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Leaving the room sorting to Den, I left the room. I wanted to prioritize learning this dorm structure first. That’s where both learning about our target and protecting ourselves would begin from.

The rough estimate of my stay in this academy would be until Cortina’s special training ended three months later. Otherwise, Lyell and Maria could come rushing here if they heard of my enrollment.

If they come barging, this investigation would go to waste. I had to resolve this matter until then.

“Let’s start with the first floor I guess.”

I met the dorm mother earlier, but it wasn’t a proper greeting. I had to ask her about the customs and rules of this dorm in further detail. And also use the chat to obtain information about the dorm structure and the students to be wary of.

I knocked on the dorm mother’s door and awaited a response.

“Who is it?”
“It is Nicole from earlier. I came to greet you properly.”
“Oh, what great timing. Please enter, I just made tea.”

I was now thankful that she was giving a relatively favorable reception to a commoner like me.

As I opened the door and entered, a neat room welcomed me.

I gave an amiable bow and quickly ran my eyes through the room but did not see anything suspicious. Even if there was, I don’t think she would have put it in a visible place.

Still, at a glance, the furniture of the room was plain yet in a good taste, revealing the owner’s honest personality.

“My apologies for the earlier. I was a little disordered, having just arrived.”
“Oh my, so even Berith’s hero gets nervous.”
“Please let us not bring that up. I was desperate at that time.”

The incident where I stopped the half-demon riot had become a pretty big topic.

But people found it particularly interesting because it concerned the daughter of that Lyell and Maria. I never planned to be a hero back then, so every time someone brought it up, I felt like yelling at myself for being such a show-off.

I played with my skirt’s hem to distract myself from such impulses.

“You don’t have to feel so embarrassed about it. Come here and drink some tea.”
“Okay, but I was not particularly embarrassed.”
“It looks like you are quite strong-willed contrary to your appearance.”

Like that, I chatted with her for a little while. The abundance of topics to have for such situations was an essential skill for assassins.

This reminds me, I could talk fine with girls in such cases even during my previous life, but I was a failure when it came to private life. I feel like it only grew worse after I headed north for the Evil Dragon extermination.

I also tried to ask her about the dorm rumors, but our target wasn’t perceived to be among the students who would make suspicious moves. Then again, I shouldn’t have expected him to make such conspicuous moves that this person would spot.

“Thank you for everything. May I look around the dormitory for a bit?”
“Yes, I don’t mind. But high-class nobles reside on the fourth floor, so you should watch your conduct there.”
“Understood. Thank you for the warning.”

I bowed and excused myself, then started touring the place starting from the first floor.

The first floor was where high-class third-year students lived, and it had a cafeteria and baths, making the palace quite wide. There weren’t as many students as in Raum, but given that they had a full boarding system here, the dormitory was as big as Raum’s school building.

“It’ll take a while just to tour this.”

I briskly inspected the locations of every room while muttering to myself. I had no time to inspect the interiors, as expected. The first floor was for the senior students, but as they weren’t from the fourth floor which I was concerned with, I didn’t have to be so wary of them.

Then again, there might still be people who were used for errands among them.

While looking at the nameplates of the rooms, I only made notes of the noble children with a bad reputation, like, “that count’s son lives here,” “that other viscount’s here,” and so on, then moved to the second floor.

In the same way, I continued through the second and third floors. But people here had recently transferred so there was a low chance that they were under the influence of the Lamech household, who we thought to be the mastermind.

So far, I only had to pay attention to the few names on the first floor, so I didn’t sense much danger. I said they had a bad reputation, but it was mostly on the level of things like sales through illegal channels or embezzlement—things present in every kingdom.

At the very least, they shouldn’t be people who’d erase the dispatched Adventurers like it happened with Letina.

“So the fourth floor is the real deal.”

Bracing myself, I headed up the stairs.

I saw golden drills waiting for me at the end. More accurately, Letina was waiting for me.

“Good grief! First you drove me out and then immediately started loitering inside the dormitory!”
“I mean, Letina, normally you should be in the school building right around now.”
“I notified the teachers that I would be taking care of the transfer student, so there are no problems!”
“…What a massive pain.”

What was the point of me transferring after a delay if she was gonna stick to me like this? I mean, I didn’t feel bad about the fact that she was attached to me, but I wish she had considered time and place.

“Oh well, there are few people today, but you should be careful when there are more, okay?”
“I am not that unprincipled. Leave it to me.”
“I really hope I can…”

I heaved a big sigh and climbed up, tapping her on the shoulder as I passed by. In response, she broke into a big smile and squeezed me into a hug from behind.

“Letina, your pecs are hurting me.”
“Grrrrrrr! Acting so cheeky just because yours are a little bigger, huh?!”

She was a noisy fellow, but even this nature of hers was nostalgic, and it made me feel relieved.