Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A Battle Against Great Evil

According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to rain from the middle of the night to early in the morning.

Sure enough, thick clouds began blanketing the sky over the city at around ten PM. The humidity rose, too, enough so that even just breathing was enough to make one’s throat feel damp. Rain was about to start pouring at any moment.

Three battles began during that moonless night.

In two of them, shots were fired immediately.

The port’s outskirts were lined with warehouses.

There were warehouses for holding imported goods next to the cargo ship docking area, and slightly farther away, there were warehouses for holding old, worn-out ships. The latter was rarely used. It was like a watercraft morgue stuffed full of broken fishing boats.

Under normal circumstances, the area would have been completely empty at ten at night.

However, things were pretty far from normal, and a group of soldiers had been stationed there to guard the area.

Captain Barth had predicted that the enemy spy was at the end of their rope and would try to force their way through, so he’d given the order for each platoon to increase their nighttime patrols. The soldiers strode around with tense faces and their rifles at the ready. However, the girls had investigated all that ahead of time.

They lurked in a boat warehouse with bated breath.

“Let’s go over the plan one last time.” Thea turned to the others. “The only way for us to get Matilda out is through this port. There are ways we could get her through the station or onto the highway, but as long as she’s in the country, they’ll keep hunting her down.”

The longer it took for Matilda to make it over the border, the worse her situation would get.

She needed to get out, and she needed to get out tonight.

“There’s a freighter leaving the port at eleven PM. It’s already mostly loaded, but there’s some final cargo that they aren’t loading until later tonight. We’re going to slip Matilda in among it. To do that, we’re going to cause a commotion to force the dockworkers to evacuate the port and to lure the soldiers away.”

Annette and Erna nodded.

Monika, who had punched a small hole in the warehouse wall and was looking through it to keep watch, spoke up.

“It’s here. It’s a blue iron container, and I have visual confirmation on the 3-896 on the side.”

The cargo they were waiting for had arrived right on schedule.

After Thea finished reminding the group of the plan, she headed over to Matilda, who was waiting separately from the others.

“Um…” Matilda’s voice rang with worry. “Is this really going to work? I mean, all this business about hiding among the cargo…”

“It wouldn’t have, not historically. We used to use casks and wooden barrels, and those are too small for a person to fit into.”

“That’s what I was thinking…”

“Nowadays, though, even Din’s starting to adopt shipping containers. The port uses them for over half its goods, and they’re easily big enough to hold a person. That opens up new options for spies.”

Standardization of freight had done wonders for increasing the efficiency of shipping goods, and as technology advanced, the nations of the world were becoming more connected at a blistering clip. Those connections were a breeding ground for new covert techniques.

“But…won’t the soldiers be on the lookout for that kind of thing?”

“There are four different cargo ships that all depart in the same time slot. That’s too many for them to check.”

The other three ships weren’t done being loaded, either, so the departure area was filled to bursting with containers. There was no way someone could be found after sneaking into one of them.

“And on top of that, we aren’t putting you on the boat to Galgad. Your destination is going to be the Lylat Kingdom.”

It stood to reason that the army would keep an extra-watchful eye on the Galgad-bound ship, but as long as Matilda broke through their net at all, she could just as easily take another route back to the Empire from there. She could handle herself once she got to Lylat.

The iron shipping container was designed not to open from the inside, so Thea handed Matilda the tool she would need to use to escape once she was in. It was a rod-shaped blowtorch about twenty inches long.

“Annette made this specially for you. It should be able to burn through an iron latch, no problem.”

Annette had put it together in just a few short hours. “I made it myself, so it’ll never let you down, yo!” she’d said as she gave it her stamp of approval.

Matilda clutched it like it was the most precious thing in the world. She stopped trembling.

With that, everything was in place to put the plan into action.

Thea headed back over to Monika, whose eyes had gone oddly wide.

Monika sat frozen in silent contemplation. “………”

Thea wasn’t quite sure what to make of her expression. “Is something the matter?” she asked.

“Nah, not really.” Monika shrugged. “I was just thinking how much more you look the part than Klaus does. How’s it feel, being in the commander’s seat for once?”

“Like you’re not going to get a rise out of me for that comment.”

“I’m just saying, being CO is a big responsibility. You screwing up could mean we all get executed.”

“I don’t even want to think about that… But it’s okay. I’ve made up my mind.”

On hearing that, Monika waved her hand flippantly as she started walking away. “Well, that’s boring.”

At the moment, not even Monika’s cynicism would be enough to get Thea down. “But honestly, I’m not worried.”

“Oh yeah? And why’s that?”

“I keep telling you, remember? With the two of us together, we’re unbeatable.”

Monika gave her an exasperated wave. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

It was time.

“It’s up and running, yo,” Annette said.

Thea and the others headed over to the warehouse door just in time to see the white fumes rising up from the docking area. The device they’d planted that afternoon had gone off.

Thea observed the scene through her binoculars.

A group of soldiers had gathered at the docking area and was starting to evacuate the dockworkers. Powerful spotlights swept back and forth across the harbor like arms of a colossus.

Before long, all the civilians were gone. Now all they had to do was clear the soldiers out of the docking area as well.

“Well, that’s not good,” Monika said as she looked through her telescope.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting so many soldiers,” Thea replied.

“That’s not it. You see the mirror by dock three?”

When they went there earlier, Monika had set up mirrors around the dock. They were disguised as trash, so nobody had given them a second look, and Monika was now using them to survey the entire port at once.

“No, my binoculars aren’t strong enough,” Thea replied. “What is it?”

“Captain Welter Barth, that’s what. He’s here. Apparently, he’s supposed to be some sort of genius.”

“Oh really? I’ve heard rumors that he’s quite a catch, but I never knew how much of it was true.”

“I don’t care about his looks, but his skills are the real deal. Those soldiers are going to be well led.”

If the man had earned Monika’s respect, then he was surely a force to be reckoned with.

However, it didn’t matter who their opponent was. They couldn’t afford to back down.

