Spy Classroom - Volume SS1 - Chapter 2.5

Interlude

Intermission ①

Sybilla and Sara finished their stories.

Both of them had recounted their encounters with Klaus in exacting detail. Naturally, both of them had spun and dramatized their tales a bit, but by and large, everything they’d laid out had been the truth.

Through their training, they had each forged a bond of trust with Klaus.

Sybilla waved her hand in embarrassment. “And hey, think about it. For my thing, you guys were bugging our conversation the whole damn time, remember? You should already know we never talked about any sorta fake marriage.”

Sara followed up by explaining herself as well. Her face was bright red. “I—I could never m-marry him, either. There are plenty of more suitable candidates!”

There were no discernible lies in either of their testimonies. The group was no closer to finding the bride than before.

All they could do was hum thoughtfully. “Hmm…”

Right around that time, Klaus was walking through the hallway beside the main hall.

The door was slightly ajar, so he could see what was going on. Inside, the girls were having a heated debate while seated around a circular table. He could tell by the fervor in their voices just how serious they were.

What in the world are they doing…?

He’d had his suspicions, but sure enough, they were in there trying to root out the bride.

Klaus was on the verge of shouting at them to get back to their training—but then, at the last moment, he stopped himself.

They just survived a grueling mission. I should cut them a little slack.

At the end of the day, he was the one who’d told them to enjoy their youths a little. Best to let them do as they pleased. Besides, he would feel bad about raining on their parade after they’d gotten so invested.

He surreptitiously gazed at their faces.

…I fear that I’ve taken a lot from them.

If he hadn’t recruited them onto Lamplight, they would still be living at their academies. Instead of having to go on life-or-death missions, they could be spending time with their peers and building up experience gradually. They may have been washouts, but surely they’d had at least a few friends.

For now, I’ll just give them some time to themselves. I can handle the missions on my own for a while.

Klaus was satisfied with that, and he headed for the entrance to set out on a new mission.

And thus, the bridal hearing continued.

Now that Sybilla and Sara were no longer suspects, the question became who the team wanted to cast doubt on next.

“…Well, the next highest vote counts were Lily and Monika,” Grete said.

The girls crossed their arms and sank into thought.

As they were pondering, Thea spoke up. “By the way, nobody suspected me of being the bride. Why is that, I wonder?”

“Klaus has trouble dealing with you, Sis,” Annette pointed out.

Thea replied with a surprised, “He does?” but none of that was especially important at the moment.

The girls’ minds turned over the possibilities.

It was true that there was a certain level of trust between Klaus and Lily, but Lily’s espionage skills were hardly what you’d call reliable, and it was hard to imagine Klaus intentionally taking her along on missions.

Eventually, their gazes settled on Monika and Monika alone.

“Who, me? What’re you, nuts?” Monika’s lips curled into a sardonic grin. “No way. Klaus and I don’t even get along that well.”

“But Monika,” Lily rebutted, “what about that solo operation you went on back in the Empire?”

Now that doubt had fallen on Monika’s head, it was joined by some entirely reasonable suspicion. The air around the table grew even tenser than before.

Monika sighed. “Fine. You want me to talk, I’ll talk. But there’s one other thing we should revisit, too.”

“What’s that?” Lily asked.

“That whole business with the meat pie shop. If you think about it, it all started because we were trying to support Grete in her romance. Don’t you want to go back over it to see if anyone was acting suspicious?”

Ahh, the girls sighed in agreement. Sure enough, the meat pie shop was directly related to Grete’s love. If the bride harbored some faint feelings toward Klaus, it might have shown up in their behavior back then.

Eventually, Monika began recounting her story.

It was time for the bridal hearing to move onto its next chapter.