Spy Classroom - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disguise

The world was awash in pain.

In the beforetimes, wars ended just a few months after they started. No matter how much the countries hated each other, the fighting would have to stop once one side exhausted their resources. No conflict, no matter how bitter, could be allowed to interrupt the harvest, and if one side used up all their bullets, they would accept their defeat with grace and retreat—until scientific progress reared its head.

The steam engine was one of the cornerstones of the Industrial Revolution, and the ships and trains it powered represented a massive leap forward in transportation technology. With them, it became possible to mass-produce the supplies needed for war and supply the front lines with provisions imported from far-off continents. Nations could even supplement their armed forces with soldiers drafted from colonies they controlled.

Those factors all culminated in a war that exceeded every precedent and raged on for years. Nobody won that war, but all of mankind was party to it, and it taught them something important.

War’s cost performance was simply too poor.

All it did was stagnate economies, impoverish the masses, and eat away at the national power of those who fought it. The only ones who came out on top were the nations on other continents who sold resources to the combatants instead of participating themselves. It was a massive waste all around.

This realization drove the nations of the world to change the way they approached conflict. They knew they couldn’t afford to start any more wars, so they established an international peacekeeping body and entered a new age of ostensible harmony and cooperation. They still had all the same ambitions as before, but now they saw the pointlessness of using guns to achieve them. Instead, they turned to…other means.

That marked the end of wars fought in the light.

In their place rose spies and information—shadow wars.

The Din Republic was no stranger to these shadow wars.

Before the Great War, it had two intelligence agencies: one for army intelligence and one for naval intelligence. However, the two didn’t get along, and due to the strict regulations ever present in military organizations, neither was particularly outstanding at what it did. That was why, during the war, Din established a new body that outclassed them both—the Foreign Intelligence Office.

At its core was a legendary intelligence group called Inferno. Inferno had served the royal family back in medieval times, and although they were allegedly exiled during the popular revolution, the exact particulars of those events were shrouded in mystery. Thanks to cooperation between Inferno and career members of the military intelligence agencies, the Foreign Intelligence Office made rapid strides, and their efforts were instrumental toward ending the Great War.

After that, another ten years passed, and a combination of intrigue and betrayal led to the annihilation of the thirty-eighth-generation Inferno.

However, there was one young man who survived, and he was determined to carry the torch. To do so, he took a provisional squad and made them into an official spy team.

Together, they were the thirty-ninth Inferno, but to distinguish themselves from their predecessors, they went by a different name.

And that name was Lamplight.

Lamplight’s headquarters was situated in a harbor city in the Din Republic.

As a major commercial hub, the city was home to a series of trading companies, and there was a small building called Garmouth Seminary quietly nestled among their offices. If you went through the passageway hidden in its storeroom, you would find yourself greeted by an impressive garden surrounding an even statelier building. The manor’s name was Heat Haze Palace. Rumor had it that this place had originally served as a hideaway for the royal family and had been a palace in function as well as in name, although not even its current residents knew how much truth there was to that claim.

Until just recently, the whole building had been wiretapped as part of a scheme. Now, though, the bugs were removed, and the manor was back to being an ironclad fortress of secrecy. Even if someone knew where it was, they had no way of knowing what went on within its walls.

“Magnificent.” Klaus gazed at the manor’s splendor.

He was a beautiful man, and if not for his height, he could easily have been mistaken for a woman. His build was trim, and his long hair concealed his handsome features. Although it was intentional on his part, it was still impressive how androgynous he appeared. He was a mere twenty years of age, but with his mature, collected demeanor, he could easily have passed for someone in their late twenties or even thirties.

There were three important things to know about Klaus.

First, he was Lamplight’s boss, and the team’s eight girls all operated under his command.

It had been ten days since he last returned to the base. When he opened the door and stepped into the carpeted hallway, one of the girls rushed over and gave him a cheerful wave.

“Teach, you’re back! It’s been too long!” Her silver hair bobbed around her pretty face.

Her name was Lily, and she could be identified by her silky silver hair, ample bosom, and ever-present smile. As the team’s leader, she was the person in charge of keeping the eight girls united.

It had been ten days since Klaus last saw her, too.

“So it has,” he replied as Lily peered at him inquisitively.

“Did you enjoy your trip abroad? You said you were going to the Lylat Kingdom, right? Lucky you; I hear their seafood’s to die for…”

“It was all right. And you? How was your holiday?”

“Oh, it was fantastic. Ten days of paid leave; doesn’t get better than that!”

Klaus had given the girls ten days off.

During their time as a provisional team, the members of Lamplight completed a grueling mission that required nonstop work, so Klaus felt that they had earned a breather. Conveniently, their bonuses from the Foreign Intelligence Office for completing the mission had just come in, so the girls were all loaded with extravagant amounts of spending money.

“I even got you a gift. C’mon, follow me to the dining room!”

Lily tugged on Klaus’s sleeve as she raved excitedly about her break. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to set his bags down yet.

A question came to mind. “By the way, where are the others?”

The manor was quiet. Too quiet.

Lily puffed up her cheeks in a pout. “They aren’t back from their vacations yet. Buncha slackers, if you ask me.”

Klaus glanced around, but he didn’t see any trace of the other girls.

He didn’t hear any footsteps upstairs, either.

He did, however, smell something wafting from the dining room: the aroma of freshly cooked bacon. That must have been the aforementioned gift—Lily had timed it to be ready right when he got back.

The door to the dining room was wide open.

Inside, he could see that the food had already been laid out. The bacon steak sat atop a pure-white tablecloth, accompanied by a tray of fruit and a bottle of wine.

However, as soon as Klaus stepped inside the dining room—

“That was all bullshit, by the way.”

—Lily stuck out her tongue.

As she did, the other girls revealed themselves from their hiding spots.

They leaped out from every corner of the room—behind the door, beneath the tablecloth, atop the chandelier—and descended upon Klaus.

Other than Lily, every member of the team took part in the coordinated surprise attack. All seven of them were equipped with wires designed for restraining people.

Klaus faced his assailants—

“Makes sense.”

—and spoke with the same unflappable composure as always.

He twisted his body to evade the initial wave of attacks so deftly it was as if he’d seen them coming and, at the same time, extended his long, slender arm toward the tablecloth.

In one smooth motion, he yanked it toward himself.

The plates arranged atop it didn’t so much as shake.

Then he hurled the cloth at the girls like a fisherman casting a net. All seven of them toppled to the floor, neutralized.

Klaus spoke matter-of-factly. “Not very subtle.”

He didn’t even sound upset about the fact that his subordinates had attacked him out of the blue.

Lily clenched her fists in frustration. “Darn it… I figured that even you’d let your guard down right after coming back from vacation!”

“It takes more than that to get an elite spy to drop his guard. You’ve come far, but you still have a long way to go.”

“Well then, at least teach us how…”

“Surprise attacks should come floatily. That’s all there is to it.”

“Now who’s got a long way to go?!”

That was the second important thing to know about Klaus—he was a teacher.

Back at their spy academies, the girls of Lamplight had been washouts. They were all clever, but due to one reason or another, none of them had been good fits for the academy environment. Klaus wasn’t just their boss—he was also the teacher responsible for cultivating their talents.

At the moment, they had one assignment: make Klaus say I surrender by any means necessary.

