Spy Classroom - Volume 9 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

The Thirteenth Day (Part Two)

The girls were all finished telling their stories.

Grete and Erna had recounted their time with Raftania the islander.

Thea and Sara had described how they infiltrated the naval base in their quest to uncover the mystery behind the string of murders.

And Lily, Sybilla, and Monika had explained how they found a pirate ship and spent all their time searching for some bullets.

The three groups had spent their vacations in drastically different ways.

After hearing Grete wrap up her tale about the islanders,

“Oh, wow. You, Raftania, and Teach got wrapped up in a love triangle?!”

Lily reacted with admiration.

After hearing Thea wrap up her tale about the navy,

“I—I had no idea that Raftania had that kind of side to her!”

Grete let out an astonished gasp.

After hearing Lily wrap up her tale about the pirates,

“What is wrong with you people?! I swear!”

Thea was outraged.

The moment they were done talking, Thea began chewing Lily, Sybilla, and Monika out. “I was so terrified out of my mind at that pirate curse, and that was all you three?! And then you went and sold off my clothes?! And that whole business with the pirate ship… You have to be joking!” she ranted as she clamped her hands down on Lily’s shoulders.

Klaus shared the sentiment, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m pretty shocked myself. To think that you all went through something so extraordinary.”

Despite his prodigious intuition, not even he could have foreseen them getting wrapped up in such a historic incident. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that they might actually find the pirate ship that easily.

In any case, though, all the information was out on the table.

Klaus took charge of the discussion and laid out their next step. “Now let’s go ahead and lay out everything we know about Annette’s whereabouts.”

Annette had vanished on the thirteenth day, and the whole reason they’d shared those stories was so they could find her.

Grete laid her notebook down on the table and showed everyone what she’d written.

Annette’s Activity Log

Day 1: Played on the beach

Day 2: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 3: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 4: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 5: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 6: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 7: Planned Raftania’s wedding?

Day 8: Sneaked into the naval base w/ Thea and Sara

Day 9: Stalked Lily/Sybilla/Monika?

Day 10: Found pirate ship. Forced Lily/Sybilla/Monika to work for her. Went to a hot spring?

Day 11: Forced Lily/Sybilla/Monika to work for her. Investigated tidal currents?

Day 12: Put the pirate ship out to sea

Day 13: Went missing

“Dang, it’s kinda stark, seeing it all laid out like that.”

The first one to speak up was Lily.

“She really did get bored of planning that wedding, huh?”

The girls all nodded.

The fact that according to Grete, Annette had declared as much on the tenth day all but confirmed it. She’d been so enthusiastic about it at first, yet for the back half of her vacation, she’d completely lost interest.

“She was making the three of you gather up some sort of materials, right?” asked Sara.

“Yeah, I think she wanted to invent something. It was either something really big, or a lot of something,” Monika replied.

Something dawned on Grete after hearing that, and she cocked her head. “…Hmm. But where exactly on the island would she build it? I can’t imagine there would be any adequate facilities here.”

The other girls all let out little ahhs of agreement.

Unlike Heat Haze Palace, Annette didn’t have a personal area for tinkering here. The island’s main industries were tourism and fishing. The options for local workspaces were limited, at best.

No matter how many raw materials she gathered, she still needed somewhere to process them if she wanted to do any proper inventing.

Thea sucked in a gasp. “No, there is one place. Sara and I saw it for ourselves.”

Klaus nodded as well.

Annette had visited it on the eighth day.

“It would appear we have our answer.”

Having arrived at his answer, Klaus ordered the girls to move out.

“We’re heading to the naval base.”

On their way to the naval base, Monika remembered something.

“Hey, Grete,” she asked. “How are people taking the whole pirate ship situation?”

“The locals saw the entire thing play out, and it’s become the talk of the island. Word is already spreading about the legendary Great Pirate Sybillan…”

“Well, that’s a big goddamn problem!” Sybilla yelped.

“““There’s no need to shout, Sybillan.”””

“Don’t fuckin’ call me that!!”

After Sybilla finished yelling about her teammates’ teasing, Sara and Thea nodded.

“The navy was pretty shocked, too,” Sara said.

“And it’s hard to blame them, what with an unidentified pirate ship showing up out of nowhere,” Thea agreed. “In the end, though, they did end up taking it into custody and investigating it.”

