Spy Classroom - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.2

Sybilla took the lead as the girls dashed toward Klaus’s study. After charging in so hard they could have broken the door, the five of them ended up in a tangled pile on the floor.

Inside, Vindo coldly looked down at them. “You really are a noisy lot.”

He had both his hands in his pockets, and everything about his pose seemed to radiate contempt.

Across from him, Klaus was frowning. His was the face of a man who’d just been given some uncomfortable news.

The girls rose to their feet and glared daggers at Vindo.

“Looks like you figured out what’s up,” he said, practically spitting out the words.

“We just finished wrapping up our negotiations. Bonfire’s going to become my team’s new boss.”

The girls gasped at how accurate their fears had been. At the same time, rage began welling up inside them at the overfamiliar way Klaus’s code name sounded coming out of Vindo’s mouth.

Lily took a step forward. “B-but why…?”

“It’s really not that strange.” Vindo’s voice was downright frigid. “If anything, it’s the only rational choice. Bonfire’s place is with other talented spies. All you people are doing is holding him back.”

There was no joy in Vindo’s eyes. The gaze he gave the girls was sharp and fierce.

His words had hit Lamplight right where it hurt, and their hearts ached all the more for having known it all along. The best thing for their motherland would have been for Klaus to focus wholly on his missions, but as things stood, he was spending huge chunks of his time training the girls and cleaning up after their messes. It was hardly fitting work for the Foreign Intelligence Office’s mightiest spy, but the girls had turned a blind eye to that fact and continued taking advantage of his kindness.

“B-but…,” Lily stammered back. “Even if that’s true, why should you guys get him?”

“Avian is far more capable than Lamplight. I think we’ve made that perfectly evident.”

He was talking about the night prior. He and Qulle had cleared a mission with ease that Sybilla and Erna had failed.

“Not only did you fail a trivial mission, one of you even got knocked out and put you all in peril, and Bonfire had to go out of his way to come bail you out. If that doesn’t count as holding him back, then I don’t know what would.”

Erna let out a pained little moan.

“Then we went in and cleared it all on our own. What more proof could you possibly need?”

“That was your goal all along, huh?” Sybilla immediately snapped. “So much for ‘handling Erna’s part for us.’ You fuckin’ played us.”

“It’s your own fault for letting yourself get played,” Vindo said, gesturing rudely with his chin. “As of right now we’re the nation’s best spies whose intel hasn’t been leaked to the Galgad Empire. The best thing for us would be to have Bonfire join forces with Avian. It’s as simple as that.”

“I-if I may.” This time, it was Qulle who spoke up from behind the girls. “This really isn’t as bad a deal as it sounds. What do you say to having Lamplight take a break from fighting on the front lines for a while? You’ve improved a lot, but your skills are still pretty shaky, and that puts you all in a lot of danger.”

She went on.

“You should really consider going back to your academies.”

Her tone sounded almost consoling, like she was trying to show that she didn’t harbor any animosity toward them. That it wasn’t anything personal—it was just business.

Seeing her attitude made the girls’ bodies go red-hot. They’d “improved”? Qulle didn’t see them as equals, not one bit. All those compliments she’d paid them had come from a place of smug superiority, and the way she looked at them like misbehaving children rubbed each and every one of them the wrong way.

“T-Teach, where do you fall in all this?” Lily said, forcing the conversation in a new direction. “Are you seriously buying into this nonsense?”

The whole time they’d been arguing with the Avian duo, Klaus had merely listened in silence. The girls’ hearts swelled. Surely, Klaus would reject Vindo and Qulle’s proposal and declare that he was going to remain Lamplight’s boss.

“If nothing else…” However, Klaus’s expression was hard. “…I’ve given them the green light.”

“______!”

“To be honest, they have a point. Having me become Avian’s boss is the best option we have available to us right now. It’s in our nation’s best interests to pair the most skilled boss with the most skilled subordinates and have them complete missions together.”

There was a dark gloom in Klaus’s eyes that none of them had ever seen before.

“And as for what you all will do once you don’t have a boss anymore, going back to your academies for a time might not be such a bad idea.”

The words coming out of his mouth were as cold as ice. The girls could practically feel a chill run down their spines.

That was Klaus’s stance—as a spy, he respected the legitimacy of Avian’s argument.

“They’ve already provided me with compensation, too. Vindo taught me about a technique that Lamplight was lacking. I have to say, it was fascinating to hear his viewpoint. Sharing his findings with you will be my parting gift to you all.”

“And there you have it,” Vindo said with a brief nod. “We’ve already finished our negotiations. If you don’t like it, then come up with a rational, logical reason to convince us otherwise. Go on, make an argument worthy of a spy.”

