Spy Classroom - Volume 8 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Machinations

To Sara, Monika was like a second teacher.

“All right, Sara. One more round.”

“Okay. I’m ready.”

Her main teacher, Klaus, was no good when it came to giving specific instructions. He wasn’t particularly eloquent, and all his advice ended up being uselessly abstract. However, Monika was different.

“You need to be more decisive!”

Even smack-dab in the middle of their sparring match, she continued giving Sara specific, pointed advice.

“When someone spots you and you’re too close to use your gun, you need to call in your hawk ASAP! Doesn’t matter how hard you try; you’re never gonna beat me solo!”

Monika bore down on Sara with her blunted knife, pummeling her with blows too fast for Sara to keep up with. Sara did her best to defend herself, but little by little, she was getting pushed back.

“But that said, you gotta stop running the same gambit over and over! You should be hiding your pigeon and mice in your hat and clothes so you can catch your opponent by surprise. Using your dog’s nose to sniff out their lies. Don’t just go for the obvious moves.”

Monika let up with her knife just long enough to grab Sara by the shirt. Before Sara even had a chance to gasp in surprise, Monika had already swept her legs out from under her and hurled her through the air.

Sara landed ignobly on her backside, and Monika shot a stern look down at her. “You need to get your act together. The way you are now, you can’t even protect yourself.”

“U-understood…”

The two of them were practicing in the Heat Haze Palace courtyard. Monika was handling Sara’s training while Klaus was out on a mission. She never minced words, but her advice was always on point.

Sara had been working under Monika’s tutelage for a bit over four months. Monika drilled her on everything from negotiation tactics to infiltration techniques, but the bulk of her lessons were centered on self-defense. That largely translated to getting beaten up by Monika over and over. Sara always ended their sparring sessions too drained to even stand up.

That day was no exception, and once again, she was lying sprawled out on the courtyard ground. She was starting to get sick of this view of the clear blue sky.

Like always, she was bone-tired, but it was a satisfying kind of tired.

“But I am getting stronger, right?” After catching her breath, she smiled and looked up at Monika. “I can feel myself building up muscle. Maybe now I’m strong enough to handle some of the fighting my—”

“Just don’t.”

“What?”

The look in Monika’s eyes as she stood over Sara was as cold as ice. “Remember what I told you in Longchon? It’s not your job to fight. I’m just teaching you so you can keep yourself safe. Don’t go trying to show off.”

“But…”

There was something almost refreshing about how harsh Monika was being.

“That’s not what you should be shooting for,” her tutor continued coolly as she took a swig from her water bottle.

All Sara could do was clutch her head and groan. Monika was 100 percent right. No matter how hard Sara worked, she would never be able to become like Sybilla or Monika, who could eliminate their foes and steal information with nothing but their raw combat prowess. She just wasn’t built that way.

However, there was a part of her that didn’t want to accept that.

“Then what should my goal be?”

“That’s something you have to decide for yourself.”

Monika plopped down on the ground next to Sara.

“You have to be the one to figure it out. What sort of ideals do you have as a spy? How do you want to fight? What kind of life do you want to live?”

That was an impossibly difficult question to answer.

For starters, Sara didn’t have any proactive reason for wanting to be a spy. She merely ended up at a spy academy so she could cover her room and board after her parents lost their jobs. She didn’t have any ideals.

“Don’t worry,” she heard Monika say as she puzzled over the question in silence. “I’ll stick with you till you find your answer.”

Monika didn’t meet her gaze. Sara thought she saw her cheeks turn a bit red, but she wasn’t sure if she was imagining things or not.

As hopeless a pupil as Sara was, Monika never abandoned her.

Even during the period that Lamplight spent in close contact with Avian—their so-called honeymoon—Sara continued training under Monika. One of Avian’s members, “Glide” Qulle, tried to get in on the teaching-Sara action, but with a brusque “Buzz off,” Monika sent her packing. In the end, Sara only ended up taking a single lesson from Qulle.

“All right, time for another round.”

Monika thumped Sara on the shoulder and urged her back to her feet. The look in Monika’s eyes was one of exasperation, but there was a kindness shining through it, and that was what Sara adored about her.

The world was awash in pain.

In order to unravel the reason why their Avian comrades were killed, the Din Republic spy team Lamplight went undercover in the Fend Commonwealth. After facing off against the Commonwealth’s CIM intelligence agency, Lamplight ultimately discovered that their nemesis Serpent had been the ones pulling the strings.

