-law suddenly came to his mind. He also remembered Marianne’s face when she persuaded him that her sister’s death was never a suicide.

At that time, what did he say again?

He probably had a quite annoyed look on his face. According to the case report he had skimmed through, it was obviously a suicide.

―It was obviously a suicide, Marianne.

―No, Kristoff. Veronica, she’s……

―You don’t know anything about the investigation. It was undoubtedly an incident.

Now, he remembered what kind of expression Marianne had back then. The expression slowly disappeared from her face and sorrow was faintly reflected on her face, deep despair and resignation sank on it.

Kristoff bit his bottom lip hard. His jaw stiffened. The muscles were tense.

At that moment, a bouquet of flowers on the desk caught his eyes. It was a bunch of arranged snapdragon flowers.

Pride.

“Sigh.”

Only then did he figure out the meaning of her message.