As an aside, the two of them had been meeting with the vice-admiral in secret when the ship appeared, and they’d used the ensuing chaos to more or less flee the naval base. Thea had spent the whole night wailing “It’s Jackal’s cuuurse” and hadn’t been able to get to sleep until Sara patted her head and let Thea use her lap as a pillow.

At that point, Thea shot a look over at Lily, Monika, and Sybilla. None of them had told her a thing. “It begs the question, what exactly were you three doing up until this afternoon?”

“““Sleeping off our exhaustion.”””

“…Well, I suppose that does make sense.”

After escaping from the pirate ship, the three of them and Raftania had crashed hard.

Later, when Raftania woke up, she’d gone around to tell everyone that the wedding was off.

Getting into the naval base turned out to be a trivial affair.

Klaus had it set up so that as soon as he showed up at their reception desk, the staff immediately sent word to Grenier, no matter how late it was. Just as Thea had suspected, Klaus was a frequent visitor there.

When they were shown into the command room, they found Annette receiving a warm welcome.

“What are you doing here, Annette?” Klaus asked.

“Hmph. It’s you all.”

Annette was sitting on a large couch and helping herself to the huge plate of sweets she’d been provided.

Grenier was sitting across from her.

“I’m in the middle of negotiating right now, yo. Don’t come butting in!”

“That’s right,” Grenier said. “Your agent just marched right on in.”

Not only had Annette marched into the base without permission, she’d managed to secure a one-on-one meeting with the vice-admiral.

The rest of the team found that highly dubious, and Grenier explained.

“She said that in exchange for free access to my lab, she would tell me the pirate treasure’s whereabouts.”

Lily, Sybilla, and Monika all gasped in unison. “Ah…!”

The three of them had completely forgotten about it. Based on their story, the treasure had already been unloaded from the ship and was lying in the cave.

Klaus sat down beside Annette and fixed his gaze on Grenier. “…And how do you intend to reply?”

“Why, I plan on accepting her terms, of course,” Grenier said empathically. “After seeing the ship and the booty she brought, it was clear she was telling the truth. I need to retrieve that treasure before the islanders get their hands on it.”

Lying on the table was a ring adorned with a massive diamond. Annette must have polished it, as it shone with a brilliant gleam.

Grenier sounded downright enraptured. “Now my wish will come true. This coup d’état will turn the Lylat Kingdom’s power structures on their heads!”

“………”

Klaus was already aware of the man’s ambitions—he wanted to overthrow the Lylat government and the oppressive way it stratified their society.

As their neighbor, the Din Republic could ill afford to sit idly by while a coup took place in Lylat. There were countless angles for spies to work there.

On a personal level, though, Klaus was sympathetic to Grenier’s ideals. The sound of Lylat’s people suffering had reached his ears, too.

“You can count on my support,” Klaus said, offering him some superficial encouragement. Then he said, “But there’s one thing…” and lowered his voice.

“This is a request not as a spy, but as a simple tourist.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t threaten the islanders’ livelihoods any more than you already have.”

Klaus knew that Grenier had spent years pushing for the naval base to get expanded. He knew about the murders Grenier’s favorite researcher had committed, too.

“These people live in harmony with the splendor of nature, and you need to respect that. How is what you’re doing to them any different from the Lylat nobles you so despise?”

“________”

Grenier inhaled sharply for a brief moment, then let out a long exhale. “…You’re right, of course. Now that I have Jackal’s treasure, I mean the island no harm.”

“Good.”

“If anything, I intend to start repaying them. I know what it is I’ve done.” Grenier cast a look outside the window. “I’ll be keeping the treasure, but perhaps we can use the ship itself as one of their island’s tourist attractions. It would take too much work to sell it off anyhow.”

There were no hints of deception or insincerity in his voice.

Grenier’s grand ambitions might have occasionally led him to make morally dubious choices, but at heart, he had a strong sense of justice. Klaus had engaged with him a number of times during Klaus’s time on Inferno, and he’d seen for himself the work Grenier put in to ease the people’s suffering.

Klaus nodded. “Also, it would be prudent to let the islander who murdered Mercier off the hook. If you try to arrest her, the truth behind the serial murders is likely to get exposed. The man reaped what he sowed.”

“…You’re right. Maybe a lighter touch is called for.”

With that, Klaus’s end of the negotiations was complete.

Annette was in good cheer as well. “As long as I can use the lab, I don’t care about any of that.”

Klaus turned to leave, but several of the girls looked like they still had things they wanted to say. Their shoulders twitched as they fidgeted.