Serpent’s plan had been to assassinate Prince Darryn, a member of the Fend royal family, and to pin the blame for the crime on a Din spy. What’s more, they took advantage of that fact to extort Lamplight member “Glint” Monika into turning traitor. By forcing Monika to run a covert op for them, their hope was that they would be able to exhaust Lamplight’s boss, “Bonfire” Klaus.

However, Monika double-crossed them and made some moves of her own. By willingly taking the blame for Prince Darryn’s assassination, she was able to resolve the entire situation.

That said, the price it cost her was steep. After a fierce battle against the CIM’s spies, she was forced to beat a retreat and ended up getting attacked by Serpent. White Spider and Black Mantis had her surrounded.

In her last few moments, she used her radio to pass intel on Serpent along to Lamplight…

“I’m in love with you.”

…and after she professed her love to Lily, the call cut out.

“I’m going to defeat White Spider!!”

Sara’s eyes were teary as she made her declaration.

Three days after Lamplight lost contact with Monika, the CIM counterintelligence team Belias came to see them. They needed to keep Lamplight under surveillance, so they announced that they would be taking Klaus and Thea into custody.

Monika’s betrayal had cost Lamplight dearly.

Not only was Klaus under suspicion for having been her boss, but Thea was arrested as well for having assisted Monika by forming the anti-establishment Fires of War organization. Meanwhile, Grete had been left severely weakened after Monika kidnapped and imprisoned her, Annette suffered a series of broken ribs when Monika attacked her, and Erna had gotten badly hurt taking a CIM bullet in order to save Monika from a dire predicament. The three of them were all recovering in the hospital. And as for Monika herself, it wasn’t even clear if she was alive or not.

With Lamplight functionally out of commission, it was Sara who rose to the occasion. She called out to Klaus right before he got transferred from their previous cell to a new location.

She knew full well how unrealistic it was to think that she might defeat White Spider. White Spider was a member of the mysterious Galgad intelligence unit Serpent, and he was the man who’d assassinated the Commonwealth’s crown prince and plunged the nation into turmoil. The thought of Sara being able to apprehend him was downright absurd.

However, White Spider was the only one who knew where Monika was.

When he heard Sara’s pledge, Klaus didn’t laugh. He just narrowed his eyes a little.

“Magnificent.” His voice was calm. “I’ll leave it to you, then. I know you’re up to the task.”

That was the last thing he said before Belias hauled him off.

With the room suddenly much emptier, Sara let out a long breath. The adrenaline from her bold declaration caused her heart to pound in her chest. She had no intention of taking back what she’d said, of course, but still.

As she felt her pulse quicken, she heard a pair of voices from either side of her.

“And what the hell you think you’re doin’, tryin’ to hog all the glory?”

“Yeah, what she said. Did you forget about your super-duper reliable friends here or something?”

The two friends in question grinned as they each slung an arm over one of Sara’s shoulders.

Sara couldn’t help but smile as well. “Miss Sybilla, Miss Lily.”

“Pandemonium” Sybilla was a white-haired girl with courage in her eyes and a toned physique, and “Flower Garden” Lily was a silver-haired girl notable for her adorably childish face and sizable bust.

“Of course I haven’t forgotten you,” Sara told them. And it was the honest truth. She’d simply gotten a little carried away, that was all. “Let’s get him, the three of us. There’s no way I could do this alone.”

The duo gave her hearty replies—“Hell yeah,” and “You don’t have to tell me twice”—and thumped her on the back.

Sybilla flashed the group an awkwardly toothy smile. “Y’know, it really brings me back, havin’ the three of us team up like this. We haven’t done this since, what, the Corpse mission?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Lily agreed. “That time when the three of us disguised ourselves as maids.”

Sara nodded. “That’s right. Back then, we were the ones who got left out of the actual mission.”

“Though if ya think about it, Grete was the one the boss gave the most responsibility to outta everyone,” Sybilla noted. “End of the day, the only ones who really got left outta the Corpse mission were us three.”

“Grrr. How dare he leave the one and only Lily out on the sidelines! Even now, I still haven’t forgiven him for that!”

“Ha-ha-ha. You really know how to hold a grudge, Miss Lily.”

“Lookin’ back now, he made the right call. Back then, Monika, Grete, and Thea were savin’ our asses left and right.”

“I can’t really deny that,” Lily replied. “But this time…”

“…it’s our turn to be the heroes,” Sara said.

Now that they’d talked it over, Sybilla thrust her fist high in the air. “Let’s fuckin’ do this, Unchosen Squad!”

“You can say that again!” “We got this!”