He himself was the one who’d given them that task, and they diligently fought him day in and day out in order to hone their skills.

Klaus gave them a nod for getting right back into the swing of things after their vacation.

“I will say, though, that your enthusiasm came across loud and clear. Magnificent as always.”

“Of course! How could we not be pumped up?” Lily squeezed both her fists even tighter. “I mean, Lamplight’s not just a provisional team anymore; we’re the real deal now! That’d get anyone motivated. As soon as we get assigned our first mission as an official team, we’re gonna knock that sucker out of the park!”

She was practically bouncing out of her socks, and her breathing was heavy with excitement.

She called over to the others, who were still tangled up in the tablecloth. “You guys with me?”

She got a handful of responses back.

“Yeah, bring it on!” “It’s high time we show the world what our teamwork is capable of!”

The break had clearly recharged their batteries. Their voices were confident and determined.

However, Klaus had to tilt his head in confusion. “Our first mission’s already over, though.”

“Huh?”

“I completed three missions in Lylat, then another two domestically. The next mission will be our sixth.”

“………”

The girls’ expressions stiffened.

They’d all been looking forward to sharing a memorable first mission, and the sound of their hopes shattering was practically audible.

“Now then, remember to keep up your training,” Klaus added, then grabbed an apple from the table and left the room.

That was the third important thing to know about Klaus—he was a colossal airhead.

The girls found themselves abandoned without anything even resembling an explanation.

They looked at one another, and when the fact that they hadn’t been invited to participate in any of those missions finally sank in—

““““““““HOLD UUUUUUUUUP!””””””””

—they bellowed at Klaus in unison.

“You finished them all on your own? And that quickly?”

In a room of the Cabinet Office Building, an old man with gray hair stared blankly at Klaus. His gaze was normally sharp enough to kill, but at that moment, he was wearing a rare expression of bewilderment. After sweeping back his grizzled hair, he took another look at the report he was holding.

The whole exchange played out in the Foreign Intelligence office. The room’s name may have been unassuming, but its security was airtight. Entering it required first being let into the Cabinet Office Building by the guards stationed outside, then riding an elevator that needed a special key, then finally entering a numeric passcode. Not only was there no furniture atop its scarlet carpet save for a single table and sofa, there wasn’t even any staff aside from the single man permanently stationed there. All in all, it made for a rather unsettling ambience.

“It’s hard to believe, but if anyone could pull it off, I guess it would be you.”

The room’s master and the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Office, a man known only as “C,” furrowed his brow. “You know, after going to all those lengths to officially get those girls on your team, you could have at least taken them along.”

Klaus gave his response without a moment’s hesitation. “They’re not ready yet.”

He sat down and took a sip of the coffee the Director had brewed for him. As always, it was terrible.

“I want them to build up experience as much as anyone, but these aren’t some business negotiations we’re talking about. I can’t casually take them along on missions they’re not equipped to handle.”

“They finished their last one just fine, didn’t they?”

“That was an exception. For that one, I needed them there to be able to get the job done at all.”

Back then, Klaus had known someone would betray him, meaning that completing the mission alone wouldn’t be possible. He didn’t have a choice.

This time, though, all the missions he’d finished were simple enough to clear on his own with ease. And not only did he not need the girls, but bringing them along could have put them in danger.

“I’m not saying they aren’t skilled. Eventually, I will have them participate. But for now, I think it’s premature.”

Klaus could have sent them back to their spy academies, but he didn’t, and he intended to take responsibility for that choice. It was his duty to teach them, train them, and guide them.

However, discretion was also the better part of valor.

“…And how many years do you intend to leave them rotting on the sidelines, exactly?”

“You say that like you actually think I’d do that.”

“It’s a mistake you’re dumb enough to make.” The Director focused his penetrating gaze on Klaus.

Klaus returned the look coldly. “Could you assign us something more appropriate, then?”

“Appropriate how?”

“Well, do you have anything with little danger to life and limb but lots of opportunities for learning and growth?”

“Of course not.”

Klaus figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, but the Director curtly shut him down. “In that case, I’d like to hold off on taking any new missions at all for the time being. I’ve done what needed doing, didn’t I? Now, I want to devote a few weeks toward training my subordinates and gathering information on Serpent.”

“You know full well I can’t sign off on that.”

The Director dumped a fat stack of files onto the table.

There was probably enough paper there to fill a few novels, and in all likelihood, each file contained a new mission that needed to be completed.

Klaus stared back at him in silence. “………”

“You’re not even trying to hide your annoyance.”

“As I recall, you gave me the whole month off.”

“Maybe I think your complexion’s improved.” The Director’s fleeting smile vanished. “But you realize what’s going on. Even as we speak, the Empire’s sending their vile spies across our borders and invading our nation.”

“………”

“They’re corrupting our government. Stealing our technology. Leading our people toward ignorance and complacency. And our brethren are out there this very moment, laying down their lives in foreign lands to gather intelligence to help us stop the invasion. But losing Inferno cost us dearly.”

At the name Inferno, Klaus had no way to retort—no doubt why the Director had mentioned it.

The Director took out an especially thick file and placed it on the table. “This mission, in particular…is one only you can handle.”

The document was bound with ominously black paper and string. Klaus didn’t have to read it to know the mission inside would be a doozy.

“It’s unfortunate that Lamplight is so inexperienced that you have to handle its missions on your own. It really is.”

“………”

“But this world is in pain, and it isn’t going to sit around waiting for you all to be ready.”

“……………”

“Giving me the silent treatment isn’t going to get us anywhere, you know.”

Klaus grabbed the file and flipped through its pages, of which there were close to a hundred. After reaching the end in under ten seconds, he tore the whole file to shreds.

The Director’s eyes flashed. “You’re refusing to do it?”

“It’s as you can see,” Klaus replied.

“What is?”

“I memorized it all.”

For a brief moment, a hint of surprise entered the Director’s gaze.

Klaus sighed. “I don’t have a choice, do I? Not if I want to protect the people who Inferno loved.”

That was something his mentor had taught him time and time again.

Even if he had his own reasons for wanting to turn a mission down, he couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of doing what needed to be done.

After all, spies like them were the only ones with the power to change the world.

By the time he got back to Heat Haze Palace, it was already well into the night.

The Cabinet Office Building was in a city a fair distance away, so visiting it invariably meant he got in late.

The manor was dark save for the lights by the entrance. The girls must have already turned in for the night. It was a bit early to go to sleep at their age, but despite his absence, they must have tired themselves out training anyhow. Miscellaneous spy tools lay scattered around the main hall.

When Klaus got back to his room and began loosening his tie, there was a knock on his door.

He heard a demure voice come from the other side.

“Boss, I brought you some tea…”

He opened the door and found a girl carrying a teapot on a tray.

She had bobbed red hair, a svelte frame, and limbs just as slender. The impression she gave off was like that of delicate glasswork; if handled too roughly, she seemed liable to break.

It was Grete.

“I appreciate it, but you needn’t have stayed up just for me.”

“I was happy to, Boss.”

“And as I’ve told you a thousand times, please stop calling me that.”

The moniker didn’t sit right with him. As far as he was concerned, that title belonged to one person and one person alone—his predecessor, a spy by the code name of Hearth.

