Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Appeal

“Sara, I’ll send your pets along later via courier.”

Between her long, lustrous black hair, her body’s generous curves, and the allure positively dripping from her lips and the corners of her eyes, “Dreamspeaker” Thea was attractive by just about any measure. Although she was only eighteen, you certainly wouldn’t know it by looking at her.

When Grete, Sybilla, Sara, and Lily got picked for the Corpse mission and she didn’t, Thea took the initiative and started backing them up however she could.

“I’ve also arranged for all your weapons to be delivered later under the name of a fictitious shipping company. Oh, and Sybilla, I’ll add in a first aid kit in case your arm gets worse.”

She got everything ready for them, diligently working to make sure they had everything they needed.

There was a common refrain heard around Heat Haze Palace: “Are we sure Thea isn’t team leader?”

Klaus had introduced the “leader” position somewhat arbitrarily, and for whatever reason, he had appointed Lily to it. The team had a lot of questions, not least of which was Why do we need a leader when we already have a boss? but the ultimate consensus was that it was a meaningless title Klaus had simply made up as a way to motivate Lily.

None of the girls actually thought of Lily as their leader—aside from Lily herself, who could often be heard muttering, “Heh-heh. ‘Leader’… What a beautiful ring that has.”

In truth, though, Thea was the one who acted as the team’s glue.

She had a naturally caring personality, but that wasn’t all. There was also her position as one of the two most attractive members of their ranks, as well as the way that position helped accentuate both her clear, resonant voice and her proactive approach to socializing with the others. And what’s more, she was also tied with Grete as the oldest of the girls. All those factors worked together to make her the team’s leader in everything but name.

“Good hunting, everyone. Make sure you all come back here in one piece, now, you hear?”

After working tirelessly to help them until the last possible moment, she joined her comrades as they were about to leave.

She gave her fellow Intel Squad member, Grete, one final piece of advice.

“Grete, don’t push yourself out there. Make sure you coordinate well with Teach.”

“Of course. And thank you for seeing us off.”

Then Thea spotted the pained look on Lily’s face. “Hmm? Lily, what’s wrong? You look a little down.”

“Oh, nah, it’s nothing.” Lily hurriedly waved her off, then quietly continued. “I was worried, y’know? I thought this whole selection thing might make things awkward between us all. So I was kinda surprised at how upbeat you sounded…”

“My, how unlike you. Why not just be your usual thoughtless self?”

“Phrasing!”

“Worry not, Lily. Teach picked you, and that’s reason enough to hold your head high. I promise, I’m not mad or anything. If nothing else, I’m proud of you for having your hard work acknowledged.”

Thea’s encouragement seemed to do the trick in clearing up Lily’s worries.

Her expression brightened like a flower coming into bloom—

“You got it! Chosen Wunderkind Lily, over and out and ready to get ’er done!”

—and with that, she charged right out the entrance.

The other three waved good-bye to Thea, then hurried along after her.

Thea watched them go, smiling a gentle smile designed to set their hearts at ease. And once they were gone—

“…They’re gone, right?”

—she let out a quiet whisper. She opened the door a hair and made sure Lily and the others were completely out of sight.

After that, she headed to the main hall.

She stood beside one of its sofas and took a deep breath.

Then she went completely limp, collapsed onto the sofa—

“I’M SO MAAAAAAAAAD!”

—and screamed.

“It’s too much! I can’t take it! I don’t know what to believe in anymore! I tried so hard for so long, and I didn’t make the cut! I was so sure he’d pick me! I hate it! I hate it! I hate iiiiiiit!”

She swung her arms and legs up and down, slamming them into the sofa again and again.

“Why wasn’t I good enough, huh? I put in all the work, didn’t I?”

Thea was throwing a childish tantrum.

She’d been holding it in ever since the announcement of who got selected, but now she had reached her breaking point.

All her composure had been an act. It had taken every bit of tooth gritting and fist clenching she had to resist the urge to scream.

The selection didn’t make sense to her. Why hadn’t she made the cut? How did Sybilla get the nod, considering her wound? Why had Lily, who couldn’t walk two steps without tripping over herself, been chosen over her?

Thea had a lot of questions, but one thing was abundantly clear.

“Teach doesn’t respect my skills one bit!”

And with that being the case—

“He only picked me for the team at all because he was after my body!”

—a possibility flashed through her mind.

She was onto something.

“It all makes sense now! So that’s why Teach surrounded himself with eight girls who had nowhere else to go! You know, I always thought this living situation with one guy and a bunch of girls was like one of those smutty novels! It’s obscene! Why, he’s a sex-crazed fiend! And to think, if he had come on a little gentler, I would have been like putty in his—”

“Enough of that.”

Midway through her rant, Klaus appeared out of nowhere. The moment he did, the sofa tilted to the side.

Thea tumbled to the floor. Her eyes went wide.

“T-Teach…? How much of that did you catch?”

“Is that really a question you want to be asking after shouting loud enough for the entire manor to hear?” He gave her a look of utmost exasperation.

As waves of bashfulness and shame washed over her, he went on.

“Pull yourself together. I have an important job for you.”

The world was awash in pain.

Ten years had passed since the end of the Great War, the largest war in human history. Seeing its horrors had driven the world’s politicians to turn to spy work rather than military might as their preferred way of influencing other countries.

Nations the world over poured resources into their intelligence agencies, leading to an age of shadow wars fought between spies.

Lamplight was a spy team that fought on behalf of the Din Republic.

They specialized in Impossible Missions—missions that their fellow countrymen had failed to complete—and they had just been tasked with killing an assassin named Corpse. After careful consideration, Klaus selected four of the girls—Grete, Lily, Sybilla, and Sara—and sent them to work at a major politician’s mansion.

However, he now revealed that that was merely a diversion.

“The truth is, you four are the ones who will actually be fighting Corpse.”

Thea and the other three remaining girls sat in the main hall as they listened to his announcement.

Klaus explained the situation in full.

Corpse had an ally who helped him plan and carry out his assassinations, and Grete’s team was going to go work for a big politician so they could root the ally out and expose them. By concealing the truth from Lily and the others, they would be able to trick Corpse’s ally into thinking Klaus was there, too.

“I’m bringing the four of you with me to take on Corpse.”

Thea breathed a sigh of relief. “Ah, so that’s what this was all about. Now I finally understand.”

As it turned out, she hadn’t been forsaken after all. The incongruous pieces were finally clicking into place.

“It all makes sense now. That’s a clever idea you came up with, Teach. I never doubted you for a moment.”

“You sounded pretty doubtful just a moment ago.”

“…Let’s pretend that didn’t happen.”

“Corpse is a ruthless assassin. You need to make sure you keep your cool at all times.” Klaus gave Thea a pointed look. “The most dangerous thing about Corpse is their complete willingness to kill civilians. If murdering dozens of unrelated people will let them bring down their target, they’ll do it without a second thought. Our task this mission is nonnegotiable—capture Corpse without letting a single person die.”

According to the dossier, Corpse had put down scores of the Empire’s foes, spies, and politicians alike.

“Meeting that requirement will be difficult, make no mistake. That’s why I’ve prepared a little test.”

“What kind of test?”

“The kind where if you don’t complete it by sundown, you won’t be coming on the mission.”

Thea gasped.

She could tell he was being serious. Klaus had already completed no small percent of the team’s missions solo, and despite the risks involved, he would doubtless be willing to take on Corpse the same way.

Klaus held up his palm. “The test is simple. All you have to do is touch my hand.”

Their normal itinerary was to make him say I surrender, and this task was even easier than that.

However, easier and easy were two vastly different things. This time around, they only had half a day to work with and only four members to do it with.

