Spy Classroom - Volume 2 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Exposed

The following took place before they went to Uwe’s.

In order to prepare for the Impossible Mission, Grete was doing some intensive one-on-one training with Klaus. They sat across the table from each other as though playing chess, but instead of a chessboard, what they had laid out before them was a blueprint of Uwe’s mansion.

“Uwe is in the reception room. The time is two PM. I infiltrate the mansion disguised as a deliveryman. I have an item—we’ll call it ‘A’—hidden in my pocket.”

“…Well, I start by using Sara’s animals to check what kind of firearms you have.”

They were running battle simulations.

It was similar to their normal training but conducted with their minds instead of their bodies. Klaus played the role of the assassin, and Grete had to promptly reply with what orders she would give her teammates. Much like in a chess match, they took turns taking actions and moving their pieces across the blueprint.

As the simulation went on, Grete gained the upper hand, stripping Klaus of his weapons and driving him into a far corner of the mansion. Everything was going great, until…

“Now, I reveal Item A from my pocket.”

Klaus turned up the piece of paper he’d written on at the beginning of the match. On it was the name of an object that completely turned the tables. He had anticipated everything from the very start.

Grete gasped.

In the end, the assassin won. The pieces representing her teammates all lay prone on the table.

Klaus gave his verdict. “That wasn’t bad.” Then he continued. “We should go again. Are you up for another round?”

“Of course.”

All they had to do was change the starting conditions, and they could get right back into the fray.

As she reset her pieces, Grete spoke. “You know, it might be easier on you if we did all our training this way…”

“That wouldn’t work. There’s a dramatic difference between thinking a scenario through and actually experiencing live combat. And besides, I’m still no good at explaining particulars.”

That much was indisputable. For example, he would often respond to Grete making moves like “I have Sybilla rush you from behind” by replying “I respond to the attack like a tiger.” At times, it barely even felt fair.

When it came to getting in reps, though, those war games were the most efficient way to do it.

In a single night, Grete was able to go through dozens of fights against Klaus and learn from each of her defeats.

“By the way, I have a question for you…,” Klaus said.

Between rounds, they would often shoot the breeze and drink tea as they rested their minds.

Grete nodded before Klaus could go on. “Of course. The panties I’m wearing today—”

“That’s not what I was going to ask.”

“—are white.”

“You really didn’t have to finish that sentence.”

An exasperated look crossed Klaus’s face.

A certain teammate of Grete’s had suggested that she try to bring up sexual topics more often, and she’d taken the advice to heart.

For the time being, she decided to put up a brave front. “…Just as I expected.”

Klaus rubbed his temples. “My actual question was about something more serious.”

“What is it?”

She was tempted to say, Like where we’re going to hold the ceremony? But she restrained herself. She knew she was in danger of seriously annoying him.

Klaus gave her a pointed look. “Why weren’t you able to use your skills to their full potential at your academy?”

He hadn’t been lying.

She could tell from the intense look in his eyes how serious a question it was.

“I asked your teachers about all of you, of course. I know about Lily’s constant blunders and about how her brazen personality kept her from getting along with her contemporaries. I know how Sara was never all that motivated to be a spy in the first place and about how Sybilla’s background meant that she had behavior problems for a time.”

Those were the other three who’d be going along on the mission.

Grete knew he was telling her all this in confidence.

“But you, Grete—you’re the only one who didn’t make sense. What’s your story?”

“………”

That was when she realized he was worried about her.

It wasn’t a tale she relished telling, but she could feel her expression soften all the same.

“I could tell you, but I doubt you would believe me…”

“Whatever you say, I promise I’ll believe it.”

“…Thank you; that means a lot.”

His words were reassuring. That alone was enough to set her heart aflutter.

She cradled her teacup in her hands as she revealed her secret.

“…The thing is, I can’t deal with men.”

Klaus took a surprisingly long time to react.

He said nothing. The muscles in his face didn’t move. He didn’t so much as blink.

He was so motionless it was like time itself was standing still—

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

—and the long silence dragged on.

“Boss?” Grete tilted her head. “You promised you would believe me, remember?”

“I’m sorry; that didn’t make sense.”

That was almost worse than him not believing her.

“…I’m saying that whenever I talk to a man, it gives me a stomachache.”

“You seem to be talking to me just fine.”

“You’re an exception.”

“Well, that’s oddly convenient.”

Klaus still didn’t seem totally satisfied by her answer.

He gave her a dubious look and sank deep into silence again. However, he eventually replied, “Well, I promised I’d believe you, and I do,” in a voice that sounded somewhere between astonished and resigned. He took another sip of tea and shook his head.

“The workings of your heart never fail to confuse me.”

“Really?”

As she saw it, her feelings about this were totally normal, but he clearly didn’t share that opinion. It was odd.

After all, wasn’t he the one who had fundamentally changed her value as a person?

As much as she wanted to explain herself, though, there was another, more pressing matter at hand.

She changed the subject. “Now, may I ask you a question?”

“What’s that?”

“What happened to your hand?”

A red line had been sliced across Klaus’s hand. Normally, he would never let himself get wounded like that.

“Ah, that,” he murmured as though it were nothing. “I had an urgent mission this afternoon, and I was dumb enough to let my hand get snagged on something. It’ll heal soon.”

“See, your fatigue is already starting to get you hurt. Please, get some rest.”

“I’ll be fine. And like it or not, I have a long backlog of reports I need to—”

Grete picked Klaus’s fountain pen up off the table. She knew it was his favorite one, and she held it in a tight embrace. “…You aren’t getting this pen back until you’ve rested.”

She stared at him intently.

He knit his brows in annoyance but eventually mumbled “Magnificent” and began cleaning up the blueprint. That was his sign that their training session was over.

“All right, you win. I’ll go to sleep, so you should—”

“Of course. I’d be happy to sit in your bed with you and sing you a—”

“Get out.”

“………”

Klaus had cut her off before she’d even finished.

“Grete, I can tell that you’re tired, too. I’ll be asleep soon, so could you get the lights on your way…” He trailed off.

