Spy Classroom - Volume 7 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Glint 4

In front of her, she could see the Kashard Doll Workshop.

There were only a handful of people inside—Grete, Erna, Annette, Thea, Amelie, and Lotus Doll. The rest of Belias’s members had all been captured, and the Lamplight girls had just started going through Belias’s files.

The point had come where Monika needed to attack her own team.

“Gee, Scarlet Leviathan, you mind getting started?” Green Butterfly asked her, her voice eager and delighted. For all the glee in her voice, though, there was an unspoken threat to her demeanor that told Monika she had little choice in the matter. Green Butterfly made sure to put a special emphasis on “Scarlet Leviathan,” the new moniker she’d just given her.

Monika exhaled and tightened her grip on her gun.

“Oh, and you don’t have to kill anyone,” Green Butterfly told her with a little wave. The condition worked out in Monika’s favor. She did find it odd, though, and Green gave her a grim smile. “If you killed any of your teammates, Bonfire wouldn’t hesitate to return the favor. That wouldn’t do anyone any good.”

Ah, that made sense. Monika wasn’t surprised that Serpent knew so much about Klaus’s personality. “You’re really preying on his weaknesses for all they’re worth, huh?”

“Exactly. We want to send him down the rabbit hole. All the way to rock bottom.”

On its own, Monika betraying the team wouldn’t be enough for Klaus to be willing to kill her. The man was a softy through and through. The way Monika had heard it, he hadn’t even been able to bring himself to kill his own traitorous mentor. If Monika killed one of the other girls, though, Klaus would pass judgment on her without mercy. Serpent’s plan was to have her walk that narrow tightrope for as long as she could in order to wear Klaus out and squeeze their odds of winning up by whatever tiny percent they could.

“That said, I still wanna make sure you’re in all the way,” Green Butterfly said with a cruel smile. She had no intention of letting Monika get away with half-assing her attack. “Could you beat, gee, at least one of ’em half to death for me?”

Monika gave her a wordless nod. She’d already made her peace with that.

“Also, it’d be great if you took someone hostage, too. Make it someone dainty, someone who’ll give Bonfire a good scare.”

“You really know how to push the man’s buttons, don’t you?”

“It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do,” Green Butterfly whispered in her ear. “If you defy us, ‘Flower Garden’ Lily is a goner. Remember, we’ve got eyes on her around the clock.”

Green Butterfly was going to join Monika on her raid, so she wouldn’t be able to pull any cheap tricks. The listening device was still attached to Monika’s body, and considering Green Butterfly’s doubtlessly keen eyes, fooling her would be nigh impossible.

This was a test.

“Show me you mean it,” Green Butterfly said. The point of the attack was to see if Monika was truly willing to betray Lamplight. Monika couldn’t afford to make a single misstep, not if she wanted to win Green Butterfly’s trust.

It was time for her to pull off the ultimate con.

“Go on, Scarlet Leviathan,” Green Butterfly urged her. “Go carve a pitch-black nightmare right into the foolish masses!”

The command was succinct, and Monika leaped off the building’s roof. After landing in front of the Kashard Doll Workshop, she charged straight through the entrance. Green Butterfly followed along right behind her.

Monika drew her knife, spun it in her hand, and clutched it tight. Grete was standing in the reception area directly in front of her holding a set of files. She turned around and gave Monika a puzzled look. “Monika…?” she asked. “Where were you? And why are you holding that—?”

Monika didn’t give her time to finish her sentence. She bounded forward and smashed her dagger’s handle into Grete’s chest, hard. As soon as Grete limply keeled forward, Monika took the vial of blood she’d prepared in advance, pressed it against her back, and wedged it into her armpit.

Blood poured from the vial and stuck to the blade of Monika’s dagger.

Not you…!

Monika clicked her tongue to push down the feelings of revulsion rising up within her.

Grete lost consciousness without so much as crying out in confusion. She collapsed on her side with the vial of blood meant for transfusion still tucked in her armpit. Its contents pooled around her, as if her back had been sliced wide open.

Monika’s fabrication earned her a disapproving smirk from Green Butterfly. “Gee, that was weak. Still, I guess she would be a pain to kidnap if you roughed her up too bad. Seeing that much blood’ll be enough to give Bonfire something to puzzle over, at least.” Her voice turned threatening. “But I’m gonna need you to attack the next one for real, ’kay?”

