I Become a Secret Police Officer of The Imperial Academy

Chapter 13

We followed Ellen.

But something about her destination felt off.

At first, she walked down a relatively clean street. Then, suddenly, she turned left, heading straight toward the slums.

The only things you’d find in the slums were rats, cockroaches, demons, and vagrants.

I couldn’t understand why she was headed there.

Still, we kept following Ellen.

Isabel was unusually fixated on learning more about Ellen.

It was to the point that she didn’t even acknowledge my suggestion that we should head back.

While we were watching her from afar, wondering where she was going, Ellen suddenly turned around.

My heart froze.

If we had followed her all the way into the slums, we definitely would have been caught.

“There’s only one bridge in and out of that area. Let’s wait for her here,” Isabel muttered quietly, crossing her arms. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead, probably from the sudden scare.

If someone were to look at us now, they’d probably just think we were a couple standing close together.

We stepped into a nearby cafe, ordered some drinks, and sat on the terrace where we could see the bridge.

Not long after, a pristine, well-kept carriage rolled across the bridge.

It was the kind of carriage you’d never expect to see entering a slum.

Isabel, sipping the last bit of her strawberry drink, furrowed her brows and spoke softly.

“That carriage… it’s got some kind of emblem on it.”

“Let’s just keep watching for now.”

About 30 minutes passed.

The carriage that had gone into the slum came back, this time loaded with large burlap sacks.

Without a word, Isabel and I glanced at each other.

Then, at the exact same time, we leapt over the terrace railing and ran after the carriage.

The carriage passed by a large mansion and stopped at an open clearing within its grounds.

Men wearing hoods stepped out of the carriage, followed by Ellen.

Then, a large underground entrance opened before them.

Ellen started giving orders to the men unloading the sacks from the carriage, gesturing as if instructing them on what to do.

“…The sack just moved,” Isabel muttered.

“It moved?”

“Yeah, look closely at that one guy carrying it. It’s wriggling like crazy.”

I focused on the man holding one of the sacks.

Sure enough, the sack was squirming and thrashing violently.

The man pulled something from his belt and struck the sack with it.

The sack stopped moving.

“That… that’s a person, isn’t it?”

“…No way.”

The pieces started coming together.

They had gone to the slums.

The sacks were about the size of a person.

And they were wriggling.

It was impossible to push away the suspicion.

Ellen and the men disappeared into the underground entrance. Moments later, the door that had been wide open closed shut.

When we got closer to inspect it, we noticed that the top of the door had been covered with dirt and grass.

If we hadn’t seen it open with our own eyes, we never would have known it was there.

“…Should we go in?” Isabel asked.

I nodded.

I didn’t know why, but it felt like if we stopped here, we’d regret it forever.

After seeing all of this, it’s not like we could pretend we hadn’t.

I pulled out a handkerchief, hoping it was big enough to cover my face, but it wasn’t large enough to cover more than my mouth.

We grunted and groaned as we pried the door open. Stairs leading downward came into view.

After slipping through, we carefully closed the door behind us and tiptoed down the stairs.

“Isabel, cast any spell that might be useful,” I whispered.

In response, Isabel chanted a spell.

Suddenly, our footsteps became completely silent.

Even the sound of our breathing disappeared, as if it had been wiped away.

Unfortunately, this also meant that I couldn’t hear my own voice when I spoke to Isabel.

Dim light leaked out from further down the hallway. We gestured to each other using hand signs and decided to stick close together.

The underground area was so vast that we couldn’t figure out where Ellen had gone.

We couldn’t exactly walk up to someone and ask where she was, either.

With no other choice, we wandered aimlessly.

There were so few people in the underground facility that we might not have been noticed even without Isabel’s spell.

Everyone here looked incredibly busy.

One man in an office was buried in paperwork, signing document after document with a pen.

Nearby, several mages were lining up scrawny demons and chanting spells over them.

“…Sir Mage, what exactly is this spell you’re casting?”

One of the demons, a middle-aged man, asked the mage while being subjected to the spell.

The mage didn’t answer. He continued casting the spell in silence.

“If you keep engraving spells into me without saying anything, I can’t just—”

Bang!

A small explosion echoed through the corridor.

The next moment, blood poured from the middle-aged man’s nose and mouth.

He collapsed where he stood.

The demons lined up behind him covered their mouths with their hands, suppressing their screams.

“Ugh, damn it. ‘Stay still,’ he says. Stay still, my ass… Hey, Connie! Stop that paperwork and toss this one into the incinerator!”

“Did it blow up again?”

“Yeah, it blew up again.”

The demon’s body lay limp on the ground, face down in a pool of his own blood.

“Of course it blew up, so get moving. Stop asking questions and clean it up so you can get back to work.”

The mage shouted, and the man who had been buried in paperwork moments ago rubbed his eyes and sluggishly walked over. He grabbed the corpse and began dragging it somewhere.

We moved further down the corridor, passing through another door.

That’s when we saw it.

A prison.

Or at least, it was supposed to be a prison.

