Spy Classroom - Volume SS3 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Vics’s Case

There were fourteen people all crammed into the Heat Haze Palace lounge, a number far greater than the room was built to comfortably hold. They were gathered shoulder to shoulder, with one of the girls sitting on another’s lap and three people on each of the two-seat couches.

“Flock” Vindo sat at the center of it all. He tapped his fingers on the documents strewn across the table and furrowed his brow.

Everyone else stared at him and waited for him to speak.

“I’ve got it,” he eventually said. “I need Lamplight to give me a list of everything you’ve purchased over the past six months. Don’t leave a single thing out.”

On hearing that, a dark-haired girl—“Dreamspeaker” Thea—cut in with a question. “What exactly do you need that for?”

“The budget for our spy work comes from the Foreign Intelligence Office. At least once a quarter, Klaus has to submit an expense report.”

“Daughter Dearest” Grete gave him a quiet nod. “I see… He does seem to have an awful lot of paperwork he’s responsible for.”

“The thing is, if he asks for too much money, it starts looking like he’s embezzling. Even the tiniest of screwups could give us leverage.”

“Glint” Monika crossed her arms. “I dunno if you’re gonna find one. He’s not the kind of guy who makes mistakes like that.”

“You’re forgetting about his awful handwriting. It’s hard to tell his twos from his fives. Even if he didn’t make any errors himself, there’s a chance they misread his writing on their end, and if they sent him more money than he asked for…”

“Meadow” Sara’s eyes went wide. “Then we can accuse him of embezzling!”

Vindo gave them some brief background.

Due to the nature of their work, spy accounting was always kind of sloppy. Their budget requests were inexact, and they were granted with little oversight or scrutiny. Spy organizations the world over had to deal with agents who demanded huge operating budgets and then used that money to spend every night painting the town red in overseas locales.

All that said, it was still embezzlement if spies requested more money than they actually used. When spies belonging to national intelligence agencies spent money, that money came directly out of the taxpayers’ pockets.

“When spies make lavish purchases abroad, the line between legitimate work expense and selfish extravagance can be blurry. If we play our cards right, this could be a chink in his armor. For a man who prides himself on being the Greatest Spy in the World, being accused of embezzlement would be a blemish on his pride,” Vindo said. “We’ve used similar methods to bring down foreign spies before. When a spy’s nation cuts them off on suspicion of embezzlement, it doesn’t take long to isolate them and get them to flip.”

The girls winced, and Sybilla let out a sharp sigh. “…Dang, that’s a sick idea. I dunno if we’d’ve ever come up with it.”

“This is why we make plans before we attack him,” Vindo said in annoyance.

Lamplight and Avian were in the middle of a joint training session.

Lamplight’s boss Klaus had given Avian the same task he’d given his own agents. The “defeat me” assignment sounded almost like an insult, but while Avian had attempted the task solo at first, their repeated failures had eventually led them to pursue a joint strategy with the Lamplight girls.

Vindo was the man taking point on those efforts.

“For now, we’ll split into two groups. Half of us will get in touch with the Foreign Intelligence Office’s head of financial affairs, and the other half can go through old expense reports to—”

“Tee-hee.”

When Vindo tried to wrap the discussion up, though, he found himself interrupted by an unpleasant chuckle.

He shot an annoyed glare at its source. “What’s so funny, Silver?”

As Vindo stared at her, Lily covered her mouth with her hand and let out a “tee-hee-hee” as she pantomimed bursting into mocking laughter. “Man, you’re a pretty all right spy, but you don’t know the first thing about taking down Teach. There’s no way that plan would ever work on him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If we stop attacking him all of a sudden, he’ll obviously know we’re up to something. He’ll come up with a counter, and that’ll be that.”

“……” For a brief moment, Vindo bit down on his lip. “Ah, so we need to have five people or so attack him like normal—”

“Tee-hee-hee.”

Lily burst into laughter again. It was really kind of obnoxious.

“If we go after him while we’re working on our real plan in parallel, he’ll sniff us out in a heartbeat. They’re missing their usual desperation, he’ll say. They must be plotting something. The best way to pull off what you’re describing is to make sure only a few of us actually know about it. The plan was doomed the minute you explained it to the whole group.”

“………”

Vindo scrunched up his face in displeasure, but he had no rebuttal for her argument.

When Lily saw that, she puffed her chest up in delight. “Ha-ha! We’re better at being outmatched than you!”

“It’s not like your record against him is any better,” Vindo snapped, but his comment did nothing to remove the shit-eating grin from Lily’s face. Avian had given Lily more than her share of lickings, and now that she had something over them, she intended to hold on tight. Her smile brimmed with triumph.

Eventually, Vindo let out a long sigh. “…Fine. Let’s hear what you’ve got.”

Three weeks had passed since Lamplight and Avian had begun their honeymoon.

The two sides had come to stop questioning each other’s merits, and both sides were training hard. Klaus was drilling Avian, and Avian was teaching Lamplight their skills. It was just like the arrangement that had originally been drawn up, and the two teams were closer and on better terms than ever.

However, that threw a few things into sharp relief.

With the two teams lined up side by side, their foibles and flaws were rapidly becoming clear.

After giving up on the plan to frame Klaus for embezzlement, the teams decided to take a breather. They brought some tea and teacakes into the lounge, and everyone took a load off.

“Hey, I was wonderin’,” Sybilla said as she took a big swig of her tea. “How are things goin’ with the Discourse on Decadence?”

“Oh, we’re aaall finished,” “Feather” Pharma drawled. “We tracked down their base and rounded up most of their lieutenants. Now it’s up to anooother team to handle the rest. We wrapped the whole thing up pretty quick.”

A girl with dark-red hair tied back behind her head—“Cloud Drift” Lan—nodded. “Verily. We seized their operating funds, to boot. The rest of them have naught to do but wither away.”

The Discourse on Decadence had gone down fast after the battle in the metalworking factory the other day. The boy Pharma had interrogated had told them everything he knew, and aside from a small sum with a very specific purpose, Avian had successfully retrieved all the money the Discourse on Decadence had earned through their illegal activities.