He glowered at them.

“And if you can’t…then give us your boss.”

“………”

The girls gulped as the words refused to come to them. They wanted to give Vindo a verbal smackdown, but that desire accomplished nothing for them except making their heads go even hotter.

What should they say?

That they had good synergy with Klaus? No. They had no way of objectively demonstrating that, nor could they refute the possibility that Klaus might have good synergy with Avian, too. That they’d successfully completed Impossible Missions? No. Not after the three months they’d just spent failing over and over and dragging Klaus down. That they had skilled members like Monika and Grete? No, that would be a poor move. That would just end in Monika and Grete getting transferred to Avian, too.

They couldn’t come up with any spy-worthy arguments.

But if they didn’t do something, Lamplight was going to fall apart. Klaus was going to leave them, and they were all going to get separated when they went back to their academies. Even just picturing it was enough for grief to run through them like someone had gouged a hole in their hearts. However, no rebuttals came to mind, and all the girls could do was mumble incoherently.

Vindo went on, appearing almost bored. “Sounds like you don’t have any counterarguments. In that case, I’ll get in touch with our superiors and recommend that—”

“Oh, but we do.”

A clear, resonant voice split the air.

“You’re really trying to rush this along, aren’t you? I must say, impatient men aren’t really my type.”

An indomitable smile rested on Thea’s lips. She swept back her hair, then brushed Lily aside as she took a step forward.

“Hmph.” Vindo raised his jaw. “What are you saying?”

“Just that I have some spy talk for you. And it’s logical, just the way you like it.”

“Go on.”

“I say we have no defense. Teach is all yours. Go ahead, make him Avian’s boss.”

Every girl present stared at Thea in horror.

Vindo gave her a suspicious frown. “How oddly understanding of you. I have to imagine you’re plotting something.”

“Oh, perish the thought.” Thea smiled amicably. “I’m just curious about what you wanted to do for your onboarding.”

“Our…onboarding?”

“That’s what I said. Sybilla and Lily, could you give me your papers from last night?”

Sybilla hadn’t understood what Thea was up to at first, but when she stuck her hand in her pocket, it finally dawned on her. Lily pulled out her paper as well.

After collecting them, Thea handed them to Vindo. “These are the instructions Teach gave the two of them for last night.”

“…So?”

“Once you read them, I think you’ll understand why an onboarding process is necessary.”

On the papers, there was some bizarre advice.

Pilfer as a rainbow does when crossing the moon.

Be like the full moon and be your full self.

“……………What?” Vindo frowned.

When Qulle looked at the papers, her eyes went wide. “Yikes,” she exclaimed.

“When it comes to explaining things, Teach is as terrible as they come,” Thea declared triumphantly.

That was Klaus’s big weakness—his inability to properly convey the specifics of things like spy techniques. Naturally, he was no good at giving concrete orders during missions, either.

“That’s why I assumed you were going to need some onboarding. What do you say?” Thea asked with a smile.

Vindo clenched the instructions in his hand, then silently whirled around. “…Did you actually write these, Bonfire?”

“I did.”

“Are they poems?”

“It’s some advice I left for them.”

“Why’d you encode it, then?”

“I didn’t.”

“……………………”

Just this once, the girls couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy toward Vindo. That must have come completely out of left field for him.

Thea gently made her case, making sure to frame it like she was doing Avian a favor. “There are some tricks of the trade you need to know if you want to work with the Greatest Spy in the World. What would you say to working together until the mission’s finished? That way, we can help get you up to speed.”

Vindo sank into contemplative silence. After shifting his stony gaze back and forth between Klaus and the instructions, he eventually let out a small sigh and clicked his tongue. “…Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

“Wonderful. We’ll teach you everything you need to know,” Thea replied.

“I expect you to give us your all,” said Vindo. “It won’t be long until we have that mission done.”

The corners of Thea’s eyes twitched a little at his provocative tone, but that was all. She refused to lose the cover her geniality afforded her.

“I’d say this conversation is over,” Vindo snapped. He headed to leave the study. On his way to the door, he exchanged vicious glares with Sybilla and Lily.

Qulle followed a step behind. “It’s really nothing personal, you know,” she said.

Then Thea called after them. “By the way, there’s just one thing I want to confirm.”

“Oh yeah?” Vindo stopped in his tracks. “What’s that?”

“Oh, it’s just a little detail. But if, hypothetically, Lamplight is able to demonstrate that we’re better than Avian during the onboarding period, I’m sure we can agree to just forget this whole thing about you taking Teach. After all, you’d have lost the whole foundation for your argument.”

