Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 4.2

Interlude

Villain

Passenger ships arrived at the city’s port four times a day.

Of those, the ship that docked at three PM was a bona fide luxury liner. The massive ship was over three hundred feet long, and at full capacity, it could hold five hundred aboard. The majority of those who rode it were tourists from overseas, although their primary demographic was rich people from continents that had escaped the Great War’s ravages. The fact that the war had been over for a decade meant that some of the ship’s passengers were wealthy Din industrialists who had brought their businesses back to prosperity as the country rebuilt itself.

Among the bustling crowd of people waiting impatiently to disembark, one of them in particular was a good deal odder than the rest.

He was a mushroom.

The moment anyone so much as glanced at him, they would find themselves bewildered at how completely his hair made his head look like a mushroom. God bless your poor barber, passersby would think as they stared at him slack-jawed. The other passengers had taken to calling him Mushroom Man, and children would laugh at him when he walked by.

His hairstyle was so comical there wasn’t a single person on the ship who didn’t have it etched into their memory.

It was so memorable, in fact, that none of them would be able to remember a single other thing about his appearance.

And that was just how the Galgad spy White Spider liked it.

When White Spider stepped down onto the port, he was struck by disappointment at the city.

The area was definitely flourishing, but none of it managed to actually surpass his expectations.

He had heard it was the foremost entertainment district in all of Din, but it was certainly nothing to write home about. There were a couple mega-hotels whose designs they’d cribbed off the Empire’s, nothing more. Losing the war had sent the Empire into the verge of decline, but even they had a fair handful of entertainment districts bigger and better than this. That was about all you could expect from a backwater county like Din, White Spider supposed.

Sure enough, this whole country is basically a hole in the ground.

He scratched the back of his head.

What a hassle. If only we could just ignore this dump.

At the end of the day, this kind of stuff was all that Din was capable of. Their economy was tiny, and their impact on international politics was minuscule. It would have taken a nation ten times their strength to even give the Empire pause. It hardly seemed worth it sending spies into their borders at all. During the last war, Galgad had steamrolled them like the tiny insect they were.

The problem is the crazy amount of resources they keep pumping into training spies.

The Din Republic was supposed to be a small fish in a big pond, and yet somehow, their intelligence agency—the Foreign Intelligence Office—and its spies had dealt the Empire one humiliating defeat after another.

The Empire and the Republic shared similar languages and culture, ethnicities, and even a border. If you wanted to send spies into the Empire, those were just about the best conditions you could ask for.

Time and time again, the Din Republic had stolen confidential documents from the Empire and sold them to larger nations to prop up their national budget. They acted as a sort of lookout for the Allies, and that made them a thorn in the Empire’s side.

They were a backwater with a big secret—the fact that they were an espionage powerhouse.

We ripped their spy network to shreds once already, but they recovered faster than we could have imagined. They’re like an infestation that just keeps coming back.

As White Spider continued musing on the relationship between the Empire and the Republic, he reached the hotel he was looking for.

There were no guards in sight. The person he was after must have successfully stayed low.

He headed for the counter, told them he wanted a room, and went upstairs. He pretended to go into the room he’d just been given, then sneaked into the room next door to it.

Inside, he found a woman lying on the bed. She looked dead tired, and she was as pale as a sheet.

She was the person White Spider was looking for. In the Empire, she went by the name Matilda.

When she noticed she had a visitor, her eyes went wide.

“A mushroom…”

“That’s your first reaction?”

It didn’t exactly inspire confidence, but at least she hadn’t out-and-out screamed. In terms of skill, the Empire’s spies were a mixed bag.

“So backup actually came.” Matilda sighed. “They didn’t abandon me after all!”

“Maybe, maybe not.” White Spider shrugged. “I could just be here to kill you.”

“What…?”

“You were an afterthought. The only reason I’m in this country at all is because our man Deepwater went dark. You’re just a stop on my way back, and I have full authorization to kill you or help you escape as I see fit.”

He pointed his gun straight at Matilda’s forehead.

“What’s it going to be? Can you think of any reason I should let you live?”

“……………”

“I smell blood.” The stench of death was all over her. “You killed someone, right? Why? What kind of idiot goes and makes a scene like that when they’re supposed to be in hiding?”

She was of no use to him.

He started to squeeze the trigger—

“Hee-hee-hee.”

—and Matilda let out a peculiar laugh.

“Huh?” A wave of discomfort washed over him.

However, Matilda couldn’t seem to hold in her creepy laughter.

“Hee-hee-hee. Hee-hee-hee. Heeeee-hee-hee-hee. HEEEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!”

She clamped her hands over her mouth, but her voice spilled out between her fingers.

What’s wrong with this lady?

White Spider frowned, and all of a sudden, Matilda stopped laughing.

“The situation’s chaaanged.”

“What?”

“I can get out juuust fine, even without your help. And the killings were for revenge, but really, I just kinda waaanted to.”

White Spider blinked, surprised by her voice’s abrupt shift into a lazy drawl.

Matilda continued explaining. “You know, I was in reeeal trouble. I was surrounded by army scum, my tools were all stolen, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew it would be dangerous, but I was thinking about trying to butcher my way through their whole army, and I was this close to actually going for it, too.”

A disquieting smile spread readily across her face.

“But then a miracle happened. I ran into my long-lost daughter.”

“Huh. Must’ve been a touching reunion. Good for you.”

White Spider had no interest in the subject, so his responses were perfunctory at best, but Matilda went on with obvious delight. She pointed at the cobalt-blue toolbox sitting in the corner of the room.

“I used that to hit her.”

“Huh?”

It was made of iron, and it looked pretty heavy.

“I hit my daughter with it again and again and again and again. I beat all the memories out of her and left her black-and-blue, and now she idolizes me and is trying to saaave me. She doesn’t remember I beat her, and she even calls me Mom! She has nooooo idea that I’m just using her!”

Her smile radiated ecstasy.

“What a stupid, stuuupid girl!”

Seeing the madness in her face left White Spider speechless.

She was a monster.

He didn’t know what exactly had happened, but it sounded like she’d found a way to escape that involved taking advantage of her unwitting daughter. If so, that was fine. If nothing else, it meant that there was no need for White Spider to lend her a hand.

That made his decision simple—getting involved would be a waste of time.

He lowered his gun.

“I always knew you were nasty, but I guess this time around it gets you passing marks. Just make sure you get rid of that blood stink. You reek bad enough that anyone who knows what’s up could take you in an instant.”

“Thanks for the heads-uuup.”

“After that, do what you will. I’ll be doing the same, and I’ll head home when I’m good and ready.”

At the end of the day, saving colleagues who were stranded alone wasn’t his department. Matilda’s job was important, but it wasn’t like any of the information she had was particularly valuable. White Spider had meant it when he said he had stopped by as an afterthought.

On his way out, though, he realized he had a question he wanted answered.

“Don’t you have any maternal love for the girl?”

“Not a siiingle bit.” Matilda responded in the same drawl as earlier. “I mean, the kid’s a creepy little brat.”

No hesitation, no remorse.

The stage was set.

The four “chosen” members of Lamplight: Monika, Thea, Erna, and Annette.

The Military Intelligence Department led by Welter Barth.

Matilda, the Imperial spy plotting to make her escape by taking advantage of her daughter.

Lamplight’s boss Klaus, who’d rushed over alongside Lily.

White Spider, the Imperial spy who’d intruded on the scene at the last minute.

All their conflicting plans and expectations were about to come to a head, and the banquet of espionage was about to begin.