Thea started panicking. She didn’t know if they were going to be up to—

“I have complete confidence that you’ll be able to do it. Remember, I only chose the strongest.”

“………”

Thea could hear the earnestness in his voice, and she felt a fire welling up inside her.

He’s right… After all, I won. I mean, no offense to the four who didn’t get picked, but my skills were recognized.

She clenched her fists tight.

After handling all their missions on his own for so long, Klaus was finally ready to rely on them, and if that wasn’t enough of an honor already, she was one of the four chosen ones. Anyone would feel joy at receiving acknowledgment from someone as skilled as him.

She could do this.

She was going to pass his test, and she was going to take down Corpse.

“Just you wait. That was a pretty sorry display I put on just now, but that’s all behind me. I won’t let you down.”

“Magnificent.”

As she watched Klaus nod in satisfaction, Thea combed back her hair with her hand.

Her heart pounded, and she turned around to inspire her teammates.

“All right, everyone! Let’s get this strategy meeting underway! With our skills, I’m sure we can—,” Thea trailed off.

“…Huh?”

She cocked her head.

They were gone. Her three teammates, who’d just been sitting on the sofa, were nowhere to be seen.

“………………………”

She was at a loss for words.

Had they seriously gone back to their rooms? When the discussion wasn’t over? What were they planning on doing about the test?

“There’s something you should know.” Klaus’s voice was matter-of-fact. “The four of you I picked are all extremely skilled. Aside from you, though, their teamwork leaves a lot to be desired.”

“But…”

“Monika, Erna, and Annette all ran into problems in their academies due to how poorly they worked together with others.”

And there she had it.

Now that he mentioned it, he was right. All the Lamplight members who excelled at cooperation were gone.

“If we’re going to fight Corpse, your teamwork needs to be rock-solid.”

“Oh, I absolutely agree, but you can’t mean…”

Thea had a bad feeling about this. Klaus walked away almost evasively, and as he reached for the door, he gave her one final order.

“Bring the team together, Thea.”

“…This is the ‘important job’ you were talking about?”

Realizing that her task was even harder than first advertised, Thea let out a deflated moan.

Thea cradled her head in her hands as she walked down the hallway.

…Now that I think about it, all the times I acted as a leader were when we had the whole team there.

She was well aware of the leadership role she held. As one of the oldest members of the group, she felt she had a responsibility to look out for her younger allies who hadn’t totally outgrown childhood yet.

She definitely had qualms about the fact that Lily had been chosen as the team’s official leader, but the leader in question had been so delighted by the designation that Thea had chosen to honor Klaus’s choice by supporting the team in secret. She knew that was the mature thing to do. That girl nobody really respected could take the credit while Thea kept the team on the rails.

Thea didn’t have any complaints about her role. At the moment, though, it left her in a bit of a pickle.

Lily and Sybilla aren’t here to lighten the mood…

The two of them caused her a fair amount of worry, but the way they held the team’s spirits up was undeniable. Lily’s antics kept things upbeat, and that combined with Sybilla’s lively snark had become something of a regular routine of theirs. When you added in Sara’s adorable reactions, it was hard not to have a smile on your face.

Now that they were gone, Thea realized for the first time just how much of an asset that had been.

And to make matters worse, Grete was one of the only people capable of holding a decent conversation. With her absence, the team was basically in shambles.

Plus, the remaining members all have a few screws loose…

Thea squeezed her brow as she continued onward.

I suppose I should start with the easiest one to talk to and work my way up.

She headed to her first target’s room, but for some reason, it was empty. It didn’t look like she had gone out for a walk or anything, but she definitely wasn’t there. After wandering around for a bit, Thea heard noise coming from—of all places—Lily’s room.

She opened the door and found her target lying on Lily’s bed.

“What, you need something?”

It was the cerulean-haired girl: Monika, code name Glint.

She had a medium build and no notable characteristics to speak of. Her entire appearance was designed to avoid giving off any hint of her personality. The one distinctive thing about her was her asymmetrical hairstyle, but even that was difficult to succinctly describe.

She looked completely average, and yet she didn’t look like anything at all. It was like her very presence was aloof.

She inclined her head toward Thea without getting up.

“Do I need something?” Thea planted a hand on her hip. “Well, for starters, what are you doing in Lily’s room?”

“Investigating.”

“Investigating what?”

Monika was holding a pencil and scrawling on a notepad as she reclined.

“I figured I should go back over things, now that everyone’s gone.”

“Go over Heat Haze Palace, you mean?”

“It’s nothing important, though. What do you want?”

Monika changed the subject, clearly not keen to reveal any more than that.

“I want to talk things over. I thought that would be obvious. We need to figure out how we’re going to pass this test.”

“C’mon, do we really need to talk that over?”

“Don’t you want to pass the test?”

“Sure I do, but working together with you all isn’t going to be enough to get me there.”

“Well, don’t just go deciding that on your own!”

That was it, right there.

That was Monika’s personality flaw: her shameless arrogance.

She constantly looked down on her teammates, didn’t have a humble bone in her body, and was as rude as all get out. She had the skills to back up her attitude, but that only pissed off the people around her more. Thea also had complicated feelings about the fact that, at sixteen, Monika was two years her junior.

“You can brag all you want; you’ll just make a fool of yourself.” Thea raised her voice. “If you’re here in Lamplight, it means you washed out of your academy like the rest of us.”

“I told you, remember? I was pulling my punches, that’s all.”

“Oh? And what about the little birdie who told me you couldn’t play well with others?”

“That’s not it. They just couldn’t keep up with me.”

“Heh. That sounds like an excuse, is what that sounds like.”

“………”

Monika went silent.

Did the jab land? Thea had been intentionally trying to get under Monika’s skin, but Monika’s expression was as level as ever.

Monika held out her hand.

“Gimme a coin,” she said. “I’ll flip; you call.”

“And if I call it right, you’ll help us?”

“If you call it wrong, you leave me alone.”

Thea tossed her a coin, and Monika flipped it without so much as sitting up. A satisfying cling rang out as the coin spun up into the air.

When it reached its apex—

“Heads.”

—Thea called it.

The coin descended…only to land upright in a crack in the floor.

“______!”

“Can you leave now? I’m gonna work alone.”

Monika waved Thea off in annoyance. By the look of it, she had pulled that unbelievable stunt intentionally. She didn’t even seem surprised at the result.

She returned to her notepad, having lost all interest in Thea.

Talking things over with Monika had ended in failure, so Thea turned to door number two.

Unlike Monika, the problem with Thea’s second target didn’t lie with their own personality. In her case, the issue was with her interpersonal skills.

When Thea returned to the main hall, she found the girl she was looking for lurking behind the sofa with the top of her head peeking up from its back. It was a rather surreal sight, seeing a sofa with a partial head of blond hair.

“Erna, do you mind if we chat for a minute?”

Thea spoke softly so as not to scare Erna as she approached her.

All of a sudden, the blond hair whooshed as Erna scampered over behind a different sofa. She reminded Thea of a rabbit hiding in a patch of brush.

“Errrnaaaa! ♪” She tried again.

However, the blond head of hair skillfully fled once more. Her reflexes were impressive. By the time Thea finishing taking a single step, Erna was already gone and hiding behind a new sofa. Thea tried and tried, but she could never get so much as a decent glimpse of her quarry’s face.

She continued undeterred, and eventually—

“Ow!”

—the blond yelped.

One of her shoes had slipped clean off. It tumbled through the air, its shoelace torn in two in a stunning display of misfortune. Thea’s target collapsed facedown onto the carpet.

After soaring through the air, the shoe ultimately landed directly atop the target’s head. She let out a dejected murmur. “How unlucky…”

It was the blond-haired girl: Erna, code name Fool.