Thea extended her leg to take the first step out of the warehouse—

“No, wait!”

—but Erna threw herself at her before she could, knocking Thea over onto her side.

The ground by Thea’s feet burst.

Was that sniper fire?

If Erna hadn’t stopped Thea the moment she sensed danger, that bullet would have hit her dead-on. Goose bumps ran across Thea’s skin.

What’s going on? How did they find us already, and where’s the sniper shooting from?

She took cover inside the warehouse.

The bullet was buried deep in the ground. It must have been shot from a considerable distance away.

Thea went pale as confusion stirred up inside her. Was this Captain Barth’s doing? No, that wasn’t it. This was something else, something they hadn’t foreseen.

Beside her, Erna’s face was just as white as hers. It was the most scared Thea had ever seen her.

“I don’t think we should go out right now,” Erna said hoarsely. “I have a really, really bad feeling about it.”

“Thank you, Erna.” Thea patted her head. “Still, this is a bad position to be in.”

They had made too much noise, and the soldiers patrolling near the ship warehouses were reacting to it. She could hear their chatter and footsteps drawing nearer.

“When it rains, it pours, huh?” Monika started reaching for the gun in her breast pocket. “What’s the plan? At this rate, the soldiers are gonna box us in.”

She was right. If they stayed in one place, they might not be able to get out later.

However, ignoring Erna’s warning and revealing themselves to the mysterious sniper was too dangerous to be a real option.

It makes me want to say “how unlucky”…

Thea bit her lip. They were in serious trouble.

The first battle—the chosen members of Lamplight versus Welter Barth’s Military Intelligence Department—had begun.

White Spider lifted his head from his scope and cocked it to the side.

“Huh? She dodged it? But how?”

His distinctive mushroom hair was hidden beneath a beanie, and his face was concealed behind a large mask. He looked suspicious as all hell, but there was nobody around to accost him.

At the moment, he was inside an unfinished hotel construction site directly beside the port. He lay prone as he aimed his gun.

Although the hotel was still under construction, he was up on what would eventually become its seventh floor. There were no walls yet, just flooring and support pillars.

The maximum range that the Empire’s top-of-the-line rifles could accurately hit targets at was about a thousand feet away. However, White Spider’s hotel vantage point was over triple that far from the port. Shooting from that range wouldn’t normally have been possible, but White Spider had made custom modifications to his gun that allowed him to easily disassemble it for transport as well as use it as a bona fide sniper rifle.

As he held his modified long-range rifle, his thoughts turned.

When he heard Matilda’s story, he made the call to forego killing her in favor of letting her go to see what she did. Something about her daughter and her daughter’s friends had struck him as extremely off.

After all, spies helping a known enemy spy?

That was concerning. No decent spy would ever be that soft. What was going through their heads?

Were they inexperienced, maybe?

Now, that was a thought.

The first thing White Spider envisioned was the Republic’s newly formed spy team—the one comprised of a single man and seven female academy washouts.

This was something he needed to look into.

“First things first, let’s kill one of ’em and see what happens from there.”

His plan had been to shoot one of them dead the moment they started carrying out their plan with Matilda.

That was why he went for the shot on the girl he’d caught a glimpse of a moment ago, but somehow, she managed to dodge it. Maybe she had sensed the danger she was in, or maybe it was something else. Either way, though, she would have to show herself again before long.

“Looks like the army’s onto them, too, so they’ll have to come out soon.” White Spider peered through his scope. “Now, are you going to let the army surround you, or are you going to let me shoot you? Pick your poison.”

White Spider’s position of absolute superiority was going to allow him to reliably take down his target.

That was the way he liked to do things. He made sure to never take on risks he didn’t have to.

The thing was, he was in the Din Republic, and he was staring down a group of suspicious-looking girls.

Unlikely as it was, there was one man whose path he absolutely needed to avoid crossing.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, he felt a wave of hostility and quickly rolled onto his back. That was close—he almost hadn’t sensed it at all.

There was a tall man behind him.

“You noticed me. That means you know what you’re doing.”

The man stood proud and imposing.

His confidence was terrifying, as if he didn’t care if White Spider turned and shot him.

“The hell?” White Spider screamed from the bottom of his heart. He scrambled to his feet, but his knees were still shaking.

The man gave White Spider a cold look.

“And the only people who’d react like that to seeing my face are Imperial spies.”

“This is bullshit.”

White Spider had etched that face into his brain.

It belonged to the most dangerous man in the whole Republic—the one enemy he absolutely couldn’t afford to run into.

It belonged to the monster that they had sent operative after operative to assassinate—and who had turned the tables on all of them.

It belonged to the spy who had walked into a laboratory filled to the brim with traps and had walked right out with the bioweapon they’d stolen.

It belonged to code name Bonfire.

“No, no, this is some RAGING HORSESHIT! What the hell are you doing here?!”

White Spider ran. He made sure to grab his signature rifle, but he left all his other tools behind.

The encounter didn’t completely catch him by surprise. Unlikely as it was, he’d known it was a possibility.

However, no amount of anticipation could have prepared him for how terrifying the man would be in the flesh.

White Spider barreled for the stairs as fast as his legs would carry him—

“I sealed off the stairs.”

—but then he stopped in his tracks.

There was noxious, colored foam barring the sole exit.

What’s with the bubbles?

They were piled up in a heap, walling off the stairs like a barricade. Someone other than Bonfire must have silently set them off.

When White Spider poked the foam, it sent a burning sensation through his skin. The foam was poisonous.

He paused. He certainly wasn’t foolish enough to dive into that pool of deadly froth.

Whoever made these has gotta be one hell of a sicko…

If he cut the bubbles with his knife, they would just split in two. If he shot them, all it would pop were the bubbles in its direct path.

There was no way for him to break through the wall.

The footsteps creeping up behind him echoed ominously. He had nowhere to run.

White Spider’s voice trembled. “How did you know where to find me?”