Grete didn’t reply to that and instead busied herself pouring the tea from the pot into a warmed teacup. Klaus reflexively checked it for poison, but there didn’t appear to be any. She was serving him out of genuine goodwill.

There was really no need for her to do this. She was his subordinate, not his maid.

He had repeatedly told her as much, but she had ignored him every time.

“…When I discovered this aromatic tea on my vacation, I knew I had to get you some.”

“These are some high-end leaves. Weren’t they expensive?”

“…Nothing but the best for you, Boss.”

“I see. Thank you.” Klaus quickly surveyed her as she went about her preparations.

This wasn’t the first time she had shown him such devotion. Even in the middle of their big mission, she had clearly been pining for him.

I don’t get it. What did I do to warrant such affection?

Why was it she acted so tenderly toward him?

He thought back—to the day her behavior first changed.

The event itself wasn’t exactly life changing, but it was certainly memorable.

It took place just before the mission to recover the bioweapon.

Due to the importance of the task before them, Klaus decided to get in some training as well. He was in a playful mood at the time, so the exercise he chose as a warm-up for their mission was to disguise himself as someone else, then “visit” Heat Haze Palace and claim to be one of Klaus’s coworkers who’d come to visit him. The girls didn’t suspect a thing, and he successfully duped them into thinking high-end wine would get him dead drunk. While he was at it, he also got Lily to confess to the fact that she’d been regularly pilfering from Klaus’s cache of canned foods. He’d had an inkling that his supply was dwindling faster than it should have been, and sure enough, it turned out that the usual suspect was to blame.

After fooling the girls through and through, he ditched the disguise, at which point he was struck by an urge to shower. Wearing the unfamiliar outfit had caused him to work up a bit of a sweat, and he headed to the bathroom.

In addition to its large communal bath, Heat Haze Palace also had a private bathroom. The former was for the girls’ use, and the latter was for his.

Right before opening the door, he realized that someone was in the changing room. There was no rhyme or reason to how he noticed—he just did.

Should I knock? He raised his hand but then thought better of it.

There was no way the girls were actually using his private bathroom. They were obviously setting up to attack him, so it would be politer to feign ignorance and just head right in. He opened the door.

Inside, he found Grete—stark naked.

“Hmm?”

“Ah—”

She immediately grabbed a towel and huddled up to cover herself, but it was too late. Klaus had already seen everything, from her skin so fair it seemed almost translucent to her long, supple legs. Even the parts she normally kept covered up had entered his gaze. “How beautiful,” he murmured. “Trying to seduce me? A bold tactic. First, let me applaud your courage.” As he praised her, he braced himself for the incoming attack.

However, none of the others leaped out at him.

“Boss…” Still clutching her towel, Grete trembled with tears in her eyes.

Something was off.

Klaus made a snap decision and exited the changing room.

Ever since that day, Grete had started treating him differently.

…I still don’t get it. Nothing about that should have made her have feelings for me.

Accidental as it was, the fact remained that he had seen her naked. Normally, he would have expected the incident to make things awkward between them or perhaps even inspire resentment. For whatever reason, though, it seemed to have had the exact opposite effect. Maybe it was that she wanted him to take responsibility for having seen her like that. In Klaus’s view, that was a fairly twisted ideology as far as sexual mores went, not to mention old-fashioned.

“I couldn’t help but notice you got in late tonight. Do you think you’ll be able to rest more tomorrow, at least?”

Grete’s voice shook him from his reverie.

“Not likely. Not only did I just accept an important mission, I also got ordered to rewrite all my reports.”

“Really? They’re making you do rewrites?”

“Many of the missions I take on are ones that other people have already failed at. They want me to keep detailed records so they can make better plans in the future.”

“Diligent as ever, Boss…”

“I wrote ‘I just made it work’ for all of them, and they told me to quit screwing around.”

“Ah,” Grete replied sympathetically.

That was Klaus’s Achilles’ heel.

Put simply, he couldn’t explain his own actions in any sort of detail. Just like how other people couldn’t explain the exact process they took to put on a shirt or to button a button, he was unable to teach people the techniques required for espionage. That deficiency was why he’d turned to the unorthodox teaching method of simply telling his pupils to defeat him.

That wasn’t to say his written reports were completely useless, as he did make sure to list out the mission’s basic information and the broad strokes of how things went down. When asked for specifics, though, his intuitive explanations frequently began sneaking back in.

As a result, he had a huge backlog of work to get through. There would be no breaks in his immediate future.

A look crossed Grete’s face, like there was something she felt she needed to say.

“Boss…”

“Yes?”

“If you’re all right with it, could I hold you against my chest?”

“Why would I be all right with that?”

What was this, all of a sudden?

As Klaus regarded the offer quizzically, Grete spread her arms out wide. “Please, there’s no need to be shy. Come here and let me pamper you.”

“Did you hit your head or something?”

For a come-on, it was strangely aggressive.

Klaus wondered if one of her teammates was putting strange ideas in her head. “Just so I’m clear, is this some sort of seduction practice?”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t trying to pull anything over on you…” She hung her head in disappointment. “I just wanted to give you a breather…”

“What for?”

“We completed our last Impossible Mission in large part thanks to your efforts. And even now, you’re handling all the missions and paperwork on your own while still finding time to train us…”

The mission she was referring to was the bioweapon retrieval mission.

Although they’d factored it into their plan, the fact remained that the majority of the girls’ work had been carried out with their enemies’ full knowledge. Any elite spy could have easily outmatched them, which was why Klaus had ultimately decided to use them as decoys and handle most of the mission on his own.

“I’m sure your fatigue, and…other things”—Grete gulped—“are just about ready to burst.”

Klaus decided it would be best to ignore the way she leaned into the phrase other things. “I appreciate the concern, but the best thing you can do for me is to focus on your training. For now, that means assaulting me.”

“Ah! So you’re asking me to make a move on you…!”

Grete perked up.

Klaus furrowed his brow. “Grete, the next time you come to my room, you had better have one of the others with you.”

“Ah! So you prefer to do it with a group…!”

“I’m really not sure what to say to that.”

Once again, Klaus found himself reminded of just how many weirdos per capita his team had.

After confirming that Grete was gone, Klaus let out a sigh.

When she exited the room, she left the teapot behind. It was filled to the brim.

Her timing had been impeccable. One moment, he was starting to feel a bit parched, and the next moment, there she was. It was like she had known what he wanted even before he did—a feat that required superlative powers of observation.

As the tea’s gentle aroma wafted through his room, he thought back to what she had said.

Fatigue, huh…?

The Director said that his complexion had improved, but his words were rarely to be trusted.

Perhaps he ought to give some consideration to what the girl pining for him thought.

Klaus reached up and touched his cheek.

It felt slacker than usual. His muscles were getting worn out—even the facial ones he so rarely used.

She’s right; I do need a break. But at the same time…

He shifted his gaze over to the wall—specifically, to the weapon mounted on it.

The weapon was an implement from the Far East, and it was far larger than a spy tool had any right being. It was curved like a bow, and in the hands of an expert, it boasted tremendous power.

The sword had belonged to his mentor Guido. Now it served as a memento.

“Make sure you protect ’em this time,” he’d said, just before he breathed his last.

Those were the final words of the man who had been like a father to Klaus, like a friend, and like family.

Instead of worrying about myself, I should really be prioritizing the girls’ development…

His thoughts turned to the task the Director had just assigned him.