Monika didn’t reply. One way or another, her actions would speak for her.

Then she heard the sound of something falling over by the reception area’s entrance. It was Erna. She’d just dropped the documents she was holding and was looking back and forth in horror at Grete, who was collapsed in a pool of blood, and Monika, who was standing beside her with a dripping knife.

“Big Sis Monika?”

She looked like she might burst into tears at any moment.

Monika raced forward and closed the distance to her in a flash. Erna drew her gun a beat too late, and Monika smacked it out of her hand with her knife, looming before her now-unarmed opponent. Erna went pale and stared up at her with an expression steeped in despair.

Not you, either!!

She kicked Erna’s abdomen. Spittle flew from Erna’s mouth, splattering across Monika’s legs in tepid droplets as the younger girl’s body went hurtling backward like a rag doll. However, Erna instinctively jumped back as the hit landed, blunting the blow. She quickly rose to her feet and fled down the hallway. As she did, Monika caught a fleeting glimpse of her expression. It was colored with fear, like she’d just seen a monster she couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Monika gripped her blade and gave chase. Her right hand still buzzed slightly with the sensation of hitting Grete, and her left leg with the sensation of kicking Erna. A pounding noise echoed in her head. The sound was like metal crushing metal, and it refused to stop. A wave of nausea rose up from within her, and she wished so badly she could just give in to it.

“Gee, can’t let her get away,” Green Butterfly said with a look of absolute rapture on her face. “Better hurry up and go after her.”

Monika dashed down the hallway.

By betraying her allies—by taking the memories they’d built up together and shattering them with her own two hands—she was destroying herself, nothing less. As she crumbled, there was a horrible ringing in her ears, and the color drained from her vision. However, she’d prepared herself for all that. If she was going to stay true to the conviction she’d decided to uphold, then she had no choice but to walk the path of carnage.

Then a hysterical cry tore through the air.

“MONIKA!!”

Thea was standing in the middle of the first-floor hallway. Her voice was raised, and the rage in her eyes was incandescent.

“What did you do to Erna?! Where is that blood from?!”

Green Butterfly gave Monika a cold “Shut her up.”

Before the order even came, Monika was already on the move. She squeezed her knife and leaped.

Thea tried to flee, but she tripped over her own legs. She tumbled ignobly to the ground. Monika planted her foot down hard on Thea’s stomach, then moved forward until she was sitting astride her and looked down at the agonized expression on Thea’s face. She swung her knife down at her throat.

Right before the knife’s tip reached her neck, Thea reached up and grabbed Monika’s wrists. “Monika…why…?” she asked through tears.

With Monika trying to bring down the knife and Thea trying to hold her in place, it became a simple contest of strength. That left them at a deadlock, but only for a brief instant. When it came to raw power, Monika had her beat.

Little by little, the blade inched ever closer to Thea’s throat.

“Why are you doing this…?”

Thea kept asking questions that Monika had no way of answering. She could feel Green Butterfly’s gaze on her back.

Monika couldn’t say a word. She couldn’t even beg Thea to save her.

She could try using sign language or some sort of code, but if Green Butterfly spotted the slightest hint of the gestures those would require, her trust in Monika would vanish. Then she would give up on the traitor-Monika plan and lie to the CIM in a way that entrapped Lily.

Monika couldn’t reveal a single iota of her real intentions. All she could do was what she was ordered to. That was the nightmare Green Butterfly had engineered. That was the scheme she’d trapped the girl called Scarlet Leviathan in.

And yet, Monika thought fervently as she put more strength into the knife, there’s one person on Lamplight.

Ever since she started her raid, she’d been searching for them, and every time she attacked one of her allies, she silently screamed, “Not you.”

As Monika loomed over Thea’s body, she looked her in the eye.

One person who can sense my desires without us needing to exchange a word!!

There was only one way to beat Serpent and their exhaustive intel on the Din Republic’s spies. Academy washouts were the one group who never got their unique talents leaked, and gambling on that was the one thread that could lead her out of that nightmare.

If there was one thing the Lamplight girls knew, it was about “Dreamspeaker” Thea’s special skill—her ability to sense people’s desires by looking them in the eye!