The answer he got was curt. “I just did.”

However, it also echoed with confidence. Bonfire might have actually been telling the truth. After all, how other than sheer intuition could he possibly have known about White Spider’s attack?

White Spider turned to the heavens and screamed.

“Why do I have to fight this goddamn monster?!”

The second battle—Imperial interloper White Spider versus Lamplight’s boss Klaus—had begun.

Erna seemed to notice the change. Her nose twitched.

“The danger is…gone?”

“That’s what I like to hear. Come on, let’s go.” Monika dashed out of the warehouse.

The girls positioned themselves around Matilda to protect her as they advanced. By the look of it, they had gotten out before the soldiers surrounded them. They wove their way through the rows of warehouses to avoid detection, stopping and changing course whenever soldiers passed in front of them. When they were trapped on both sides, they hid behind the nearest building and waited for the danger to pass.

Their destination was the cargo ship docking area, and it was all thanks to two things that the five of them were able to sneak their way toward it under the cover of darkness.

“Hold it. There’s someone around that corner,” said Monika, who was using her mirrors to broaden her field of view…

“I’m getting a bad feeling off of the west side.”

…and Erna, whose powers of intuition allowed her to sense misfortune.

Matilda stared at the two of them in awe as they wove their way between the soldiers’ searchlights as though by magic. Even for an Imperial spy, techniques like that weren’t something you saw every day.

Beside her, Thea was just as astonished.

The biggest surprise was Monika.

She retrieved her mirrors as they pressed on, then threw the glass into the ground in front of them, using the reflection to see everything both ahead and behind.

“All right, this way’s clear.”

Sometimes, she would even use multiple mirrors in conjunction to observe locations too far for a single mirror to spot. If her eyesight wasn’t up to the task, she would supplement it with her telescope. Getting its lens in focus while running at full speed shouldn’t have been possible, but she made it look trivial.

They were making good time—good enough that Matilda was even starting to run out of breath.

“So answer me this.” Thea knew it was a bad time to broach the subject, but she did so anyway. “Why is it that I never see you using that trick during our training?”

“Because I don’t.”

“So what, you’ve been holding out on us?”

“You make me sound like an asshole. Using it wouldn’t have been enough to beat Klaus, so I didn’t. That’s all there is to it.”

Monika didn’t sound the least bit ashamed, but that was just par for the course.

Then Monika stopped in her tracks. “This is as far as it gets us, though.”

The place the girls came to a halt at was most of the way to the docking area. They hid behind a truck that was stopped right beside the port.

The docking area was swarming with soldiers. When they strained their ears, the girls could hear them angrily shouting and rushing about all gung-ho in their desire to catch the spy.

Monika calmly analyzed the situation. “Looks like the dockworkers are done evacuating. Now all we need to do is get rid of those pesky soldiers so we can get Matilda into that shipping container.”

However, there were a good thirty soldiers stationed around the containers, and their searchlights had the entire area lit up. There wasn’t so much as a shred of darkness to be seen. There was no way they were going to be able to break through.

Their opponents were onto them.

“This is bad… It feels like we’re surrounded,” Erna murmured anxiously.

Thea nodded. “We should pull back for now. We might have to get creative.”

They might still get an opportunity to draw the soldiers away. Thea set up another one of the smoke emitters under the truck.

Then she turned to Matilda. “Can you still run?”

Matilda’s shoulders heaved up and down, but she managed to pant out an “I—I think so…” Getting there had clearly taken a toll on her stamina.

“I’ll carry your things for you, yo!” Annette piped up. She snatched Matilda’s toolbox away. Matilda gave her a happy little bow. “Thank you.”

After watching that fresh affirmation of their familial bond, Thea turned to their telescope-wielding guide.

“Monika, when we fall back, where should we—?”

“………”

Upon seeing the uncharacteristically grave look on Monika’s face, Thea trailed off.

Monika continued peering at her mirrors.

“Hey, Thea,” she said, still holding up her telescope. “How’re you planning on thinning out the soldiers?”

“It’s obvious, no? We’ll get close, set up smokers, pull back, and repeat as necessary.”

“Dunno how much I like those odds. The first smoker barely even fazed them. They’ve been trained well.”

Thea bit her lip at Monika’s rational assessment.

Captain Barth’s leadership was probably to blame for the soldiers’ clean coordination.

Far more of them had stayed in position than the girls had bargained for. This was threatening to become a rather protracted affair.

“They have, but if we want to minimize risk, this is the only way we can—”

“There you go being soft again.” An arrogant grin spread across Monika’s face. “Making sure no one gets hurt, making sure no one’s in danger… That’s a good little girl’s strategy.”

“What other option are you suggesting we have?”

“A fantastic one.” Monika stowed away her telescope and replaced it with her go-to revolver. “Annette, I need whatever explosives and smoke bombs you’ve got handy.”

Annette handed over the weapons before Thea had a chance to stop her.

Monika threw the bomb, then shot it in midair to give it even more velocity. It went flying toward the soldiers.

A moment later, a blast of noise and fire split the night.

“________!”

“Take Matilda and go.”

As Thea stared in blank shock, the two smaller members of the group jumped into action. Erna and Annette each grabbed one of Matilda’s arms and started dragging her off at a run.

Monika threw a smoke bomb to cover their retreat.

Thea had yet to move. The soldiers had heard the explosion and were running their way. She wasn’t about to leave a teammate behind.

“Do you have a death wish or something?” she asked.

“As if.”

Then Monika did something that defied all explanation.

She pulled her mask up and her hood down to cover her face…then leaped out from behind the truck and revealed herself to the rifle-wielding soldiers. It almost looked like she was grinning.

“There she is!”

The soldiers reacted immediately when they saw her. They must have been authorized to shoot the spy on sight. They leveled their rifles straight at her, and five of them got ready to shoot all at once.

The searchlights focused in on her like they would an actress atop a stage.

Monika casually drew her knife and held it in a backhand grip.