The whole conversation had been far peppier than befitted a group of spies. It was a testament to their immaturity, but also to their readiness to hold strong before any adversity.

Diego Kruger was a novelist with a cocaine problem.

Diego had gotten his start writing historical novels, but when the public started going gaga over mystery fiction, his publisher ordered him to pivot. In Diego’s eyes, though, historical literature was the finest genre there was, and mysteries were for philistines. Every time he wrote one, he found it harder to breathe. His stomach did backflips. He tore out his hair. Occasionally, he even turned to drink to forcibly drown his sorrows.

Before he knew it, alcohol wasn’t doing it for him anymore. He needed something stronger, and that was how he got involved with drugs. His wife had long since left him, but he chose not to think about that. He needed to finish a manuscript, any manuscript, and so he drifted into a syringe-fueled reverie in his suburban apartment.

It was that very same apartment that the Galgad spy team Serpent was using as a hideout.

One of Serpent’s members—White Spider—sat on the sofa smoking a cigarette and counting a stack of bills. His head looked like a giant mushroom, his eyes were dull and gloomy, and his skin was worryingly pallid. Due to his atrocious posture, he looked a fair bit shorter than he actually was. Even his own allies mocked him for looking “creepy” and “like a loser.”

He repeatedly clicked his tongue in irritation as he turned the bills over with his skinny fingers.

A voice came from behind his back.

“Are you sure the junkie writer didn’t bite it?”

The speaker’s dark hood made it impossible to see his face, but White Spider could tell from the height and the three right arms extending from his coat that the man was an ally. The two extra arms gleamed with a mechanical light as they lay coiled around his brawny real arm with its countless scars.

His name was Black Mantis, and he too was a member of Serpent.

White Spider shot a glance over at Diego’s prone form over in the corner of the room. “Naaah, he just had a bad trip and pissed himself again. Clean it up, would ya?”

“Why should I have to do that?”

“’Cause I’m working, can’t you see that? Turns out the old bastard doesn’t have as much of a nest egg as I thought he would. Shit, man, I thought writers made money hand over fist.”

White Spider ran his fingers through his hair as he glared at the bankbook he’d stolen from Diego. He’d been hoping for a capital injection from the homeland, but he couldn’t get in touch with their smuggler. They must have gotten picked up by the CIM. In the end, White Spider had been reduced to getting some idiot novelist hooked on drugs and pumping him for money.

“Then I suppose that settles it.” Black Mantis heaved a sigh and sat down on the sofa across from White Spider. “We can’t continue the mission. I’m retiring.”

White Spider hunched over even more and buried his face in his hands. “You can’t just announce your retirement like you’re commenting on the weather.”

Not only was White Spider single-handedly responsible for all of Serpent’s coordination, budgeting, and weapons procurement, he was also in charge of keeping the rest of the team appeased. Considering how full of eccentrics their roster was, that was a full-time job and then some.

“I dunno how you can be taking things this well,” White Spider continued. “Thanks to that damn Glint kid, my whole plan just went to hell in a—”

“Then we should just go home,” Black Mantis said. “We’ve completed our mission. Our job was to kill Prince Darryn and Mia Godolphin. I am a little worried about Firewalker’s investigation notes, but not enough to overextend myself for them.”

“…Yeah, maybe you have a point.”

“Is it really that important that we kill Bonfire?”

Upon hearing his nemesis’s name, White Spider stopped midway through turning over a bill.

“Half of it is just spite,” he replied. “He’s the one who killed Silver Cicada and got Purple Ant thrown in the slammer.”

“You’re so petty.”

“Oh, shut up. You know the other half just as well as I do.”

White Spider spat his cigarette onto the floor and crushed it underfoot.

“Before long, he’s going to pick up where Hearth left off and commit the evilest crime in human history.”

He shot Black Mantis a harsh glare.

“Watching him beat Purple Ant made me positive of that. I should’ve seen it earlier. Eventually, he’s gonna find out the truth about Hearth, and when that happens, there’ll be no stopping him. He’ll be the scariest enemy Serpent has ever seen. I’m sure of it.”

“You really think the situation is that serious?”

“We gotta do this, whatever it takes. I mean it when I say we’re standing at a turning point in history. If we fuck this up, the weak won’t stand a chance in this world anymore.” White Spider reached over and picked up his trusty sniper rifle. “If there’s one spy we’ve absolutely gotta kill, it’s him. And right now is a huge opportunity. He’s got a wounded leg, and the CIM’s got him locked up.”