There were still technically three members of the group’s senior leadership on the lam, but dealing with them was someone else’s problem.

Upon hearing the phrase operating funds, Lily broke into a grin. “Oh, cool. So you mean that safe there is full of loads and loads of— Ow!”

There was a large safe sitting in the corner of the lounge. When Lily went to reach for it, Vindo hurled a pencil at her. “Hands off. Klaus is bringing that to the Foreign Intelligence Office tomorrow night. That money belongs in the national treasury. Don’t even think about messing with it.”

“I—I was kidding, obviously. Even I know how to draw the line between—”

“I guess we’ll need to station a guard on it.”

“Where’s the trust?!”

Lan stepped over and planted herself in front of the safe.

According to Avian, there was enough money in there for someone to spend an entire lifetime living in luxury. That was why they had deliberately purchased a new safe and stationed it in Heat Haze Palace.

Lily rubbed her bruised hand and chuckled. “So Teach is the one doing the handoff, huh?”

“We figured it’d be for the best, considering the amount involved. Better safe than—”

Midway through his sentence, Vindo’s eyes went wide as comprehension dawned on him.

“You’re right, attacking him then could be a decent angle. Once the money’s in Klaus’s hands, he’s responsible for it from then on out. Plus, it’ll restrict his movements.”

Lily nodded like she’d seen this new development coming. “Heh-heh. Now that we’ve got our course set, it’s time for Lamplight’s perfect strategist to take the wheel! Grete, you’re up!”

Grete had been standing in the corner, and she took a step closer to the table when Lily called her name.

Vindo offered no objections to her being the one to handle the plan’s specifics. He clearly respected her ingenuity.

“I appreciate the vote of confidence. Now, I have a few ideas I’m working with…”

As Grete gracefully moved the meeting forward, everyone listened to her with rapt attention.

With that, Lamplight and Avian’s joint training advanced to a new stage.

As it did, one young man regarded the scene playing out before him with a surly glare.

After the strategy meeting concluded, Grete stood on her own in the kitchen and gazed out the window.

Night had fallen, and a heavy rain was pounding down. The windowpane rattled from the rain and the blustering winds. Grete traced the raindrops rolling down it with her gaze as she worried about the man who’d yet to come home.

Why isn’t the boss back yet, I wonder…?

Once again, he’d been out on a domestic counterintelligence mission.

Grete didn’t know what his plans were, and she wasn’t sure if she should make him dinner or not. Klaus always told her, “It isn’t your job to wait on me,” but whenever she cooked things for him, he always ended up eating them.

As she stood there, she sensed someone behind her.

“So what was up with that lousy plan? ♪”

The voice was mocking her.

When Grete gasped and turned around, she found a young man handsome enough to be a movie star waving at her.

“Hey there. ♪ I’m just here for some water.”

It was “Lander” Vics, the man who acted as Avian’s anchor. Vics was a prodigy who boasted the second-best grades of any academy student. His slim physique belied his inhuman strength, and that paired with his ability to hide weapons in his muscles made him a formidable fighter.

Grete hadn’t expected the sudden one-on-one, and she went stiff.

Vics grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the fridge and laughed in amusement. “Oh right, you’re the one who’s scared of men. ♪ I’ll go ahead and get out of your hair. ♪”

Grete had androphobia. Due to her past experiences, she froze up whenever she had to deal with men aside from Klaus. The time she’d spent completing spy missions had helped alleviate her symptoms, but she still got tense in situations where it was just her and a man.

However, she had to ask.

Unless she’d misheard him, Vics had just insulted her.

“…Might I ask what you meant when you called it a lousy plan?”

“Pretty much exactly what I said. ♪” Vics smirked. “The others talk about you a lot. They say that aside from Klaus, you’re basically Lamplight’s second-in-command. But I guess I was expecting too much. ♪”

It didn’t sound like he much cared for the plan Grete had put forth at the meeting.

He spat his next words out in disappointment.

“I can’t stand people like you. ♪ People with no hunger. ♪”

His very back seemed to reject her as he turned to leave. Grete watched him go in a daze.

“Yeah, Vics can be a jerk,” Qulle said as she soaked her body in the tub. “Don’t let it get to you. He’s got a rude mouth and a rude heart, that’s all.”

Heat Haze Palace was home to a large communal bath. It was a luxurious setup, with enough space to hold eight people with room to spare and a shower area big enough to run around in. After being pulled up from underground, the bathwater was heated to the perfect temperature using a state-of-the-art gas heater.

Due to how strong the downpour was, Avian had decided to stay the night at Heat Haze Palace. The girls were borrowing the spare bedrooms, and the boys were sleeping in a pile over in the lounge.

The jade-green-haired “Glide” Qulle was quite taken with the manor’s large bath. She’d doffed her usual glasses and was soaking happily in the bathwater.

The boisterous voices of the others echoed from over in the shower area.

“Let me scrub you dooown, Annette and Erna.” “Y-yeep! I’m scared… My body won’t stop shaking!” “I get the feeling this chick is bad news, yo!”

With sponge in hand, Pharma had chased Annette and Erna into one corner of the bathroom. Even Annette looked afraid, which was a rare sight.

Grete, on the other hand, was sitting on the edge of the bath without actually going in. She didn’t much care for bathing with others, but she’d joined them nonetheless because she needed advice.

When she told Qulle about the tongue-lashing Vics had sprung on her, Qulle gave her a sympathetic nod. “Bottom line is, he’s got a mean streak. He might look nice, but if he’s got a problem with you, he doesn’t hold back. He’s kind of awful.”

Sybilla and Lan had just finished up showering, and they slipped into the bath as well.

“Yeah, I’ve been on the receiving end of his shit. He nearly dragged me to another damn mixer yesterday. Plus, he keeps tryin’ to get under my skin! And it pisses me off how stupidly strong he is!”

“He mocked me just yesterday! And when I did naught but oversleep a mere three hours!”

They all spent the next little while complaining about Vics. It wasn’t Grete’s intention to talk badly about him behind his back, so she held her tongue. However, Sybilla and Lan had a major bone to pick, and they continued grumbling for a good long while. Grete was pretty sure that in Sybilla’s case, Vics was just continuing their training, and that in Lan’s case, she brought it entirely on herself, but she kept those thoughts to herself.