“Hey, remember how Klaus deflected Corpse’s bullets with a knife?” Monika said, not looking back Thea’s way.

The situation couldn’t have been tenser. What was she going on about?

Sure, Thea knew what she was talking about. She had seen Klaus effortlessly flick Corpse’s bullets aside with her own two eyes. It was a skill that only the most elite of spies could master.

Monika’s voice rang with composure. “Let’s see if I can pull that off, too.”

“Wh—?”

Thea shuddered when she finally understood what Monika was planning on doing. This was ridiculous.

Monika was going to try out a technique she’d never so much as practiced.

And against soldiers! A bunch of them, all at once! Using live ammo!

It was an act of sheer madness.

Monika let out a long exhale and fixed her gaze on the soldiers.

Thea could hear her mumbling under her breath.

“Angle… Distance… Speed… Timing… No focal points or rebounds to worry about, so that’s one thing I’ve got going for me…”

Monika was running calculations. She seriously planned on breaking through the bullets with nothing but the power of math on her side.

Thea needed to stop her. However, Monika was concentrating so hard Thea doubted she’d even be able to hear her.

One of the soldiers barked out an order.

“Shoot the spy! Don’t let her get away!”

The sonorous voice probably belonged to the fabled Captain Barth. Gunpowder flashed as the five frontmost soldiers all fired at once.

A satisfying ting rang out.

“______________!!”

Monika was standing there coolly. There wasn’t a scratch on her.

She had dodged four of the bullets and swatted away the fifth.

Thea gawked at her in disbelief, and she wasn’t the only one. The shooters were frozen in as much shock as she was.

In fact, even Captain Barth was too stunned to give the order to fire again.

“Huh.” Meanwhile, Monika’s expression was warm with pride. “Well, that was easier than I expected.”

She shot Thea a look as she inspected the side of her knife.

“I’ll be the decoy. You take care of the kids.”

“……!”

Thea ran.

She was done hesitating. She dashed through the smoke screen and followed after Erna and the others.

Behind her, she heard Monika’s voice.

“Let’s dance, Captain Barth. Don’t worry, I’m not after your life.”

She fired a shot, and Thea heard the searchlight shatter. The area descended into darkness.

Then Monika ran in the opposite direction Thea had.

The sound of gunfire started and didn’t stop, but it gradually grew more and more distant. Monika was drawing the soldiers away.

All Thea could do was praise Monika and her boundless well of talent.

It’s amazing how much easier things are now that she’s back on our side!

Thanks to Monika’s efforts, Captain Barth’s command began falling apart.

The port descended into chaos.

Over at a hotel construction site a little ways off from the port, a pathetic scream split the air.

“Eeeeeeeeeek!”

The teary-eyed man fled as fast as his legs would carry him. The term single-minded seemed apropos to describe it. He was running the way a child might, with his mouth open wide and his arms flailing about behind him. He ran this way and that—and every which way, dodging each of Klaus’s bullets by the narrowest of margins.

Klaus reloaded. “You know, most spies have enough dignity not to scream like that.”

“Shaddap, you! How am I supposed to fight a monster like you, huh?!”

The space had nothing but flooring and support pillars, so that was what the man raced around, deftly avoiding the construction tools scattered about.

Klaus gave chase. Something about this didn’t quite fit.

He had a pretty good idea of why Thea and the others hadn’t called in—they were trying to help someone related to Annette escape. Whether they were making the right choice or not, Klaus knew that the main thing he needed to worry about was that spy’s allies.

Just as Inferno would swoop in to save their compatriots when they bungled a job, the Empire was likely to send in skilled reinforcements.

Knowing that, Klaus had sniffed out a man who practically radiated sketchiness.

He had followed him somewhere with no bystanders and attacked him, but there was just one problem—the man seemed far too weak.

Who exactly is he?

His inability to get a read on the man left Klaus befuddled.

“God DAMN, you’re fast! Gimme a breeeeak!”

The man continued wailing as he tried to put more distance between them.

Between his beanie and his mask, it was hard to get a read on his face. He was probably somewhere in his twenties, but Klaus couldn’t even be sure of that much.

He’s got some legs on him, though, that’s for sure…

Klaus was using about 70 percent of his full strength, but it wasn’t because he was taking the man lightly. There were two reasons: First, he was keeping an eye out for traps, and second, 70 percent of his strength was more than enough to quash most foes.

Yet the man kept outpacing him.

Even if Klaus tried shooting him, the man would just dodge each bullet by the skin of his teeth without breaking his stride.

And I’m chasing him pretty fast, too. He clearly has some skills.

However, Lily’s poison foam was still blocking the exit. His foe wasn’t going anywhere.

The man could always try jumping, but Klaus wouldn’t mind that one bit. The wounds he would suffer would just make it that much easier to finish him off.

“Wait, this is just gonna come down to a test of endurance!” Klaus’s opponent realized the disadvantage he was at, too. He clicked his tongue. “And there’s no way I’m winning one of those against you!”

In the end, he chose to ascend.

The high-rise hotel was being built from the bottom up, and floors one through seven were past the need for temporary construction scaffolding. However, the scaffolds between the seventh and eighth floors were still in place, and the man used them to flee to the floor above with his sniper rifle in tow.

Klaus immediately gave chase.

The eighth floor wasn’t just wall-less—it didn’t even have a proper floor yet. All there was to stand on was a lattice of exposed steel girders. If he slipped, he would end up tumbling back down to floor seven.

As the man raced nimbly over the girders, Klaus took another shot at him.

His foe let out a little yelp and tottered as he swatted the bullet away with his knife.

Not many spies can pull off that trick…

The skills the man was using spoke of a spy far stronger than his demeanor would have suggested.

Who in the world was he?

Klaus had no idea. He must be a spy who the Foreign Intelligence Office didn’t have intel on yet.

“You seem like you can handle yourself in a fight.” Klaus came to a stop atop the girders as he spoke. “Why not try attacking me? Who knows, you might even win.”