When Grete turned to look, she found him collapsed on his bed. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was steady. The transition had been so swift it was like someone flipped a light switch inside him.

“…Well, that was fast.”

If he slept like that, he was liable to catch a cold. Grete hurriedly draped a blanket over him.

“………”

Normally, even just approaching him would make him snap wide awake, but this time, he was out like a light. He must have really been exhausted. It was the first time she’d ever seen him so vulnerable.

“Did you get careless because you were with me?” She asked her question hoping against hope, but she got no reply. She gently touched his hand. Nothing. He really was out cold.

“…Was this your way of letting me pamper you, perhaps?”

She stayed beside him, continuing to savor the firm warmth of his hand.

Her heart was beating out of her chest.

Just being with him and getting to gaze at his calm face in respite was enough to fill her heart to the brim. She felt like she was basking in the sun’s rays.

Love didn’t seek compensation. In her head, she knew that, but she couldn’t help but let her cravings get the better of her.

Never once did I expect my love to be reciprocated, but…

She squeezed his hand tight.

“Even so, if I complete the mission…and live up to your expectations…

“…would it be greedy of me to hope for just a tiny fraction of your love…?”

For the rest of her life, Grete would never forget the time she stood there.

After winning Uwe over, the girls’ intelligence work began progressing at a rapid clip, and Grete was at the center of all their efforts.

As she did her maid work, she gave orders to each of the other girls in turn.

Sybilla was her jack-of-all-trades.

“…The boss says, ‘Investigate Uwe as though you were chiseling a stone at the bottom of the ocean.’”

“You mind translatin’ that for me?”

“I suspect he wants you to ask Uwe about the other people who will be attending the dinner tomorrow.”

After she gave the order, Sybilla replied “Ohhh,” nodded, and rushed off to the study.

“Heya, Mr. Appel. We should hit the road soon.”

She rattled the car keys as she casually called over to Uwe.

“We usually don’t leave for another hour,” he snapped at her. Without missing a beat, Sybilla replied, “Yeah, but I think the weather’s gonna turn. And besides, if we get there early, we can talk about the plan for tomorrow.” It was a clever recovery.

Grete had no doubt that by the time Sybilla got back, she’d have her task complete.

Not only was she progressing the mission, she was also doing a great job of maintaining a pleasant relationship with their employer.

At the moment, she was the group’s cornerstone.

Meanwhile, Lily was helping out in a different way than Sybilla.

Thanks to her natural charm and inherently upbeat disposition, she was a big hit with the mansion’s other residents. Things hadn’t gone well at her academy, but the fact remained that she had a personality that made people want to overlook her many mistakes. Thanks to that, she was able to get away with questionable behavior without having it come across as suspicious.

“Lily, I want to install more listening devices in preparation for tomorrow’s dinner. Could you distract the other residents for me?”

“Y’know, I thought you might say that, and you’ll be happy to hear that I already knocked over a bucket and soaked the whole hallway.”

“………”

“Precognition, yet another one of my mighty Lily powers.”

As Lily cheerfully flashed Grete a peace sign, they heard Olivia scream from over in the hallway. “Oh no, she already found out!” Lily cried, rushing off with tears in her eyes.

Her methods weren’t subtle, but it was precisely the attention she drew that let the others operate with such little scrutiny.

They made sure to take full advantage of that.

Finally, they had Sara handling odd jobs outside the mansion.

Thanks to her animals, she was able to handle a lot of the many smaller tasks that needed doing. Humble as she was about it, there were a lot of jobs that only she could do.

Whenever Grete went to town to go shopping, she always made sure to exchange information with Sara on her way there.

“Sorry, but there wasn’t any movement on the traps we set, and my little ones weren’t able to pick up a scent. Our opponent must have come prepared.”

That was what Grete had expected, so she just nodded.

“Then tomorrow, I want you to spend the day on lookout. Make sure you’re close enough to the mansion to come if we need you.”

“You got it.” Sara nodded, then gave Grete a timid look. “D-do you think the assassin’s going to come back…?”

“We can’t be sure that they won’t.”

“Oh… Yeah, that makes sense. It’s okay, though. It’s fine. I’ll do my best.”

Sara clapped her cheeks to boost her morale, then disappeared around a street corner.

The girls were operating like a well-oiled machine.

The final car left, and the mansion was cloaked in the silence of night.

Lights from the guests’ headlights flickered across the mountain’s trees, but those eventually faded from view as well. The hustle and bustle from mere moments before was gone without a trace, giving the sound of the front door swinging shut an odd gravity that lingered in the ear.

Grete let out a big sigh.

They’d successfully made it through the dinner party.

Although the mansion was deep in the mountain backwoods, a full thirty guests had made the journey anyway, all of them politicians and influential figures who revered Uwe. They’d had to prepare a bunch of the rooms that normally went unused, but somehow or other, the four maids had pulled it off.

As Grete let the tension drain from her body, Sybilla approached her with some consternation on her face.

“Sybilla, do we have a problem?”

“Yeah, you could say that.” She gestured upstairs with her thumb and laughed. “Uwe’s goin’ apeshit over how much the party cost to host. But hey, what’s new, right?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

Sybilla nodded and shot her some hand signals.

“No intruders. A couple of the guests seemed sketchy, but I didn’t find any weapons when I picked their pockets.”

Grete replied with hand signals of her own.

“Nothing odd on Sara’s end, either. And for once, Lily was actually able to get through her maid work without making any mistakes.”

With that, the information exchange was complete.

To sum it up, everything had gone smoothly.

“And it’s all thanks to your instructions, Grete. Y’know, I never thought we’d be able to get everything done, but whatever magic you worked, it all went down like clockwork.”

“Oh, no. If anything, I should be the one complimenting you. I merely worked behind the scenes, but it was you all who did the heavy lifting.”

Modest as her words were, though, Grete was secretly brimming with pride. She was pulling it off.

Even without specific orders from Klaus, she was still able to evaluate the situation and give appropriate instructions to the other girls. They were gathering information little by little, and eventually they’d have enough to corner their foe.