Then they all heard a lazy voice.

“Naaah, Vics is just too serious for his own good.”

Pharma slipped into the bath looking utterly content. Behind her, Erna and Annette lay exhausted in a mountain of suds.

“Cut him some slaaack, would you? The guy’s got a lot on his plate.”

Upon hearing her act as the voice of reason, Sybilla and Lan lapsed into introspective silence.

For a moment, the bath was quiet.

“You know, you’re right. I think I kind of get what he was trying to say.” Qulle turned a reserved look Grete’s way. “You’ve grown so much stronger than you were at the academy, Grete. So much so, it’s almost annoying.”

“………”

“But back when you were a student, there was this terrifying avarice about you. If I had to guess, I’d say he was telling you that you’ve lost that.”

The look in her eyes was apologetic.

Qulle and Grete were from the same academy, so the fact that she was the one pointing that out left Grete momentarily speechless.

Grete was well aware.

Vics’s comment had hit the nail on the head. That was why Grete couldn’t just ignore it.

She had lost her hunger.

She was still giving her training and missions her all, of course. Her work needed to be perfect so she could help support the team headed by the man she loved. She knew her teammates saw her as the next most capable member on Lamplight after Monika, and she strove to live up to those expectations.

However, there was no denying how much more passionate she’d been during her student days.

Back then, Grete had been starved for affection.

Grete had arrived at her academy after being abandoned by her family and shouted at in contempt by her father. She had wanted so badly for someone to love her for once. To need her. That was why she had put so much effort into developing her spy skills. She had quite literally worked herself half to death.

Now, though, she’d lost that hunger.

The reason for that was obvious.

“You’re beautiful.”

The moment Klaus had said those words to her, it had filled her with more joy than she’d ever felt in her life.

Right as she was leaving the bathroom, Grete heard the sound of a door opening and closing over by the foyer. She quickly tidied her hair and outfit, then headed over.

Klaus had just gotten back and was shaking the rain off his jacket. He’d been using an umbrella, but he’d gotten soaked all the same.

“Welcome home, Boss.”

Grete offered him a towel. “I appreciate it,” he said, then paused for a moment and let out a puzzled, “Hmm?”

“Tell me, Grete.” Without pausing to dry himself off with the towel, he gave her a calm look. “What’s wrong? You look down.”

“…You noticed?” she asked, to which Klaus replied with a puzzled, “Of course I did.”

It warmed her heart. However, she quickly looked down in shame. That feeling of contentment was precisely why she was so vexed.

She had little confidence in her ability to hide the truth from Klaus, so she decided to just tell him everything.

Grete looked her beloved square in the face. “…I’m happy. I feel so blessed to have met someone who complimented my real face, and to get to spend time with him like we’re doing right now.” She squeezed her fist tight in front of her chest. “But because of that, I find myself lost… I’m afraid I don’t know what more to wish for.”

The majority of people who aspired to become spies did so out of a sense of civic duty or a desire for self-actualization. Either they wanted to protect their homeland and their families, or they wanted to put their abilities to the test. Most of Lamplight’s members fell into the former category, but Grete didn’t belong to either.

All she wanted was to be needed by someone.

The thing was, she’d already gone a long way toward achieving that.

Klaus was silent, and his expression didn’t change.

Worried she’d disconcerted him by oversharing, Grete hurriedly gave him an apologetic bow. “I’m terribly sorry. I know how tired you must be, yet here I am, bothering you with my trivial—”

“Here’s the thing, Grete,” Klaus said succinctly. “If you’re happy, isn’t that a good thing?”

“………”

“Perhaps what you need is a new goal to strive for. It’s your life, so I know it’s not my place to say anything, but…”

Klaus contemplated for a moment, then gave a small nod.

“…I’m also a spy. As your boss, I’m looking forward to watching you grow.”

The rain had cleared up by morning. The sky was clear, and Grete was dressed in her combat gi.

Back when they had gone to the Far East nation of Longchon, someone had bought it for her as a souvenir. It was a traditional Ryukese outfit with long sleeves and legs that covered the body. From what she’d heard, it was generally worn by people learning the martial art called kung fu.

It was the perfect attire to train in.

For her first bout, she headed to Lily’s room.

“Excuse me, Lily?” She extended her hand and made the “come at me” gesture. “I was hoping we could spar.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily groaned. She’d just gotten out of bed, and she groggily rubbed her eyes.

They ended up holding the kumite sparring match right there in the room, and Lily swept Grete’s legs out from under her with ease. Lily spent her time during missions right in the heat of things, so she’d had ample opportunity to train her body on the front lines. She held back a fair deal, but Grete still found herself getting flung onto the bed. With a sad, “Ow!” she lost.

For her second bout, she headed to Thea’s room.

“Excuse me, Thea?” Again, she extended her hand and made the “come at me” gesture. “I was hoping we could spar.”

Thea blinked at her in confusion. “What? But why?”

She did end up agreeing to the kumite, and things went a lot better for Grete that time around. However, Thea had a large edge on her when it came to stamina. As soon as Grete started to get tired, Thea used a self-defense technique to grab her right arm and twist it upward. Grete had no choice but to cry uncle.

It was time for her third bout, and Grete refused to give up.

“Excuse me, Sara?” She made the “come at me” gesture to the girl she’d run into at the animal shed. “I was hoping we could spar.”

“Where in the world is this coming from?!” Sara cried. Despite her hysterics, though, she did agree to go along with it.

The two of them had been evenly matched back when Lamplight had first been founded, but Monika’s tutoring had improved Sara’s skills dramatically as of late. With a two-handed shove, Sara beat her with relative ease.

Grete was oh-for-three.

As she sighed in disappointment, Sara gave her a puzzled look and asked her for details. “So what exactly is going on?”

“I’m doing a hundred-man kumite so I can get back to my roots.”

“You mean you’ve got another ninety-seven fights to go?”

Sara gave a weirded-out laugh, but she quickly sensed there was more to the picture. “You know, Miss Grete, I think there are other areas you might be better off focusing on,” she said, then pulled on Grete’s sleeve.