Monika could tell that Thea hadn’t hesitated to use it. Her eyes were open wide. Considering the position they were in, it was the obvious thing for Thea to do.

Thea’s expression softened ever so slightly.

“Ah, so that’s what’s going on.”

The words echoed in Monika’s head out of nowhere. It was like some sort of auditory hallucination, yet as she looked in Thea’s eyes, the voice streamed in all on its own. Perhaps she had Thea’s exceptional conversational skills to thank. Either that or maybe it was the fruit of all the time they’d spent training together.

Thea’s gaze spoke with eloquence. “You know, Monika, my power doesn’t let me see every last thing in a person’s heart. I don’t know what it is you’re suffering through, not all of it. All I can see is one small part.”

She put more strength into her fingers.

“The fact that for the sake of your love, you’re trying to fight a powerful enemy all on your own.”

It worked. Thea had successfully deciphered Monika’s distress.

Nothing changed in their positions, and they both kept jostling for control. There was no reason for Green Butterfly to believe Monika was doing anything to Thea but trying to kill her.

“You helped me once when I betrayed the team.”

Thea was referring to the incident involving Annette’s mother. Thea and Monika had fought and locked eyes then, too. What they were doing now was a re-creation of that.

“This time, I’ll betray Lamplight with you. Being Dreamspeaker means saving everyone, even my enemies.”

It was a ludicrously optimistic way to be, but right now Monika couldn’t bring herself to laugh at Thea.

They didn’t have much time left. They were sharing information far faster than they would have been able to verbally, but if they spent too much time staring at each other, Green Butterfly was liable to get suspicious.

Sensing Monika’s concerns, Thea guided her with her gaze. “Go ahead and break my arm. You need to sell your story, right?” There was a joking tone to the way she narrowed her eyes. “Try not to leave a scar, though.”

Monika drew back a bit, flipped her dagger around, and broke Thea’s upper arm through her clothes. Then she sent Thea flying with as hard a kick to the flank as she could muster.

Thea went tumbling across the floor, ultimately clutching her right arm in agony and cowering in the corner.

“Ooh, I love it.” There was no change to the pleasure in Green Butterfly’s demeanor. She was none the wiser to the wordless chat Monika and Thea had just exchanged. Even so, though, the threats kept coming undeterred. “But gee, it really is high time you beat someone half to death for me.”

That was Monika’s assignment—to beat at least one person half to death. There was no way Monika was going to be able to con her way out of it.

She’d long since decided who she was going to go after.

Honestly, this might be a good opportunity. No sense letting it go to waste.

Monika headed straight down the hallway. Her target was up on the second floor.

I’m the only one who can do this, and this is the only time for it.

Over by the staircase leading upstairs, Amelie and Lotus Doll were standing frozen with their eyes wide. “Why are you doing this…?” Amelie stammered.

“You’re in my way,” Monika growled, then charged at them. The two of them weren’t on her prescribed list of targets, but considering that she was going to have to kidnap Grete in a moment, she wanted to drive them out of the building anyhow. She swiftly smashed her daggers’ handles into their cheeks before ascending the stairs.

Green Butterfly must not have wanted to run into Amelie, as she took a different staircase up to the second floor. After she and Monika both got there, they headed for the workspace in the back.

Inside the room full of tools and lathes, the girl Monika was looking for was sitting on the table in its center. As Erna trembled behind her back, the girl smiled and dangled her legs off the table. “Yo, Erna told me everything,” Annette said with a grin. “Did you hit your head or something, Sis?”

Her smile was as innocent as ever, but there was violence flitting just below its surface. The girl before Monika was barely more than a child, yet there was something terribly evil about her presence.

Monika coldly accepted the realization of who Annette really was.

“I know you know,” Monika said.

“Hmm?”

“You assassinated Matilda, didn’t you?”

“……………”

After the Corpse mission, the girls met a woman who identified herself as Annette’s mother—Matilda. Back when they helped Matilda flee the country, there had been something off about Annette’s behavior.

Annette’s eyes widened a smidge, then she stuck out her tongue a little. “Oh, huh. Tell me, Sis, did I make it seem like that’s what I did?”

“I can see who you really are. You secretly leave all the tedious stuff to your teammates, then take the people who annoy you and murder them just ’cause you want to. That’s a nice little position you’ve carved out for yourself.”