“C’mon, don’t try to bait me.” The man stopped as well. “We both know that’d end with me six feet under.” He shook his head in exasperation, then squatted in place. “See, me, I’m an intellectual. I sneak in, I sneak out. But fisticuffs? I’m not about that noise.”

“I don’t know, looks like you have some moves.”

“Bite me. It’s why I keep getting forced into these odd jobs.”

Klaus heard another click of the tongue.

He could only see about half of the man’s face, but he could tell how displeased his expression was.

He seems perfectly happy getting chatty. This guy just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Klaus’s uneasiness grew.

He couldn’t tell if his foe was supremely confident or scared out of his mind.

“Well, hey, if we’re trying to get information out of each other, then I got one for you.” This time, it was the man’s turn to ask a question. “We haven’t heard from our man Deepwater in a while. Did you guys catch him or something?”

“Who?”

“Skinny guy, looks like a corpse, classic romantic, buckets of hubris?”

That definitely rang a bell.

It was Corpse, no doubt about it. Deepwater must have been his Imperial code name, although Klaus didn’t know about describing the man as a “romantic.”

Klaus feigned surprise. “Never heard of the guy, but if someone with your skills is asking, then I’ll have to watch out for him.”

“Playing coy, huh? It’s okay, you just told me everything I needed to know.”

That was a lie, no doubt. Klaus was a good enough liar not to be discovered that easily.

If their conversation went on, all they would end up doing was talking in circles. This was going nowhere fast.

“If I want to find out who you are, I guess I’ll just need to catch you first.” Once they ended up head-to-head, the time for lies and tricks would be over. Soon, their fists would do the talking. “Perhaps it’s time I started taking this seriously.” Klaus stowed his gun and drew his knife.

“Gimme a break, maaan…”

The man could wail all he liked, but it wasn’t going to make Klaus take it easy on him.

Klaus kicked off hard against the steel girder, but it wasn’t to run across it—it was to slide.

Due to how humid it was, the damp beams were nearly devoid of friction. Klaus was able to reach the man far quicker than running would have gotten him there.

The man tried to get away again, but this time, Klaus was faster. He kicked off against his girder once more to accelerate and thrust a knife right at the enemy’s throat.

The man brought up his arm and just barely managed to block the blow. He must have had something to protect him under his clothes, as the harsh sound of metal on metal rang out. However, blocking the strike wasn’t enough to blunt the impact.

Klaus used his strength to shove his foe clean off the girder.

The man hung in the air for a moment, and Klaus used that opening to mercilessly gun him down.

His weapon of choice this time was a revolver. Klaus was a master of the quick draw, and he had honed his skills to perfection. It only took him the blink of an eye to swap his knife to his off hand and shoot. A pair of bullets went whizzing toward his opponent.

The man blocked the first shot with his knife, but the second grazed his face, knocking off his mask.

“Dammit, how is this supposed to be fair…?”

He tumbled down to the seventh floor and moaned as he skidded to a stop.

Klaus leaped down after him. This was his chance to overpower and restrain him…but he missed it.

“________”

Despite himself, Klaus froze.

The man’s beanie had fallen off during the fall, and between that and the mask, his full face was now exposed.

Klaus was at a loss for words.

The first thing he noticed was the man’s mushroom-shaped hairdo. The man looked youthful, probably in his early twenties, but the hair drowned out everything else and made it hard to focus on the rest of his appearance.

“Even you, huh?” The man tidied up his hair. “You like it? I’m pretty fond of the do, if I do say so myself.”

Klaus shook his head. “That’s not it.”

What he was surprised about was the fact that he recognized the man. His hairstyle had been different back then, but they’d definitely crossed paths before.

“It’s because this is the second time we’ve met.”

“Huh?”

“Back at the Endy Laboratory.”

The lab in question was a facility in Galgad that conducted top secret research for the Imperial army under the guise of being a pharmaceutical company.

Theirs was an encounter Klaus would never forget.

Up until now, he hadn’t been sure it was the same person. After all, their last exchange had taken place from quite a distance apart.

Now, though, Klaus was certain.

“You’re the sniper who killed my master, Torchlight.”

Guido’d had a decent shot at surviving, but a sniper’s bullet had taken that from him.

The only thing that had given Klaus pause was the discrepancy between the image in his mind and the person before him.

This was a man who’d fled screaming like a coward. Could he really be the person Klaus had spent so long searching for?

“Are you with Serpent?”

Serpent was the mysterious group that had massacred Inferno and taken his mentor’s life.

Klaus wanted revenge.

“………” The man silently rose to his feet and swept the dirt off his clothes. “You were able to see me from that far away? You really are a monster.”

He looked down at the sniper rifle he’d been carefully cradling and combed back his hair.

“Well, this sucks. Feels like my odds of surviving here just keep getting lower and lower.”

The man—who would later introduce himself as White Spider—still made no effort to hide his fear, but a grin spread across his face.

After grouping back up with Erna and co, Thea found a warehouse for them to hide in. It was sealed tight, but Annette’s blowtorch made short work of its lock.

They no longer had access to Monika’s sight, and even though they still had Erna’s intuition at their disposal, the chaos across the port made it hard for her to get a read on much of anything. The way she put it, there were so many ill omens all over the place that she couldn’t keep track of them.

The soldiers were in a state of extreme disarray.

“Big Sis Monika is really cutting loose,” Erna murmured.

There were dozens of soldiers hot on Monika’s tail, and she was having to flee for her life amid a rain of gunfire. One wrong step could be her last, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, she was operating under the disadvantage of not being allowed to kill any of her pursuers.

They couldn’t afford to let the opening she’d given them slip away.

“Once the coast is clear, let’s split up and look for that container. Remember, it’s blue and says 3-896. Annette, are your radios good to go?”

Thea turned to Annette, who was rummaging around in her skirt.

Annette pulled out four small transceivers, but a moment later, she cocked her head to the side.

“They’re bad to go. I think they’re broken, yo.”

“What?”