White Spider had the inside scoop. The original plan had been to have Green Butterfly use Monika to run Klaus even further into the ground, but even though she’d failed to do so, she’d still dealt him a considerable wound. If Serpent wanted to choke the life out of him, this was the best chance they were going to get.

Black Mantis raised his right arm as though to show off his prosthetics. “Like I told you before, I’m not at my strongest. My Surmounters are damaged.” The Surmounters were what he called his two fake arms. He could control them as he pleased, and between their burning, cleaving, and smashing capabilities, they allowed him to easily perform feats that would have been far beyond most people. “Repairing them in full would require a trip back to Galgad. I’ve put in some stopgap repairs, but it’s only a temporary solution.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Still, I’ll do what I can. I may be in poor form, but I remain the Unrivaled. A hero never turns down those in need.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“What should we do about Green Butterfly? She’s been captured. Should we save her?”

“She’ll figure something out on her own. She’s a part of Serpent, too, after all.”

“Very well. By the way, I’m going to cut your hair. Hold still.”

Without waiting for a response, Black Mantis put his prosthetics into motion. They extended out as if the seven feet between him and White Spider was nothing, whizzing past White Spider’s face and scattering a shower of hair in their wake.

A huge mass fell into White Spider’s lap.

“………………………………………Huh?”

“It was drawing too much attention. I’ll be going now.”

With that short goodbye, Black Mantis left the room without so much as looking back.

White Spider couldn’t muster the energy to come up with a witty quip. A weak “My hair…” was all he could muster, but there was no one around to hear him.

With the foul smell of human discharge wafting through the air, White Spider let out a sigh.

He’d finished counting the bills by that point, and after shoving them in his pocket, he took out a pair of scissors and a hand mirror and tried to at least make his hair look presentable.

As the scissors glided across his head, he felt his thoughts sharpen in turn.

This is fine. The question is, how do I proceed?

He didn’t have any time to waste; he continued honing his plan to kill Klaus.

The biggest thing weighing on his mind was that final message Monika had left to her team.

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

He needed to figure it out.

Who’s Insight?

No obvious candidates sprang to mind, and White Spider had data on every spy in the Din Republic. Guido had given Serpent the keys to the kingdom when he betrayed Inferno. “Bonfire” Klaus didn’t have any allies he was especially close to aside from Inferno, and aside from Bonfire himself, all of Inferno had been wiped out. There wasn’t a single power player in Din who hadn’t gotten their intel leaked.

Given all that information, who exactly was it that had the power to beat Serpent? Was there really someone Klaus was willing to put that faith in? No, there was no way.

Was it a bluff, then? But to what end?

Did White Spider actually need to come up with a countermeasure? Or was he overthinking things, and this was just a ploy to throw him off-balance?

“Eh, at least they’re keeping things interesting. Me, I’m ready to end this once and for all. If they wanna fight to the bitter end, then more power to ’em.”

White Spider finished working with the scissors and combed back his hair.

“Let’s do this, you monster. Serpent and Lamplight. One last game of cat and mouse.”

The spy known as code name Insight quietly observed the Fend Commonwealth capital Hurough from atop a building’s roof.

In the back of their head, they thought back to their conversation with Klaus.

One chilly evening, Klaus came and visited Insight when they were in bed. It wasn’t the first time they’d met, but Klaus’s face was tense all the same.

“I’m going to be honest here. I need to ask for your help.”

Klaus bowed low.

Insight was surprised by the gesture. Klaus’s behavior usually carried hints of arrogance in it, and it was unlike him to humble himself so.

“Lamplight has fought Serpent a number of times now, and they’ve probably gotten ahold of a fair bit of intel on us. If we want to catch them off-guard, we need a new tool in our repertoire,” Klaus said. “I want you to become Lamplight’s newest spy.”

“………”

Insight had no idea how to respond to that.

They returned Klaus’s gaze in silence, to which Klaus responded with a nod. “With your leave, I’d like to give you a new code name—Insight. That’s what we’ll call you.”

With another deep bow, Klaus asked Insight to look out for the team. It was a side of him the girls never got to see.

After seeing Klaus show his conviction in his own sort of way, Insight gave him a slight nod.

As they finished reminiscing on their exchange with Klaus, Insight exhaled.

The time for them to make their move was fast approaching. The only problem was finding the right opening. The thing was, they themselves were Lamplight’s strategy. They absolutely couldn’t afford to have their identity exposed.

It was their responsibility as Lamplight’s newest member to save the entire team. Failure wasn’t an option.