“Your mission this time is to kill an assassin.”

The next document the Director handed Klaus was a report on a series of politicians.

They were from all across the world, but each of them belonged to some sort of anti-Imperial party, and each of them had died unexpectedly. The deaths had been caused by falling, and although they had all left suicide notes, there was a high chance that the notes were fake. Someone had clearly forced them to jump.

“We’ll call the target…‘Corpse,’ let’s say. Apparently, they look like they’ve got one foot in the grave themselves.”

The moniker struck Klaus as melodramatic.

“Two weeks ago, the Republic lost one of our politicians the same way. Suicide by jumping. We’re working under the assumption that it’s the same bastard’s handiwork. Looks like they’ve finally made their way to Din.”

The Director let out an unconcerned sigh, as though he were talking about a child playing pranks.

“A team from the first division was looking into Corpse, and this is the intel they gathered. Treasure it like gold.”

Klaus nodded. He could imagine what the Director was going to tell him next.

“Gathering that information cost your comrades their lives. And the people we sent in after them were killed, too, so taking down Corpse has been classified as an Impossible Mission.”

Right on the tail of their last Impossible Mission, he was being assigned another one.

This time, it was a domestic counterespionage mission. This task called on him to act less as a spy and more as a member of the secret police.

Furthermore, based on what he saw in the brief…

“This one will be even harder than your last Impossible Mission.”

Klaus agreed with the assessment.

“We’ve lost a lot of skilled people to this assassin. Their skills are no joke, and they’re probably not working alone, either. Plus, as you’re aware, all your information’s been leaked to the Empire. If you make any overt moves, Corpse is liable to just go to ground.”

The Director gave him one final instruction.

“The girls are going with you. You won’t be able to do this on your own.”

The words lingered in his ears like wax.

Klaus sighed as he reminisced on the conversation he had in the Foreign Intelligence office.

Then he thought back through the documents he’d read and began putting together a plan. The Director hadn’t just been making empty threats. It might have been smaller in scope, but in terms of raw difficulty, the task before him put the bioweapon retrieval to shame.

He needed to prepare himself for a tough road ahead.

The question was: Should he include the girls in his plan or not?

No. Corpse could kill them. Better to deal with this on my own.

Klaus was confident in his ability to outfight, outpredict, and outdeceive just about any foe.

Confident as he was, though, he was still only one man. He knew he couldn’t respond to every possible threat, and he had no way of being sure he’d be able to protect his protégés.

It’d be one thing if their skills were more honed, but…

He knew this was asking too much of them, and as the person in charge of teaching them, he was better qualified than anyone to make that call.

In a perfect world, he’d have liked to be able to gather a little more information before making a final decision, but—

“But before you do that, there’s another mission I want you to handle.”

—the Director had given him another task to complete, as well.

That sly old fox…, Klaus silently spat.

Back when the Director was on active duty on the front lines, he must have been a force to be reckoned with indeed. It was all too easy to picture him cowing targets into submission with that raptor-like gaze of his.

To sum it all up, there was only one thing to do.

Klaus would have to get the easy missions out of the way as quickly as possible so he could start getting ready to take down Corpse.

Dealing with his exhaustion would have to wait.

The morning after Klaus took on his new mission, the girls laid yet another trap for him.

When he first stepped out of his room, he was greeted, oddly enough, by a puppy. He recognized its breed as the type one of the girls was raising. It must have escaped. He reached down to pick it up, but the puppy immediately turned tail and ran. Klaus followed after it, eventually reaching a storage room where he found five of the girls lying in wait. They attacked.

“That didn’t even make for decent sport.”

He fended them off with ease.

Right as he was about to leave the room, though, he suddenly noticed that the doorknob was booby-trapped. There was a needle fastened right in his blind spot, and if he’d carelessly reached for the handle, it would have pricked him.

He carefully removed it with a handkerchief and found that it was coated in something—poison.

Whenever poison entered the equation, there was one girl on the team who immediately sprang to mind.

“Lily, was this you?”

An odd “Yeep!” came from behind the door.

It swung open, and Lily timidly poked her head in. “Y-you figured me out? I thought I’d have a shot if I set up a trap for after you let your guard down…”

“Your plan was too straightforward.” He handed the needle back. “Well-trained spies are sensitive to hostility. Even without skills like mine, anyone could have discerned a trap like that.”

“Oh… And here I thought I’d improved so much…”

“Enough not to forget your antidotes, you mean?”

“Heh! I’ll have you know that these days, I remember it nine times out of ten!”

Anything but ten out of ten was still a pretty big problem.

She was doing little to quell his reservations about taking the girls on missions.

“One other thing.” Suddenly hitting on an idea, he tapped Lily’s shoulder. “Follow me.”

She looked at him in confusion but followed him out of Heat Haze Palace and into the city all the same.

Eventually, they reached a car parked by the side of the road. Klaus got in and had Lily take the passenger seat. Then he started driving toward the freeway. There was something he wanted to talk to her about on the way there.

“So what’s this all of a sudden? Wait, is this one of those ‘joyride dates’ I’ve heard so much—?”

Klaus cut her off. “Do you all want to participate in the missions?” Now that they were alone on the freeway, he was free to say his piece. “I thought I should ask for my own edification. At the moment, where do you all stand?”

“Do I even need to say it? Of course we want in.” Lily, realizing she’d misread the situation, scratched her cheek in embarrassment. “I should mention that not dying’s still a big priority for us, but ’sides that, we want to work as spies. That’s the whole reason we’ve been training our butts off and trying so hard to beat you. Someday, I wanna be a spy so great my skills awe the whole world.”

“I see.”

“Plus, our wages are way lower without those completion bonuses…”

“In that case, you don’t have anything to worry about. We’re splitting all the bonuses equally, even for the missions I complete on my own.”

“Really? Well, in that case, I’m totally on board to keep skipping them the way we— Ow!”

Still holding the steering wheel with one hand, Klaus reached over and flicked her in the forehead. “What happened to wanting to awe the world?”

“Hey, you can’t blame me for that! Getting lots of money and respect as a master spy just for lazing around is the dream, isn’t it?!”

“You really wear your greed on your sleeve, don’t you?”

“But…if that’s not an option, then we really do wanna be a part of the missions.” Lily dropped her voice before continuing. “We’re spies, too, you know. We’re here because we wanna change the world.”

Her tone had none of its usual frivolity to it. Each of her words rang with heartfelt emotion.

This was different than the simpleminded elation she’d shown when he appointed her as team leader. From what he could make out in his peripheral vision, her eyes burned with a strong sense of duty.

“Magnificent.”

They were at their destination, a provincial city on the border between the port city and the capital.

It sat just off the rail line that connected the two cities, and its population was somewhere in the upper five figures. Small as it was, though, the series of commercial buildings peppered around the railroad meant that it had a pretty respectable shopping district.

“We’ll talk more after the mission’s over.”

As Klaus got out of the car, Lily’s expression lit up.

“Whoa, you’re letting me be part of a mission? Already?”

“I am indeed. Your job is to walk around town for an hour, buy some refreshments, then come back to the car.”

“You got it. What then?”

“Then we’re heading home.”

“Huh?” Lily gaped at him.

“I can handle the target on my own.”