At long last, Thea was able to get a good look at her. Her childish looks belied her fourteen years of age, and her bright-blond hair and near-translucent skin made one think of a beautiful little doll.

She was also exceedingly shy.

After redonning her shoe, she hid back behind the sofa.

“You know, if you keep running away like that, you’re going to hurt my feelings.”

“…I’m sorry.” The voice rose up from the other side of the sofa. “But I’m calmer when I don’t have to look people in the eye.”

“I see. Don’t you normally talk just fine, though?”

“Urk… That’s the last thing an antisocial person likes to hear…”

“Antisocial? How do you mean?”

“There are all sorts of different types, but…in my case, I get talkative with people I’m close to, and I can talk in group settings just fine, and if I work up my courage, I can greet people I pass on the street.”

“That sounds plenty social to me…”

“But! The scariest thing is talking one-on-one with teammates I’m not that close with yet!”

“Ah, so it’s complicated.”

“Plus, being told that I normally talk just fine is the most embarrassing thing of all!”

The visible bit of Erna’s head quivered.

Apparently, antisocial people each had their own particular quirks.

Erna’s predisposition for unluckiness—which was actually a predisposition for self-flagellation, apparently?—had caused her to grow up without developing proper social skills. In a sense, it wasn’t really her fault.

“The only people I can really talk to are Teach and Big Sis Sara.”

Upon hearing Erna’s explanation, Thea shook her head. Sara wasn’t there. She was going to have to lead the conversation herself.

“What if we started with something simple, then?”

“I-I’ll do my best.”

At long last, Thea managed to get a concession out of her teammate.

However, that much made sense. Erna’s interpersonal skills might have been lacking, but she was fundamentally a friendly person.

“For example… What do you and Teach usually talk about?”

“Nothing special.” The words came sparingly—and only a few at a time. “Mostly just the weather.”

“Well, that’s nice. It takes two people with good chemistry to be able to have a good conversation about the weather.”

Either that or two people who were both terrible at conversations.

Thea suspected the latter was true here, but she chose not to voice that opinion aloud.

“Do you think you like Teach?”

“…I don’t really get love. I tried asking Big Sis Sara about it, but that didn’t help much.”

“Oh, so that’s the kind of stuff you and Sara talk about?”

“Big Sis Sara is really nice. She always sticks by my side.”

It was clear from Erna’s voice just how much she trusted their brown-haired teammate.

Lamplight was home to all sorts of loud personalities, so it made sense that she would find it comforting to be around someone like Sara.

Thea had a better understanding of the team’s interpersonal relationships now. Over in the Specialist squad, Sara probably took on a sort of mediator role, and from what Thea had heard, she had a decent handle on one of the team’s other difficult girl, as well.

Thea had saved the hardest for last, and if she wanted to win her over, she would need to start by getting Erna on her side.

The two or three pieces of small talk they’d gotten through should have lowered Erna’s guard. It was time to get to the heart of the matter.

“By the way, Erna, about that test we’re supposed to do—”

“Wow. I was actually able to talk for five whole minutes…”

As it turned out, it was actually Thea whose guard was down.

Erna looked at the ceiling with a vacant expression. Her voice was thick with fatigue.

“I’m tired now, so I’m going to take a nap.”

“After just five minutes?”

Thea did her utmost to talk Erna out of this plan, but Erna was having none of it.

With keen, nimble movements, she fled the main hall.

Thea’s legs felt like lead.

Two strikeouts in a row.

She had known it wasn’t going to be easy, but she never imagined it would be this difficult. Those were the two more stable members she had to work with, and she hadn’t even gotten through to them.

Rock-solid? We aren’t rock anything…

At the moment, Corpse was the least of their concerns. They were falling apart before they’d even gotten to the starting line.

And worse, this last girl is the one who worries me most of all.

She was, without a doubt, the biggest problem child on Lamplight.

Although their entire team was composed of academy washouts, this last girl managed to stand out even among their ranks.

No, no. I mustn’t give up before I even try talking to her. We’re teammates, aren’t we? I’m sure I can get through to her!

Thea tried to encourage herself so she could push past her back-to-back losses.

I can do it. I know I can! Teach wouldn’t have picked me if I wasn’t up to the job!

She gave her cheeks a clap and headed for the last girl’s bedroom.

The room was tucked away in a back corner of Heat Haze Palace. Its occupant had originally picked a room closer to the manor’s center, but a series of noise complaints had led to her forceful relocation. The room’s resident cared little about privacy, and she always left her door wide open. Sleeping, changing, it didn’t matter to her.

Thea knocked on the wall, then stepped in.

Her target was sleeping in the middle of the room…suspended from the ceiling.

“……………”

The acrid smell of oil assaulted Thea’s nose.

The room was by no means small, and it was stacked high with miscellaneous gadgetry. Most of it looked like junk, but looks could be deceiving. Either way, though, the engines, gears, copper wire, and springs were all pieced together and piled into veritable mountains. If Thea strained her eyes, she could just barely make out what looked like a bed peeking out from beneath the miscellanea.

It would seem there was so much scrap lying around that the room’s bed had become unusable, leading its resident to set up a hammock to use instead. However, half her body had fallen out of it, leaving her in the current state of suspension.

“Come on, Annette, rise and shine. If you nap too much, you won’t be able to sleep well at night.”

Thea jostled the girl’s shoulders, fighting against the urge to just give up and leave.

The hanging girl’s eyes snapped open, and she wriggled her legs free from the hammock they were tangled up in. It looked as though she was going to fall, but she twisted her body at the last moment and landed gracefully atop the floor.

“I’m up, yo!”

It was the ash-pink-haired girl: Annette.

Annette’s appearance was so conspicuous it was hard to believe she was actually a spy. She was long overdue for a haircut, and her hair hung in a pair of pigtails that curled as though through force of will. Due to some sort of old injury or something, she could never be found without her eye patch. It would be hard to find a single spy anywhere more immediately identifiable than her.

She was super adorable…as long as she didn’t open her mouth.

“Say, Annette, can we—?”

“Oh, hey, Sis.” Annette cut her off and gave her an angelic smile. “That thing you’re standing on is a bomb I made, yo.”

“You have what just lying around?!”

“Well, from your right, there’s Stun Gun Knife Mk. 4, the Fountain Pen Mega Blowtorch, a bazooka that can destroy anything, Super Parachute Mk. 3—”

“I wasn’t asking for an inventory!”

Thea hurriedly distanced herself from the gadgets strewn across the floor. Apparently, all of them were Annette’s inventions.

It felt like walking through a minefield, but she eventually reached a spot where the floor was visible.

“By the way, Annette, can I ask why you went back to your room just now?”

Annette picked up the empty milk bottle lying on the ground and lifted it up high. “I wanted some warm milk.”

“I see…” Thea couldn’t work up the will to get mad at her. She didn’t know where to start. “Next time you wander off, I want you to make sure you tell me first.”

“You got it!”

“This mission isn’t going to be easy. Are you sure you’re ready for it?”

“You got it!”

“…You aren’t just blowing me off, are you?”

“Nope!”

“Jump.”

“You got it!” Annette hopped into the air.

“Spin.”

“You got it!” Annette twirled to the side.

“Strip.”

“You got it!” Annette started to take off her clothes, but Thea put a quick stop to that.

She was at a loss.

“How does this girl’s brain even work?”

That was one of Annette’s other notable characteristics—she was innocent to a fault, free-spirited as could be, and utterly inscrutable.

She would take things at face value that she really should have questioned. She would go on dangerous missions without so much as faltering. She would accept bizarre orders and carry them out without hesitating. But then, just when you thought you had her figured out, she would refuse requests for no reason at all and go off and do her own thing. She also had curiosity in spades and could often be found building inventions that defied all rhyme and reason.