“N-now, a little birdie told me this,” Lily said, stepping forward. “But there’s a big hole in the deck of the ship, right?”

Grenier looked at her in confusion. “What? How could you know that?”

“The point is, that hole was probably there from the start. It definitely isn’t there because someone broke it.”

“I…see…”

The girls were looking for some assurance.

Grenier let out a perplexed sigh. “Well, we haven’t really started our investigation yet,” he muttered. “I say, that ship has a lot of secrets. Why did its cannons go off when it was drifting by? And who exactly was that figure who called herself Sybillan…?”

“Just a pirate ghost, I imagine. Maybe curses are real after all,” Klaus said quickly, before Grenier could ask too many questions.

After retrieving Annette from the naval base, they headed back to the beach they’d started out at. “I’m gonna tie her up so she doesn’t run away again,” Sybilla said before winding a rope around Annette and dragging her along with them.

When they arrived once more at the beach, Lily spoke up. “By the way, Teach…did you say you’re backing the vice-admiral’s coup?”

She was referring to the conversation back at the base, no doubt.

When Grenier had talked about wanting to overthrow the government, Klaus had offered the man his support. Several of the girls had been taken aback by that.

“Are you sure about that? I thought that Din and Lylat were supposed to be allies.”

“We are,” Klaus replied. “If it wasn’t for Lylat, the Republic might very well still be under Galgad occupation. Even with the war over, we’ve continued fostering a strong relationship with them in order to keep Galgad at bay.”

That was Din’s official position, in any case.

After the Republic got invaded, it was a combination of supplies from the United States of Mouzaia, troops from the Fend Commonwealth and Lylat Kingdom, and covert ops by the Din Republic spy team Inferno that allowed them to drive off the Galgad forces. Once the war ended, those four nations’ intelligence agencies had formed an alliance.

“But here’s the thing—Lylat is where the Nostalgia Project began.”

That was the name of the globe-spanning plan that had secretly been progressing in the Din Republic.

“We don’t know the details, but it’s definitely cause for concern.”

There was a lot they didn’t know.

However, remaining ignorant and leaving things be wasn’t an option. For Klaus, there was something essential urging him onward.

“If it wasn’t, Inferno wouldn’t have fallen.”

Guido had betrayed Inferno and joined Serpent.

What if his motives had been related to the Nostalgia Project?

If that was true, then the Din Republic couldn’t just stand idly by. This was a topic so sensitive that neither “Hearth” Veronika nor “Torchlight” Guido had so much as mentioned it to Klaus.

“Our deadline is the start of the global economic recession. That’s how long we have to get right to the heart of the Lylat Kingdom and steal their most closely guarded secrets.”

Gerde had described it in her legacy. According to her, the world was headed for a financial crisis so bad, it would be called the “Great Depression,” and that was going to lead to a second Great War breaking out.

Once war drew closer, though, Lamplight would have little choice but to stop interfering with Lylat’s government. If the Galgad Empire invaded while the Lylat Kingdom was in the middle of a coup, it would be all too easy for the Din Republic to get caught in the middle of the hostilities.

“I’d like to hear it straight from you, Teach.” Lily pursed her lips tightly and took a step forward. “What sort of mission is Lamplight about to embark on?”

“…It would appear that many of you already suspect what’s happening.”

Klaus nodded, then took the notebook Grete had been using and opened it for the girls to see. Written inside were notes detailing how each and every one of them had spent their vacations.

In a sense, the notebook itself was Klaus’s objective.

“When we split up, we can see the world from countless different angles. We can observe things we never would have been able to if we were all in one place. Has this vacation helped you all understand that?”

The holiday had made him certain of that.

By spreading out, they’d been able to gather huge amounts of intelligence in a short amount of time. They’d learned about Raftania’s situation, about the navy conspiracy, and about the pirate legend. They’d exceeded Klaus’s wildest expectations.

“For the next year, Lamplight will be parting ways.”

The girls didn’t so much as shudder. They’d already braced themselves for this.

Klaus continued. “I’m going to be dispatching you in small groups to specific task sites. There, you’ll gather intelligence, engage in covert ops, and complete your missions—and in doing so, we’ll obtain a full picture of what the Nostalgia Project entails.”

Unlike before, they wouldn’t be living together anymore. It would be at least a year before they all got back together, maybe more.

They were going to have to fool everyone around them while they were alone on foreign soil. That was the mission that awaited the Lamplight girls.

