Spy Classroom - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.2

At night, they returned to the servants’ quarters.

“Hey, Lily?” Sybilla asked.

“Yeah…?”

“At the end of the day, we’re here to protect that geezer, right?”

“That’s the idea…”

The two of them crumpled onto the bed, unable to even bring themselves to shower.

They were supposed to be using the cover of night to bug the mansion, but they didn’t have the strength left to do so. Their maid work during the day left them too wiped to do anything at night but keel over, and there was no end to Uwe’s tyranny in sight.

As they lay there, they heard a knock on the window.

They pulled back the curtain and found Sara standing outside. She was dressed in the outfit she used on missions: black overalls and a newsboy cap worn low over her eyes.

“Good work so far,” she said as she climbed into the room. “Oh, where’s Miss Grete?”

“She’s not feeling well, so she’s lying down in her room.”

“Oh no, is she sick?”

“Who knows, but she’s definitely got somethin’ goin’ on.”

When Grete explained the situation to them—that her body shouted at her in protest when she talked to any man besides Klaus—her face had been lifeless and pale. All the enthusiasm she’d shown at the start of the mission had vanished without a trace.

As Sybilla worried about their ailing teammate, Sara produced a large box. “I finally found an empty shack to work out of, so I’m here to give you some backup.”

Lily hopped to her feet in excitement. “Backup?”

The word was like music to her ears.

Sara removed the cover draped over the box. “Him!”

As it turned out, the box was actually a metal birdcage.

Sensing a powerful gaze coming from inside it, Sybilla and Lily peered in.

““A hawk…?””

A large raptor sat within. He was well-built, and his eyes burned with a fierce intensity.

“You can give him letters or anything, and he’ll bring them to my shack. Once he does, I can have him bring you whatever you need.”

The hawk rapped on the birdcage with his beak as though to announce his presence.

A loud, metallic clang rang out.

“………” Sybilla pointed at the hawk. “So wait, you want me to keep that thing in my room…?”

“He’s not a ‘thing.’ He’s Mr. Bernard.”

“Bernard, huh…?”

“Oh, and I have some important instructions on how to take care of him. He’s on a special diet, so remember to feed him twice a day. Also, you have to call him by name every so often, and make sure you brush his wings every morning—”

Sara’s voice rang with pride as she continued her explanation. She must have been excited to get a chance to talk about one of her prized pets, as she was talking much faster than usual.

Sybilla gave her a sidelong glance as she went on and on, then opened up the cage, sat the hawk on her arm, walked over to the window—

“You’re a right pain in the ass, aren’tcha?!”

—and hurled him with all her might.

Sara screamed. “MR. BERNAAAAARD!”

That would normally have constituted a terrible act of animal cruelty, but Bernard was a hawk, so he merely spread his wings in midair and flapped his way off into the darkness. If the explanation from earlier was right, he was on his way back to the shack Sara found.

As Sara watched him go with a look of abject heartbreak on her face, Sybilla turned back to her.

“We’re undercover, remember? Nobody brings a pet with them when they get hired as a maid.”

As soon as the first hawk cry came from their room, they’d get found out in a heartbeat.

“Oh… I didn’t think about that…”

“Can’t you get some transceivers? We do a lot of scrubbing and washing, so it’d be best if they were waterproof and small enough to hide in our clothes.”

“I-I’m sure Miss Annette could make something like that, but that’s not really an option right now…”

Annette was another member of the Specialist squad who had ash-pink hair. When it came to machines and devices, she was the team’s go-to girl.

However, Annette wasn’t there. Sara looked down apologetically.

Sybilla hurriedly waved her hand. “Hey, no, I’m not blamin’ you or anything…”

She’d only been voicing her honest thoughts, but given the situation, it had come out more accusatory than she’d intended. Sara soon realized that, too, but her expression remained glum.

The three of them exhaled in unison. “““Sigh…”””

“It’s like we can’t catch a break,” Lily said with a melancholy look on her face. “At this rate, we’ll never complete the mission.”

“M-maybe we really shouldn’t have been picked,” Sara replied mournfully. “If Miss Monika or Miss Thea were here, I’m sure they would be handling things better…”

“………”

Upon hearing their other teammates’ names, Sybilla bit down on her lip.

Sara had probably been directing the statement at herself, but it had hit Sybilla right where it hurt.

Suddenly, they heard someone noisily rushing through the hallway. Sara barely had time to dash under the bed before Olivia burst into the room.

“Is everything okay? I just heard a scream.”

That would have been Sara’s, no doubt.

Sybilla scratched her head.

“Ah, sorry, ma’am. There was a bug, and I got startled.”

Olivia puffed up her cheeks. “Really? Freaking out about a little insect, at your age?”

Sybilla looked Olivia over. She’d assumed that the head maid would have been in her nightwear by now, but she had yet to change out of her uniform. She must have still been working.

“Were you locking up, ma’am? I can handle that, if you want.”

“I was, but don’t worry about it. There are some jobs I can’t exactly delegate to the rookies.”

A bashful look crossed Olivia’s face.

Then, once Sybilla saw that her guard was down…

“AH! ANOTHER BUG!” she shouted.

“Eek!” Olivia leaped toward Sybilla.