According to Klaus, Annette didn’t remember anything from before she enrolled in her spy academy. Her code name was Forgetter, and she certainly lived up to it. Her papers listed her as being fourteen, but her actual age was a mystery as she’d been taken in by the state with no memories or birth certificate.

Not only was she herself inscrutable, her background was, too. Such was the nature of this girl Annette.

I need to figure out some way to start a dialogue with her…

As Thea brooded over what to do, Annette tilted her head and gave her a quizzical look.

“Not feelin’ good, Sis?”

“I suppose I’ve felt better, yes.”

Without even a hint of reservation, Annette slapped Thea’s cheek, then backhanded it for good measure. Afterward, she gave her diagnosis. “According to me, you don’t have a cold.”

Her speech patterns, appearance, and actions all defied explanation.

However, she had just expressed concern about Thea’s well-being. She clearly at least cared about her teammates. Thea chose to bet on that one ray of hope.

“You know, Annette, I’m having some trouble with Teach’s test. Could you help me out?”

“I tried that already, yo.”

“You did?”

Now, that was a surprise.

Thea had assumed she’d forgotten all about the test. Perhaps she was taking this more seriously than Thea had given her credit for.

“What did you do? How did you approach it?”

“I asked Klaus, ‘Bro, can I touch your hand?’”

“Uh…”

“He said no, though.”

Of course he did. Wouldn’t be much of a test otherwise.

“I’m so mad, I’m going to bed!”

With that, Annette hopped back into the hammock. Once again, half her body slipped out and left her dangling in the air, but she went to sleep like it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

“……………”

The sound of Thea’s heart snapping in two echoed through the room.

“I can’t do it… There’s no way I can corral those three… It can’t be done…”

Thea squatted in front of the cage full of mice.

She had believed that her leadership skills would allow her to bring her uncooperative teammates together, but that dream lay dashed. Now she realized just how much her past achievements had hinged on the efforts of her currently absent allies. On her own, she could barely even get her teammates to talk to her.

It hurt. She wanted to cry. She wanted someone to swoop in and save her.

“…I’m doing my best, but they just won’t help me…”

“Well, don’t come crying to me about it.”

The blunt response she got came from the person beside her who was gently carrying the mice—Klaus.

The two of them were at the animal pen just outside of Heat Haze Palace proper.

It had originally been used as a storehouse, but Sara—the girl who specialized in dealing with animals—had remodeled it so she could keep her pets there. There would normally have been a dog and a hawk there, too, but they were off on a mission with Sara, so the pen was currently empty save for a quintet of mice.

“I have to get these mice to the handler by this afternoon. I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this right now.”

There was a hint of annoyance in Klaus’s voice.

They would be leaving Heat Haze Palace tomorrow, so there would be nobody there to look after Sara’s animals. They would need someone to watch them until Lamplight got back—presuming that Thea and the others could pass Klaus’s test, of course.

In order to get ready for that, the team’s boss was making the necessary preparations himself. He didn’t so much as turn to look at Thea.

“Between this and that unsightly display earlier, you really need to work on your mental fortitude.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

This wasn’t the first time a minor setback had sent Thea into a tailspin. Throughout the team’s training with Klaus, she often ended up sulking after their losses.

“Say, Teach…” Thea’s voice took on a sultry tone. “…Don’t you think you could gently console me?”

“No.” Klaus shot her down in heartbeat.

She glared at him resentfully. “This is the first time a man’s ever been so cruel to me when I was down.”

“And what did all the other men do?”

“Oh, they were just lovely. They would compliment me aaaaall night long.”

“Maybe that coddling is what made you so fragile.” Klaus’s blunt comment earned him another angry glare.

Thea knew she was attractive. Men always turned to stare when she was out and about, and with a tiny bit of work, she could start a relationship with over 90 percent of them. Lamplight had plenty of attractive young women in its ranks, and she prided herself on the fact that she was an easy top-two-er when it came to looks.

However, Klaus was like a brick wall.

Thea had tried to seduce him time and time again, but she had yet to get so much as a rise out of him.

“Have you considered exercising some self-control? As I recall, this is why your grades plummeted back at your academy.”

“Look, that was hardly my fault. How was I supposed to know that the teacher I was going out with was married?”

“From what I hear, things got kind of ugly.”

“You can say that again. I definitely learned my lesson there.”

That was what had earned Thea the label of washout.

Whenever she went into town, she used it as an opportunity to sleep with men, and sometimes, those men happened to include her academy’s male faculty. The way she saw it, it was all part of her training as a female spy, but one of her other teachers got mad at her impropriety and unjustly tanked her grades.

“In any case, I’m not taking you along if you can’t pass the test. This mission will prove lethal if your teamwork isn’t up to par.” Klaus’s voice was firm. “If worse comes to worst, I’ll have to do it on my own.”

“……”

“However, doing that will make it more dangerous. It’ll mean Corpse will have more opportunities to kill innocent bystanders.”

Thea let out a small moan at being reminded of the gravity of her task.

If they failed this test, people would die. That was the responsibility they bore as spies.

It was hard to imagine the superhuman Klaus actually losing to Corpse, but Corpse was all too willing to kill bystanders in order to mask their targets or make their getaway. Preventing that was going to take manpower.

“…………”

Thea reached for Klaus’s hand as he continued working.

He effortlessly slipped away.

She tried the brute-force approach a couple more times, but she was no match for his speed. She even knocked over a bucket of water and let out a suggestive cry, but Klaus ignored her. He had no interest in the way her wet skirt clung to her skin and natural curves.

Sure enough, she wasn’t going to be able to do this alone.

She needed her teammates’ help.

The problem was: How was she going to get it? How could she get them to work together when she couldn’t even get any of them to hold a conversation?

“Thea.” As she gnawed on her lip in frustration, Klaus called over to her. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. As I recall, you knew a surprising amount about Inferno. Why is that?”

That was a rather abrupt change of subject.

“Hmm? Oh, yes.” Thea nodded. “The thing is, I actually met them once.”

She had told him several times about how much she admired Inferno.

“Seven years ago, Inferno saved my life. Do you not remember that incident where Imperial spies kidnapped the only daughter of a major newspaper’s president, Teach?”

“…I’m not sure. I might have been on a different mission at the time.”

“I don’t remember you being there, so that might have been it. It was a woman with crimson hair who told me about Inferno.”

A smile spread across Thea’s face.

“I couldn’t sleep, so she told me stories. She was the nicest person I ever met. She isn’t just my savior; she’s my idol.”

Klaus glanced at her in surprise. “A woman with crimson hair? Using classified state secrets as bedtime stories? She’s an unconventional one, that’s for sure.”

“I suppose it is odd, isn’t it? Does that description ring any bells for you?”

“It does. That was code name Hearth, Inferno’s boss.”

Thea let out a little yelp of shock.

The woman had been fairly young, so Thea assumed she was just a lowly grunt. She never would have taken her for the boss of such a legendary spy team.

Klaus’s eyes softened as nostalgia colored his expression.

“Thea, do you think Inferno’s members always got along?”

“I never really thought about it…”

“We were as close as family, but there were still times we got under each other’s skin or didn’t see eye to eye. In fact, we fought all the time. The boss was a kind person by nature, but in arguments, she was as stubborn as a bull. We all had different opinions on things, so getting us on the same page was no easy feat, and we constantly butted heads.”

“I have to say, that’s pretty different from how I pictured it…”

“However, I don’t think that was a bad thing at all,” Klaus noted. “Enjoy that discord. Differences between allies are the key to a strong team.”