She led Grete to the Heat Haze Palace courtyard and pointed with a strained smile.

“Do you really think you can keep up with them?”

Grete’s head spun at how fast the five figures there were moving.

There in the courtyard, with its gorgeous flower beds and brick paving, a fierce battle was unfolding. There were wires strung up, and the people leaping off the Heat Haze Palace roof used them as footholds to practically dash across the air.

Right when Grete thought she’d spotted someone running up a wall in the corner of her vision, she immediately saw someone in another corner moving so fast she nearly mistook them for a wild animal. In the time it took her to blink, the sound of metal striking metal rang out multiple times.

“Monika, Vics, the boss is headin’ that way!”

“Got it.” “We’re on it. ♪”

As best she could tell, there were five people engaged in combat training: Monika, Sybilla, Vics, Vindo, and Klaus—the five strongest fighters across the two teams.

Klaus was fleeing, and the other four were giving chase. For that exercise, having superhuman physical abilities was a basic prerequisite. The pursuers took full advantage of their wire and throwing knives, but Klaus varied his speed to stay one step ahead of them.

“……………………”

All Grete could do was stand there frozen in place.

Those people had elevated combat to a level she couldn’t begin to compete with.

At the end of the day, she lacked the nerve to step into their domain.

If Grete wanted a solution to her problem, she was going to have to go to the man who’d pointed it out.

After Vics finished his training, Grete found him in a corner of the Heat Haze Palace courtyard. Fighting Klaus had left him completely drained, and he was lying sprawled out on the cobbled ground. Sweat poured from every inch of his body, and as Grete approached, she was greeted by its distinctive masculine stink.

After rolling him a bottle of mineral water from a safe distance, Grete ducked behind one of the garden trees. “I had something I was hoping to ask you, Vics.”

“Why do you have to do that from the other side of a plant?” he joked in mild exasperation. However, it was obviously because of her androphobia.

The conversation commenced with neither side able to see the other.

“What is it that drives you to strive for such excellence as a spy?”

“Nothing in particular.” Vics thanked her for the mineral water and popped off the cap. “It just rubs me the wrong way, knowing there’s people out there who are stronger than me. ♪”

Grete hadn’t expected the answer to be something so basic.

For the next little while, she could hear Vics voraciously chugging down his water.

“…And that’s all?”

“Yup. ♪ That’s all there is to it ♪,” Vics said with a cheerful laugh. “A Galgad spy killed my parents, you know. ♪”

Grete couldn’t stop herself from letting out an audible gasp of surprise. For how grave a revelation that was, he sounded shockingly nonchalant.

“But if you asked if that’s what drives me, I’d say it isn’t. At the end of the day, the thought of Vindo leaving me in the dust pisses me off… Look, it’s hard to sum up in a few words. ♪ But hey, that’s just the way motives are. ♪”

“………”

“Everyone’s got these urges—and all we can really do is interrogate them. ♪”

Once he had finished his monologue, Vics thanked her for the water again, then stood up and walked off.

Grete was starting to realize that the man had a habit of talking about whatever he wanted to, regardless of what the listener actually wanted to hear.

After returning to her room, locking the door, and closing the curtains, Grete undid her disguise, revealing the birthmarks covering the left half of her face.

That was her true face, the one she kept hidden away.

That was where it had all started for her—the scars that had been with her since birth. Being ostracized and abandoned by her father and brother had filled her with an intense desire to be loved. When Klaus had complimented her real face, she had been drawn to him.

She needed to seek out her urges again. To track down the hunger she’d lost, that intense desire to be loved.

The boss wants me to grow as a spy… He said he was looking forward to it…

No matter how full of happiness she was, the one thing she would never lose was her love for her beloved. In order to live up to that lovely gaze of his, she would have to strive for more.

She needed to reach greater heights as a spy.

What’s more, she’d already learned how to do that. There was a specific way spies fought. It was the final concept the academies taught their students—a method of deception all her own that would deceive and overcome foes by using her unique talents to their fullest.

“Liecraft.”

It was time to sublimate her entire way of being into a spy technique.

Everything is going to be fine, she told herself. She’d already found her answer.

Vics had finished his break, and as he walked across the Heat Haze Palace courtyard, he spotted Vindo awkwardly sprawled out much the same way he himself had been mere moments ago. There were more rips in Vindo’s shirt than there had been before.

Vics strode over and looked down at Vindo from above. “You managed to sneak in another loss while I was resting? I’m impressed you can keep that pace up. ♪”

“Oh, be quiet,” Vindo replied in annoyance as he sat up. “We don’t have much time left. As soon as either Avian or Lamplight gets called abroad, we’ll lose access to this advanced practice. We need to get in every rep we can.”

Knees trembling, he tried to rise to his feet. He wanted to have another go at Klaus.

Alongside the group training efforts to come up with plans to entrap Klaus, Vindo and Vics had also been fighting him head-on to train their combat skills. All they used to fight him were single knives, no tricks or subterfuge.

Vindo’s persistence was on a whole different level. He would spend the entire day rushing Klaus down and losing over and over again. The others, including Lamplight, found a perverse satisfaction in seeing Vindo’s arrogant ass get handed to him on repeat. Lately, though, Vindo had started to frighten them.

For the rest of the team, their fights against Klaus were essentially sparring matches against a known superior opponent. They took the fights seriously, but they went in with the assumption that they were going to lose.

Vindo, on the other hand, treated every match like his life was on the line.

Ignoring the clear gulf in their skills, he threw himself upon Klaus with murder in his heart. When their knives clashed, they did so with force that sent off sparks.

Before long, that bloodlust of his had begun freaking out not just Avian, but Lamplight, as well. The way he fought was like violence incarnate.

However, Vics couldn’t bear to watch it.

“We gotta start coordinating more ♪,” he called after Vindo as Vindo went to leave. “If we end up having to fight someone like Mr. Klaus, someone who far outmatches us, are you planning on taking them on solo so you can lose like you have been? Don’t be an idiot. There are some missions you can’t complete alone, you know. ♪”

“………”

“We need to take a page out of Lamplight’s book and work together. Why don’t you get that?”