Lily stuck out her tongue. “Well, I’d be lying if I said I was confident we could handle something on the scale of world revolution.”

“That’s not what I like to hear.”

“But now… Now we have something we’re fighting for.”

Klaus could tell exactly who she was referring to.

There was a burden Lamplight now carried that they hadn’t back when the team was formed.

“…Avian, you mean.”

Back in the Fend Commonwealth, all but one of those elites had perished. If it weren’t for their sacrifice, Serpent might very well have swallowed Lamplight up and destroyed them.

“Lamplight and Avian can protect Din on two fronts.”—that was the promise that Avian’s boss, “Flock” Vindo, had made, and it was a vow that was still holding strong. It wasn’t just Lily. There was conviction in the other girls’ expressions, too.

“Our classes with you taught us skills, Teach, and our classes with the elites honed them. This is just the next lesson in that chain,” Lily declared. “It’s time for our extracurriculars. We’re gonna leave the classroom and spread our wings in the world beyond!”

That was the speech Klaus was supposed to make, but Lily had stolen the words right out of his mouth.

Maybe that was a sign that Lamplight’s leader was growing up.

“Magnificent.”

Klaus gave her an appreciative nod, and Lily said, “Sounds like it’s settled!” before looking back toward her teammates and thrusting her fist in the air. “That means all we gotta do now is party! Let’s make this last night of our vacation count!”

The mood had been getting serious, but Lily’s cheerful shout blew all the solemnity away.

The other girls raised their fists as well, and they used some of their last precious hours there to have one final dinner.

Just like on the first day, their dinner of choice was a seafood barbeque.

Lying on the beach was a generator and a set of large floodlights. “Isn’t that the generator you stole from the naval base?” Thea pointed out. “It’s fine, we’ll give it back later!” Sybilla offered by way of an excuse.

Sandwiched between the lights and the table and chairs, there was a charcoal grill. Once all there was left to do was barbeque the food, Lily left the beach before returning with someone carrying a large basket.

“I brought a special guest! Iiiiiiiiit’s Raftania!”

“And I brought loads of food! It’s my treat!”

It was, in fact, Raftania.

She flashed them her pearly whites, and she tugged along a handcart laden with ingredients and drinks. She looked like a girl reborn, and she smiled happily as she filled the grill up with seafood. A delectable aroma rose up, and the girls let out another round of cheers.

Over the course of the meal, Klaus held private discussions with three different girls.

Each and every one of those conversations was a vacation memory he would never forget.

The first was with Raftania. When Klaus stepped away from the main festivities, she approached him.

“…So, uh, Mr. Klaus.”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure your mind’s made up? About marryin’ me and all, I mean. I could even just be the second or third wife, I don’t mind…”

“It’s not happening. I know about how you tried to feed the girls hamburger steak made from human flesh and how you pawned your murder weapon off on Grete.”

“I promise, I would never have put human meat in yours!”

“Oh, so that’s why mine was so fancy… That doesn’t make it okay, you know.”

“Aww. I know, I know. I’ll go apologize to ’em later.”

“Make sure you do. As for the rest, I already filled you in. I talked things over with the vice-admiral. He’s not going to expose your crime, and he’s going to give up on expanding the base. The pirate ship is going to become a tourist attraction. That boardinghouse of yours is going to get a lot busier. With how bright the island’s future is, there shouldn’t be any need for you to leave.”

“…I guess not, nah. I was right, y’know? You really are my hero, Mr. Klaus!”

“I’m not sure I’d go that far.”

“Give Sybilla an’ them my thanks, too. I was lost, an’ they pulled me up from the dark. Those’re some good students you got there.”

“Indeed I do. They’re my pride and joy.”

“Y’all should come visit again someday. I’ll be sure to give you another warm welcome.”

“…You know that if I ever come back to this island, there’s no way I’m staying at your boardinghouse, right? It’s too much of a headache.”

“………………Why, I never!”

When Klaus told her his very reasonable opinion, Raftania burst into tears. “This time, I really ain’t lettin’ go till you agree to marry me!” she cried as she clung to his leg, and he had to call Sybilla over to pry her off and drag her away. It was a giant mess.

After Klaus drove off Raftania and caught his breath, Grete came over. “You and Raftania really do get along like a house on fire, don’t you?”

“What wild misunderstandings could possibly have led you to that conclusion?”

“I was joking.”

She chuckled and sat down next to him.

