Keti stared blankly at the envelope in her nemesis’s hand, then blinked in confusion.
A letter?
Honestly, although letters were still quite important in this world—where communication wasn’t that convenient for ordinary people—Keti rarely ever received any envelopes.
Could it be… Mom and Dad are worried and have sent another letter? Uh… No, that can’t be right.
Even if they did send a letter, it should have gone to the Hero Squad’s headquarters, right? The silver-haired beauty still hadn’t dared tell her parents about her current situation.
Or maybe… the letter was sent to the headquarters first, and then brought over by Sylvia or Layla? But even then, there’s no reason to stick it in the door crack—they could just knock and hand it to her.
Keti couldn’t shake the weird feeling. Based on their past behavior, if Layla or Sylvia had any excuse to chat with her, they would’ve seized the chance.
There’s no way they’d just drop off the letter and leave without a word.
With all these thoughts, Keti’s anxiety only grew. Thinking back on what her nemesis had just said—it wasn’t impossible.
What if it turned out to be a love letter from a male student, and it was revealed right in front of her nemesis—yikes.
Creak—
She could already see herself getting mercilessly teased to the point of utter embarrassment, ugh…
Worried, the silver-haired beauty shivered and pressed down on her nemesis’s hand, then spoke up with a solemn look:
“No! Uh… H-how can you just do that? This letter is for me, and who knows what’s inside. It wouldn’t be right for you to open it—let me do it! Uh… W-we have to have manners!”
“Ah… Fine then, you open it first. Decide for yourself if you want to share it with me~”
Lynn shrugged and handed the letter over, so naturally and quickly that even the silver-haired beauty was caught off guard. Huh, what’s this? Since when was her nemesis so polite?
Now Keti started to suspect the letter was just some trick her nemesis was playing on her. Muttering to herself, she opened the envelope, glanced at the contents, and then…froze in place.
Her pupils trembled in disbelief. Her breathing and heartbeat seemed to stop for several seconds. After a moment, Keti looked at her nemesis in a panic and whimpered,
“Lynn… Lynn, this is… big, we’re in big trouble!”
Hm?
Seeing the strange look on the girl’s face, Lynn grabbed the letter from her hand and took a closer look. On top of everything, there were a few projection stone photo papers—
That is, photographs.
And on those photos was a horrific scene—two boys were tied to chairs with their hands behind their backs, cloth stuffed in their mouths, blindfolds over their eyes, and their bodies covered with whip-like marks.
The two photos were shocking, streaked with blood. Keti was terrified at first sight. She, just like Lynn, recognized the two people in the pictures—they were boys from her class: Kutar and Rog.
How could this be? This… this is… a kidnapping?
And the contents on the last page inside the envelope seemed to confirm Keti’s guess… Lynn took a deep breath and carefully read the distorted handwriting.
“To Miss Keti, teacher of Class 25, Lidel Magic Academy. Two students from your class have already been kidnapped by me and are being held at a secret location.”
“If you want to save them, bring five hundred thousand dinars and make the exchange tonight at Factory 22 in the industrial park in the lower district of the Imperial Capital. I will let you see your students then—money for people, simple as that!”
“But remember, you absolutely cannot tell a third party about this. No calling the guards, no telling the students’ parents, and do not bring anyone else to the exchange.”
“Otherwise, I’ll tear up the hostages immediately. Don’t try any tricks, my hiding place is very well concealed—no one could find it. So… looking forward to seeing you tonight.”
“Remember, five hundred thousand, not a single denar less~!”
This… this…
It was Keti’s first time facing something like this. She was completely stunned. How could this happen? How could someone kidnap her students out of nowhere?
“F… Five hundred thousand! That’s… that’s way too much, how could I ever come up with that kind of money, ugh.”
The silver-haired beauty actually wanted to say, “Let’s not save them, it’s way beyond my abilities, meow.”
But—cough, cough—as their teacher, she couldn’t say something like that out loud, so it only flashed across her mind for a second.
Still, precisely because of this, she didn’t dwell on it. After a moment, her face turned pale, and she shook her head, then started discussing with Lynn,
“This is way too big for us, it’s beyond what we can handle. I think… we should go to the guards, or at least let the parents know, right? Otherwise… I, I’ll go contact them right now.”
“As for the ransom, maybe if the two families put together the money, it could work. They’re both minor nobles, it shouldn’t be that hard—after all, these are their children!”
By all logic, Keti’s plan was absolutely right. But after a moment, Lynn’s face remained grave. He studied the photos and the Ransom Note inside the envelope again, then suddenly shook his head and sighed.
“Something’s wrong… Something’s really wrong…”
“Eh? Wh-what’s the matter, are the photos fake?”
Keti thought her nemesis had found some evidence of forgery in the photos. She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she’d worried for nothing. But in the next second, her nemesis shook his head, sneered, and said,
“The photos are real. But I doubt the kidnapper’s real goal is ransom.
Even though the sum sounds plausible, it just doesn’t make sense.”
“Think about it—after kidnapping a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, the kidnapper asks the teacher for ransom, not the parents?”
“Doesn’t allow any contact with the parents, and expects a teacher to come up with that much money for students that aren’t even her own—does that make any sense to you?”
“Uh…”
T-true.
After hearing her nemesis’s reasoning, Keti nodded thoughtfully. No wonder she’d felt something was off this whole time, but…
“If it’s not about the money, then what is this kidnapper after by sending me this letter?”
“Hah… It’s simple. That guy… must be after you. That so-called exchange site isn’t an exchange at all—it’s a trap…”
Lynn analyzed thoughtfully, then his gaze suddenly turned cold.
A moment later, a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips. Well, well, yet another one has come for his dear Keti. These people… really have no idea how close they are to courting death.
“So, little kitten, did you offend any enemies lately?”