Her head was filled with thoughts of her beloved, who had pushed himself further than anyone else time and time again.

…We need to get the boss to rely on us.

She pursed her lips.

She was giving it her utmost, and thanks to her teammates’ cooperation, everything was proceeding as planned.

For the time being, they decided to return to the dining room to get their maid work done. There was still a huge amount of used cutlery left over from the party. Ideally, they would have liked to clean up as the party went, but there had simply been too many people present for the maids to make a dent in the workload. They’d done as Uwe instructed and barely prepared enough for everyone to eat their fill, but even so, there was still a lot of half-eaten food left over.

As they cleaned, Sybilla suddenly spoke up. “Hey, Grete. You said you were a politician’s daughter, right?”

“I did. What of it?”

“That means you got to go to high society shindigs like this, right? I’m kinda jealous. It was so, y’know, luxurious.”

Looking at the remains of the feast was reminding Sybilla of the dinner that had just taken place.

She had a spellbound look on her face.

Sure enough, the dinner had been well deserving of the descriptor.

Many of the invitees were industrial bigwigs who sympathized with Uwe’s policies, and others were actresses raised in the orphanages who now mingled and smiled pleasantly. Uwe’s wife was there, too, wearing a ravishing dress and decked out in jewels.

Far left or not, politicians’ dinner parties were always lavish affairs.

The event had left Sybilla’s head spinning in awe.

Grete shook her head. “…I’m afraid I never really fit in with that world.”

It was an honest answer.

In fact, that much should have been obvious—otherwise, she’d never have become a spy.

“Huh,” Sybilla replied flatly. “Yeah, guess you’ve got that problem with guys and all.”

Sybilla obviously realized that there was more to the story.

However, Grete appreciated her tact in not pressing the issue.

“…For now, why don’t we just focus on our work. I’ll tell you about it another time.”

She smiled evasively, then turned her full attention toward cleaning. Sybilla replied with a relaxed, “You got it.”

Grete focused.

That’s right, I have to concentrate…for the boss’s sake…

A twinge in her heart threatened to disrupt that concentration, but she shook her head to rid herself of it.

When she came out into the hallway, she found Olivia waiting for her there.

“Grete, could I speak with you?”

Olivia’s voice was an octave lower than usual, and Grete could deduce that she was about to be scolded.

This was something she’d have to get through.

“Just as I expected,” she quietly mumbled to herself to keep her morale up.

Olivia called Grete into her room in the employee quarters.

Things were strewn about and piled high by the bed, and her spare clothes had been lazily dumped atop a chair. She must have been a smoker, as there was a faint smell of tobacco wafting in the air. Olivia didn’t normally allow the girls into her room. The excuse she always gave was that it was a mess, and from the look of things, that was no lie.

Olivia took a seat atop her wardrobe of a chair, squishing the clothes underneath her. She gave Grete, who was standing across from her, an intense stare.

“So care to tell me why you spent the entire party cooped up in the kitchen? I wanted you out mingling with the guests.”

Sure enough, she was getting scolded.

Grete immediately bowed low. “…I’m terribly sorry. I wasn’t feeling well, so I thought it would be best if I just washed dishes.”

“You know, we could have done all the dishes afterward…”

Grete’s excuse was something of a half-truth.

There were a lot of men at the party, and being around them had made her stomach sick. That much was true.

However, she had also slipped out of the festivities in order to carry out espionage work. However she played this, she needed to avoid raising Olivia’s suspicions.

Olivia twirled a tuft of her hair around with her finger. She was making no efforts to hide her displeasure.

“You’re eighteen, Grete, so I’m sure you know this by now, but the world of politics is dominated by men, and it’s full of sons of bitches who think women like us are beneath them. But that’s precisely why having a couple of cute, young maids walking around and smiling helps a party like ours run smoothly. That’s why I wanted you out there.”

“Oh, I see…”

Grete knew that, of course, but she nodded as though that information was all news to her.

Seeing her response cheered Olivia up a bit. She smiled.

“You know, it’s not so bad once you get used to it. All you have to do is flatter them a little, and there are plenty of men who’ll happily give you some pocket money or take you on trips or to the theater.”

“…Isn’t that only because you’re so pretty, ma’am?”

“You really think so? Well, you just made my— Wait, that’s not what we’re here to talk about.”

Olivia’s expression softened for a moment, but she quickly got back to business.

“Is there some reason you weren’t feeling well?”

“………”

Now, then… How was she going to talk her way out of this one?

She didn’t exactly have the gift of gab, so coming up with an eloquent excuse on the spot was beyond her skills.

If she tried to say something that was too far from the truth, it wouldn’t be believable. However, the boring reality wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Olivia, either.

Maybe it would be best to add in a bit of the world’s most popular spice.

“…The truth is: There’s already somebody I have a crush on, so I’m trying to avoid getting too involved with other men.”

“What?! Tell me everything!” Olivia stood up so fast she knocked her chair over.

“………”

Grete hadn’t expected to get such a big nibble. In fact, that was more of a full-fledged bite.

“O-okay…” Grete faltered a bit at Olivia’s surprising level of interest. “…Well, I suppose it’s what you would call lovesickness. Whenever I think of him, it makes me not want to talk to any other men…”

“Oh, are you talking about that guy from before?”

“…Who?”

“You know, the hottie. Oh, no, that’s right, you didn’t see him. When the assassin attacked, there was this total hunk who just happened to pass by.” Olivia went on to list his features.

The man she described was on the younger side and had an androgynous look, long hair, a tough expression, and a dapper suit.

“It looked like he knew Sybilla and Lily. What’s his story?”

“…I’m not sure what exactly you mean.”

“Did he come here to see you? What’s he doing now?”

“…Oh, no, he’s just a teacher from our school. I imagine he came to check up on his students.”

“Oh, huh. Sounds like he takes his job pretty seriously. Guess I was jumping to conclusions.”