Thea was flummoxed. This wasn’t where she had been expecting things to go wrong. Then Matilda cut in from beside her.

“Sooo, I suspect the army people are jamming us.”

“Can you get around it?”

“Sure, just give me five minutes.”

Matilda took the tools from Annette—“May I?”—and began modifying the transceivers, disassembling them with sure, practiced movements and adjusting the wiring inside them. Annette watched her work with obvious glee. “Wow, I’m learning so much!”

Over to the side, Erna let out a subdued murmur. “I………” Thea could sense her unease.

Matilda was an Imperial spy.

By the look of it, she was probably a better operative than they’d given her credit for. When it came to machines, she clearly knew her stuff.

And they were about to help her escape.

“……………”

Thea had considered that, too, of course.

A soldier walked into the warehouse. He was beefy in a chubby sort of way.

“““______!”””

Erna, Annette, and Matilda all went into high alert.

Thea spoke up. “Don’t worry; he’s with me.”

Earlier that afternoon, Thea had successfully won over one of the soldiers by going to him when he was eating lunch all by his lonesome and seducing him. Now he was on their side.

Erna let out a big exhale. “P-please don’t scare us like that.”

“Sorry about that. I didn’t know if we’d even end up meeting him.”

That was a lie. Thea had actually gone out of her way to keep the man’s existence a secret from the others.

She took the troop deployment intel he gave her, then sent him on his way with instructions to cause a disturbance and a whispered promise to “thank him properly later.” At that last part, his whole face flushed red.

Thea shot a covert glance at Matilda, who had already gotten back to modifying the transceivers.

“……………”

Thea was going to have to have words with her.

Matilda finished her work in what seemed like no time at all. “Whew. All dooone.”

Thea nodded. “All right, let’s go.”

The girls rushed out of the warehouse and ran toward the docking area at full speed. Luckily for them, there were dozens of shipping containers slated to be loaded onto other freighters lying around, as well as loads of wooden crates and barrels. There was no shortage of spots where they could hide.

There were a few soldiers still stationed around the containers, but the man Thea enthralled fixed that problem for them with a well-placed lie. The soldiers cleared out of the area.

The searchlights that had so thoroughly illuminated the port were all broken. The girls had Monika to thank for that, and due to their honed spy skills, they were able to make their way through the darkness without any problems.

The chaos had served its purpose, and wherever the container they were looking for was, it was undefended.

All they had to do now was split up and find it. Annette and Erna ran off.

“Hey, Matilda?” However, Thea didn’t leave Matilda’s side. She called out to her after the other two left. “Could I talk to you for a minute?”

“Now’s not a great time, Thea. We need to focus on finding that container.”

“It’ll only take a second.” Thea tried to start a conversation, but Matilda didn’t bite.

“The longer it takes us to find it, the more danger the others will be in.”

If Thea could just look her in the eye for three seconds, she would be able to find out what Matilda desired. But Matilda kept averting her gaze before she could get a chance to.

“This is important.” Thea grabbed Matilda’s arm. She was tired of waiting. “Tell me—were you about to kill that soldier just now?”

“…………………”

Matilda went silent—and it was the kind of silence that meant Thea had hit a nerve.

“I saw the murder in your eyes, and I saw the way you held that screwdriver like you were going to stab him in the throat. And from how quickly you moved, it looked like it wouldn’t have been the first time.”

“……………”

That was the reason Thea had kept the soldier a secret from the others—to suss out Matilda’s true intentions.

“So what’s going on? As I recall, you told us that you had never killed before.”

“……………”

“I want an answer. If you don’t tell me what’s going on, then as of right now, you’re on your own.”

“Oh?”

Matilda shook Thea’s hand off in annoyance. It was a strangely rough gesture coming from someone who was normally so meek. Then she covered her mouth with her hands like she was trying to hide her laughter. Thea had never seen her act like that before.

“You didn’t juuust start being suspicious of me, did youuu?”

“______!”

The voice slithered through Thea’s ears like sludge.

She could hear muffled laughter coming from between Matilda’s hands.

“It’s too late for thaaat. I mean, how duuumb would you have to be to only start suspecting me nooow?”

“You’ve been playing us, then?”

“Of course. At first, I was just going to use my daughter as a tool to flee the country with, but you all were so shooockingly useful that I decided to go along with your plan. It was so helpful of you, how you ate up every lie I fed you.”

“Why, you—!” Thea thrust her pistol forward.

Matilda was showing a whole new side of herself, and Thea wasn’t about to let that stand.

“You’re not going anywhere. I’m putting you down!”

She had Matilda’s forehead square in her sights.

However, her target didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Matilda’s drawl took on a provocative tone. “What are you waaaiting for, then?”

Thea placed her finger on the trigger. “I’ll do it, you know.”

“Oh, go ahead. I do wonder how you’ll explain it to my daaaughter, though.” Matilda twiddled her fingers with her hands still clamped over her mouth. “Are you really going to tell her that you changed your mind about saving me, so you killed me instead? After you spent all that time building up her hopes? How hooorrible. It’s not like you have any proof.”

“I don’t—”

“You can’t do it, can you? You don’t have a proper reason to kill me. After all, my acting was perfect.”

“……!”

“Thea, honey, you’re a nobody. You’re too soft, and you’re incredibly easy to manipulate. In all my life, I’ve never met anyone as easy to take advantage of as you.” After saying her piece, Matilda smiled. “It’s too late. You lost the moment you brought me out here.”

Thea bit her lip.

Seeing Matilda’s true nature out of the blue like that filled her with a profound rage. That, and the knowledge that she had a duty to shoot her where she stood.

Did Matilda really think she was going to take that sort of provocation lying down?

She needed to eliminate her. But right when Thea started to squeeze her trigger finger—

“Just kidding, of course! ♪”

—Matilda lowered her hands away from her face.

The smile behind them was as gentle as a saint’s.

