Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Reunion

It was four days before Klaus and Lily would set off on their search-and-rescue mission.

Thea lay on her deck chair looking as comfortable as could be. She was dressed in a black swimsuit created with a titillatingly small amount of fabric.

The sun had already set, leaving the outdoor pool to be lit by a series of purple lights. However, the lighting wasn’t particularly strong, and even combined with the glow of the hotel towering beside it, it was still rather dim. There must have also been lights installed on the bottom of the pool, as a reddish-purple hue glimmered on its surface and helped accentuate the sinful atmosphere permeating the scene.

She was in the entertainment district located on the southernmost tip of the Din Republic.

In days of yore, a gold vein was discovered in a nearby mountain. Workers were brought in from all over, and they even set up a railway system. Then, once the vein ran dry, they invested their money into building tourist attractions there to prevent it from becoming a ghost town. Nowadays, it was the hottest destination spot in all of Din. There were underground casinos on every corner, and the wealthy and powerful were no doubt gambling mind-boggling sums of money at that very moment.

The city had even avoided suffering major damages in the Great War, and its lights never went out.

At the moment, Thea was relaxing at the pool of one of the city’s luxury hotels.

We did just complete that mission, after all. I think I’ve earned a little indulgence.

It was just after they had completed their mission to take out Corpse.

On Klaus’s instructions, they had gone to the city where the assassin was hiding and captured him in brilliant form. Afterward, they had traced Corpse’s path to see if they could find anything on any collaborators of his, and now they were here.

Though, if I’m being honest, Teach did at least 90 percent of the work…

The girls’ responsibilities had been minimal. In fact, basically all they’d done was clear the area of civilians during the battle. They had contributed a little in rooting out the assassin’s hiding spot, but Klaus had carried out the capture more or less on his own.

And what’s more, the four of us were never really able to get on the same page…

They had performed their individual tasks just fine, but their teamwork never ended up coming together.

If Klaus hadn’t given them orders in the exacting detail he had, they would never have been able to pull through.

As Thea stood up to distract herself from the painful memories, someone showed up beside her.

“What the hell’s wrong with this place?”

It was Monika. She was technically wearing a swimsuit as well, but she had a jacket on over hers. She made no efforts to hide her displeasure as she glared at the pool.

“Why’s there outside heating? Why’s the pool open in the middle of the night? What’s with the sleazy lighting?”

“It’s a luxury hotel. Have you not been to one before?”

“Of course not. Why would I?”

“Heh-heh. We did just finish that mission, you know. What’s the point, if you don’t treat yourself at times like these?”

“God, you’re even soft on yourself.”

Monika’s words were harsh, but the truth of the matter was that the completion bonuses they got for successful spy missions were lavish, and how they spent their money was up to them.

I swear… Ever since day one, Monika’s just been picking one fight after another.

She gave Monika a withering look, but Monika just ignored her.

Instead, she sat down on a deck chair and started reading. Surprisingly enough, her book of choice was a romance novel. Perhaps due to the poor lighting, her eyebrows were furrowed.

“Ugh… If Klaus hadn’t ordered us to stick together, I can promise you I’d be anywhere but here right now.”

“I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Monika and Thea weren’t exactly spending their vacations together by choice. No, there was a specific reason they were staying at the same hotel.

“Oh yeah? Then, who’d watch the kids?” Thea looked back over at the pool.

“Time for my super-special upgraded squirt gun, yo!”

“What?!”

In the water, Annette was carrying a massive squirt gun, and Erna was desperately trying to swim away.

At first glance, they looked like a pair of kids just playing around…but it was a little too intense for that description to really capture it.

“Charging up!” Annette cranked her squirt gun’s handle, and it began sucking in water from the pool. “Fire at will, yo!” A loud blast rang out as a huge burst of water struck Erna square in the face.

“…Is she okay?” Thea wondered aloud. “I can’t tell if Erna is keeping her head above water or not.”

“If you’re that worried, just go help her.”

“If I tried that, what do you think would happen?”

“Oh yeah, I guess the little monster would switch targets to you.”

“…I think I’ll stay out of this one.”

“Yeah, same.”

For once, the two of them agreed on something.

They felt for Erna, but Annette needed someone to keep her occupied.

Klaus had left them with instructions to all stay at the same hotel, as it was important that somebody keep an eye on Erna and Annette. If the two were left to their own devices, trouble was certain to find them.

Over to the side, they heard Erna moan “How unlucky…” as she suffered a personal flash flood.

“You’ve noticed it, too, right?” Monika asked. “Annette’s tech is more advanced than anything Din’s got.”

“I did come to the same conclusion, yes.”

“Where the hell is she from?”

Where did their mysterious amnesiac teammate grow up?

It was a good question, but Monika had meant it rhetorically. She looked down at her book and resumed reading.

“Why not take advantage of the opportunity and go for a swim? You can read anywhere, can’t you?” Thea asked.

“Watch yourself,” Monika replied. “You talk bad about reading on vacation, you’re gonna make enemies of every bookworm in the world.”

“We have to go back in just three days, though… Say, let’s hit a casino after Erna and Annette go to bed. Think how unbeatable we’d be if the two of us teamed up.”

“I’m plenty unbeatable on my own.” Monika’s attitude was as chilly as ever.

Even now that they’d completed their mission, she still didn’t show any signs of wanting to play nice.

“Why are you being such an ass?! I’m offering you an olive branch here!”

“Maybe some of us don’t like getting olive branches constantly shoved in our faces.”

“Tch. You know, maybe you and I do need to settle things. Shall we have it out?”

“Hey, Annette. Give the slut a taste of your water gun.”

“Wait, that’s cheating!”

Sensing the imminent danger she was in, Thea yelped—

“______!”

—then heard a woman’s voice calling for someone. That much made sense; it was a nice hotel, so it was no surprise that there would be other guests there.

Then Annette screamed.

“Ack!”

When Thea looked up, she saw a woman diving into the pool, fully clothed, and wrapping Annette in a head-on embrace.

Thea moved fast. Something serious was going down.

She hurried toward the interloper, then stood imposingly by the poolside and gave her a steely glare. “Who’re you?”

The woman was short and had big, bright eyes. She was probably in her midthirties. Her long, wispy hair and pallid skin gave her a sort of sickly aura, and the way her soaked gray blouse clung to her body only made the impression worse.

“I, um…”

The woman was still holding Annette close as she spoke.

“…I’m her mother.”

None of them had seen that one coming.

It was a reunion that could only be described as miraculous—a stroke of destiny that not even Klaus had anticipated.

It also marked the beginning of the end.

Without so much as pausing to give Klaus time to reach them, the team began unraveling at the seams.