“It’s a moot point. That could never happen in a million years.”

After that final verbal clash, Vindo and Qulle left the villa.

The sound from the front door closing behind them seemed to echo unnaturally loudly.

““““…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………””””

For a little while, the girls said nothing. It was taking them some time to digest the implications of Thea and Vindo’s last exchange.

Eventually, Thea let out a big sigh and smiled. “I trust I handled that the way you hoped I would, Teach.”

“That’s right, Thea. That was magnificent.”

A cheer of “Theaaaaaaaaaa!” exploded up from the girls, and they rushed over and leaped at her. Lily hugged her neck, Sybilla gave her a thump on the shoulder, and Erna and Annette rubbed their heads against her belly.

She’d executed her play flawlessly.

The girls could all feel it—they still had a tiny shred of hope. They’d successfully bought themselves some time and avoided the worst-case scenario of losing Klaus right there and then. One of the core tenets of negotiation was that you needed to find common ground rather than verbally beat the other side into submission, and Thea had done that with flying colors. For now, Klaus was still Lamplight’s boss.

Klaus gave her a round of applause. “That was some fantastic work you did there. If I’d tried to bring up an onboarding period myself, it would have come across as unnatural.”

“I told you, didn’t I? When I said I was going to become your partner, I meant every word of it,” Thea declared, sounding tickled pink with herself. “If I couldn’t stay in harmony with you on things like this, how could I ever hope to remain by your side?”

The others fawned over Thea for a good while longer until Lily and Annette eventually got carried away and made her mad by tickling her sides.

After they finished basking in their feelings of exultation, Sybilla looked up. “Th-there’s one thing I don’t get,” she said, turning her gaze over toward Klaus. “Tell me, where’s your head at with all this? You seriously thinkin’ about goin’ with Avian?”

Upon hearing her question, the rest of the girls all said “Ah” and stopped their idle chatter. Sybilla had a point. They’d delayed the issue at hand, but they still hadn’t actually solved anything.

Klaus nodded. “…I am. I am a spy, after all. And I have a duty to protect the nation that Inferno loved. If it becomes clear that it’s the best choice available, I’m prepared to set aside my personal feelings and take charge of Avian. If that happens, and you all end up without a boss, then having you go back to the academies might be for the best.”

“Yeep…” Over beside Sybilla, Erna hung her head.

The others understood all too well how she felt. They knew it was spoiled of them, but even so, they didn’t want to accept that this was happening. The thought of Klaus leaving and the team getting torn apart was just too unthinkable. If there was anything they could have said to prevent it, they would have, but—

“But remember this. When I first assembled my team, I didn’t pick any of those Avian members. I picked you,” Klaus said decisively. “And from there, I trained you myself. Now these Johnny-come-latelies think they’re better than you? As if. All you have to do now is go out there and prove them wrong. Take those Avian punks as fuel for your own growth.”

With a start, Sybilla realized she’d been looking at it all wrong. There was a way to avoid that horrible future. All they had to do was prove one thing during the onboarding period—that they were the ones who deserved that spot by Klaus’s side!

“But of course!” Lily said, sounding oddly excited. “Ooh, now I’m fired up. Behold the awakening of Lily, Washout Extraordinaire!”

Sybilla immediately clenched her fists. “Yeah! I might’ve been on a losin’ streak, but that ends today!”

The two of them exchanged a fist bump as the others starting chiming in as well.

“I’ve still got loads and loads of pranks I want to try out on Bro, yo!” Annette chirped.

“L-let’s do this!” Erna declared. “If they want to steal Teach away from me, then they’ve got another thing coming!”

“Don’t you worry about a thing, Teach,” Thea said, laying a hand atop her chest. “We’ll surpass Avian right before your eyes. Heh-heh. After all, you wouldn’t want to be separated from me, either, would you? Why, you’re so taken with my ravishing body that you can barely stop yourself from thinking of ways to get me and Grete into your bed so you can—”

“And to think, you would have almost been respectable if not for all the sexual harassment.”

“I’m plenty respectable!”

“Still, that energy—that unshakable spirit of rebellion you all possess—is your first and foremost weapon.”

He was right, and the girls knew it. Losing wasn’t an option. They had their pride, after all. They couldn’t afford to lose Klaus, and like hell were they going back to those damned academies.

It was time to win, and if they had to take down some academy elites to do it, then so be it.

“Just now, I was able to extract some information that will help you overcome Avian.” Klaus’s voice was firm and resolute. “There’s a final lesson the academies give, one that you never got to take. And it’s about an espionage fighting style called liecraft.”