Spy Classroom - Volume SS1 - Chapter 3.2

“I’m sorry, but would you mind repeating that…?”

After she finished her task and returned to her hotel, Grete stopped by again. When Monika gave her report, Grete stared at her and uttered the aforementioned words. It felt nice, being able to shock someone who was normally so composed.

“Like I just said,” Monika replied smugly, “I got photos of three Ravine members, drove them off, and made an ally out of an electrician who knows detailed specifics about the Endy Laboratory. Now, we hold all the cards.”

“………………………………………I see,” Grete said quietly with a pronounced nod.

Monika sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. “I told you I’d be fine solo, didn’t I?”

“You really are in a league of your own.” Grete gave her a small smile. There was a hint of chagrin in it. “You know, the boss once told me that finding you amongst the academy washouts was a stroke of good fortune. He said that you harbored a frighteningly magnificent amount of talent.”

“I… Heh, who knew our Klaus was such a flatterer?”

Hearing that shook her for a moment, but she quickly hid it behind a veil of snark. She and Klaus hadn’t interacted that much, but from the sound of it, he was looking out for her after all.

Her talents had driven her to despair on more than one occasion, and she’d cursed her underwhelming skills time and time again. If they were going to cause her such anguish, she wished she could’ve just been born average.

But as it turned out, there was someone who’d seen potential in her.

“…Might I trouble you to answer another question for me?” Grete asked. “The day before yesterday, you said you began holding back because you discovered your ceiling. That it was why you washed out at your academy.”

“Oh yeah? Is that what I said?”

“In that case, why exactly do you choose to stay with Lamplight?”

“………”

Monika paused before answering, but it wasn’t to hide how she really felt. The thing was she didn’t fully understand it herself. Why would someone as accustomed to giving up as her stick around on a team like Lamplight that willingly threw itself into danger?

She was fed up. She had no passion. Nothing drew her interest. Her heart had frozen over.

None of that should have changed, not to any meaningful degree. But there was no denying that during this last op—especially when she heard Mattel’s voice—she had felt a warmth in her chest.

What was it that was driving her?

Back there…were those her teammates’ voices that had flashed through her mind?

Monika crossed her arms. “I don’t have any big special reason, but if I had to pick…”

“Yes?”

“…I guess it’d be the friendly faces?”

“I think that’s a lovely answer.” Grete seemed strangely pleased, and she gave Monika another smile.

Then, the radio sitting in the room began buzzing. That was the sign that there was a crisis. Monika clicked her tongue. She had a pretty good idea of who might be calling.

She picked up the radio and spoke before so much as hearing a word. “This is Glint. Radios can be intercepted, so don’t use them unless it’s an emergency.”

“This is Lily—I mean, Flower Garden! And it is an emergency! We need help! Mayday! Mayday!”

“I can tell you’re never going to get to the point, so just hand the radio off to someone else.”

“Yeah, you’ve got her there. This is Sybilla—I mean, Pandemonium.”

“Do you two have some sort of quota for screwups you’re trying to meet?!”

Aliases or not, they still shouldn’t be giving out their names. And she’d just reminded them that the radio calls might get intercepted, too.

“Seriously, we could really use some help. Flower Garden lost her gun, and we really gotta find it before it causes an inci—”

Monika turned off the radio and heaved a heavy sigh. What the hell were those two idiots even doing?

“Grete, I think that question you just asked me missed the point.”

“I’m beginning to see that…”

“My reasons aside, this team would be in a sorry state without me.”

With her rare moment of respite cut short, Monika began getting ready to head out.

If she ran into those two, they had better believe they were going to get hell from her.

How best to punish them? Monika mused with a smile as she leaped out the window into the moonless night.

If Lamplight’s emotional bedrock during the bioweapon retrieval mission was Lily, then its logistical bedrock was Monika. She was the team’s ace in every sense of the word, and her efforts were what allowed them to complete the Impossible Mission.

For all her incomparable skills, though, her heart was as cold as ice.

She’d discovered her ceiling. She was fed up. She had no passion. Nothing drew her attention.

However, there was something she’d overlooked—the change that was starting to take root in her heart.

That change would eventually turn into a raging passion.

In time, that heat would reshape her entire life and cause her bottomless well of talent to come into full bloom. Once she shattered her ceiling, she would become a greater spy than she could have ever dreamed of.

It was just a matter of time before she found all that out for herself.