The advice left a keen impression on Thea.

Klaus went on. “I cribbed that quote off the boss. The best approach is to butt heads with your teammates directly.”

Now that she knew those words were Hearth’s, she could feel them strike her right in the heart.

Immediately after leaving the animal pen, Thea spotted Monika.

In her hand, she was holding a wrench. Thea wanted to call out to her, but Monika headed back into the manor before she got a chance.

I wonder what she’s been doing all this time?

Monika had said she was going to work alone, but it still annoyed Thea how she hadn’t revealed anything more than that.

Thea brooded for a moment, then decided to head for Lily’s room. That was where Monika had been earlier when she talked about “investigating.” Thea wanted to see if she could figure out what Monika had been looking into.

In contrast with its owner’s personality, Lily’s room was spick-and-span, and the chemical vials on her shelf were lined up in neat rows. It was clear that, as a poisoner, she had the proper level of respect for how dangerous her tools were. She might not have looked it, but she was diligent where it counted.

The only thing out of order was the single scrap of paper lying on the ground. It was hard to imagine it being Lily’s.

Is that from Monika’s notepad…?

The first thing she found when she picked up and unfurled it was a list.

Taps: garden, kitchen, private bathroom, communal bath [X], bathroom

It was information about Heat Haze Palace.

It was unclear why Monika was choosing to investigate that after they’d been there for so long, and the X mark next to “communal bath” was a mystery as well. There wasn’t one next to Klaus’s private bathroom—just the girls’ larger one.

As Thea skimmed the memo for other information of note, she found something that was even more of a surprise.

Lily: larger than other bedrooms. Old boss’s room?

Thea looked up with a start.

Monika was investigating Inferno?

Just as the note said, Thea got the sense that Lily’s room was a bit larger than all the others. That was due to its corner position on the second floor, no doubt. The room’s upholstery was also all ornate, and it was clear at a glance just how high quality the bed was.

It was the kind of room that belonged to the person at the top of the residents’ pecking order.

“Lily’s bedroom was Ms. Hearth’s bedroom?”

The room got a lot more sunlight than Klaus’s, too.

As thoughts of how Lily shrewdly seized the manor’s best room for herself and how Klaus still solitarily refused to change rooms himself swirled through Thea’s mind, she surveyed the room in a daze.

My idol lived here… The person who made me want to become a spy…

That woman had saved her from the depths of hell itself.

She had been as warm as the sun, she had soothed Thea’s terrified heart, and on top of that, she had been as fierce as hellfire herself. Thea couldn’t help but be taken with her.

She still remembered the promise that woman had made her.

“If you hone that special talent of yours, you’ll be the strongest spy around.”

“But the thing is: I don’t want you to become just any old spy.”

“I want you to become a hero.”

“If you can do that, then I’m sure we’ll meet again. And when we do, I’ll prepare a wonderful present for you.”

That reunion never ended up happening, but Hearth’s words still lived on in Thea’s heart.

She had followed Hearth’s instructions and continued training her special ability. All those past relationships hadn’t been for pleasure. She had done it to polish her skills. And no matter how many times her spirit had gotten crushed, she had never stopped striving toward that ideal.

She was going to become a hero.

A hero, just like that crimson-haired spy who saved her.

“Ms. Hearth, you butted heads with your teammates, too, but that didn’t stop you, did it?”

Thea’s head was back in the game.

She stood in her idol’s room and swore an oath. Right now, what she needed was the sheer self-assertiveness to make success an inevitability.

“You protected this nation’s people before, and now it’s my turn to hold the line. And I’m going to use the skill you helped me discover to do it.”

An elegant smile spread across Thea’s face as she made her proclamation.

“I’m code name Dreamspeaker—and it’s time to lure them to their ruin.”

Erna stood in the kitchen cooking lunch. There was no sense trying to pass a test on an empty stomach.

Even with half the girls gone, they still took turns preparing meals. It was important that they cook their food themselves. From what Erna heard, Lily and the others were currently working as maids. Being able to cook was an important part of a spy’s arsenal.

“…………………”

However, she was having trouble focusing. Her head was somewhere else entirely.

That was one of Erna’s habits—holding mental postmortems.

I ended up running away from Big Sis Thea…

Erna was truly down about that. She shouldn’t have been so rude.

I should have stayed and kept talking, shouldn’t I have…?

She should have kept up her end of the conversation better. She should have given Thea a cute smile. Regrets washed over her one after another.

Even Klaus had told her she needed to get better at working with her teammates.

Back when they beat Guido, Erna had successfully pulled off a tag team with Lily. However, a large part of their synergy was simply due to Lily’s complete disregard for other people’s boundaries. Erna had barely had to do anything.

It would be awesome if she could work together with the others like that again, but—

Yeah, “but.”

Before she could work up her resolve, she lost heart again.

If I get them caught up in my misfortune, they’ll just abandon—

Right as that old niggling doubt started working its way through her mind like a curse, she heard a voice from behind her.

“Oh, if it isn’t Erna.”

“Yeeep!” Erna hadn’t even noticed anyone coming.

Thea chuckled. “There’s no need to look so startled. Are you on cooking duty today? Where’s your partner?”

“It was supposed to be Big Sis Monika. She left a note that said BRB and disappeared.”

“What, she blew you off?” Thea puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

She was clearly trying to come across as joking and friendly, but it ended up having the opposite effect. Having her personal space invaded by someone she wasn’t that close with sent Erna’s heart pounding.

The kitchen was small. She had nowhere to run.

When Erna realized she was subconsciously trying to figure out an escape route, she shook her head.

N-no, I can’t. I have to be brave…

She opened her mouth to try to get the words—any words—out, but Thea beat her to the punch with a quiet laugh.

“Erna, do you want to become close with me?”

Her voice had a very grown-up ring to it. Erna felt as though the words were coiling their way across her skin.

“Be honest. Would you want to be close with me, even if it meant baring your innermost secrets?”

“I…” Erna hesitated for a moment. “…I do. I want to.”

“Okay. Then, can you be strong for three seconds?”

“Huh?”

“Can you look me in the eye for that long?”

Thea reached for Erna as she spoke. Erna instinctively started to flee, but she was able to fight off the urge.

Thea covered Erna’s cheeks with her hands, practically swaddling them. Her fingers were cool on Erna’s skin.

They looked like a couple about to kiss as Thea tilted Erna’s face up and gazed at her, her eyes as clear as polished obsidian.

“Just like that.” Thea’s sweet whisper seeped into Erna’s brain, which was on fire with embarrassment.

It was only going to be three seconds long.

To Erna, though, it felt like several minutes.

Had all the world’s lovers gone through the same thing, Erna wondered? Her heart was beating out of her chest. It was like Thea’s eyes were seeing right through her.

A slight chill ran across her skin.

It felt like Thea was peering directly into her heart.

“Erna.” Thea’s beguiling lips moved. “You really are adorable.”

The three seconds were up, and Thea released Erna from her grasp.

Erna took a deep breath. She had tensed up so much she’d forgotten to breathe.

What was that all about, she wondered? As she stood there in a daze, Thea said something she could never have expected.

“You want a big sister, don’t you?”

“Wha—?”

“That’s why you call us all Big Sis, isn’t it? What a needy girl you are. And you realize it, too. You realize that most fourteen-year-olds have grown up a whole lot more than you have. That must be hard on you. Wanting more and more to have someone dote on you, but having to make sure you control yourself and never let that feeling show…”

Thea laid it all out, not sparing any detail.

There was a fair amount of teasing and ridicule in her voice that lanced right into Erna’s heart.

Erna’s chest tightened.

Everything Thea just said was completely and totally true.