And with a rather unladylike yelp, to boot.

She was clearly none too fond of creepy-crawlies, and her knees shook for a little while. However, she eventually realized that there were no bugs to be seen and let out a big sigh.

“O-oh, for heaven’s sake! I’m going to bed! Just make sure you keep it down!”

She rushed out of the room, her face red from embarrassment at her overreaction.

Once she was gone, Sara slipped out from under the bed. She and Lily gave Sybilla puzzled looks.

Why had she gone out of her way to scare Olivia like that?

Sybilla answered by holding something up in her hand.

“A key…?” Lily oohed.

“I just nicked it.”

Olivia had been locking up, so Sybilla had known that she’d have the key to the mansion on her.

Now, they had it.

Sybilla opened up her suitcase and retrieved a book from within. The inside of the book was hollow, and although her gun was stored inside it, that wasn’t what she was looking for at the moment. What she was after was some clay. After taking it out, she pressed the key into it to make a mold. That way, they could still make all the copies they wanted after stealthily returning the original.

“Whaddaya say we quit mopin’ around and get back to basics? We just want the geezer to lay off us, right? In that case, all we gotta do is find some leverage.”

It might have been heavy-handed, but it was certainly the simplest way to solve their current problem.

With things going the way they were, they didn’t have much choice.

“I’ma sneak up there and put this shit to bed for good.”

Sybilla’s eyes flashed commandingly as she stuck her tongue out.

The next night, Sybilla got to work.

Moving in complete darkness so as not to be seen, she made her way to the study. Thanks to her duplicate key, its door didn’t give her any problems.

Inside, she discovered that the entire room was piled high with paperwork and documents. Keeping it all organized was far too much for Uwe’s one secretary to handle, and the books that didn’t fit on the bookshelves were in stacks on the floor. There was hardly even anywhere to stand.

With this much to go through, there’s no way I don’t dig up at least some dirt.

Holding her penlight in her mouth, she quickly flipped through anything she could find related to health or money. Even if Uwe wasn’t committing tax evasion or taking illicit contributions on purpose, there was a chance he was doing so on accident. Alternatively, finding evidence of him having health problems would give her ammo to blackmail him with as well.

It wasn’t long before she ran across a letter saying he’d gone in for a physical checkup recently, but the important bits—the actual results—were nowhere to be found. Either he hadn’t gotten them yet, or he’d already thrown them out. All she was able to learn was the name of the hospital he went to.

As Sybilla looked at the documents spread out before her, her gaze suddenly landed on a familiar word.

Orphanage.

It was written on the spine of one of the folders.

She set her mission aside for a moment and opened it up.

The document she found inside wasn’t anything official but rather a report that Uwe himself had compiled. Based on the pictures, he’d made it shortly after the war. The children captured on their film were thin and emaciated, and the documents detailed their grim food situation. After the war, when they hadn’t been receiving meat or vegetable rations, Uwe had stepped in and delivered food to the orphans himself. Now that Sybilla thought about it, she remembered that the orphanage her siblings were at had also—

“What the hell do you think you’re doing in here?!”

An angry bellow rose up from behind her.

Shit.

She’d gotten distracted.

As the gravity of her blunder sank in, she turned around and found Uwe there with his face bright red. He practically slammed the light switch on, then carefully slid himself along the wall as the light bulb slowly flickered to life.

His destination was the rifle hanging on the wall.

As soon as he reached it, he aimed it at Sybilla without a moment’s hesitation.

“I knew it! You ARE a hit man!”

“I told you, I’m not!” She raised her hands in surrender. “And also, just for the record, I don’t think cute maids like me usually moonlight as killers.”

“You have the eyes of a villain!”

“Wow, rude.” As she quipped back at him, she frantically thought about how she was going to talk her way out of this.

If she got kicked out of the mansion, it would all but guarantee their mission ending in failure.

Before she had a chance to say anything, though, Uwe spoke up in a dubious tone.

“Curious about that document, were you?” His gaze had landed on the report Sybilla was holding.

She hadn’t gotten a chance to set it down before raising her hands.

She played along. “…Yeah, kinda.”

“Why?”

“It was for educational—”

“No, forget I asked.” Uwe lowered his rifle, his reddened face back to its usual hue. “It’s just words on paper. If you want to read it, be my guest.”

“Huh…?”

That was easier than she’d expected.

She hadn’t even started lying yet.

“There was a story I heard back when I was visiting those orphanages.”

Indifferent to Sybilla’s confusion, Uwe sat down in his chair and began talking.

“It must have been about eight years ago. Everything was chaos after the war, and gangs were running rampant. Scamming veterans out of their disability checks, pressuring war widows into selling their homes for cheap… Things are still a mess now, but nothing like what it was back then.”

His tone was slow and leisurely.

Between that and his hoarse intonation, it was almost like listening to a fairy tale.

“But the worst gang of all was called the Cannibals. They operated out of the capital, committing every wicked deed you can think of. They killed people just for sport. And their leader—their leader had a knack for vanishing. People just wouldn’t notice him, like he was a ghost or something. Then, before you knew it, he’d have his knife stuck right in your heart. Layfolk and police alike were terrified of him. It was like he was descended from the devil himself.”

