Spy Classroom - Volume 2 - Chapter Ep1

Next Mission

By the time Klaus and Grete got back to Heat Haze Palace, it was already deep into the night.

Their outing had lasted basically the whole day, and throughout it, Grete hadn’t left his side for a single moment. They went around and saw the sights, then shared a meal and chatted on the train ride home.

It wasn’t exactly clear where familial love ended and romantic love began.

As the team’s boss, was he really making the right decision? Or was he just using clever words to manipulate the situation to his benefit? His mind was plagued with doubts, but he chose to ignore them.

In life, there was never a single “correct” decision. All you could do was do right by the choices you made.

“It’s a little embarrassing, but…,” Grete confessed at one point, “…at first, I assumed that everyone on the team would fall in love with you sooner or later.”

“Now there’s a disturbing thought.”

“I thought it was only a matter of time before we started fighting over you and the team fell apart from within.”

That was pretty close to the worst outcome he could imagine.

Being on a team torn apart by love would be like hell on earth. He didn’t even want to imagine it.

“But when I disguised myself as you, I found out that the others were all rooting for us to get together…”

“I’d believe it.”

Klaus nodded. Given who she was talking about, he wasn’t surprised.

“Lamplight’s a really nice team, isn’t it…?” Grete murmured bashfully.

Once they got on the subject, they began talking about the team’s future, too. Up until then, Klaus had been pondering the matter all on his own, and he had to admit, it was kind of nice having someone to talk to about it.

Taking things easy every once in a while wasn’t half bad.

After all, the world so rarely afforded them that opportunity.

When Klaus reached the entrance, he found Lily at her wit’s end. When she spotted him, she rushed over.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he asked.

She had clearly discovered something amiss.

Klaus had a sneaking suspicion what it was about, but his guess turned out to be off the mark.

“Hey, so you said that Thea and the others were just cleaning up some loose ends, right?”

“That was the plan, why?”

Klaus had tasked them with retracing Corpse’s steps one last time and making sure they hadn’t missed anything. He’d already gone through most of the work himself, though, so he doubted they would find anything particularly noteworthy.

“They still aren’t back yet…”

Klaus turned his thoughts to the four members in question.

There was the graceful, black-haired Thea; the arrogant, cerulean-haired Monika; the innocent, ash-pink-haired Annette; and the stoic, blond-haired Erna.

All four of them were competent and skilled. He doubted they would show up late without at least calling ahead, but…

“Well, they do have Erna with them. Hopefully, they just ran into a snafu with their transportation…”

However, Klaus had a bad feeling in his gut, and in situations like those, his gut was uncannily accurate.

“But anyhow, it’s late. We’ll give them until morning.”

“But what if they still don’t show up?”

“Then we’ll find them, and we’ll treat it as a mission of the utmost priority. Make sure you’re all ready to go.”

His voice was calm, but in his heart, he was all but certain that waiting until tomorrow wouldn’t make a difference.

And sure enough, he was right.

The four girls’ whereabouts remained a mystery.

In the dead of night, a black-haired girl—Thea—quietly got up from her hotel bed.

They were a little tight on cash, so all four of them were sharing a room. The room was a double, which meant it was two girls to a bed. It was cramped, and Thea couldn’t sleep.

She took a look at the radiant figure she cast in the room’s full-length mirror.

Her voluptuous silhouette was accentuated by her long, lustrous hair. Her lips were attractively full, and when she ran her tongue over them, they shone seductively in the light. Everything was perfect. Nothing was out of place.

There’s just one problem…

Thea sighed.

…a single body isn’t going be enough to get us out of this situation…

Now then, what to do.

“You’re up.”

She heard a voice. It came from by the window.

A cerulean-haired girl smiled haughtily from her seat atop the windowsill.

She had androgynous looks and a medium build, and although her hairstyle was fairly distinctive, it was difficult to describe with words. No matter how much you looked at her, it was hard to make her image stick in your head—a feature she shared with Klaus, Guido, and many other elite spies.

The girl’s name was Monika.

She was dressed in her mission outfit, and she had clearly just gotten back. She must have come in through the open window.

“Are Annette and Erna asleep?”

“Yeah. I’m trying to remember how long it’s been since the last time I sang a lullaby… Oh, that’s right. About a month.”

“That’s not that long.”

“I was teaching it to Grete. Hmm-hmm… If she used the techniques I taught her well, she’s probably cradling Teach against her chest and singing it to him as we speak.”

“Pretty sure your advice is all gonna backfire, if you ask me.”

As she made her rude remark, Monika hopped down from the windowsill and glared at Thea.

“So?”

“So what?”

“Don’t give me that. Time’s up. Make your choice.”

Thea needed to stall her. But before she could get the words out, Monika made her move.

She took her gun and aimed it right between Thea’s eyes.

“Are you gonna betray Lamplight? If you are, I’d appreciate it if you told me.”

She flashed her most arrogant smile yet.

“I’ll need some time to get rid of your body.”

The cataclysmic situation they were in had fallen on them without any forewarning. It hadn’t so much as given Thea a chance to prepare herself.

She gulped, then stole a glance at the ash-pink-haired girl sleeping peacefully behind her—Annette.

She needed to figure out a solution.

If she didn’t do something, Lamplight was going to fall apart.