Vindo turned back. There was a harsh, icy look in his eyes. “Don’t be insipid.”

“………”

“It probably feels real good to spout platitudes about teamwork and cooperation. But when push comes to shove, can any of you actually keep up with my moves?”

Vics squeezed his fists tight and ground his teeth. When was it, he wondered, that Vindo had started being so flagrantly haughty? When it came to their spy work, Vindo always condescended to people, belittled them, and looked at them with eyes of disdain.

Vindo’s shoulders slumped in exasperation. “When you say that, all I hear is you begging me to bring myself down to your level.”

Vics could tell Vindo was trying to pick a fight.

He was more than happy to oblige.

“I’m code name Lander—and it’s time to get smashing. ♪”

Vics gave his arm a light swing, pulled out the whip he’d been keeping concealed on his body, and cracked it with all his might.

This was no average surprise attack. Thanks to Vics’s freakish strength, any attack he made could be a knockout blow.

The whip’s tip broke the sound barrier and loudly shook the air as it struck Vindo head-on. He staggered.

Right when Vics was sure he’d gotten him, Vindo vanished.

“I’m code name Flock—and it’s time to gouge clean through.”

The next thing Vics felt was a chill on the back of his neck.

It was the back of a knife.

“Like I said, you’re weak.”

On hearing the voice, Vics finally realized Vindo had slipped past him with his knife at the ready. No matter how many times Vics saw Vindo use that technique, he could never track it.

What’s more, Instakill Counterattack—the one move where Vindo shrugged off an enemy blow, then struck back with one of his own—was far faster than Vics remembered. Training with Klaus had allowed Vindo to hone it even further.

“You aren’t qualified to be my backup.”

“……………”

Vics dropped his whip.

Vindo let out a disinterested huff and stepped away. The way he turned around made it clear the discussion was over.

“…Tell me,” Vics muttered. “What do you think Adi would say, if she saw us like this?”

“Adi’s dead,” Vindo replied coldly. “I’m Avian’s boss now.”

Avian’s current situation filled Vics with a feeling of peril.

It wasn’t just spite that had kept him from passing Queneau’s reports along to Vindo during the previous mission. It was because Vindo had needed to realize that until Vics had brought it up, Queneau hadn’t crossed his mind a single time.

That right there was a testament to how fraught Avian had become.

When Inferno was taken out, the Din Republic’s spy network had fallen to pieces.

“Torchlight” Guido was intimately familiar with the Republic’s spies, and his defection had led to spies working on anti-Galgad intelligence operations getting killed one after another.

The efforts of Inferno’s sole survivor, “Bonfire” Klaus, could only get the Republic so far. In light of that, the Foreign Intelligence Office’s director had ordered the twenty-seven spy academies to gather up their top students and conduct an emergency graduation exam. From there, he had taken the six top scorers and built Avian.

What he ended up with was a dream team. The top graduation exam scorer, Vindo, who went by Reverb at the time, had trained under legendary Inferno sniper “Firewalker” Gerde and had skills surpassing those of his instructors. Second place was “Naval Mine” Vics, who was not only outstanding in a fight but had also captured a pair of Galgad spies who had infiltrated a training exercise. Fifth place was “Projection” Pharma, whose older brother already served as an accomplished spy. Her talents were on par with his, and she was being viewed as a contender for the strongest female spy of the upcoming generation. Sixth place was “Skull” Queneau, who had the unique distinction of having served time as a serial killer, and fourth place was “Clever” Qulle, who’d fought with Queneau during the graduation exam and walked away victorious.

Aside from “Dyeweaver” Lan, who came in third in the exam due to a series of fortuitous coincidences, all of them were elites who’d been at the tops of their academies.

Finally, a woman in her late twenties was appointed as the team’s boss.

“What?! No way, no shot, no chance, no can do!”

At first, the woman was none too happy about it.

Her name was “Sky Monk” Adi.

Adi had originally belonged to the Naval Intelligence Department, but she had been poached by the Foreign Intelligence Office four years prior. Her round, evenly cut hairdo made her come across as serious. She’d completed many missions as a spy, and her job was to help lead the talented but inexperienced elites.

However, she spent their entire first meeting wailing, “I can’t do it!” like a child.

Despite her apparent wealth of experience, she’d been little more than a petty grunt saddled with all the busywork. If the Foreign Intelligence Office hadn’t been so hard up for personnel, she never would have been put in charge of a team.

“Everyone here’s so much stronger than me! They are, I know it! I swear! Why’d they put me in charge of the team?! What am I supposed to even do?!”

Adi was useless, and the rest of the team was at a loss for what to do with her.

They all shared the same concerns, and they exchanged glances among themselves. Are we gonna be okay with a boss like her?

Just as they realized that if worse came to worst, they could install someone else as their de facto boss, Adi recovered from her moping and looked up. “Let’s change our code names!”

““““““What?””””””

“Look, I’m desperate here! We’re all gonna make this team together. So c’mon, let’s change them! When it comes to teambuilding, that’s step number one!”

From there, it was like Adi had shaken off all her doubts. She talked a mile a minute, pounding out introductions and assigning roles like it was nothing.

She was by no means an outstanding spy.

As a boss, though, she was unmistakably competent.

Her sunny disposition helped steady everyone’s nerves when they went on their first mission. She alleviated the friction caused when the elites’ prides clashed. The team’s coordination was nonexistent at first, but they soon realized they needed to work together in order to fill in for her shortcomings.

When they were out doing fieldwork, Adi would always blurt out things like, “Sorry, everyone! I found a lost kid!” as she brought trouble to their doorstep, and Vindo and Vics would level harsh glares at her. “Put it back, woman.” “What kind of spy goes and does good deeds on foreign soil? ♪”

Pharma would defuse the situation. “I’m sure it’s all fiiine.”

Qulle would squeeze the bridge of her nose. “We’ll need to put someone in charge of her again.”

“…Aye. How many times does that make?” Queneau would say with a sigh, and Lan would cross her arms in pompous acceptance. “Ah, how incorrigible our boss doth be.”

