Spy Classroom - Volume 5 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Longchon

Longchon was a small country in the region of the world known as the Far East. Compared to Western-Central countries like the United States of Mouzaia and the Lylat Kingdom, the Far East was relatively undeveloped. Its Republic of Ryuka had enjoyed nigh unrivaled prosperity during the Middle Ages, but even they had been helpless before the Western-Central powers’ modernized armies. Nowadays, all but a small section of the Far East existed under Western-Central control.

Longchon, which sat directly adjacent to Ryuka, was one of the nations that had been invaded. Currently, it was a colony of the Fend Commonwealth.

In order to strengthen their control over the Far East, Fend had taken the small peninsula nation and poured vast sums of money and engineering resources into it in order to rapidly modernize its cities. In addition to building universities and banks, they also used educational institutions centered around Western-Central philosophies to drum the tenets of capitalism into the nation’s people.

As a result, Longchon became a peculiar melting pot of both Western-Central and Ryuka culture and took on a new role—as the spot that connected the West to the East. People gathered there from the Fend Commonwealth, from other Western-Central nations that wanted to advance their incursions into the East, and from the Far East countries that had fallen under colonial rule. People who wanted to conquer, people who wanted to learn about developed nations’ institutions, and people who wanted to break the shackles of oppression and control all gathered in Longchon with their various ideologies as though drawn there.

Politicians numbered among their ranks, as did journalists, academics, traders, refugees, soldiers, and revolutionaries. The list went on and on.

And behind the scenes, nations the world over sent spies in to do their work.

It was said that Longchon’s heart was found in its nights.

The country was made up of two major sections. There was the mainland over on the continent side, and across the sea, there was Longchon Island.

The most prosperous part of the country was Longchon Island’s waterfront, and the area around it, called the Great Harbor, was full of skyscrapers that cast their light across the gentle sea. Rows of Ryukese restaurants decorated with colorful red-and-yellow paper lanterns sat at the skyscrapers’ bases, each of them filled to the brim with workers relieving themselves of their fatigue by chowing down on steamed buns and wonton noodles, and washing it all down with generous gulps of Shaoxing wine.

One of the restaurants was a popular spot for Western-Central businessmen, and in it, a man was drinking some oolong tea. He was a beautiful man with features so fair one could almost mistake him for a woman, but by wearing his hair long to hide his elegant features, he was able to blend in with the rest of the city and go all but unnoticed. When he casually sipped from his teacup beneath the red paper lantern, he was indistinguishable from any other young man visiting Longchon on business.

That man was “Bonfire” Klaus—a spy from the Din Republic.

He sat alone, doing nothing but eating his braised pork dinner.

In the seat behind his, there was a woman sitting with her back to him wearing a casual T-shirt. “It’s been three months since the Tolfa Economic Conference, so we’re starting to see how each country made out,” she said.

The woman was enjoying a glass of Fend-made whiskey.

Her hair was a striking combination of yellow and pink, and her face was decorated in heavy layers of eyeshadow. Her code name was Roaring Sea, and she was a messenger from Din’s intelligence agency. Her job was to go out in person and deliver confidential information to their agents working abroad.

Roaring Sea hid her mouth behind her glass cup as she went on. “Bottom line is: The situation’s about what we expected.”

Her voice was hoarse and husky. When she drank, it went right to her throat.

“How so?” Klaus asked.

“There wasn’t any obvious funny business that happened at the Tolfa Economic Conference. With one exception, mind you.”

The two of them continued facing away from each other as they spoke.

“Ah,” Klaus muttered.

The topic at hand was the showdown he’d had against Serpent in the United States of Mouzaia.

Upon discovering that Serpent had infiltrated a conference being held in Mouzaia, the world’s leading economic superpower, Klaus took his subordinates and dove into the fray. After a long, hard-fought battle, they’d succeeded in capturing one of Serpent’s members, but while they were busy with that, Serpent had largely had free rein to do their covert work.

The question was, were Serpent’s actions going to end up reshaping the global situation now that the conference was over?

However, no major shifts seemed to have come about yet.

Roaring Sea’s mouth curled into a thin smile. “As far as the conference itself went, the Allies finished carving up Tolfa with no big surprises to speak of. Everything seems pretty normal. Sheesh, your girl’s feeling kinda let down.”

