Chapter 35: Kidnapping XI - Trade

The director sat up at the mention of the kidnapping.

“Does anyone else know about this?” he asked, furrowing his brows.

The reason he asked was obvious. Kidnappings that happened in the academy did not reflect well on the director’s reputation. Even if the student in question had graduated, it didn’t change the fact that the academy he managed was not secure.

She was taking a gamble coming here. She could have contacted law enforcement, but they were slow to move and would have taken too long. 

Additionally, the incident would definitely be publicized by the director’s enemies within the police force. The director will have lost his incentive to help then.

In fact, he would benefit more if Annabelle was not saved, since he gets to point fingers at the police as well to shift some of the blame and shame.

Belevere shook her head. “Not yet. Only Alecto here, and you, knows.”

The director heaved a sigh of relief, the reproach in his eyes from having his sleep interrupted gone. “Good. That’s good. You were right to come to me. I will have the Academy Guards ready to sortie immediately.”

He looked at Alecto. “Not a word about this, okay?”

To Belevere’s surprise, Alecto hesitated. Then he shook his head. “I’ll agree if Belevere allows me to.”

“What?!”

Belevere wanted to bury Alecto. 

She still wanted to borrow a mech, but now Alecto revealed her hand. If she asked for the mech now, the director will resent her for extorting him with blackmail. 

On the other hand, if she told Alecto that it was okay to keep silent, and then blackmailed the director afterwards, she’ll have committed the honor sin of both blackmail and lying to a fellow knight.

She had wanted to keep that card hidden and bring it out only if it was totally necessary. 

Now it was off the table. She sighed in regret. Perhaps the director wouldn’t notice? 

“Director. The truth is I want to borrow one of your mechs,” she said. “I want to participate in the rescue mission and save Annabelle myself. I can’t just sit back for this.”

The director looked pained. “I know how you feel. You were always close to Miss Florent, but...” His eyes suddenly narrowed, just as Belevere had feared. “Wait, are you threatening me?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head, pretending to not get what he was talking about. She also ignored the panicked stare that Alecto gave her.

“No. Nothing...” The director blinked and slowly sat back. He thought for a bit. “I’m open for you to borrow one of my mechs, one knight to another. However, at the same time, this is a trade.”

He sounded almost apologetic for having doubted her. If you’re sorry, then lend the mech to me for free...

But reality wasn’t that sweet. 

“You’re forming a faction, right? I would like our interests to grow closer together in the future. As you know, I am not allowed to lead a faction, but I am allowed to have allies.” 

Belevere tried to maintain her smile even as she grimaced inside. On paper, to someone who didn’t know what was going on, it was a good trade. 

However, she valued her value in an alliance to be much more valuable than temporary access to a mech, especially as she grew her faction with Annabelle.

Her hesitation must have shown, however, as the director shook his head.

“This isn’t a bad trade for you at all. I’m having second thoughts on my offer if you don’t even understand the trade is favorable.”

“Wait...” Belevere’s mind froze up. She didn’t understand why. If only Annabelle was here...

But Annabelle wasn’t here. Belevere realized she was too reliant on Annabelle. Without Annabelle, she couldn’t do anything.

She wanted to appeal again, but the director was already on his comms. It was as if he considered the end of the conversation a mere formality he could put off later.

She had been so absorbed in herself that she managed to forget how insignificant she was. A knight was only as powerful as her faction. Beyond that, all they had was a title that was worthless beyond granting the right to not be casually trampled upon by other nobles. She had forgotten that.

Besides, it was only her selfishness that caused her to want to save Annabelle herself. The Academy Guards by themselves were more than sufficient to save Annabelle. 

Annabelle... I’m sorry for being so weak. Today, I wasn’t able to be the one to save you. But, I swear, this will never happen again.

Even with her conviction, however, Belevere was still a bit regretful as she prepared to transfer the location data of Annabelle’s tracker to the director.

She hesitated, her finger hovering over the send button.

“Wait! Please reconsider Belevere’s request!” Alecto suddenly shouted, startling both of them.

 

“Why?”

As Farth recovered his composure, he put down his comms. Unlike the Odis girl, he could not be so dismissive of Alecto. For one, he was both the son of a knight who had actual power, and because he knew of the kidnapping.