“That’s…” As her anxiety rose, Erna spoke up. “That’s not it… I just don’t want to drag people into my misfortune…”

“Sure, and that’s why your wish never came true. No matter hooow long you waited.” Thea laughed mockingly. “What a child you are.”

Erna’s face went red.

An emotion welled up inside her so violently she couldn’t even tell if it was shame or rage.

Why does she have to say those things?

Erna had lost her family at a young age. A fire broke out and claimed the lives of her parents, her elder sister, and her elder brother, leaving her the sole survivor. While other kids were growing up playing with their moms and their dads, Erna grew up alone.

Deep down, she wanted to be doted on, but she had spent her life suppressing that desire.

She thought it wasn’t fair that she, and only she, managed to survive, and she’d been a prisoner to that belief for years.

Her brother and sister would never get a chance to smile again. It wouldn’t be fair if only she got to be happy.

That was what had caused her to subconsciously seek punishment and why she was so drawn to accidents. The reason she had thrown herself headfirst into the harsh world of spycraft was because of her jumbled-up feelings of self-hatred and desire for atonement.

Why does she have to laugh at my pain?!

“That’s not true. I—!”

“It’s okay. I’ll be your big sister.”

Thea cut off Erna’s angry shout by forcefully wrapping her in a hug.

Erna found herself pressed against Thea’s plump bosom. A gentle, nostalgic aroma invaded her nostrils.

“None of the others have to know about this, and if you want to cry, they don’t have to know about that, either. Anything for my adorable little sister.”

“I…”

“There’s no need to be shy. Just be honest with yourself. It’s okay to let go.”

Thea whispered right in her ear. Her lips were so close they were almost touching her, and her voice felt like it was resonating directly in Erna’s brain.

“I can grant all the secret wishes you can’t bring yourself to share.”

The violent emotion that had welled up in Erna started fading.

Thea gently stroked Erna’s back. Her fingers were gentle and comfortable. In all her life, nobody had ever touched Erna like that before.

Chills ran down Erna’s spine. She wondered if they were from fear. It felt like her whole self was going to get overwritten.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to fight it.

The faintly mocking sound of Thea calling her “little sister” still lingered in Erna’s ears. The sweet, addictive tenor wormed its way into the cracks of her wounded heart.

That was as far as her thoughts went before she gradually stopped thinking altogether. The feeling of Thea’s soft chest was like being curled up in a warm blanket. Erna’s mind went blank.

The strength faded from her body, and she surrendered herself to her teammate.

Erna went limp in Thea’s arms, her eyes vaguely empty.

Thea glanced down, then breathed a sigh of relief.

It worked.

She rarely used her ability on women or people younger than her, much less her own allies, but it looked like it had done the trick. That much was clear from the warmth she felt from Erna’s body. All her worries about Thea had melted away.

After waiting a suitable amount of time, Thea let go of Erna. Erna seemed reluctant to leave her embrace, but after Thea gave her head a few pats, her face went red, and she got back to preparing lunch.

When Thea left the kitchen, she found Monika leaning against the hallway wall with an indignant look on her face.

“What’d you do to Erna?”

She must have seen all that. It made sense; after all, she was supposed to be on cooking duty.

Thea shook her head briefly.

“Just a little trick of mine, that’s all. Nothing worth writing home about.”

Thea had a special ability—the ability to see people’s desires.

She could tell what they lusted for. What they coveted.

She wasn’t able to get exact details, but she could generally get the broad strokes and figure out anything from a person’s twisted fetishes to their secret aspirations. When she took that information and offered her target something corresponding with their desires, such as money or her body, she could have most people in the palm of her hand.

In short, she specialized in negotiations.

That was the skill Hearth had recognized in her.

“Would you like me to teach it to you? I know the perfect technique for winning men over, and I’d be more than happy to share it.”

“That’s gonna be a no from me.”

“Oh, no, it’s really all right. I’ll have you know that I taught Grete everything she knows about seduction!”

“So you’re the mastermind behind those pathetic displays of sexual harassment?”

“Don’t call it pathetic! She’s trying her best!”

Monika gave her a derisive sneer. “I don’t need to learn your trick. It looks like a pain to use, and if it was actually that good at winning people over, you’d have beaten Klaus with it ages ago.”

“It’s depressing how quick on the uptake you are…”

Sure enough, Monika was right. Thea’s technique had a condition attached.

To use it, she had to lock eyes with her target for three seconds.

Against men with ulterior motives for her, that requirement was more or less trivial. However, Klaus was so wary she hadn’t been able to pull it off on him a single time, and in any sort of combat situation, it was as good as useless.

Once she cleared that hurdle, though, the skill was all but unbeatable.

Even Monika, for all her arrogant posturing, would be helpless before it.

Monika let out a small laugh. “What’s with that look?” She had sensed that something was up, and a belligerent expression spread across her face. “You gonna try it on me? Go for it. See if you can tame me.”

“I won’t; don’t worry. I wouldn’t use it on a teammate without their permission.”

That was a rule Thea had set for herself.

No good could come of rudely peering into her friends’ hearts.

“Monika, if you’re not going to help us, then fine. We’ll work alone, too. Just make sure you don’t get in our way.”

“Well, that’s boring.” Monika stretched her arms up toward the ceiling. The gesture positively dripped with scorn. “If you’re that pissed at me, you should’ve just made me submit by force.”

“What are you talking about…?”

Thea assumed she was either joking or baiting her.

However, Monika’s eyes told a different story. They were full of a contemptuous pity, as if Thea had her bored out of her mind.

“…This team’s got nothing but good little girls on it, doesn’t it?”

“What?”

“And you’re probably the worst one. A prissy little lady playing her depraved little games of house. It makes me sick.” Monika exhaled. “But it’s not just you—it’s everyone. Spies need to be ruthless, and that’s something this team is sorely lacking. Makes a girl worry. You think we’re going to stand a chance next time we run up against someone who doesn’t play fair?”

After that harsh diatribe, she vanished down the hallway.

As she left, Thea spotted the wrench she was holding. Was she doing some sort of construction?

After Monika disappeared from view, her scornful voice echoed out behind her.

“If you’re going to keep playing the good little girl, at least make yourself useful and look after the kids.”

“If she has something she wants to say, why doesn’t she just come out and say it?”

Monika had just piled some rather harsh abuse on Thea, and what’s more, Thea wasn’t entirely sure why.

Feelings of gloom rose up in her heart, but she didn’t have time to deal with Monika right now. That was just who Monika was. Rather than trying to force her to play nice, it would be better to just leave her to her own devices.

There was something else Thea needed to prioritize right now.

There was someone she absolutely wanted to win over.

Each of the Lamplight girls had special skills that nobody else could hope to match.

Originally, the idea was to use them as a secret weapon against Guido. That man knew every other spy in the nation, but a group of washouts like them had a chance to take him by surprise.

Lily had her poison, Grete had her disguises, Sybilla had her theft, Thea had her negotiations…

Because their abilities were built off a combination of their innate talents and their specific backgrounds and origins, they were impossible to imitate. These skills were theirs and theirs alone.

However, three members of their ranks had such powerful skills that they put all the others to shame.

None of those three could hold their own in a fight, and none of them was particularly clever or resourceful. Furthermore, they were barely more than children emotionally, so they couldn’t be left to operate independently. However, their devastating abilities alone were enough to provide their teammates with valuable backup.

Klaus had grouped the three of them into a team designed to provide logistical support from the rearguard: the Specialist squad.

There was Sara’s rearing, Erna’s accidents, and Annette’s, well…

In Thea’s opinion, Annette’s talent was the most unfair one of the bunch.