After launching her rapid-fire barrage of questions, Olivia smiled. “Sorry about that. There’s not a whole lot to gossip about around these parts, so I was starving for a little drama. But still, lucky you. Love, huh? Guess I can’t be too hard on you for that.”

Grete felt that starving was putting it a little strongly, but she nodded along anyway.

With that, Olivia let out a long exhale. She propped her chair up and sat back down.

Grete let out a quiet exhale as well. It looked like she was back in Olivia’s good graces.

However, Olivia then asked her something totally unexpected. “Can I have him, then?”

Grete tilted her head in confusion at Olivia’s request.

“…What?”

“If that teacher isn’t the guy you’re pining for, that means you don’t mind if I take him, right?”

It was like she thought of him as an object.

Olivia went on, sounding almost indifferent about the whole thing.

“Let me know the next time he’s coming around. I’ll keep my schedule open.”

“…Even if you meet him, there’s no guarantee he’ll actually be interested in you…”

“What, you don’t think so? I’m hot as hell, you know.”

“………”

“He’s probably got all sorts of stress built up. I’ll get some booze in him, pretend to get drunk so I can rub my boobs all over him, get him into bed, and do what—”

Olivia stopped midway through her sentence.

Her smile faded, and she carefully observed Grete.

“Oh, huh,” she commented. “I’d wondered if you were even capable of that expression.”

“……………”

Grete wondered what Olivia was seeing just then. She didn’t have it in her to look in a mirror.

Olivia let out a big belly laugh and clapped her hands together. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Geez, Grete, you really wear your heart on your sleeve sometimes.” She seemed to find the whole situation irresistibly funny.

She stood up and placed a hand on Grete’s shoulder.

“Being lovesick for your teacher? That’s something I can get behind. Just make sure it doesn’t get in the way of your job. And quit worrying so much. I’m sure you could get any guy you wanted.”

“…Really?”

“Sure! You’re a hottie, Grete. All you’re missing is the attitude.” She grinned. “See, good-looking gals like us, it’s our job to live life fast and easy. There isn’t a man alive who likes his women gloomy.”

Olivia was trying to encourage her.

Her words were meant as advice from a full-fledged adult to a girl just on the edge of maturity.

Grete meant to simply take them in the spirit they were intended—

“I can’t stand that way of thinking.”

—but she ended up doing the exact opposite.

“And I don’t like people who don’t put in the effort to be worthy of being loved.”

“The hell’s your problem?”

Olivia was pissed now. Grete had taken her advice and thrown it back in her face.

She let go of Grete’s shoulder and shot an angry, piercing glare her way.

“Have you considered that maybe that’s why he doesn’t love you back?”

“………”

Grete bit her lip.

Countless quotes flashed through her head, and she desperately choked back the urge to vomit.

“Hit the nail on the head, huh?” Olivia laughed mockingly. “Figures, gloomy girl like you.”

That was what Olivia really thought of her.

She waved her hand as though shooing her away.

“If you don’t want my advice, then fine, don’t take it. And you don’t have to attend the dinner parties, either. If you showed up acting like you just ate something rotten, you’d only bring everyone down,” Olivia said coldly. The conversation was over.

Grete might never set foot in that room again.

Realizing that, she quickly observed it in its entirety. When she did, a piece of jewelry placed carefully atop the table caught her eye. Its jade-green gemstone glinted in the light.

“…By the way, that’s a very nice brooch.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “It was a present from a boyfriend. Why, what about it?”

“Oh, no, nothing…”

Grete gave her a respectful bow and left the room.

As she did, she resisted the urge to ask, It was made in the Galgad Empire, wasn’t it?

After fleeing Olivia’s interrogation, Grete returned to her room and collapsed onto the bed.

So…tired…

At the end of each day, all of her built-up exhaustion finally had a chance to catch up with her.

She knew she needed to focus, but her body craved rest, and her mind refused to work.

She wanted to at least change into her pajamas, but even after making up her mind to do so, her body refused to get up from the mattress. In addition to her workload, there was something else feeding her exhaustion.

Olivia’s words had hit her right where it hurt.

“Have you considered that maybe that’s why he doesn’t love you back?”

Of course she had.

She didn’t have Lily’s looks, the kind that could charm just about anyone. She didn’t have Sybilla’s cheerful, uncomplicated personality. And she didn’t have that indescribable charm Sara did that made people want to protect her.

She was gloomy, bigheaded, and clumsy with words.

Klaus didn’t hold any romantic feelings toward her.

She knew that full well.

That’s why I have to do everything I can…

She had to put in the effort, get results, make him proud, and earn his love. That was the only option available to her.

She reached for the object sitting atop her nightstand. It was a fountain pen.

She clutched it tight and held it softly against her chest.

…I never did end up returning this after I stole it from the boss.

In the end, she took it with her as a sort of charm. Each time she touched it, memories of him flooded back through her mind.

Doing so was her form of rebellion against Olivia for receiving that brooch from her boyfriend.

Look, she was saying, I have this fountain pen that I stole from my beloved. So there.

However, if a victor could be found in their little exchange, it certainly wasn’t her.

“Boss…,” she murmured.

Nobody replied, of course. As she continued dwelling in her reverie, she heard a knock on her door.

It was Lily, from the next room over. She peeked her head in.

“Heya, good work today.”

“Lily…?” Grete sat up so she could face her.

Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t gotten a report from Lily yet that day. She’d completely forgotten about it.

“Right, if this is about today’s dinner party—”

“Let’s put the work stuff aside for now.” However, Lily completely ignored her.

“There, there.”

Instead, she leaped onto the bed and started patting Grete’s head, stroking her as one would a child with an utterly cherubic smile on her face.

Grete blinked.

“…What’s this, now?”

“You just looked really tired, so I thought I’d pamper you a bit.”

“I see…”

“Sorry it’s me and not Teach, though.”

Where was this coming from?

Grete still didn’t know what to make of it, and Lily grinned as she continued her gentle treatment.

“If soothing Teach’s exhaustion is your job, then that means it’s my job to soothe yours. It’s really not that complicated.”

She must really have been concerned about Grete’s well-being.

