Spy Classroom - Volume 7 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

The Girl and the World

A conversation took place one day in Lily’s room in Heat Haze Palace.

“Hey, Monika, I’ve got a question!”

“I’m right here; you don’t have to shout. Also, less talking, more massaging.”

“I’ve been wondering, what’s your special talent? You never actually told me.”

“Oh yeah, I guess I haven’t.”

“I think Grete’s figured it out, but even though I keep bugging her, she won’t tell me.”

“I told Sara, y’know.”

“You what?!”

“Hey, Lily, look here for a sec.”

“Huh? Ack! What was that sudden light?!”

“There, done. Thing is, I’m plenty strong without having to rely on fancy tricks. I’d rather avoid having my intel leaked, so I try not to spread it too far.”

“Secretive to the end, huh…? So what was that light about?”

“That one I’m definitely not telling anyone. Least of all you.”

To that day, Monika had never been able to bring herself to throw away the photo she took during that exchange.

The Dock Road fire continued well on into the night.

Right around midnight, the administration put out a rare emergency bulletin. Although they announced that the fire had been started by a foreign spy, they chose not to reveal the spy’s nationality. “We believe it was the same agent as the one who killed His Highness Prince Darryn,” the cabinet secretary declared. “After being cornered by the CIM, the treacherous spy used their gun to take their own life.” Then, after advising the public not to blindly believe the rumors that were flying around, he ended the briefing. The press bombarded him with follow-up questions, but he ignored them all.

It was unclear how the public would react to the news, but at least now the matter was settled.

After watching the bulletin from the CIM’s headquarters, Nathan let out a long breath. Then he turned to his subordinate Amelie, who was waiting in the wings. “That should help quell the unrest somewhat… I imagine we’ll come under fire for letting the suspect kill herself, but at least this way we get to save a little bit of face. You did well, Amelie. I’ll be sure to tell the rest of Hide about your team’s efforts.” “Cursemaster” Nathan was the first member of the CIM’s Hide senior leadership whose face Amelie had ever seen. He looked at the television with a satisfied nod. “Now we can finally hold a funeral for His Highness. We’ll need to make sure to give him an elegant send-off…”

Normally, praise from someone of his status would have been enough to make Amelie weep tears of joy. At the moment, though, she wasn’t in the mood. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“Hmm?”

“We never did end up finding Monika’s body.”

After exchanging some more shots with the CIM, Monika had ultimately disappeared after getting swallowed by the flames. Amelie assumed she was surely dead, but they’d never been able to track down that crucial corpse. “I don’t care if she’s dead; all enemies of the Crown must hang,” Meredith had growled before sending out his units to find her, but their search had ended in vain.

Nathan shrugged. “There are some things the people don’t need to know…and the fact that we let the killer escape after causing a fire like that is certainly one of them. There would be riots in the streets.”

“…We are always just, and we do not err.”

“Exactly. As servants of the Crown, our elegance must be unimpeachable.”

From the way he was talking, he didn’t seem too concerned about the fact that they’d failed to find Monika. He didn’t sound mad, either. Amelie still had no idea what his notion of elegance was. Perhaps on some level, he’d realized that Monika wasn’t the real killer.

“By the way, I hear Flash Fire left us a parting gift,” Nathan remarked.

“Ah yes. On that wharf…”

Monika had left a girl behind beaten within an inch of her life. There had to be some meaning there. Amelie didn’t recognize the spy, but at the same time, there was something oddly familiar about her.

“The girl was ‘Magician’ Mirena—one of the members of Hide.”

“What………?”

“She’s the second daughter of Her Highness Third Princess Hatofe. Her very existence is a secret, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of her. For a long time now, Hide has had a custom of choosing at least one of its members from the royal family.”

Amelie’s eyes went wide with disbelief at the revelation. Considering how much authority Fend’s monarchy wielded, there were a lot of advantages to having a royal in your ranks. Mirena had even been the go-between for the CIM and the royal family for that very incident. Still, Amelie could hardly believe that a girl that young had been behind the partition that whole time.