The reason he took her along was because he wanted a chance to have a leisurely conversation with her. Lately, the time he found himself spending in Heat Haze Palace was getting scarcer and scarcer.

“That’s not a mission; that’s just me running an errand for you!”

Ignoring Lily’s clear displeasure, Klaus tied his hair back and got ready to go to work.

Klaus’s mission from the Director was to unmask an enemy spy lurking within their borders.

The task itself was simple.

Another spy team had tracked the target down, so all Klaus had to do was apprehend him.

The wrinkle, however, was that the man was a skilled spy. His mission in Din was to provide financial kickbacks to local politicians sympathetic to the Empire in exchange for them obstructing development on the harbor. The Republic’s spies had failed to capture him twice already, which was why the task had fallen to Klaus.

The man’s current hideout was a room in an apartment complex. Klaus went to the building disguised as a plumber, but his foe saw him coming. Another Republic spy must have screwed up somewhere, but for whatever reason, the room was already laid with traps. The man clearly wanted to capture Klaus himself and press him for information.

Klaus forged his way through the traps and squared off against his foe directly.

Luckily, he didn’t have to worry about how much noise he made in the fight, as both of the adjacent rooms were empty. According to the building manager, both residents were off on vacation. Klaus didn’t have to hold back.

It didn’t take long before the hand-to-hand techniques he’d learned from his mentor laid the man low.

Klaus pressed a knife against his foe’s throat. “Were you working with anyone else here…?”

The man said nothing. “………”

“Operating alone, I see. Good to know.”

“……”

Somehow or other, Klaus was able to glean the truth from the man’s reaction.

The man didn’t have any accomplices in the city.

“Just so you know, your allies in other cities are being rounded up as well. Don’t even think about trying any funny business.”

When you were capturing a network of spies, it was essential to do so in one fell swoop.

Otherwise, word about the arrests might get out, and some of your targets were liable to flee.

“Now, how did you know I was coming? I take it you… Ah.”

The man said nothing, but his expression told Klaus everything he needed to know. All his questions had been cleared up.

Mission complete.

Klaus got in touch with his contact and handed the man over. Then, after changing back into his suit, he left the room. Another team was in charge of cleanup, so all he had left to do was head home and write his report.

He looked down at his hands.

My muscles really are getting stiff…

During the fight, the other spy had tried to drink poison, and Klaus had screwed up and actually let him get a drop in his mouth. If he’d been even a hair slower, it would have meant losing a valuable source of information.

Perhaps his nonstop work schedule was finally catching up to him.

Time is short as it is, but I need to make it up to Lily, too, so maybe we should stop by a restaurant on our—

Then, halfway through his thought, he heard something.

A gunshot.

Then, a moment later, a scream.

It had come from out in the city.

Klaus’s head shot up. The city had a number of gangs, but as far as he knew, there weren’t any turf wars going on at the moment. An enemy spy making some sort of desperate play? No, the spy as good as said that he was working alone.

The gunshot didn’t make sense.

More importantly, though, the scream had come from Lily.

Had he gotten her caught up in something…?

Whether I’m tired or not, I shouldn’t have let that happen.

The good news was that Klaus was already equipped for action. He was armed with his gun, and he had his other spy tools stowed on his person. Today was not the shooter’s day.

Whoever you are, you messed with the wrong man’s teammate.

As he thought to himself, Klaus rushed through the alley.

Luckily, none of the townspeople were particularly shaken by the sudden gunshot.

Klaus found that fact odd at first, but he soon noticed a crowd of police officers gathered around an abandoned car. Its tires had burst, so everyone probably thought the noise had just come from the tires degrading. Before long, the police dispersed. The city was as peaceful as could be.

However, Klaus was certain that what he’d heard was a gunshot.

Someone must have drawn the police there on purpose.

He continued racing toward the source of the scream, and it wasn’t long before he found Lily. She was sitting in the middle of an alleyway with blood gushing from her arm.

Her back was propped up against a metal barrel, and she was in the middle of applying emergency first aid to herself. She took a knife and sliced off a strip of her uniform to use as a bandage for her right arm. Klaus could see from the beads of sweat rolling down her neck that she was in considerable pain.

When he raced toward her, she turned her gaze farther down the alley.

“Don’t worry about me, Teach, head west! It was a man in a beige coat!”

The wound was bad; there was a fair puddle of blood gathered around her feet.

Worried as he was, though, she was right. He needed to pursue her assailant.

Who did this…?

He dashed through the alley at top speed. It was deserted, and nobody passed him going the opposite way.

However, he still couldn’t spot the man in the coat. He must have already covered some serious ground.

Klaus closed his eyes and concentrated his focus into his ears. He could only hear one other pair of footsteps running through the alley, but his intuition told him that the person wasn’t worried or panicking.

He could also tell that they were pretty far away from him. Once they reached the main street, their footsteps vanished into the crowd. Continuing to track them by sound was beyond even him.

Instead, he fastened a wire onto one of the buildings beside him and scaled it.

Upon reaching the roof, he surveyed the streets below.

There were no men wearing beige coats to be seen. No men that looked like they were fleeing or were worried about being tailed. Not a soul in the alleyway, either.

Did they get away…? No, something feels off.

However, he couldn’t put his finger on what that was, so he decided to shelve that thought for the moment.

When he returned to her original spot, he found that Lily was done applying first aid. Her arm was all bandaged up, and she’d stopped sweating.

“Hey, Teach. You get him?” Her tone sounded oddly cheery.

“Unfortunately, he gave me the slip.”

“Wow, even you couldn’t run him down?”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but the terrain was stacked against me.”

It was a pretty sorry excuse, but that was the truth.

Klaus hadn’t been anywhere nearby when the attack actually happened. There wasn’t much he could do about their enemy escaping in the time it took him to get there.

“………”

However, Lily went quiet with a perplexed look on her face.

“What is it? Feeling let down?” he asked.

“Oh, no, it’s not that. It’s just, you went after him so confidently, so I thought it was odd…”

“Confidently?”

Was that really the impression he’d given off?

If so, that was pretty embarrassing.

“…Anyway, enough about the attack for now. We need to get that arm treated.”

“Oh, right.”

He could ask Lily about the details later, and the Foreign Intelligence Office might know something as well. If this had something to do with Corpse, then that would be interesting in its own right…

His thoughts turned as he walked toward the hospital. Then, he heard it.

“In you go!”

When he turned around, he was greeted by a most peculiar sight.

It didn’t make sense.

What had led to the event unfolding before his eyes?

Why was Lily stabbing his arm with a poisoned needle?

And what’s more, she was doing it with her right arm, the one that should have been injured.

A chill ran through his body, followed by a wave of heat like blazing fire. Sweat gushed from every pore.

He assumed he had Lily’s special poison to thank for that. It was impressive how fast it worked.

They didn’t call Flower Garden a poison specialist for nothing.

“Why…?” he asked her through trembling lips.

“Huh? You told me to, remember?”

He could just barely see Lily tilt her head to the side.

“You said, ‘When I come back, give me your poison to numb the pain.’”

He didn’t remember saying anything of the sort. “Pain? What pain…?”

“From your arm; it was bleeding so bad…”

Bleeding? He hadn’t been bleeding. Lily was the one whose arm got injured.

However, he didn’t have the strength to listen to her anymore. He slumped into her side.