“………”

“But one day, the leader got arrested, and the Cannibals fell apart. And do you know why?”

“…Why would I?”

“His eldest daughter turned him in.” Uwe sounded almost proud. “Wonderful, isn’t it? A girl, just nine years old, doing the right thing in order to protect her siblings.”

“………”

“Her siblings got taken in by an orphanage, but the girl went missing soon after. Said she needed to make money. Brave kid. Some say she’s working as a detective’s assistant in the capital, others say she lied about her age to get a job in a cotton mill, but nobody knows for sure where she is these days. It’s a moving story, if you ask me.”

Having finally finished his tale, Uwe let out a long exhale.

Sybilla shrugged. “Why tell me all that?”

“Well, you see, I just remembered that the eldest daughter was a girl with white hair and sharp eyes. And these days, she’d be right around your age. As I recall, her name was—”

Uwe said a name.

It was a vulgar word, the kind that reflected poorly on those who’d given it.

“…Never heard of her.”

“Hmph. Well, I won’t press you on that.”

Uwe scoffed disappointedly. When Sybilla handed back the report, he skimmed over it by the bulb’s light and licked his dry lips.

“But you’ve seen it, too, haven’t you? You know just how rough things were in the orphanages after the war. The nation could barely purchase any food, and there was never enough to go around, especially not for welfare institutions. I tried my damnedest, but all the government cared about was economic policy and infrastructure spending.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it…”

“Not much has changed since then. No matter how much I rant and rave, they never leave anything for social services other than scraps and crumbs.” Uwe’s voice grew quieter. “…That’s why I have to get rid of as much waste as I can. Every tiny bit I save is a tiny bit more I can give.”

“………”

Now the reason behind his miserly ways was clear.

By rooting out surpluses and economizing as much as possible in his personal life, he was able to donate that much more to the needy. Even if it was only for his own peace of mind, when you considered the lavish lifestyle the position of vice-minister could have afforded him, it spoke volumes about his character.

Sybilla understood that compulsion he felt all too well. “So that’s why you were so hard on us about efficiency…”

And here she was, thinking he was just another curmudgeonly old man. She’d gotten him all wrong.

“All right, I’m with you. Starting tomorrow, I’ll do my best to cut down on—”

“No, that’s not why I told you.”

“Huh?”

“What I’m telling you is, for tonight, you can read to your heart’s content. I’m willing to turn a blind eye to you breaking into my study.”

Now Sybilla really didn’t get it.

As she started wondering what to make of that, Uwe went on.

“As of tomorrow, you’re all fired.”

She let out a dumbfounded yelp. “What?”

She thought that maybe he was joking, but his expression was as serious as could be.

“I hired you three so I could play the friendly politician, but the waste of it is eating away at me. I don’t need three more maids. I want you gone by tomorrow afternoon.”

She gasped.

Who could have imagined that he was already willing to make a decision like that? If all three of them got fired, the mission was as good as doomed.

“W-wait, please. Without us, the mansion’ll get filthy again in a heartbeat.”

“All I need clean is the drawing room. Olivia can handle that on her own.”

“Still, don’t you think you’re being extreme about—?”

“I just told you, waste is the enemy. Even in its smallest form.”

Uwe’s mind was made up. The determination in his eyes made it clear that no words would sway him.

It stung, but she was going to have to give up on changing his mind for now.

“…Let me ask you one question, at least,” Sybilla said. “If you hate waste so much, why don’t you sell this massive mansion?”

Uwe took the question as a dig. His brow furrowed.

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t get decent money for it if I tried.”

“And ’cause it helps keep you safe from hit men?”

Not having ordinary civilians around to blend in with made it difficult for spies to do their job.

Uwe readily agreed. “…I can’t afford to die, not yet. This country’s welfare system still needs me.”

The corner of Sybilla’s mouth curled upward.

“Is that so? Well then, in that case, I can’t afford to get fired yet.”

And with that parting statement, Sybilla turned away from Uwe and rushed out of the study.

Her deadline was in twelve hours.

That was how long she had to figure out a way to save their jobs.

Now she finally understood why Klaus had picked her.

He was right—protecting Uwe meant something to her.

Back in the servants’ quarters, Lily and Grete were playing with Sara’s hawk.

The look on his face was as intense as ever, and each time he scarfed down a piece of raw meat, he earned a delighted cheer from the girls.

After Sybilla had thrown him out earlier, Sara brought him back. The girls’ constant setbacks had left them mentally wrung dry, and hanging out with domesticated animals was a great way to relieve stress.

Beside them, Sara continued her narration from earlier. “Now, some of his favorite things are…”

The original plan was to have a strategy meeting, but Sybilla wasn’t back yet. Sara brushed Bernard’s wings as they waited for her to return.

Soon, they heard footsteps in the hallway.

When the door swung open, they saw Sybilla biting her lip on the other side. However, it was difficult to tell at a glance whether she was doing it out of frustration or determination.

“How’d it go? Were you able to track down some information we can use to—?”

Sybilla cut off Lily’s question with a shake of her head. “Nah, Uwe found me.”

The other three immediately grasped what that meant. They bowed their heads in unison.

“““…Thank you for your service.”””

“Hey, I didn’t get canned yet!”

They assumed that she had gotten fired, but apparently that wasn’t it.