Unlike the other girls, Monika had uncovered Annette’s true nature. She was pure evil—a natural killer. When Klaus put together Lamplight, he’d given them a joker.

As far as Annette went, Monika had one big concern about her. Annette completed her assigned tasks, but her mindset was too reckless and free-spirited. Klaus might be okay with that, but Monika wasn’t so sure.

The problem was, Annette had never truly known failure. She’d never been humiliated the way Monika had, and because of that, all her potential remained locked away. With talent like Annette’s, she could be so much more than she currently was.

Thanks to Monika’s current situation, though, she could provide that failure and force Annette to evolve. She could become an obstacle that Annette needed to overcome.

“I’m about to give you some reeducation,” she said. “Come at me, you little runt.”

The word was the only trigger Annette needed. She moved like a bat out of hell, hopping down from the table and twisting her body. Her skirt twirled up to release a series of unsettling, centipede-looking machines from within it.

“I’m code name Forgetter—and it’s time to put it all together, yo!”

“Too slow.”

Monika didn’t give her a chance to use her contraptions. Annette’s specialty was assassinating people from behind a guise of innocence. Hand-to-hand combat, on the other hand, was a shortcoming of hers. There was no way Monika was going to lose to her in a head-on brawl.

She took the hand Annette was using to hold her remote control and struck it with the back of her knife. Then she kicked away the machines swarming at Annette’s feet and dashed them against the wall. The centipede robots had been loaded with small bombs, and they exploded on impact, sending fire rushing up the wall. Fragments from the bombs hit Annette and Erna in the head, and the two of them keeled over.

“………”

Annette stared vacantly at Erna, who’d passed out and was lying there motionlessly. Then she wiped off the blood dripping down her own forehead, rose to her feet, and produced a metal rod from within her skirt. She gave Monika an expressionless glare. Her eyes were like black pits.

Even against Annette’s full strength, though, Monika had nothing to fear. She took a look at the flames spreading through the workshop. It was getting to be time to leave. Klaus wasn’t there yet, but there was a real danger he would come rushing over, and on top of that, she still needed to collect Grete’s unconscious body.

“Do it,” Green Butterfly said quietly.

Annette stood motionless as Monika addressed her. “Remember this,” Monika said coldly. “Remember this feeling of absolute powerlessness—of being able to do nothing when someone you desperately want to kill is standing right in front of you.”

She swung a dagger at Annette’s side and shattered her ribs.

The force from the impact sent Annette smashing into the wall. She vomited up blood, then passed out.

When she wakes up, she’ll have friends by her side.

Monika was confident that they would console her. It would be Annette’s first time tasting defeat, and she would have no way of removing the pain from her body, but the others would guide her through it with a gentle hand.

Annette’s growth would be a huge boon for Lamplight. All Monika had to do was believe that and keep playing the villain.

The flames began spreading and growing out of control. Green Butterfly cracked a joke. As Monika was ignoring her, she sensed someone behind her.

““_______””

Over at the workspace’s entrance, Lily and Sybilla were staring at her in shock. They must have come in right as she was attacking Annette. Unable to look them in the eye, Monika turned to stand beside Green Butterfly and tossed a vial of kerosene on the floor to cut herself off from them with fire.

“—I’m sorry.”

As the flames raged, Monika finished her raid, leaving nothing behind but that one quiet whisper.

Green Butterfly gave Monika’s attack a grade of “Perfection.”

With that, Monika succeeded in winning a bit of her trust. However, that did nothing to change the fact that Lily was being held hostage. That, combined with the fact that Klaus was hunting her in earnest now, was a problem. If Monika got caught, Lily would be in danger.

Monika’s plan needed to move to its next phase.

Green Butterfly didn’t stay by Monika’s side around the clock. At one point, she left to carry out a Serpent op that she wasn’t ready to divulge to Monika just yet. Later, Monika would learn that she’d been off killing a woman named Mia Godolphin, but sadly, Monika had too much on her plate already to try stopping her.

Instead of being there in person, Green Butterfly had her surveilled. Wherever Monika went in the city, she could always feel herself being watched. However, the fact that she could sense the lookout’s presence so trivially meant that they couldn’t have been all that talented.