Lily moved around to Grete’s back and began kneading her muscles, massaging her scalp, neck, shoulders, and back with practiced motions. According to her, she often did the same thing for their teammate Monika. She probably meant that Monika often ordered her to give her massages to apologize for various wrongdoings, but either way, Lily knew what she was doing.

However, something else weighed on Grete’s mind—in a quite literal sense. Namely, the soft pressure on the back of her head.

“Lily, you really do have a nice figure…”

“What makes you say that, all of a sudden?”

The whole time, Lily’s breasts had been pressing against her.

When Lily realized that, she leaped away from Grete, flustered. She was normally the life of the party, but she immediately got bashful whenever the subject turned to her body or anything even vaguely sexual.

Grete wondered if she might not be better off if she were similarly shy.

She sighed. “…No, no. I’m just a little sensitive after all the times I’ve tried to seduce the boss and failed…”

“No, c’mon, there’s no need to get down! Your figure’s plenty—”

Lily came to an unnatural pause.

Her gaze was resting on Grete’s washboard of a chest.

“Plenty, um…”

“Yes?”

“…………………………Plenty good for cross-dressing.”

“……………”

Apparently, that was the most positive spin Lily had been able to come up with.

Realizing what a land mine she’d stepped on, Lily began talking a mile a minute. “Th-that’s some real dedication from our local master of disguise! Perfect control over her body!”

“………”

“Why, she’s such an expert she doesn’t even need a chest binder to pass as a man!”

“………”

“In fact, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say she’s cross-dressing twenty-four seven!”

Grete grabbed Lily’s hand. “Would you mind if I broke your pinkie finger…?”

“That mad, huh?” Lily yelped.

Of the two of them, though, Grete had sustained far more damage in the exchange. She freed her back from Lily, then kept leaning forward until she collapsed onto the mattress. “Curse this world; curse this world’s pain,” she groaned as she punched it.

Now that Lily had hit all her sore spots, all Grete wanted to do was cry.

She suddenly remembered something she’d said to Klaus.

“Rest easy in my bosom…” Even I realize how pitiful that must have sounded…

Objectively speaking, it was a sorry state of affairs.

If Klaus had replied, What bosom? she probably would have ended her own life on the spot.

Grete’s heart lay in tatters. Lily patted her on the back. “Don’t worry, Grete. There’s plenty attractive about you.”

Her voice was sunny and chipper.

“And no matter what happens, we’ll always be friends.”

Lily beamed as she left the room, only vaguely aware that she’d done more harm than healing.

After Lily left, Grete heaved another sigh.

She appreciated the sentiment, even if she didn’t agree with it one bit.

Attractive? I’m not attractive, not in the slightest…

She buried her face in the sheets and cradled her head in her arms. Whenever she got this depressed, it opened all her old wounds back up.

“How could I ever love a daughter as creepy as you?!”

The words were like a curse that refused to leave her. They must have played back in her mind a thousand times.

She clutched her head tight. She didn’t want to remember.

“Why can’t you just smile normally like everyone else?!”

She buried herself in the blanket to try to make the voice go away.

“I wish you’d never been born!”

However, its echo refused to fade.

Klaus read a report as he sat in his hotel room.

He’d gotten the document from one of the spy academies, and it contained Grete’s scores on a variety of tests. The grades on her written exams were all close to perfect, but her grades on the practical exams were far, far lower—with the exception of those that didn’t require direct human interaction, where she did just as well as on the written ones.

The problem was with tests like infiltration and negotiation—the one where she came in contact with others. On those, her grades were close to failing.

“I can’t deal with men.”

He had never doubted her, but the test results were further evidence that she’d been telling the truth.

Androphobia, huh…?

Grete’s father was a politician, a congressman who represented a center-left faction that enjoyed a comfortable alliance with Uwe’s left-wing radicals. Public documents listed him as having four children, three older sons and a younger daughter, and stated that the daughter had been living abroad since she was thirteen in order to recuperate from a disease.

The truth, though, was that the man had all but forced her to enroll in a spy academy.

To put it simply, he had abandoned her.

The world of politics is chauvinistic to its core. Women are expected to be amiable and pretty…and any who can’t adapt to those demands, the patriarchy denounces as worthless. It’s like its own circle of hell.

An environment like that must have been brutal on Grete.

According to her file, she herself was the one who chose the code name Daughter Dearest.

It was an ironic moniker if ever there was one.

Klaus ripped up the report and dumped the shreds on an ashtray. “That said, a few pieces of paper will never be able to tell me what’s in her heart.”

He lit a match and burned away the scraps.

“For the time being, though, I suppose I’d best finish this mission.”

With the matter summed up, he tied his unruly hair back behind his head.

“It’s time for the assassin hunt to begin.”

Over in her shack, Sara was feeding her pets.

She needed somewhere to operate out of that was removed from both the town and Uwe’s mansion, so she’d chosen an abandoned shack in the mountains to use as her base. She was accompanied by a hawk, a pigeon, a dog, and a group of mice. The way their cages filled the room was reminiscent of a pet shop.

Between delivering packages, creating diversions, and tracking people, there were a lot of ways animals could be useful in her line of work.

Even in an era as scientifically advanced as theirs, there were some things only animals could do.

When Sara had to explain her skill set to others, she called it rearing for the sake of expedience. Personally, though, she just thought of it as forging a bond of mutual trust with her pet. In fact, she and her hawk Bernard had been together since before she even joined her spy academy.

“There you go. Pork’s always been your favorite, huh?”

Bernard was something of a gourmand. He would barely touch anything other than the special feed Sara made for him.

As Sara watched him peck away at his meal, the sound of a knock echoed through the shack.

“Eep!” She froze.

Had the enemy found her?

If worse came to worst, at least she could count on Bernard to protect her. She stood beside him with her gun at the ready. Then, she heard a familiar voice. “It’s me.”

“Oh, it’s Teach.”

She opened the door and found Klaus standing outside.

Sara wasn’t totally sure how he’d been spending his time during the mission, but looking at the documents stuffed into his bag, it was clear that he was getting things done.