“I really am grateful to you, and I truly do love my daughter. When I get home, I’m done being a spy for good. And about the ‘murder’ you saw in my eyes earlier, that was just me being surprised. That’s the truth, I swear. I’ve been doing intelligence work for a lot longer than you have, so I just thought I’d tease you a bit. I hope you didn’t take any of that seriously, did you?”

“I……”

Matilda softly tilted her head to the side. All the scorn in her voice was gone like it had never been there.

Her smile was truly that of a mischievous older friend playing a harmless trick. The change in her expression was so stark it was like looking at an optical illusion.

“You wouldn’t kill me over a joke, would you?”

“……………”

“Not when you own friend calls me Mom so lovingly.”

“______________!”

Despair crashed over Thea.

Matilda was right. She didn’t have a good enough reason to shoot her.

Could she kill Matilda because she might have wanted to murder the soldier? Did Thea have it in her to put someone to death off of intuition alone?

Alternatively, what if she killed Matilda because she wasn’t trustworthy? Would Thea be able to justify that decision to Annette?

Matilda was right. She had Thea completely beat.

Whether she knew how Matilda truly felt or not, she still had no choice but to save her.

Thea’s finger trembled, then went limp. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t pull the trigger.

A voice came in over the transceiver. It was Annette’s.

“I found the container, yo!”

Matilda smiled. “Shall we be off, Thea?”

“………Yeah,” Thea murmured lifelessly. She lowered her gun.

She didn’t have the time she needed to figure out if Matilda was telling her the truth.

Moreover, she didn’t have the means to. Every time she tried meeting Matilda’s eyes, Matilda simply averted her gaze.

Thea’s only option was to go along with her.

The container Annette found was sitting just outside the docking area. It was hard to see it well in the darkness, but it definitely looked blue, and the number 3-896 was featured prominently on its side.

Annette had already unlocked it, and the container’s door was wide open. It was loaded full of sacks of flour, but there was definitely enough room for a single woman to fit inside as well.

Matilda walked right on in. “It looks like this is where we part ways. Thank you all so much for everything.”

She gave them a radiant smile. Was it a smile of relief or a smile of victory?

“Annette,” Thea said through half-gritted teeth. “I’ll give you thirty seconds.”

“For what?”

“To say your good-byes. Go ahead and make them as heartfelt as you can.”

That was Thea’s one last feeble act of resistance—appealing to Matilda’s feelings for her daughter. The best she could do was try to have Annette use her words to attempt to get her mother to honor the bargain they’d made.

Annette’s face was blank. She didn’t understand what Thea was getting at.

Matilda, too, just looked at Annette.

“………………………”

“………………………”

The two of them spent the first ten seconds just standing in silence. It was the restaurant all over again.

Right when Thea started quietly panicking, though, Annette finally spoke. “Oh right, I almost forgot.” She clapped her hands together. “Here’s your toolbox back, yo.”

She picked up the toolbox lying by her feet and offered it to Matilda. She had been carrying it in her place while Matilda recovered her stamina.

“………”

Matilda didn’t take it. After staring intently at it for a moment, her expression softened.

“______,” she said, calling Annette by her original name. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Nope.” Annette shot her down. “Being with these guys is fun.”

“I see…” Matilda nodded. “In that case, you can keep the toolbox. It’ll be my present to you.”

“Are you sure?”

Annette’s eyes gleamed. Then she hiked up her skirt, rummaged around in it, and pulled out another toolbox.

“Then you can have mine. It’ll be like a trade, yo.”

Matilda’s eyes went wide.

The toolbox Annette had just produced looked exactly like hers.

They were identical, down to their cobalt-blue coloring.

“They’re spitting images,” Matilda murmured. “You made this?”

Thea thought back.

As part of their plan to defeat the band of thieves, Annette had copied Matilda’s toolbox in exacting detail. By the look of it, she had also taken to using it for its intended purpose.

Annette smiled. “Now we match, Mom!”

A noise escaped Matilda’s lungs. She took the toolbox with a complicated expression on her face.

“…Good-bye, now.”

“Good-bye.”

Those were the final words they exchanged.

Annette’s smile remained as innocent as could be as she closed up the container.

Thea could do nothing but watch.

“………………………”

She hoped that the woman’s daughter’s words had been enough to move her heart, but—

“Sis,” Annette said as she grabbed Thea’s hand. “Thank you for hearing me out and granting my wish.”

She gave Thea a toothy grin.

Thea squeezed her hand back.

I guess thinking about it isn’t going to get me anywhere. She’ll keep smiling now, and that’s what’s really important.

At any rate, they were past the point of no return. Regretting her choices wouldn’t actually change anything.

All she could do now was trust in the innocent smile here before her eyes.

The first battle—the chosen members of Lamplight versus Welter Barth and his soldiers—was over.

The soldiers had fallen into disarray, and girls had successfully gotten Matilda past them.

Victory went to Lamplight’s chosen squad.

Over at the hotel construction site, another battle was approaching its conclusion as well.

From start to finish, Klaus had been in control.

His foe White Spider had been stripped of his mask, and Klaus had gotten a good look at his face—the face of the man who’d killed his mentor Guido.

A Serpent member, in the flesh…

Klaus gripped his knife.

The coincidence had caught him by surprise, make no mistake, but this was a golden opportunity. Forcing the man to talk could shed a lot of light on why Guido betrayed them and what Serpent really was.

He shifted his center of gravity forward and strode toward his foe.

“C’mon, man! Quit trying so goddamn hard to beat me!” White Spider screamed as he shrank backward.

It really was difficult to imagine someone as pathetic as him being an elite agent.

However, that was probably intentional on his part. It wasn’t like with Corpse, who had blindly labeled Klaus as his rival. This man was far cleverer, and Klaus had seen his skills firsthand.

“We both know you’re stronger; you could at least take it easy on me!” White Spider wiped the sweat off his brow. “Look, I get that you mean business. I get that I can’t win. I mean, I’m practically pissing my pants over here.”

Somehow, Klaus doubted that White Spider was about to start begging for his life.