If they wanted to clean up their boss’s messes, the team had no choice but to hone their skills. Scolding her together on one of the frequent occasions she obstinately said, “Hey, everyone! I found something else I need to apologize about!” during a mission brought the team together.

As such, the day she died left Avian at a great loss.

Adi was killed in Longchon by the local mafia. The fact she had gotten shot protecting a child who had nothing to do with their mission was a very in-character way for her to go.

The team immediately reported her martyrdom to the Foreign Intelligence Office, but the missive they got back was the despair-inducing, “We don’t know when we’ll be able to assign you a new boss.” Once again, the Foreign Intelligence Office’s personnel shortage was rearing its ugly head.

Without a boss, they were left in a precarious situation—at the end of the day, their whole team consisted of inexperienced rookie spies.

During that period, it was Vindo who acted as the glue that kept the team together. “I’ll lead Avian until we find our next boss,” he told them with ice in his eyes. His tone made it clear the subject wasn’t up for debate.

The fact of the matter was, he did a good job. He took command of the team while also handling all the most dangerous infiltration missions himself. He looked after the others, and when the need arose, he put down their foes without mercy.

At first, that had been all well and good.

However, it’d soon given rise to a whole new problem.

No one could keep up with how fast Vindo was improving.

Once they finished their combat training—which had amounted to little more than a one-sided beatdown—Klaus told Vindo, “I’ve got a mission,” and headed out.

His mission was to have lunch with the president of a Galgad trading company whom he had “just happened” to hit it off with while posing as a watchmaker. If all went well, the relationship would give them a channel they could use to sneak spies across the border. It was an important mission, yet Klaus was confident enough that he’d helped Vindo train immediately before setting off.

At that point, Lily summoned everyone to the lounge.

Inside, Thea and Qulle were writing something on notepads. By the look of it, they’d finished drafting their strategy.

Once all the Lamplight and Avian members were assembled, Grete unveiled the finalized plan.

“We’re going to attack the boss before he starts moving the money.”

Klaus was slated to deliver the money to the Foreign Intelligence Office that evening, and they were all going to attack him.

Vindo frowned at how unexpectedly simple the plan was. “Before he starts? Not while he’s moving it?”

“During transport, the boss will be on even higher alert than usual. Our chances of success would be nonexistent.”

“So in the end, it comes to brute force… It kills me to admit it, but I don’t love our odds beforehand, either.”

“Oh, we aren’t expecting to win.” Grete shook her head. “Our true objective will be to plant a transmitter on the boss during the fight. If we want our original plan to frame him for embezzlement to work, we’ll need to link up with whoever it is that’s in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Office’s books.”

In other words, they were revisiting a plan they’d already written off.

This time, it was Lan who cocked her head in puzzlement. “Hmm? But did Dame Lily not suggest that should we face Sir Klaus while knowing that, he wouldst sense that something was incongruous and thus foil our plot?”

“She did, which is why we’re going to have Lamplight and Avian team up and attack him together… We aren’t used to fighting alongside each other, so some amount of incongruity will be expected.”

“Ah, I pick up what thou’rt putting down,” Lan said, nodding in satisfaction. “Rather than hide the incongruity, thou aimst to place it in full display.”

“Exactly! This plan is about the friendship and unity between Lamplight and Avian!” Lily said, raising her fist in the center of the room. “That fight we had in Longchon will be water under the bridge! Now we’re comrades carrying Din’s intelligence network on our backs! Not even Teach will be able to withstand the strength of our unified bond!”

It was impressive how much determination Lily was able to pack into her voice.

Somewhat overshadowed by her enthusiasm, Grete went on to announce their formation. The idea was that the duos would have one member from Avian and one from Lamplight. All the spies got assigned, with Vindo paired up with Monika, Pharma paired up with Sara, and so on.

Vics’s partner ended up being Sybilla.

“…I’m with you?”

Vics met her grimace with a radiant smile. “Guess you’ll have to put up with me. ♪”

With that sorted, the pairs split up, and each took their positions. The Lamplight girls seemed to already know what spots to take. “We’re by the entrance, Big Sis Qulle.” “Got it. There’s no need for us to rush,” went one exchange. “We’re up on the roof, Queneau.” “…Aye. Understood,” went another as they led Avian to various positions throughout the manor.

Sybilla took the lead in her duo, as well. “Let’s get goin’. We’re right next to the hidden passageway.” “You got it. ♪”

The hidden passageway she was talking about was the underground corridor connecting Heat Haze Palace to the fake seminary school. When Klaus got back from lunch, they would be in position to attack him immediately.

It was going to be a simple fight, no bells or whistles. To Vics’s dismay, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the defeat he’d suffered that morning and the scorn Vindo had shown him.

Sybilla gave him a sandwich, and he ate it as they waited for just under an hour. Then they heard Klaus’s footsteps.

As Klaus emerged from the passageway, they moved in to flank him.

“Let’s get his ass, Vics!”

The moment Vics heard Sybilla’s voice, he took the brick he was holding and hurled it at Klaus’s right side. As he did, Sybilla matched his timing and came at Klaus’s throat from the left with her knife.

Vics had seen her in action a few times now, and he could tell she had a rare talent for syncing up with others. Despite the way she carried herself, there was a subtle thoughtfulness that informed everything she did.

Unable to block both attacks at once, Klaus instead chose to flee forward.

A thought crossed Vics’s mind. Man, if only I could team up with Vindo like this…

The two of them were supposed to be equals. They’d both been in the running for that top spot on the graduation exam, and they’d spent their early Avian days competing ruthlessly as fellow spies who used their athletics to fight on the front lines.

At some point, though, Vics had found himself staring at Vindo’s back as he pulled further and further ahead.

Klaus took off at a run to get some distance between them, and Vics gathered his strength in his fists as he gave chase.

I want to be stronger!!

He pressed his foot against the ground as hard as he could, then barreled forward with all his might. His enormous strength gave him an explosive burst of speed. He might not have been able to accelerate and decelerate at weird intervals like Vindo, but when it came to short-term power and speed, he could outdo anyone else there.

Strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Vindo!

Sybilla and Vics weren’t alone. Now that Klaus was back, the rest of their teammates who’d been lying in wait moved in to surround him as well.