His legs were weak. He was dizzy. His head felt heavy.

She let out a panicked yelp and caught him in her arms. She knew she’d messed up.

As she looked around frantically, the misaligned pieces finally clicked into place.

“Magnificent.” Klaus grabbed Lily’s arm as he choked out the word.

Sure enough, there was no sign it had ever been injured.

“I see. It was an excellent move. The wounded Lily I saw after the gunshot and the Lily here with me now are different people.”

“Huh…?”

“And I’ll do you one better, Lily. The Klaus standing next to you now and the bleeding one you saw earlier who told you to poison him were different people, too.”

There was only one conceivable explanation.

“There are two of each of us.”

Klaus found himself delighted by the clever trick.

Their foe had manipulated Lily’s actions perfectly.

First, they disguised themselves as Klaus and showed her their “wounded” arm to get her to scream. Next, they carefully talked her down and gave her the order to wrap her own arm in a bandage and poison “him” the next time she saw him. Then, after they had Lily fully tricked, their foe confidently headed off to meet Klaus while impersonating Lily.

The whole plan had been orchestrated to a T, and what’s more, it had required a rare mastery of disguises.

There was only one person he knew who could pull off a stunt like that.

A modest voice came from behind them. “…Just as I expected.”

They turned.

There, they discovered the other Lily. She wiped the blood off her right arm and gave them a smile.

“I know how sensitive you are to traps, Boss… If we came at you with hostility, you’d have seen it coming from miles away…”

She must have seen what had happened that morning—how he’d sensed the mechanism on the doorknob and avoided it.

“That’s why I tricked Lily into poisoning you out of goodwill.”

The other Lily reached up and touched her face.

“I’m code name Daughter Dearest—now, let’s fill this time with laughter and tears.”

As she introduced herself, the girl ripped Lily’s face off.

A mess of red hair spilled out from beneath the mask.

It was Grete, the team’s master of disguise.

In the world of espionage, disguising oneself was a fairly pedestrian ability.

Assuming the image of a generic stranger was hardly a difficult task. All it took was a wig, some sunglasses, and a little makeup, and just about anyone could stop appearing as themselves.

However, impersonating someone specific was another matter altogether. The difference in difficulty between the two tasks was like night and day.

Not only did you need a resin mask that covered your entire face, but you also needed to carefully sculpt and color it.

And on top of that, you needed preeminent powers of observation.

Perfectly mimicking someone else’s appearance, their mannerisms, and their voice was a difficult task, even for an elite spy.

But when Klaus was recruiting members for Lamplight, he heard a rumor at one of the spy academies.

A rumor about a girl who possessed unparalleled disguise techniques but who wasn’t able to use her skills to their full potential…

See, I don’t know about that… From where I’m standing, it looks like she’s using her skills just fine…

Klaus paused for a moment to mull over the discrepancy.

He hadn’t given her any special teaching, so whatever circumstances had been holding her back, she must have overcome them on her own. Either that, or her old teacher must have misjudged her.

“After all this time, we finally have you.” Grete smiled happily. In her hands, she was holding her cast-off wig and mask.

Each time Klaus saw her handiwork, he felt astonished all over again.

Just now, she’d been the spitting image of Lily. She’d mimicked her perfectly, from her voice and appearance down to her smallest gestures and tics.

Klaus’s failure to see through her disguise was a testament to her raw skill—that, and the wound.

The blood trickling down her arm had been so graphic it caught him off guard.

He could tell that it was real by its rusty smell. She must have used a transfusion pack or something, but in any case, he would be lying if he said that seeing a teammate so badly wounded hadn’t thrown him off his game. Grete had figured out his weakness and used it against him.

“………”

He shifted his weight, feigning continued discomfort as a way to slip his hand into Lily’s pocket. If what she told him earlier was true, then that was where she was hiding the antidote.

“If you’re lookin’ for the antidote, you’re not gonna find it.” Suddenly, he heard a commanding voice from behind his back. “I just nicked it.”

A new girl strode out from a nearby passageway.

It was another one of Lamplight’s members—the white-haired Sybilla.

Sure enough, Klaus couldn’t find the antidote anywhere on Lily.

Then more girls began appearing in much the way Sybilla had, until they surrounded Klaus with weapons in hand. Before long, all eight of the team’s girls were assembled there in the alley. The footsteps he heard heading toward the main street earlier must have been one of the other girls helping sell the story.

The others chimed in with words of praise. “Your plans never disappoint, Grete.” “That was awesome, yo!”

One of them, however, was completely bewildered: Lily.

“Huh? What’s the big idea, leaving me out of the loop?”

“…If we told you the plan in advance, you would have leaked it before we even got started,” Grete replied.

“Okay, I can’t really argue with that.” Lily gently slid Klaus down onto the ground.

As he sat atop the cobblestone street, the girls lined up around him with triumphant expressions. This was the moment they’d all been waiting for.

“Hmm-hmm.” Grete chuckled happily. “I must say, Boss, seeing you down on your hands and knees has an appeal all of its own. Your head is just begging to be rested on someone’s lap.”

Klaus shook his head. “I never realized you had such a sadistic side to you.”

“From what I can see, you’re a bit of a masochist, so…”

“That’s not what I meant when I told you to ‘assault’ me.”

“You’re pushing yourself too hard, Boss…,” said Grete. “If you were in peak form, you would have seen through my disguise the moment you saw Lily injured.”

“………”

“You’ve accomplished so much since you lost Inferno three months ago. You handpicked Lamplight’s roster, you told us to use a training method that sacrificed your own rest, and you competed an Impossible Mission. Then you gave up your time off to protect us from our own inexperience.”

“That all sounds about right.”

“My question is: When was the last time you took a proper day off? Ten days ago, perhaps? Or closer to a hundred?”

The way she was asking, she wasn’t about to take silence for an answer.

What the girls didn’t know was that up until just before he lost Inferno, he’d been assigned to a special independent mission. Taking that into account, it had been quite some time.

“My last break was four hundred and sixty-five days ago.”

““““Geez…””””

Several of the girls reacted in unison.

For the last fifteen months, he’d basically been doing nothing but working and training.

“You sure you got your head on straight?” Sybilla retorted.

Grete sighed.

“…You can’t keep doing that. Any normal person would have collapsed in a pool of their own blood by this point.”

The rest of the girls agreed, offering comments to the tune of “You gotta let us help you out” and “Please, take a break.”

They were obviously concerned about the current state of affairs.

That was why they had gone to such length to demonstrate their skill and cooperation to him.

“……………”

Klaus couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

“You don’t have to shoulder it all on your own, you know.” Grete smiled. “You have us now, Boss. Let us share your burden.”

She drew her gun, a small automatic pistol, from her pocket.

“Now, about that surrender…”

She cocked it and pressed it against his forehead.

“And please, from tonight on, rest easy in my bosom.”

Her smile brimmed with affection, and her eyes were as warm and gentle as a goddess’s.

Klaus raised his hands in a show of nonresistance. “I understand where you’re all coming from now.”

Grete’s expression softened. “I’m glad to hear it…”

“You’re right; I am tired. I didn’t take any time off, not even after we finished the Impossible Mission, and between the constant assignments and keeping up with your training, these past two weeks have been especially grueling. I’m not a machine, and even my stamina has limits. At this point, it’s safe to say I’m exhausted.”

