Spy Classroom - Volume 2 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Succession

The burial was conducted in a public cemetery.

A handsome man stood silently before the grave. His hair was long for a man’s, and wet from the rain, it stuck to his cheeks. Keeping it unfashionably long was his way of hiding his otherwise attractive looks in order to maintain a low profile, but loitering alone in a cemetery under the pouring rain in the dead of night was hardly a great way to avoid standing out.

The nature of his job meant that he normally went to great lengths to not draw people’s attention, but in that moment, his conspicuous appearance was the furthest thing from his mind.

The man was a spy.

He went by many names, but the one he used most frequently was Klaus.

Nobody was at the cemetery but him. After all, who else would come with lantern and shovel in hand to pay their respects to the dead deep in the cold, rainy night?

There was a lingering loneliness in his eyes as he stared at the headstone. There were several names carved on it, all of them common and unassuming. However, those weren’t the true names of those who lay interred below—only the false aliases the dead had used before passing.

When spies died, few of them left tangible traces of their lives behind.

They didn’t need to.

The information they gathered—their successes, their teachings, their deeds, and their will—lived on in those who survived them.

After making sure nobody was watching, Klaus plunged his shovel into the dirt and began digging up the grave, working around the coffin so as not to damage it. When he finished his work, he retrieved a white box from his pocket and softly placed it at the bottom of the hole.

“Master… I may only have this one finger of yours to bury, but rest easy.”

Once he was done paying his respects, he began shoveling the dirt back in. The hole was full again in no time.

Klaus breathed a heavy sigh.

The man he was burying was a teammate of his from the spy team Inferno, the people who took Klaus in as an orphan and raised him into an elite spy. To Klaus, they had been nothing less than his family.

The moment his thoughts turned to his old comrades, he sensed people behind him.

“Teach…”

He turned to see eight girls holding black umbrellas.

Their outfits, uniforms from a fictitious seminary school, seemed perfectly suited to a cemetery.

Klaus frowned. “There was really no need for all of you to come.”

A girl with silver hair stepped forward from the group—Lily, their leader. Lily uncorked the wine bottle in her hands and splashed some of its contents over the gravestone. Then she joined her hands and closed her eyes tight.

The girls passed the bottle around, each one pouring wine on the grave and offering a short prayer in turn. However, one of them accidentally used more than their share, and the final member to take her turn was left with barely two or three drops. They still had a lot of work to do when it came to finer details.

Still, Klaus had the utmost faith in their potential. He turned to the grave and spoke. “Just you watch, Boss. Together, the nine of us will succeed Inferno as a new spy team—Lamplight.”

No response came, but Klaus felt heard all the same.

Having finished addressing his family, he looked back over at the girls. There was something he wanted to make absolutely sure of as they stood there before the grave.

“As long as Lamplight remains active, we’ll be taking over Inferno’s duties. At the moment, our most pressing mission is finding out more about Serpent, the group that took Inferno out. It won’t be easy. Are you all sure you’re ready for this?”

The girls didn’t so much as flinch; some of them even flashed him proud smiles.

One after another, they put their resolve into words.

“So you’re sayin’ we can expect fatter paychecks, right?” “I’ve always admired Inferno.” “I’m going to save lots of people.” “I wouldn’t give you all up for the world, yo!” “Anything to stay by your side, Boss…”

Their histories, motives for becoming spies, aspirations, and feelings about the group were all different.

However, their answers were all the same.

Lily gave him a grin. “I’d go to the ends of the earth if it meant I could bloom into a worthy leader for our team.”

“Magnificent.”

Having said their piece, the girls bowed to the headstone and turned to leave. Their eyes burned with determination, and it was clear that they wanted to get back to their training as soon as possible.

As they left, Klaus shot another glance at the grave and renewed the promise he made to his mentor.

“I’ll protect them this time, I swear.”

He knew he probably wouldn’t be coming back for a while.

And he knew that his family resting beneath the headstone wouldn’t have had it any other way.