When Sybilla laid out the whole story, though, they discovered that they hadn’t been far off the mark. However, the truth was even worse. It wasn’t just Sybilla who was getting fired—it was all three of them.

“That’s really bad!” Sara cried.

Sybilla agreed with her, then lowered her tone. “Now, I wanna tell you a story about myself.”

Lily tilted her head in confusion. “Wait, now?”

“Just hear me out. Way back when, I got sent to an orphanage with my kid siblings. The place was dirt-poor, and it pissed me off so bad it made me wanna become a spy so I could try to change the world. Uwe and I have a lot in common.” Sybilla laughed self-deprecatingly. “That’s why this made me so happy. That punk Teach, he really understood how I felt.”

She looked down for a moment. When she raised her head back up, her eyes were burning.

“I wanna make Teach proud, and I wanna keep Uwe safe. You guys willin’ to help me out?”

Her tone was commanding, with a very Sybilla surety to it.

The others didn’t fully understand her sudden burst of passion. They could tell that something had happened, but Sybilla didn’t seem inclined to discuss specifics, so they chose not to hound her about it. Instead, they decided to trust the resolve burning in her eyes.

“Help you or not, we sorta already accepted the mission.” Lily laughed.

“I mean, sure, but…,” Sybilla replied bashfully.

“U-um!”

Then Sara timidly raised her hand. “I understand how Miss Sybilla feels. I’m a coward and not very good, and even now, I’m sure the others could have done a better job than me, but…” She paused for a moment. “But when I found out I got picked, it made me really happy.”

Her face was bright red. It was an embarrassing thing to admit.

“Heh.” Lily gave them a boastful smile.

“You two are so cute. See, I knew from day one that I was gonna make it. If you think about it logically, there’s no way the team leader would get left out of such an important mission.”

“But, Miss Lily, I heard you cheering ‘Hell yeah’ in your room after we got the news.”

“Does the defense have anything they’d like to say to that?”

When Sybilla pressed her, Lily’s expression froze.

“…I, uh…I do that every day!”

“What kinda weird-ass habit is that?”

As she watched her teammates banter, Grete let out a soft chuckle.

When Sybilla asked her, “What’s so funny?” she replied with obvious delight.

“Oh, no, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how the boss must have known how you all felt when he picked you…”

“And it made you fall for him all over again?”

“No, it’s just as I expected. He’s exactly as wonderful as I always knew…” Grete’s voice rang with great fondness. “And you should know, you aren’t the only one who wants to make the boss proud.”

“Figures.”

The four of them put their heads together.

Once the circle was complete, they began quietly carrying out their strategy meeting.

“So how’re we gonna keep our jobs?” Lily chuckled fearlessly. “Threaten him?”

“Any of you have a plan?” Sybilla asked.

The other girls immediately listed off their ideas.

“I could disguise myself as Olivia and convince him not to fire us, perhaps…”

“Maybe we could secretly poison him, then get him to like us by saving him in the nick of time?”

“If it were me, I think I would start by finding someone other than Uwe to negotiate with.”

Grete’s plan was sophisticated, Lily’s was underhanded, and Sara’s was cautious.

Sybilla flashed them her pearly whites. “I’m gonna cook him something so tasty, he’ll have no choice but to keep me on as a maid.”

“Wow, brute force again?” Lily clapped her hands together. “But y’know, I like it. It has Sybilla written all over it.”

Nobody disagreed.

Their heads still pressed together, the four of them smiled.

“All right, then let’s get this culinary grudge match goin’. This time, we’ve even got a big-brain general on our team, so we—”

“Hooray!”

“What’s up, Grete?” Sybilla asked.

“…You all seemed so excited, I thought I’d join in… So you know, ‘Hooray!’…”

“…We appreciate the effort.”

Sara joined in. “H-hooray!”

Lily turned to Sybilla. “Wait, do we really sound that ridiculous?”

Once the silly exchange was over, Sybilla closed the meeting with a bang.

“Remember, the four of us got picked for a reason. Let’s do this thing with our heads held high!”

They thumped their heads together in agreement.

From there, the girls split up into two groups.

The next morning, Grete and Lily made for the kitchen. They laid out the ingredients they’d gotten up at the crack of dawn to buy and crossed their arms.

Lily voiced some belated doubts.

“Now that I think about it, is cooking something delicious really gonna get us out of this jam?”

“We just need to trust in Sybilla…”

Grete lined up an assortment of colorful spices on the counter. She had everything from cardamom, ginger, and cayenne peppers to peppercorns both black and pink.

“For now, though, we need to begin the food prep… Lily?”

“I’m on it! Leave the taste-testing to me!”

Lily puffed up her chest with pride. Back when they tried to trap Klaus with food, she did a bang-up job of polishing off the test batches, so she assumed she would be reprising her role. However—

“…Why would we have you do that?”

—Grete put a quick stop to that.

“Hweh?”

“The task before us calls for following the recipe, weighing ingredients, crushing them, heating them, mixing them, simmering them… Given your skills at mixing poison, I would have assumed that this fell squarely under your area of expertise.”

“………”

“Did the thought never occur to you? Or did you let your appetite cloud your judgment last—?”

“Sybilla can never find out about this!”