Sara moved the table over into the center of the room and began flipping through his papers.

As she did, she handed him the files Sybilla had stolen in turn.

Many of the assassin’s targets had been old friends of Uwe’s. The assassin themselves must have already been somewhere around him, and if not, they probably at least had a collaborator in place.

“With all this information, we should be able to zero in on a suspect soon.”

“True,” Klaus replied, then produced yet another document.

It was the details on all the political deaths they suspected Corpse of having been involved in.

“The main method Corpse uses is making it look like their targets jumped to their deaths. The fact that they don’t use weapons makes them hard to track, and most of their assassinations get written off as suicides.”

“That’s horrible…”

“The politicians they killed all worked tirelessly to revitalize our nation after the war. Each loss cuts us a little deeper…” Klaus’s expression darkened.

When you focused on what was right in front of you, it was easy to lose sight of the big picture.

This was no mere murderer they were dealing with. This was someone who was getting rid of people, shifting the course of politics, changing their nation, and reshaping the world.

By eliminating politicians who obstructed the Empire’s goals, they could get Imperial sympathizers elected in their place. That way, Galgad could control its neighbor without needing to start a costly, wasteful land war.

So this is why they call it a shadow war…

Sara gulped.

Even if they only counted the confirmed kills, Corpse was still an assassin who’d murdered dozens of people the world over. That body count didn’t just include their targets—they often killed the people around them so it wasn’t clear who exactly they’d been after. And when they were trapped, they had no qualms about murdering innocent bystanders to get away.

They were a spy of the nastiest sort—the kind with no morals whatsoever.

That was who they were up against.

Sara was furious at their foe, but at the same time, she felt a chill rise up inside her that threatened to freeze her whole.

“Sara.” Klaus called out her name. “Don’t worry. As the Greatest Spy in the World, I swear I’ll take down Corpse. There’s no need to be afraid.”

And with just that, the stiffness in her body evaporated.

The way he proudly declared himself the Greatest Spy in the World might have come across as childish, but the fact of the matter was, he had saved them time and time again.

Sara was a coward, and he was her bedrock.

Klaus, having finished what he’d come to do, nodded and turned toward the door.

“I—I…!”

The moment she saw his back, Sara blurted out. There was something she needed to tell him.

“I know it’s pathetic, but hearing that made me really relieved. Being relied on is nice and all, but to tell you the truth, I feel much safer knowing you’ve got my back…”

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“So, um, I think you should pay more attention to Miss Grete.”

Klaus turned around with a quizzical look on his face.

It was only after the words left her mouth that she realized what exactly she was trying to say. It was something that only a coward like her could say.

“What she’s doing takes a lot more courage than I think you realize.”

“………”

Klaus said nothing, and his expression was even colder and more unreadable than usual. Eventually, he let out a quiet “I see” and left Sara’s room.

Five days after the first attack, there was another.

A gunshot woke Sybilla from her sleep. She dashed up to Uwe’s bedroom and found a broken window with glass everywhere.

Luckily, Uwe was alive. He was breathing heavily and holding his rifle. He was also firing it off into the darkness, but Sybilla put a quick stop to that.

“So the assassin’s back…”

They were back, but they’d also messed up.

The shot had come from outside, so they must have been trying to hit Uwe with either the bullet or the glass from the broken window. However, due to a recent furniture rearrangement, there was no way to get a clean shot on the bed through the window.

It was weird, though. How could an assassin that skilled have screwed up the same job not once but twice in less than a week?

The bullet was sitting on the floor.

Sybilla took a closer look at it.

It was a .25-caliber round, so the assassin must have been using a pretty small gun. Eyeballing it, though, the mansion was about a hundred feet from the tree line. Only an idiot would use a gun that small for a shot like that.

Had they not been shooting to kill? That didn’t make sense, either.

She picked up the bullet with her handkerchief and pocketed it.

At that point, the other residents finally started showing up. The eminently forgettable secretary checked in on Uwe’s condition.

“Why, I barely escaped with my life.” Uwe let out a long breath. “And I have you to thank for it, White. If you hadn’t moved my bed like you did, the broken glass would have cut me to ribbons.”

Sybilla smiled. “Yeah, looks like you caught a lucky break.”

Luck had nothing to do with it, of course. Sybilla had carefully considered the placement of the window and location of the nearby trees and arranged the furniture specifically to protect against attacks from outside.

“It was the man with the hideous scars again…” Uwe snorted. “Blast it all! Next time, I’ll shoot the bastard dead!”

“Your nyctalopia’s gotten better?”

“Thanks to you all cooking for me, I’m mostly recovered. The next time he shows up, it’ll be his last.”

Due to his last two weeks’ worth of nutrient-dense meals, Uwe’s symptoms had abated significantly. On its face, that was good news, but it would’ve been better if he didn’t use it as an excuse to push himself so hard.

Sybilla stole the rifle away from him and hung it back on the wall.

“Bravery’s good and all, Mr. Appel, but in situations like this, people usually just hire guards.”

“Hmm. That might not be such a bad idea, but…”

Uwe crossed his arms in thought. He was weighing the danger he was in against his hatred of wasting money.

From Sybilla’s perspective, though, it would be a welcome turn of events. As long as whoever he hired turned up clean, adding more protection would only make their lives easier.

Suddenly, a voice rose up in protest.

“Oh, no, don’t do that.”

It was Olivia’s. At some point, she’d gotten behind them.

“We don’t know who this assassin is, so I have to say, I’m against bringing more outsiders into the mansion. I’m scared, Mr. Appel.”

She made her case persuasively, pressing on Uwe with every word and huddling up to his side.

“And also, don’t you think it would be best if we dismissed the outsiders who just showed up, too?”

Sybilla took a step forward in protest. “What’re you talking about?! I was the first one to even—”

“It seems like you three don’t get scared of anything. Why is that, I wonder?” Olivia’s voice trembled with fear. “You were all so brave during the first attack, but why? Are you used to this kind of thing? Why? Was it really a coincidence, you moving the bed like that?”