Their attacks were coming from just about every direction imaginable. No one man could possibly handle all of them—

“I have to ask—how much longer should I keep playing along with this game?”

—yet the moment their hearts swelled, a composed question shot them down.

There were fourteen people bound up in wires and lying on the Heat Haze Palace lounge floor. Elites and washouts alike were all bound hand and foot. As of late, it had started becoming a regular sight.

In the middle of it all, Klaus gave them a nonchalant round of applause. “You added a few more people, but you still got the same result. There you go charging in blindly again. You really need to come up with some more sophisticated plans.”

Lily trembled in frustration. “Urgh, and we didn’t even manage to stick the transmitter on him.”

Avian and Lamplight had pulled off their joint attack with aplomb, but it still hadn’t been enough to defeat Klaus. No matter how much muscle they threw at the problem, beating him in a head-on fight seemed like a pipe dream.

Klaus gave them a disappointed headshake. “I need to go over to the Foreign Intelligence Office headquarters. I hope you use that time to reflect on your actions.”

He still needed to transfer the money.

Klaus turned to Qulle, who was collapsed on the ground with her glasses askew, and asked her, “What’s the password?” before reaching for the lounge’s safe.

“Hmm… There’s no money in here.”

A few seconds later, he spoke up in puzzlement. “Vindo, where’d Avian put the money you recovered?”

“Huh?”

“It’s not in the safe.”

On hearing that, the Avian members let out cries of shock and hurriedly sat up.

Klaus had opened up the safe, and inside, it was completely empty. There wasn’t so much as a single coin to be seen. The money they were certain they’d put there was gone without a trace.

“Wait—that doesn’t make sense.”

Vindo was the first of them to speak up.

“We stationed a lookout at the safe, and we didn’t tell the number to a soul. No one could have gotten it open.”

Secure as Heat Haze Palace was, Avian had refused to let their guard down. From their perspective, they’d only just met the Lamplight girls, and there was a chance one of them might be hiding an unscrupulous nature. Not only had they never left the safe unattended, they’d kept a tight lid on the password.

It had been their job to keep the money safe until they handed it over to Klaus, and they’d taken that duty seriously.

“Ah…”

Lan let out a buffoonish gulp.

When everyone’s gazes fell on her, she looked down apologetically and explained. “B-Brother Vindo came by just now and bade me to open it…”

Vindo nodded. It all made sense to him now.

There was only one person with the skills required to impersonate someone so perfectly.

“Was that you in disguise, Red?”

“Indeed it was. We stole the money.” Grete was bound up in the corner of the lounge, and she nodded as she undid her restraints on her own power. “Lamplight worked together to lure Avian away and create a situation where Lan was guarding the safe alone. Then we took the money inside and relocated it.”

“So there was a secret second plan you only told Lamplight.” Vindo bit his lip in frustration. “What I don’t get is, why? What were you hoping to achieve?”

“We wanted to extort the boss.”

Grete turned her gaze away from Vindo and over to Klaus.

“If you want us to return the money, Boss, then please say you surrender.”

Klaus narrowed his eyes in amusement. “And if I refuse?”

“Then we’ll destroy it. It would be no water off our backs. The only ones who’ll take the blame will be Avian for failing to secure the funds.”

““““““________!!””””””

Every pair of eyes on Avian went wide as its members let out wordless screams.

Now they finally understood the full scope of Grete’s plan. The joint Lamplight-Avian attack on Klaus had been a feint to let them lure Avian away from the safe, steal the money inside, and use it as leverage against Klaus.

Lily, Monika, and Sybilla grinned proudly. This was precisely the moment they’d been waiting for.

“As they should. After all, it was Avian’s job to look after the money until the handoff with Teach.”

“And hey, you were the ones who made the call to leave it in Heat Haze Palace. That isn’t on us.”

“Aw, shit, wouldja look at that? You’re all tied up and can’t do nothin’ about it. What’s that? If you wanna complain, then you’d better get some proof—cold, hard proof—that we stole the cash.”

With great excitement, they drove the point home.

The Avian members’ eyes began twitching.

“Thou’rt lunatics, the lot of you.” “What do you mean, proof? Grete literally just admitted it.” “…Aye. What happened to friendship and unity?”

For all their protestations, though, it didn’t change the fact that the stolen money was a failure on Avian’s part.

After listening to their exchange from the sidelines, Klaus crossed his arms. “Look, I don’t particularly care about letting Avian fail a mission.”

“Would you mind caring a little?” Vindo said.

“Still, that money was headed for the national treasury. As a spy, I don’t want to just sit back and let it slip away.”

Avian had stolen two million dents from the Discourse on Decadence, and that was a gigantic sum of money—nearly as much as most people made in their entire lives. If money like that got added to the treasury and made its way into the Foreign Intelligence Office’s budget, it would be enough to buy off loads of targets. They could also put it toward social services in order to help lift people out of poverty. Klaus couldn’t simply overlook those facts.

“All right, Boss. You need to make your decision.” Grete sidled a step closer to Klaus. In her hand, she was holding a remote control. “If you don’t give us an answer within ten seconds, the money will disappear forever.”

She rested her thumb on the button.

The Avian members all held their breath. Even if they wanted to make a move, Klaus had bound them up too well for them to try anything.

Klaus pondered for a moment, then spoke.

“………Much as it pains me, I’m afraid I can’t surrender.”

““““SERIOUSLY?!””””

When the Lamplight girls cried out, Klaus let out a dismayed exhale before giving them a detailed explanation. “This training exercise is based around the real-world example of needing to get a target to give up state secrets. It would be one thing if it were their own money, but nobody’s going to spill state secrets over some lost government funds.”

The girls had succeeded in dealing a blow to Klaus and the Din Republic, just not enough of one to extract the “state secrets” they were after. What’s more, this was money a mere criminal organization had been able to steal. The Republic could do without it and be just fine.

Even after having it all laid out, Lily still ground her teeth and refused to back down. “W-we’ll really do it, you know! One press of that button, and the money goes kablooey!”

““““““DON’T!!”””””” the Avian members screamed.

“Do it. The only ones you’ll be hurting are Avian.”