“Exactly, that’s what we’ve been—”

“However, that aside…,” Klaus interrupted.

“…how much longer should I keep playing along with this game?”

“Huh…?”

Klaus dropped down onto all fours.

That accomplished two things—getting him out of Grete’s line of fire and putting him in position to sweep her legs out from under her.

Combat had never been her forte, and his movements were so agile, she didn’t even have a chance to react. By the time she recovered her balance, their positions were reversed.

Klaus leveled a spear-hand strike at her throat.

“Magnificent.”

He stopped his hand just as it first made contact with her slender throat.

The threat was clear: If she so much as twitched, his nails would slash her carotid artery.

The other girls stood frozen in place.

“The nonhostile poisoned needle was a clever move. I applaud your forward thinking.”

All the poison was gone from his system.

By drawing out their conversation, he had given his body time to recover.

“I’m sorry, guys…,” Lily mumbled apologetically. “I didn’t get a clean hit. The needle missed his vein, so he only got a little dose, and none of it reached his bloodstream…”

The others couldn’t possibly blame her for that. After all, they had used her without keying her into their plan.

Grete stiffened up, her eyes wide as dinner plates.

“How did you…?” The words got caught in her throat. “You shouldn’t have been able to see it coming…”

“I saw it coming just fine.” Klaus withdrew his hand from her throat.

“As you said, elite spies are sensitive to hostility. Attacking me out of goodwill was an effective tactic. The problem is, I was already on guard from all the suspicious things I spotted before the attack.”

“Wait, you mean you predicted the needle…?”

“The way you cleared the area was too overt.”

Klaus gave Grete’s wrist a light flick, and she dropped her gun. He snatched it away and began casually twirling it in his hand.

The other girls showed no signs they were planning on attacking him. They knew how futile it would be to come at him head-on when he was hale and hearty.

“As for how I sensed it, I just did. But if you want me to start listing what I found suspicious, I could go on all day,” he said, launching into an explanation. “Lily was bleeding in plain sight in the middle of that alleyway, and there was a pool of blood by her feet, so she’d clearly been there for some time. And yet I was the only one who came. All the police officers and civilians got the gunshot mixed up with the sound of the tire bursting, so none of them felt the need to come running. The thing is, it was all far too convenient. I didn’t know why yet, but I could tell that the culprit was setting a trap for someone who could tell the difference between a gunshot and the sound of a tire popping.”

Despite how far away from the scene Klaus was, the noise from the gunshot reached him all the same.

Police officers and brave passersby would have rushed over to the abandoned alleyway, too, but they all stopped when they saw the punctured tire. The only people who would continue on and get a chance to discover Lily and her injuries were specially trained spies.

The moment Klaus saw her, he realized that he was the one the culprit was after.

However, the explanation was just in hindsight. In the moment, he picked all that up through intuition, not logic.

“When someone realizes they’re being set up, they naturally grow vigilant—”

Then Klaus unveiled the truth.

“—which is something the spy I fought today can attest to.”

Realizing that both his neighbors had gone on vacation at the exact same time had raised the enemy spy’s suspicions, meaning that the Republic spies had done a sloppy job of clearing the area. Klaus had been annoyed at them when he first pieced it together, but this time around, it stung in a whole different way.

The girls, who had just made the exact same mistake, gawked at him with their mouths hanging open.

Klaus turned his gaze to each of them in turn. “If I had delegated today’s mission to you all, you would have died.”

They averted their gazes in discomfort.

The final one he turned toward was Grete. Although she didn’t look away, all the vim and vigor was gone from her expression.

“You’re all blessed with magnificent talents, and someday, they’ll come into bloom. But for now, you don’t have the skills to take on fieldwork.”

He delivered his closing statement.

“It’s not safe for me to rely on you.”

And with that, he left the girls behind and quietly exited the alleyway.

That night, Klaus sat in his room and sighed.

They aren’t ready for me to take them on missions yet…

After the display they’d shown him that day, he had no choice but to accept it. There was only one logical decision.

I have to keep handling them on my own, no matter how hard it means pushing myself.

It was going to be rough, but so be it. He was going to have to take down Corpse on his own.

Operating a rookie team is harder than it looks…

Klaus found himself reminded of that all over again.

The day may have been over, but the work was never done. And of that work, plenty of it was missions that only the Greatest Spy in the World could complete.

Exhaustion was starting to gnaw at him, but if he didn’t push through, other people would pay for it with their lives.

Everywhere I turn, there’s a new problem…

There were the difficult missions piling up one after another.

There were his subordinates, who would be hard-pressed at best to clear those missions safely.

There was the fatigue that was slowly but surely eating away at him.

And finally, there was a fast-approaching Impossible Mission—the assassin hunt.

Klaus didn’t think team building would be easy, but he hadn’t expected it to be nearly that hard, either.

All he could do was fumble about and make the best choices he could with the information he had.

His boss and mentor weren’t there to guide him anymore, and he’d lost every teammate he’d once respected.

Now he had to deal with being a teacher as well as an elite spy. How was he supposed to juggle the two?

All my teammates from Inferno are gone. Even if it destroys me, I have to…

As thoughts swirled through his mind, Klaus felt his eyelids droop.

He must have nodded off while he was thinking; he leaned forward in his chair with a start.

How long had it been since he last fell asleep anywhere but his bed, he wondered? It was like he was a kid again. Back then, he often dozed off on the sofa in the main hall after missions.

Realizing he was dwelling on the past again, he shook his head to clear his mind. A man who prided himself on being the Greatest Spy in the World couldn’t afford to run out of steam like that.

He suddenly realized that what had woken him was the fragrant aroma of tea.

“…Grete?”

“I have some tea for you…” She was standing beside him carrying a teapot on a tray. “I made you some herbal tea to help you sleep, but I fear I accidentally went and woke you instead…”

“Don’t worry about it. It was just a quick catnap.”

“I wanted to thank you for the training session today. The others and I just finished our postmortem.” Grete promptly began filling his teacup.

He had been asleep, which meant that she had missed a golden opportunity to attack him.

However, Klaus knew that she didn’t see it that way. She clearly had some sort of code she followed, as the herbal tea wasn’t poisoned, either.

Grete handed him the teacup, then spread her arms out wide.

“…And as the cherry on top, a tender embrace with yours—”

“I’ll pass.” He took the tea and the tea alone.

Grete gave him a look of unconcealed disappointment. Klaus ignored it.

“You’re a tenacious one.”

Honestly, it was impressive.

He had assumed that her defeat that afternoon would get her down, but here she was right back at it. The moment the tea passed his lips, he belatedly realized just how thirsty he’d been. Her timing was truly impeccable.

“Let me ask you this straight…”

It was high time he heard it from the horse’s mouth.

“…do you have feelings for me?”

“……!”

Grete’s shoulders trembled, and the tray clattered out of her hands. She hurriedly moved to pick it back up.

“…Y-you noticed, Boss?” She stared at him in amazement. “…I guess nothing really does get past you.”

“…You were trying to hide it?”

“………………………………………”

After a protracted silence, Grete let out a quiet mumble. “…Just as I expected.”

“Come now, don’t lie.”

She could play it as cool as she liked, but it wasn’t going to make it any more believable.