“………”

“Don’t you think we should at least do another round of background checks on them, Mr. Appel? For example, we could start by inspecting their personal effects…”

Olivia squeezed Uwe’s arm against her clothes, gazing at him from so close she could have kissed him if she were so inclined.

Uwe faltered again. He was torn between his suspicious nature and the trust he’d come to place in his new maids.

Sybilla struggled to come up with an answer. If Uwe started to have misgivings about their backgrounds, he might drive them out of the mansion altogether.

Olivia smiled triumphantly.

“That’s—”

“Be careful, ma’am…”

But right as Sybilla was about to respond, someone behind her offered a helping hand.

“…it’s dangerous to pick up glass with your bare hands like that.”

It was Grete.

It wasn’t clear when she’d gotten there, but she was watching them calmly as she cleaned up the broken glass.

Olivia silently returned her gaze. Her expression was as cold as ice, and she seemed almost annoyed. However, she soon broke into a smile.

“…You’re absolutely right, and I even cut my finger. I should go wash it off.”

With that, she opened her right hand.

A shard of glass just over an inch long tumbled to the ground.

She stepped away from Uwe with boredom on her face and headed to leave the bedroom.

The moment she passed Grete, the two of them glared at each other.

“………”

“………”

What did it mean?

Nobody else was quite sure, Sybilla included. For the time being, she decided to just help clean the room.

As she did, she quietly asked Grete a question.

“When exactly did Olivia grab that glass?”

It was almost like she’d been using it as a concealed weapon.

For an expert, a shard of glass was more than enough to slit someone’s carotid with. And not only was it useful as a weapon of last resort, it was also easy to explain away if anyone pressed them as to why they were carrying it.

There was no doubting it—that was a spy technique.

“She was right behind me, and I didn’t notice a thing. If she wanted to, she coulda—”

“Sybilla,” Grete replied gracefully. “For now, just focus on your maid work.”

The wheels in her head were already turning.

Despite her request, though, there was one thing Sybilla had to know.

“What’s Teach say to do?”

“…He said that he trusted my judgment.”

Sybilla’s eyes went wide. “He left you in charge of everything?”

Grete gave her a small nod, then busied herself with the cleaning.

Sybilla hadn’t expected that. She knew that Klaus was leaving some of the decisions to their on-the-ground discretion, but she’d had no idea just how much responsibility he was entrusting to Grete.

“………”

She stole a glance at Grete’s face in profile. Her expression was lifeless. Physical strength had never been Grete’s strong suit, and the built-up anxiety was clearly eating away at her.

And by the way, where the hell is he?

She glared off at nowhere in particular.

In the end, they didn’t finish the cleaning until late that night.

Grete rubbed her temples as she headed back to her room. She had a pounding headache, probably thanks to working day and night without rest. If she wasn’t careful, she might well pass out on the spot.

However, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down.

There were too many things she needed to think through.

In all likelihood, she won’t make her move just yet. If she does, the suspicion it would put on her would do her more harm than good. I can tell how much she hates me, but she should be too scared of the boss to try anything…

Grete had asked Sara to look into Olivia’s passport records.

She had been born in a small eastern nation, and she often took extended vacations from her work at Uwe’s to travel abroad—vacations whose destinations all overlapped with the sites of suspected Corpse kills.

Furthermore, the victims were politicians. It stood to reason that she used information she took from Uwe to get close to them.

The problem is: I still don’t have a firm grasp on her abilities… I wanted to observe her response to the attacks and use that to slowly piece together a picture of her talents, but any more would be pushing it…

The finale was fast approaching.

They were at the point where the tiniest decision could make or break the mission.

If she made one wrong move, people she cared about would die.

“………”

That realization was like a vise squeezing on Grete’s heart.

This was the burden Klaus bore. If this was the alternative, she could hardly blame him for wanting to complete all their missions solo.

He had been constantly conflicted during their last Impossible Mission, and now she had firsthand experience as to why. Up until then, she had never realized what a scary thing choosing to rely on her teammates really was.

She was hardly sleeping.

After all, every second she slept was another second she wasn’t spending refining the plan.

She could barely eat.

After all, what if a crisis struck while she was savoring her food?

Her feet felt heavy. She knew that if she wasn’t careful, she was liable to collapse. And if she did, she wasn’t confident she’d be able to get back up.

Suddenly, her foot got caught on a snag in the carpet. She nearly toppled over forward, but someone caught her.

“Hey, Grete.”

It was Lily.

As she held Grete’s shoulder, Lily studied her companion with worry in her eyes. They were right in front of the servants’ rooms. Had she been waiting for her there?

“Are you okay? C’mon, let’s get you into my room so you can rest.”

“I apologize, but I only tripped.” Grete quickly pulled herself off of Lily. “A little rest in my own bed, and I’ll be as good as—”

“No, no, no. You look like you need another massage. Don’t worry; I’ll knead you up till you’re squooshy as a jellyfish.”

Unwilling to take no for an answer, Lily corralled Grete into her room. She was the stronger of the two, and Grete had little recourse but to let herself get pushed along in.

However, part of her was a little bit glad.

That last massage Lily gave her was the real deal. Setting aside the stinging comments Lily made about her body, it had made her feel a lot—

That hesitation proved to be her undoing as Lily murmured something odd. “Got you.”

“…Huh?”

By the time Grete realized what was going on, it was too late.

“SECURE THE TARGET!” Lily bellowed.

As she clamped a hand over Grete’s mouth, Sybilla appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She must have been hiding by the door. Grete tried to struggle her way to freedom, but Sybilla grabbed her arms to prevent that. “Quiet, now,” she whispered in Grete’s ear like a mugger threatening her victim.

Eventually, they succeeded in pinning her down on Lily’s bed.

“Hyurk,” she grunted feebly.

Sara was already waiting beside the bed. She hopped up and sat on Grete’s legs. Sybilla had her right arm, and Lily had her left.

She was completely trapped.

“…May, um…may I ask what this is about…?”

“We’re mercilessly interrogating the enemy.” Lily’s voice was stern. She pulled out a large paintbrush.