Annette wasn’t in her room. Instead, she was in the washroom. At first, it looked like she was washing her hands, but she was actually stooped down in front of the sink and dual-wielding screwdrivers.

When Thea got close, Annette violently swiveled her head to look at her.

“Oh, hey, it’s Thea. What’s up, Sis?”

“What are you doing down there?”

“The faucet was broken, so I’m fixing it, yo.”

There was a vast array of parts and components scattered around Annette’s feet. There were far more tools than she could have possibly needed for such a simple repair job.

However, what was even more concerning was—

“Is that three faucets there?”

Thea must have used that single faucet a hundred times, but now there were three of them.

They sat in a perfect row and all hung at the same angle. Thea couldn’t even begin to tell which one was the original.

Annette explained. “They all look exactly the same, down to their shapes and scuff marks. But only one of them is right, and if you turn the wrong one, it explodes.”

“You really are a genius, aren’t you?” Thea sighed in amazement.

That was Annette’s talent: tinkering.

Her bottomless curiosity had led her to become a master of meddling with machines. She could do everything from producing new spy gadgets to constructing new water and electric lines and painting them into perfect camouflage.

And that wasn’t all.

As it turned out, her inventions were better than the most cutting-edge stuff Din was able to come up with.

It was hard to imagine her having developed her skills anywhere but abroad or with some sort of secret organization.

Annette didn’t remember so much as where she was born, and those technical skills were the sole thing she’d retained. That was why she’d been recruited to the spy academies.

If she could use those skills in her spy work, who knows what she could accomplish…!

The idea was downright tantalizing.

The thing was, all she used her ability for were pranks and bizarre contraptions. She occasionally turned out some sort of ultra-high-quality device, but only on the rare occasion when the mood struck her.

It’s up to me to guide her.

Thea renewed her resolve and spoke.

“Hey, Annette?”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to get close with me? Even if it means revealing a little of what’s in your heart?”

“……………………………………………”

Annette froze with the smile still plastered on her face. She didn’t so much as twitch. It was like she was a machine that had just shut down. Her eyes were so glassy it was impossible to tell if they were even in focus.

“Yeah. I want to get close with you.” After a long silence, Annette gave the go-ahead.

Thea exhaled. That was the first hurdle down. “All right, then, can you look me in the eye?”

She reached for Annette’s cheeks and cradled her face in her hands. Annette squirmed ticklishly, but Thea sturdied her grip and held Annette’s head still.

Eventually, Thea’s and Annette’s gazes met.

“Now, just stay right there.”

They faced each other from about a foot apart.

One of Annette’s eyes had an eye patch over it, but Thea was pretty sure that wouldn’t be a problem. It should still work.

Thea pursed her lips.

Then a chill ran through her body. She had never felt anything like it before in her life.

Am I scared? Scared of finding out what Annette has in her heart?

The way Thea’s heartbeat was accelerating was exactly like the physiological response to fear.

She didn’t understand why, but her instincts were shouting at her not to get close to Annette.

No, no. This is no time to be backing down. I need to face my allies so I can butt heads with them.

Eventually, it was thoughts of her hero that allowed her to drive back her doubts.

It’s the only way I can become like Ms. Hearth.

For three seconds, Thea peered into Annette’s eyes—

“……………………………………………What?”

—and arrived at a shocking conclusion.

“So?” Annette gave her a cherubic smile. “Didja see what was in my heart?”

Thea faltered for a moment. The desire she’d seen was so different from what she’d expected that she didn’t know what to think. However, her technique had never led her astray before.

Really, though…?

Still, she couldn’t believe it.

That’s what I can use to get Annette under control…?

It took her a moment to figure out how to phrase it.

“U-um…” She swallowed, then spoke.

“Yes?”

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but…”

It didn’t make sense, but she had to at least try it.

“…did you get taller recently?”

Annette’s face lit up like a flower bud blooming.

“Wow, Sis! You noticed?” She jumped at Thea and dangled off her neck. “I totally did, yo! I grew an eighth of an inch this past month. And three-quarters of an inch since last year! I’m shooting right up, and it’s all thanks to my new sleeping style.”

Apparently, that was the reason behind the suspension.

Annette gave Thea’s back a few hard thumps as she frolicked merrily. Her glee was as innocent as a child’s.

“……………”

However, Thea’s feelings were much more mixed.

“I want to grow taller.”

That was Annette’s deepest desire.

Thea had just peered into Annette’s heart, but she felt like she understood less about her than ever. As far as she could tell, Annette didn’t have anything resembling a central guiding philosophy. Reading her mind was like reading a five-year-old’s.

Annette’s heart was empty.

However, Thea decided to set that aside for now. “Once we pass the test, I’ll make you some milk pudding.”

“Yo, that’ll make me even taller!” Annette cheered as she happily agreed to help.

It had taken no small amount of doing, but Thea had finally gotten two of her teammates to work together with her.

Over in her room, she gave a rousing speech.

“All right, everyone! Let’s pass this test!”

She got a pair of enthusiastic responses back.

“Yeah!” “Let’s do it, yo!”

Erna and Annette stood side by side and raised their fists in the air.

Thea felt her eyes swim.

“What’s wrong, Big Sis Thea…?” Erna asked. By now, she was completely comfortable around her.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how far we’ve come…”

““Hmm?””

Annette and Erna cocked their heads to the side.

For some reason, Thea felt as tired as if she’d gone through a grueling test already.

“Anyhow, I just discovered some valuable intel. Apparently, Lily’s room used to belong to Inferno’s old boss. I’ll use that fact as bait to bring Teach there. Annette, your job is to set up a trap in Lily’s room, and Erna, your job is to just barely slip past the trap and touch Teach’s hand.”

After laying out the plan, Thea clapped her hands together.

“Now, let’s do this! It’s time to show Teach what our teamwork is capable of!”

Annette and Erna headed to Lily’s room, and Thea went looking for Klaus. She heard sounds coming from his private bathroom, so that must have been where he was. Was he taking a shower?

If so, she would have no choice but to wait for him to finish.

Fretting over the time they were going to lose, Thea rushed over to the private bathroom.

Then she got the idea to surprise him while he was changing. She flung the bathroom door open—

“There, all done.”

—and found Monika in the changing room tapping Klaus’s hand.

A satisfying clap rang out.

“Huh…?”

Thea stared at them with her mouth hanging agape.

Monika washed her hands in the changing room sink, then let out a small laugh. “Good work. Y’know, I could really go for some lunch right now.”

“W-wait, hold on a minute! H-how?!” Thea grabbed Monika’s arm in a panic. Her voice rose an octave. “And you, Teach—why did you just let her touch your hand like that?!”

She didn’t understand any of what had just happened.

This was a challenge Thea had been planning to tackle as a group of three, and yet Monika had just completed it all on her own. And with considerable ease, at that.

“Hmm?” Klaus gave Thea a puzzled look. “Weren’t you working together?”

“N-no, Monika just went off on her own…”

“Ah, I see. It all makes sense now.”

Klaus nodded as though this meant something profound, but Thea still didn’t get it. “How was Monika able to pass the test?”

“When a person goes about their day, there’s one time where they invariably leave their hands defenseless. Monika realized that and capitalized on it.” Klaus sounded almost dejected. “It’s when they wash them.”

Even after hearing that, Thea still didn’t get it.

Monika had pulled off the incredible feat of landing a blow on the mighty Klaus. Thea understood that much, but that was all.

“It’s really no big deal.” Monika dried off her hands with a handkerchief. “It doesn’t take some big plan to touch someone’s hands. You just have to get in the way of them washing them. What really pissed me off is how you missed the golden opportunity.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“Klaus was working with animals. People always wash their hands after that.”