As she begged for Grete’s silence, Lily began prepping the condiments. She carefully ground them up, making sure to remove the least fragrant parts so as to draw out the spices’ aroma. Sure enough, that kind of work was her specialty, and she carried her work out without the slightest pause. The way she used her poison might have still needed work, but as far as concocting it went, she was a consummate professional.

Grete nodded in satisfaction.

“Normally, it would take two hours to prepare all these spices, but let’s see if we can’t get it done in half that time.”

“Th-there’s no way!”

“There is, if you follow my instructions to the letter…”

Ignoring her partner’s screams, Grete began making some exceedingly precise calculations.

For her, predicting her teammates’ movements down to the second was child’s play.

Meanwhile, Sybilla and Sara were on their way to the capital’s outskirts.

They whizzed down the road atop a borrowed motorcycle, knowing that if they dawdled, they wouldn’t make it in time. Despite the Din Republic’s small size, the roads around its capital were well maintained, and the freeway went right up to it.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a large building—a state-run hospital. The building was a towering five stories tall, and its stone construction made it look almost like a castle.

Sara, who’d been told nothing about the plan, opened her eyes wide. “Wait, this is where we’re going?”

“Yup. It’s where Uwe took his physical.” Sybilla took off her helmet. “Couldn’t find the results anywhere in the mansion, so we had to come here.”

“To get them to give us a copy, you mean?”

“Nah, that’s not happenin’. We’d need to prove we were his representatives, and we don’t have time for that.”

However, Sara was right about one thing—they were after Uwe’s test results.

Sybilla had a hunch that those results would play a key role in winning him over. However, it was going to take a bit of doing to get ahold of them.

When Sara pursed her lips in confusion, Sybilla gave her a confident smile.

“I’m just gonna steal ’em.”

Sara’s expression went stiff. “From a hospital?!”

“Shh. Not so loud.”

“B-but…think of how tight their security must be! And there’s so many employees, too…”

“Yeah, exactly. The bigger they are, the easier they are to sneak into. All I gotta do is steal a key to the changing room, steal an outfit from one of the lockers, disguise myself as a nurse, and snatch a look at the results outta the filing cabinet. It’ll be like takin’ candy from a baby.”

Sybilla waved her hand unconcernedly.

“When I give you the signal, I need you to get Bernard to fly in through the window and cause a scene. That’ll give me the cover I need.”

She began stretching to warm herself up.

“………”

For a short while, Sara just looked at her in shock.

Eventually, though, she let out a defeated sigh. “You’re incorrigible, Miss Sybilla.”

As exasperated as her expression was, though, she almost looked like she was enjoying herself.

She whistled through her fingers, and a hawk swooped down out of the sky and came to a stop right beside her.

“I can send him whenever you want, and if you need him to take a specific route, he can do that, too.”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

After telling Sara what she wanted and completing her preparations, Sybilla spoke in a commanding tone.

“I’m code name Pandemonium—and it’s time I cleaned ’em out.”

And with that, she disappeared into the hospital.

In the end, Sara waited outside the whole time, so she never saw what exactly went on within its walls.

She also had no way of knowing where Sybilla came from, where she had honed her outstanding techniques, and most importantly, what sort of monster she inherited those skills of hers from.

All Sara knew was one thing.

When it came to stealing, Sybilla—the girl they called Pandemonium—was a virtuoso.

At around midday, they finished making their meal.

Under Grete’s careful guiding hand, Lily had made yet another batch of their historied cabbage rolls. This time, though, in place of pork, they used hearty servings of liver and other organ meat. That had given it a strong smell, so to cover it up, they substituted out the cream stew in favor of a heavily spiced soup.

Lily had taste-tested them, too, and they’d come out wonderfully. A single spoonful of the soup was enough to make its lovely spiced aroma fill one’s nose.

The rolls were, without a doubt, delicious.

However, there was one problem—their star player, Sybilla, wasn’t back yet.

…Sorry, but we kept him waiting as long as we could.

Eventually, Lily made the call to carry the cabbage rolls out. This time, the quality of their cooking was beyond reproach. Nobody could have possibly found fault with it.

However, when Uwe took a bite over in the dining room, he gave them a highly unexpected review.

“This is dreadful!”

“Huh…?”

“It’s better than yesterday’s, maybe, but you can’t expect me to eat this! That can be your problem.”

He grimaced and shoved the plate of rolls back to them. Once again, all he planned to eat was the bread they’d intended to be a side dish. He bit into it, clearly not enjoying it for a moment. That was his way of saying that lunchtime was over.

With a shocked look on her face, Lily took a small taste of the leftover cabbage rolls’ sauce. It tasted just fine to her. The only explanation she could think of was the geezer before her had completely different tastes than everyone else she’d ever met.

Uwe breathed hard through his nose as he crossed his arms. “Hmph. Well, no matter. Either way, as of right now, you’re all f—”

“Nah, see, I’d bet good money that those cabbage rolls are tasty as hell.”

Lily turned to find Sybilla standing beside her, panting and out of breath. She’d been running as fast as she could.

She strode toward Uwe as he sat at the dining table.

“Hey there, Mr. Appel. If I were you, I’d suck it up and eat ’em.”

“What in the blazes are you—?”