The evening after her attack, Monika hid her face under a hood and visited a small coffee shop in a Hurough alleyway. She sipped her bitter coffee and waited for her counterpart to show up. The chaos that had engulfed the city in the wake of Prince Darryn’s assassination made it nice and easy for Monika to go unseen.

Right as the shop started to get crowded, Thea came in—in disguise—and sat down two seats over from her. The disguise was by no means as elaborate as one of Grete’s, the kind that allowed her to completely take another person’s place, but with her hair tied back and her makeup on thick, Thea successfully avoided looking like herself.

“Answer me, Monika.”

They conversed exclusively through the rhythm at which they tapped the counter. That was one of the many communication methods Lamplight had at their disposal, and it was enough to fool a shoddy lookout like the one Monika had.

“Why did you attack Annette like that? Did you really have to go that far?”

Despite the method of communication, Thea’s words were heavy with emotion. “She needed direction,” Monika replied. “Plus, there was your situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“You needed to be able to volunteer to look for me without Klaus getting suspicious. Because of what I did, you actually meant it when you told him you wanted to track me down.”

Thea grimaced in disapproval.

The issue Monika had been worried about was whether Thea would be able to fool Klaus immediately after the attack. That was why she needed to attack Annette the way she did—so Thea would get angry at her for real without needing to fake it.

Monika could tell that an argument was brewing, so she moved on before it had time to find its footing. “I left a to-do list for you in the shrubbery at Montegnée Park. Get it done.” Then she called over the proprietor and asked for her check.

Thea frowned. There was still so much she wanted to discuss. “And I can’t let Teach find out?”

“Yeah. I’ve got…a reason why I can’t let Klaus know what’s going on.”

“What’s that?”

“I can’t tell you what it is, either.”

The longer the conversation went on, the greater the danger of the lookout catching on to them. Monika ended things with one final message. “I’m counting on you. You’re the only one I can ask for this.”

Without turning to see Thea’s expression, she left the coffee shop.

Monika headed back to the hideout Green Butterfly had prepared for her. The hideout was in a building in an alley just one road off Hurough’s main street in the heart of the city. The building’s first floor was a restaurant, its second floor was a law office, and its fourth floor was a theatrical troupe’s training room. The third floor was Monika’s. The building’s owner was likely a Neo-Imperialist of some sort and was close with Green Butterfly. Green Butterfly didn’t tell Monika any specifics, just that she was free to use the floor as she pleased.

The floor had once been a real estate agent’s office, but now it was completely empty. There were marks on the wooden floor from where the desks had been. The sound of actors doing vocal exercises was just barely audible from the fourth floor.

All the way in the back of the hideout, there was a girl lying on the floor with both her hands bound. She’d just woken up, and she cast a vacant look Monika’s way. “Monika…”

“Sorry, Grete.” Monika took the bottle of mineral water she’d bought and held its mouth up to Grete’s. “You’ve probably figured it out by now, but your wounds aren’t that bad. That blood on your clothes isn’t yours. I had to kidnap you.”

The blood stuck to Grete’s outfit was smudged on the floor.

Instead of accepting the water, Grete chose to pile Monika with questions. “Why did you attack us?” she asked, calmly and methodically laying her questions out one after another. “Did you betray Lamplight?” However, the vast majority of them were things Monika was unable to answer.

Even so, their exchange allowed Grete to pick up on most of what was going on. “Would you tell me this, at least?” she said. Despite the situation, her voice remained mild the whole way through. “What did you kidnap me for?”

“You’re probably gonna have to make some kind of mask. I’ll get my orders at some point.” Again, Monika didn’t give her the real details. She had no way of knowing if Green Butterfly was listening in somehow. She would find an opportunity to fill Grete in. “That said, the biggest reason is as a countermeasure against Klaus.” She shrugged and drank the water Grete had turned down. “I’m going to fight him soon, and there’s no way I’m going to be able to beat him. I needed a plan that’d let me escape. Sorry, Grete, but I’m gonna have to keep you locked up here until you’re nice and weak. That way, when the chips are down, Klaus’ll prioritize saving you over capturing me.”

Grete gave her a quizzical look. “If all you wanted was to give the boss a scare, I feel as though you could have picked anyone.”

“Wait, seriously? You never realized?”