Unlike Belevere, Alecto had nothing to lose by revealing the truth to the public. He was the only one in the room who could use the threat to reveal as an effective bargaining chip.

Speaking of the Odis girl, he wondered why she didn’t try to use that particular chip as well? Either she wasn’t smart enough to realize it was available, or she was smart enough to know that the chip was worthless to her. Thinking back on the reaction the girl had, he thought it was probably the former.

Someone like her would be useless even if he did rope her into being his ally.

Farth turned his attention back to the young man sitting in front of him, who had so boldly interrupted him.

“Well?”

The boy looked at the desk. “Annabelle is really important to Belevere. Will you please reconsider your decision?”

“You still haven’t given me a good reason why,” Farth sat back, sitting back into his seat. While the boy sat there, unsure what to say, he began to rally the Academy guards. In a few minutes, they would be awake and ready to sortie.

Additionally, he had to dispatch someone to investigate the scene of the crime. Assuming that Odis girl didn’t screw up the traces while doing her own investigation, they should be able to find something.

While he was giving his orders through his comms, he couldn’t help but wonder at the Maxime boy’s strange behavior. Why was this young man sticking up for the girl anyway?

“Ah... youth.”

After a few more orders, Farth put down his comms. He had done all he could for now. Any more will have to wait for the results of the investigation. He dearly hoped that everything would go well. 

If the Florent Group kicked up a fuss, it was his head on the chopping block. Baron Arvent might even remove his position as the director of the AMI.

The boy finally seemed to have made up his mind about something. He sat up straighter, causing Farth to lean forward in interest. What did the boy have to say?

“For my graduation, my father has decided to gift me a premium heavy bombardment mech—the Skyfire. It’s a current design,” he said.

“Congratulations?”

The boy shook his head. “You don’t have a heavy artillery mech in your collection, do you? Not a modern one, at least.”

Farth began to see what he was getting at. Certainly, he was an avid mech collector. However, a job as the director of an academy only paid so much, so his collection wasn’t very big. 

He certainly couldn’t afford to purchase some as extravagant as a heavy bombardment mech when he could buy two or three medium mechs for the same price. Bombardment mechs were ridiculously expensive due to the huge amount of weapon systems they incorporated, as well as the top of the line sensors and armor needed to support such a fighting style.

Besides, bombardment mechs weren’t something that could be ordered whenever someone felt the fancy. Due to the relative difficulty of the construction, there were often waiting lines to purchase, and only for people already with contracts.

Farth narrowed his eyes, leaning forward to look the boy in the eyes.

“Let me get this straight. You want to trade a mech from my collection for a premium heavy bombardment mech? You do realize that nothing I have even approaches the value of that, right?”

The boy was delusional. The idea was so stupid that even the Odis girl sitting next to him was looking at him like he was crazy. Was it possible that the boy who was formerly second place by virtue of his smarts was even dimmer than Belevere?

Love sure had a tendency to remove reason.

“That’s not it,” Alecto said. “I would like to trade it for a spearman mech and a ballistic rifleman mech. Additionally, I would like to borrow an aerial mech type of Belevere’s choice that you have in your collection. Not a bad trade, right?”

Unlike what Farth had originally thought, the boy’s proposals were actually reasonable this time. In return for a rare premium bombardment, he’d only have to sacrifice two easily replaceable and rather common medium mechs, as well as temporarily lend out a third.

Even together, the three likely didn’t match up to the value of a premium heavy, so Alecto was probably just making it an easy decision for him. More importantly, by making the trade seem more fair, it proved that Alecto had been in his right mind and there was no trick.

The offer was really attractive, and Farth couldn’t help but feel his breath quicken at the opportunity. However, although he got the better end of the deal, he couldn’t appear too eager.

Carefully keeping his expression neutral, Farth steepled his fingers and pretended to consider the proposal carefully. After what he thought was an appropriate amount of time, he nodded. “Very well.”

The Odis girl’s eyes perked up at his reply. 

He guessed the spearman mech was for her, while the rifleman mech was for Alecto. Although he knew that Alecto preferred bombardment mechs, he was proficient or passable in both ballistic rifles and laser rifles as well.

A mech pilot couple, huh?

Alecto really was sacrificing a lot in his pursuit. Farth felt it was his duty to wish him good luck.

He stood up. “Come with me. My collection is at my residence.”