Klaus nodded. She was someone else he needed to have a serious conversation with.

“You were right, Grete.”

“About what?”

“There really was a pirate ship. It wasn’t a fantasy.”

“…No, it wasn’t.”

“You were right about it all. Our lives aren’t set in stone. Neither is the world, and neither am I. Thinking that everything can be understood is nothing more than base conceit.”

“That’s very true.”

“Would it be okay if I took a year to think about it?”

“Huh………?”

“I do apologize for asking for so long. However, it’s not like we’ll be able to see each other anyways. I need time to properly confront my emotions. When we see each other a year from now, would you mind giving me another chance to tell you how I feel?”

“…O-of course not, it would be my pleasure!”

Grete let out a flustered gasp, then nodded as vigorously as she could.

After Grete left, her face all flushed, Klaus spotted Annette lying on the beach.

She was staring up at the night sky, utterly unperturbed by the sand dirtying her clothes and hair. She’d clearly eaten her fill, as she was contentedly patting her belly.

“Hello, Annette,” Klaus said as he walked over to her.

Annette snapped upright and gave him a smile. “What’s up, Bro?!”

“I was wondering if I could ask about how you’re going to remember this vacation.”

At long last, it was time for the final story.

It was the story one could only arrive at after hearing everything there was to hear about the islanders, the navy, and the pirates. It was Annette’s story.

They ended up walking along the beach as they chatted. Annette was likely more comfortable talking like that. They strolled slowly, listening as they went to the sound of the waves washing up across the beach, then washing back the way they came. The soles of their shoes left imprints in the wet sand. A cold wind nipped at them from the sea.

“Why did you offer Raftania so much help?”

That was the question Klaus chose to open with.

Annette walked with big strides, savoring the sensation of each step as she went. “I wanted to see what being a wedding planner was all about, so I—”

“That was you laying the groundwork. You wanted to worm your way into Raftania’s heart.”

At no point had Annette’s interest in the wedding been genuine. She’d gotten bored of the whole thing by halfway through her vacation, and besides, she had no reason to side with Raftania in the first place.

No, Klaus was asking about something else entirely.

“What was your reason for secretly orchestrating the murder Raftania committed?”

Late at night on the fourth day of their vacation, Raftania the islander committed a grisly crime.

However, she couldn’t have possibly done it alone. Raftania was just a girl. There was no way she could have found her mother’s killer solo, much less steal a prototype weapon to murder him with. And the prime suspect was, without a doubt, the girl who’d remained steadfastly by her side from days two through four and who’d inspired enough adoration from Raftania for the latter to refer to her as “Ms. Annette.”

“Yo, that Ensign Mercier guy?” Annette grinned happily. “He was a lot like me. I had him pegged for a cold-blooded killer right away. He came to the beach on that first day of our vacation to assess his next victim.”

It was unclear how, but Annette had figured it out. She’d sensed the danger they were in.

However, that still wasn’t an answer.

“You could have just told me.”

If she had, he would have reacted promptly. And if Klaus had been operating from the get-go, he could have uncovered Mercier’s crimes with ease.

“But you didn’t, and to the contrary, you invested quite a lot of effort. You went out of your way to help arrange the wedding in order to earn Raftania’s trust and incite her to take revenge. Why did you go to all that trouble?”

“……………”

Annette stopped in her tracks and turned around.

They’d put a fair amount of distance between them and the partying girls now. Annette’s eyes were fixed on her teammates, who had linked arms and were dancing for no reason in particular. “I found my limits, yo. I couldn’t beat Monika.”

Back when Monika betrayed them, she’d beaten Annette half to death.

Immediately thereafter, Annette’s mental state had been highly unstable—so much so that right after she woke up, she sneaked out of the hospital in order to make an attempt on Monika’s life.

It was the first time in Annette’s life she’d ever hit a wall like that.

“Sara convinced me to go looking for a path forward. So I gave up on killing people myself. I figured it out, yo—I can get other people to do my killing for me.”

That was the answer she’d arrived at.

It was a bit too sinister for it to really be called maturation. Upon finding her limits, she found a new method of achieving her ends.

“So I ran a little experiment. I dug into Raftania’s background and found that she had a reason to hate the killer, so I said what I needed to get her to murder him.”

“………”

“The plan was a huge success, yo. All I did was help her out a bit, and she totally killed him.”

“……………”

“And you know what? My conscience doesn’t hurt one bit.”