“Amelie, I need you to interrogate her,” Nathan said with steel in his voice. “I believe Flash Fire was trying to tell us something…”

While Amelie and Nathan were dealing with the aftermath, Lamplight sat in their detention cell and waited for good news.

At the moment, the CIM still hadn’t told them anything. Instead, they were relying on the Lamplight wireless radio sitting in the middle of the room. Klaus had smuggled it in. Thanks to how it had been constructed, it could pick up signals from a massive distance.

They knew Monika had stolen Thea’s radio, and they knew she would have held on to it tight.

Klaus and the girls stared at the radio, hoping beyond hope that Monika would call. From time to time, they would take turns calling her name into it.

“Monika’s alive. I know she is,” Klaus said quietly. “All we need to do is wait to hear from her.”

Not a single person present could tear their eyes from the radio.

Monika walked through the night.

Her body was giving off a burnt smell. After trading shots with the CIM from within the raging flames, she’d chosen to flee. She’d caused enough damage as a “Galgad spy,” and it was time to prioritize surviving. To that end, she made the all-or-nothing call to dive into the firestorm and pray she could make it out the other side.

To the CIM, it should have looked like she died. Hoping they would decide their mission was complete, she fled.

After applying emergency first aid to her bullet wounds, she jumped on board a passing truck while taking care not to let the driver notice her. When it arrived on the southeast side of Hurough, she jumped off and started looking for somewhere she could rest and recuperate.

This is bad… Feels like I’m about to pass out…

Her body was reaching its limit.

Monika had used up everything she had back there. She was out of bullets, out of bombs, out of mirrors, and out of lenses. All she had was a single half-broken knife. She barely even had enough blood left in her body to keep moving. If she let her focus slip for even half a second, she was liable to collapse where she stood and pass right out.

Her goal was to reach the spot Lan had shown her—“Firewalker” Gerde’s secret hideout.

The old wooden apartment building had barely any tenants, there was food and water there, and the CIM didn’t know about it. All she had to do was get there, and she would be able to rest safely.

She knew her body was about to give out, but she dragged herself step by step past the houses dotting the quiet town.

“Excuse me, miss, are you okay?”

Midway through her journey, she heard a young voice come from behind her.

When she turned around, she was greeted by a young girl dressed in pajamas who looked to be all of about six. The girl was holding a pink teddy bear. Based on how she was dressed, she’d clearly just jumped out of bed.

“It’s dangerous to be walking around. There’s a bad guy hurting people over in Hurough, see. Mommy and Daddy were scared, both of them were. I don’t think it’s good to be outside right now.”

She must have spotted Monika through her window and come rushing out. It was night, so it was too dark for her to see Monika’s injuries.

Monika grinned in spite of herself. “It’s okay. The bad guy’s gone now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, for sure. All the big Fend heroes came together to beat her up. I’m telling you, they really gave it to her good. The bad guy got totally destroyed, and she burned up in the fires of justice. Head on back to bed and rest easy.”

An innocent smile of genuine relief spread across the girl’s face. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said as she went back into her house.

After watching her go, Monika continued her trek toward Gerde’s hideout.

People across the country would be celebrating come morning. The CIM had killed Prince Darryn’s assassin with aplomb. The news would be met with applause, and peace would return to the land. Then, as the chaos subsided, people would begin smiling again. Children like the girl she just met would go back to showing big, toothy grins.

Now that the world was rid of Monika, people would welcome it wholeheartedly.

Monika sighed. That was fine. If that was what it took to rid the world of one of its fears, then that was fine.

“Screw off, you monster. Like, for real.”

A voice came from down the road. It was a vulgar voice, the kind that was rough and filthy and spoke to the small-mindedness of its owner.

“I mean, what’s the deal here? The student of a monster’s gotta be a monster, too? Makes me not wanna even get out of bed in the morning.”

The man before her had hair like a mushroom. He was short of stature, and he smacked his forehead with the melancholy look in his eyes of a man who derided the world and everything in it. He let out a melodramatic sigh as he walked toward her with his sniper rifle resting on his shoulder.

