Spy Classroom - Volume 3 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Disappearance

Their allies were gone.

As Klaus calmly accepted that fact, he took a seat on one of the sofas in Heat Haze Palace’s main hall.

His expression was dour at the best of times, but at the moment, it was especially stern. He sat with his legs crossed, not so much as twitching. His eyes were closed, and one could have been fooled into thinking he was asleep if not for the fact that he intermittently opened his eyes, glanced over at the radio sitting on the table, then closed his eyes again. He took no other actions.

The sound of a violin performance streamed from the radio’s speakers. Radio broadcasts had come into popularity during the Great War so that civilians could learn about the situation on the ground, and after the war ended, entertainment programs became a key tool for raising the people’s flagging spirits while they recovered from the ravages of war. Such programs would normally inspire joy and good cheer, but at the moment, Klaus was deriving neither.

After what felt like hours, the performance ended, and the morning news broadcast finally began. However, all it contained were reports on the nation’s economic climate with no useful information to be gleaned from them.

“If something happened, it wasn’t big enough to make the news,” Klaus concluded.

He was accompanied in the hall by a quartet of girls; they huddled around the table and stared restlessly at the radio.

The five of them were members of the spy team Lamplight.

Lamplight was a newly formed team that answered to the Din Republic’s intelligence agency, the Foreign Intelligence Office. It was made up of Klaus and eight girls, and it specialized in taking on ultra-difficult Impossible Missions. Just two weeks ago, they had succeeded in capturing a foreign spy named Corpse and thwarting the assassination he was trying to commit.

While they were closing the book on that operation, however, four of the girls went missing.

They had been scheduled to return the night prior, but when morning rolled around, they were still nowhere to be seen, and they hadn’t called ahead to say they would be late.

There was no other way to put it—they were missing.

“I mean, maybe they just forgot what day they were supposed to come back…”

The hopeful comment came from the silver-haired girl, Lily. Her most notable characteristics were her charming appearance and her sizable bosom.

Klaus shook his head. “That would be my first thought if you were the one AWOL, but you aren’t.”

“Wow, rude.”

“The four we’re missing would never make a blunder like that. Given who we’re talking about, we should assume that they aren’t calling because they aren’t able to.”

During the previous mission, Klaus had split the team in two.

There were the four members skilled enough to go up against Corpse—and the four members coordinated enough to get by without Klaus.

The missing group was the former one. It was hard to imagine those four forgetting to at least call.

The redheaded Grete summed up her thoughts as she brewed some black tea. “Then something…or someone…must be stopping them.” Her limbs were long and slender, and she gave off the same sort of transient impression as a delicate piece of glasswork. “Please, Boss, is there anything more you can tell us? How did you all spend your last month together?”

The other girls nodded in agreement. The intimidating white-haired girl—Sybilla—shot Klaus a piercing stare, and the timid brown-haired girl—Sara—looked at him worriedly.

“That’s right, I’ve been meaning to ask you!”

Lily leaned forward as she spoke.

“Why the heck is my room all blown up?”

“………………………………………………………”

Klaus took his cup and sipped from it. “You know, Grete, this tea of yours is really quite delight—”

“Don’t go changing the subject!” Lily cried.

“There was…a mishap.”

“Mishaps don’t blow up people’s rooms!”

As Lily’s angry bellow echoed in his ears, Klaus thought back.

The outer wall of Lily’s room had been destroyed, leaving it completely exposed to the elements. Her bed was in splinters, her personal effects were scattered about the garden outside, and her scorched clothes lay in messy heaps.

When they got back to Heat Haze Palace the night prior, the sight had given Lily such a shock that her legs gave out under her.

Klaus began telling them everything—what had happened during the month Lily and the others were gone and, incidentally, why Lily’s room was in pieces.