Then she started using its bristles to tickle the back of Grete’s neck.

“~~~~~~~”

No matter how much she writhed, there was no escape.

“We have no sympathy to spare for the enemy.”

“D-didn’t you say just yesterday that we would always be friends…?”

“That was a lie,” Lily stated firmly.

And oh, what a cruel lie it was.

As Grete glared bitterly at her, Lily reached for Grete’s skirt.

Then, with a whoop, she tore something off of it and showed it to her.

It was a small, button-like device. Grete recognized it immediately. “You bugged me…?”

“Heh. You thought you’d be able to play me for a fool forever; well, think again.”

It was the same type as the kind they’d installed throughout the mansion.

Lily must have planted it while she was giving her that massage the previous night. In other words, she already knew exactly what Grete was up to.

Lily smiled smugly. “The scarred man—that was you in a disguise, wasn’t it?”

Sara’s and Sybilla’s eyes went wide with surprise. ““What?”” Apparently, they’d attacked her without even knowing why.

Grete was a little bit shocked.

She always assumed she would get exposed eventually, but she never imagined that Lily would be the first to figure it out.

She considered silence as an option, but then the brush ran back across her neck. “~~~~~!”

This wasn’t an interrogation. This was torture.

She sighed. “…All right, I surrender… You’re right, it was me all aloloololo~~~~~!”

Even when she tried to confess, though, she found herself getting tickled yet again.

Lily looked down at the brush in wonderment. “Wow, this is fun. So? Why’d you do it?”

“…I was going to tell you, but then I got interrupted.”

“Yeah, but your reactions were so cute I couldn’t help myself.” Lily didn’t sound even a little bit ashamed.

Luckily, that helped Grete stop feeling guilty about tricking her teammates, too.

“By pretending to be an assassin, it let me observe the staff’s reactions… That way, I could find out who had taken special training…”

That was right—Grete was the one who took those shots at Uwe and Olivia.

When gunshots rang out, trained spies instinctively braced themselves. They would pretend to be scared, but at the same time, they would also do what they had to so they didn’t get targeted. Grete had been checking to see if anyone nearby had done something like that.

It was pretty much the same as the trick Uwe himself had used. In his case, though, he acted too erratically—erratically enough that even trained spies got legitimately scared.

Lily smiled a haughty, knowing smile.

“I think it’s about time, don’t you? Time you told us what’s really going on with this mission.”

“…I can’t. This burden is mine to bear.”

“Y’know, Grete, you’re pretty incredible. At the end of the day, none of us were able to tell Teach that we wanted to help lighten his load.” Lily gave Grete’s hand a squeeze.

“But I’ll say this—we want to help lighten yours.”

When Grete looked into her gentle eyes, she finally realized how Lily had seen through her disguise. She had been carrying out her role as the leader and paying attention to when her teammates were suffering.

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Maybe, despite the self-centered facade she put on, she really did care about her teammates—and that was why she’d been named leader in the first place.

Sybilla followed Lily’s declaration with a “Yeah, that goes ditto for me,” and Sara nodded along. “Me too.” Their eyes were full of kindness.

Meanwhile, Grete’s eyes were filling with tears.

She might not have been able to meet up with the man she loved, but she never realized she had friends who cared so much about her.

Her mouth started moving on its own.

“All right, hear me out. The target, Corpse, is—”

But before she could finish, she heard something.

“So you kids were spies after all.”

The voice was completely void of emotion.

She’d cloaked her presence perfectly. Doing so was a skill that took considerable training—assassin training.

Hearing her speak was as unsettling as the feeling of a hand squeezing their hearts.

“Screw this. No more cloak-and-dagger.” The voice was coming from by the doorway.

Olivia peeked in through the small gap between the door and the wall.

Then she lobbed something through it.

A grenade.

“The window!” Grete shouted.

Sybilla was the first to act.

She grabbed Sara by the collar and gave Lily a swift kick in the rear toward their only way out of the room. Grete, now free, followed after them.

Sybilla smashed the window open with a single kick, and the four of them leaped out.

They barely had time to get around the wall before the blast came.

Flames billowed from the window, followed by shards of glass and chunks of furniture. Sybilla had grabbed a suitcase on the way out, and she used them to protect her teammates from the shrapnel. Thankfully, they’d put enough distance between themselves and the window to avoid any serious harm.

However, the unsettling voice rang out once more.

“Round two.”

Another grenade came falling toward them from overhead.

It was like she’d known exactly what escape route they’d take. Grete’s mind turned as fast as it could, but she couldn’t come up with a single way for them to escape the blast.

Right before the grenade went off, though, something swooped toward them from above.

A hawk.

After appearing out of nowhere, the hawk—Bernard—deftly snatched the grenade out of the air with his talons. He was going to carry it off into the air, then drop it somewhere far away from his owner, Sara…but he let go a moment too late.

He was still right next to the grenade when it went off.

“_______!”

Sara let out a wordless scream.

Blood sprayed through the air and splashed Grete in the face.

Shredded hawk feathers fluttered through the air.

Then what remained of the hawk crashed into the ground with an ignoble thump.

“Mr.…Bernard…?” Sara could hardly get the words out.

Olivia didn’t launch any more follow-up attacks. She’d already fled.

Nobody had expected her to make her move so soon.

“Wh—?” Lily raised her voice. “Where’s Teach? We have to get him over here!”

Grete understood all too keenly how she felt.

There were no two ways about it—if Klaus had been there, then that sacrifice wouldn’t have had to happen.

“…He’s not here…”

However, the situation was far graver than the others realized.

“Huh…?”

“…The boss isn’t coming…”

She needed to tell them. She needed to reveal the true nature of their mission.

She needed to tell them about the heartrending decision the boss had been forced to make.

“…We have to win this battle on our own…”

Sybilla’s, Lily’s, and Sara’s expressions froze.

These were by no means the circumstances Grete had expected to reveal the big secret under.

But the fact of the matter was, the Greatest Spy in the World wasn’t with them.