He made the call—it was time to subdue him before he did anything obnoxious.

“Stay away from me, fiend.” White Spider hoisted up the sniper rifle he’d been carrying throughout their exchange. “Take one more step toward me, and I’ll shoot.”

He wasn’t aiming at Klaus. He was aiming out into the city.

Klaus scoffed. “If you’re going to threaten me, at least be realistic. You’re not going to hit anyone firing blind like that.”

White Spider was holding his rifle in one hand with his arm held all the way out to the side.

The people at the port were a good half mile away. There was no way he could land a shot from that distance without using his scope. Plus, even if he did somehow aim accurately, the recoil from a one-handed shot would prevent the bullet from flying straight anyway.

“I mean, I’ve never tried it…”

White Spider smirked.

“…but I’m pretty sure I’d hit.”

“………”

His voice had a creepily prophetic quality to it.

This was no bluff. He, too, had reached a level where his skills bordered on the superhuman.

“And don’t you dare call me a coward for this. The way I see it, you’re basically a walking, talking ball of OP bullshit.” White Spider kept his gun raised as he went on. “I’m not the only guy here who got unlucky tonight. You picked the wrong spot to run into me, man.”

“………”

“See, I know about your big weakness—how you refuse to lose even a single one of your countrymen. You wouldn’t dare let anything happen to the people Inferno loved and protected, would you?”

“………”

Klaus couldn’t move.

His loathsome foe was right before him, he was seething with rage, his opponent’s methods were despicable—and yet he couldn’t move.

The self-proclaimed World’s Strongest had been shackled.

“Sorry, but all your info’s been leaked. Your traitor of a mentor told us everything—what you look like, your aspirations, your weaknesses, your skills. He even gave us a photo of you. You’re tough—hell, you might really be the World’s Strongest—but any spy is beatable if he gets exposed like that.”

In terms of information, Klaus’s opponent held an insurmountable advantage.

Guido’s betrayal meant that the Empire knew everything about him.

As Klaus went silent, White Spider went on in evident amusement. “I planted a bomb in that hotel over there under the sofa in the lobby. It goes off in five minutes.”

“You could be bluffing.”

“You of all people should be able to tell that I’m not.”

White Spider knew about Klaus’s talents, and now he was using them against him. There was no way Klaus was going to be able to thwart his plan.

White Spider was a man who always came prepared. Klaus showing up would have been the worst-case scenario for him, so he made sure he had a contingency in place for that eventuality. Thanks to his prep work, he was able to deal with even the most irregular of occurrences.

In contrast, Klaus had had no idea who White Spider was, so he didn’t have a single countermeasure in place for him.

This was the power of an information disparity.

“You and me, let’s make a deal. I’m not trying to get myself killed tonight.”

“…Fair enough. You can go.” Klaus found himself forced to accept.

It was the only choice he had. He couldn’t shoot White Spider if it meant that a soldier would die for it, and if he didn’t get going, he wouldn’t have time to disarm the bomb.

“One question, though,” he said as he stowed his knife. “Why did my master betray us?”

“If I told you, would you join us, too?”

Klaus shook his head. He wasn’t in the mood to bargain.

“I figured,” White Spider said quietly. “Then I’ve got one, too. You’re going to be telling your bosses about me, right?”

“I’ve memorized your face in enough detail to draw a portrait. You won’t be setting foot in this nation again.”

“So I’m going on the Most Wanted list, huh. Well, what name are you gonna give me?”

“What…name?”

“Y’know, to go with the portrait.”

Why did he care about that?

Sure, Klaus would probably have to come up with a name for him.

It was like with the assassin who was known by the code name Deepwater in the Empire. The Din Republic had no way of knowing that name, so the Foreign Intelligence Office’s Director had chosen to dub him Corpse.

Klaus gave the first answer that came to mind. “Mushroom Man.”

“Please, just put White Spider. Let me keep at least some of my pride.”

Was that his real code name? He could easily end up changing it, but Klaus committed it to memory nonetheless.

“Then know this, White Spider. Next time we cross paths, I’m ending you.”

“Trust me, if I never have to see your mug again, it’d be too soon!” White Spider shouted at the top of his lungs. Even now, he still came across as a petty coward. “Next time, we’ll send in someone more suited for the job. After all, we know how to stop you now.”

White Spider grinned and parted back his mushroomy hair.

“I mean, either way, you’re done. You’re not the only one whose info got leaked, you know. We’ve got the Republic’s best and brightest, its promising up-and-comers, everyone. You get it yet? We’ve got answers for whoever you send at us. Your mentor’s betrayal cost your entire nation its future.”

White Spider’s voice rang with confidence, and his expression was that of a man who’d already won.

However, that in and of itself made Klaus certain of something.

“Well, that’s a relief.”

“Say what?” White Spider exclaimed.

“I didn’t know how dangerous Serpent was going to be, but it looks like you’re nothing special.” Klaus had been overestimating his foes. He realized now what a fool he’d been. “Anyone who gets that excited over a tiny win against me is someone I know I don’t have to worry about. Are all the other members of Serpent seriously as weak as you? Try not to let me down too much, now.”

He held his chest high.

“I still have seven trump cards up my sleeve.”

There were seven someones—or rather, eight someones—that the Empire knew nothing about.

Now Klaus was certain. Those girls were the secret weapon that was going to slay Serpent.

He and White Spider stared at each other.

The man’s eyes burned with frustration and confusion, but the confidence in them remained unshaken.

Klaus got the feeling that their next meeting would come sooner rather than later.

And in all likelihood, White Spider realized the same thing.

The second battle—the one that took place at the hotel construction site—was over.

White Spider successfully escaped, but now his opponent knew what he looked like.

Klaus successfully gained more intel on Serpent, but he ended up letting White Spider get away.

Both sides walked away with new information and fresh bruises. The fight was a draw.

Meanwhile, the third battle that had started in secret was about to end in the same unseen way it had begun.