For whatever reason, Roaring Sea liked to refer to herself as “your girl.” Klaus had only known her a short while, and he had yet to get much of a handle on who she was or where she was from.

“Well, I guess that’s spies for you,” Roaring Sea said with a chuckle. “Honestly, it’s kind of creepy how good these Serpent guys are at getting stuff done behind closed doors.”

“So what you’re telling me is that we still have no idea what Serpent was after.” Klaus couldn’t help but let a touch of irritation creep into his voice. To him, Serpent was the most loathsome foe around. He’d loved Inferno like a family, and Serpent had annihilated them. “What about that data I got from the JJJ?” he asked. “Is the analysis finished yet?”

“That’s gonna take a bit more time.” Roaring Sea shrugged. “After all, I doubt the JJJ was feeling nice enough to just hand you all that information on a silver platter. I don’t think they tried to play you or anything, but we still need to go over the intel with a fine-tooth comb before we can use it.”

“Got it. And?”

“Hmm?”

“What was the funny business? You mentioned an exception.”

“Oh yeah. You actually already know about it, though.” Roaring Sea’s voice went grim. “I was talking about the heavy losses all the intelligence agencies suffered…on account of Purple Ant’s massacre.”

“Ah, that,” Klaus replied.

Purple Ant was a spy who worked for the Galgad Empire, and he was also a member of Serpent.

“I have to say, your girl was shook.” Roaring Sea’s voice was uncharacteristically somber. “You can’t even call that intelligence work. I mean, single-handedly killing over a hundred spies and using human wave tactics to turn an entire city into a hunting ground? There isn’t an intelligence agency out there that’s not reeling right now. Everyone lost loads of their best people.”

Purple Ant hadn’t been messing around. He was a man who used torture to bend ordinary civilians to his will and mold them into assassins. Their orders were to murder any intelligence agents they found operating in Mitario—and to kill themselves if they failed. The man was like the devil incarnate, and he styled himself as Mitario’s king.

Over the course of his reign, he had killed countless operatives with no regard for what nation they worked for. Rumors had swirled about exemplar spies from every nation under the sun meeting untimely ends, and one of the victims was even Klaus’s de facto mother, Hearth.

“It was a massacre, is what it was. And thinking about how it all happened at the hands of a single man sends a chill down my spine. That sort of stuff just isn’t supposed to be possible.”

“………”

“At any rate, Serpent will be able to operate pretty freely for the time being,” Roaring Sea said. “Purple Ant did what he set out to, and now the world is descending into chaos. It probably won’t be long before Serpent begins making some serious moves, and if we let them get started, it’ll already be too late.”

“………”

“We’re expecting great things from you, Bonfire. Or should I say…the Greatest Spy in the World?”

When she addressed him by his title, Klaus offered her no denial or modesty.

He hadn’t taken the name out of arrogance. He’d done so out of self-confidence and his sense of duty. He’d been raised by the greatest teammates anyone could ask for, and the moniker was a symbol of his pride as a spy.

With Inferno gone, it was up to him to protect his homeland.

Roaring Sea stood up and began getting ready to head out.

“I have a message from the brass.” The cloying smell of perfume drifted by as she made her final comment. “We’ll figure out where Serpent is soon enough. Until then, just hold tight and take care of that other mission like we asked.”

“Of course. I’ll get it done as quickly as possible.”

“Don’t forget that this is an ask from your girl, too. As of right now, you’re the only person the Republic can truly count on. Oh, and make sure you remember your other role, too, yeah?”

“Remind me.”

“This one’s pretty urgent. Purple Ant killed a lot of spies, and all the world’s intelligence agencies are shorthanded right now. As a result, everyone’s sending rookies out onto the front lines. And it’s flipped the world’s power dynamics on their head.”

“………”

“A new era’s coming. A younger one.”

After sharing a few other pieces of information with him, Roaring Sea left for real.

Klaus was alone now, and he went back to sipping his tea and gazing out at the night sea. A number of ferries were making the trip between Longchon Island and the mainland.

Perhaps one of those ferries was carrying his subordinates at that very moment.

“A younger era, huh?” he murmured. “I just hope they find their place in it.”