Could you even call that a prison?

The space was so cramped that calling it a prison felt too generous. It was more like a livestock pen filled with humans.

No, it wasn’t just “like” a livestock pen—it was a livestock pen.

— “P-please, save me…”

— “Let us out! My child… my child is dying!”

— “Please, please, at least give us water….”

Not even livestock would be kept in conditions this horrific.

Was this hell?

Everyone inside wore tattered rags, their bodies gaunt and skeletal.

Isabel started trembling as she looked at the scene. Then, she doubled over and vomited on the floor.

Instead of saying anything, I focused on patting her back.

She was still shaking when she finally stopped, but I helped support her as we continued forward.

Stopping now would only mean getting stuck in this nightmare.

We had to see Ellen with our own eyes.

I had to see her.

I had to see her and confirm that she wasn’t the one behind this.

I refused to believe that the same Ellen who loved silly jokes, books, and quiet afternoons was involved in something like this.

It had to be someone else.

Maybe Ellen’s older brother had gone mad after their parents died.

Yeah, it had to be the head of the Speyer family pulling the strings.

I pressed my fingertips hard against the corners of my eyes to calm myself, then kept walking.

The next area was different.

Unlike the people from before, the ones here seemed to be in relatively better condition. They looked healthier, more alert.

And right in the center of it all, Ellen sat on a sofa with her legs crossed.

In front of her, a tall demon man knelt on one knee.

“Livestock belong in pens. People belong in prisons.”

“You really have a filthy way of talking.”

I heard their quiet conversation.

Hearing Ellen say those words made me want to rush out there and demand to know what she was doing.

They talked for a bit longer before it seemed they had come to some sort of agreement.

Then, Ellen raised the iron club in her left hand and swung it down on the demon man’s leg.

His leg twisted like a frog crushed under a cartwheel.

Even as his leg crumpled, the man didn’t cry out.

He endured it in silence.

The grip on my wrist tightened, and I glanced at Isabel.

Her hand was trembling as she squeezed mine.

The demons locked behind the iron bars couldn’t stay silent, though.

They screamed and hurled insults at Ellen, their voices echoing through the prison.

But Ellen didn’t react.

She leaned back on the sofa, looking perfectly comfortable as she gave her subordinates orders.

Was that even Ellen?

I didn’t know anymore.

The Ellen I knew…

The subordinates followed her instructions, pulling out the demons who had been causing a ruckus behind the bars and taking them somewhere else.

Not long after, the sound of blood-curdling screams echoed through the corridor.

We crept toward the source of the screams, being as quiet as possible.

When we reached it, we saw it.

Demons were burning alive in an incinerator.

Their bodies were writhing as the flames consumed them.

Isabel couldn’t watch any longer.

She chanted a spell, and with a flash, she pierced the demons’ foreheads.

They stopped moving.

I stared at the scene, my mind clouded with confusion.

Why… Why is this happening?

Then I saw Ellen.

She was smiling.

It wasn’t the kind of fake smile you force onto your face.

It wasn’t the kind of smile people put on to hide their pain.

Her grin was twisted, unnerving, and somehow sincere.

It was the kind of smile you’d see on a patient in a mental asylum.

I knew right then that I had to stop her.

I didn’t know if the demons had committed any crimes.

But if they had, then they should be put in a proper prison, tried in a court, and sentenced to death or forced labor.

That’s how things are supposed to work.

They shouldn’t be locked up like this.

Not like animals.

Not like this.

At the very least, the children—the children—should be spared.

If nothing else, the children deserve to be treated with dignity.

How long had I been pretending that I knew her?

How much had I convinced myself that we understood each other?

It was painful to realize that, in the end, we didn’t know a single thing about each other.

I didn’t want to believe it, but seeing it with my own eyes made it impossible to deny.

At the very least, I believed that no human should ever treat another like this.

We had seen enough.

I signaled to Isabel that we should head back.

She nodded.

We retraced our steps, moving quietly through the corridors.

As we reached the stairs and began to climb, I suddenly heard footsteps behind us.

My heart stopped.

I froze.

Isabel pulled me forward just in time.

I would have been caught if she hadn’t.

The footsteps came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs.

Ellen stood there, gazing up the stairs in silence.

Her voice rang out, low and commanding.

“Come out. If you don’t want your family dragged into this and killed, come out.”

I felt my body stiffen.

Has she seen us?

No, she couldn’t have.

If she knew where we were, she wouldn’t be calling out like that.

Isabel’s entire body was shaking now.

I had no choice.

I clung to her, wrapping my arms tightly around her to keep her from making any sudden movements.

We held our breath and stayed perfectly still.

After a long pause, Ellen slowly walked up the stairs.

We waited.

It felt like an eternity passed before we heard the sound of the door closing above us.

Once it was clear, we climbed out of the underground and into the fresh air.

Isabel staggered forward and threw up as soon as she was outside.

It was so bad that, for a moment, I wondered if she was going to die right then and there.

Her whole body shook violently as she emptied her stomach.