Chapter 44

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

“I suspect he’s the Gentleman.”

Bright said so to Hopkin.

It is 12 hours after Bright’s café trip last night. Hopkin tried to ask Detective but he remained silent on what happened, completely sealing his lips. So Hopkin comes looking for Bright immediately the next day.

Bright is not surprised Hopkin knows where he lives. He’s an Inner City resident after all, their information networks are advanced. Perhaps someone is looking through the CCTV at him right now! Shit! Just thinking about it is making him uncomfortable. It’s a relief there’s none in the bathroom to save the last shred of his dignity.

Bright pours a glass of water for Hopkin on the table in front of him, and says apologetically, “I haven’t done a grocery run yet.” He and Wolfie just went half-hearted about eating yesterday and this morning, emptying the foodstuff that came with the house. They planned to buy something in the afternoon but didn’t expect someone to come by this quickly.

Hopkin asks about his roommate, and the man tells him the little werewolf stayed up all night playing games so he is sleeping in his own room.

Hopkin nods in acknowledgement. He probes while pretending to be concerned, “I heard someone is interested in you, so I came to check on you.”

The pair of brown eyes stare fixedly at him for a moment, filled with complex, unknowable emotions. Hopkin’s heart almost skips a beat thinking those pair of eyes might have seen through him and his soul, but then Bright thanks him for his concern, saying, “I did meet a special person yesterday.”

“Oh?” Hopkin raises his brows.

Bright sits opposite him and details his experience in the café yesterday.

Since entering the café he has felt something out of place. He almost felt as if he had transmigrated back to the peaceful world built upon the core values of socialism where he was actually just wandering outside school and entered by accident a private coffeehouse decorated in a simple foreign fashion that feels authentic. Within the drinks menu he only recognised Italian espresso. He couldn’t tell the difference between latte and mocha, and things like caramel macchiato and cappuccino are beyond him who cannot even pass the CET . Though since there was free wifi, he decided to spend some time there.

The feelings only lasted a second before his mind reaffirmed him that he is never going back.

Like his attitude towards Hopkin before, those that act familiar with him make him wary, only those that repel him make him feel safe.

The atmosphere of the café is too enticing, too compatible with his imaginations, which was a warning for him. Since there is no such happy fairy tales in this world that often slaps him in the face with its cruelty.

However, it did make him recall the times he buried deep but is deeply reminiscent of in his mind, and his real emotions leaked out which fitted with what the other person expected. He was probably so pleased with how perfect his web-weaving had gone that he exposed his trickery to Bright.

On the surface he made himself appear immersed in the relaxing atmosphere, but his nerves were actually completely tensed up. He was also judging the other person silently while the curly-haired young man was testing him.

Owns private property. Opening a café in a well-off community. He’s at least from upper-middle class.

He was reading a book instead of relying on educational needles. He has quite the amount of time to spare. Remove the ‘-middle’ part from upper-middle.

His manners were impeccable. Not the manners that are drilled into service industry workers, but that sense of cordial distancing that a more traditional English gentleman might display. Even though he has masked that well with his warm and slightly passionate smile, what lies in its essence doesn’t change.

Bright adjusted his analysis of him again.

He even has a bold guess that this owner of the café may be the third Inner City aristocrat he has met.

The three words ‘Inner City aristocrat’ is enough to trigger alarms throughout his consciousness and he put up a more defensive attitude.

The curly-haired young man told Bright, “I wish that every customer here can feel comfortable and relax their minds, enjoying a brief respite from life.”

Bright gave him a smile. He is often quiet and taciturn, and has only softened his expression slightly at this point but did not continue the conversation. The other person was in no hurry too. He returned to his post and continued reading.

After he finished his coffee, he sat for a bit before going to the counter to pay his bills.

And yet the system alerted him that the payment has failed.

Bright was confused, “??” Though he expected something to happen, he did not expect his script to be leaving the shop without paying. He gave the owner an embarrassed look, silently asking with his eyes if there were any way he could solve the problem.

The curly-haired young man put a bit of wariness into his expression, but he was still cordial in attitude. This is a community, after all, and those that want to scam their food cannot make it in. He tried soothing Bright, “maybe there is a problem with the machine in the shop. I will give it a check.”

The system showed that it was fully functional after a self-diagnosis. The expression on the curly-haired young man changes. He said in a regretful but resolute manner, “I will inform the security guards.”

Bright was thinking if he should just leg it so that his storyboard falls apart. Smile.jpg

Wanting to see what tricks the person had up his sleeve, the man sighed and removed his disguise, showing his real face. The other person exclaimed a bit as if just recognising him. “You’re that guy from the Killing Gauntlet Reality Show… number 199? Was it Brian or Blake?”

“It’s Bright.” The man nodded, acknowledging his identity. He informed him it was his first time using his bracelet and does not know what the problem might be. If there was a problem he could contact the show.

The wariness on the expression of the curly-hair young man went away, instead he looked like he was relieved. He said with some passion, “that explains it. First-time usage of the bracelet occasionally fails. These machines are not always that convenient, let’s try again.” This time it gave a positive response. It said that a third-party authorisation was required. A manual verification process would take about half an hour.