““““““AT LEAST TRY TO STOP THEM!!”””””” the Avian members screamed even louder.

Lily and Klaus glared each other down, and Avian spent the next little while looking back and forth between them in suspense.

“………I believe this is as far as we go.”

Eventually, Grete let out a sigh.

“We yield. However, we did go out of our way to steal that money. In exchange for returning it, Boss, I’d like to ask that you allow one of us to accompany you while you transport it.”

“Hmm. If that’s all, I suppose that’s fine.”

Another training exercise had come and gone, and once again, they’d failed to make Klaus say, “I surrender.”

All they’d succeeded in winning was a single concession, and even that had been a narrow thing.

Lily gave her arms a big stretch and grinned. “We were so close. If there had been more money there, we might’ve really had him.”

“You people are out of control,” Vindo grumbled.

One thing Lamplight and Avian had in common was their habit of holding postmortems after their training sessions.

After deciding it might be nice to have dinner together, they’d ended up holding a barbeque over in the courtyard. They’d split up into a group in charge of shopping and a group in charge of setting up the grill, then gotten to work dissecting their loss. They had a lot of thoughts, both about Grete’s plan and about their coordination during the attack.

“Thy strikes were a beat too slow, Dame Sara,” the Avian side pointed out. “I think you might rely on your teammates a bit too often, Pharma,” Lamplight noted. And there were other things they hadn’t been aware of, too. “It’s incredible how fast Sybilla is at acclimating to a new team.” “Compared to Queneau, Annette causes more collateral damage than she really needs to.” “You need to do a better job managing risk, Qulle.” Comparing and contrasting each other allowed them to make all sorts of new discoveries.

Arguments did break out from time to time, but the conversation continued on. Klaus had built a new classroom for Lamplight—one where the students could learn from one another.

“You did good, Redhead,” Vindo said to Grete midway through the discussion. “That was a clever idea. You had us all fooled.”

“It wasn’t just me, Vindo…,” Grete said, shaking her head. “All of Lamplight worked together to deceive Avian.”

“………”

Vindo’s eyes widened a little. He faltered for a brief moment with his breath caught in his throat.

Grete gave him a small bow, then stepped away.

It was Grete who ended up accompanying Klaus as he transported the money.

The two of them left the dinner preparations to the others and met up in the manor’s foyer. Having changed into the kind of outfit one would wear when going out on a date, Grete took her spot by Klaus’s side.

When they left Heat Haze Palace, the setting sun’s rays shone down on them, casting the courtyard’s flowers in a dim glow.

As they headed for the car parked away from the manor, a faint smile played on Grete’s lips. “I’ve decided to have a new dream, Boss.”

“And what’s that?”

“I want to work hard as a spy, and eventually, when the world grows more peaceful, I imagine the day will come when you retire from the front lines. When that happens, I want to be there, smiling by your side…like a member of your family.” The evening light dyed her cheeks red. “That’s my next goal…”

“I see,” Klaus said. Succinct as his reply was, there was a faint passion in his voice. He returned her gaze with a look in his eyes he never would have shown the other girls. “In that case,” he said softly, “you’ll need to grow even stronger than you are now.”

“I know. And for that, I leave myself in your very capable hands.”

“Magnificent.”

The two of them walked side by side in silence for a while.

Right as they approached the edge of the property, Klaus posed a question. “By the way, where’d you put the money?”

“I traded it in so it would be easier to transport. It didn’t seem very secure to transport two million dents a long distance as cash.”

“I see. Even with me protecting the money, it never hurts to be cautious. What did you trade it for?”

“Wedding rings.”

“…………”

Grete withdrew a small box from her pocket. Inside, there was a pair of extravagant rings bedecked with massive pink diamonds. She took one and gave her head a small tilt. “May I have your hand, Boss? You can carry one, and I can carry the other.”

“……………………”

Klaus stared intently at the proffered ring, completely at a loss for words. However, retreat wasn’t an option. He was the one who’d promised to let someone couple up with him to transport the money.

“…I’m amazed you would go to such lengths.”

“Tee-hee, just as expected.”

It was rare to see Klaus so dumbfounded, and Grete gave him a bewitching smile.

Vics watched the whole interaction from a Heat Haze Palace window. People had started fighting over the barbecued food, and he was off to the side, watching them warmly.

Well, would you look at that? Lamplight’s second-in-command is no slouch. ♪

Vics would never have thought to use Avian as a tool to blackmail Klaus. He found himself forced to reevaluate his opinion of Grete.

But I guess a talent like disguises is always gonna go hand in hand with deception. There’s all sorts of ways to use it, and she’s got the brains to really make it sing. She’s got the makings of a darn fine spy. ♪

What would you call a liecraft like that, he wondered? It went beyond something like “Agitation” or “Body Double.” The range of deceptive techniques at her disposal far exceeded that of most spies. She was willing to fool friend and foe alike, and she took advantage of anything for the sake of her love for Klaus.

Perhaps that itself would make a good moniker—Forbidden Love.

That was the way Daughter Dearest fought, and that was the way she lived her life.

I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of Lamplight. ♪

Vics couldn’t help but grin.

He thought back to the moment he’d seen earlier, the one where Grete had obliquely chided Vindo.

Maybe that’s what’ll change Avian…

Visions of a pleasant future sprang to mind.

So long as Vindo continued dismissing his teammates, Vics and the others had no choice but to go along with it. They needed something to challenge that status quo, and perhaps they’d just found it.

When Vics realized all he was doing was leaving his problems for someone else to solve, he shrugged in admission of his own weakness. He couldn’t change the situation, though, so he had little choice but to put his faith in the girls.

He chuckled to himself that it hardly made for proper compensation, but he intended to stimulate Lamplight in turn. Vics was fine playing the heel. He was going to keep on being mean, being petty, and lighting fires under the people around him. Lamplight was sure to respond to that. Those girls had a competitive streak a mile wide.

He stepped away from the window.

“Now, if I’m gonna get someone mad at me, then it’s clearly gotta be Sybilla. ♪ After all, she’s got the most potential for growth. ♪”

Having selected his victim, a wicked smile spread across his face.