“I saw your bloodwork from the hospital, and your red blood cell count’s way below average. You’ve got a serious vitamin deficiency.” She continued pressing. “You must have had some idea, didn’t you? ’Bout your taste disorder.”

“…Grr! Don’t be ridiculous!”

Uwe roared at her, red-faced and furious.

“You think you can just come into my dining room and make baseless accusations?! I don’t have a—”

“Anyone else woulda thought those cabbage rolls were delicious, but you called ’em ‘dreadful.’ You think I’m not gonna notice that?” Sybilla glared at him and went on. “After the war, you sweat and bled to cut down on your excesses. Remember the photos in that report yesterday? They were of you, goin’ around to orphanages after the war and handing out food in person. All so those kids who weren’t gettin’ any rations would have enough to eat. It’s a noble thing you did, but you took things too far, didn’t you?”

She narrowed her eyes in exasperation.

“You even gave ’em the food off your own damn plate.”

“Hmph. And what’s so wrong about that?”

“Everything, that’s what. You stopped givin’ your body the nourishment it needed. That’s where the taste disorder started up. And as your diet got worse, so did your disorder. You can barely taste anything now, can you?”

Lily thought back to what she knew about Uwe’s diet. All she’d ever seen him eat was bread. There was no way he was getting enough nutrition.

“Hey, Lily, what did Mr. Appel have to say when you gave him those rolls?”

“He said the meal was ‘better than yesterday’s.’”

“I’ll bet. The less you can taste, the more you start liking dishes loaded with spices.” Sybilla grinned triumphantly. “Forget about hit men, Mr. Appel—malnutrition’s gonna do you in before they can even get a foot in the door.”

“………”

“What you’re gonna do now is, you’re gonna keep us on staff. You can’t possibly call that a ‘waste’ anymore. We’re gonna cook nutritious meals for you every day, get you your sense of taste back, and next time, I’m gonna make you enjoy my cooking for real.”

Sybilla’s tone was rude, but there was an unmistakable kindness lurking just below its surface.

When she told him that she was going to make him enjoy her cooking, she wasn’t saying that she was going to make some outstanding dish.

What she was saying was that she was going to make sure his sense of taste returned.

If he called her cooking dreadful, all she had to do was give him no choice but to find it delicious. It was a brute-force solution, which was why it suited her so well.

Lily, for example, would never have come up with something like that.

Uwe closed his mouth and stewed over what Sybilla just said. Then he took the cabbage rolls back from Lily and tried another spoonful of soup. He grimaced. Sure enough, he couldn’t taste it at all.

“…Everything you just said was true.” The words came out as practically a sigh. “I had my suspicions, of course. So I was right… I really do have a taste disorder…”

“If you knew, why didn’t you report it sooner?”

“I didn’t want to admit I was getting old… My age was a factor, too, wasn’t it?”

“Could’ve been, sure.”

“Oh, don’t coddle me. If you think I’m old, just come out and say it.” His lips curled upward.

It was the first genuine smile any of them had seen out of him.

“But even so, Sybilla… I have to cut out waste,” Uwe said. “It isn’t only the orphanages. There are still scores of people in this country who have to make do with nothing but a single roll of bread each day. What would people think if they saw a man tasked with maintaining social welfare living large with four maids on his payroll?”

“…You’re awfully stubborn about this Goody Two-shoes thing, aren’tcha?” Sybilla gave a small shrug. “What about just firing one of us, then? It’ll be tight, but three maids should be enough to keep things running around here.”

It was a perfect compromise for both sides.

Uwe had his convictions as a public servant to consider, and the girls had their mission as spies that they needed to worry about.

Uwe considered Sybilla’s proposal, then gave her a slow, thoughtful nod.

Thus, thanks to Sybilla’s valiant efforts, they were able to prevent two of the dismissals.

They were down a member, but the undercover mission could go on.

After walking an hour from the mansion, Sybilla finally reached a little town.

She let out a small sigh, then headed to the designated location.

The meeting spot was a tobacco shop located in an obscure part of town. The store was little more than a drab hut, and it was so small that even a single customer put it close to capacity. Although it had windows, they were so stuffed with tobacco and bottles of soda that it was impossible to see into them from outside.

Klaus was sitting at the counter, his face partially hidden by the newspaper he was reading.

Even in his homeland, he made sure never to drop his guard for a moment.

In all honesty, Sybilla and the others weren’t exactly sure where he’d been or what he’d been up to. However, they’d assumed he was off doing some sort of intelligence work.

“Grete told me what happened,” Klaus said. “As I hear it, you did some excellent work back there. She spoke highly of your efforts.”

“Well, that was nice of her.”

Sybilla shook her head.

“But in the end, I still got fired. Sorry about that.”

The only ones who’d been allowed to stay on as maids were Lily and Grete. Once it was decided that one of them would have to go, Sybilla volunteered to have it be her. Uwe hadn’t been pleased, but he chose to respect her choice.

“I see. Well, you still did a wonderful job placating Uwe.”

“…Even there, I can’t really take all the credit.”

“Oh?”

“Wouldn’t have been able to do it without that hint you gave me.”

“The hint…,” Klaus replied, and Sybilla nodded.