“I’m sorry to ask you to wait a while longer, you’re not busy I presume?” The curly-haired young man said, “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s fine.” Bright gives a grin of understanding. He had to sit back and wait for the authorisation to finish.

The curly-haired young man managed to keep him in the shop, and then he offered Bright, “I made beef rolls earlier. A token for my previous misgivings?” Bright refuses out of politeness, but the young man insisted so he had to accept this gesture of goodwill. He made another cup of coffee for Bright. He did not leave immediately this time, but he sat in front of Bright naturally.

Bright was impressed with how the other person has gone about this plan. He has approached him in the most unassuming, inconspicuous way possible.

Detective ‘Max-level Flirt’ starts chatting with Bright. He has a vast array of knowledge and a silver tongue to go with it. He is so good with his words that even if Bright knew his motives were impure right from the start he had to admit that the person is a good target for having a heart-to-heart. His conversations are just the right amount of distancing and intimacy to open someone up and acquire the information he wants.

Bright pretended to have been enjoying the conversation so much that he did not notice the time passing. The curly-haired young man had a similar objective as well. It was already a while before when the machine has shown that the payment was successful, but he pretended to have missed it and made his eyes shine more and more, talking about all this and all that with Bright.

The two talked about many topics. Just before Bright left, the other person looked distraught and sold or outright gave him much food that Bright took out and mostly ended up in Wolfie’s stomach.

After talking about his experience, Bright concludes, “I’m not certain what it is he wanted to obtain from me. He said the café has hired people for management but he would still frequently visit as the owner. He invited me to visit often and said he looked forward to our next meeting.”

It seems that the two did not have any intense exchanges, which is all the more concerning for Hopkin. The Detective is not one to play by the rules, and is someone who is completely enchanted when he comes across an interesting puzzle, not even caring if the world crumbles around him. His personality is wicked and inflexible, and yet he has unparalleled intelligence. Someone like him is hard to deal with.

Hopkin falls deep into thought. He does not know what exactly Detective is planning, but something is certain – his original plan succeeded. In the limited time he had, the Detective failed to obtain meaningful information from Bright, and his own identity has not been exposed.

On the one hand, it’s a good thing that he managed to one-up that prideful, arrogant guy, and Bright feels pleasant; on the other hand, he can almost smell the danger. The Detective has maintained his strong interest in Bright and will want him for himself, trying to rob him of his toy.

Hopkin feels irritated and slightly angry at Bright. Why is he attracting attention like that…

Bright would go it’s my fault I’m so great? if he knew what he was thinking.

Before Hopkin realises this thought of his is equivalent to ‘throwing a hissy fit’ – wait, cross that out, ‘being irrational’ – Bright lowers his volume and tells him that sentence, “I suspect he’s the Gentleman.”

“…” Hopkin is feeling conflicted. He isn’t even sure how he should react to this. Yet he feels his anger boiling at the same time, wanting to scream into the face of the man kept in the dark in front of him, It is I who is your mortal enemy! Stop dividing your focus to some unrelated stranger! You should just look at me. And hate only me.

The aristocrat has failed to realise how his objective appears to have shifted over time. From insulting, fooling and toying with the man to getting his attention.

On the other side, sensing Hopkin’s silence as encouraging evidence, Bright described the appearance of the curly-haired young man and is looking expectantly at Hopkin, hoping he would help identify him.

“He’s not Gentleman.”

Bright is shocked, not able to accept such a firm rejection for now. He thought some aspects of the curly-haired young man fit with his image of the antagonist perfectly, “he’s deceptive and sly, he’s good at taking advantage, he’s well-versed in digging up secrets and grasping, analysing and using people’s weak points. He makes his enemies fall into anxiety and fear, while he gets his satisfaction from it.”

Hopkin is speechless, “…” It is such an accurate assessment that he has nothing more to add.

“Just these traits do not mean anything.”

“I have an intuition that the person is dangerous. Also he is probing and studying me, as if he wants to slice me up and show everything from my insides to my outsides to him without reservation.” What a sick psycho! The more he thinks about it the more he is certain!

Hopkin continues his silence.

“Why are you so hung up on ‘Gentleman’?” This is the second time Bright has asked him about this nickname. Hopkin decides not to let this opportunity go this time and ask about the truth.

Thanks to the Detective, he hasn’t been able to see Bright for these few days. He used that time to investigate in detail who leaked his nickname out. Not the armed personnel under his command, not the medical staff, then it’s not anyone from his side. It will have to be the show. As it is technically the Director’s turf, he cannot interfere directly. Right now he only has suspects but cannot go through them one by one. He plans to do this in secret. Besides that, another way is to pry the information out of Bright’s mouth.

Bright gives an answer this time, “he’s an enemy.”

“Enemy,” Hopkin repeats this word in his mouth repeatedly.

It is an interesting description.

Not a ‘adversary,’ but just an ‘enemy.’ A person who is on an opposing side. It sounds more objective without biases like hatred.

This meant that Bright has likely not yet associated ‘Gentleman’ with the person who has tortured him several times.

What secrets do you have?

And you, who regard me as an enemy, which faction are you from?

Author’s notes: Truth warning counting down.

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