Monika recognized those features. The man was a dead ringer for the portrait Klaus once drew.

It was White Spider.

A contorted grin crept across White Spider’s face. “Though, I did have to get pretty dang lucky to find you here, so I guess it cancels out,” he said.

A lot of things made sense to Monika now. She had known that Green Butterfly wasn’t the only Serpent member in Fend, after all.

“Tell me,” she said, glaring at him. “Are you the guy Green Butterfly answers to?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Ah. And you’re the one who shot Prince Darryn, too.”

“I’ll leave that one to your imagination.” White Spider lowered the sniper rifle from his shoulder and readied it. “And on that note… Gonna need you to die.”

It took everything Monika had to block his bullet with the back of her knife. The punch it packed was enough to put all those pistols from earlier to shame, and the force of the impact alone was enough to break Monika’s wrist. She kept an eye on White Spider as she rolled away, keenly aware that her right hand was out of commission.

“Wait, you found her before I did? Damn you. How dare you leave the Unrivaled in the dust.”

A new man’s voice came from the opposite direction as White Spider.

The first things that caught Monika’s eye were his three right arms. Two of them were prosthetics, no doubt, and they gave off an unnatural metallic gleam where the moonlight struck them. As far as the man himself went, he was certainly tall and stocky, but the coat hood covering his head made it hard for Monika to make out his face.

“With this loss, though, I see where things stand. I relinquish the title of Unrivaled. Now I can retire.”

“Black Mantis, my guy, c’mon. You gotta stop trying to retire over every tiny thing.”

“…My Surmounters are still out of order. My heart isn’t in it.”

“Seriously, dude, quit grumbling and help me out here. How was I supposed to know things were gonna get this messy?”

“I guess it’s no wonder you’re calling on my aid. Such is the lot of those overblessed with talent. I can feel the hopes of millions of Imperials resting on my shoulders… Once again, retirement inches away from me.”

“I am literally begging you to stop giving narcissistic speeches every time I need you to get your rear in gear.”

After bantering for a bit, the two of them turned their attention back to Monika.

“All right, guess we’d better finish you off.”

Monika didn’t hesitate. Instead, she poured every bit of energy she had left into escaping. She leaped to her feet, then fled away from the street and toward the houses to escape from the duo closing in on her from the front and behind.

“Damn, you can still run?” White Spider called after her in amusement.

Based on their conversation just now, Black Mantis was another member of Serpent. Green Butterfly was just a pawn to them, but that guy was on a different level.

Monika had no bullets or stamina left, and her dominant hand was broken. Plus, it was two against one. There was no way she could beat them. That there was a fact, one that no amount of pluck or determination could overturn.

After escaping their line of sight, Monika plotted yet another course for “Firewalker” Gerde’s hideout. As far as she could tell, Serpent had simply anticipated her escape route and moved to cut her off. There was no reason for them to know about the hideout.

If she could make it to that wooden apartment building, she just might survive.

She could feel the strength draining from her legs, but she kept on desperately putting one of them in front of the other.

“Monika!”

Then she heard a voice from the radio in her pocket.

“If you can hear me, please, say something!”

Monika’s eyes went wide, and she stopped in her tracks.

“Lily…?”

She’d turned on the radio just before her fight with the CIM, and that was unmistakably Lily’s voice coming through it. It had finally connected. Previously, the massive number of radios the CIM was using had been hogging all the bandwidth. They must have just halted their search for her.

“Where are you? Are you okay?!”

“I’ll make this quick.” Monika held the radio to her ear and resumed running. She heard Lily gasp on the other end. “Green Butterfly is with Hide. I just ran into White Spider in Immiran. He was the one giving Green Butterfly her orders, and he’s the one who shot Prince Darryn. There’s a guy with him called Black Mantis who’s got a bunch of arms—”

“Whatcha talkin’ about?”