“It was buggin’ me for forever. I re-created your cabbage rolls, but the minute you made the tiniest change to them, it was like they tasted a million times better.”

After their ignoble failure, she’d given a lot of thought as to what had caused it. They had used the exact same recipe and the exact same amount of seasoning, so why had their rolls turned out so different?

She had a number of working theories.

“When you served us those cabbage rolls, you remember how exactly you did it?”

“I just did.”

“The thing is, after you divvied the rolls onto eight plates, you went back and added more seasoning.”

That fact hadn’t escaped Sybilla’s notice.

If he had wanted to change how they all tasted, he could have added the seasoning to the sauce before he doled it out. Instead, though, he chose to season each plate individually.

“Here’s my theory—I think you adjusted the vinegar and spices based on our individual nutritional states.”

That was nothing more than conjecture, of course.

Klaus hadn’t put any conscious thought into his actions, so there was no way of knowing the truth for sure. He might have just been adjusting the sauce to fit each of their flavor preferences.

But Sara had said it—it was like “her whole body cried out in joy.”

That had gotten the idea of adjusting a dish to suit the health of whoever was eating it stuck in Sybilla’s mind.

“Of course, all the clever commentary in the world doesn’t change the fact that I got fired. I hope you can give me passing marks for at least keeping the other two employed.”

“………”

For a little while, Klaus said nothing. His expression was unreadable.

Was he mad at her?

Or was he just disappointed?

It was her first time screwing up an actual mission, so she had no idea what to expect.

Her body tensed up.

“I’m really sorry I screwed up, especially after talking such a big game.” She leaned forward. “But I can still make up for it. I can still switch over to the support team and help finish the mission that way.”

“No,” Klaus replied. “That wouldn’t serve any purpose.”

“!”

His words were cold. There was no emotion in them.

He continued on in the same tone. “As far as support goes, Sara’s doing fine on her own, and we have me working outside the mansion as well. Anything more than that would be unnecessary.”

“But I…”

Her blood ran cold.

She never imagined he would shut her down so completely.

“…Look, I know I blew it.” She leaned even farther forward. “But I’m beggin’ you, just give me another chance. Next time, I swear I’ll—”

“I have a question I should probably ask you.”

Klaus crossed his legs.

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

Sybilla let out a dumbfounded murmur. “Huh?”

It had a gentler lead-in than usual, but that was what he said whenever they were wrong about something.

“You seem to be operating under a misconception.”

His eyes softened.

“Why would I ever turn my back on such a stellar subordinate? ‘Make up for it’? That doesn’t make sense. You have nothing to make up for. ‘Switch to the support team’? Unnecessary. You belong on the front lines,” he said. “I have but one thing to call you—magnificent.”

“What…?”

Apparently, he was praising her.

More than joy, though, that mostly filled her with questions.

“No, remember, I told you. I got fired; I can’t go back to—”

“You can. And what’s more, Uwe will owe you.”

“What? How?”

“His malnutrition gave him a taste disorder…but was that his only symptom?”

Sybilla tilted her head to the side. Was he saying there was something else?

Uwe was rude, maybe, and short-tempered, but she assumed Klaus wasn’t talking about his personality.

Now that he mentioned it, though, she remembered something odd Uwe said when they first met him. That evening by the entrance, he had suspected three people with completely different hair colors of being Olivia’s sisters. Then later, when he met Sybilla in the study at night, his gait was strangely awkward until the light finished kicking in.

She quickly found an answer.

“…You think he has nyctalopia?”

“The signs are certainly there.”

Nyctalopia was a condition where the sufferer’s vision dropped precipitously in low light.

It was often referred to as night blindness, and one of its common causes was vitamin deficiency.

Uwe’s taste disorder screwed up his diet, and that could very well have given rise to other problems in turn. And because hospitals performed their eye tests in broad daylight, his doctor would have been none the wiser.

Had Klaus really pieced that all together through hearsay?

No, there was no way. He must have at least been observing the mansion or something.

“Uwe’s been driving himself to and from parliament, but it’s high time he gave that up. Not even he could call hiring a driver wasteful, given the circumstances,” Klaus said. “Hurry on back to the mansion. The team needs your straightforward attitude.”

With that, he grabbed a bottle off the shelf beside him, used the corner of the counter to pop its cap off, and offered it to her. The soda inside was bright and colorful. That was his way of showing his appreciation for her efforts.

It was a small gesture, but it made her grin all the same.

He was watching.

It might not have showed much, but he really did acknowledge how much hard work they were putting in.

“You’re really somethin’, you know that? I knew there was a reason I respected you so much.”

That’s why I was so happy when you picked me.

Choosing not to voice the last half of her statement, Sybilla took the bottle from him.

Then she laughed. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to pay you back twice over for this, too.”

Klaus smiled.

Two hours later, Sybilla was a maid again—and a driver now, to boot.

Another two weeks passed in what felt like the blink of an eye. The intelligence work was proceeding without a hitch.

“Your steering is so wasteful. Can’t you drive any gentler?!”

“Shaddap! If you keep babbling like that, you’re gonna bite your tongue!”

Uwe and Sybilla bickered at each other like animals as they pulled up to the mansion.