When it came to spies, romance was a tricky subject. Some people couldn’t help but prioritize love over their missions, and depending on the situation, that could be a deadly weakness. If Klaus kept pretending not to notice how she felt, it could lead to unexpected problems down the road.

He needed to tell her straight up.

“Grete, the way I feel about you is—”

“Please…,” Grete cut him off, “…hold off on giving me your answer.” Her voice was trembling. She shook her head. “…My heart isn’t ready yet.”

“I’d really like to make sure things are clear between us.”

“But…”

Hearing her voice trail off like that hit him with a pang of guilt.

She may have been a spy, but she was also an eighteen-year-old girl. He needed to respect her feelings.

“My apologies. Another time, then.”

“…Thank you for understanding.”

“The one thing I will say, though, is that you need to stop mixing business with pleasure. Starting tomorrow, don’t bring me tea anymore. You’re not my maid, so stop worrying about me and just focus on your training.”

Grete pursed her lips in displeasure.

Klaus wanted to treat her feelings with the delicacy they deserved, but he had too much on his plate at the moment to be as tactful as he’d like.

Being a man on top of being a teacher and a spy was one too many responsibilities to shoulder.

“…Very well.” Eventually, she nodded. “But please, at least take this report…”

“What’s this, now?”

“It’s a report on the mission you completed today.”

Grete handed over the document she’d secretly been carrying, comprising several sheets of paper bound together.

“I know this is forward of me, but you mentioned that they’d been giving you a hard time, so…”

“…So you ghostwrote it for me?”

“I did… I observed you and wrote out as much as I could.”

Klaus glanced over its contents. The document contained a detailed description of his actions.

He hadn’t sensed anyone watching him at the time, which meant she must have been using binoculars from a considerable distance away. She had gone to great lengths to avoid interfering with his mission.

“What can I say? This is really quite something. You’re far too considerate.”

“…Does it make you want to let me dote on you?”

“I’m going to ignore that last bit, but I really do appreciate this. Thank you.”

Grete gave him a courteous bow.

The way Klaus saw it, he was the one who should have been bowing to her, but he couldn’t deny that it was very Grete of her to do so.

She cleared his empty teacup and started to leave.

After thanking his subordinate for her dedication, he turned back toward his desk. Rejuvenated by his little siesta, he started getting to work preparing for the battle against Corpse, when suddenly—

“Wait a minute.”

—he stopped Grete in her tracks.

His honed intuition was screaming, like an itch inside his head.

Something was off.

There was something he’d overlooked. After plumbing the depths of his mind, he emerged with a question.

“In that case, when exactly did you come up with the plan you used today?”

Grete, who was almost out the door, tilted her head.

“What do you mean…?”

“It was too fast.” Klaus looked at her in puzzlement. “I didn’t tell a single person about the mission I was going on. You shouldn’t have had enough time to even put that plan together.”

The girls had carried out their attack with essentially no time to prepare.

Choosing to have Lily come with him was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he didn’t even tell her any of the mission’s specifics. And yet Grete had managed to coordinate with the others and manipulate Lily anyway, the flaws in her plan notwithstanding.

That would have been a praiseworthy accomplishment in and of itself, but to complete another objective at the same time?

Grete laid a finger on the corner of her mouth. “Ah, I see… Well, it took time to see that the transmitter I stuck on Lily was moving, to predict where you’d go, take the train, and get a grasp on the situation, so…”

Grete spoke softly as she went back over the details.

Before long, she gave her answer.

“All in all, it took me…two seconds to come up with today’s plan.”

That was unbelievably short.

However, he doubted she was lying. Between the time it took her to reach the city, figure out where exactly he and Lily were, and clear the area, there was basically no time left for actually devising the plan.

Klaus was impressed.

Of course, he could have come up with an even better plan himself just as quickly, but that was only because he was skilled enough to call himself the Greatest Spy in the World.

Her intellect was already head and shoulders above huge swaths of her contemporaries’.

And to think that two months ago, she had been on the verge of washing out of her spy academy.

Surely raw talent alone couldn’t have accounted for that sort of rapid development.

“…It really isn’t anything praiseworthy.” Grete shook her head. “I merely took one of the hundreds and thousands of mental simulations I ran and put it to the test. After so many days of constantly fighting you, my predictions have grown rather accurate, so I spend every night thinking up ways to defeat you. From there, it’s merely a matter of choosing an idea from my stockpile that suits the situation.”

“You would go that far…?”

“Of course. The person I adore is wearing himself down to the bone to complete our mission on his own instead of leaning on me for help. And not only am I not helping him, I’m spreading him even thinner by having him help me train…”

Grete was on the verge of tears.

“It hurts so much…knowing that I’m nothing but a burden to the person I care about so…”

Klaus returned her gaze, unable to reply.

Were those thousands of plans she’d come up with and calculations she’d done the reason behind her rapid improvement, then?

Her love was so intense it was almost blinding.

Klaus didn’t know what to make of it.

What could have caused Grete to develop such strong feelings toward him?

Not even Klaus’s legendary intuition could figure that one out.

However, that wasn’t what he needed to focus on at the moment.

“_______________”

He hesitated—but only for an instant. That was all the time he needed to make his decision.

It was like a light had just shone down on him.

The walls had been closing in a moment ago, but now he knew what to do to get out.

First off, he needed to start by correcting her misunderstanding.

“Grete,” Klaus said to her. “I never once thought of you as a burden.”

“…Huh?”

“To the contrary, I’m grateful you’re here. Losing Inferno was like losing a piece of myself, and it was you all who helped fill that hole in my heart. If I’m being honest, nobody wanted Lamplight to stay around more than I did.”

Grete’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Is that…really true?”

“It is, and I’m ashamed to admit that it’s why I was being so overly cautious with you girls.”

If people wanted to call him a coward, he wasn’t about to stop them.

The girls were dear to him—and he didn’t want to lose them.

However, he still needed to take that first step. If all he did was cower in fear, then they had no future.

“For our next mission, we’re taking down an assassin.”

Grete’s eyes went wide. “…What?”

“Grete, will you lend me a hand? I need you.”

This was going to be a gamble, but he had no choice. He needed to bet it all on her brains and her love.

If they were going to reach the next level as a team, it was going to require that her resolve be firm.

Grete sucked in a deep breath. “Just now, was that…?”

“Yes?”

“…a proposal?”

“No.” Klaus’s shoulders slumped.

How was it possible to get that from anything he said? Perhaps he needed to make things clear between them after all.

“…I was kidding.”

Before he could open his mouth to speak, though, Grete gave him a small smile.

“Boss, never once did I expect my love to be reciprocated. Love seeks not compensation. However, I have your answer all the same.”

Her voice was modest yet confident at the same time.

“It would be my pleasure to help. I would do anything for you and for this team you built.”

There was no hesitation in her eyes.

Klaus didn’t know where her love had come from, but he knew there was only one thing to say to that.

“Magnificent.”

“…Just as I expected.” Grete replied to his proclamation with a reserved murmur.

In any case, Klaus now had a new option available to him.

Their upcoming Impossible Mission was going to be even harder than the last, but Klaus knew exactly how to take it down.

“I’m going to be selecting four members of the team.”

“What for…?”

“Unfortunately, there isn’t room for all eight of you to accompany me on the mission,” he said. “I’m going to take on the assassin…with Lamplight’s four strongest members by my side.”