A thin smile stole its way across Monika’s face.

“Out of everyone on the team, you’re the one Klaus loves the most.”

Grete’s eyes went wide.

A wave of astonishment rose up within Monika. Based on Grete’s reaction, she really hadn’t known. “That love of yours might not’ve been so wasted, after all,” she said teasingly.

Klaus took care not to visibly give any of the girls preferential treatment, of course. He probably even tried to interact with them all equally. But even so, Monika knew. There was a slight difference in the way Klaus felt about the rest of the girls and the way he felt about Grete. It wasn’t quite romantic love, but there were definite hints of a certain warmth and tenderness there.

Monika averted her gaze. “…I really do envy you.”

“Huh?”

“I told you once, remember? I’m the kind of person who can’t help but get jealous when I see someone else get all earnest about their love.”

Grete always seemed so radiant to her. It would be so much nicer if love could be straightforward for her, too.

“………”

For a moment, it looked like Grete might break into tears. She had always been a clever one, so she might well have intuited Monika’s secret. Monika was fine with that. Knowing Grete, she would carry it to the grave.

Grete bit down on her lip and looked Monika straight in the eye. “Monika,” she said, her voice burning with conviction. “Could you take off my disguise for me?”

“Your disguise? What do you mean?”

She repeated Grete’s own words, but Grete gave her no answer, like there was no explanation she needed to give. As far as Monika could tell, though, Grete wasn’t wearing anything of the sort.

A chill ran down Monika’s spine.

She reached for Grete’s face in disbelief. Merely touching her skin wasn’t enough for her to tell, but the moment she dug her nails in, something felt incredibly wrong. Grete was wearing a mask on her face that very moment.

With bated breath, Monika snatched it off. Beneath it, the left half of her face was completely covered in a hideous birthmark.

That was Grete’s secret—the one she kept even from her allies.

“………”

Looking at it up close like that, Monika couldn’t help but let out a gasp. There was no kind way to put it. The birthmark was hideously unflattering. It summoned up instinctive feelings of revulsion.

Seeing Monika’s reaction, Grete took a chiding tone. “Would you still say you envy me?”

Monika wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She saw now how thoughtless she’d been, and that shut her right up.

“You know, the boss saw my real face and accepted me for who I was.”

“…Yeah. Makes sense, knowing him.”

“It does. And what about your beloved, Monika?” Grete said, her voice firm and unfaltering. “I don’t know who exactly it is, but…do you really believe they would be so narrow-minded and repulsed by your feelings? If you decide all on your own that your feelings would never be understood, aren’t you just giving up?”

Each and every one of Grete’s words pierced Monika right where it hurt. She didn’t want to, but she envisioned it all the same—a future where she revealed her feelings to Lily, and Lily accepted them just the way Klaus had accepted Grete’s birthmark. She shook her head to drive off the fickle fantasies. “Even if I told her, what good would that do?”

“If nothing else, it might have let us avoid our current situation.”

Despite herself, Monika let out a laugh. “Pretty hard to argue with that one.”

“Please, Monika, I’m begging you. Don’t try to shoulder everything all on your own…”

“That ship’s already sailed.” Monika gave her a self-deprecating nod. “But thanks, Grete.”

Grete gave her another, even more pleading look.

Monika took the mask and delicately tried to replace it, pressing it cleanly into place so the birthmark wouldn’t catch anyone else’s attention. Once removed, though, the mask refused to go back on right. “I’ll get you something else to use later,” she said, then gently laid the mask down on the floor.

“It’s scary, telling someone how you really feel,” Monika murmured as she looked at Grete’s birthmark. “But can you blame me? In this world running rampant with fear, love like mine is taboo. It’s a crime, a mental illness. All my feelings are gonna do is cause problems for people.”

Grete’s expression contorted like she wanted to say something, but Monika forged ahead.

“And see, that right there is why I decided to destroy the world.”

Monika needed to get started on her next set of preparations.

Soon, she would do as Green Butterfly ordered and fight Klaus. She would lose that fight, no doubt. She knew that going in.

Her real fight was going to take place after that.

At that point, nobody else had realized just what a cruel future she was headed toward. Not Green Butterfly, not Thea, not Klaus.

“I really do hope,” Monika said as she left, “that you and Klaus find your happily ever after.”