The exchange made them look less like a master and his maid and more like a stubborn grandfather and his willful granddaughter, but Uwe cared little for formality. As far as he was concerned, it was just another form of waste.

“By the way, who was that guy who came and talked to you today?” Sybilla asked. “He was lookin’ at me all funny.”

“An old friend of mine. Nobody you need to be worried about.”

“If you say so…”

“Oh, don’t get worked up over every little thing. He was probably just surprised to see that my driver was so young.”

“Rude. I’ve got a driver’s license as good as anyone’s… …It’s homemade, but still.”

“Hmm? Sorry, what was that last part?”

Thanks to being his driver, Sybilla was in an excellent position to look into Uwe’s acquaintances. Furthermore, the fact that he couldn’t go anywhere without her meant that they always had an eye on him, which came as a great comfort.

As Uwe’s attitude gradually softened, the girls were able to do their spy work with greater and greater ease.

Once they’d conducted background checks on all the other residents, they began looking into each of the mansion’s frequent visitors. They had the bathroom and drawing room bugged, and depending on what they heard, they sometimes stuck transmitters on the guests and had Sara tail them after they left the mansion.

Things couldn’t have been going smoother.

As Lily got things ready for dinner, Sybilla quietly whispered to her, “It’s weird, huh. Another day done, and we still haven’t found anyone suspicious.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary with the mansion, either. Can’t say I hate how peaceful things are, though,” Lily replied in a carefree tone.

“No arguments there.”

Back in the beginning, Sybilla had been livid about being forced to work as a maid, but nowadays, she found it fulfilling. Uwe was an honest, upstanding politician trying to make the country a better place, and while his methods may have been forceful at times, she knew he was doing it all for the children.

The longer she stayed undercover there, the more she’d get to help him with his work.

She almost hoped the assassin wouldn’t come at all.

That way, things could stay peaceful.

However, she knew full well that wasn’t how the world worked.

A scream rang out.

It came from the courtyard. A woman. Not Grete. Older. Olivia?

Sybilla and Lily took off at a run.

As they did, they heard footsteps thundering from upstairs.

“OLIVIAAAAA! What happened?!”

The footsteps were Uwe’s. He rushed down as well, carrying his prized rifle and wearing his pajamas.

Sybilla and Lily would have preferred that he not do anything rash, but at least this meant they had eyes on the man they were charged with protecting. They subtly positioned themselves to guard his flanks as they all raced toward the courtyard.

When they got there, they found Olivia collapsed on her rump.

Her face was pale, and she pointed off into the air.

“Th-there…” Her voice was trembling. “There was a gunshot…from up there…”

Sybilla’s gaze snapped up.

Olivia was pointing toward the large trees that surrounded the mansion, and Sybilla spotted something human-shaped holding a rifle and standing atop the branches.

“What the hell are those…?” she murmured.

The first thing she saw…were the scars.

The person’s face was hidden beneath a hood, but the full moon illuminated their mouth for the world to see.

More specifically, it illuminated the scars that covered it. They might have been burn marks, but whatever they were, the blackened skin crawled across the person’s face like a curse.

It was almost like looking at a cadaver.

Sybilla thought back to the intel they’d been given before the mission. Was that…Corpse?

A few words slipped from Olivia’s lips. “I think I’m going to be sick…”

One could hardly blame her. The scars were hideous enough to inspire revulsion in any who saw them.

“EAT LEAD, FIEND!”

As the girls stared in confusion, Uwe opened fire.

The man was nothing if not brave.

However, his bullet merely hit the tree that Corpse was standing on. Due to his night blindness, the shot had gone way too low.

Corpse leaped down from the tree and vanished into the darkness of the woods. In the blink of an eye, they were gone from sight entirely.

The girls’ hesitation only lasted a moment.

“We’ll go after ’em. Olivia, Mr. Appel, you two go back inside and call the police.”

They snatched Uwe’s gun out of his hands, then headed toward the forest.

Maybe they were coming off a bit more battle-ready than maids should have, but they couldn’t afford to let this opportunity pass them by.

Even if they couldn’t capture or kill their foe, getting a hint of their trail would be enough to make their investigation go that much smoother.

Right as they were thinking of how they could pull that off, they made it to the woods.

However, the moment they took their first steps into the trees, Sybilla’s foot got tangled up in wire. She turned to Lily for help, but she was stuck, too.

They’d walked into a trap—one carefully placed to blend into the darkness.

And what’s more, it had caught them both at once. The person who set it was clearly no slouch. It was like their foe had read their every move.

The wire grew taut and yanked Sybilla into the air. She hadn’t even had time to grab the knife hidden in her skirt. If someone shot her now, she’d have no way to dodge.

Images of the horrors to come flashed through her mind.

She heard Uwe and Olivia scream.

They were all going to die.

“Magnificent.”

But right as she prepared herself for the worst, a familiar voice rang out, and the wire snapped.

Sybilla’s foot was free, and she twisted her body to stick the landing. Beside her, Lily landed hard on her ass.

“It’s begun.” Klaus stood before them, knife in hand.

His darkened gaze was focused deep in the forest.

“Sybilla, Lily, brace yourselves. The assassin’s made their move.”

As he spoke, he disappeared into the darkness as though he’d never been there at all.

The battle between Lamplight and Corpse was finally underway.