When Monika arrived at the apartment building, she ran right back into White Spider and Black Mantis. They’d gotten there first. There were nasty grins dancing on their faces, like a pair of hunters who were delighting in watching their frantic prey.

For a split second, Monika’s brain kicked into overdrive. There was a piece of intel she needed to pass on, and she needed to do it now.

“Get code name Insight. We need them. They’re the only person who can beat Serpent.”

White Spider’s and Black Mantis’s eyes narrowed a smidge.

Monika knew better than to mention any details around them, but Klaus had put together an unorthodox plan just before Lamplight left for the Commonwealth. Rather than the eight girls, it revolved around the one Din Republic spy he trusted more than anyone else.

“And also…”

She trailed off. She’d conveyed all the necessary information.

“You done giving your last words?” White Spider readied his sniper rifle. “Thanks for that fascinating little tidbit at the end, by the way. I think we’re done here.”

Monika had gotten to the apartment building, but with her foes right in front of her, she couldn’t take refuge there, and it didn’t look like they were in the mood to let her keep running.

“Monika…?” Lily said through the radio. What kind of expression was she making? Monika wondered.

“And also…”

The next words she said would be her last.

The urge to silently drop the radio struck her again and again. However, it was what Grete told her that stayed her hand. That, and the want welling up inside her. She couldn’t count how many times she’d feared the idea of dying without ever sharing her emotions with anyone. Her whole life had been a journey coming to terms with it.

“Hey, Lily.”

Her lips parted.

“I know that me telling you probably isn’t gonna do you any good…”

She felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

“And honestly, you’re pretty sharp, so you might’ve figured out how I feel ages ago anyway…”

After she fought back the tears, a heartfelt smile spread slowly across her face as she went on.

“…but I’m in love with you.”

She heard the shot and felt the shock at the same time.

White Spider’s point-blank shot tore through the radio, smashing it to pieces. Monika had been holding the radio in her left hand, and both it and her ear got blasted. A thick trail of blood rolled from the side of her head down her cheek, but her hands lacked the strength to so much as press down on the wound anymore.

“You mind if I ask you something, just outta personal curiosity?” White Spider sounded like he was enjoying himself. “None of this went the way I planned it. If you’d just changed sides to Serpent for real, I was ready to spare Flower Garden’s life. You could’ve just quit Lamplight, quit being a spy, and went and lived in peace with her. Would that really have been so bad?”

The thought had crossed Monika’s mind on more than one occasion. If she sacrificed Lamplight, then she and Lily could go off and live a quiet life in some remote village. They could break ties with the entire world of espionage and simply spend their days in peace.

Depending on the choices Monika made, that was one future that might have awaited her. However, there was no way she could have ever chosen it.

“That was never an option,” Monika rasped. “I’m in love with Lily, but she’s not in love with me.”

Upon hearing her answer, White Spider gave her a pitying look. “…I’ll take that under advisement,” he said, then aimed his rifle again. Beside him, Black Mantis raised his three right arms aloft.

Her time was up.

Monika sucked in a deep breath, then shot them a question. “You want me to_____?”

“Huh?”

The night wind had completely drowned out the remainder of her sentence.

“C’mon, don’t make me repeat myself,” she said. She hoisted up her motionless right hand, then smirked as best she could to force her expression to one of pride.

“I asked if you wanted me to go easy on you shitters.”

Monika saw Black Mantis’s three right arms move in unison, but that was all she caught. Then a powerful impact enveloped her, and her mind went blank. Her clothes tore as her body went flying. She slammed into, then through the wooden apartment building’s wall, eventually landing in someone’s unit on the ground floor.

She’d arrived at her destination, but the act was meaningless. Gerde’s apartment was up on the third floor. It was impossibly far away. What’s more, the building had already caught fire. The Serpent duo must have set it. The flames surged in intensity as though to mock Monika’s desire for respite.

Monika lay there on her side and saw the photo she’d been holding on to flutter in front of her—the photo of Lily, the one she’d taken in secret and kept hidden away for so long.

As her consciousness faded, she continued staring at her smile to the very end.