“Ah…”

“I even left you a hint. You saw that list of Heat Haze Palace faucets, right?” Monika’s voice rang with pride.

As she spoke, Thea’s memories turned.

“I broke the tap out in the garden ahead of time. Then I left Erna in the kitchen and sent Annette over to the washroom. The communal bath is girls only; Teach wasn’t gonna go there. That meant Teach had nowhere to wash his hands but the sink in his private bathroom, so all I had to do was wait here.”

Everything Thea had seen and heard that day flashed back through her mind.

There was the wrench she’d seen Monika holding out in the garden. There was the fact that she’d left Erna alone on cooking duty. There was the mysteriously broken faucet in the washroom that Annette had been working to fix.

Monika had been cutting off places for Klaus to wash his hands.

Having now finally reached a sink, Klaus began diligently washing his hands with soap. It was the natural thing to do; after all, he had just been handling mice with his bare hands.

“Remember what I told you? I have to get the mice to the handler by this afternoon. I didn’t have time to waste dawdling, so I had no choice but to offer her my hand.”

Klaus’s only options were to drive the girls off without using his hands or give up. With time being of the essence, he had chosen the latter.

Monika gave Thea an overly familiar thump on the shoulder.

“Thanks. You made for a great diversion.”

“A-a diversion…?”

“You totally went for that note I left in Lily’s room, didn’t you? It was a big help, you babysitting the kids like that.”

Monika must have been eavesdropping on Thea and Klaus’s conversation in the animal pen. Then she manipulated Thea and the others while she went in for the kill herself.

Thea flared up. She had been dancing on the palm of Monika’s hand that whole time.

“C-come on! If that was your plan, you should have told us!”

“Excuse me? I think a little thanks are in order. Or better yet, an apology. You have anything you wanna say about telling me not to get in your way?”

“~~~~~!” Thea let out a soundless scream.

She wanted to shout at the top of her lungs that it didn’t make sense, but no matter how she sliced it, Monika had a point. Thea couldn’t get the words out. It stung. It hurt, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

As she searched for what she wanted to say—

“Magnificent.”

—she heard satisfaction in Klaus’s voice.

“That’ll do just fine.”

He gave them a round of applause. Apparently, he was pleased with how things had turned out.

Thea cocked her head to the side. “It will? But we didn’t end up working together at all…”

“Oh, I never thought for a moment that you four would be able to cooperate peacefully.”

“That’s horrible… I mean, you’re right, but that’s horrible!”

“As far as that department goes, our four absent members have you beat by a mile.”

There was no arguing that point. Thea had little doubt that Lily’s quartet was lifting each other up and taking on their mission as a team. She envied them. She wished she could be with that group.

“Spies with considerable skills often have considerable egos to match. I told Thea this earlier, but differences are the key to a strong team. What I expect out of you four is for you to strip each other’s egos raw and cooperate by butting heads.”

“So you’re saying…”

“Thea, you tried to pull your teammates together and complete your task that way. Monika, you wrote teamwork off as useless and schemed to manipulate your teammates as efficiently as possible. Both of you did wonderful work—and both of you were magnificent.” Klaus nodded. “Through antagonism, you reached your goal. That’s how the five of us are going to take down Corpse.”

A sigh of relief escaped Thea’s lips. They were being allowed onto the mission.

Monika spoke up in the smuggest voice imaginable. “Good for you. You picked up my scraps; now you get to come on the mission.”

“Rrgh…”

Monika was totally looking down on her. She was basically convinced that she was the only reason they’d passed the test. However, she wasn’t totally wrong, so Thea had no choice but to grit her teeth and take it.

“Yo, Sis!”

As she did, Annette popped her head in from the hallway.

“We’ve been waiting for Klaus to show up for forever. Is he coming?”

Annette and Erna were still on standby.

The two of them had completely slipped Thea’s mind.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Monika actually already passed the test.”

“Boo. That’s a bummer, yo.” Annette gave her a smile. She didn’t look disappointed in the slightest. “I already set it up so there’re two doorknobs, and if you turn the wrong one, there’s a huge explosion!”

“You’re really fond of explosions, aren’t you?”

Her trap sounded dangerous, so Thea wanted it disarmed ASAP.

Doubly so because it was on Lily’s room. If anything happened to Hearth’s old bedroom, Thea would have been heartbroken.

“I hate to have to ask, but could you disassemble your trap?”

“I want my milk pudding first.”

“Come on, now, let’s not be stubborn. The disassembly comes first. You wouldn’t want your bomb to go off by accident, would you?”

“Objection! You’d have to be super unlucky to trigger the trap, yo.”

That wasn’t exactly the problem here, but Annette did sort of have a point.

Her handiwork was impeccable, and none of her inventions had ever malfunctioned. Plus, anyone who ran across a door that had abruptly grown a second knob would naturally approach it with caution. And even if they did try to open the door, they still had a fifty-fifty shot of emerging unscathed.

Despite all that, Thea still wanted Annette to remove the bomb, but—

“By the way, where’s Erna?”

The moment the question left Klaus’s mouth, a tremor shook the entire manor.

““““…………………””””

As a terrible explosion rocked their eardrums, black smoke began billowing toward them from down the hallway.

Thea rushed over to a window and threw it open. She looked out to check the situation. Fortunately, it didn’t look like anything had caught fire.

The smoke gradually faded, and once the ventilation was complete, they all hurried over to check the scene.

The explosion had come from Lily’s room. Erna lay before its blown-up door, her body pitch-black with soot.

“…How unlucky.”

Well, at least she was alive.

It had taken her prodigious powers working overtime, but she’d survived.

“When I came back from the washroom, there was a second doorknob.”

And so she turned one of them. The wrong one.

“And I don’t know why, but…the washroom sink exploded, too…”

By the sound of it, she had eaten both blasts back-to-back.

When they peered in, they discovered that Lily’s room was in rough shape. The window was a goner, of course, as was the outer wall it had been a part of. At least the view from the second floor was nice. The room’s bed and dresser had gotten blasted all the way out into the garden, and the poison-filled vials Lily had been dutifully collecting lay shattered across the floor.

“Well, this is, um…a dilemma…” Thea found herself at a loss for words. Everything Lily owned had been blown to smithereens.

“The way I see it…” Monika crossed her arms. “…this is all Erna’s fault for going and touching stuff when she knew her luck is so bad.”

“Well, I think it’s Annette’s fault for going so overboard with the blasting powder!” Erna cried indignantly.

“I was just following Thea’s orders, yo!”

“Wait, me?” Caught off guard by the sudden game of “pass the blame,” Thea hurriedly denied Annette’s accusation as well. “You know, if Monika had just cooperated with us from the get-go, I don’t think that accident would have happened at all!”

“You are not pinning this on me,” Monika snapped.

“Don’t try to talk your way out of this. Just look at the sorrow in Teach’s eyes!” Thea pointed at Klaus, who had yet to say a word. “A woman he cares about and misses dearly just got her room blown up. Can’t you see the despair in his face?!”

“…………………”

Klaus stood motionless. His expression was even more subdued than usual.

“It’s okay.” The words spilled quietly from his mouth. “I’m holding back the tears. Barely.”

“Why, we’ve never even seen him this wounded!”

It felt wrong, hearing that coming from Klaus.

To make matters worse, he wasn’t the only one who’d suffered an emotional wound from the sudden tragedy. Thea felt the exact same way.

Ms. Hearth’s rooooom…

She had been planning on talking Lily into trading rooms with her, but now that plan had gone up in smoke.

“…Perhaps I ought to say something after all,” Klaus remarked. “I won’t ask that you get along, but…do at least try to work together.”

His voice was hollow and lifeless. It must have taken everything he had to get the words out at all.