Klaus nodded. He didn’t doubt it. It was going to take a lot more than that to give Annette pause.

However, he was surprised.

There was a hint of something akin to unease in Annette’s voice.

“…What do you think of me, Bro?”

“Hmm?”

Annette turned toward him. “The killer had free access to all those weapons being made at the naval base, and he used them to kill the locals. That’s the exact same path I’m heading down.”

She was referring to the island’s serial murders.

All of the killings had been carried out with inventions Mercier had developed in the secret lab. Mercier himself was the one who used them, but Klaus understood what Annette was getting at.

To build a weapon was to unleash evil onto the world.

If she kept heading down this road, her malice would disseminate.

“Will you keep liking me, even if I get worse and worse?”

Her voice had a faint tremble to it, and Klaus had to stifle a noise.

He was getting a glimpse of emotions that Annette had never had before.

Apprehension. Worry. Unease. Anxiety. Fear.

It reminded him of the loss she’d suffered. Back when she met a black cat in a back alley, her attempts to look after it had ended in disaster. Now that he thought about it, that tragedy also had its roots in a group called the “Discourse on Decadence” selling guns to gangsters.

Now the pain from that failure and that loss were introducing her to the concept of fear.

Perhaps it was unlike her, but it was only unlike the old her. When Klaus realized the changes she’d undergone, he couldn’t help but give her a big nod.

“The truth is,” he said softly, “your plan was to have Raftania die, wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” Annette replied unashamedly. “I didn’t need her anymore.”

Once Raftania sank alongside the pirate ship, no one would ever know that Annette had been involved.

That, too, was part of the scheme Annette had drawn up for her vacation.

She’d gathered up sulfur at the hot springs to create gunpowder with. She’d researched the ocean currents. She’d gotten the girls away from the ship and had set up a device to force it to set sail. And she’d tampered with the cannons so that a single girl could fire them on her own.

According to Lily, Raftania’s first reaction to seeing the pirate ship had been, “You mean she was tellin’ me the truth?” Annette had told her about the ship in advance. And about the cannons, too.

“But the others threw a wrench in that plan.”

“………”

“There’s your answer right there. No matter how wicked you get, we’ll always be there to catch you.” Klaus laid a hand on Annette’s back. “Don’t be afraid of changing. The world is awash in pain, and it needs you to evolve.”

When he told her that, Annette broke into a joyful smile and wrapped her arms around him. “I knew there was a reason I loved you, Bro!”

“I know you do, so could you get off? You’re heavy.”

“That’s why I’ve got a gift for you. Power anew for your team!”

“……………”

She let go of Klaus’s neck and stuck her tongue out as she made her reveal.

“I’ve already planned them all out, yo:

“Paradise Lost.

“Daughter Meanest.

“A Dream Play.

“April Fools’ Day.

“Contrarian.

“Veneer.

“The High Plain of Heaven.

“I put everything I’ve got into them, and they’ll take the others’ talents to a whole other level.”

Klaus knew what that power was called.

In the final battle of their mission in the Fend Commonwealth, Lily had used it to overpower White Spider.

Those were the Last Codes—weapons imbued with Annette’s malice in order to make it easier for others to kill.

Annette intended to use the navy’s secret laboratory to complete them.

Klaus couldn’t have asked for better news. He’d spent his vacation plagued with doubt. The girls were still far from experienced, and he had major concerns about leaving them on their own. He was terrified at the prospect of losing one of his pupils.

Annette’s proposal was the perfect thing to assuage his fears.

“When was it?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Hmm?”

“When was it that you started caring about the rest of Lamplight?”

“They’re toys, yo. That’s all the others are to me.”

Annette turned and looked back at the rest of the team still enjoying their barbeque. They were having trouble controlling the grill, and they shrieked and shuddered as its flames surged out of control.

As Annette watched them, her right eye gleamed. “But,” she said.

“They’re my absolute favorite toys—my Knickknacks.”

An emotion rose up inside Klaus, and it left him at a loss for words.

Annette had always been the most difficult to handle of the girls. The things she said made little sense, and he could never predict what she was going to do. In terms of how many problems she caused, she had the rest of the team beat by a country mile.

Now that very same girl was giving Lamplight the best present imaginable.

…I guess this is what they mean when they talk about the joy that teaching brings.

It was a feeling he’d never experienced until he met the girls, and it filled him with certainty.

Lamplight could overcome any hardship they faced. Even if they were scattered to the winds.